The next morning came too quickly in Abenti's opinion. Ranmza was already up and dressed in her warrior gear at what appeared to be seven in the morning. Ranmza walked over to Abenti, and started shaking her.

"Hey, wake up."

Abenti grumbled and turned around in a more comfortable position. "Don't wanna..."

Ranmza smiled. "Well, suit yourself. However, I thought we'd go hunting today. You can't become a Water Saint sleeping around until noon, can you?"

That woke Abenti up... Hunting? She had completely forgotten what happened the day before.

Ranmza grinned. "That got your attention, huh? I still need to find those Bandits responsible for raiding the traveling merchants and stealing their food. Would you like to help me today with that?"

"I suppose so, though I never thought I'd be part of some mercenary type of thing."

Ranmza tilted her head. "Well, you don't have to do too much. You can just kind of stand back and let me do all the hard parts. All you have to do is help occasionally with your lighting and cure. You can also help me be on the lookout for Bandits when I go to look for them. Oh, and you get half of my pay for helping me. What do you say?"

"Sounds like a plausible plan to me." Abenti said as she began to put away the cushions.

Ranmza smiled, and helped Abenti put away the stuff. With that, the team went off to the maple forest, which was right next to Phoenix Castle. They walked into Phoenix Castle, and it was then Ranmza looked at Abenti.

"Well, we have to go talk to the people here to find out any clues of where the group of Bandits that attacked the mercenary went to. Let’s split up to cover more ground talking to the people here, okay?"

Abenti nodded her head and began with the closest person to her left.

Ranmza went to the right, disappearing out of sight. Around Abenti, it looked like the whole place was built literally out of a giant tree, or at least parts of a giant tree. Not far away, a man that Abenti assumed was some sort of military General standing looking out into the distance as Abenti approached him.

"I'm in search of information of the Bandits who had stolen some food..."

The General’s expression grew solemn. "Ah, you're on hire by the General in Twin City, huh? Well, I do not know anything about who actually attacked the merchants. There are different groups of Bandits out there who act on their own separate from each other. Recently we just arrested a Bandit Caterans. Go in that direction, and then you will see a captive Bandit dressed in armors that look like bones. You cannot miss him. Ask him about it, and you may have more luck."

With that, he pointed in the direction Ranmza had gone in.

"Thank you." Abenti said as she bowed slightly, just before heading in the direction pointed out to her.

Abenti saw Ranmza talking to a monsterously large creature that was decked out in a full armor ensemble that appeared to have been made out of bones. The creature was chained down, with a few guards standing nearby to make sure that he would not escape.

"It's not me or my group who attacked the merchants. It was a different group of Caterans, along with a few Bandits who pulled off the heist. If you go deep into Maple Forest, you'll be more likely to find them." the creature was saying to Ranmza.

"Oh, okay. Thank you for your time. Here’s a gold piece for you, as thanks for being so cooperative with me." Ranmza handed the creature a gold coin, and the creature smiled, revealing long fangs.

Noticing Abenti, Ranmza smiled and walked over to her. "Isn't this lucky? We didn't have to talk to everyone in Phoenix Castle to get the info we wanted! This Bandit was very cooperative about telling me where the one certain group was."

"Yeah." Abenti said as she nodded.

Ranmza and Abenti walked out of Phoenix Castle, and went down into the red and yellow colored forest.

Once they were quite a distance from the castle, Ranmza whispered to Abenti, “Now let’s go very carefully. Keep your eyes peeled; those woods are full of Bandits."

Just as Ranmza said that, Bandits jumped out of their hiding places and surrounded them.

"Oh, damn it all!" Ranmza yelled, as she unsheathed her glowing blue shark sword, and swung it gracefully at the Bandits.

"Dare nan desu ka?" Abenti uttered in Japanese. "There's no way to survive a massive ambush like this...not while I'm like this..."

Fortunately, Ranmza was much stronger than she looked. With a few swings of her sword, many of the Bandits were sent flying into the air, while a number of them collapsed on the ground where they lay lifeless. The few that were not hit by Ranmza decided to flee with their lives.

"Man, I find it annoying how they thought we were easy pickings just because there are just the two of us. Good thing I built up my muscles using this giant sword, eh?"

"Yeah..." Abenti said with a nervous chuckle, happy that she did not have to transform to her other form.

Mistaking Abenti's nervous look for something else, Ranmza replied, "Oh, don't worry, you'll get to be as strong as I am, I promise! Then you won't have to worry about Bandits or anything else when you're on your own."

"I hope we find what you're looking for soon, for this quest you're on."

They walked on deeper into the forest, and finally they spotted a group of Bandits that looked like a miniature version of the humongous captive creature that Ranmza had talked to in Phoenix Castle.

"Aha! There they are!" Ranmza smirked. She then looked at Abenti. "We're in luck, they haven't spotted us. I'm going up on ahead to fight with them. You can stay here behind the trees and strike from a distance with your lighting. Sounds good?"

Abenti simply nodded. Ranmza smiled, and started to sneak up to the Bandits, then let out a loud battle cry that sounded much like an animalistic a roar. The Bandits whirled around in surprise and started attacking Ranmza, but Ranmza seemed to be holding her own pretty well, not even acting as if the Bandits were touching her, much less landing a hit on her with their own swords. Ranmza gave a feral smile, looking downright scary.

"Oh. Is that all you got? Pathetic I can’t believe you guys were the ones who actually attacked the merchants!"

The Bandits mobbed about Ranmza, getting pissed off that Ranmza did not seem to think that they were such a big threat after all. Ranmza then casually swung her sword about, damaging the Bandits in the process.

"Tell me, were you actually the ones who stole from the merchants?" Ranmza asked.

The Bandits growled.

"Yeah, we were, but you won’t be getting the food back!" One of them replied.

Abenti attempted to use lightning, but it did not even seem to make a scratch at the armor of the Bandit that had spoke. Ranmza noticed Abenti's attempt, and frowned. It was then that Ranmza started to make her attack pattern more precise and intense to distract the Bandits from the fact that she had a Taoist waiting nearby. Soon, there was only one Bandit left.

"This is getting annoying with this minor fizzle of a lightning bolt. Time for a change." Abenti muttered when she was sure neither Ranmza nor the Bandit were watching her. A moment later Abenti let out an earth-rumbling roar as she ran past Ranmza and pounced upon the Bandit in her feline form.

"What the heck?" Ranmza jumped a few feet back, surprised.

"You're an annoying bastard, you know that?" Abenti growled at the Bandit as she swung her oversized paws with unsheathed sharp claws repeatedly at the Bandit's head.

"W-what is that?" Ranmza thought aloud, a little bit too loudly. When she realized that fact, she clapped her hands over her mouth.

Abenti's left ear twitched as she sub-consciously heard Ranmza talk, but kept rampaging upon the Bandit anyway.

Ranmza looked at the tiger in curiosity. "Hmmmm. It looks like a Ratling, but is bigger than a Rat-King. I wonder, is it a new breed of Ratling? But if so, the face seems too different to be related to them." Ranmza silently thought, as she studied the creature.

Abenti then went to bite the Bandit in the neck, only pausing long enough to glance at Ranmza. Ranmza chuckled nervously.

"Wonder if I'm strong enough to stand up against it if it attacks me..."

Abenti then proceeded to clamp down and break the Bandit's neck in one fluid motion before proceeding to drag him to towards the closest river. Ranmza looked around for any signs of Abenti, but did not see her around. Wondering if she should go look for Abenti or follow the creature but then at the slit second she decided to follow the creature. It may not have been the best decision, but she was sure that Abenti could handle herself. Besides, if anything happened she could always get another Taoist to revive Abenti.

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