Dryads Arrival (3)

'When have I ever faced such humiliation!?'

Seething inwardly the woman who was the previous owner of the electric whip seethed within her confines.

Having freed herself from the pile of men and women who were unilaterally beaten up by the one they were supposed to capture and assassinate. 

She now tried to look for a way out of the dirt hole that barely held their combined bodies together.

Cursing within her mind while gnashing her teeth, the woman ran her fingers across the dirt roof while still masked.

The only saving grace that she had in this small little personal hell hole consisting of seven people was that the one they were to assassinate was graceful enough to give them a torch.

Otherwise they had to find an exit from within the darkness.

Gnashing her teeth however at how they were viewed to be so pathetic and needed a light for their inevitable escape.

The Woman finally found the hole where they had a hole for air and broke through that point.

Breaking out of the ground and getting exposed to the fresh... rotten air.

Her face beneath the black mask turned green in nausea as she turned to find the direction of the smell.

And noticed that it had trailed from within the house to its outside.

Connecting the dots while removing the improbable possibilities.

The Woman's face lit up before it turned green again.

Hurriedly moving out of the way of the disgusting smell, unlike her outwards appearance she was rather happy.

'It seems that something attacked the target and already left'

And it seemed to be of the slime family seeing as the goopy residue unique to slimes was dropped everywhere and was most likely one that had devoured several thousands of undead.

Looking into the hut her face beneath the mask morphed into immense regret as the full brunt of the smell reached her face.

"Did you find anything Captain?"

Hearing the voices of her subordinates happen behind her, she was reminded of what she was to do and looked at the situation inside the hut.

Holding her breath she looked into the hut and saw the strange situation within the hut and widened her eyes in slight terror.

Blood was spread all across the hut, most of it being the ones spilled from their fight with the target.

But the target who was initially in the hut was now nowhere to be seen.

And looking at the state of the hut where it seemed like a grand battle was fought in it, poisonous goo, traces of plant magic and a large hole in the ground that could only be created with concentrated power.

'It seems that the boss wasn't the only one who hated him if assassins of this caliber arrived.'

Looking at the situation and noticing the four spite swords somehow being intact she hurriedly went in and grabbed the four weapons before running out.

Swinging the spite swords covered in the goo and watching the nearby plant life wither away she grimaced underneath the mask.

Her subordinates looked at her in surprise as she fell into thought again.

Now that she wasn't fighting and couldn't spare any other thoughts aside from her goal, random thoughts entered her head like the plague.

'Wait, how can I be sure that the target actually got anyone else target?'

Falling into slight doubt she handed the weapons to three of her subordinates and gestured for the other three to go get some reinforcements even though they were the elites.

'No way'

Coming to a conclusion she tightened her grip on the spite sword before unconsciously following the tracks of the black sludge.

'Did he doubt me?'

Of course she had no way to confirm this fact as she hadn't seen the battle between the two of them.

But looking at the wounds of her boss while the relatively fine state of the target, she could make conjectures.

'I gave my trust and loyalty to the boss and he handed me the electric whip as a reward of my loyalty, but it seems that that trust wasn't given back'

Her pride felt stepped on as she felt the boss who was supposed to trust her was viewing her as something weak and needed to be protected, enough that she had to be watched from the shadows by hired guards who then attacked the target.

But what she felt frustrated at was the fact that, that the distrust was warranted.

'We couldn't even fight back'

Remembering the insane strength that shouldn't have been found in these rural parts of the world and instead near the center of the kingdom they were present in.

She grinded her teeth before nearing the end of the trail.

Glancing at the man who was staring at nothing while having no wounds on his body through the gaps of the trees she looked for traces of battle.

Clenching her hands in slight fear as the assailants who were supposed to have fought him were nowhere to be found and the man was looking much better than before they had fought him.

It seemed that the man had already dispatched them all.

With a look that looked as if nothing had happened, the man was dazedly looking at nothing.

'Wait'

Clenching her spite sword in anticipation she lowered her presence and stared at him.

It seemed that before they were dispatched they had done enough damage to him that he was now incredibly tired.

'Or he could be suffering from the effects of a mental attack'

Although it was rare for attacks that didn't interfere with the physical words like swords and magic were used.

No one could deny their effectiveness due to the equally rare defense from these attacks.

'So isn't this the time to attack?'

Seeing as how he still was dazed and was looking at something she couldn't properly see.

She held her blade upwards and gestured to her comrades transferring a message to them through a finger code that only they knew.

-Get. Ready. Attack. Signal-

Holding her spite sword covered in the poison, she held a slight worry in her mind of whether she had to cover the poisonous smell.

But whether it was due to luck or other circumstances.

The poisonous smell still lingered in the air and covered the scent of the blade in her hands.

Not that it was pleasant in the slightest.

-Now-

Clenching her fists she ran out of the bush and held her blade as she did away with stealth and charged at the man.

Before getting countered incredibly quickly as ice shards blasted her in the face and caused her to fly in the air as the frosty after effects covered her body.

Glaring at the man from beneath the ice, she waited for her comrades to attack the man now that he had shown a gap in his defenses.

And waited.

And waited.

After a few seconds of this, the man had already recovered and looked at something behind her.

Wondering about what had happened for her comrades to not follow her orders, she hurriedly moved her eyes from beneath the ice.

And saw what had happened.

Before she had noticed properly, her comrades who were supposed to be the elites and were basically equal to the C ranks of the adventurers guild but could contend with B ranks when given enough time.

They had without her knowledge were bound in thick vines without a hint of resistance as they were taken out incredibly quickly.

'But how!?'

Being the equivalent of C rank on the cusp of Becoming a B rank, she was supposed to notice her comrades disappearing ahead of time.

But somehow, she couldn't even sense the disappearance of her comrades.

As if it was natural.

Looking around, the thing that the man was staring art revealed itself as the source of the strangeness turned around and faced the iced woman.

'A Dryad!?'

+++

Tree