Chapter 26

The town of Zarada wasn't as grandeur as Azawe, in terms of size and it's ruined structures. At first sight, it was a downgrade in every sense, the structures, while bearing reminiscence of the Zanziyin architectural styles, are smaller in size and as a result, it makes the urban spaces more compact and up close and personal. There also seems to be an absence of any grand structures, simply just homes, and a marketplace with a ruined fountain in the middle, but that was simply about it.

The walls surrounding the town has been scaled down, due to neglect and being stripped apart by gnolls and other inhabitants who used the stones for their own personal purposes. It was a derelict sight for the party, who saw that neither it's inhabitants nor the armed visitors cared for it's splendor. At least, they commented that the Azawe gnolls attempted to preserve some parts of the city and even renovated certain parts of the city to fit their style, their brethren in Zarada proved to be the complete opposite, only using it as a military outpost, in the loose definition of the term.

Despite the derelict town being a step back from their usual adventures, it was probably a breath of fresh air for the party. Well, finally they can at least keep their guards down while dealing with the gnolls, and not to mention that the small scale of the town meant that it was much easier to stumble with a friendly party who might be of help to them. 

"Small in scale, but perhaps a good place to wind down." Diacrao released a long sigh after his comment. "Sure, but nonetheless we shouldn't let our guard down, Dia, we are here to gather enough money before we move on." Aitana reminded him to not get cocky, to which the swordsman replied with a nod of agreement.

"Man he's got a point though, we have been thrown into some tough situations, we at least have some room to breathe!" Conrad supported Diacrao's comment, whilst he stood on a pile of rubble and inspected the ruined path that laid ahead. "Although, I wonder what lurks within these ruins." 

"Only one way to find out, we're gonna scout ahead and try to find ourselves some fresh bait, so let's try to keep things a little quiet." Zemfina lead the group forward, whilst the rest followed her from behind. Making their way through the ruins wasn't an unfamiliar experience, after all, it was simply just a smaller Azawe, as far as they are concerned.

However, as they were trudging through the ruins, it wasn't long before the sound of battle startled the group. Now curious by the sounds of battle, they were hesitant about their course of action, but they decided to head to the sound and investigate the unfolding situation that was taking place. Traversing through the ruins as they maintain their discretion, they found the source of the battle, and took cover inside of a ruined building. They peeked from their cover to see what was going on.

There was a battle between three parties, the local gnolls, an adventurer party, and what seemed to be humans engaging against both of them. An armed group consisting of men equipped with various irregular gear whilst sporting a general shabby fashion, they certainly look battle-hardened, if anything.

"Humans...fighting against the adventurer's? are they stupid!?" Conrad whispered, clearly puzzled at the scene unfolding in front of his eyes. "No, they are probably the bandits that the local elder warned us about, and by the looks of it this isn't their first battle." Chiasoka explained, whilst the group noticed that the auxiliary party isn't doing too well against the gnolls nor the bandits.

"They aren't doing too well, we should help them!" Diacrao unsheathed the blade from his scabbard, only for Aitana to grab his hand firmly. "No, we can't help them, not considering that the gnolls and bandits are too numerous for us to even deal with!" She highlighted the situation to the swordsman, but he seemed to have thought otherwise.

"Look we can't take them all, but at least we can save those poor guys, they are getting their ass kicked. The more we idle, the more they're gonna get chewed off by them, we should get them out of this situation." He did not back down from his idea, much to the dismay of the priestess.

"He's got a point ladyboss, we should try to get them out of there." Conrad backed up Diacrao, which led the priestess to sigh in annoyance. Their brief discussion was interrupted by a scream from one of the auxiliaries who was slashed by the bandit. Without further approval, Diacrao whipped out his blade and made a charge for it, followed by Kadungon and Zemfina.

"Dia, guys, no wait!!" Aitana yelled, but it was too late for the trio has charged. She was furious, but alas the rest joined in the engagement. The bandits and the gnolls, who were too battling against each other, were caught by surprise by the ambush, and the first victim to fall under Diacrao's charging strike was an unarmored gnoll, who's stomach was pierced with each by the swordsman blade. Kadungon jumped in front and swinged his heave lance, pushing the enemies back for a moment while scraping some of his foes.

The troubled auxiliary party was surprised to see the new members, but initially had assumed they were bandits, as one of them was about to attack the party. "Calm down, we're Auxiliaries like you guys." Aitana assured them, whilst she stood in a safe position to cast her spell.

Meanwhile, Conrad and Zemfina was locked in a battle against a bandit. He was armed with a mace, and equipped with thick layers of fabrics and a pants, some of it were torn apart by slashes, hinting that it wasn't his first rodeo, despite being poorly armed. He did however, wore a leather helmet, which seemed shabby, but it was still intact, and it was thick enough to block a dagger or a blade strike. He seemed to be a local, but spoke in a language not related to the Zanziyin tongue, thus making it hard for the duo to interpret his words and actions.

The bandit charged at Conrad first, but the rogue sidestepped and slashed the man's wrist, although it wasn't deep enough to inflict any damage, and in turn, his burly hands bashed Conrad's face, launching the rogue a few distance away, though the latter got up on his knees quickly despite suffering from a nose bleed. As the maceman's attention was turned to Conrad, Zemfina shot an arrow on his leg, to which the maceman screamed in pain, but he pulled out the arrow in an instance and broke it, now charging to the huntress.

She pulled out her knife, and performed a barrel roll as she dodged the swing from the maceman, slashing his thick layer of protection whilst he turned his attention with rage, however, as he turned his body behind, his neck was striked by Conrad, and the weight of the rogue forced the maceman to fall on his back, with the rogue locking his gaze on his enemy.

The maceman struggled to escape from the dagger strike, even punching the rogue on the stomach a few times, but Conrad held on his dagger, and twisted the blade at the neck. The struggling maceman's strength only grew weaker, and weaker, and tears came out from his eyes, whilst his dying eyes slowly begun to close, however, he held his hard grip on Conrad's hand which was holding the dagger pierced into his neck. Conrad tried to pull out, but he struggled due to the maceman's strength, and he was forced to witness the dying visage of his human opponent, which made him even more uncomfortable the longer he see, until he eventually broke out from the grip with his dagger. He panted, and was disturbed by the sight, but he was shaken by Zemfina, who came up to check on him.

"Conrad! Conrad! snap out of it, are you okay?!" Zemfina checked up on him, but without a word, he got up and quickly rushed to his allies, much to the Huntress' shock, but they were in the midst of battle, so she went on to assist her allies. The bandits, noticing one of their members were dead and the tides of battle was shifting, they took the wise option to flee from the scene, meanwhile the outnumbered gnolls were dispatched by the party.

In the aftermath of the battle, the two parties were exhausted, but ultimately, the fledgelings were spared from the fate of death, although two of them were severely wounded, and they lacked a healer, which, much to the experience group, they found this to have been absurd, but they passed it off as a rookie's mistake.

"Thank you for intervening and saving our asses back there, otherwise it would have been our last day, when it's barely been a week since we are here!" A swordsman approached and thanked them, shaking the hands of Diacrao and Aitana. "Call me Lorenzo, our leader, Michael is wounded over there." 

"A week? well you guys are really fresh, and undertrained, and clearly the lack of healer is no way to go for an adventure." Diacrao pointed out the error of their ways, to which Lorenzo and the rest of the party seemingly agreed. "I will tend to the wounded, let me check on them real quick." Aitana went on to check on the severely wounded. She inspected the wounds, and it was severe, and she made no haste in assisting them. 

As their wounds were healed, they still remained unconscious. "Thank you guys, we can handle our buddies over here, we should get back, and probably find ourselves some healer.." Lorenzo said to the party. "You're welcome! but will you be okay? the path is still dangerous."

"We can manage, just need to wake them up and we shall be good to go. Here is some silver for your deeds, and feel free to take some of the loot too, after all you guys did most of the killings." Lorenzo kindly provided a few silvers and gave them the liberty to loot, however, the party agreed to keep the lion's share to the fledglings, who would benefit the most from the loot.

Conrad however, was seemingly off, and this was noticed by Diacrao and Zemfina, but Diacrao was busy securing the perimeter, leaving Zemfina to check on the Rogue. "Conrad, are you okay?" the huntress asked, which surprised the rogue for a moment, but he regained he composure. "Yeah, I am, it's just, I've not killed a human before, and...ugh, I don't feel like talking about it now." he opened up a part of his emotion to her, which, much to her surprise, she wasn't expecting him to do so, expecting him to reply with a usual stonewalled response. Perhaps this situation was different for him. "Well, we can talk later, if you want to?" She asked. "Well...I don't know, I think I'll be fine. Thanks for asking, nonetheless." He responded, as he went to loot the bodies.

The body of the maceman was left untouched, and the party looted the usual stuffs, mainly consisting of broken weaponries, armor pieces, personal items such as necklaces, charms, and miscellaneous items. They took their leave from the town. Aitana seemed to be displeased, and this was noticed by Diacrao, who saw she wasn't in her usual self, but he decided not to press her with this for now.

Perhaps later tonight he might try to ask her, if she was available, of course.