The Bandits - Part 2

"Ok, I can do this, eight bandits, all with weapons against me a newly born lamia in a new world with a small amount of fighting experience. Should be easy."

Sweat dropped off her face as nerves arose at the situation.

"Divide and conquer. I can't deal with them at the same time, so I just need to drop their numbers."

Watching for movement, laying low to the ground she slithered and crawled her way through the camp to the sleeping girl. While some may see it cowardly to attack a sleeping person, it didn't matter to Octavia as the prisoners were much more important than honourable combat.

Reaching the tent, out of view from the others, she grabbed the longsword just inside the tent and slowly moved it away, placing it out of reach of the occupant.

Making her way in, she found the woman and saw that her body was covered in scratches and scars. Her knuckles were also caked in dried blood, but she could not see any cuts on them.

"Pretty sure I know where that blood came from," she thought to herself, thinking it must have been from beating the prisoners.

Now sure that the world would be a better place if this woman wasn't in it, she brought her poleaxe up ready to hit her in the head.

But she hesitated.

While it was a bad person before, she had never killed a person before.

Unsure and in her own head deliberating what she should do, the woman's eyes opened.

"…"

"…"

Staring back at each other, she saw the woman take a breath and open her mouth, likely to cry for help. Quick on her toes, metaphorically speaking, Octavia slammed her tail down onto the woman's face, cutting off her voice.

The previous silence managed to continue, with her tail covering the woman's face. What she wasn't expecting was for the woman to just lie there still, with no movement whatsoever. Peeling her tail back slightly, the woman's eyes were closed and Octavia, shocked that she may have just killed someone, quickly checked her pulse.

"…"

She was still alive.

The woman was still breathing, but it looks like the force of her tail slam knocked her out. Looking around outside to see if anyone heard her, she was met by empty space. Back in the tent she grabbed the cloth nearby, likely some sort of makeshift cover for the bed, and started shredding it using it to tie the woman up. The pièce de résistance, a bundle of cloth tied around her head and stuffed in her mouth as a gag.

Outside again and thermal vision on, she looked for her next prey.

While she had being dealing with the girl, the happy fun time couple had finished their activities and the woman had left to get some food, which she was currently getting two bowls of from the chef. Seeing her opportunity, she followed the woman till she was out of sight of the others. Sneaking up close, she readied her poleaxe and swung.

As she did so, her conscious flared up again, seeing that this time, she may take a life.

Whether it was that thought that threw her aim off or the fact that the woman tripped falling to the ground, either way she missed her target. On the ground, the girl turned over and saw Octavia, holding her weapon at the end of its swing. Stunned at what she saw, she couldn't get a word out, giving Octavia the time to once again stop her from talking, before she regained her faculties.

Tail over her face like before, though she was unable to knock her out, the woman gave quite the fight. Heavily muffled shouts arose, and the woman thrashed about, trying to break free.

Her tail now covering her face and most of her head, she had no way to knock her out with her poleaxe. She did swing the hammer end into the visible body, but all it did was cause the woman to thrash and shout more. She almost went to use the axe or spike end, but then another thought crossed her mind. Something she had yet to try, but a part of her instinctively knew what it would do.

Bending down at her human half, tail still over the girl's face, she found an exposed section of the woman's body and took a bite. As she did, four of her teeth magically extended, forming the bite shape of a snake as if it knew Octavia's intention. The only area in reach that was accessible was the thighs.

Heavily muffled screams originated from the bandit at the pain of the bite. Pulling back to see what would happen, while trying to get rid of the blood taste, Octavia could only watch in fascination as the woman's leg seized up and stopped moving. Soon after, her other leg followed, then torso, arms and lastly the screaming stopped. Pulling her tail off, the woman lay there, frozen, staring into the sky.

Checking the girl's pulse and breathing there was only one conclusion she could come to, "Paralysing venom. I had a feeling it was. Not sure how long it lasts though. I need to tie her up and store her somewhere quickly." She thought to herself. Not sure how she could tell, but it was like her instincts told her what her venom would do. Must be a Lamia magic thing. Why it wasn't like Prisma's venom that practically killed her, she didn't know. Another question she had on all of this.

Taking both arms, she dragged the girl over to one of the free tents, as far as her thermal vision told her. Taking apart the bedding, she tied and gaged the girl as well, just to be sure, not knowing when her venom would wear off.

Back to where she dealt with the girl, she headed to the tent the woman had left originally. Taking this opportunity as she didn't know how long she had before she was discovered, she entered. The man lay on the on the makeshift bed, on his side, facing away from the door. Very lucky for Octavia.

"Did you get the food? I'm starving." He called out without turning.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she got into position and quickly wrapped her tail around his face and bit into his exposed arm. Not long after he lay still.

"Three down, five to go" she thought to herself as she tied and gagged the other lover in his tent.

Exiting, she headed towards the cook, checking around as she did. It seems that the fox girl was putting on quite the scene, keeping the three guy's attention on her. Whether it was to help Octavia, or the girl was just venting her frustration on her captors, she did not know.

Finding the last girl still over the campfire, cooking the next batch of grub, Octavia snuck up behind her. The girl was humming away as she cooked, completely oblivious to everything around her. This gave Octavia plenty of time to get up close. She was going to use her tail to cover her face like the others but given her position and all the crockery around her, the force of her tail would cause a lot of ruckus as she took the girl down.

Still trying to do this silently, given that no one had found her out yet, she took up position behind the girl. She quickly wrapped her hands over her mouth and her tail around her legs, holding her steady, lest she struggle and knock over some pots and pans alerting the others. Digging her teeth in to her neck, the cook was dealt with easily. Into the nearest tent she went, tied up like the others.

Now she had the three men around the fox to deal with. Once they were gone, the 'boss' would be next. The way Octavia saw it, it was better to deal with the fodder first, before challenging the boss. The boss of this bandit group should be harder than the rest, being that he was made the leader of the group, most likely more skilled than them and would take longer to deal with, time that the fodder could use to join the fray.

With them all crowding the fox girl, Octavia could see no way that she could deal with them separately and silently. A full-on fight would be needed to take them down.

Still having a massive argument with the fox girl, she was able to easily sneak up behind them unaware. Expletives where being flung back and forth, the volume making it all too easy to reach them unnoticed.

Now in full view of the fox girl, her eyes widened upon seeing Octavia, but she quickly readjusted herself, lest she give away what was happening behind them dooming her to remain as a prisoner.

Pulling her poleaxe up, she swung it through the air, hammer side out, onto the man to the right of the group. This man was Jayce who wore a full plated helmet, along with mish mash of plate and leather gear. Given the helmet, the hammer was the best bet, rather than the axe side.

*Clang*

And she was right.

The swift hit to the head of Jayce, while not killing him, was enough to cause some serious damage. The force toppled the man, causing him to fall onto the dwarf of the group. The hit also knocked the sense out of him, dazing the man till he hit the ground where he fell unconscious.

The dwarf trapped under his fellow bandit struggled to try and free himself, having no luck. This left a single bandit to deal with.

"Wha- Ho- Who are you?", the bandit called out, shocked at the situation he found himself in.

It is at this point the prisoners noticed the commotion. All of then turned their heads, only to be stunned at what they were seeing.

"Snake?"

"Snake."

"Lamia…"

"Snake girl?"

The crowd of prisoners all couldn't believe what they were seeing. It had been a long time since Lamia's were seen in this world, so to the prisoners, Octavia beast-kin of the snake variety.A species that they had never seen or heard of before. But in amongst the calls of snake and snake girl, one person said Lamia.

That person was the fox girl.

To the fox girl, she was able to finally comprehend what was happening in front of her, as she didn't have to focus on not causing a racket anymore and was able to get a good look at her saviour. Seeing the half human half snake girl, she had called out Lamia without thinking, bringing Octavia's gaze onto herself.

It only lasted a short while though, as the last bandit charged at Octavia, meaning she had to ready herself for the fight.

The bandit swung his sword overhead, hoping to end it quickly. Octavia seeing this, brought her poleaxe up to block, causing the blade to hit the wooden shaft. The bandit was somewhat shocked that he had failed in his attack. He was even more shocked when Octavia rotated the poleaxe and pushed his sword off to the side, unbalancing him, causing him to fall to the floor.

He stumbled, giving Octavia enough time to get her tail into position, causing the bandit to trip and plummet to the floor.

Octavia using the momentum of her weapon movement continued its path, bringing it up and swinging it down hoping to either knock him out, or at least cripple him in some way. As it came down though, the bandit managed to roll out of the way, causing the axe head to skim his side, leaving a deep gash. With all the movement, Octavia had no idea which way the poleaxe was facing, so the cry and blood from the bandit was a bit of a shock.

Getting back up and one hand at his side, he went for another attack. Blow after blow was either dodged or blocked by Octavia.

She had no idea how she was keeping up with her attacker.

That is until she realised that this bandit wasn't what you would call a master swordsman. It was very likely he was close to Octavia in skill, looking like he had practically just picked up a sword. Both his and her movements were easy to read, knowing which way to dodge or block was a simple task.

…

As time drove on, although it had only been a minute or so, both started to slow down. The lack of stamina and never having been in a prolonged fight, caused both to grow tied. While the fight with the golem took some time, it was more guerrilla attacks than a back-and-forth trading of blows. Realising she had to end this soon, in case in her tiredness she made a mistake, she decided to try and disarm the man.

It was at this point that she heard rattling from behind, where the dwarf had managed to push his companion off himself. As he was righting himself, Octavia moved to the side, keeping both in her vision, ensuring she wasn't caught off guard.

The dwarf was still winded from his collapsed comrade, and was struggling to pick up his dropped mace. Seeing this, Octavia new she had to take out at least one of them as soon as possible. Even with their lack of skill in fights, two verse one was not a fight Octavia wanted to face.

As he was bent over, heavily breathing as he reached for his weapon, Octavia flicked her tail out to his legs. The force of which knocked him off her feet, causing his side to plummet to the ground. The whiplash knocked his head into the dirt, rattling his nogging something wild. There he stayed as the battle raged on.

Her fighting companion continued to strike back, but ended up slowing down alongside Octavia. He showed relief at seeing his friend get up to help fight back, but that quickly turned to shock and anger once Octavia had knocked him back down.

With the minor distraction gone, she knew she had to make her move and deal with this guy quickly, as the tiredness was starting to hit her hard.

As he swung, he found his sword suddenly stop. It did not feel like the usual blocking of attacks the girl had been doing till now. Actually, seeing what happened, told him he may have a problem.

Octavia's tail took the place of her poleaxe. The blade of the sword only slightly biting into the flesh. The tiredness and lack of skill of the bandit, coupled with the sword being old and rusted, reduced the damage the attack did.

As the bandit took stock at what had happened, Octavia quickly curled her tail around the blade, moving down to his hand.

He tried to yank and pull the sword from her grip but had no luck. Out of options he swung his free hand towards her head, but this was easily blocked by her poleaxe.

Rotating the sword in her tails grip, Octavia managed to pry open his hand, causing the sword to clang to the floor as the bandit cried in pain.

Now disarmed and in pain, Octavia ended the fight with another swing of the pole axe.

"…"

Well, she tried to. With the closeness to her opponent, the head of her poleaxe was out of reach of the bandit's head, meaning the wooden pole of the axe hit it instead. Using the trick she came up with before when she first used her poleaxe, she pulled her weapon with all her might, the hammer end slamming into the back of the bandits head, stopping all cries of pain as he fell to the ground.

Relieved that the fight was over, she almost decided to just lay down on the floor and get some sleep, but the grunts of the dwarf brought her back to the situation at hand.

Looking down at the man, she stood tall and imposingly, staring down at him. The dwarf seeing this and realising he was at her mercy; he did the only thing he could think of.

"I surrender." He put his hands above him and resigned himself to his fate.

Now with one bandit left to go, who was likely to be a much harder fight than the bandit she had just faced, she quickly tied up her fallen foes. So far, the 'boss' had not yet left his tent through the whole ordeal. Why, Octavia did not know. She was sure that the fight had been loud enough to rouse the 'boss', and yet nothing had happened. It could be he was taking his time to gear up, did not see a need to intervene or thought his lackeys could deal with it. He may even be hard of hearing. No matter the reason, Octavia would have to face him, tired and feeling weak.

As she finished up tying up the bandits, the cloth used as the tent door opened. Then out stepped the 'boss' of the group.