Rescue Operation - 2

-----Yui's POV

After our break finally ended, we set on out to catch up to Mai once more, and after another hour of running, the night is finally upon us, with not a shed of light coming through the forest.

Selene: "Sis. She's just up ahead."

I was honestly expecting some sort of problem, but we soon stop at a clearing in the forest. I was confused as there was no sign of Mai, but that was when she revealed herself as she's floating above us.

Mai: "I had a feeling this would happen..."

Kaede: "Hahh~"

It was her to break the silence as Kaede let out a sigh of relief upon realizing that Sicily and Lillian is not with her yet.

Mai: "Don't worry~ I could tell that Selene was going to contact you, so I just waited here, making sure to keep these guys in my sight."

Kaede: "What do you mean?"

Mai: "I found where Sicily and Lillian are. They're just up ahead."

She stops floating before walking in a particular direction. We all silently follow her, and in just a matter of minutes, I begin to smell quite a large amount of people as we walk slowly through the forest.

And after about another five minutes of walking, we approach another clearing, only instead of an open meadow like where we just met Mai, this one was much different. It was a massive settlement, with horse drawn carriages scattered about, with large tents covering the opposite ends. I couldn't help but notice that the carriages all look different from one another. Some looked to be made from Inasdale, while some I couldn't recognize.

Fleur: "This is..."

Faye: "Slaves, right?"

They're right. Most of the carriages were boarded up, as if to not let anyone escape from the windows inside. But thanks to our enhanced sight, I could just barely see through the gaps of the planks as I could see a few people inside.

Yui: "You think Sicily and Lillian are in one of the carriages?"

Kaede: "I'm not sensing them yet. There's many different races here, making it quite difficult to concentrate."

Kaede's senses however is much more developed than the rest of us. For me, I could only sense that there was a large amount of people, but Kaede seems to be sensing them all individually.

Mai: "I'd refrain from acting until we find them."

Kaede: "Right..."

Even now as we talk quietly, there's many people patrolling around the carriages with torches. We can't be careless here.

Kaede: "I'll take Sis and Yui on the left. Mom, Faye, you take the right side with Mai."

Fleur: "Got it."

And so, we slit up into two teams in search of Sicily and Lillian.

...

I think if I was still human, I'd be stepping on all sorts of twigs, making a lot of noise, but thanks to my dark vision, I easily follow Kaede's footsteps, making little to no noise as we make out way around the camp.

Suddenly, as a lone person with a torch came by us, looking to be alone, Kaede quickly brought out her blood, creating a long string of blood before wrapping it around the man's neck. It wasn't even a second until his head was cleaning sliced off by Kaede as both Kaede and I quickly bring his body into the woods, with Selene on the lookout for others. Kaede quickly harvests his blood, storing it into a glass bottle before storing it into her bag before we begin moving once more.

Yui: "You're quite scary sometimes, haha."

Kaede: "Hehe. Then you must be crazy to marry someone like me."

Selene: "Sis, another one."

Yui: "Can I take this one?"

Kaede: "Sure."

I haven't had much experience with using blood magic, but I have practiced enough to freely manipulate my blood. It's actually much harder than what Kaede made it out to be, as making something so fine yet so strong, enough to slice someone's head off with razer-like sharpness is impossible for me at this point. So instead, I create a blood spike, before sending it flying to the man's head. My blood spike easily splits his skull open as he drops to the ground, which Kaede quickly brings back into the woods to harvest more blood.

Yui: "I didn't make too much noise, did I?"

Kaede: "It's fine. There's no more people patrolling around here. Let's check out the carriage.

After harvesting more blood, Kaede and I slowly make out way to the now free carriage, extinguishing the torches that the men had. Someone inside the carriage did spot us as we're soon met with a pair of eyes through the small gaps in the window.

Kaede: "Shh~ We're here to rescue you. Stay quiet for me, okay?"

It doesn't look like Sicily or Lillian, but Kaede seems to be wanting to save everyone here. I'd love for that to happen, but it does make this job of ours a lot more stressful. One slip up and who knows what will happen.

We decided to leave the people in that carriage inside, opting to take out any stray guards we find and harvesting their blood. Kaede dealt with the more riskier kills meanwhile I dealt with the easy targets for practice. Slowly, we made our way around the whole camp before meeting Fleur and the others.

Fleur: "Anything?"

Kaede: "We couldn't find Sicily or Lillian. My guess is they're more towards the center."

Faye: "Is it because they're elves?"

Kaede: "Most likely..."

I'm not well versed in how slaves work, but I'd imagine something like an elf, who lives far longer than humans would be of much higher value than a regular human. So it makes sense for them to be more guarded than the rest.

Fleur: "It's too risky to go in further though... There's too much light."

Kaede: "We might need to go loud here. I've already pinpointed the higher threats, so leave them to me and sis. Mom, Faye, you two go back around and we'll pincer them from all sides. Kill anyone you deem as a threat."

Faye: "What about the people inside the carriages?"

Kaede: "Leave them for now. We'll get to them once we've cleared the camp."

...

After we all took four corners of the camp, I draw out my rapier that I got from Alice. It feels so nostalgic to wield this again... And at Kaede's signal, we all charge in.

I quickly come across two guards as the both of them were about to cast a spell. But I quickly take over their magic, blowing them up in their own flames. I was a bit surprised at first to discover I still had the ability to do this. But it seems like I still have the muscle memory, or the equivalent of it with magic. I simply injected my mana, forward, overpowering their magic before causing it to self destruct. It does make me think that maybe anyone could've done what I did in the past time-line, but when I tried to explain it to Kaede and the others, they had no idea how to do it. It made me happy to know that I was better at something than Kaede.

I continue forth, as about eight people this time came at me. But all their movements were so slow. I easily severed their arms as they try to swing their weapons at me, whilst simultaneously taking over the magic of the casters, using their air magic in combination of the fire from the torches to create a fiery tornado, forcefully pulling in six of the men inside, ingulfing them in flames. I quickly finish off the remaining two, slicing their heads off with my rapier before dissipating the fire tornado.

Yui: "Aren't I a bit too strong?"

I mutter that to myself as reinforcements soon came. Wanting to use blood magic this time, I create a blood rapier in my left hand, now wielding two as I quickly dash forward, engaging the enemy. They try to attack me all at once, but with the added blood rapier, I have no problem with deflecting their blows before slicing off their limbs in the next moment, using their own blood against them by sending blood spikes into their friends. And in just a span of ten seconds, there was no one left standing. I wonder how the others are doing?

As I thought this, I was soon met by Kaede, Fleur and Faye as we all made our way to the middle of the camp which housed a massive bonfire. I couldn't help but notice that Fleur was covered in blood from head to toe, but I could tell that it wasn't her blood as it reeked of human blood.

Yui: "What happened on your end?"

Faye: "Sis kinda lost it, ahaha. She was tearing all their limbs off with her bare hands. It was honestly quite scary."

Fleur: "S-sorry..."

Kaede: "Fufu. As long as you all are okay, then that's what matters."

Kaede proceeds to clean off the blood from us, mainly Fleur, before storing them into more bottles.

Kaede: "Alright. Then let's get started.

We then start from the center of the camp, opening up the carriages around us, splitting up into our two groups again. But even as we opened it, the people inside were skeptical, when we locked eyes with them.

Yui: "It's alright. The bad guys are all gone~"

I try to sooth their worries, speaking in a soft manner, which seemed to have worked as the young children began coming up to us. The older people having seen this then followed.

Everyone we rescued all met up at the bonfire, and as we opened up the fourth carriage-

Kaede: "!"

Yui: "We found them."

There they were. Sicily and Lillian. I could recognize them almost instantly with their purple hair. Just like everyone else, they were barely covered with rags and had magic sealing collars around their necks. But it looks as though there are other elves with them.

Kaede: "Sicily."

Sicily: "...Huh?"

Kaede: "Lillian?"

Lillian: "Tch. How do you know our-!"

In an instant, Kaede leapt forward, pulling the two of them into a tight embrace. The looks on their faces were of utter shock as they have no idea why a stranger is hugging them like this. I simply smile at the scene while escorting the other elves out of the carriage.

Kaede: "Thank god you're safe."

Sicily: "U-uhm?"

Kaede: "It's okay. You're safe now."

Kaede spoke in such a soft tone that I wouldn't be surprised if she's crying right now, and it would seem as though Sicily and Lillian have both given up, letting Kaede continue to embrace them for a while longer.