Raid boss

The permission was given. Rosa and her two escorts went back down the way they came. As they walked down to the main street, Rosa smiled. The people were no longer running around in a frenzy now.

'Now that's more like it.' Rosa was satisfied that she could help. Even if it was just a little bit.

"Gurgle!" Rosa froze as her stomach made itself known. Loudly. Jericho belted out a laugh that made her turn bright red.

"Mayhap a little food is in order. I shall fetch us some some." Jericho left her and Aaron as he headed towards a tent that was set up further down the main street.

"Is he allowed to do that?" Rosa blinked in surprise.

"With what you've done to help little one, we can take a detour." Aaron said with joyful teasing in his tone.

"I didn't do much." Rosa protested as they continued to make their way across the main street. Aaron snorted.

"You've done more than you know." Aaron's tone was grim before he forced his tone to change. "Everyone was happy to see you, sitting on the parapet. You reminded everyone what they are fighting for."

Rosa's eyes went wide. Aaron chucked when he saw the surprised reaction.

"Then, you saw through the trick that the enemy was pulling. I bet the battle commander was fuc-er... really really mad that a child saw what seasoned veterans didn't."

"Nice save." Rosa said deadpan. Aaron laughed as he simply leaned against the wall now that they had reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm sure you've heard worse but well-" Aaron scratched his nose."-we were warned not to pass on any bad habits. Unless we wish to incur your mother's wrath."

"Heaven's no, have mercy." Rosa jumped when Jericho suddenly entered their conversation. "I'd rather throw myself to the monsters. They'd be more kind." Jericho handed her a skewer with mystery meat and a fruit called a pomma.

"Do you know my mom?" Both men burst out laughing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Compared to the healers, the mages were a rowdy bunch.

"Kya! So adorable!"

"Oh, oh, let me see her."

"She reminds me of my sister."

'It's like a mob of Madame Mulberries.' Rosa thought horrified as the mages literally cooed and fought for the chance to pat her head. There was a shrill whistle after a few moments of enthusiastic greetings. An older man with more hair on his beard than on top of his head caught everyone's attention.

"Alright. That's enough." The man walked forward with a commanding presence. He was draped in a blue robe lined with gold trim, his foci a crystal ball that circled his right hand.

'He looks like a wizard out of a storybook.' Rosa thought, eyes sparkling, as he came closer. The man looked down at her as if he were about to pass judgement when his entire demeanor changed.

"Do you like candy little girl?" The man had literal flower petals and hearts floating around him. The old man's eyes lit up like beacons and his grin was gentle. He produced a strawberry look-alike candy out of nowhere and offered it to her.

In short, his dignified aura was obliterated.

Rosa would have fallen over in surprise if she hadn't been lifted up by her armpits.

"Nope! Her mother would kill us." Jericho boomed as she was lifted to sit on his shoulders. Rosa's eyes were wide.

'I'm in leather armor, I'm not that light.' Rosa was amazed by Jericho's strength.

"Don't take candy from strangers. Especially ones that look like mages." Aaron snarked. "You'll never know if it will turn you into a green duck."

"Why I never-" the old man started to say when five of the mages in earshot all coughed in unison.

'That's oddly specific.' Rosa narrowed her eyes in suspicion. 'There's a story behind this.' The older man huffed and cleared his throat.

"Yes well. What brings you up here? I thought the little spitfire was to be protected with the healers."

'Spitfire?' Rosa was indignant and she pouted. 'Is that what everyone thinks of me?'

"Ah, we came over because she wants to talk to a fire mage." Aaron said curtly.

"The commander allowed that?" Asked a random mage from the crowd.

"He was mightily impressed with her insight." Jericho's voice naturally carried far. "Wants to see what comes out of it."

"Oh? And what does a little girl bring to war that battle hardened veterans should listen to?" The mage group parted to let the woman who spoke be seen. The woman had ebony eyes with bright blonde hair and wore the ruby red robes of a fire mage.

"Imagination and a whole lotta spite." Rosa fired back at the woman. The woman was startled by her response before a foxy look crossed her features.

"I'm listening."

Rosa didn't explain a plan in detail, because it wasn't a singular plan. It was multiple attack options she wanted to initiate with the mages in response to enemy movements.

Every mage listened in earshot. Soon, mischievous grins were on everyone's face within earshot. The old man, whom she know knew as Tarbin, was amazed.

"My word. Where did you learn such tactics." He asked after the fifth idea.

"I'm seven. Do you think I've learned how to even spell tactics yet? This is payback." Rosa said deadpan. Every male in earshot shivered in fear.

"Young lady, I pity the man that ever betrays your trust." Tarbin said solemnly, many male wizards nodding along. Rosa looked like a confused kitten.

"Why?" There was laughter disguised as coughs. Tarbin quickly averted everyone's attention.

"Nevermind. I do believe we should get back to work. With the monsters thinning out, the troublesome ones should start appearing."

"Back up to the parapet little one." Jericho said as he took her off his shoulders. Rosa nodded and grabbed an iron pellet. It was time to go back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There were exactly three hidden mages she caught before she got bored.

'Let's start harassing the monsters in general shall we?'

"I'm switching to distraction now." Rosa said gleefully. She diverted her attention from sniffing out invisible foes to making as much trouble for the enemy forces as she could.

"Switching to what now?" Aaron asked.

Rosa's answer was to target the monsters in front of the defenders. Each monster had its own weaknesses that she mercilessly exploited.

Tree Spirits primary cast spells as their main form of defense. Their wooden body and sturdy branches were used to attack like big wooden baseball bats. The wood was increasingly brittle the lower level they were. The defenders had equipped axes in order to combat the threat.

Rosa's answer to this was to interrupt the spells before they had a chance to cast. The third time the defense spell hadn't gone off had the monster panicking. It was quickly taken care of.

Septoculars were the equivalent of a multi eyed land octopus. Their main form of offense was also there greatest defense; they spewed ink. Once blinded, their tentacles would rush out and attack the target.

There was a flaw that Rosa was quick to notice. Before they spewed ink, they needed to inhale through a tiny hole. A hole that iron pellets plugged up nicely. The rubbery body shriveled up making them easy prey for defenders.

Sanguine Stompers charged forward and used their front hoofs to attack by kicking. Rosa had known their weaknesses before ever trying to leave the lower city, it was their third eye.

Blinding the third eye that was located in the middle reduced their field of vision to their sides. This accomplished two things; it made them hesitant to charge and it left the defenders an easy way to attack. They would kill the monster by going for the throat from the front.

Hostile Reptiles were scaled gecko like creatures that crawled on all four legs and attacked with a long sticky tongue. They used hit and run tactics as their scales weren't very thick and they had low health points.

Rosa liked to bother these scaled beasts the best. Hitting the tongue with a pellet while it was out was funny. The reptile would flop over, hug its injured tongue in its arms and ball it up while running away on two legs. Most of the time they tripped. Hilarious to watch.

The Rodentia attacked with it's claws and fangs. They weren't exceptionally fast or strong, there was just a lot of then. The base of their tails were a soft spot that they protected fiercely.

Rosa missed a shot and hit that soft spot on time. The rodentia turned around and hissed. That gave her the idea to target that spot when they were in front of the defenders. The first time it happened; the huge guy it was attacking blinked, reached out and grabbed it by the tail and smashed it down onto another monster. It died instantly. Rosa made sure to do that frequently.

Ravvits looked like they were what you got when you tried to breed a mouse and a rabbit. They were super fast and agile. They didn't hit hard, but were astoundingly hard to kill because of their ability to evade. So it came as a surprise when Rosa hit one and killed it outright.

'What?' Rosa thought she saw wrong when the monster went down. Aiming, she tried again. The ravvit wasn't hit anywhere vital, but still dropped down dead.

"Nice shot!" Aaron said as he noticed the ravvit go down. "Ravvits are hard to hit. They're more of a nuisance than a threat."

"They're annoying." Jericho said crossing his arms. "They bother the front line and interrupt a lot of skills midway."

Rosa looked at the experience she got for killing a monster on her own and felt her mouth go dry. It was a lot.

'I think I just found an experience honey pot!' Rosa was now excited. Shot after shot left the sling and hit ravvit after ravvit. Soon, there weren't any ravvits left.

The defenders began using skills more often now that they were being interrupted less. The tanks and frontline warriors had to switch out less and less due to injuries. Then, a sound echoed across the lower city. It what Rosa had been waiting for.

"Braaaaaaa!" It was the sound of a horn.

Rosa had her pouches open ready for it. An anti-invisible ammo was shot in the direction of where the sound originated from.

No one was ready for what was revealed.

The shot hit an armored goblin carrying short swords and the horn. It hit him on the tip of his helmet and splattered out. What no one expected was that the potion sprayed all over the hidden monsters behind it.

The large, one eyed behemoth that took out the outer wall was sitting on the ground. It had probably been bored before getting wet.

There was a well muscled goblin revealed. The goblin wore mismatched armor that was probably stolen from adventurers. It stood nearly a head taller than most normal goblins. It's aura screamed arrogance and aggression. It looked at the wet spot on its armor in disgust.

And lastly, there was an old goblin in a cloak with a twisted looking stick with a blood red jewel as a foci. The cloak hid most of its features. Rosa was in shock.

"You have completed: S ranked hidden quest, find the hidden raid boss. Please claim rewards."

Both sides froze.

"Is that a goblin general?!"

"Cyclops!"

"Raid boss sighted!"

There was a scramble along the walls. The goblin that blew the horn looked very disgruntled and shook a fist in the general direction of the tower. Rosa ducked down; from the look on that face, Rosa made an enemy for life.

"They're coming!" Jericho bellowed.

The cyclops got off the ground, grabbed it's weapon of a war club and cracked it's neck. Both goblins readied their weapons while the goblin mage started casting a spell.

'Oh no you don't.' Before the spell could finish, Rosa had interrupted it with iron pellets.

"You have initiated boss raid fight. +5 damage to arch goblin mage."

Rosa was horrified. Anything with the arch prefix in games was insanely powerful. She just picked a fight with a creature that could squish her... from a distance.

Both sides looked at her for her audacity.

Her response was to reload.

Maybe she was a spitfire.