The bandits simultaneously charge, and Nyx is surrounded by the sounds of metal clashing as they make contact with the group of escapees. What's immediately clear is that almost none of the escapees are very proficient in combat, especially since half of them were young children. The only one who was holding his own was Julian, taking on two bandits at once with his sword while attempting to defend the most vulnerable members of the group. One of the bandits rushes towards Nyx, brandishing a short sword. The latter simply looks at him and steps to the side, effortlessly dodging the attack. She then raises her spear, that she was still holding backwards, and smacks him on top of the head with so much force that the wooden shaft of the weapon snaps in half.

  - “Oops!” Nyx comments as he falls to the ground, unconscious. “Of course human weapons are really fragile, just like them! Let’s see, who has a spear?...” She spins around and her gaze stops on another bandit, who was wielding a spear identical to the one she just broke. He was fighting a blonde boy with a dagger, and had just managed to disarm him, ready to deliver a fatal strike as the boy tried to run. “Ah, there’s one!”

  Nyx runs over and grabs the shaft of the spear, completely stopping the bandit’s blow. The latter tries to pull his weapon away, and his eyes widen in terror as Nyx gives him a bright smile and effortlessly rips the spear from his hands.

  - “What the-” He starts.

  - “Thanks!” Nyx cuts as she smacks him over the head. The bandit is knocked out, and the shaft of the spear shatters just like the first one. “Again?!”

  - “Thank you!” The blonde boy says as he gets back up to pick up his dagger.

  - “For what?” Nyx replies, tilting her head to the side.

  - “Saving-” He coughs, most likely due to dehydration. "...Me!"

  - “Oh. I didn’t mean to-” Nyx stops, and grabs his shoulder before pulling him towards her. “Ah, there’s another one !” She eagerly shouts as she reaches forward with her other hand.

  The boy turns around, only to see Nyx holding the blade of a spear that was directed at him. Her hand was abundantly bleeding, and the bandit falls over as Nyx suddenly pulls and takes the weapon away from him.

  - “There it is!” She exclaims as she hits his head, producing the exact same result as with the first two bandits. Said result includes the shape of the spear, which snaps in half for a third time.

  Nyx spins around to find a new spear and notices that multiple bandits were staring at her, with escapees lying on the floor in puddles of blood next to them. They all run towards her, intending to overwhelm her, but she dodges every single strike directed at her while dragging the blonde boy along.

  - “How is she dodgin’ all that?!” One of them yells. “She ain’t even that fast!”

  - “It’s her eyes!” Another one answers. “She’s getting tired, just keep coordinating your attacks!”

  - “You're right, I AM getting tired.” Nyx confirms as she raises her bloodied hand. “And wielding spears hurts now. I don’t want Vanessa to chew me out, so I’m sorry about that... Don't worry though, you won't die!”

  The bandits look up as they notice a glow gaining in intensity above their heads. Julian, who was nearby, is seemingly the only one to notice what’s happening before the spell is launched.

  - “Wait, don’t-” He yells.

  He doesn’t have time to finish his sentence as a volley of three asteroids similar to the one Nyx used in the cave hits the battlefield, shattering the ground and scattering into large chunks. When Julian opens his eyes, all the bandits that were standing around Nyx are lying on the ground. The ten remaining bandits immediately turn tail and run, escaping through various doors present on the walls of the cave. Julian himself had barely managed to use the bandit he was fighting as a shield against the debris.

  - “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen!” He yells, his face turning a slight shade of red in anger as he rushes to the side of the injured escapees who happened to be within the radius of Nyx’s attack.

  - “What’s wrong? Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you guys!” Nyx says as she looks around and notices the devastation she caused. “I thought I made these asteroids to be smaller! Guess magic is trickier than I thought…”

  - “Alright, maybe it’s not all lost… We have a little bit of time before they’re able to call for reinforcements. Is anyone here capable of healing?"

  - “Not me! People usually blow up when I try to heal them!”

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  - “...Yeah no surprises here.”

  The escapees that were still standing silently look at each other, and start shaking their heads one after the other. However, a trembling hand raises right in front of Nyx’s face. It was the blonde boy from earlier, who she was still holding by the shoulder. Said shoulder appeared slightly dislocated.

  - “Oh, I forgot I grabbed you!” Nyx says as she releases him.

  - “...It’s… fine…” The boy replies as he tries to hold his tears. "At least I'm... alive..."

  - “You can heal?” Julian asks. “How many people?”

  - “I think I can heal everyone… I come from Galanos… My magic lets me use existing water to heal people, it doesn’t use too much magical energy…”

  - “Oh is that so? That’s perfect then! Heal yourself before you heal others though, you don’t look like you’re doing okay.”

  The boy slowly nods and walks over to the river. He extends his hand towards the water, and some of said water rises from the riverbed and covers his arm. All the cuts and bruises present on it slowly start closing, and his arm starts shifting back into place. He then starts creating tendrils of water that fly across the cave, stopping to make contact with anyone injured and forming bubbles of water around their entire bodies. The first person to be reached by the tendrils is Nyx, and she sees the large gash that was cut across her hand closing on its own.

  - “Oooh that’s great!” Nyx comments before turning towards the boy. “Galanos is Calypso’s kingdom right?”

  - “Yes.” The boy answers. “We have a lot of people with unique water magics. Sometimes, pirates attack smaller villages to sell us to traffickers in Specta.” He looks down at the river, gazing at his own reflection. “This is what happened to me, and I had to let them take me away or they would kill my parents and my friends. I didn’t think I would ever have the chance to see mom and dad again, so thank you… uh… hero.”

  - “Oh, I see now! No biggie, also my name is not hero, it's Nyx! Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here alive! I’m already meddling a lot, so might as well allow your story to continue. It’d be boring if you just died here!”

  - “...You know that we’ve all got it just as rough as he does, right?” Julian says. “Because you don’t really look like you do.”

  - “Oh you all have interesting stories? I guess it's true that humans don't just let themselves be captured for fun normally! You want to tell me how you all got here?”

  - “No, we don’t have unnaturally high strength or insane magics for combat. I’m sure all the people here would’ve rather stayed home.” He deeply sighs. "Also, I don't think anyone is in the mood for a casual chat right now, given that their lives are in danger and that they're stuck underground with no idea how to leave."

  - “Oooh I see!” Nyx turns towards the rest of the escapees. “In that case, I’ll make sure all of you make it out alive!” She declares, and she is met with a few hopeful smiles from the people in the group. The black haired girl runs over and silently hugs her, refusing to let go. “Ah." Nyx's eyes sparkle, producing a diffuse white light as she widely smiles. "A demonstration of affection! Have humans finally stopped hating me?”

  The girl stays silent, simply gripping Nyx’s dress harder. The latter could hear the girl softly crying.

  - “Ah, there she goes again.” Nyx comments.

  - “That’s a nice thought, Nyx.” Julian says as he looks around at the dozens of doors in the walls. “But how are we supposed to find our way out?”

  - “Oh I know how! We take prisoners!”

  - “Right, we could pick one of the bandits from the ground. They’re really banged up though, we don’t really have time to wait for them to wake up…” He turns towards the boy, who was still by the river. “Could you heal one of them up?”

  - “...I’m running out of magical energy. I’m healing too many people.” He replies. “If I do more, I won’t be able to run.”

  - “Right, our wounds are almost closed. Thank you, don’t worry I won’t ask anything more of you. You should rest.”

  - “I will, as soon as I’m done.”

  - “You got this.” Julian comments before looking up at the cave’s ceiling. “Alright, what do we do now ?... We’re running out of time…”

  - “There’s one that’s still awake though!” Nyx says.

  - “Where?”

  - “Over there!” She says as she points to the bar on the other side of the cave, in the area with chairs and sofas.

  Julian looks over, but sees no one. However, he immediately starts hearing footsteps coming from said bar, and rapidly progressing towards one of the doors in the walls.

  - “Ah, sorry I can’t let you do that!” Nyx shouts as she launches an asteroid towards the door.

  It hits something invisible right next to it, and a few threads of rainbow colored light appear out of thin air as the spell is broken, revealing a woman. It was the blonde bartender with pink eyes that they saw earlier, blood gushing out of her forehead as she struggled to stay on her feet.

  - “Hey, hey, hey we can talk about this!” She says as she raises her hands in the air. “I’m not with them, I’m just a mercenary! If you got a bone to pick, I can lead you to their boss and all!”

  - “Oh, you didn’t get knocked out!” Nyx happily exclaims. “I’m getting better at controlling my magic!”

  - “No the hell you ain’t, that would’ve killed a normal person!” The woman clears her throat. “Sorry, I meant that yeah, of course! Your word's law after all!”

  - “Oh hold on, that voice… I recognize you!”

  - “...Well shit.”

  - “Thank you for kidnapping me! It’s been a lot of fun!”

  The woman stares at Nyx with a puzzled expression, trying to make sense of her incoherent rambling.

  - “We should get going.” Julian says as the water tendrils created by the blonde boy fade, turning into small streams of slightly darker water on the ground and returning to the river.

  - “Alrighty then!” Nyx turns to the woman. “You’re officially our prisoner now, so uh… threats! If you don’t listen, I’m gonna kill you deaaad! I’ll turn every particle in your body into plasmaaa! And your friends, and your family, and… uh… who do people care about besides those, that I can kill?” Nyx asks the woman. "Not that I'd ever do it, but I think I need to say that stuff for you to listen to me!"

  - “...” She deeply sighs. “This was s’posed to be an easy fucking job. What’d I get myself into this time…”

  As the mercenary leads the group towards one of the doors in the cave's wall, Nyx stops by one of the unconscious bandits to pick up a spear. Julian notices her, and raises an eyebrow.

  - "You do know that you're holding that thing backwards right? That's not how you're supposed to use a spear." He comments.

  - "Am I?"

  - "You're supposed to stab with the sharp end, not just repeatedly concuss people until the spear can't take it anymore..."

  - "It's working though! Beating people with sticks is a very old human tradition you know?"

  - "...I can't even deny that. Suit yourself, I guess." Julian sighs as they all make their way to the door the mercenary was waiting next to.