Steel Sky (Adelle/Mind Flayer)

[Guan Yu]

With some further staredown, the bear decided to back off, probably seeing that it would not end up finding an easy dinner from this little human on fire. Too hot for them, by the looks of it. The two others were certainly not helping, and one was more armed than he was, with some murderous claws that the ursine would only hope to have one day.

Once the bear was out of sight, the situation defused as quickly as Hotaru's flames did. Apparently the talk about her little amulets being flame shields was not just baloney as she was completely untouched by the fire she had probably just spent a few minutes in. "I can look after your house here. I still need to think about my life..."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Alright hon, thanks. I appreciate that. Hopefully we'll be back soon, and can maybe get those flowers. But if not... well, we'll just have to keep looking I guess," Adelle said cheerfully to Hotaru as she and Rose prepared to head out, in the opposite direction the bear had come from to begin their search for those flowers.

 

[Guan Yu]

The bear had retreated to the same direction they had explored yesterday, the pond and the dangerous female encounter direction, so the girls could at least make a move for a different area yet unlooked through.

Some ways into that direction, the girls would spot a weird wolf or dog creature lurking about, one that was only canine in shape. It was not furry like the average dog, instead being made up of curling, knotting green and red vines of various lengths and thickness. Somehow, it reminded them about the various plant creatures back in that infested prison, but it was probably not connected in any real way to those things. The plantimal had probably not caught wind of them being there as it simple rooted about the place.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Oh my... Rose look. Doesn't that look kinda like those plants at that prison?" Adelle whispered to Rose when she spotted the strange plant animal thing, looking at the thing curiously with wonder on her face as she moved around to try and get a good look into the area it was at to see if any of the flowers they were looking for sat in there, before they moved on, trying not to get too close in the process to alert the thing to her presence just yet if she could.

 

[Guan Yu]

"It does... A lot of similarity. Somehow I imagine there is no connection between the two..." Rose would agree as the two analyzed the area near the weird plantimal. They would not come across the elusive flower in their looking, and the wolf did not appear to get any wiser about them being there either as they did so. Maybe it had weak senses, as missing Rose and her white hugeness was rather difficult in the greens and browns of the forest backdrop. Yet they did manage it, and soon the animal was left to do whatever it would be doing by itself.

After a decently long way forward, the two were met with a sudden change of scenery. The forest gave way to a small slope downward that was safely traversable by foot, and the few feet of slope went down to the edge of what appeared to be a vast field of sunflowers. Ways into the distance was a small hill in the middle of the field, a single tree being the only feature of the hill. Various curving paths went across the field, most ending at the hill but some just going around, cutting walkable areas so one would not need to go through the numerous flowers which were otherwise untouched and left to bloom on their own.

From their slightly elevated position, the girls caught sight of something ominous, an entire group of what was probably some wasteland bandits, a gang of raiders made from large, rough men of the waste and their crude but nonetheless effective small vehicles and bikes. They had apparently just arrived, most of the vehicles being turned off as they were dismounting, curiousity obvious in the way they looked around. There was a good distance between the two groups, so there was no initial contact yet as the men where not aware of the two girls in the south while they were more on the western border of the area.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Aye, you're probably right I'd wager," Adelle said as they looked around for the flower, only to find no signs of it at all really, which left Adelle a bit miffed but otherwise they were back to square one.

After a while longer of searching, they still hadn't spotted the damned flower, and as they kept looking around, Adelle took in the sights around her and sighed softly, finding this place nice and peaceful, and a good spot to just go to for her to get away from civilization for a while. That is until she spotted the bandit group in the distance. "D-Dammit... why are bandits here?" Adelle asked nobody in particular as she stood there, narrowing her eyes as she stared at the group. "How much you wanna bet the flower we need is over that way, Rose?" Adelle asked her companion with a sigh as she prepared to head that direction to see if they could spy on the group some and perhaps find out just why they were here.

 

[Guan Yu]

"Aren't we... all just curious about the new things?" Rose would offer her mind on the matter of the banditos, the sight of the large yellow flowers probably being as interesting to them as they seemed to be for her. They would make it down the shallow slope and reach the ground level of the field, hitting the path as it was a better choice than the flowers that were as high as Adelle herself most places. After a bit of a distance, they started to get closer, so it was likely the better idea to hide among the plants to get within hearing distance of the group. The bandits seemed to have little interest in diving through the flowers, and they remained on the paths.

"What are you two looking at? What is so interesting that you need to strut around in the flowers?" came a sudden jumpscare right next to Adelle as the dreadful lady from before just seemed to appear there next to her, out of nowhere. Somehow, they had felt her coming the figurative mile away last time thanks to the aura, but now she had sneaked up on them in a frightfully effective manner. The slasher smile was there on her face again, and she seemed very intent on hearing what they had to say.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"That... is true I suppose. But still, it's troublesome for bandits to want to come to this place though. Especially while we're here," Adelle sighed softly, and continued onward towards the group.

However, as they neared them, Adelle felt they should hide somewhat, and headed into the brush a bit to mask herself and Rose from view, so they could observe the group from cover. Then, another pretty harsh jump scare nearly caused Adelle to piss in her pants as she just barely kept from screaming out in fright as she clamped a hand over her mouth. "J-Jeez... d-do you have to sneak up and terrify people like that?" Adelle stammered softly to the rather scary girl from the previous day. "A-And we're observing... things. And also trying to find the flower I mentioned yesterday," she added after a few moments, still quite terrified, but now the girl was so close she knew there wasn't much she could do to stop her, so she might as well carry on with her observation of the bandits, hoping to just scare them off, rather than this girl killing them outright.

 

[Guan Yu]

Given how pants-wettingly scary she had been before, the woman was probably able to restrict her terror, considering how she was simply there now and neither of the two were having the same urge to fight or flee as yesterday. "Of course. Seeing how you people react is the best." she would tell them with the same smile on her face nonstop as she too looked over to the bandits. "Those gentlemen huh? Should I try to scare them too? You two were easy on that."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"H-Hah, y-you know as sweet as your smile is, you are one terrifying woman. And to be honest. I don't know if you really Would have killed us yesterday, but your aura is just too damn strong," Adelle sighed softly to the woman before glancing over at her. "S-So yeah, you can scare them off if you want to. They Are bandits after all. And if you're a protector of this place, then g-get to protecting. B-But try and not kill them if you can help it, okay," she went on to say to the woman.

 

[Guan Yu]

The words seemed to work for this lady, and she seemed to be in agreement about most of what Adelle was telling her. "It does sound like an idea, now doesn't it? A bunch of grown men like that, being terrified to death by something like little old me. It just tickles the f-" she would agree before the speech was cut off like a snapped tape recording in a malfunctioning player. A few of the bandits had moved off the path and were fucking around in the flowers near an intersection in the pathways, doing it like large rough men would. The smile faded from the woman's face and she moved forward towards them at a powerwalk pace, not really bothered by the ground despite her bare feet. For her own part, despite the relatively brisk pace, she would not even brush her parasol on the tall flower stems as she passed.

 

[Mind Flayer]

Adelle nodded to the woman and listened as she spoke, before she cut off abruptly and stared down at the bandit folks as a few moved off the path and were walking around near the flowers near the path, trampling some of the flowers and such. This seemed to piss the lady off quite a bit, and Adelle gulped. "T-Try and not... kill them..." Adelle mumbled softly to the lady as she watched from a distance, looking down at them all and wondering if there were any ladies in the group, maybe even one she could relate to perhaps to talk and just get them to go away, though she doubted it.

 

[Guan Yu]

As much as it might have been a nice thing, the bandit squad was absent of any female party members, a completely manly operation by all accounts.

Within a minute, the parasol lady caught up with the group, approaching them from the field as she emerged from the sunflowers. Despite the sudden appearance, the bandits did not seem too bothered by her being there, taking it rather well by all accounts. It lookee more like... They were happy to see her, in what looked like the worse way possible. Most of them seemed to be immediately attracted to her feminine aspects, which she of course possessed in an unkempt gardener sort of style. They gathered around the lady in a semi-circle as she started to talk again, obviously infuriated by the disrespect towards the flowers. Most of the bandits followed the one-sided berating with amused expressions, while a few of them sought to agitate this strange lady with further uncaring remarks about the place, letting it be known that they had little interest in preserving it, mostly seeing it as a source of some quick food material.

It mostly seemed to be a ruse, however, as one of the bandits on the edges of the circle was sneaking his way towards her, and actually met with success as the lady was focused on her fairly calm yet obviously angry words. Taking the opportunity, he swung a large, leather-clad fist at the female.

...And it actually hit home, the lady getting decked over the back of her head as she stumbled forward, losing grip on her parasol and sending it stumbling to the side as she landed on all fours. The bandits were quickly around her in a circle, and the one at the front reached down to grab the lady by her forest-green hair, pulling her back up to her knees. The thugs were sure to tell her exactly what they thought of her words and assured that they would not mind if she was a bit filthy, it was a mutual thing. The one holding her by the hair assumed she would be good with her mouth, considering how much she had talked to them just now, so he unzipped his jeans and loosed a considerable dick. The thing was quickly sunk into the female's mouth, and the guy started to ram her head against his crotch without any real resistance. It was almost unreal to see from the yet undiscovered sidelines. The dreadful woman from before getting taken advantage of like this. Had all that fear been an illusion or a trick?

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Okay... let's see what she does now that she's heading down there. I'm a bit... unsure about things. But, she's scary as hell, to say the least," Adelle muttered softly to Rose as the girl headed down towards them all.

She was not surprised by the bandits reactions to a cute young lady coming towards them, but they seemed... unperturbed by her presence, like Adelle and Rose had been. Adelle glanced at Rose curiously before she looked back to the girl, just as the one bandit came up behind her and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground quickly and what happened next caused her eyes to widen. "O-Oh my god... did I just... send her to get raped, Rose? C-Come on, we gotta help her. I'm not gonna just stand by and watch this... horrendous thing happen to her," Adelle stammered to Rose, drawing her submachine gun up and checking it to make sure it was loaded before she moved quickly down the hill towards them all with pure fury in her eyes as she rushed down to get into a position to ambush the filthy bandit men, looking for a good spot to fire at them from that had good cover, and hoping that Rose would follow and support her, but not asking her to as she went down the hill.

 

[Guan Yu]

Rose was not one to stay back, even with her limited life experiences, her moral compass probably telling her it was the right thing. She would follow along, of course, the two of them taking their way down the little hill they had observed the happenings from. As much as the desire for cover existed, there was really little more to shield them than the tall sunflowers. Their best bet was probably to try and remain as well hidden as possible.

Finding a spot, Adelle took her shot, the initial small burst unfortunately going wide by the smallest of margins. But there was something to be gained at least since the sudden realization that they were being shot at pulled the bandit's attention away from their raping rather quickly. Even the guy who was having his dick worked was all of a sudden not interested in the lady, pulling her off and getting his weapons out instead, not bothering with zipping up at that point. Not all of the bandits had guns, but there were a few handguns and two rough sawn-off shotguns in their possession. For her part, the suddenly used female was still on her knees, looking rather dumbstruck at what had just happened.

 

[Mind Flayer]

Adelle grumbled softly at the fact there was barely no cover at all, but she went in and did her best to both distract, and draw their fire. "Get away from her you sorry pricks!" Adelle shouted at the bandits, glancing back to Rose and nodding to her back in the treeline, motioning for her to go around and flank them while she drew their fire to her before pumping off another burst towards the bandits, specifically at the ones with handguns, and hoping the scary girl would either get up and run or use her magic or whatever it'd been, to scare the living hell out of the bandit men.

 

[Guan Yu]

There was a bit of maneuvering going on, and Adelle managed to score some hits this time around, Rose remaining near her and mostly in hiding to spring on any enemies that got too close. The bandits too were firing with their guns, none of them hitting anything besides the flowers as they were still mostly without visual on their aggressor.

And then, it happened again. The fear came back, multitudes harder even from the good distance between the two female parties. A sudden gust of wind picked up, sending smaller pebbles and grounded leaves blowing away from the situation. The lady had picked herself up and was now standing there, looking at the ongoing firefight as her parasol just flew back to her hand from the ground. "Why did I expect something more from your monkey kind... Running won't save you now, you'll ALL be a mist of atoms in a moment." she would call out in a rather calm voice, but the look on her face was not calm in any way. The air around her darkened and distorted again as red lightning occasionally crackled across her immediate vicinity and even the flowers were reacting, all of the yellow heads turning away from the now obviously furious female.

Suddenly, the situation looked even more hazardous than it had been before.

 

[Mind Flayer]

Adelle popped off a few more shots as she lie there on the ground, rolling from side to side as needed to avoid being hit herself, and even managing to clip a couple of them. It was then that Adelle felt that fearful presence coming back, and when she felt it, Adelle's eyes widened, but she kept shooting at the bandits and glanced to Rose. "Um Rose... let's uh... let's find some cover, I think she's about to blow her top," Adelle said, looking for any trees or rocks they could take cover behind and quickly scrambling over to them to get into some cover.

However, if they could find no cover nearby, Adelle would gulp and spring out from the tall flowers and rush towards the girl as the bandits likely cowered in fear or scattered. She'd rush up and try to hug her from behind. "H-Hey... c-calm down okay. You'll destroy the whole forest at this rate, and it's too beautiful to damage, and you're too pretty to let yourself lose your cool. G-Get rid of them if you want to, I won't stop you after that. But don't let them make you hate all humans, or get so angry you can't think straight. N-Not all humans are bad," Adelle would tell the girl, continuing to aim her gun at the bandits if they were still there trying to point their guns in her general direction.

 

[Guan Yu]

Looking around in a quick manner revealed that there was indeed something to hide behind even in this field, a fairly modest rock that had been left in the field a little ways to the side. Moving there would likely help to keep out of harm's way, even as Rose would have to really scrunch herself up to remain behind it.

With their attention kinda drawn two ways, the bandits were having a hard time picking where to direct their attention, but once the girl was moving towards them, the choice was obvious. The panic was starting to settle into them, and the lady would use the opportunity as she did a teleport-speed gap closer on the nearest guy from about ten feet away, her bunched-up parasol coming down onto him. There was no chance to intercept it, and given the end result, it probably would not have worked anyway. The downward swing caved everything underneath, the head and the body collapsing into bloody sludge under the impact, the parasol somehow crushing it's way through the bandit as they were practically cut in half vertically.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"O-Oh shit, guess she wasn't just using magic to make it seem like she was super scary. She actually Is fucking super scary. R-Rose... h-hold me, I'm scared," Adelle said softly to her friend and helped get Rose good and behind the cover properly.

Adelle would close her eyes and tremble as she hugged against Rose's front, sitting in her lap with her face buried in Rose's tits, and her right hand still on her gun, ready to fire it if necessary, but she tried to remain quiet and out of sight for now as she listened to a second massacre in as many months. The first being Priscilla's doing in the whorehouse.