Chapter 23: Anticlimactic


    Seeing the man crucified like that, I didn''t want hispanions to see what happened to him. That would be like saying ''Hey, I''m pretty strong you know?'', and they might get wary of me.


    "Mud Burial"


    So I buried his mangled body with earth magic about 6 feet under. The trees and nts that I used quickly went back to unassuming forms, blending with the forest scenery. Since they only have about 15 minutes left of life in them, I decided to grow some more as assurance.


    I even used some of my special ones, I used two seeds of the rare fantasy version of the Rafflesia flower and about a dozen of the Rugosa Rose''s thorny stem. The surroundings certainly look more flowery and scenic now, though not all of them look pretty.


    "Well Bambi you''re kind of safe now" I said as I knelt near the wounded deer,


    There was no arrow stuck in it''s body. But there were a few cuts here and there, I tried gently caressing its'' head to show that I''m not an enemy. It seemed to have gotten the message as itid down before it tended its'' own wounds.


    Well, they sure are taking a long time. Hmm, what if they were actually kind of smart and left the poor guy alone? They could maybe have instead reported about their findings ande back with greater numbers. Though I don''t see that seeding as well though. They were illegally crossing the border against a possibly hostile nation. And not just any nation, we''re one of the great powers after all in the continent. If they cause arge enough incident, they might just turn this into a national issue.


    I''m pretty confident that they''de back for me though, after all a young ''maiden'' elf was caught out all alone in the forest. That should be enough of a bait for those greedy bastards.


    "Over here, you bastards" I heard the voice of the man from earlier


    Oh finally, I stood up from my kneeling position. Soon a fireball emerged from the distance as it headed directly towards me. Really? Are they not afraid of causing a fire here? I didn''t want to alert the vige, since I wanna see just how strong I really am.


    Bambi quickly stood up and I let the poor guy flee so he wouldn''t get caught up in this one


    "Earth Wall" I cast to block the iing fireball


    "Hey Scarface!" I called out to the group, there was about 9 of them, all male and looks like they are at the prime of their lives.


    "Where is Eric?" My ears picked up their conversation as they ignored my call


    "Damn, she really is young. How much would she sell for?"


    "Where''s Eric though?"


    "If she remains ''unused'' we could sell her at a premium probably. But she''ll still sell for quite a lot, even if we ''test'' her quality a little bit"


    "Really, Where is Eric?"


    Uuuugghhh, I wanted to turn off my ears as I heard their conversations. Poor Eric, the guy gotpletely mangled and hispanions are out here counting chickens before they even hatch.


    "Deadly Bloom  Paralyze" I silently cast as the Rafflesia emitted paralyzing spores.


    "The other guy ran away, you know? He was pretty weak.. Fufu" I chuckled as I try to bait a response from them


    "Eric killed by a brat like you? Pfft- He might not have the best attitude, but his strength is the real deal" Scarface finally answered


    "Anyway elf missy, Uncle here needs some money okay? So be obedient ande with us." The guy with a staff said, he must be the one that cast that fireball earlier. How dumb, I would have just ignored an enemy''s taunt if I were them.


    After a quick exchange, they all nodded at each other. They didn''t let the absence of 1 guy stop them, as they quickly tried to surround me. They won''t use anything that could ''damage'' me though, so they would probably try to subdue me instead. After all they want me alive, and in top condition.


    "Flood!" I heard the guy in the back cast, as a torrent of water appeared and cascaded down on my location.


    This time I had a multitude of tree trunks tank it for me because the spell actually looks powerful, the wood once again emerged from the ground. I had a cloth wrapped around my face, as I had another tree elevate me in the air to avoid breathing in the spores. Once again, they were also shocked by the sudden appearance of magic they never saw before.


    "Is she a heretic?" one guy asked


    "She seems to be using dark magic. If so then we can only sell her underground then, else she would just get burned by the church."


    "She''s not using necromancy though, but this trees are weird"


    "Well we could rough her up a little bit then right? The guys underground wouldn''t mind a few bruises here and there" another one of the poachers said as he licked his lips.


    [Heretic? Dark Magic?] Now that''s a term I know, everything they can''t exin must be considered ''heresy'' if I use my previous world as a reference. I never had that problem with Mom and Sis though, so it could be just a human thing. Well I''ll read more about thatter, but for now, it also seems that they''re no longer afraid of hurting me as I saw them take their weapons out.


    I saw the guy with a bow coat his arrows with poison, actually pretty much everyone coated their weapon with poison. It shouldn''t be one that kills since they n to capture me. So maybe it''s just something to weaken me? Let''s see...


    Though as they were about to move, the spores finally took effect as they all fell down with their eyes open.


    "Nnn? Uegh?!" They couldn''t move their body as well as their tongue, so they could only make incoherent noises as they struggled to find out what happened


    The ''battle'' was pretty much over once again, as long as I take advantage of the fact that they don''t know about my magic. I could pretty much win everytime against an unsuspecting opponent. It''s pretty anticlimactic, but I guess I won''t have those hour long 1v1 fights that I used to see on anime.


    "Haaah, I hope you guys atleast have something useful in you" I said as I cast earth magic to bind their limbs down. Actual fights really are different from spars, I could use all the dirty tricks I know to incapacitate them pretty quickly


    Finally my trees and nts withered, as they died out before slowly turning into ash as the wind swept them away. I nced at their equipment and found nothing I really want. I stabbed a dude with one of the poisoned arrows just to see what would happen.


    Their eyes were pretty much covered in fear, everytime I walked near them. I realized the good stuff should be back on their camp, so I quickly cast a multitude of spells to make sure they stay down.


    "Rock Binding"


    "Freeze"


    "Grasping Roots"


    Feeling pretty safe, I walked down the trail that they came from. And I saw about couple dozen of antlers already harvested, as there were still fresh blood from the roots. I felt mad, seeing that the deer that some of the vigers were protecting were being poached by some random people. I rummaged through their stuff and found some wine, food, couple of knives, and a few suspicious bottles.


    This could be the poison that they tried to use against me, so I decided to have them take it. I also took some of the unopened bottles of wine and a cup as I returned to their location.


    "Hey, help me out here okay? Since you can''t speak right now, I''ll test each of these bottles to see what they do." I gave them a grin, as I opened the first one


    The first guy sighed in relief, when he saw the first bottle I opened. This one shouldn''t be that dangerous based on his reaction. As I forced them to take different bottles, some died, some fell asleep, and one is horny. Seeing the amount of poison they have, this shouldn''t the first time they sold someone. They could have been a human or others, but I''m not the first victim they ever targeted, that''s for sure.


    "Yikes, an aphrodisiac." I shivered, when I imagined what these guys would do if I somehow lost. Though they might be surprised that I''m a boy, but you never know someone''s tastes.


    I''m not really a fan of getting someone horny through drugs, but I could see a few situations where the other ones could be useful. Having a deadly poison, is always a nice thing to have.


    "Sigh, well the sun is almost down. So sleep tight guys" I buried all of them underground, alive or not. As I took the bottles of poison and wine with me. I still had to follow the ''kill on sight'' rules regardless of what I felt, though I didn''t have any particr mercy for the people who killed Bambi''s family.


    [It''s not like I''m someone much better though] I thought to myself as I walked back home