The Princess and The Bandit

THIRTY TWO

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The two of them moved with synchronicity. Like a well choreographed dance, they moved in perfect timing.

Except Camila and Lauren were not dancing.

They were slashing and striking back at the serpentina bandits that, pretty much like a massive pimple outbreak, suddenly came out of nowhere to attack them. It was outrageous. There were too many of them but just between Camila and Lauren, they were such a formidable duo that one by one these serpentinas fell dead on the ground like leaves simply falling at the peak of autumn.

Ally held her own side of fighting, brutal and precise with her daggers. And despite her age, Simona fought well too with the sword that was gifted to her decades ago. So far, none of them got wounded by their opponent's poisoned blades.

The flying flock of griffins above that cast a massive shadow over them has long been gone. The warning bells of Reiham Port has long ceased, but in the midst of that roadside forest, a gruesome fight still continues. While Ally and Simona poured all of their focus on not getting themselves any cuts from their attackers, Camila on the other hand feared for someone else's safety.

The last time she felt fear was when she was three years old and her father got mad at her for stomping on a boa constrictor's head during a fit of tantrum. She wasn't scared because of his yelling, that wasn't anything new to her at that point, or the fact that a large snake tried to squeeze her absolutely adorable three-year old self. Instead, she feared he'll send her to some convent in Weiss Tower where all the prissy girly girls go.

Since then, she felt pretty much nothing. In between anger and hate, scorn and disdain, Camila felt pretty much nothing for a very long time. Remorse and regret came along when her mother revealed herself, but when she was killed, apathy took over right next to her numbing hate towards her father.

But right now, she felt fear. Creeping in her bloodstream like the poison her father concocts. Slithering all over her skin like how a snake slithers its way to a prey. And she is not even fearing for her own life.

She is scared for Lauren's.

Camila knows that every serpentina weapon are always laced with poison. Even if she has burned down her father's cellar of poisons and pit of venomous snakes, she knows how sneaky Alejandro is. And even though Lauren has showed impressive fighting skills, she fears that one tiny little cut from a serpentina blade will pierce her delicate skin. That alone will surely bring her down to an eventual death.

She doesn't want to lose someone she cared so much for again.

Not Lauren.

The fight was brutal, and these bandits seem to just keep pouring out like rain. Not only that, these bandits also looked so young with boundless energy and have had an improved fighting skills.

None of them knows for sure what exactly are their intentions, they only have speculations. These serpentina minions have been on to them since the moment they left the island, it shouldn't be a surprise anymore that they can pop out of nowhere to challenge them. These group of bandits are like a widespread of disease; they are everywhere, pillaging and destroying whatever it is in their way.

Simona and Camila have similar suspicions but Ally's hunch was slightly different. She thinks they are after Alejandro's spawn, that someone must have finally figured out that the leader of the lionhearts who has pestered them and snatched their bounties is in fact the spawn of the lord of serpents.

Ally thinks that Camila has grown to be Alejandro's most dangerous rival and he would want to eliminate her.

But then, there's Lauren.