Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance Chapter 29 Forest Hunters Part 2/3

Chapter 29 Forest Hunters Part 2/3

Going back in time a little bit to right after Mira killed the guards and Maria walked into the bandit base with Mira. Maria noticed that there wasn't anybody out in the base walking around and guessed they must all be in their houses sleeping or something.
She stood there and watched as Mira snuck into a house, then immediately walked out of the house with blood on her scythe. She guessed that she just killed some dude in cold blood while he was asleep.
Was this okay?
Maria shook her head. She just wasn't mentally prepared to do this today. She knew that she might have to kill some time in her life, but didn't expect it to be this soon. And to do it to people that are defenseless and sleeping at that.
Maria walked to the first house slowly and sneaked in. She slowly sneaked towards where the bedroom was and crept into the room. What she saw made her gasp. She saw a woman laying on the floor and was chained up so she couldn't escape. She was laying there naked and covered in bruises. She could also sense that this woman was a mortal. She didn't seem to have an ounce of power.
Maria just stood there for a while not knowing what to do. This man obviously did this to her, but she doesn't know her. She knew that there were people like this in the world, it's just that she has never seen something like this in person. Maria pitied the woman and felt bad for her and part of her felt the need to help her as some kind of justice, but Mira never acts or does anything based on justice. Maria wasn't sure how to feel, but the guy that was asleep started to wake up.
"Hah? What the fuck are you doing in my house? Not that I mind though hehe. You'll just have to pay an entree fee if you want to be here." The man got angry at first, but saw how pretty Maria was and instantly wanted to dominate her.
Maria wasn't sure what to do, but she took out her sword when the man began to get up and go towards her.
"Oh? So you don't want to do that. I guess I will just have to force you hehe." The man took out his sword and walked towards Maria. When Maria saw him coming towards her with a sword she got into her battle stance. With her higher cultivation, the hell that Mira puts her through, and all of the battles that she has been through, Maria has grown to have a strong battle sense even if she doesn't act like it. She is just in the wrong mindset right now and knows that she is supposed to kill this guy, so her thoughts are already preoccupied with that.
The man slashed at Maria and Maria blocked it easily, but she had a chance to counter-attack and didn't take it. The man was surprised that Maria blocked his attack like nothing. He was in the Marrow Tempering stage and some girl that was younger than him blocked his attack like he was an ant. He got a little pissed at this and used all of his strength to attack Maria. Again, Maria blocked it like it was nothing but Maria still didn't counter-attack. The guy back off and grabbed a small knife and threw that at her gut. He then slashed his sword towards her chest. Maria blocked the knife and was a little slow to block the sword leaving a little cut on her shoulder. It could hardly be called an injury and wouldn't even leave a scar.
Now the man felt a bit of fear from the lady in the room. Even if he gets a direct hit, he wouldn't be able to even severely wound her.
Maria's mind was still preoccupied when she heard the injured woman's plea.
"Please… Help me. Kill him. Please. I want to be free from this." She said faintly.
It was very hard to hear her voice, but she could hear her almost lifeless voice. For some reason, this reminded her of Mira. This guy is going to die. One can say this is guaranteed, either by Mira, Maria, or Vulcan. Maria steeled herself.
The man charged at her and Maria swiftly removed his head. When she did this it was like her brain froze. She had no idea how to deal with this. Her brain tried to rationalize what she had just done. Did she do it because she wanted to get justice for the woman? Was it because she was scared of Mira? Was it because she wanted to?
Maria started to vomit and felt her body go cold.
"Thank you." The injured woman said with a faint smile on her face. She then seemed to fall asleep, like she didn't have to worry about that pig anymore.
Maria just glanced at her and continued to throw up. Her mind was spinning and she couldn't think straight.
"ENEMY ATTACK!!"
Maria heard this and knew that this was Mira slaughtering countless people. Maria went to go see what was happening outside and what she saw made her stomach curl. She saw Mira covered in blood holding her black scythe with blue veins running down dripping in blood. Mira ran towards the crowd of bandits. She saw people cut in half both vertically and horizontally. Some people were even still alive after that, but they had no legs to move and could only scream in horror. Some had their heads exploded in while the lucky ones had their heads removed. It was a horrid sight. How can Mira cut people down like this? Does she hold no regard for human life? Maria instantly went pale and continued throwing up. She couldn't look at that scene anymore.
Mira kept up her slaughter until a voice resounded in the area and blocked her next attack.
"It seems that you are causing trouble in my base. What should I do with you, little girl?" He said to her as he scanned her from top to bottom. He was trying to gauge her strength. He was a Stage 5 Qi Condensation while she was only a Stage 1, but her body emanated a feeling of danger. Her scythe was also abnormal. Also, the way she just cut hundreds of people down like chickens was not something that a normal Stage 1 could do.
"I guess you could serve your purpose as a training dummy. Or you could just watch as I slaughter this little base. They can at least serve to increase my killing intent hehe." Mira snickered. She had been wanted to try a new move that she learned recently. It seems that it has a high affinity with her scythe too due to her ice affinity and Extreme Yin Physique.
"This little girl thinks she can compete with the boss? He's a stage 5 Qi Condensation! She's only Stage 1. Kill her Boss!"
"Kill her Boss!"
"Kill her Boss! She clearly only sees us as ants scrambling around!"
"It seems these people want me to kill you. I would rather not fight you as I can tell that it will be a hard fight for both of us. I see no benefit in us fighting. If you came here for revenge or to get someone back then we can try to work something out, but you will have to give me something as payment for killing my men." The bandit leader tried to settle this somewhat peacefully. He didn't know why, but he felt like he might die if he has to fight her. Mira just shrugged her shoulders.
"You could say I came here for revenge, but I would say this is closer to the act of putting flowers on the graves of the dead except in this case the bandits are the flowers. A proper send-off. Plus I do get benefits from this."
"Very well." The bandit leader said and readied his sword. Mira also got ready, but she did something to her scythe. On the spear side of the scythe, a curved blade of ice formed. It looked exactly like the actual blade of the scythe. It had Mira's Qi flowing through it which made it look almost as sharp as the actual blade as well. (Picture of the scythe: https://db4sgowjqfwig.cloudfront.net/campaigns/102936/assets/506588/Untitled.jpg?1442474755)
Mira started to gather momentum in her scythe by twirling it. They then charged at each other. The bandit leader slashed his sword to try and chop off Mira's head. Mira deflected the blow and carried the force of the blow with her and counter-attacked with a diagonal slash across the bandit's chest. The bandit immediately dodged and went to stab at Mira. Mira swiftly dodged and threw 2 Ice Blades. The bandit cut the Ice Blades in half and charged towards Mira. Mira blocked the attack and was about to counter-attack when the bandit leader immediately retreated.
The two then had a stare-off. They were only testing each other right now. The bandit leader felt that each of Mira's attacks were deadly. If one were to hit him it would cause severe damage. Plus fighting against a scythe is incredibly weird. If Mira keeps her momentum, even with his strength it just gets deflected and redirected back at him, and even if he blocks, another attack can come right after the initial one.
Mira was definitely feeling the difference in cultivation. Even with her tempered body, she is getting bruises from each interaction. She is doing her best to redirect the force of each blow, but each blow is still heavy. The bandit also has a better battle sense than she thought. He knows how to wield his weapon and can use it somewhat efficiently.
Silence pervaded the area. Then Mira and the bandit leader seemingly disappeared. But the people around them felt a shocking force happen in the middle of the two and caused the people near to stumble a bit.
Mira dodged the attack and spun her scythe across his waist, but the leader blocked it. Mira shot ice needles at him and he was forced to dodge. As soon as he began dodging, Mira kept the momentum of her scythe going and tore through a chunk of his skin across his chest. The bandit leader was shocked by this sudden change, but ignored it for now and focused. Mira didn't let up after she stuck. The bandit leader was a bit out of range so she kept shooting Ice Blades until she reached him. He tried to block all of them, but they attacked different areas. 2 Ice Blades went towards his shoulders, 2 towards his knee caps, and 2 more just outside of him to prevent him from dodging. He blocked one shoulder and dodged the other and was able to dodge one directed at his knee cap, but the other Ice Blade sliced into his thigh leaving a big gash on his thigh.
The bandit leader realized what she wanted to do. She was just trying to wear him down then end this quickly. Well, he wasn't a pushover either. Not to mention 4 Stages higher than her.
Mira dashed towards him, but he swiftly dodged and slashed. Mira wasn't able to do anything about this slash and it cut diagonal across her chest leaving a large gash. Luckily her skin was tougher than normal or else that would've killed her. She pulled back her scythe slashed at his left arm. The bandit tried to dodge, but he was too close to her and the scythe was able to leave a huge gash on his left shoulder. You can even see the bone.
The leader ignored the pain as a rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins. He shot towards and started swinging his sword like a crazy man. He was just using brute strength to strike now. He kept swinging and stabbing like crazy and was able to leave a lot of cuts and gashes on her body even though she blocked and dodged plenty of the attacks. Whenever she blocked his attacks also started to crack her bones leaving fractures.
Mira might actually die at this rate, but then Mira came up with an idea. Right as she blocked the next attack she sent an ice needle to his injured shoulder. He didn't notice this tiny ice needle and it struck deep into his shoulder, then Mira exploded it. It didn't remove his arm, but now it just dangled there limp. The leader had gone crazy soo he just continued to slash with his right arm, but the power behind each attack was lacking much more now.
Mira used a big chunk of energy to increase the length of the curved Ice Blade on the scythe. She then blocked his next slash and continued with the momentum and cut off his right hand. Then Mira quickly dashed towards the leader and decapitated him.
After decapitating him, she immediately took out a Rank 2 Rejuvenation Pill as she needed her injuries to heal a bit so she can kill the rest of these ants. Most of the Qi Condensation Realm bandits had died and now the leader died too. There was only silence for tens of seconds before the surrounding bandits went crazy.