"AHHH! RUN AWAY! THE BANDIT KILLER'S COME TO GET US!" Many men seemed to yell at once as the group of bandit surried around trying to avoid the many fireballs that were coming down upon their camp.

"Oh, you guys aren't going anywhere! Flare Arrow!" A young girl aged 15 or 16 yelled at the bandits as she shot an arrow made of fire at the hopeless men. The arrow hit them and caused a large explosion.

"Ah... Ah... Please let us live! We'll give you anything you want, just don't kill us!" The bandits begged the young girl.

"Hmm.... In that case, gimme all your treasure!" The girl demanded with a wide smile on her face.

"A-Anything.... Take anything you want!" The bandits quivered.

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear." The girl replied with an even wider smile as she helped herself to the stacks of treasure the bandits had collected.

**********

"Gowsh Lina, you rewy did good dis time! OM OM!" Gourry exclaimed through mouthfulls of food.

"Toulja dose bandits were woaded! OM OM!" Lina replied while stuffing her face as well.

"Um... Are you two done yet? That's your twentieth helping!" The waiter said while staring at the pile of plates that was continuing to grow. Lina and Gourry ignored him and continued to eat.

"I see you two never change." Came a familiar voice addressing Lina and Gourry. The two turned around to see a young man dressed in beige wearing a hood and a face mask. The man removed his face mask to reveal blue skin that was covered with dark-colored rocks.

"Well, if it isn't Zelgadis!" Gourry said, no longer occupied by the food on his plate. "It's been a while since we've seen you."

"Yes, it has." Zelgadis agreed.

"So, what brings you around here?" Lina asked.

"Oh, you know. Going about my own business. Though, when I heard that there was a young girl tormenting bandits in this area, I figured it would be you." Zel explained as he sat down at the table with Lina and Gourry.

"What can I say? Can't help that I'm famous!" Lina replied with an arrogant smile.

"Right...." Gourry and Zelgadis sighed.

Lina and Gourry paid for their extremely large meal, and then left with Zelgadis. The three of them exited the town, chatting about what they had been up since they last saw each other. Lina and Gourry had just been wandering around looking for valuable treasures and taking out bandit gangs as they went along. Zelgadis had been searching for a way to cure his body, as usual.

"You'd be surprised how well a person can do just by ripping off treasure from bandits!" Lina shouted confidently as she waved around a large bag full of her most recent takings.

"Whatever you say." Zelgadis replied simply.

Then suddenly, a figure in a dark navy cloak jumped out of the bushes, took the sac of treasure out of Lina's hand and ran into the forest.

"Woah! That guy came out of nowhere!" Gourry exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Yes, he certainly has skill. I didn't even notice he was there." Zelgadis continued.

"This is no time to be impressed! He just stole what's rightfully mine! For that he's gonna die!!!" Lina yelled with fury as she zoomed into the forest, followed by Zel and Gourry.

The three of them ran a long ways into the forest, but couldn't seem to find the person who stole the treasure. Eventually they stopped to catch their breath.

"Just face it, Lina... He got away...." Gourry said between huffs.

"But... But... My treasure..."

"In all fairness, you can't say that treasure was yours since you stole it from someone else." Zelgadis told the young sorceress.

"SHUT UP!" Lina exclaimed.

**********

"So... Hungry...." Lina whined as the group walked out of yet another village. It was now sunset, and the group hadn't eaten anything since Lina's spoils were stolen.

"Will you stop complaining?" Zelgadis scolded his companion. "We'll just go to the nearest river and catch some fish."

"I can't believe this... Three villages in a row refused to feed us!" Gourry exclaimed, while putting his hand to his rumbling stomach.

"How could they do this to me, an innocent, starving young girl?" Lina continued.

"Innocent....?" Gourry and Zel muttered with disbelief.

As soon as they got to a river, Lina made a fishing rod and enchanted the hook so that the fish would be attracted to it. Sure enough, she managed to catch enough fish to make a pile almost as tall as herself. Gourry and Zelgadis made a fire and started cooking their dinner. When it was ready, they ate what was there and then went to sleep.

**********

"Alright, there's gotta be some kind of bandit gang in the area!" Lina exclaimed as they walked through a small town.

Suddenly they heard yelling and noticed that a crowd was gathering not too far away.

"I wonder what's going on." Gourry said.

"Let's check it out." Lina commanded as she headed towards the crowd, followed by Zelgadis and Gourry. The three of them pushed through the townsfolk in order to see what was going on. Everyone was staring at a group of large men with swords who were surrounding a single girl with black hair and red eyes. The men appeared to be simple thugs, though there were a lot of them. The girl seemed average, though she wore a white outfit which almost resembled that of a sorceress and had a quiver full of arrows on her back.

"Hey, that's not fair! All those guys picking on one helpless girl!" Gourry shouted.

The men raised their weapons and went to bring them down on the girl, but Gourry and Zelgadis jumped in with their swords drawn and defended the girl. The thugs took a few steps back, unsure of what was now going on.

"Who th' hell'r you people?!" They demanded with a menacing tone to their voices.

"Sorry for the late introduction boys." Lina said as she stepped forward. "The name's Lina Inverse. And these are my lackeys Gourry and Zelgadis." The two swordsmen sweatrdropped.

"Lina Inverse.... Never heard of you." The thugs said while falling into what seemed to be deep thought. It was Lina's turn to sweatdrop.

"Well, in that case, I'll make sure that you never forget my name! Fireball!" Lina shouted as she threw her spell at the thugs. The men starting scrambling to avoid the large explosion that followed, and then charged at the group of travelers. Lina simply dodged any attack that came her way, and occasionally threw a punch or kick. Zelgadis and Gourry were on the attack, taking out thugs by the second with their swords. Then a group of the men attacked the girl they had been surrounding before. The girl managed to dodged, but more came up behind her.

"Hey, look out!" Lina shouted as she began to cast a spell. But before it was complete, the girl had quickly spun around and put a hard punch into one of the thug's ribs, which sent him flying and unconscious. Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis stared with wide eyes.

The girl pulled out a long bow, and began shooting arrows at the thugs with incredible speed and precision. Not a single shot missed it's target. Realizing they had been beaten, what was left of the thugs started to flee.

"Hey! You're not getting away that easily!" Lina shouted at them. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the flow of time is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer all the foes that stand before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands. DRAGON SLAVE!"

The spell shot out of Lina's hands and consumed not only the fleeing thugs, but the entire town. Everything was reduced to rubble, with Lina standing on top of it all.

"Lina, what were you thinking?!" Gourry exclaimed after pulling himself out of the rubble.

"What? I was just giving those guys a hard time." Lina replied with a smile.

"Honestly! Did you really think a Dragon Slave was necessary?!" Zelgadis yelled after surfacing from Lina's demolition.

Not too far away, Zel spotted an arm sticking out of the remains of the town. He went over and pulled the person out, who turned out to be the girl they saved - well, at least they thought they'd saved her. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm fine. Though that was some spell! It destroyed the entire town!" The girl replied with a smile.

"Yeah, well.... Who are you anyway?" Zel inquired.

"I'm no one in particular, just a traveler. My name is Ciara."

"Ciara, huh? So why were those guys picking on you?" Lina asked.

"I don't know what those men were doing. They just started to pick a fight with me. Oh, by the way, thanks for helping me get rid of them. Anything I can do to thank you for it?"

"No need to thank us. We just didn't realize you could handle yourself in a fight." Gourry said.

"Yeah. Besides, we gotta hurry to the next town and get some food!" Lina shouted with excitement as she turned to leave.

"Lina, you do know that we're broke, right?" Zelgadis said to his companion. Lina froze, and had a mental breakdown.

"Well, you know, I've got plenty of money...." Ciara said to them.

"You do?!! In that case, you know how you were talking about thanking us? Well you wouldn't mind buying us a few meals would you?" Lina practically begged the black haired girl.

"N-Not at all..." Ciara replied, a little taken aback by Lina's persistence.

"Great! Then let’s get going!" Lina exclaimed as she dragged Ciara down the road to the next town, with Gourry and Zelgadis following.