'here they come'

Mars waved his hand and soon the temperature around him raised as 4 flame arrows appeared next to him floating above his shoulders, just as the last one formed the first goblin showed it ugly mug from in between the tree's wit a weird laughter

"kekekekeke---"

*STAB*

only to have an arrow planted right in the middle of it's ugly misfortune face, but still even more goblins came out form in between the trees

"nice shot!"

after Mars called out he kicked off the ground as the 4 fire arrows also shot out each targeting a different goblin meanwhile Mars reappeared behind a goblin mage and s.n.a.t.c.hed it's wooden staff and kicked it in the neck

*SNAP*

the goblin was sent flying and soon hit a tree meanwhile Mars threw the staff that split open the head of another goblin

"that's 7"

the remaining goblins having found out how horribly outmatched they were turned and tired to ran only to be cut down by the other mercenary's

'well that's that...'

Mars drew his sword and stabbed it into the dead goblin mage and pulled out the magic beast core while Frank walked up and gave Mars an amazed look

"you sure have good ears... and fast legs too"

"thanks?"

Mars half ignored Frank as dug out another core form a random half burnt goblin which caused Frank to give a sigh before he spoke again

"I have an offer for you, I wonder if you interested?"

"depends on what it is"

"...okay how about this, you take out all the small and far threats and I will add 100 cel to your pay, what do you say Mars?"

Mars stroked his chin before he held out his hand

"if you make it 200 cel then it's a deal"

"...deal"

Frank shook Mars's hand and looked towards the other mercenary's

"5 minutes then we move again, finish up what your doing!"

Mars gave a nod and vent back to the convoy and waited until it started moving again where he, Victoria, jack and Lina guarded the rear of the convoy again and after a few hours the convoy came to a stop

"what now?"

Jack gave Mars a weird look before he spoke

"chow time, aren't you hungry Mars?"

"oh, well not really?"

"well okay, but join us anyway"

"sure, let's go Victoria"

"okay..."

Mars walked over and sat down a the edge off the group and leaned his back against a tree and closed his eyes as Victoria came and lay down on his legs

'ah, this is life..."

Mars sat and enjoyed the evening sun for a while until he sensed someone walking up to him, opening his eyes slightly Mars saw the lesser beastwoman that had fired the arrow at the first goblin she had shoulder long blond hair with 2 cat ears on the top of her head, her blue eyes was also cat like and she had a long slender blond cat like tail that extended out from her waist

"hey there"

"...h.e.l.lo"

after Mars greeted her she stood and stared at his lap, or more likely Victoria

"say..."

"hmm?"

she pointed down at Victoria that was purring in Mars's lap

"do you mind if I pet her?"

"well... not is she doesn't, do you mind Victoria?"

Victoria didn't answer but she kept purring so Mars just gave a nod to the lesser beastwoman that sat down and began to cautiously pet Victoria while Mars looked into her face

'her pupils are not quite split like a cat, they are a little round too...'

"my name is Sarah"

the beastwoman, or rather Sarah spoke up while she was petting Victoria

"oh, nice to meet you Sarah my name is Mars, and this is Victoria"

Sarah smiled and petted Victoria on the head

"oh so your name is Victoria, how cute... how old is she?"

'technicality she's older than me...'

"she's a little over a year"

"I see..."

after petting Victoria for a bit more Sarah stood up and gave Mars a look before she turned and left

'...oh well'

feeling Sarah was a little weird Mars gave a shrug and grabbed his backpack and dug through it and pulled out the package he had received form Elsa earlier and opened the brown paper carefully and found and found 3 small brown paper packages inside and after picking one he opened it and found it was filled with biscuits and salted meat

"...neat"

Mars began to nipped on some biscuits while he fed some salted meat to Victoria while the sun dyed the sky orange

"gather over here for a minute!"

Mars looked over and saw Frank was standing over by the carriages and stood up before he walked over

"it's time to deiced the night s.h.i.+fts, I'll spare us a lot of discussion and decided them first off... Jack and Ariella then Sarah and Mars then Melvin and Lina and finely Harry and me that's all, your free to do what you want of the rest of the day, but be sure to go to bed before your s.h.i.+ft"

after Frank was done talking Mars vent back to his tree and sat down again and ate some more biscuits while he gave the salted meat to Victoria until the pack was empty

"...well that's that... let's sleep Victoria"

"okay..."

Mars pulled out his bedroll and looked around for a good spot without roots or big stones and after a little while he found a spot on the edge of the camp where he laid down his bedroll and climbed into it before Victoria came and lay down on top of him where the 2 off them slowly drifted off to sleep...

"Mars....Mars wake up"

Mars opened his eyes and found he wasn't in a dream as clearly evident by the blue cat eyes that stared him down at close proximity belonging to Sarah

'oh right i didn't use the [Demon dream magic] before I vent to bed... but still no nightmares is a new thing...'

"...awake?"

"yeah, give me a second..."

Mars pushed the still sleeping Victoria gently aside and got up and grabbed his sheath with the sword sheathed inside and secured it on his belt and put on his boots

"now I'm awake... what's wrong?"

Sarah gave him a weird look

"your aura changed..."

"my aura?"

"yeah when you picked up the sword"

"really?"

Mars tilted his head which Sarah saw and mimicked by tilting her head to the other side before she turned and walked over to a campfire that illuminated the night and sat

'I wonder what my aura looks like... what is a aura even?'

Mars followed after Sarah and sat down on a stone a little away from her and looked into the fire for some time before he asked

"how does my aura look?"

"what aura?"

"...are you kidding?""

"no?"

"but you just said my aura changed?"

"...no?"

"oi what's with the pause"

Mars glared at Sarah with narrowed eyes before he gave a sigh and looked into the fire again and stuck his hands closer, or more like into the fire and began to absorb energy

"...doesn't that hurt?"

"no it's actually quite nice, not that I recommend you stick your hands into the fire"

"why?"

"well because it would burn your hands"

"...okay"

Sarah's ears dropped slight like she was disappointed before she also looked into the fire while the silence only broken by the sounds of the fire descended for a while until Sarah spoke up in a quiet voice that was almost like a whisper

"...you're not mad right?"

"about what?"

"that I read your aura?"

'so now you admit it...'

Mars gave a mental sigh before spoke while still looking into the fire

"why should I be mad about that?"

"because it's a very private thing"

"...well I don't really mind, I will even forgive you on one condition"

Sarah looked at Mars and covered her body with her hands while she backed off slightly

"not a condition like that... I just want you to tell what my aura looks like"

"well... okay then looked over here"

Mars looked away form the fire and into Sarah's eyes that s.h.i.+ned slightly form the light of the fire and the stars

"...you finally look at me"

'well that's because you said I should...?'

"yes I see it now... it really is weird, normally an aura looks like a flame with a color but you have 2 flames with 2 colors one is red and feels fiery hot while the other is dark blue and feels cold like a winter night, but the 2 of them seems in perfect harmony even though the red fire became bigger when you picked up the sword..."

"I see... well that certainly sounds weird"