Once the plan was made, Ella began to gather mana to cast an area healing spell so that the prisoners could travel at a proper pace.
In the condition that they were in now, they weren't going to make it far before they were exhausted, and most of them would need help to just remain upright for an extended period of ti. The healing spell would help with most of that, but they were still short on food since the camp didn't seem to have the mana-rich als that Witches needed.
Fortunately, they had a fair bit of at from the snake monster, but that would be quickly depleted after a few als with dozens of witches.
"I hope you all don't mind a few more days of light als, but we will heal you now so that you can make it back to civilization in one piece," Ella inford them, and a few Witches gave rueful laughs.
"There are multiple broken legs, cracked ribs and a few amputees in the group." One of the older witches reminded her.
"But I am a rank two witch, and none of those things are an issue when I am casting a healing spell. It will take so ti for the amputee to learn to walk properly on the new leg, and it will be prone to blisters and soreness, as it has never been used before, but other than that, there should not be any serious issues with travel.
If there are so that don't fully recover, we will make litters to pull them on and have the stronger among us pull them."
To emphasize her point, Ella cast the area healing spell, creating cocoons around the majority of the prisoners while they were restored. The ones who weren't engulfed looked absolutely stunned at the power of the spell, and Wolfe could feel Ella pulling as much mana as she could through him.
The spell was progressing a bit slowly, but it was better not to deplete his storage when he was expecting a battle in the near future, so Wolfe just let Ella progress as fast as their combined mana flow would let her.
The whole process took nearly two minutes, an incredibly long ti for any spell, but with the amount of trauma that the prisoners had suffered, and the number of them that needed healing, it was the best that they could do.
As the cocoons receded, Ella smiled at her fellow Witches and looked north toward the last village that she had visited.
"It is ti for us to go. The army will be here soon, and we need to be long gone before that happens. Wolfe will hold them and distract them for as long as he can, but we need to keep moving toward Coven Territory." She explained.
"Anything you say, Miss." A witch who was favouring a freshly grown arm agreed and helped the woman beside her to her feet.
"There will be food soon. Not a huge amount, but we have high-level monster at. For now, we need to go."
Despite their shock, the witches started to move, headed away from the city and back across the river while staying away from the road.
Wolfe decided to be a bit dramatic today and piled up bodies in the middle of the camp while he waited, then brought over the largest chair he could find from the leader's tent to serve as his throne.
Being the bad guy was so much more satisfying than doing the right thing, and sitting on a throne atop a mountain of corpses while he waited for their allies to co and try to get vengeance had a particular flair to it that Wolfe couldn't ignore.
He had just gotten comfortable and was snacking on an apple he found while looking for the best chair when an armoured column arrived in the clearing between the camp and the city.
"Everyone spread out and look for clues." The man Wolfe presud was the leader ordered over a loudspeaker.
"Sir, would the large Demon, with horns and a cape, sitting on a mountain of corpses, count as a clue." Soone asked with sarcasm so heavy it was clear that the two never did see eye to eye.
Wolfe made a note of the man who had spoken so that he didn't accidentally kill him. That man was too valuable as a voice of common sense to deprive the humans of their one moderately intelligent soldier.
"Why are you not shooting? Kill the demon!" The leader's voice demanded.
Wolfe brought up an [Unholy Fire Barrier] and then looked through the vehicles with [Detect Hidden] until he found the man holding the microphone. The soldiers still hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to be the next to end up on that pile of bodies, so Wolfe began to build a [Lightning Array] over the command vehicle.
The army unit stared in horror as the lightning crackled over the array, and then a lone bolt struck down, punching a hole through the armoured vehicle, and lting the majority of its hull to slag, leaving only two glowing walls and the crackle pop of exploding ammunition.
"Welco everyone to my humble abode for the evening. If you would kindly return to the city, I will co to visit the lovely farrs market that you have starting tomorrow. Fear not, I an you no harm, and as you can see, I have done a magnificent job of eliminating the bandit problem in your woods." Wolfe greeted them.
Nobody really knew how to respond to that. Clearly, they would have to be idiots to admit that they were on the sa side as the bandits, but they had orders, and they couldn't really go back to the city without doing sothing.
That was the Company Commander's job, but he was already dead. So were his XO and both of the senior lieutenants.
That left three more newly promoted Lieutenants in command, and none of them wanted to be the face of this disaster.
Finally, the smartass Sergeant who had spoken up to point out Wolfe on top of the pile took the initiative to speak.
"Pardon our intrusion, Demon Lord. But it is our standard procedure that we count and identify the bodies in a bandit camp after it is eliminated. Would you be willing to allow us access to them?" He asked hopefully.
That was the best option in his mind. They would know who was dead and who wasn't, but they might avoid annoying the Demon who could lt an APC with a wave of his hand.
"I don't see why not. Perhaps so of them were wanted criminals. Do you possibly offer a bounty for such criminals?" Wolfe replied.
"Unfortunately, that is not within my power. I'm just a soldier. We don't get a bonus for catching criminals." The Sergeant stamred.
"Well, that's fine. Take your ti, and I will wait over there on top of the cages. The afternoon sun is too nice to hide away indoors."
The soldiers slowly moved forward once Wolfe moved off the pile, and he did his best to hide his smile. It would take them all day to inventory the camp, and the Witches would be long gone.
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