Lady of Curses

''BITCH!'' The glass broke easily because Aella used all her strength in that move. When the liquid made contact with the man's face it instantly lit on fire, and the man tossed Aella away with a scream. 

Aella hit the ground pretty hard, but she didn't make a sound, she only looked at the armored man as he struggled to get his armor off. The helmet came off pretty easily, but his face was already on fire, so it only helped a little bit, plus the liquid with its flame had already traveled downwards, so he was basically getting cooked inside it.

''AAAAGGghh...hhh...hhhh.'' Aella watched as the man struggled, his hands moving wildly trying to put out the fire and get his armor off at the same time. It might look musing from the sidelines if you didn't include the tragic screaming that slowly got quieter and more painful until it stopped completely. 

Shortly after the screaming ended the dance did too, like a puppet losing its strings, the armored man fell to the ground. Now just a burning corpse the man laid there, unmoving. Aella could smell the burning flesh in the air as she looked at the flame devouring the man's body.

For a while Aella just laid there, she didn't want to move because now that she was out of danger, she could feel the pain more prominently, her whole body hurt and the burns on her neck didn't help. So she just laid there and watched the human-fueled campfire. 

Unfortunately, she didn't have a choice, because she still had a job to do, otherwise, she wouldn't mind lying there for a while longer. Aella started to get up, but with every move, the pain flared up, making her first destination clear. 

Her body and mana were already working on healing her, but it wasn't fast enough for her, so the first place she went for was the chest that had healing potions in it. Slowly but surely she limped to the chest and then grabbed the potions. Aella didn't even hesitate and popped open two bottles and drank their content at the same time with one breath. Right after she threw the empty bottles away and sat down with her back leaning against the chest. 

She felt the pain lessen, but she was still experiencing it, and it wasn't pleasant, even breathing brought discomfort. So without looking, she reached for another bottle, and when she got it she guzzled its content without a second thought, just so she could lessen the pain and discomfort. 

The potions slowly did their thing and healed Aella's wounds, but it wasn't fast enough for her so that time she drank two more potions before she stopped and just sat there, waiting for her body to get back to normal. Aella just closed her eyes as she felt her pain lessen and the burns on her neck disappear, it felt kind of nice. 

But soon after she opened her eyes and got a move on because she had no idea if she had alerted others with her noise, plus at some point, someone will probably come looking for their dead comrades. 

With the body still aching a little bit, Aella got up, and the first thing she did was put her hand on the gem that was on her choker and channel some mana into it. The dark gem lit up for a moment before a stream of dark liquid shot out and like a serpent could around Aella's clothes before returning to the gem. 

Now Aella's clothes were clean, they still had some rips here and there, but nothing too crazy. Seeing that, Aella was kind of impressed because she didn't think this dress would be able to stay in one piece after all that beating Aella had taken, plus the choker and gem were fine too, even though she got choked, and burned, they had zero damage.

Now somewhat clean, Aella went to check the woman's dead body, in hopes of finding something useful. After getting there Aella didn't waste time looking at the body's condition and went straight for looting. But Aella got disappointed because the woman didn't have anything that could be useful on her, that could help Aella right now. The only thing the woman had was a pair of knives, a small leather bag with some money, and the clothes that she was wearing. 

The only somewhat useful thing that Aella could use right now was the two knives, so she took both of them and the strap and sheats so she could carry them without using one of her hands. Now that that was done the next thing on her list was to find a bag, so that she could carry plenty of fire potions with her because time was ticking and it was better if she surprised them instead of the other way around. 

Fortunately, it didn't take long before she found something that was good enough. It was a brown sack, it was full of some kind of red fruits, but Aella just emptied it on the ground and took it with her. Now with an empty sack, she went to get the fire potions. 

Aella still wasn't sure how fragile the glass was that contained the liquid, but she was ready to take some risks and this was one of them. She filled the sack about halfway with the potions before she concluded it was enough. But before she went and gave the bandits some presents she looked at the cage where the imprisoned people were. 

When she looked back she saw how they were looking back at her. Aella was sure that they probably wouldn't like to be stuck there before she was done, so she decided to try and find a solution, but if it took too long she would just go and free them later. 

She left the sack next to the box where fire potions were stored and went to check on the now-burned man, thinking that maybe he had a key. Unfortunately, he didn't, or at least Aella thought so because she couldn't see it and she couldn't look under the armor because it was hot, and it burned her skin the moment she touched the metal. 

She didn't have time to wait for it to cool down, so she started to look if any of the boxes may have something useful. So Aella started to look for boxes that were labeled tools because the best she could think of was to find a saw and give it to them and she was pretty sure none of these wooden crates contained a key to the cage.

Somewhat surprisingly Aella found a box labeled tools pretty fast, and the box was fairly big so there was a bigger chance she found what she was looking for. 

Aella quickly went and picked up the shovel that she had dropped previously. Because of the box size, it was more comfortable to start opening from the side instead of the top. It didn't take long before Aella heard a cracking sound as the wooden container opened up. The side plopped on the ground and made some noise but Aella didn't care and just went looking for tools she needed. 

Fortunately, she found what she needed. Aella found two saws and one tool that looked like it could cut some metal, but she didn't know how effective it was but she still took it with her. The two saws were different, one looked like your average tree-cutting handsaw and the other looked thinner but more durable, and was probably better for metal sawing. 

Aelle carefully took those three tools and went to give them to the people who were stuck in the metal cage. She was careful to not injure herself or ruin the dress more than it was now, so it took a moment but in the end, she delivered the tools. 

''Sorry they didn't have the key for this cage, but I'm sure these tools can help you get free.'' Aella dropped those tools as she was saying that, while the people looked at her with some confusion. 

''That is if you don't want to wait for me, to finish and then free you.'' The people were still looking at her as she said that. 

Without saying anything else Aella went to pick up her sack, put it over her shoulder, and then went for the only door that led outside this room, ready to cause some chaos.