For any bandit who has had an experience with her, that's about all they remember of Lina Inverse. One moment, they're minding their own business; the next, their camp is a smoldering heap of wood and cloth, and the treasury is a few thousand gold pieces lighter. Today was no exception.

Lina proudly admired her handiwork as she rummaged through what was left of the camp, looking for any sort of interesting trinket the bandit gang might have acquired. Stealing from thieves was no big deal to her, as "villains have no rights" was her motto. And boy, did she enforce it.

She held up a jewel-encrusted hairpin to the firelight for a better examination. "This one would probably sell for about 30 gold. 40 if I found the right person," she mused to herself. She shrugged and put it in her pouch. The next thing she came across was an old manuscript. She started, thinking briefly that it could possibly be an old tome of magic spells. To her dismay, it was only the first few pages of an unfinished bard's tale. "'The kid did too much of braggin', so was finally eaten by a dragon,'" she read part of it aloud. "Sheesh, no wonder they never finished it. This is awful." She tossed it aside and browsed around for something more interesting.

A blonde man poked his head around the corner. "Ne, Lina, are you done yet?" he asked. "I'm getting hungry, and these bandits you always slap around never have any food."

"In a minute, Gourry," Lina said, busily rummaging through more loot. "You probably want something to pay for your dinner with, and that's what I'm doing here." The next object she uncovered was a small statuette of a cat crafted from solid gold with two small emeralds for eyes. "Ooh, this'll fetch a nice price!" she exclaimed simply for the sake of saying it.

"I think you have enough to buy five or six meals," Gourry commented.

"So?" said Lina. "A girl's gotta keep a little something for herself, you know," she said, giving him an innocent, childish grin.

By the time the two finally emerged from the skeletal remains of the smoldering camp, Lina was carrying enough to fill a king's treasury. "I guess I have enough for now," she commented. "So, where's the closest town? I'm starved!"

Gourry scratched his head. "I think Sairaag is down the road a couple miles. We could be there in a few hours."

"Great!" said Lina, starting down the road. "All this bandit-killing really works up an appetite! And I could use a good bed to sleep in tonight. Let's just hope it isn't being destroyed again by another wacko Mazoku."

Of course, Lina had yet to learn that the phrase she just uttered was along the same lines as "what could possibly go wrong?" or "things couldn't possibly get worse", and such things should not be said out loud, for they always bring disaster.

However, it appeared that whatever entity that causes said disasters to happen wasn't paying any attention, because Sairaag was still in one piece and going about business as usual.

Lina and Gourry wasted no time in finding a restaurant and ordering triple portions of half the items on the menu. And they wasted even less time in polishing their meal off.

"Ahh," said Lina, patting her stomach. "That should hold me for a few hours." She burped rather un-ladylike.

"Ne, Lina, I always wondered how someone who eats as much as you can manage to stay so scrawny," Gourry observed. Wham. Gourry's face was immediately planted in the plate in front of him, with a rather large bump on his head accompanying it.

While our two heroes finished dinner, it appears that our aforementioned entity was in fact paying attention, but simply had a delayed reaction. So, it saw to it that chaos ensued.

It didn't start as much. Just a fireball falling from the sky and taking out a half city block. In battles that eventually concern Lina Inverse, that was merely a shot to get attention.

However, Lina was too busy reading the dessert menu to notice. She finally pointed to her selection. "I think I'll have five servings of fried ice cream." Before the waitress could even write down her order, the restaurant exploded as another fireball landed nearby. "I said fried, not grilled!" Lina shouted through the smoke. It took her a moment to notice that the place was completely destroyed, drowning all hopes that she'd get her ice cream.

She stood rather slowly, a growl building in her throat. "Whoever did this is going to be VERY sorry they made me miss dessert. Come on, Gourry!" Gourry shrugged and picked his way through the rubble, while Lina simply Raywinged away in search of the culprit.

It didn't take her too long to find him. Since the attack had come from the air, Lina had ruled out anyone on the ground. And since there was currently only one other person in the air besides herself, and that person was currently chucking fireballs every which way at the city, he was the lucky candidate. So, Lina decided to question him.

Her first question was in the form of a kick to the back of the head that sent the culprit reeling. It didn't take him long to reorient himself, and he turned to Lina with a growl. "Can't you see I'm a little busy?"

He looked like your average lower Mazoku. Of course, Mazoku come in all shapes and forms, so "average" was simply a relative term. He looked like a cross between a human and a cougar, with disheveled, sandy colored hair. His limbs were rather long and gangly in proportion to his body, and his hands and feet ended in what looked like dragon claws. He had a pair of black, bat-like wings sprouting from his back, but they weren't the force keeping him aloft at that point, so they simply hung folded behind his back. He wore a dirtied green shirt and matching pants. All in all, he looked like something you'd pull out of a garbage heap, Lina mused.

"Hmph, you're sure one to talk," Lina retorted, ruffling her fiery orange hair. "It just so happens that the people down there don't really appreciate what you're doing. Through the years, they've gotten bombed by more monsters than I can count. You're just making life tough on them again, interfering with their peace, AND," she emphasized, pointing a finger at him, "you interrupted my dinner, which is entirely unforgivable."

The Mazoku sweatdropped. "That's what you came up here to yap at me about?" He scratched his head in confusion. "You humans are weird." He readied another fireball. "No matter. If you leave me alone and let me finish this, I'll find you some food. How's that sound?" Another kick to the head was Lina's reply.

The Mazoku rubbed his head in annoyance. He threw a fireball at her, which she easily dodged. "Get out of here, you flat-chested little girl."

Ohhhhhhhh dear.

The Mazoku looked around him, and found no sign of the annoying little orange-haired kid. Smiling in satisfaction, he looked back to the ground to pick his next target.

And then realized that the ground was an awful lot closer than he remembered it. So close in fact, that his face was firmly planted in it, and he had acquired another sore spot on the back of his head. He lifted his face from the dirt and looked up. His eyes met a pair of white boots, followed by a magenta bodysuit, a black cape, and finally the burning red eyes of the orange-haired girl.

Lina stuck her toe under his chin and lifted his head up a ways with her foot. "First you interfered with an innocent girl's dinner, and then you go around insulting her. People like you shouldn't be allowed to live. But since I'm in a forgiving mood, I'll just blast you to dust, rather than torture you to death."

The Mazoku tried to get up, but realized he had a sword to his back. This particular sword, however, gave off an unusual hum, and appeared to be made of a beam of light.

"Just give the word, and I'll chop him in half," Gourry offered.

"No way!" Lina said. "This guy is mine!"

"As much as I'd love to sit here and listen to your threats, I really have things to do," the Mazoku interjected. With that he spread his wings and knocked Lina and Gourry aside, then leapt out of the way before Gourry had the chance to swing at him. The Mazoku took to the air again, and Gourry pursued. Lina, however, was, well...

"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the flow of time," she chanted.

The Mazoku had re-positioned himself in the air and appeared to be charging up another fireball.

"...In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness. Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" Lina looked to the sky at her target, who was just about to launch his own spell. "DRAGON SLAVE!!" she shouted, letting loose an immense stream of energy that rocketed skyward.

Strange, Gourry thought. He could swear he heard the Mazoku shout exactly the same thing, and looked up to see that the creature had let loose a similar beam of energy on a collision course with Lina's.

This can't be good.

The two Dragon Slaves met in mid-air, about a hundred feet above the city. The resulting explosion could be heard from Seyruun, felt from Zephilia, and probably seen from outer space. And, once again, Sairaag was blown sky high.

Lina pulled herself partway out from under a collapsed wall, only to be met face-to-face with the smirking cat Mazoku.

"Most impressive," he commented. "I was unprepared for a child such as yourself having the ability to pull off a spell like that." Lina wanted to get her hands on him so badly, but she was still pinned under the wall.

"Still," he added. "A walking bundle of destruction such as yourself just makes my job easier. What was your name again? Inverse, was it?" Lina gave no response. "Ah, no matter. My work here is done, and I thank you for your help. Until we meet again, Ms. Inverse." With that, he saluted and teleported away, leaving Lina nothing but the ruins of Sairaag to look at.

Lina snarled. "That Mazoku is dead meat," she vowed.