Veteran adventurers that they were, no one asked Hajime how he knew that. Instead, they just simply drew their weapons and shouted out warnings to the adventurers farther back. A second later, thirty or so bandits crested a nearby hill and loosed battle cries as they charged toward the caravan. The merchants hurriedly retreated to the safety of their wagons while the adventurers prepared to fight. But before they could loose any spells or arrows, Hajime held out a hand to stop them. They shot him confused looks, but Hajime ignored them and turned to Shea.
“Shea, these guys are the perfect training dummies to test your martial arts on. Wipe them out.”
“Huh? Ummm, you mean by myself?”
“Yeah, by yourself.”
“Barehanded?”
“Yep.”
The other adventurers gave Hajime incredulous looks. Surely he wasn’t going to ask a single rabbit girl to take on thirty bandits all by herself? Even those who had an inkling of how strong Shea really was were aghast. “He’s a demon...” they muttered to themselves. As expected, Shea didn’t seem too keen on the idea.
“Shea. I’ll consider rewarding you if—”
“Hell yeaaaaaaaaaah! Bring it on, *******!”
Hajime didn’t even get to finish saying, “you beat them all” before Shea cut him off. She turned to face the charging bandits and, with a fearless smile, slammed her fists together, creating a massive shockwave. A huge gust of wind rippled outward, and the bandits all turned to Shea. A vulgar smile spread across their leader’s face.
“Oi, don’t lay a finger on that white-haired kid’s bunny, you louts. I’m gonna make her my—”
“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
Before he could finish his statement, Shea dashed up to him and punched him in the face with all her might. He was lifted into the air and sent flying past the far side of the hill. Shea had leaped forward with such force that there was a crater where she’d been standing a moment before. The other bandits shivered in fear. But they quickly recovered their wits. While Shea’s punch may have been powerful, they were certain they could take her as long as they surrounded her and fought cautiously. In response, Shea dropped into a proper stance. She kept her hands high, near her face, with one foot slightly raised off the ground. One of the bandits charged her, his sword held high. But before he could swing it down on her, Shea fired off a lightning-quick front kick. It hit the poor bandit with the force of a cannonball.
“Bwaaagh!?”
His eyes rolled up into his skull and he lost consciousness. But Shea wasn’t done yet. Before the bandit could hit the ground, she followed up with a powerful left hook to the chin. The bandit flew backward like a ragdoll. Shea then turned to the other bandits and dispatched them in short order, using a combination of compact kicks, jabs, hooks, and punches. Before long, a pile of corpses littered the hill. Surprisingly, Shea seemed to have mastered the basics of Muay Thai.
“Y-You monster!” one of the bandits screamed.
“Bwahahahaha!” Shea just laughed in reply.
Two of the remaining bandits tried to pincer Shea. She quickly dropped her Muay Thai stance and cartwheeled out of the way. At the same time, she used her legs to crush the windpipes of the two men surrounding her. Another one of the bandits launched a spear thrust at her landing spot, but she wheeled out of the way and used the force of her spin to shatter his skull with a roundhouse kick. She’d gone from the sharp, choppy movements of a Muay Thai fighter to the rhythmical, graceful strikes of a capoeira fighter. But while this dance-like martial art was more graceful than Muay Thai, it was no less deadly.
“L-Lord of fire hear my—”
“Too late!”
One of the bandits tried chanting a spell, but Shea quickly jumped over to him. She stamped on the ground hard enough to cause a miniature earthquake, then hit the bandit with an elbow to the solar plexus. He flew backward while coughing up blood. Shea didn’t even bother to check whether or not he was dead. She turned to her remaining foes and struck them down with a flurry of elbows, palm strikes, and punches, all while fluidly shuffling between their attacks. She’d swapped styles again, this time to Bajiquan.
“G-Goddamniiiiiit!”
“Take thiiiiiiiiiiiis!”
Desperate, the few surviving bandits rushed Shea all at once. She deftly dodged between them and wrapped her arm around the neck of one of her foes as she passed. A perfect wrestling lariat. The bandit flipped through the air a few times before crumpling to the ground like a ragdoll. Another one of the bandits tried to shoot an arrow at her but she ran forward and kneed him in the face before he could even nock his bow. The archer next to him barely had time to scream before she dispatched him as well, this time with a backward suplex. Three styles hadn’t been enough for her so she’d added pro wrestling techniques into the mix as well. After that, she started using thrusts and Dempsey Rolls and one-armed shoulder throws and all sorts of other techniques from every martial art known to man. She was clearly pumped to get her reward. Within a few minutes, the bandits were all dead or dying.
“Uryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Shea pumped both fists into the air and proclaimed her victory to the world. Shivering, Yue muttered, “Shea’s terrifying...”
“You can say that again. I can’t believe she mastered all those techniques just from the half-assed examples I showed her...” Hajime responded with a stiff expression. After that incident, all of the adventurers started calling Shea “Shea-san” instead of “Shea-chan.” Hajime had no doubt the worthless rabbit of the forest would soon become a CQC god. Short Stories, Bonus Chapter - The Evolution of the Bunny Girl