The fiery woman of Flarecorp sauntered over to the Bastard Bandits' hideout with the bravado of someone completely confident of her stature. Her chin was perpetually turned up, as if looking down at all the Bastard Bandits that dared to look at her.
Her orange, flaming armor accentuated the curves in her body. And despite the armor's purpose being for protection only, the woman's attire had some parts missing on a lot of strategic places that truly made her whole outfit become a lot more fashionized.
"Miss Blazelle…I didn't know you were going to be visiting our base so soon. No warning?" Wano asked, clearly angry at the intrusion but hiding his contempt.
"Why can't I?" Blazelle said, shrugging her shoulders. "This too shall be part of Flarecorp's empire in the future. I'm just here to ensure that this place is up to my cousin's standard. He is quite the stickler for these kinds of things, you know.
I'm doing you a favor by coming here. I can help you reorganize and clean up all the trash here."
Wano and the rest of the Bastard Bandits gritted their teeth. The woman was clearly insulting their way of life. Yet, they couldn't say anything back to her.
"What are you all standing around for?" Blazelle asked, looking around at all the Bandits that were just staring at her doing nothing productive. "Chop chop. I'm going to clean the entirety of the Southern Tip of the Queens region in order for it to be ready for Flarecorp's glory."
She had a tinge of manic in her eyes, yet it was clear that she completely believed her own words. She truly believed that it was for the better of everyone that Flarecorp conquers them.
Wano could only just grit his teeth. He clearly didn't like this, but wasn't doing anything about it. He was complicit.
But of course, that didn't mean that all Bastard Bandits were on board for their subordination to Flarecorp. They were against the idea, but knew that it would be stupid to provoke the ire of someone like Blazelle.
So, they just let out their frustrations through passing remarks.
"Tch. Good luck getting rid of Reborn," one of the bandits muttered.
Although there were plenty of other people talking in hushed voices, this particular sentence was loud enough for it to echo all along the cave and eventually reached the ears of the Flarecorp woman.
"What was that?" she asked, directing her glare everywhere. "What's this about Reborn?"
The Bastard Bandits all looked at each other, confused. They would have thought that a capable woman like her would know about the biggest phenomenon right now in the entirety of the Southern tip of the Queens region.
They especially would have thought that Flarecorp would take notice of this company after they had publicly defeated them for the possession of the Grafted Cluster.
This particular story hit the newspapers as soon as the survivors of the incident were able to get the word out. They talked publicly about how they were imprisoned in a flaming sphere unable to get out and were forced only to consume bland, flavorless Flarecorp products for sustenance.
It lowered the public perception for Flarecorp, but increased it for the Reborn company. At least, here in the lower Queens region.
"You don't know about the Reborn company?" Wano asked Blazelle.
"Who or what is that?"
The woman seemed genuinely curious.
"They're the 450th ranked company in the Golden 500," one bandit said.
"But that's old news. They're due for another increase in the rankings after they absorbed Barcus Inc. and Bulren Inc. as their subsidiaries. Both are in the top 500, so they will definitely move up by double digits," another bandit added.
This seemed to have confused Blazelle more.
"They have the biggest market share in Angora City and in the Grafted Clusters," Wano mentioned.
It was at this point that Blazelle turned to look at the Bandit Leader.
"But that's impossible. We conquered the Grafted Cluster. Hestu assured us that we have no competition in this place. You must be mistaken," Blazelle asserted, shaking her head in denial.
"I don't know what to tell you," Wano said. "Just see for yourself."
He tossed a bundle of newspapers in her feet, which unfolded to let her see the very front page.
{Reborn Liberates Grafted Cluster. Flarecorp Ousted.}
She picked up the newspaper from the ground and began reading through it. Her eyes widened as the words in the report were completely different from the one that Hestu told them in their meeting.
"No…" Blazelle muttered, her voice almost in a growl.
She wanted to deny it, but the evidence was right in front of her eyes.
Hestu betrayed them.
"BASTARD!!!" she screamed. Her hands began to tremble as she held the newspaper with her very skin starting to glow orange. Her hands emitted a flame, turning the paper into mere ashes in a matter of a single second.
She didn't know what to be mad at. First, she couldn't believe that a prestigious officer like Hestu would have the gall to lie directly in her face.
"That rat bastard. He must have failed in his mission and left me to clean up for his mess!"
In her mind, the reason why Hestu neglected to mention the Reborn company was because he failed in his task, not because he betrayed the company.
After all, she couldn't think of any justifiable reason to turn away from the glorious company of Flarecorp.
And it was with this pride that she failed to consider the fact that Hestu turned into a traitor. If she had, then she could have warned her fellow officers back at Batchrock Town and had him executed for treason.
Unfortunately for her and the rest of Flarecorp, Hestu would remain as an agent of the one called the 'Slime God', doing his bidding under the shadow of darkness.
Meanwhile, Blazelle felt intense anger and rage rising within her, bubbling up to the surface. Just the thought of Hestu's face almost made her blood boil into steam.
"GRAAHHH!" she screamed out into the cave, with her shout echoing back at her.
Wano and the Bastard Bandits remained locked in their positions as Blazelle let out her frustrations.
The crazy woman screamed at the top of her lungs, stomping her foot on the ground angrily.
This went on for a few seconds, before she turned silent.
Just when they thought she would finally calm down, Blazelle took out the rapier from its scabbard and raised it up into the air.
Suddenly, the air turned hotter, denser. Wano and the rest of the bandits felt the air moving around Blazelle as if she was in the eye of a tornado.
Blazelle's shadow flickered as her body began to glow with her own fire.
As she continued on this rampage, the Elite Shadow Orc tasked to monitor her suddenly felt a strange force repelling him away from her feet. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
And before he knew it, his Lesser Unity Defense activated and started to repel the fire.
Yet, the Shadow Orc could only watch with wide eyes as his greatest defense started getting chipped away by Blazelle's fire.