Before we begin moving, I take one more glance at all the cages stored around. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of them and releasing every captive wouldn’t take too much time. The problem is, with all the chaos that is taking place everywhere, it could be really dangerous for a mob of slaves to run through the complex. They could easily get hurt by either the organization or the knights by accident.
At the same time, leaving them locked like this is also quite risky. If the building's structure gets damaged in some crucial parts, the whole thing can come crashing down at any moment, burying all slaves here alive, and various offensive spells flying around and hitting walls don’t help this scenario even a bit.
Both options are shit, but I decide to go with the first one. I can’t protect that many people with me so they will have to count on themselves or each other. Many if not all, will most likely be stopped by the knights stationed at all possible entrances to the building, but that’s still better than ending as a bloody smudge after the ceiling falls down. And the soldiers would search through the whole place after the organization is dealt with so the outcome doesn’t change anyway.
「Fuck! I promised others to prioritize my own safety, yet here I am, getting swayed by my emotions again. Whatever happens, happens.」
I turn to the elf beauties waiting for my orders. “Let’s run around and open the cages first. That’s the least I can do for them in this situation.”
We proceed with the plan and break all the locks in around ten minutes. During our little detour, the girls all pick up a sword or a knife, and more importantly, cover themselves with some shirts and pants, also from the fallen guards. The thought that they are all still going full commando just can’t get out of my head when they run alongside me.
We arrive back at the auction hall and see the knights getting upper hand over the remaining criminals. Promptly joining the fray, I support them by restraining targets with my whip or distracting them via other means. The battle in this chamber quickly comes to an end, with only a few of the King’s men losing their lives. I inform the rest that backstage and storages are clear and they scatter towards other parts of the underground mansion.
Moving cautiously in our own little unit, we focus on getting outside, but still help the good guys along our way. The elves do seem to have some fighting experience or training, but nothing too outstanding. Their strongest point lies in their coordination. All six of the dark-skinned girls move around each other flawlessly, confusing their opponents by repeatedly switching positions with their nearby comrades, like they are one in body and mind. Individually, even I shouldn’t have too much of an issue when facing them, but as a unit, it changes the game completely. They have definitely known each other for a long time.
Without that much trouble, we finally reach the main hall and, oh boy, it’s a mess. Looks like the biggest battle takes place right here. And somehow, the bad guys took their stand literally in front of the exit so we will have to go through them to run outside. How in hell did they end up there instead of the other side of the hall is a mystery to me.
“Let’s make groups. Elea with me, silver with black, then white and brown with grey. Just help the knights get an upper hand so we can push through,” I point at everyone as I team them up.
They nod and we run forward to engage with the main enemy group. From their equipment, it looks like we are against an archer, two mages, three swordsmen and one pretty tough-looking guy who swings an impressive greatsword, straight from fantasy games and fiction. The blade is like 20cm wide or so. Dude must be strong as hell or his Class features some kind of physical strengthening ability.
“Take out the archer and the mages first.”
I nod at the two groups of women on my sides and they increase their speed, heading towards their appointed opponents.
“We’ll try to tackle the big guy.” I glance at Elea and she readies her knives. “Be careful, he seems strong.”
“I won’t disappoint you, my Saviour,” she says with a determined face.
We slowly reach our prey, which is currently decimating common soldiers while repelling the stronger ones back. The mages prevent any more serious spells from hitting him while he deals with the knights. Must be some kind of an elite group amongst their ranks, focusing on defending the big guy as he deals damage. Hopefully, the other girls can deal with them while we make him focus on us.
A buff-looking bald guy in a ripped suit, with a heavy double-handed sword, finally notices us approaching and makes a wide, horizontal swing our way. I furrow my brows at his pointless display of strength, but then, the carpet on our path towards him starts wriggling like a snake coming our way.
「Shit!」
“Duck!” I shout.
Elea glances at me as I hastily step closer and throw both of us onto the ground. Not that long after, a wave of force passes above us with a ferocious wind which hits us hard. Screams of pain soon follow and we take a peek behind us to see three knights cut in half at waist’s length.
「He even has ranged attacks?! How is that fair?!」
Quickly getting up, we break into a dash again, this time being much more attentive to our enemy’s movements. I have no chance with my puny shortsword against him, so I switch my artifact into its whip mode and make a few warm-up lashes at the guards we pass by. The man starts running to meet us in the middle, with a confident smile.
He launches himself up from the ground and aims a powerful vertical swing at our position. We hastily sidestep out of its path and the sword hits the stone pavement with a loud thud, cracking the floor in a process. Elea tries to make use of this chance to slash his back but gets kicked in the stomach and flies backwards a few meters. He uses the kick to spin himself around and slash at me horizontally. I evade by stepping back just in time and counter with a lash aimed at his head, but he blocks it with his forearm.
「Damn, he means trouble. And I’m running like half a tank of my mana. I need to save some for the way further.」
The warrior places his greatsword on the shoulders and smirks at us. I could go with bait-and-bite tactics and tire him out since my Constitution is really high, but time isn’t exactly on our side. I start smacking him with my whip and hoping for a chance. It comes when he decides to block one of my attacks with his sword and the purple rope coils around his blade. He must have expected to easily cut my unimpressive weapon with a simple swing, but the material proves to be outstandingly durable. I mean, that’s also crystallized mana, right? Or rather, materialized.
Nevertheless, I don’t plan on wasting this opportunity and run past him while avoiding another slash. Still running, I pull the whip with all my strength. It’s not enough to snatch the weapon from his hands, but I manage to slightly throw him off-balance and that’s all I needed. Elea does her part perfectly and gracefully pierces his extended left arm around the armpit, sinking both of her blades deep into his flesh.
The man screams in pain and tries to swat her away, but expecting a counterattack, Elea ducks early. Unfortunately, she isn’t able to avoid another powerful kick, but she at least crosses her arms in front of her before it connects. The warrior’s left arm hangs down unresponsively. I switch back to a sword and dash at him to land one more slash while he’s focused on my partner.
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Before I reach his body, he makes a powerful shout and a burst of force pushes me back, making me fall to the ground. I look up as he tears his clothes off with his working arm while screaming angrily. His face twists in pure fury and madness and his muscles tense to the extreme. He picks up his sword with just one hand and rushes towards me.
「Rage Mode too? Fucking Berserkers...」
Judging the situation dangerous enough, I dematerialize my blade and shove it into the ground, calling forth the purple path of death. Many giant swords rise from the floor and wound him heavily, but he pushes through them only flinching a little. With his torso massively bleeding out, he reaches the spot where I lie and starts ferociously slamming down his weapon, while I frantically roll around, avoiding all lethal strikes.
Elea launches a myriad of cuts at his back, but he doesn’t even react, just keeps pounding the ground while trying to obliterate me. He finally notices the elf girl when she jumps in front of him and lands a decent cut on his wrist, making the sword slip out of the Berserker’s hand. I swiftly crouch up, transmute my weapon into a whip and coil it around his wrist, pulling to the side before it reaches her. And while I somehow manage to alter its trajectory, making him hit the ground, I unfortunately misjudge my own strength when compared to a raging Berserker and he pulls on the rope, launching me up into the air.
“Whoooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
I don’t even have enough time to release my grip on the handle as he slams me down on the other side with an astounding force, sending me crashing against the floor.
“Guuhh!”
I bounce off the ground and land on my stomach a meter further, coughing up a bit of blood. My whole body hurts like hell. I raise my head to check on the guy. Elea dodges and weaves around his fist, creating tens of cuts in his body, but they are too shallow and she’s visibly getting slower and slower, taking a few punches on her forearms when guarding. I glance around to quickly check on others and they seem to be doing fine, almost finishing dealing with the backline.
“Gyyaaaaahhh!”
My eyes shot back to the main guy after hearing Elea scream. The Berserker landed a solid hit straight onto her stomach, sending her flying back and slamming against a stone balustrade just near the point of our fight, which crumbles into dust from the impact. He starts slowly walking towards the elf girl buried under the created rubble.
「Stand up! Stand up! FUUUUUUCK!」
I push myself off the ground while trying to ease as much pain as I can with my healing skill. If not for my high Constitution, I’d have most likely ended up splattered with that last slam, or at least with lots of broken bones, but thankfully, I’m just profoundly sore all around. Supporting myself with my hands on my knees, I manage to get up. A shout of anger and rustling of stones reach my ears and I watch as the enraged guy picks Elea by the throat and hangs her high in the air, trying to crush it.
“Nghhhhghghhhhhhhhhnnn!”
She struggles to break free, but without the knives, she can’t do anything to his hand. I notice the trio of elf girls beginning to run towards us, but they get entangled in another encounter shortly after. Gritting my teeth, I break into a jog and pick up the lying draconic hilt on my path. Activating it, I summon a whip and wrap it around my left hand. Reaching the Berserker, I jump onto his back, dig my knees into it and begin strangling him with all my might, using the rope like a garrotte.
「Don’t need to feel pain to suffocate! Now die!」
I pull the whip back to my utmost limits, yet his grip on Elea’s throat still tightens with each passing second. Just a little more and he’ll definitely crush her windpipe. She’s getting increasingly pale. Our gazes meet and she extends a pleading hand towards me, slowly starting to lose consciousness.
「I should have shaped a goddamn sword and sliced his head off!」
“I DON’T CARE HOW, JUST FUCKING DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Instead of knees, I move my legs up and dig my heels deep into his back while desperately pulling back the whip. I sacrifice half of my remaining mana and send it to the relic, shouting at it in my mind to do something, anything to save her. I feel a quarter more getting sucked out of my body and suddenly all the resistance around the man’s neck disappears, making my legs launch me backwards off his body.
After hitting the ground, I look up at him still standing at the previous spot, with just a single, little detail that changed. He’s headless now. I watch as all the strength leaves his body and he finally releases Elea from his grasp, just to lifelessly fall back onto the ground.
Following a trail of blood from his body towards me, I find the decapitated head lying somewhere in the middle of us. Utterly confused, I glance at my right hand which still holds the artifact and my eyes widen in surprise. It’s still in the whip form, but the rope has become almost completely flattened and there are sections of small and wide version of the purplish double-edged shortsword blades facing both ways attached to it. It’s a perfect example of a weapon that’s called a whip sword.
Breaking out of my astonishment, I move to Elea and begin easing up her pain a little. She soon gets better enough to add her own healing into the treatment and recovers much faster than with just my Rejuvenate alone.
“Thank… you…”
She whispers barely audible words with a lot of effort, having a warm smile on her face. I shush her down so she doesn’t strain her injured voice chords even more. The trio group finally overcomes their difficulty and rushes to our position to keep us safe while the two of us recover. Glancing around, I spot the other duo doing fine too. The fact that we haven’t gotten nailed with any arrows while fighting proves that.
I help the Princess stand and we begin walking up the stairs towards the exit, with all our members together. The battle here is slowly dying out, but still quite far from its end. It’s not my task to take part in it, I have to leave as soon as possible to not endanger the girls even more.
Just as we reach the top of the stairs, the hall starts trembling. We turn around and scan the battlefield, noticing a group of mages beginning to multicast some kind of an earth-based spell, aimed towards us, or rather at the entrance. They most likely plan to block it to prevent more reinforcements from entering and others from escaping. We won’t reach the main gate before they finish, the elf girls won’t make it to them in time and I’m too spent after all this to be able to cast that sword skill again from such distance. Our only hope lies in the soldiers, but they are too busy with their own little skirmishes to head for them.
“Tsch…” I click my tongue in annoyance and turn to the women while taking off my cloth headpiece. “Take this and run. The knights shouldn’t stop you. I’ll try to at least distract the mages or something. I just need to get into the range of my skill,” I tell them while trying to judge how far I can spawn my Carnal Mist.
I revitalize my body using almost all mana that’s left and start running. Or at least that was my intention because Elea grabs my arm and stops me.
“No! We can’t just leave you here!” she shouts while shaking her head.
“There’s no time! Go! The soldiers are on my side, I’ll manage somehow!”
“But…”
While she hesitates, the magicians are slowly finishing generating a huge boulder above their heads which will soon get launched at us like a small meteor.
「It’s too late now...」
Bracing ourselves for the upcoming impact, we focus on evading the hurling sphere as it will be heading towards the gate. Before they finish the spell though, an unexpected chilly breeze hits us from behind, and I swear it gets cold enough to see our breaths in the air. Soon after, we watch as three huge crystal-clear javelins form above each of the casters’ head. Without giving them even a fraction of a second to react, those icy spears plunge down onto them, impaling their bodies to the ground. Their spell breaks and the boulder also falls down, squashing them into three bloody puddles.
We all glance back and a familiar silhouette enters my vision.
“Well, well, well… Shouldn’t the Hero be the one saving the damsel in distress and not the other way around?”
Cornelia stands in the middle of the gate with her hand extended our way and a smug grin on her face. She’s dressed in her representative, purplish magician robes and holds a pretty well-known to me, silver staff, in her other palm.
“Cornelia! Oh, I love you so fucking much, my dazzling Ice Queen, hahaha!”
I break into a laugh, realizing that we are now saved. She’s a Tier 3 Ice Sorcerer and should be almost full on mana as of right now. She fidgets a little when my sudden, joyful remark reaches her ears. I quickly run up to her with my Dark Elf party.
“You came alone?” I ask, pulling her into a hug.
“I was leading my squad through the maze, but felt you in pain so I rushed ahead while following your presence—... Wait! Your back?!” She notices the lack of clothes on my backside after embracing me.
“It’s fine. One of my new friends took care of it. We’ll check on that later, let’s get out of here first.”
“Right. Follow me, I left traces of my mana along the way back.” She nods, turns around and we run outside.
We enter the labyrinth of corridors and as she mentioned, Cornelia confidently takes her turns while following some kind of a path. She’s the first one to strike up a conversation as we make our escape.
“I knew it wouldn’t take you long to find your first world-class beauty, but seriously, six of them at once?”
She glances back at the elves, checking out the almost completely naked Elea and other women whose seductive charms are barely contained by tight male shirts, threatening to rip themselves into pieces at any too sudden movement.
I chuckle. “That’s incorrect. I’ve already met one on my very first day here.”
She stares at me with furrowed brows, trying to recall the past. Soon after, she blushes intensely, realizing who I’m talking about.
“Oh, shush, you.” She returns her gaze forward, still with crimson on her cheeks.
“I mean it.” I chuckle again seeing how hard she tries to keep her composure.
Unfortunately, our little flirting session gets interrupted by a group of completely irrelevant mobs. They do not look like the King’s men so there’s just only one other possibility. Spotting us, they draw their weapons out. There are seven of them and all seem to be melee types.
“Damn, I’m barely running on fumes after all this,” I share my lack of mana with Cornelia.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take it from here on. I don’t get too many chances to show you that I’m not just a shut-in bookworm.” She winks at me teasingly.
I smile and move to the back, leaving the front to her. I’ve only seen her train a few times at the castle grounds, never how powerful her abilities are in real combat. She wasn't chosen to fill in the Court Magician spot during his absence solely because of her knowledge.
The first two enemies break into a dash towards her. She smirks and begins spinning her staff in circles in the front.
“Piercing Blizzard!”
Soon after her chant ends, a blueish magic circle appears in the air and hundreds of little pieces of ice shoot from it at the assailants. One gets stabbed to death with them instantly, while the other somehow manages to slowly push through the storm of projectiles with just light grazes here and there. Cornelia stops rotating her staff, places her hand on the wall and three impressive icicles emerge from both sides of the corridor around the remaining attacker, ripping him into shreds.
Others don’t seem to be stupid enough to rush alone again, but it looks like they aren’t exactly that smart either or they would have started running away already. Instead, they decide to push together, positioning guys with the biggest swords in the front, creating a makeshift shield to cover their vitals as they approach.
Our Ice Queen scoffs at their poor attempt and summons a whirring javelin above her shoulder, launching it at the desperate bastards with a wave of her hand. It easily drills through the fake buckler and leaves a gaping hole in the stomachs of two other people after passing through them.
The remaining three criminals break the half-point and split, running at different positions, switching places with each other frequently. She raises her staff up like a certain well-known wizard from popular fantasy books and slams its bottom into the ground, sending a narrow wave of sharp ice pillars emerging from the floor, which obliterates the middle guy.
This gives his partners enough time to finally arrive in front of the sorcerer and the guy with a longsword steps forward to slash at her after she misses him with a smaller projectile. Cornelia, already prepared for that, makes just a single step back and watches as her assailant’s foot slips on an ice puddle she created earlier, making him majestically fall onto his back. The guy with a war axe uses his friend as a footstep and launches himself upwards to plunge into the magician from up close and above, smiling widely while knowing that she won’t have enough time to cast another spell.
Unfortunately, he is mistaken. Cornelia touches the top of her silvery staff with an open palm and traces a downwards arching path with it. She makes a few quick spins, and using both of her hands, she cleaves the poor guy in half with her freshly created ice scythe while he’s still mid-air, and dodges his two falling body pieces with a breathtaking gracefulness. She steps closer to the last guy while holding her bloodied scythe and swiftly beheads him as he struggles to get on all fours over the ice.
She looks back at us with a confident and proud smile. “Never assume that a magician is hopeless in close-quarters combat.” She makes a few more spins with her weapon and dissolves the blade.
The girls start clapping after her beautiful show of power and I walk up to Cornelia with a wide smile of amazement.
“How can someone be so hot and so cool at the same time. You are going to break the universe if you keep it up,” I throw a little pun-compliment at her.
“Stop teasing me all the time! Gosh…” She makes a pout with a slightly flushed face.
“Hahaha, sorry. You were really amazing. I stand no chance against you. I’m glad to be your friend.” I pat her on the shoulder a few times, making her smile proudly again.
We get out of the labyrinth without any further encounters and emerge in some side alley between two buildings.
“So, what now?” I ask our guide.
“I had a feeling that you won’t come back with just a single person so I’ve hidden a few traveller’s cloaks just a bit further. You get one too. Walking around in a suit patterned with an uncountable number of cuts and a huge, scorched hole on the back is quite eye-catching.” She leads us to the secret stash.
“I’m so blessed having such a smart woman helping me out.”
“Yeah, yeah. You better appreciate that properly.” She waves me away, hiding her smile. “Do your new friends not know Common?”
I turn to the elf girls with a similar thought. They didn’t talk at any other moment than near the cages or during our fights, and I’m pretty sure we communicated in Elvish the whole time.
“Elea, do you and your friends know only Elvish?” I ask while we are covering ourselves with the cloaks.
“I can decently understand Common and am able to poorly voice out my intentions with a bit of struggle, but others have a hard time to even piece out most of the words they hear. They can get the meaning, but just barely, and possibly with some misunderstandings.”
I relay the answer to Cornelia and she nods in understanding.
“I’ll have you function as an intermediary then. I can use Elvish, and I think Cornelia knows a little bit of it too, but when speaking with others, you’ll translate for both sides since you have the best understanding. Sorry to trouble you so much, but you will have to relay messages from and towards your friends.”
“I understand. That’s not an issue. This is the most convenient and efficient way of communicating.” She bows a little and all other girls follow, making Cornelia raise an eyebrow.
I scratch my head with an awkward smile. “They are just a little too grateful for saving them. Let’s go. We’ll talk more at home.”
We garner a bit of attention while we walk back, but it doesn’t look like what’s happening below has reached the ears of common residents and it’s just your typical attention that a numerous group travelling in identical cloaks during the night can gather. This time, I avoid my previous mistake and let the girls know who they can expect to see. They all have quite surprised reactions to hearing about me living with two Queen Slimes and a Dwarf.
We don’t have that much distance to cover, so I leave most of the details for later and only explain that I created a safe place for non-human races to rest and recuperate and that it also will function as a brothel in the future. And obviously, the part that they aren’t obliged to stay and can leave at any moment, but I advise them to take some time before deciding on that. The city might get a little hectic for a few days since there’s no way that tonight’s events won’t somehow leak to the public. I guess the King should have an announcement prepared already if he’s smart enough. It should be easy to turn into positive propaganda of the kingdom getting rid of a criminal organization.
Anyway, we reach our destination and enter the mansion’s premises. Sirgia, Safi and Emi obviously camp the entrance battle-ready and jump at me instantly after I open the door. Cornelia guides the girls to the bath first while I let myself get snuggled and cuddled on one of the sofas in the main hall, having the little dwarf on my lap and two jelly girls on my sides.
A few minutes later, I give each one a gentle kiss on the lips and shortly explain the situation, promising to fill them in on all that happened at a later date. We all move to the kitchen to prepare dinner for us and the elves. I order everyone to rest after we finish eating, saying that we’ll talk properly about everything tomorrow. The new girls take a few rooms in one of the upper wings for now.
Just like last night, Safi, Emi and Sirgia end up in my bed again. I pamper them a lot before we fall asleep together.
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@Amaelzaekil Thank you!
I think he forgot about a catgirl for the king
but then again if any of the other slaves managed to escape they might come knocking on his front door
@Gilgamesh_98 It's not like he was supposed to get one specifically. It was left to the chance. And the elves were the ones that got it.
@Saileri ah i see
@Saileri Didn't the king say his "friends" like catgirls and dark elves? Or am I miss remembering?
@NavyToVeteran Yeah, that's what he implied.