After a few seconds, Ghilerie turns a bit more conscious of her actions but tries her best to back away naturally, with a visible blush covering her fair cheeks. Still, with a wide smile, she keeps staring at me.

“I don’t know how I will be able to pay you back,” she says.

I smile back at her. “Just whisper a good word or two about me to your friends and we’ll be even.”

She chuckles and shakes her head. “I was already going to do that. Anyway, I’ll definitely think of something. I really appreciate your help. And yours too.”

Ghilerie glances at the rest of the squad and makes a small bow. I turn around to face them.

“I assume everyone is on board?” I ask.

“Do you even have to ask, Sensei?” Shino trots closer and looks at me adorably from below.

Marcia slaps Kamil’s head from the back. “This guy needs to beef up so duh. Unless your powers started working on guys and he changed his preferences after you took a dip together.”

“Fuck you,” Kamil retorts and slaps the redhead on the ass, causing Marcia to giggle.

While Natalie sighs and shakes her head, Paul acts as if nothing is happening. Just your typical day in the Hero party. A small smile paints Teffith’s lips as she observes them.

“Alright. First, the situation here seems pretty dire. We’ll help you bring whatever you might need from the settlement. Before that, though, I don’t mind sharing some of my own supplies. Not sure about the others.” I glance at the rest again.

“We should be fine halving ours,” Paul answers. “How are we doing in that regard, Shino?”

The samurai girl closes her eyes for a brief moment and dives into her storage ring.

“Won’t be a problem, Paul-san. We’ll still have enough for a month or so before we’d need to restock.”

“Good. That should do it.” He nods.

The Elf Elder steps a bit closer with a slightly perplexed expression.

“Are you really going to share your own provisions with us?”

Ghilerie smiles at her softly. “They are not bad Humans, Elder. Please, lead us to the storage.”

The woman nods and guides us through the caverns. We walk as a group. It’s better to stay together than to split considering the fact that we are inside an elven refugee camp. I’m pretty sure not everyone is as understanding as the Elder and we didn’t come here to spark a conflict.

As we pass through a few stone chambers, we notice quite a number of wounded and sick people. I take a peek behind me.

“Natalie?”

“I don’t mind,” the quiet bard answers immediately.

The Elder looks at us curiously and I explain. “She’s proficient in Healing Magic and I have my means too. After we drop some supplies, take us to your most heavily wounded. We can at least help stabilize them and distribute some potions.”

“You are even going to give away your medicine?” She raises her brows at me.

“Sensei’s wives and friends made a lot for him so we can spare some,” Shino answers before I do.

Right. The girls insisted we take a ton of different healing salves, bandages, potions, and all the other useful stuff for our journey. It wouldn’t be an over-exaggeration to say that half of my taken storage space is meds and healing items. 

We soon arrive in what looks like a makeshift underground warehouse. Shino and I nod at each other and we start bringing out stuff from our massive storage rings.

One by one, crates, barrels, boxes, items and many other things appear in the organized cave. The Elder’s eyes go wide the moment she sees the rain of supplies, making Ghilerie chuckle. We fill the space as much as we can and leave around half of everything in our artifacts.

“This is so much…” the Elder whispers to herself in awe.

“It might look like it but you have tens of people in here, don’t you?” I reply, surprising her by the fact that I heard it. “Hopefully, you won’t have to burn through all of this if we manage to get rid of the main problem.”

“I… don’t know what to say…”

“Then don’t say anything, Elder,” Ghilerie joins in. “Save your thanks until the very end or you will keep expressing them and nothing more all the time.”

“Let’s take care of the wounded, then,” Natalie suggests. “We should be able to finish before the night. We’ll rest to replenish mana naturally instead of relying on potions and then head out.”

“Good plan.” Paul nods.

Marcia elbows her gently with a smirk. “You can always ask Al to help you recover, you know? I, for sure, will be doing that.”

Our bard rolls her eyes and I glance at the Elder. She nods courteously with a smile and gestures at us to follow her again.

As we walk, Shino arrives at my side, looking ahead with a tiny blush. Her fingers find mine and our hands end up joined together. I have a feeling Marcia won’t be the only one looking for some replenishment tonight.

We enter a small cavern with makeshift beddings on the stone floor. A few Elves are tending to their brethren with wounds of various magnitude. They are clearly working on scraps when it comes to bandages and other utilities.

A woman quickly breaks from a group of Elves doing something in a corner and jogs up to us.

“Elder. What can we do for you and…” She frowns after recognizing us.

“Don’t make such a face, Alahriela. They are charitable enough to offer help while expecting nothing in return. Make sure they don’t lack anything they might need.”

“But, Elder—”

“I don’t care about their race. Anyone who dares to inconvenience any of them will be punished. Are we understood?”

The Elf woman quickly bows and runs away, most likely to pass the news. The Elder turns to us and also enters a deep bow. I can see quite a few people starting to whisper between themselves in shock at such a scene.

“Please, help whoever you are able to. I won’t ask you to treat everyone. Act as you see fit. Every single saved person is enough.”

I walk up to her and place a hand on the Elder’s shoulder. She’s truly a respectful one, asking us only to go as far as we want instead of begging us to push ourselves to the limits even though she must be suffering seeing her people hurt so much.

“Raise your head, Elder. While I can’t promise to save everyone, we’ll do everything in our power to help as many as possible.”

Shino accompanies Natalie to give her a hand in whatever she would need and I walk between the wounded with Ghilerie by my side. The rest of the party stays near the entrance with the Elder. There’s no need for them to act, potentially making some Elves anxious or uncomfortable.

I spot a quite sickly-looking woman with a very heavy breath. I’m not a medical expert or anything, but considering the fact that she doesn’t have any visible critical wounds, she might be suffering from some kind of infection. 

My Rejuvenate should be perfect then as it boosts recovery rate by a huge margin while also enhancing it. Bigger wounds aren’t its speciality but anything that can be potentially solved by strengthening the body is right up its alley. And it has gotten much stronger now anyway.

Gesturing at Ghilerie, I arrive by the woman’s side and kneel down. There’s a man sitting by her, wiping her forehead, and he raises his gaze at me after noticing movement. His face twists in a scowl.

“A Human?”

“Calm down. As per Elder’s request, he will help her condition,” Ghilerie quickly explains.

She then nods at me to continue. I guess bringing up the Elder is enough to vouch for people.

Unfortunately, both of us are wrong.

“Get your filthy hands away from he—AGH?!”

The man leans forward while shouting, aiming to grab my throat, but a black spike pierces his palm, pinning it to the ground. Hecate is suddenly by my side with the five other spider legs of hers aimed at pretty much all of his vitals.

“M-M-Monster!” he screams again, looking up.

Ghilerie gasps in surprise. “I didn’t even sense her coming…”

I have to admit, neither did I. Only just now have I noticed that I kind of lost Hecate’s presence the moment we entered the shelter. I did not see her anywhere around and neither did the Elves.

She’s extremely proficient at remaining undetected, especially in environments such as this one. Back under the desert, she was hard to keep track of too and got a drop on her enemies a lot. With her three-dimensional movements, she’s one damn scary spidergirl.

And additionally… It looks like I might have picked up a silent yandere by accident…

I quickly plopped a hand on her silvery hair. “Withdraw your legs, please. I understand that you were protecting me, but let’s avoid hurting the people here. If you do have to act, incapacitate them instead.”

The onyx spears retract as Hecate nods obediently, with no emotion on her blank face. The Elder runs up to us and pauses for a moment after noticing the unique Arachne. She pushes through her anxiety, though, and arrives by my side.

“I’m sorry for my companion. She’s very overprotective of me. I will make sure—”

“She did nothing wrong.” The Elder shakes her head and looks down at the man. “Did you not hear the message?”

“He’s a vile Human!” he cries out.

“Did you not hear the message, Lyhfen?!” she repeats with a mightier tone.

“I did, but—”

“You have raised a hand at our benefactor,” she says with a cold voice and glances up. “Take him away and cut his hand off.”

“What? Elder, I—”

“Now!”

Three of the Elves from the group we have interacted with earlier quickly come rushing to us and carry the protesting man out of the medical chamber.

I look at the Elder. “You didn’t have to—”

“One of our people wronged you. If we want to prevent it from happening again, we need to send a message,” she explains with a slightly sad expression. “Besides, he was poisoned. It might actually save his life,” she then adds in a whisper.

I raise my brows and try to glance at Hecate, but she’s already gone. I didn’t even feel her moving away. She’s a true silent predator.

Oh well. I’m glad the Elder is so understanding. I hope this guy isn't’ the woman’s husband or something.

Forgetting about the commotion, I quickly move on with the treatment, placing a palm on the sick Elf’s chest. Without any indecent motives. After activating Rejuvenate, my mana fills her body and I spread it around, doing whatever I can to help her.

In less than a minute, her state gets visibly better. Her breathing slows down a bit and she stops sweating so much all the time. I keep the ability on for two more minutes to be sure and walk to another patient, catching the Elder’s soft smile in the passing.

We spend around three hours helping the injured. Natalie takes care of the heavier wounds with her Healing Magic. We don’t manage to bring everyone to full recovery, but there should be no people at the risk of losing their lives anymore as long as they are properly tended to.

No one causes any trouble after the initial hiccup. It seems that the news spread fast as most Elves step aside to make way whenever we go somewhere as a group or individually. We leave some meds and potions for their healers and move to a cavern looking close to a simple logistics chamber with a few Elves present inside, most likely other leaders, including the Elder we have met.

“We are unspeakably grateful for your assistance,” she thanks us again. “I truly hope we’ll be able to somehow reward your selfless effort.”

“Well, technically you might be able to, but I’ll leave it to Ghilerie to explain,” I answer.

The few figures glance towards our friendly Elf and she nods at me. It will be better for her to bring the topic of the brothel up instead of me dropping it randomly. She has bigger chances of convincing them that this isn’t some elaborate ploy to gain their favour and force them into repaying it by selling their kin into slavery.

“So be it.” The Elder nods too. “Now then. You are planning on going after the Abyssals, right?”

I glance at Paul and he steps forward. I’ve already stolen his spotlight for long enough.

“Yes, we do,” he replies. “It’s part of our mission to thwart the outbreaks and we do want to get stronger too, so we’ll naturally take this chance, which was unfortunately brought to us by your misfortune.”

“Whatever reason you have for fighting these evil creatures, we do not care or mind,” a male Elf joins the conversation. “We will wholeheartedly appreciate your support in dealing with them.”

“Is there any information about them that you could give to us, then?” Paul asks.

“We aren’t sure about their exact numbers but it looked like there were four packs that assaulted our settlement. Each of them consisted of around twenty to forty monsters plus a commander. I assume you took down one of them,” a different woman replies.

“So, three more big guys.” Paul rubs his chin. “We’ll have to try and split them if possible.”

“It seems that each pack stays close to its commander. Which one have you killed?” the Elder asks.

“A big bipedal wolf and most of its canine or feline beasts,” Shino informs the woman.

“Then what remains are a huge, four-armed ape, a Wyvern, a giant rat, and their minions, of course,” the male Elf lists.

Paul enters his thoughts so we wait to see what he comes up with. The Elves observe us curiously, not sure if they said something wrong or what’s the cause of the sudden silence that descended on the chamber.

Our strategist nods to himself after a while and turns to me. “Can you handle the monkey with Hecate?”

“We should at least be able to last long enough for you guys to finish off the others,” I reply.

He then turns towards the rest. “Me, Ghilerie, Natalie and Kamil would take the Wyvern and its group. Shino, Marcia and Teffith, you guys should be enough to get the rat.”

Everyone looks at each other. Except for my team of two, it’s a pretty balanced composition, taking into consideration each person’s capabilities and overall strength. I don’t think there’s a better way to do this.

Paul and the ranged squad are the best for the Wyvern. Kamil will be their shield. Shino should be enough to corner the rat but both Marcia and Teffith will be able to support her with their agility too. Then, Hecate and I have to either overpower the ape or buy enough time.

“Sounds good.” Marcia nods and everyone else follows.

“Are you not going to ask for our cooperation?” the Elder asks what seems to be on the mind of all of them.

“With all due respect, can you spare any able-bodied warriors that won’t drag us down? You said that this was an artisanal settlement. I’m not going to pull civilians into this just to raise our success rate by a minuscule amount,” Paul answers, fixing his glasses a bit.

The Elves present in the meeting room whisper between themselves and I can see Ghilerie with a warm smile. The faint commotion quickly passes and they all lower their heads a little.

“Thank you for your consideration,” the Elder says for them all.

“Anything about their possible location? The way they came from if you were able to notice?” I ask.

The male Elf scrunches his face a bit. “North-west, possibly. I think that’s the direction of the first wave. We don’t know where they retreated as we were focusing on running away to this shelter.”

Natalie steps closer and everyone glances at her. “Has anyone reported something weird on the ground anywhere? Like a crystallized lake of mesmerizing purple or something similar?”

They whisper between themselves again and we can see a few people shake their heads at each other.

“We will ask around to make sure but I don’t think so,” the Elder answers. “Is that important?”

“That’s the portal through which they come here. It needs to be destroyed or it won’t be safe,” Shino replies and some gasps follow.

Immediately, one of the Elves rushes outside, most likely to gather information from their people. No one asks any other questions as we have covered the most crucial parts and the Elder steps forward.

“Let’s end this strategy meeting for now. I’m sure you are very tired after fighting the Abyssals and then helping our people. We have prepared a modest banquet in your name if you would honour us with your presence before taking a leave for your well-earned rest.”

Kamil snorts. “A feast made from our own provisions. How hospitable—ugh!”

Marcia immediately elbows him so hard that he collapses onto the ground with all the metallic noise from his heavy armour obviously accompanying his fall.

“Read the fucking mood, you idiot.” I catch her spell it to him almost silently by reading her lips.

“It will be our honour, Elder,” Paul lowers his head, trying to salvage the awkward situation, and we do the same.

We move to a clean cavern, clearly tidied up specifically for this small banquet. Since they obviously lack any furniture and are saving their magic in case of emergency, just some big pieces of material have been set on the ground in the imitation of tables.

As Kamil said, they might have used what we have provided in the majority of the dishes and appetizers, but you can’t deny their effort to make it look noble and presentable. Various beautiful Wood Elves scurry around with wooden trays to serve, and there’s even a trio of musicians filling the chamber with a pleasantly light ambience.

We are seated down on cushions or neatly folded stacks of cloths, depending on your luck, and each of us receives one or two stewards who serve food and drinks. It’s quite easy to notice that the girls get very handsome Elf men while the guys are tended to by beautiful Elf women, with quite revealing clothing but nothing too indecent.

They either are taking their tonight’s task extremely professionally after being threatened by the leaders or they truly don’t mind acting respectful and kind towards Humans. Marcia even manages to pull her waiters into some teasing and fun, often sneaking in a bit of physical contact and watching their reactions.

I enjoy the good food with Hecate in my lap and Ghilerie by my side. She insisted on accompanying me as a representative of their people delegated by the Elder. We chat a bit more about their life here. Well, more like how it was before the Abyssals came.

Then, after getting our fill, everyone starts standing up not to overstay and cause too much inconvenience for our hosts. The Elder walks up to my and Ghilerie’s spot.

“Thank you for this little banquet. It was something unique,” I speak first. “Also, I hope whatever is left will be shared with your people instead of thrown away or resealed.”

A dignified smile shows on her face. “I assure you that we won’t let a single breadcrumb lay to waste. I appreciate the concern.” She then glances at my Elf friend. “I would like to speak to you, Ghilerie. Would you mind accompanying me for the night?”

“Ummm… Actually… I wanted to spend it with Alastair… and the others…” Ghilerie blushes a little but acts respectfully towards her superior.

“Ah. Follow with your plans, then. We’ll talk later when the time is right.” The woman nods and walks away.

I might be imagining things, but a few male Elves present in the chamber who might have possibly overheard our short exchange give me quite intense stares as we exit the stone chamber. I wonder why.

We are shown a few small rock cells and everyone picks one. Shino goes to visit all of her friends to bring out some comfortable beddings and such from her ring for them while I do the same for my own bedroom, with Hecate, Teffith, Ghilerie and Marcia following me inside.

As expected, their intentions are clear. Almost everyone is here for the buffs before the battle. I can sense bits of gratitude and similar feelings from Ghilerie. She must be happy about my involvement in her case. And Hecate, she’s just clingy. She will most likely watch everything from under the ceiling again.

Before anything actually begins, even Shino shows up at the entrance. I wasn’t sure about her participation. I thought she would stay with Natalie or something, but she’s clearly trying her best to fight her shyness to join us, and Ghilerie makes it her sacred mission to make the short samurai girl feel as comfortable as possible.

As a result, I spend some quality time with those two first. A decently big-tittied blonde Elf in one hand and a petite black-haired Human in the other. They somehow feel great matched together. 

Then, Marcia and Teffith take me for a spin while the previous pair takes a breather. I can never get enough of my dragonewt’s mesmerizing scales and tender tail. Thankfully, that part hides most of her weak spots so both of us can get something from it.

For a few hours, everyone takes turns. Shino grows a bit more accustomed to the crowd. Still visibly embarrassed and never stopping blushing, she doesn’t seem uncomfortable anymore and openly enjoys my affection, even letting Ghilerie caress her a little while we embrace each other.

After we finish, I end up under a huge pile of bodies on the bed I have brought out from my storage ring and which we have used for our little recovery session. Shino steals my chest while Teffith and Ghilerie take ownership of my sides. Marcia happily delegates herself to a free spot between my legs, fortunately, without any mischievous intentions. I sometimes really wonder if she doesn’t have any Succubi genes or something.

I wake up to a quadruple blowjob and Hecate snuggled to my chest. She must have somehow fit into the pile of bodies beside Shino. The girls finish me up in a flash and we get up to join the others for breakfast.

After the Elder points out Ghilerie’s quite heavily dishevelled hair at the entrance to the cafeteria chamber, she makes a hasty escape with a fierce blush to fix her appearance. We did make a mess of her hair last night, that’s for sure.

While eating, we discover that Shino has advanced. She has reached Tier 4 now. Everyone checks their statuses and it’s revealed that Teffith did too, jumping from Tier 4 to Tier 5. While Shino has now caught up to me, Teffith is one step ahead.

Unfortunately, Ghilerie didn't get any higher. Technically, she started receiving my boosts quite recently, and she is at Tier 4 so the requirement is definitely much higher. Even I’m still at Tier 4 with all this sex and new Partners, and Teffith was at it before she joined us.

The lucky girls check the changes as we eat to make sure that they know as much as they can about their new skills. I thought Ghilerie would feel a little down but all I can sense from her is excitement. She’s truly happy for them. And I guess a little expectant for herself too.

Any boost in strength is welcome just before the big battle. Shino’s team will have it much easier with the rat now. Honestly, reaching Tier 5 feels like a huge achievement. It’s pretty much half the scale, no? Incredible.

But, before heading out to hunt the army of Abyssals, we actually band up with a few small squads of Elves and depart to their abandoned settlement to check if any monsters came back and to guard them while they gather some crucial supplies, mostly medical.

We don’t find another chieftain in the close vicinity, just a few stray grunts, the remains of the werewolf’s wannabe pack. Shino and Teffith chase them around to get a feel of their advancement while the others watch over the Elves.

Since they find some bodies here and there, we help them collect the corpses in one place and Natalie turns them into ashes with her Fire Magic. As one of the women explains, this is the most respectful form of burial in their current situation. They gather the ashes and will later bury them under various special trees.

A slightly melancholic mood accompanies everyone during this brief operation and it’s not that surprising, honestly. They did lose like half of their kin. So unfortunate. If not evil Humans then evil Abyssals. 

After making sure that the last of the Elves return safely to their current shelter, we finally move out for good. Starting from the village, we try to track the Abyssals back to their gate.

Fortunately, they do not care about the environment and the tracks are quite obvious. And even if they weren’t, Ghilerie is hell-bent on using every single trick and ability in her repertoire to bring revenge to the creepy, shadowy monsters.

Fully on guard, we follow the trail of destruction leading through the forest. Only after a good few minutes of running does one of us realize how much bigger of a problem this outbreak is than we have first assumed.

We don’t know if Ghilerie’s home is the only one that has been invaded by these Abyssals. There are a few Human villages not that far from here, including the one we have stopped by before reaching this place. A month is a lot of time and who knows if Elves were the first casualty.

No use worrying about it now, though. We get rid of the vermin, and then make a full sweep of the surrounding area to check for any damage. And contact Ross after that, most likely. It might be too far for him to act directly, but he should be able to spread the news through whatever means to the nearby towns and settlements.

Before long, I notice a faint wave of dark energy pass through my body. Shino seems to catch on to it too and steps closer to me.

“That’s the sign of the gate being used, Sensei. We are not that far now,” she explains.

“What’s the exact plan?” Kamil asks.

“Let’s first check the surroundings,” Paul replies.

We huddle up closer together and proceed with caution. After a few more minutes, the regular pulsing grows much stronger. We end up in front of an earthy grotto coming out of the ground. The entrance is something like ten meters wide and tall.

“We can’t barge inside straight into their nest. We’ll be at a huge disadvantage.” Paul rubs his chin.

“Do you think fuckers are home?” Kamil raises a brow.

“Only one way to know,” I respond.

“Alright, people. We need to lure them out into the open. Then, somehow capture the attention of the chieftains and split them up. I’m hoping that enough damage will make do,” Paul suggests.

“Not like we can do much more,” Natalie comments.

“How do we get them out?” Marcia ponders.

A loud shriek hits us, coming right from the ominous cave. A second later, Shino emerges from the ground as shadows slither away from her body.

“Like this.” She smiles adorably.

The very earth starts shaking under the thunderous stomping of who knows how many and how heavy monsters. A never-ending flood of Abyssals rushes from the depths below. Ignoring their lesser comrades, which end up squashed into a paste, the big three make an appearance.

I spot my target and nod at everyone. “Good luck.”

With a strong push, I launch myself forward, bringing out my draconic hilt. Hecate shows up at my side, having no problems keeping up with my speed. Her neutral, emotionless face gives off very reliable vibes. We are going to wreck this party.

Switching my weapon into a greatsword, I cleave through the grunts left and right while making way towards the giant, four-armed monkey. It’s around three times my size, if not more. And it seems to have noticed our approach.

But, so did the Wyvern, which hurls itself into the air with its sidekicks following it like a creepy tornado of smaller Drake-wannabees. It dives down to intercept me alongside its banana-brain companion.

Fortunately, I don’t have to do anything about it as a hail of projectiles and spells crashes into the big shadowy bird, pushing it off the course. It definitely doesn’t make it happy and it immediately switches its attention to our ranged squad.

Meanwhile, I charge toward this overgrown ape with Hecate by my side and our opponent does exactly the same, shaking the ground with each small leap. I instruct my spidergirl through Sweet Whispers and she disappears from my sight.

Shaping a mighty, double-sided battlehammer, I activate the skill which is still in my catalogue, Crushing Fury, and grin to myself.

Making a heavy jump forward, I break into a side-slide while rearing back my weapon. At the very same time, the giant primate suddenly stumbles over nothing and begins falling forward shortly after making its final lunge at me.

I come to a stop and swing my hammer diagonally upwards with everything I can physically and magically bring out. 

Two opposing forces collide, the head of my hammer and the chin of the huge falling ape. A thunderous explosion follows, bending the trees in the vicinity and sending the nearby grunts flying, and the big dumb monkey ends up yeeted into the horizon, who knows how far behind the entrance to their lair.

“Homeeeeeeeeeeeee ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!”

I chuckle to myself and take a quick glance at the battlefield behind me. It seems that the rat has been lured away too. Things are looking good.

Picking up a bit of the purplish blood that came from the ape, I activate Lascivious Hunt, experiencing the feral rush which comes with it. It comes as a little surprise since I wasn't sure if it will actually work but looks like we have found ourselves a female warrior. A distinct pink trail leading me forward takes up most of my black-and-white vision.

“It’s time to hunt.” I smile at Hecate and we rush ahead.

As we have assumed, the minions quickly follow us to their boss’ location. Many sizable, purple-skinned monkeys try to get to the crash zone before us or make attempts to slow us down.

Hecate doesn’t take kindly to those and mutilates each monster that tries to get any close to me. She’s a real killing machine. A beautiful, charming, pale-skinned killing machine. And well, my killing machine now.

We make our way to the ruined part of the forest and find the giant ape regathering its wits. It looks like it hit a huge rock when falling from the sky. How sad.

“Let’s make this quick. I’ll handle the big guy, you handle the little ones. Agreed?”

Hecate gives me a tiny nod and goes on a rampage. I don’t know if she’s showing her true murderous self just now or if she’s trying really hard to show her usefulness to me. Either way, you go girl.

The big guy, which turned out to be a big girl, makes a wide swing at me with its two left fists, making it so much harder to avoid when jumping over the attack is almost not an option now. But, still having the hammer in my hand, I slam it into the ground, sending myself into the air just high enough to achieve that.

“Go to horny jail.”

With an overhead strike, I bonk the chieftain right on the top of its head. It doesn’t seem to do that much damage to the very sturdy Abyssal, but at least it smashes it into the ground. I will have to switch tactics, though.

Rolling off its flat back, I switch back to a big sword again.

“Shame. I was starting to really enjoy using hammers. Might be my new favourite weapon.”

The giant ape raises itself while grunting in disagreement. At least, I think it does. I would be, for sure, if I was in its place.

Six massive Void Chains surge from the ground before it can do anything more than that and I jump towards one of its restrained arms, which are almost two times as thick as my torso.

Unfortunately, I underestimate my opponent a little and the chieftain brings forth enough pure physical strength to pull the chains more than I intended for them to be pulled and my heavy slash hits one of the links, sliding off it with a loud clang and some sparks.

“Ugh!”

The ape somehow lands a knee hit on me right after and sends me tumbling back. I quickly shove the sword into the ground to stop myself.

“Damn. I might have gotten a little overconfident after my recent battles. Time to wake up back to reality.”

Four of the summoned restraints show bright cracks in the spiritual metal and soon shatter under the pressure. I can call for more of them but each new chain takes quite a bit of mana if I want to bring them out at their full strength.

“I guess we are doing this the old way.”

I prepare myself for the upcoming attack after my opponent has finally gotten rid of all the chains and launched its massive body onto me with a ferocious roar. Gathering mana in the crystal at the end of the draconic hilt, I shove it into the ground.

Four gigantic blades surge from the earth, aiming straight at the Abyssal commander from below. It somehow retains enough manoeuvrability while being mid-air to twist its torso just the way to avoid two of them. One manages to cut off an arm and the other grazes its cheek, creating a deep wound.

As it comes crashing down by my side, I slice off one of its wrists on the opposite side, jumping away instantly. I’m not going to get cocky twice in the same fight.

While retreating, I take a glance around to check on Hecate. She’s doing way better than me.

The overbearing ape roars again, this time most likely more in pain, and swings one of its healthy fists at me before I create enough distance between us. Unfortunately for it, I’m one step ahead.

Its fingers hit a cloud of tiny blades whirring around my body. I have quickly switched into a sword whip shape moments after stepping away, anticipating its quick reaction time and resistance to pain.

The tornado of spiritual steel shreds the monkey’s digits at an incredible pace. It hastily tries to draw its fist back but I send the blade-less whip forward, causing the screen of death to part for it, coil it around the monster’s wrist, and pull as hard as possible.

Before the chieftain manages to overpower me, I grind more than half of its arm to bits. Then, I continue putting more distance between us and recall the activated ability. My opponent now has only one operable arm. It doesn’t look like it can heal.

Suddenly, intense dark energy surges from it, putting pressure on the surroundings. With an explosion of newfound strength, it lunges at me thrice as fast as before. There’s no doubt it hits six times as hard now.

I grit my teeth and reach for the Void Chains to interrupt it as much as possible, but I don’t have to fire even a single one.

The giant monster comes to full stop mid-air in an awkward position with its one last arm raised for a slam, aiming to turn me into a paste, looking kind of like a still-frame of an NBA player going for a single-handed slam dunk.

I notice multiple lines over its purplish body, cutting into its weird, shadowy flesh like fishnets but with horizontal stripes instead. Purple blood is dripping from the gashes.

Following some of the weird strings, I spot a massive number of trees around us leaning towards the monster’s place. It looks like the whole forest is bowing towards us all at once.

Then, I notice a truly uncountable number of barely visible thin wires coiled around these trees and travelling to the Abyssal. I have no idea when and how but there’s no doubt that it's Hecates work. 

Literally, hundreds of lines bind the gigantic primate, not showing even the tiniest trace of getting under too much pressure. Her thread is much more durable than my Void Chains, for some reason.

“Well. Sucks to be you.”

I shrug and quickly jump close to the chieftain, beheading it in one strike, making sure that I swing between Hecate’s threads. To be perfectly sure, I dismember its body completely. I ain’t taking any chances.

The creator of this surreal exhibition shows up by my side, almost completely covered in Abyssal blood. I chuckle while shaking my head and gently wipe the adorable mass murderer’s face.

After waiting for a little bit by the mutilated corpse, we decide to head back and check on the others. No one has sent me any distress messages so they should be doing pretty well. Otherwise, my Lover’s Intuition would have been triggered by any form of danger.

We enter the vicinity of the entrance to the underground at the same time as Shino’s team. Paul’s squad has dealt with the Wyvern and its herd too. Burning quite a bit of the surrounding forest in the process, but that’s a necessary sacrifice. They have stopped the fire from spreading, at least.

“Everyone alright?” Paul asks after we gather.

We all confirm. Just minor scratches here and there. Natalie is already on it.

“What now?” Kamil cracks his neck. Looks like he tanked some heavy hits.

“We find the gate and get rid of it,” Paul replies.

Since they have experience with it already, I follow their lead. Only a few Abyssals that have escaped into the cave are left inside. They are in chaos after their leaders have been disposed of and we easily fend off the unorganized ambushes.

Soon, we reach a spacious chamber with a sparkly, galaxy-like surface on the stone ground. It truly looks like a lake, as Shino has told me.

“Do we check or study it more before destroying it?” I ask.

“You can use Abyssal blood to go through. Watch out for Hecate, Sensei,” Shino reminds me.

I quickly clean everyone up with Livelihood Magic to avoid any accidents. Natalie and Teffith carefully walk onto the surface of the gate to see how sturdy it is. Others soon follow them.

“Will you do the honours this time too, shortie?” Marcia asks Shino after they examine it for a short moment.

“I can. Do you mind… helping me out with… mana recovery… Sensei?” The shy samurai girl glances at me with an upturned gaze and rosy cheeks.

“With pleasure.”

I step forward to join them on the mesmerizing, swirling, crystal floor. But, the moment my other foot makes contact with the ground, a wave of dizziness washes over me and a weird pulling force scrambles my insides in a very uncomfortable way.

A second later, I lurch forward, almost throwing up but holding it in somehow. Raising myself back to a proper position, I notice the ominous, bare,  dark grey terrain surrounding me. The sky is even darker.

~You… How did you go through?~

A bone-chilling voice echoes in my mind, making me shudder. My eyes snap towards the source by pure instinct. A five-meter-tall humanoid, as thin as a skeleton, with no face and six arms enters my sight. It wields a demonic-looking blade in each hand.

“Fuck.”