The battle has started, and my pieces are in play on the board. My first move is to test something important, so I call out to the petite Mage. “Hit them with something light, Zutiria. I want to see what their anti-magic capabilities are like. Whoever these two are, they aren’t rookies.”

‘Understood, I’ll do my best.’ Her text replies on the screen, and I watch as she briefly nods her head in confirmation.

“Negatiball,” Zutiria emotionlessly chants from back near the entrance of the central aisle. The Mage’s spell summons power from the staff she wields as it bends reality to her will. A small orb of shadows and void spirals into existence as if it had always been present. It launches itself across the aisle, flying swiftly towards Lemira.

The woman’s reaction reinforces my belief that the pair of trashy-looking Henchwomen have a good deal of experience when it comes to battle. No panic shows itself on the woman’s face as she faces down the oncoming magical attack. Lemira’s chain whip simmers as she attacks the small magical projectile with a single well-timed strike.

The Negatiball whimpers and fades into nothingness just as quickly as it came.

Nothing was lost when casting this attack since Zutiria only used a small sliver of the small sliver that makes up her mana meter. I’ve seen the little Mage use this very same spell before, and it’s never taken that much out of her. Something was indeed gained by this venture, though.

It just confirmed my suspicions.

“Peri, get me the third book off of shelf two. The purple one with the gold-lettered spine.” I give a command to the blue-haired kitty maid, who suddenly scrambles about the place due to my unexpected request.

“UH, ok! One second...” She traces the shelves with her extended claw and picks out the correct book. “This one, nyaa?” The blue-haired Catfolk races to the front of my desk with the book, and she slides it under the floating Taskmaster screens for me.

“Yes, thank you.” I take the book from her and open it right up. At first, Peri makes a worried expression and tries to hang around, but she’s eventually scared back to work by Snow giving her a glare.

“Get that Mage!” Lemira cries as I begin flipping through the pages as fast as I can- after checking the appendix for what I’m looking for, of course.

The Elf grunts, dancing with style and grace around the warehouse floor to avoid a series of three consecutive sword strikes from Sam. “Kinda fuckin busy, Lem! Why don’t YOU do it, you lazy slut?” She says, leaping over a horizontal slice with all the grace of a practiced combatant.

I’ve reached the page I’m after, and it all becomes clear to me. This would also explain why the two women are so loyal to the man, too...

“These women are former adventurers, too. Silver rank if I absolutely had to guess.” I confirm to the girls while reading the description from the book to myself, summing it up, “They’re Whiplashers. Not a very common class due to how finicky the whip can be as a weapon, but quite strong under the right circumstances. The Art she just used to negate your spell was called Cracking Cancel, but it only works on smaller spells. There’s a chance they have access to a stronger anti-magic art known as Roundtrip, but they won’t have the room to use it if you head into one of the narrow aisles.”

All in all, I realize the Pimpfort must have chosen this specific area to be their mini-boss room on purpose. Whips are an excellent weapon to use in tight, narrow corridors such as this warehouse full of packed shelves.

While we can’t deal with the tactical advantage the terrain has blessed our opponents with, we can at least separate the two of them and prevent them from using our own greatest strength- teamwork.

‘What’s the plan, Sir?’ Zutiria asks me since she’s the only one who can respond without vocally giving our strategy away. Taskmaster doesn’t give me telepathy, after all.

“I’ll make this brief. Sam. Get Rhaelyn in the northmost aisle, alone.

Meri. Distract Lemira while this happens.

Zutiria. Run with Meri to the southmost aisle and seal it off somehow. Don’t worry about the mana cost. Splitting these two is well worth the expen-”

Before I can finish my words, Rhaelyn prepares another potentially devastating strike of her whip and aims it at Sam’s face.

The Princess, as ever, has fire in her eyes. Yet, at this moment in time, it seems like her emerald gaze burns hotter and even brighter than ever before. Sam responds to the oncoming attack by strafing left and preparing a large, diagonal cross slash without saying a word.

But then I blink and realize Sam never moved at all.

Rhaelyn doesn’t pick up on the feint until it’s too late. The curvy Elf redirects her whip attack to where she perceives Sam to have just moved to. The series of chains fly out to hit nothing but air, much to the Elf’s surprise. Sam only has a slim chance to pull it off before the whip is yanked back, but she smirks and grabs it firmly with her left hand.

“What the fuck?! This bitch can use Feint?!” Her eyes jolt fully open as the Princess begins pulling on the whip with all of her rugged, unfiltered strength. When it comes to an all-out battle tug of war, there’s no way her Highness would ever lose to a scrawny Elven whore.

Still... Feint? I don’t even think Nikita taught her that one. She’s seen the Grekkan use it a few times in training, sure, but... did Sam really figure out how to do it just from that without so much as an explanation?

I check on the Princess’s Arts list just to be sure.

-------------------------------------

-ARTS-

GENERAL
Steel Soul
Blunt Edge
Feint (NEW!)

CLASS
Biding Blade

-------------------------------------

...Astonishing. I don’t think it’s the most challenging Art to learn, but it can’t be widespread, either. Rhaelyn didn’t see it coming.

“Gotcha, bitch! Not sure how the fuck I pulled that off, but you’re coming with me!” Rhaelyn’s knees give out near-instantly from the young girl’s immense power, and Sam uses this chance to start dashing off to the furthest northern aisle precisely as I predicted.

Also according to my predictions, Lemira isn’t just going to let this happen sitting down. “Damn it, Rhae! They’re trying to split us up!” The dark-skinned woman scowls as she leaps several feet into the air away from Meri. She raises her whip up to further assault, pouring her stamina into it to build up another Art.

I think I know what specific Art this ends up being, but it’s irrelevant. Meri just knows she has to block it, no matter what. I’d tell her if it was something she actually needs to worry about.

Lemira’s glowing whip hums, spinning in a circular motion as she unleashes a crescent-moon-shaped wind slice aimed right at where Sam is about to be. As I thought, it’s an Art known as Whirlwhip. The Princess grits her teeth and pays it no mind, trusting Meri to cover her escape.

The wind flusters outward, many sex toys flying in all directions from the numerous warehouse shelves as the attack rips across the central aisle. Meri cuts it off by using a well-timed Shield Bash. The Art just narrowly gets the Shield Maiden where she needs to be, and her barricade swallows the wind slice without taking a scratch.

“L-Like I’m just gonna sit here and let you hurt my friend, you... you... Lady of the Night!” Meri makes a threatening glare at her opponent, which would be even more threatening if she could summon the courage to use harsher language.

“You bitch...!” Lemira says as she lands safely on the ground back near the closed-off exit to the room.

This small opportunity was all Sam needed to haul ass up to the top aisle, dragging Rhaelyn kicking and screaming along for the ride. “FUCK, LEM, LEEMMM!!” The slutty Elf cries out in desperate need of help as the distance from her partner becomes greater and greater.

“I CAN’T HELP YOU, I-”

“Y-YOU’RE THE B-B-BITCH, B-BITCH!!” Meri runs towards Lemire’s side in the brief moment she was distracted by Rhaelyn’s cry for help. She powers yet another Shield Bash up, and by the force of her burst tackle, the Shield Maiden and her opponent end up in the bottom lane right as Sam finishes dragging Rhaelyn to the top.

Zutiria watched as all this took place. Before Meri had even run into Lemira’s blindspot, the petite Mage already was waiting for her. Once Meri and Left Hoe arrive, Zutiria raises her staff. The air around her turns frigid, her breath forming steam as the intention of her spell gathers. “W... Wallarctica,” she whispers, closing her eyes from pain as over half of her mana leaves her at once.

Not a problem for a typical Mage, but for one suffering from Mana Circuit Atrophy... it’s an unpleasant side effect. 

The gaps between aisles that Lemire could have used to escape and reinforce Rhaelyn are now completely closed off by massive, frigid walls of barrier ice. A good choice by Zutiria, even if the mana loss is worrisome...

Despite the Shield Maiden’s armor and shield’s immense weight, Lemire kicks Meri off her once they both stumble to the ground. “Shit! You’re getting advice from your Guild Master, aren’t you...?! No fucking way did you all just improv that shit!”

‘Meri... get up... my spell made my body weaker...’ Zutiria sends a message to Meri, prompting the Shield Maiden to stand up as fast as she can.

Meri doesn’t respond directly. She knows it’d signal to the enemy that Zutiria is drastically weaker right now. Instead, her actions speak to do all the talking for her. Meri’s gratitude crystal lights up, signaling the transformation of her tower shield into her buckler.

“Doesn’t matter if we’re making this up as we go along o-or not! Either way... we’re gonna win!” Meri yells, running towards Lemire with her sword drawn and poised to strike.

On the other side of the room, Rhaelyn finally manages to escape from Sam’s tug of war and regain control of her whip by jumping towards the Princess and kicking Sam in the face with her boot. A chunk of Sam’s health meter lowers, causing her to scream and shout expletives, but it’s nothing worth panicking over.

“You really think you can take me on your own, brat?” The Elf calls out to my Princess after putting some distance between them.

“Depends, bitch. Think YOU can take ME without your Sister in Sluthood?” Sam taunts, causing Rhaelyn’s temper to flare once again. She raises her whip to attack, and Sam readies herself for whatever comes next.

Thus, two separate battles begin at the same time. 

Unless the two Henchwomen have access to some general Art that I can’t predict, or they possess some artifact that could get them out of this situation, I just can’t see them being able to break the arctic barricade. Reading through the several pages of Whiplasher Arts didn’t showcase anything that was focused on huge, explosive bursts of power.

It’s a class that strikes precisely, exploits weaknesses, and disrupts attacks.

While overconfidence can lead to many mistakes, I’m feeling good about our chances... except I have to split my attention between two groups now. I’ve never had to do this before during any of our other tests with Taskmaster.

I won’t fail them. I can’t.

My fists clench tightly shut, and my brows furrow as I begin mentally planning out strategies and formulating variations, and-

“Myaster...” Snow calls out to me, and out of nowhere, I feel her warm, soft, fluffy paws wrap around my left fist. The Catfolk woman raises my hand, clutching me tight to her chest as she says, “Have faith in them, nyaa. You made the right call. Splitting up is risky, but it’s not as risky as the girls fighting both of these women together.”

I glance at Snow upon taking her words in and inhale sharply through my nose before letting it all out. “...You’re right. I’m just-”

She doesn’t let me explain myself. “I know how hard it is to send off  people you care so much about, you know. We’re in this together, Myaster. You’re not alone.” Snowball gives me a comforting smile while refusing to remove her paws from my hand. She wants me to feel more relaxed, even if it ends up giving me the wrong idea and false hope.

Gods, I don’t want a quest reward. I want you, Snow.

On the other side of the office, the maids share a brief exchange while they work.

“Cherry?”

“Yes, Peri?”

“Is it wrong that I’m mad that Snow just gets to barge into our home and flirt non-stop with the Myaster, nyaa? She’s taking advantage of this crisis as an excuse to steal our mate...”

“...D-Don’t be silly! Now, keep working, or else she’ll get on our asses, nyaa!” Cherry begins to sweep harder than ever before as soon as she notices Snow’s ears twitching from across the room.