I put the girls I had left behind out of my mind as I moved back down to the fort. Everything that had happened had been far too suspicious to ignore. There had to be some kind of trap going on. There was a possibility that the person they were looking for was me. However, I found it far more likely that they were aiming for Bradrick.

I had been so foolish. They had already assassinated General Typhon. Why wouldn’t they go after his sons too? I had told myself that the rest of the household was of no consequence, but it was clear that someone wanted the entire family dead. As soon as Bradrick returned home, his very next adventure was a setup aiming to end his life. As I was trying to move up to the fort as stealthily as possible, using all of my sneaking skills to reduce the sound and remain hard to see within the tall grass brush, I caught a movement out of the side of my eye.

I immediately fell to my stomach, using the brush to obscure my place, while peering out between several stalks in the direction someone had moved. It could have been a bird. It could have been a goblin. As my eyes focused, I saw someone moving that stood out among the rest. It was a hooded figure. They were rather tall and moved with a clear, determined purpose. This was not a goblin then.

The mysterious person looked around cautiously before they continued moving, but thankfully, they hadn’t seen me earlier. This was because they had been walking in front of me. Perhaps, they had even waited for us to leave the fort before coming in themselves. They hadn’t expected one of us to turn back, or maybe they hadn’t expected the assassin to fail to kill us all.

After a quick survey, they ducked through a door, entering the fort. I hadn’t noticed this door before, as it seemed hidden, which meant the person knew this place better than Bradrick. Even after they ducked through, I’d be hard-pressed to be able to find the door again myself. That was how secretive this entrance had been. It was very suspicious, and so was that person suddenly appearing right after the assassin. I believed they were related. Taking a deep breath, I stood back up, patted off my pants, and then headed in through the door I was familiar with.

Plunging back into darkness, I began to move somewhat quickly, feeling somewhat anxious. I passed the dead bodies of various goblins, most of which had been the ones Bradrick had killed on the way in. If I had run into another though, I wouldn’t have wasted time fucking them. I was feeling an increasing sense of worry. Something had felt off since we arrived. It felt like there had been too many goblins, and they had been too well organized. They had even managed to ambush us once. Now that I found the camp had been ransacked in the short hour we were in there and an assassin as well, it left me extremely concerned.

It was only about ten minutes before I could see a light ahead. I could also hear the sounds of battle. I was on full alert now, and it was time to fight. I wouldn’t be playing around with goblins anymore. I pulled out my blade and moved into the lit room. Before I could react, I saw someone flying back, and hitting a wall with a resounding thud. A spurt of blood shot out of his mouth as he collapsed to the ground.

“Rio!” I hissed, running up to the man.

I grabbed his cheeks and lifted his head. His unfocused eyes finally landed on me.

“Run.” He gasped before going limp.

“No… I can heal you. Come on, out with your dick.” I grabbed his pants and started fumbling.

I could use Sex Life to restore a lover to perfect health. It was finicky about when it would work. For example, Rio wasn’t technically my lover, because we had never had sex. Then again, Sexual Fortitude made everything feel sexual, so wouldn’t he be my lover after some interaction with him?

Regrettably, Sex Life didn’t work so freely. From the beginning, it was intended to be a means of recovering someone from sexual exertion, not horrifying wounds. It might help an injured man already recovering to instantly rejuvenate, but as for someone who was actively dying, it proved to not live up to its name.

I also found that even though I could use Sexual Fortitude to act like I was in sex, actual sexual contact triggered the spells better. So, even though I was trying to restore him to perfect health, his body was far too damaged. We needed to get closer, and even then, I only could hope that it worked. However, before I could get a chance to see, I felt an intense danger approaching my back. I leaped to the side just as a javelin struck where I had been. It ended up impaling Rio in the head. If he hadn’t been dead before, he was now.

I glanced up in alarm to see a room filled with goblins. There was at least a hundred present, and they had formed a circle. In the middle of the circle was a large goblin, larger than I had ever seen before. He looked nearly as big as a human. He had been the one to throw the spear.

“You bastard!” Bradrick shouted in anguish.

He was in that circle too, and by the look, he had been taking a beating from the goblin. Blood was running down his face and he had various cuts and bruises. When he saw me next to the now-deceased Rio, he let out a cry.

“Run! It’s a goblin champion. Third-class monster. We can’t fight this!”

I had been coming in to fight, and now I was surrounded by goblins. More and more of the goblins circled the big battle had realized there was now a female present. Some of them began to even stroke themselves as they anticipated raping fresh meat. On top of that, my charm was out of this world. There wasn’t a monster who could look at me who wouldn’t become immediately enticed. However, I didn’t focus on my survival. Instead, I was worried about Bradrick.

I had only one choice to keep Bradrick alive. That was to help him defeat the goblin champion. I immediately began to send skills out his way, attempting to paralyze or make him fall asleep. As I did so, Bradrick attacked the goblin as if knowing what I was doing. Last second, the goblin managed to shake off my skills and then attack. The only way he could do that is if he was a much higher level than me. He had to be close to level 90 then if he could just ignore my attacks.

If I couldn’t distract him, then I’d have to seduce him! I began to use Seduction and Pheromones directed straight to him with wind magic. I also added Eye of the Beholder. The more I attacked, the more distracted the champion seemed to get. Bradrick started to become more successful.

“Stay back!” I shouted, using my Control skill in my voice.

I had gone for a fairly large time barely using my skills, and now I was using all of them at once. While trying to distract the champion, I was also using dreams to confuse the other goblins. As my magic started to get low, I used Perfection and restored my body to a perfect state, also causing my mana to recover.

“Come on… kill him!” I hissed.

Bradrick had managed to cut the goblin several more times, but the fight was still taking longer than I predicted. He was dancing around the champion, who stumbled around as if he was slightly confused. It wasn’t clear if Bradrick knew I was the one doing it. I was staring at the champion very distinctly, and anything with an intelligence greater than the goblins currently approaching me would have realized what I was doing and acted faster to stop it.

Still, Bradrick didn’t seem to be finding any openings, and if I was being honest, I wasn’t sure I’d be doing any better. This champion was a very good swordsman. With my seductive techniques, I could probably defeat him, but if I was using just my sword alone, the only person I knew who might be at this guy’s level was Devon. That was also without the use of any skills. This champion likely had a few abilities up his sleeves which he hadn’t relied on yet.

Running out of time as the goblins grew nearer and nearer, only being slowed as they occasionally fell into a dream state or grew confused, I tried to use absorb on the champion. At this distance, it was only a small amount of mana, but I was able to gain a small bit of extra power. I used it to increase my charm, simplifying the power of my control ability. Under duress, it was the only thing I could think of short notice. If I could bring the goblins in a beguiled state with just my charm alone, then I was confident I could turn them all into my playthings, and even the champion would have a hard time dealing with them.

“Die… all of you… kill each other!” I ordered the goblins who were starting to circle me.

My charm wasn’t at a high enough level yet to beguile them. They continued to crowd around me, growing more and more excited. My orders caused them to glance at each other in confusion for a bit, but it wasn’t enough to get them to pull their weapons. A few stroked their weapons but ultimately decided better of it. They wouldn’t kill themselves just like that.

I cursed, deciding I could focus on both. I had to pick which battle was more important, the goblins descending on me or Bradrick’s champion. After a quick calculation, I decided that Bradrick’s champion was too dangerous to live. I pulled back all of the illusions, and then I used them to blind the champion. For a moment, his eyes went blank. Bradrick let out a laugh, pulling back as his sword glowed, taking the opportunity to use some kind of powerful attack.

At that moment, I felt something hard strike me in the head. I lost control of all of my spells as I collapsed to the ground. I was dizzy and the world around me was spinning, but I desperately looked up through the crowd of goblins and was able to see just as Bradrick attacked. He slammed his sword through the chest of the goblin champion, but as this happened, the champion’s illusion broke. He let out a roar and brought down his own sword. Bradrick, not expecting it, could only look up as the sword descended on him.

It struck his forehead cleaning, cutting his skull in half like an egg. As he collapsed to the floor dead, the champion also grabbed the sword in his chest, trying to pull it out. The other goblins attacked the champion all of a sudden. Seeing weakness, and perhaps wanting to steal his experience and strength, about a dozen goblins descended on the champion, clubbing him down until he was dead. By this point, my vision was obscured by goblins all around me. I looked up to see a goblin raising a rock, and then struck me in the head a second time. This time, I lost consciousness completely.