I open my eyes and the first thing I see are the orange eyes that I love so much.
"Hello, my love," I say.
She smiles but then pouts.
"Hello, my stupid husband."
"Ouch."
"You..." she frowns in anger and then her expression lightens, "There really wasn't a better way?"
"I don't think so, couldn't risk having the undead reach us. Talking about it, where are we and where's the undead?"
We are in a bed, it's not my tent or bed. Roxanne is sleeping besides us in another bed.
"I found us a safe place. Enough cover for us to hide in a basement or cellar or whatever. I was outside a while ago, the undead spread out but didn't find us."
"Good. Whose tent is this?"
"The twins, these are their beds."
"For some reason I would prefer to get up immediately," I smile wryly, she shakes her head and smiles too, "How long was I out?"
"Two hours."
I give her a kiss on the nose, she brightens up a little.
"Did anyone get hurt?"
"Hana hurt her legs, Ciel already healed her and the corruption. Roxanne scraped on the walls but she ended up floating down safely, though she was very dizzy and tired. Hana held you and Aoi without problems. If you give a point to Ciel in [Light Magic] she can use [
Refresh
] on Roxanne and we should be fine."
"Can you call her? My body is still heavy."
She nods and reluctantly parts with my body. A minute later I hear the light jingling of scale armor, Alissa came back with Ciel in tow. Ciel is still armored and the shield strapped to her arm is damaged, it was a disposable shield anyways.
"Good to see you up, old man," she smiles at me.
Not really up yet but whatever. I smile and nod back.
"[
Refresh
]."
Roxanne shivers and stretches herself, she yawns and rubs her eyes. "That felt soo goood," she says.
"How's Hana's arm?" I ask.
"Healed, but it's sensitive," Ciel says, "Her scales will need some [
Regeneration
], though. Lina is fixing her shield but she needs you to fix the hole in the metal."
"Can we stay the night here? I don't think it's a good idea to walk back yet."
"I think so," Alissa says, "There's space for all tents but they will need to be next to each other."
"We can just use the gag."
Ciel rolls her eyes.
I stand up slowly and Alissa supports me. My body hurts, some vitality was definitely used when my MP reached the negatives.
"[
Refresh
]."
My bones creak and I feel like stretching myself.
"Oh yeah, that felt really good," I say.
I'm still feeling very tired though, mentally tired.
I put Ciel's extra points back to [Wind Magic].
I go outside the tent and pull ours. The faint sweet perfume of the girls is much better than the smell of leather of the tent of the twins.
This basement is basically a cellar full of broken barrels and broken glass bottles, this once housed dragonoid alcohol. Another tent right next to the one of the twins opens up and the quartet comes out.
"Wolf! Good to see you up again," Lyle says.
"Yeah, that was a close one," I smile bitterly, "Thanks for lending the tent."
Gwinevere grins.
"No problem," says Delwyn and waves his hand dismissively.
I know exactly why they lent it to us.
"Let's stay here tonight, I will summon a few dogs to stay around, they can't see in the absolute darkness but they will be able to hear things."
It seems these undead can perceive the environment through something else other than their eyes.
"Understood. I sincerely thank you for your effort, I realize how close you were to danger," Lyle says and bows.
The twins bow more conservatively and Ankara simply nods. Oh well, progress.
"Don't need to bow, I only did the necessary" -I wave my hand and they straighten up- "We are not completely safe yet."
"Then simply accept my gratitude," he smiles.
"That I will. Now I gotta get the girls on the top back and position some dogs. I'm still tired so after that I will retire to my tent."
"Understood. We already ate dinner, we could share some meat with you if you wish."
"No need, I have my own."
We nod to each other and I turn around, I see the pulley and scaffold are on the ground. I guess the space mages have brought it for me, I put them back into my "Items" and go upstairs.
The upper floor has plenty of chairs and tables, there's a long counter where Tankar and the space mages are staying. Hana, Lina, and Aoi are anxiously looking out through the windows.
I pop my head up and Lina comes running to me as quietly as she can. Her head hits my chest as she hugs me.
"Sorry I got you worried," I say.
Lina shakes her head, rubbing it on my chest.
"I understand what you did and why you did it. But that doesn't change the fact that I was worried," she says, her voice muffled as she buries her head on my chest.
"That's way better than a
certain someone
."
"I can still hear you!" I hear Alissa say loud just enough that it carries up to our floor.
I smile wryly. Then I pat Lina and kiss the top of her head, she tightens the hug.
I summon 3 Labradors, from what I remember their hearing is excellent. I discreetly also summon a Holly.
"Hana, come down, let's grow your scales and then we fix your armor," I say.
"Sure."
I break the hug and we move to our tent. I spend 30 minutes being hugged by Hana while I use [
Regeneration
] on her. Her breast pillows are the best, Ciel's are just as comfy but her breasts are more sensitive to prolonged use.
Hana's scales were only a very small stump. As I healed them they visually grew until they were back to her former glory, though they look blunted, now we have to sharpen them again.
"Even the irritation went away. Thanks, Wolfy," she tests her scales by raising and lowering them.
She hugs me and I get a head massage by her breasts and a brain massage by her hands as a reward.
After that we eat dinner, a simple hot sandwich with bean paste and ground meat.
I use [
Manipulate
Metal
] to heat up our damaged metal equipment. The spell also allows me to slowly mold it without the need for a hammer, unfortunately this reduces the quality of the tempering so it's not a perfect fix.
With the repairing done I release the stress of Alissa and Lina with a skillful use of the gag, I'm not feeling as depraved as I was when we first entered this dungeon.
Today is the 14th.
Lina wakes me up, she still can't finish before I'm awake.
"It's too thick," she says.
"You can say that again."
We have a quiet breakfast, no cooking so no smell escapes this basement.
After that we move out, we only use a single [
Spirit Light
] in low power. I thank the Gods Holly exists, she scans the area and makes sure we are in the clear.
I deliberate if I should cast [
Rainbow Shield
] on us. With emellanat we haven't even taken a proper spell for it to help. It doesn't activate unless it reaches my skin so my shield prevents it from showing its usefulness.
Eh, I will cast it, better safe than sorry.
"The dogs heard some movement yesterday so make sure to keep noise to a minimum," I say.
The quartet looks apprehensive but nod in understanding,
We slowly move through the middle of the road to avoid tripping over the debris. Huddling up together we sneak by the ruins.
Holly sees movement in the distance, I extinguish our light.
"Lay down!" I whisper anxiously.
The floor is dusty and nearly makes me sneeze.
We spend tense minutes like this. The nearly imperceptible figure moves about the ruins without a set goal, it meanders through the streets. When it comes closer my heart beats faster, then it moves away and I relax. Then it comes back and the mood swings stress me out.
Eventually it moves away completely.
"Ok, let's go."
I'm extremely scared of being ambushed at the exit. My only comfort is that it is possible that the undead do not know where the exit is, monsters are born in a dungeon without knowledge of its layout. There are quite a few paths that take us to other places so if they don't know where the exit is they would need to guard every door.
Alissa's ears twitch and turn to our left.
"I hear metal hitting metal," Alissa says.
"The undead must be fighting guards," Hana says.
"The undead are not considered monsters of the dungeon anymore so it's possible the guards recognize them as intruders. That or the undead are simply trying to gather more followers," Ciel says.
"That destruction undead seems smarter than the average," I say, "It is possible only he has a power similar to the [Create Undead] skill. He said 'followers', this means they are bound to him, somehow. Which means there might be a limit to how many souls he can bind."
This is nearly the limit of my knowledge on the undead. There's not much information on that skill, possibly to prevent other people from trying to acquire it.
"Yes, there should be a limit or he would have turned the entire dungeon into an undead army," Ciel says.
We are casually chatting about this because Holly gives me confidence no undead is nearby, but the quartet and even Tankar seem to grow even more tense as time passes. I see one of the space mages reciting a silent prayer.
Our way is clear of guards, allowing us to progress quite fast.
"I smell corruption," Alissa says, "They must have spent some time here... I smell blood too, I guess they fought a guard."
"Well, they cleared a path for us, so we gotta thank these orc-brains," Hana says.
A minute later everyone notices the brutalized and rotting corpse of a dragonoid. Lyle shivers and even Gwinevere seems pale.
"You fought something that did
this
?" Lyle points to the corpse.
"You saw Hana's arm yesterday?" I ask back.
"I didn't, her wound was hidden by her vambraces."
"Yeah well, a single attack pierced her shield and rotted half her forearm."
Lyle frowns and looks sickened at the corpse.
"I sincerely underestimated their power," he says.
"Not just you..." I whisper.
I take a look at Ankara and he's gritting his teeth. Tankar looks pensive, perhaps he's remembering his stupid words of fighting the undead by himself.
"That wound was the most painful and horrible thing I have ever felt, and I'm a masochist," Hana says.
Delwyn massages his eyes but his expression quickly turns serious.
"These undead must be quite the danger to adventurers then," he says.
"Yes, which is why killing undead is very profitable," Ciel says.
"You didn't learn any spells against the undead, Miss Ciel?"
"No, I was simply a warrior priestess and then a healer when I was working for the temple."
If I had more spells unlocked I could possibly teach her. The higher levels spells at [Light Magic] school are one of the few ways to permanently deal with the undead. Fucking terminators, that's what these goblin dicks are.
We finally reach the long hall without any more encounters. It should be noon already but no one wants to stop. Alissa runs ahead with Holly and then comes back half an hour later.
"It's clear," she says.
"Alright, let's run from this place," I say.
Lyle and Delwyn break into a full blown sprint as we all run towards safety. With relieved breaths we reach the large double doors.
"Honestly we shouldn't stop," Alissa says "Let's keep this pace as long as we can. The sooner we leave The Smirk, the better."
The 4 turtles look at me concerned.
"Just because we left the dungeon doesn't mean they won't keep following us, they are not bound to the dungeon," I say.
The 4 make pained faces but even Tankar won't help them on this matter.
"Let's just eat a snack first," Lyle says.
"Alright."
On the other side of the double doors we stuff our faces with sandwiches and drink water as fast as we can.
"Don't eat too much or you will puke," Hana says.
Lyle looks at his massive sandwich with puppy eyes and returns half of it to the space mage.
We can't run on the difficult ground of the cave but we maintain a quick pace. After a long march and a few blown Skritters we finally we reach the comforting and oppressive darkness of The Smirk. Halfway there.
We keep our hurried pace, it's been so long since I last saw the sun even I am getting anxious.
Alissa suddenly comes back from scouting.
"I saw lots of tracks," she whispers.
"Any idea on the number of people?" I ask.
"Seems most are two-man groups, standard scouting parties."
"Keep close to us, don't scout too far and make sure our rear is safe too."
"Understood."
I signal the girls to gather and spread them around us. Hana front, me right, Lina left, Ciel back, and Roxanne middle. I summon a Shad and a bird at the same time to cover my spell casting.
Lyle comes towards me.
"Wolf, is something wrong?" He asks.
"There are too many scouting parties on this forest. Something is going on, alert the others."
Lyle pales and tenses up, he quickly marches back and spreads the news. This has been a bad day so far.
Gify pops into my shoulder.
"Gih…"
Danger is coming. Godsdammit. I turn my emergency ring green.
"Girls!" I wave my hand and they come to me, " Gify says danger is coming, we are going to wait and prepare for an attack."
"We shouldn't show our emellanat. If they are thieves they will be very enticed in stealing it," Hana says.
Lina and Ciel are the only ones with protection from spells now.
"Agreed, prepare for battle," I say, then I point to Lyle, "Hide behind a tree, this could turn ugly.
The quartet pales and moves. The girls faces harden but Lina seems angry.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"I am ready, I will do it," she answers, resolute.
"
We
will do it," I say.
She nods to me and looks towards the woods, waiting.
A minute later Alissa comes running back.
"What is it?" She asks.
"Gify said danger is coming."
She stares at him and nods. She nocks an arrow on her bow. Just another minute and Alissa turns back to me again.
"Twenty people are running towards us," she says.
Aaaaah, shiiiite.
"We are going to assume they aren't good news, we must not get surrounded so I will use warning shots," I summon two wind elementals, "Pay attention to my signal."
They nod and Alissa holds my hand, I'm trembling again.
"We did this already, we will be fine," she says.
"Gih!"
Yes, Gify is here too to keep me straight. He shares Alissa's feelings and a wave of bravery, anxiety, and
anger
washes over me. In the end this helps keep me focused. The flood of emotions stuns us for a moment.
"Your fear is a bit overwhelming," Alissa says, her breath is haggard.
"Your anger too," I say and kiss her hand.
I can feel an incredible need to strangle the men coming towards us. Regardless of their intentions they are causing us grief. They
dare
act so aggressively, they strut towards us as if they are immune from harm!
Alissa steels herself and nods to me. I see the fire in my eyes mirrored in hers, for now we are in sync.
Gify pops out of existence.
The wicked shall be slain by my hand!
We spread in our usual battle formation and draw our weapons. I take my time to look at our situation.
Alissa is stoic but I know the angry storm inside her heart. A broadhead arrow nocked into her enchanted warbow, she keeps both types of arrows on the quiver hanging from her waist. She looks almost like a statue, ready to react to any movement.
Roxanne looks sharp and confident, the spherical gem on her black metal staff changes from red to blue and back with simplistic beauty. Anyone who looks at her would know she's dangerous, a clear contrast to her air-headed nature. She grips the staff harder and the gem pulses with a faint light.
Hana shows a mix of anger and excitement. Certainly not the face you want to see when a tall dragonkin charges towards you with its wings spread and sword held high. She stands straight and tall, her spear and shield pointing forward and ready. None shall pass through her guard.
Ciel shows a very serious look, it does not fit her kind and adventurous mood. It gives me even more motivation to fight hard so I can see her smile again. Her green glaive stands upright, threatening with a chop anyone who dare come close. Her face may be cute and round but her eyes show the calmness of experience, it would be a mistake to underestimate her.
Lina shows a dark look, anger is clear on her face and I fear she might turn too reckless. The quiet little girl should not be forced into a situation like this, I pray she retains her "Sanity". Her hammer and heater shield do not combine with her slim arms and cute face, but it's her expression that will make others wary. She has the eyes of someone who will crush anything.
The quartet of cowering little animals hides behind a tree alongside the praying space mages. Lyle anxiously grips a simple simple metal staff with a gem that flashes with faint light every few seconds. Delwyn keeps his eyes closed as he mutters a silent prayer. Gwinevere holds a red wand with black vein-like carvings, her eyes race about as if she's lost on what to do. Ankara looks pale and his hands tremble as he holds a beautiful and ornate long sword, it almost looks ceremonial. Tankar stands in front to protect them with a plain but well maintained long sword. His expression is completely emotionless and he breathes deeply to keep his emotions in check.
From the way we just came I hear lots of footsteps slowly increasing in volume. Small lights come out of the trees and quickly approach us. A large group of men wearing reliable"looking padded leather armor appears. Their most expensive equipment seems to be their metal plus grey scale kite shields. There are 7 spearmen with shields, 5 long swordsmen, 5 archers and 3 robed mages. The mages use simple wooden staffs with no gems.
They quickly move into a line and start to spread around us.
"[
Lighting Bolt
]!"
I cast it towards the front of the man at the flank and everyone stops on their tracks.
"You will
not
surround us," I say, mustering all my austerity.
"Easy the're, mate. We a're not he're fo'r a fight," A scarred dark-skinned man approaches.
He's the tallest of them all, he has an enviable black beard. He pronounces his "r" with a retroflex flap instead of the american way.
"Then for what reasons would you try to surround us without a single word?" I ask.
"Just making su're we a're all on a nice, comfo'rtable position to talk," he spreads his arms and grins, his round face gets rounder. I only see mischief in his eyes.
"Yes, talk, what reason do you have to follow us?" Hana says.
His beady eyes scan over everyone, he spends a moment longer at Hana's spear, then stops at me. He narrows his eyes, his face turns into one of deep thought.
"Well. We a're he're to make a simple t'ransaction," his face softens and he smiles.
"Not interested, go away," I say.
"Not that simple" -he shakes his head- "We simply need the fou'r lit'tle noble kids behind you and nobody gets hu'rt. No need to fight, we a're not wicked."
Good, it's not related to Darean.
"Impossible!" Tankar barks.
"Not fo'r you to decide, I'm af'raid," the man lowers his head in mocking apology.
"What are you going to do with them?" I ask.
"Simple. We need money, ransoming nobles give loads of money," he grins, his teeth are shining white.
I look at Tankar. His expression shows so much anger in those eyes that I believe that if I decided to sell them he would cut me down immediately.
"Perhaps we could make a different trade, we have some very valuable things with us," I say.
"Oh, it would be ha'rd to offe'r me something mo're valuable than those lit'tle nobles," he looks at me dubiously.
The men around him tense up, they are about to strike, maybe I have a bit more time.
"Lina, turn around your shield for a second."
She scores her shield on the ground and turns it.
"Emellanat!" One of the men exclaims.
"We have more," I say.
The men relaxes, greed is like a drug for them.
The leader pauses for a second. He scans our equipment, he spends a bit of time looking at the transparent, yet still very visible, crystal at Roxanne's ungloved hand. It's my [
Rainbow Crystal
] spell.
"How much?"
"One single handed sword, one bastard sword, another small shield, one glaive, and one war hammer. You see we aren't showing these weapons since they could attract... Unwanted attention."
The leader scans me again, he must be evaluating if I'm lying or not.
"We are going to need more," he finally says, then he points to Aoi, "And the d'ragon too."
Greedy fucking bastards!
I look at the girls, they all keep a poker face, even Aoi. She should understand the words by now but the only expression on her dragonic face is that of hunger.
"I carry a lot of money with me, 90 gold coins. I'm sure the little nobles must carry some more with them," I say.
"Why would you car'ry so much?" The leader asks.
"I don't trust banks and I'm a well-paid adventurer. I wouldn't be escorting four nobles if I were cheap."
Now he stares at the two wind elementals. Judging your chance of survival?
"Throw us the weapons,
now
."
Too bad it is zero percent.
"Okay," I look at the girls and switch to English, "
Attack, don't hold back
."
The advantage of secret signals.
"What did you say...?" The leader asks.
Roxanne's clothes suddenly ruffle wildly.
*Bloosh!* An instantaneous burst of mana and the head of a mage explodes with a watery sound. [
Rainbow Crystal
] shows its power.
The bandits look back and freeze at the gory scene behind them. The ones hit by the blood seem to be pale, one man pukes.
Fucking thieves are gonna get what they deserve.
"[
Discharge
]!" I cast.
"[
Firestorm
]!"
"[
Wind Storm
]!"
"[
Earth Bullet
]!"
"[
Earth Bullet
]!"
An arrow and a fireball flies.
"AAAAAAAH!"
"GAAH!"
"HEEEEL-..."
3 Spearmen get incinerated by Roxanne, 3 long swordsmen get cut down by Ciel, 1 mage is killed by Alissa, 3 archers get wounded by Hana, Lina, and Aoi's spells. The survivors are being shocked by me. The last enemy mage interrupts the area spells. Tankar sprints. Hana draws her breath.
"You are now level 22."
*FOOM!* Hana spews fire. With my spell stunning them they can barely raise their shields to defend themselves, 3 spearmen get badly burnt.
"UAAAAH!"
"HELP ME, HELP ME!"
"
Hold the leader
," I order Shad.
I stop my spell. Hana flies towards the last unharmed spearman and skewers him instantly with her spear. Lina charges a long swordsman. Another arrow flies and enters the eye of an archer. Ciel charges forward and defends herself from an arrow with her shield. An [
Ice Lance
] explodes the head of the last mage.
I cast [
Rush
] and charge past the front line towards the archers. Arrows fly past me and get stopped by the wind elementals. I approach one archer and slash at his arm, my blade feels resistance before it even touched him, it's [
Wind Armor
]. But it was weak, his arm is cut off regardless, then he falls back and draws his dagger.
"GUAA-...!" The screams of the leader gets muffled by a shadow that covers his entire body. He swings his long sword in desperation but it's useless now that he's covered.
I slash downwards, I cast [
Telekinesis
] and his measly weapon can't parry my attack. My sword gets buried in his head and I have to cast [
Telekinesis
] again to take it out.
Lina fights the last long swordsman with ferocity. His morale is broken and his attacks are desperate. Lina enters his range, his sword slides past her neck, [
Wind Armor
] slows the blade, leaving only a shallow wound. On the way back the sword scrapes her helmet as Lina pushes the sword away with her shield. She swings her hammer and smashes him on the knees.
Hana's leaves her spear inside the dying man, she draws her sword and flies to the nearest burned spearman. His face is partially burned and his shield is still on fire. He weakly raises his shield to parry and gets cut in the shoulder for his lack of strength.
Ciel reaches a burned spearman and quickly slices his armor. [
Sharp Blades
] makes quick work of the padding once she opens up the leather with her stabs. To make things worse for him his shield is on fire and his leather armor on both arms is so hot it's burning his skin.
Tankar reaches the last burned spearman. His spear arm is burned so even with his reach he has trouble keeping Tankar away, who starts to add more wounds to his damaged arm.
Another archer receives and arrow to the eye and dies. I use [
Rush
] to reach an archer with a broken hand from Lina's [
Earth Bullet
]. He parries my sword and displays some modicum of skill, he's desperately trying to keep me away.
A screaming archer that had his face burned by Aoi has half his head explode as another fireball from her hits him.
A [
Torrent
] hits the face of the long swordsman fighting Lina and he falls backwards. Lina activates [
Spirit of Gaia
] and strikes down his chest with her hammer. It caves in exactly where his heart should be.
Hana swipes away the spear of her opponent and locks her shield with his. She swipes his foot and he falls on the ground. She steps on him and stabs him in the face.
Ciel's opponent quickly loses strength. A [
Wind Hammer
] at point blank range crumbles his posture, allowing Ciel to stab him in the lungs. She quickly pulls back the blade and stabs him in the heart.
Tankar cuts off the arm of the spearman and jabs his sword into the collarbone. The spearman staggers in pain and gets his throat cut.
The last man standing desperately tries to keep his life. The attack was so fast no one had the opportunity to register the carnage and to surrender. My opponent glances at the corpses of his friend and his movements dull.
I use [
Telekinesis
] to swipe his sword away and bash him in the gut with the brim of my shield. His [
Wind Armor
] saves him from puking, so I cast [
Lightning Bolt
] to stun him. I finish him with a slash and a stab to the neck. He falls backwards and chokes on his blood.
He's going to die in a few seconds. I stop and take a moment to look at the aftermath. Gods, what have I done. This scene is carnage.
The victims of Ciel's [
Wind Storm
] are still bleeding from uncountable wounds, they are unconscious from blood loss. One victim from Roxanne's [
Firestorm
] is crawling away, barely conscious, his entire body a black char. Those with their throats cut struggle and squirm as their consciousness fades away. The leader passed out from the pain, Shad still covers his entire body. Aoi glides down from Roxanne's shoulder, she stops by a half burnt corpse and starts to eat it.
I feel sick, I drop my sword and shield and find a corner without blood to lay down. Hana and Alissa are finishing off the ones still suffering, Ciel is reciting a prayer.
"Another conflict between humanoids has finished. I apologize to the Gods for the wasted lives, we failed in maintaining unity," she closes her eyes, "Please guide their souls to a better place were they could be useful to civilization again."
"Let your next life be on a better place for this one was wasted here," I mutter my prayer.
We could have let them surrender. We killed everyone except one. We should have let them surrender. Fuck...
Roxanne sits down next to me with a painful expression. She lays down her staff on her lap.
"Overuse again?" I ask.
"Yep... What about you?"
"I'm fine... I'm just feeling sick."
Roxanne's furrows her eyebrows.
"Are you really fine?"
"Well... Couldn't we have asked them to surrender?"
"Yeah, but. It would be very inconvenient and even dangerous to let some alive, they could try to run, they could be an assassin in disguise and try a suicide attack, they could bear a grudge and use their connections to get to us."
"When people start to kill each other it's best to end it permanently instead of letting things go," Ciel says, she comes closer and whispers "Not everyone can do this, not everyone
has
to do this but we are in a rather difficult position. There was no good way out of that situation."
Make sure you do all you can to preserve life, but when you can't, make sure you do all you can to end it with certainty. This world and its brutal philosophy.
"We couldn't really know if they would really let us go without a fight or even if the four they were after would survive," Alissa says, she plops down besides me and rubs my shoulder.
Gify shared Alissa's bloodlust with me, it helped me do what I needed but was it really the best choice?
"It's fine, it's done so let's get the hell away from this place," I say.
I will deal with this later.
Alissa hands me my weapons.
"Wait, Lina! How are you feeling?" I ask as I search for her.
Lina's cut in the neck was healed by Ciel, now she's taking a look at her hammer and cleaning the blood from it.
"I'm fine, I'm happy, I did it, I didn't fail," she smiles, but her eyes look vacant and without focus.
I hug her and she shivers, her expression turns vacant and she drops her weapons. Slowly her breathing becomes erratic and her expression turns into confusion.
I kneel and hold her head on my shoulder, a few silent tears run through her face. A few minutes pass and she slowly returns to normal, her shivering stops, her breath regains rhythm, and her eyes regain focus.
She looks at me and breaks the hug.
"We have to move," she says.
I nod and look at our employers. Delwyn puked and is now being consoled by Gwinevere. Ankara is frozen with a vacant look, he holds his long sword close to his chest. The space mages are sitting on ground desperately muttering prayers. My eyes cross with Lyle's, he stores his metal staff on his [
Item Box
] and decides to approach us.
"Wolf, what was that?" He asks, his face is pale and he's sweating cold.
"What do you mean?"
"You, them, none of you chant. All those spells, how do you do this?"
"We are all just good magicians?" I try to keep a poker face.
"No way," he shakes his head and his mouth hangs open in disbelief, "You were struggling to chant during classes, I know it. Now not just you but even the others who shouldn't know magic are chucking spells left and right! Is that a Symbol of Darkness? Can you even summon monsters now!?"
Eh, was worth a try.
"I have a Gift, it relates to magic and extends to my women."
Now everyone looks at me. The space mages are whispering and Ankara is trying to bore a hole through my skull with his gaze.
"Listen to this and listen well, I'm being protected. If you try to spread this or control me there will be consequences," I stare back at Ankara "I saved all of your lives, the least you could do is keep my secret."
The twins share a look.
"We swear we will not say a thing, we do not want to be involved in such matters," Delwyn says and bows.
"Wolf, you are my friend, I will never say anything. The space mages are under my employ, they will never mutter a word if they want to live," Lyle bows too, the space mages pale.
I maintain an unwavering gaze towards Ankara.
"I will not say a thing," he finally bows.
Tankar takes his place besides Ankara, his expression is indecipherable and he's avoiding looking at me.
Hana comes back with numerous bounty plates.
"They are all thieves and a few are kidnappers," Hana says and taps the pile of plates, "They are wanted in Sommerland, the Mainland, and Goldcross. If they kidnap nobles they need to keep on the move if they don't want to be killed."
So that accent was from Sommerland.
I look at the last survivor, he's still passed out. I dismiss the wind elementals and summon an earth elemental.
"We gotta tie him to the elemental and send him to the guards," I say.
"Yeah, someone tipped them about these four," Hana nods to the nobles.
Lyle grimaces.
The weapons have been collected and stored, now we have a few spare spears and shields. Unfortunately no one uses long swords, the archery and magic equipment was inferior to ours so it will get sold. We are not into stripping them naked so their armor will stay. We leave their bodies like they are, the monsters will eat them during the night.
I decide to keep Shad on the last bandit, he will make sure the bandit does not wake up.
The nobles walk wobbling a little but eventually regain their composure. The need to get away from this place is very clear to them so they keep up a fast pace.
On the way we get attacked by 2 Rabid Rabbits, 3 naked goblins and 5 Mossy Fangpines. We spent quite some time near the carnage so it's not surprising the number of monsters that found us.
We reach the border of the forest by sunset. I dismiss Shad and the bandit shivers but does not waken.
"Finally, God of the Sun, how I missed you!" Delwyn exclaims.
"Four days in darkness was a bit too much," Lyle says.
"And you wanted to stay a fifth," I say.
Lyle scratches his cheek awkwardly.
"I overestimated a lot of things on this trip," he says.
He does not know how lucky he is I'm this powerful.
The guards at the watchtower come out to see the strange sight of the elemental carrying a tied person. I see the wagon and the carriage waiting for us.
Two well armed men run out of the wagon and the carriage to meet us.
"Master Lyle! Why did you call us earlier, did something happen?" The man of the wagon comes to us, his face is young and his gait is strong, he's a well-trained bodyguard.
"Hello Sebastian. Yes, we met undead dragonoids and then we were attacked by kidnappers" -he points to the tied man- "He's the last survivor. We have to hand him to the guards."
I think this is the same butler that was helping Lyle's grandfather during the Symbol of Hate auction.
"Master Ankara. Is this true?" Asks the second man, he seems to be more delicate and thinner than Sebastian.
"Yes. I am very tired now, I want to go home. Ryder, I assume you will deal with this?" He turns to me, his eyes are droopy, his hair bun is nearly undone and his dignified expression is crumbling.
"It's fine, we will deal with the guards," I nod to him.
"Then I'm taking my leave. Goobye Lyle, Gwin, Delwyn," he nods to them and moves towards his carriage.
Tankar looks at me and gives a subtle nod. Maybe this is the maximum of respect I will ever get out of him.
One of the guards come towards us, he's wearing a golden armband on his right arm.
"Wait, you said undead and bandits?" He asks.
Hana produces the pile of bounty plates and gives to him. His eyes open wide when he looks at the one on the top.
"There's six undead dragonoids inside the dungeon Wisp of the Proud. I will report to the guild their location and affinities," I say.
"U-understood," the guard mutters as he puts the pile down and examines one by one.
"This man" -I point to the waking bandit- "Is the leader of the bandits, can you take him and interrogate him for us? Someone tipped him about four nobles leaving towards The Smirk and we want to know who."
The guard straightens up and looks at me in the eyes.
"I am Lyle Rizek, grandson of Werner Rizek, court high mage," he puts his right hand over his chest. The guard shivers at his words. "These are Delwyn Griffiths and his sister Gwinevere. The one who left was Ankara Gartania, son of Tarian Gartanaia, Lord of Fort Erda."
The guard pales and his mouth hangs open, I think that Werner and Tarian must be famous.
"We-we-we will c-call the captain right away. Please wait a moment, a space mage will bring him to us."
He immediately turns around and trots towards the tower. The other guards are frozen in fear and keep their positions.
The bandit groggily turns his head around, his eyes slowly regain focus.
A minute later around 5 well armed guards come out of the tower. Their mail jingles and shines in the light of dusk, their tabards look new and unblemished. Leading them is a plated guard with two golden armbands on each arm and a black one on his right.
"Captain Ansara, ready to serve," he puts his right hand over his chest and bows towards Lyle, the other guards follow suit.
"Please rise," Lyle says and they obey.
Ansara removes his helmet. He's a rather handsome man with brown hair cut on a buzz cut and a chin so sharp he could cut open a can.
"The lieutenant reported undead and bandits. Can you explain to me in more detail?" He asks.
I move forward and explain. This way I can keep the details of our chantless casting a secret for now.
"There's one last thing I have to tell you."
I approach him and whisper.
"I ask you to give him directly to Vanea Anara" -his eyes widen- "This bandit has information that should not escape this place."
He looks at me for a few seconds.
"I killed twenty men with only six people, you can also see I'm a summoner, I am
not
a normal person. I will meet with Dame Vanea tomorrow, I will ask her what you did to the bandit."
He sighs.
"If Dame Anara deems so you will be punished for wasting her time, do you understand?" He speaks to me in a stern tone.
"Yes," I answer immediately.
He spends a few more uncomfortable seconds staring at my face.
"Forgive me, but have we met? Your face is familiar," he asks.
"Uh... I haven't met many guards; I don't even talk to them since I have a pass that allows me to bypass customs."
"Customs... Are you the noble that came out of the Sea of Trees alone some months ago?"
Wow, he remembers me? Wait, was he the guard who processed my entry?
"Uh... Yes? Wait, I'm not a noble."
"Oh, is that so?" He chuckles, "I thought you were a runaway by the weird skills you had and the perfect way you talked. There's plenty of runaway nobles here in Rabanara but I remembered you because I thought you would try to sting my ass since I made fun of you."
By his behavior I can see why he thought that.
"Well I... Would not do that, I'm not that petty."
"This works for me," he shrugs "Anyway, we will be taking him, then. Report the undead to the guild too, please."
"I will."
He nods and points to the bandit.
"Take him off and send him to jail, don't let anyone else talk to him besides me."
The guards surround the elemental and untie the bandit. He seems to regain lucidity and starts to struggle.
"No! Help me! I'm innocent, wait, no, I'm not a mu'rde're'r! Have me'rcy!" He cries as he is dragged away into the tower.
Indeed, none of them were branded as wicked, but they are still career thieves. They are not even the poor and downtrodden who switch to banditry to survive, they did it as a job.
"Take the bounty plates with you. You can get your rewards when you want to," he says.
Hana gathers the plates on the ground and stores them.
The bandit is sent into the tower and suddenly his cries are muted. I dismiss the elemental and Ansara turns to us.
"Is there anything else I can help you with, grand nobles?" He asks and lowers his eyes.
Lyle looks at me and I shake my head.
"That is all, thank you for your help," Lyle says.
"May I offer you to use our [
Gate
] to get back into town? If you return by wagon you might reach Rabanara well into the night," Ansara says.
"That would be wonderful. Sebastian, take the wagon back."
"Yes, master," Sebastian bows and hops into the wagon.
"Please follow me, then," Ansara lifts his eyes and looks to me, "You too, please."
I nod and follow him. Ankara got shafted.
Inside the tower there's the familiar black circle. Once we cross it we are sent into a barracks. This seems to be the main floor, there's a variety of benches and tables with tea and snacks. Other well armed guards laze around the floor. I believe this is some sort of fast-response team.
"Welcome back to Rabanara, you can leave through this way, "Ansara points towards the door and bows.
A few gazes follow the women but they are very contained. We leave the building and I recognize we are near the castle in the middle of the town. Makes sense to have the [
Gate
]-bound soldiers in the most central location for efficiency.
"Well then, Wolf. Thanks for all the help, I am in your debt," Lyle says, he stretches his hand for a handshake.
"Only doing my job, and because you are also a friend," I say and shake his hand.
"It's a shame we have to part but I would like to meet you again," Gwinevere says to Roxanne.
Roxanne forces a smile. "P-perhaps fate would have us meet again," she says.
They share a delicate and feminine handshake. I can feel Hana get very fidgety.
"It was good to know you Ryder, your fellowship is certainly very dependable," Delwyn says with a nod. "But I would rather not have to go somewhere where I have to hire someone like you."
"You will get over it," Gwinevere says and slaps her brother's back, "One day you will be craving to explore a dungeon again"
"Let a Glutton eat your words," he quips back.
Lyle rolls his eyes.
"See you soon Miss Lina, Miss Alissa," Lyle nods to them.
"Until then," Lina shyly responds and Alissa nods back with a smile.
They go away towards the Nobles Quarters while we go towards the Hunter's Guild.