Rupegia

Chapter 23: Night Terrors

We all wear simple weapons at our sides but we don't wear our armor, it would be too conspicuous.

The tavern is on the main road near the castle so it's a rather well made building. It's a brown and grey brick building squashed between two other bigger food shops. The tavern has no windows and a very heavy metal door, it reminds me of the "secret club" type of pubs where it was mostly a discreet and quiet place for higher class men to share a few smokes and drinks.

Once we enter my suspicions are confirmed, the ambient is filled with murmuring, the occasional laughs and smoke of whatever thing they use to smoke around here. Everyone is dressed in rather conservative velvet clothing but of high quality, there's very few women in here. Seems like a gathering point for official servants of the town.

Our eyes adjust to the low-light environment as the murmuring reduces and I hear the music being played.

"♪ He saw no way around. The monster made him pause. His companion was about to fall down. So he jumped into those claws! ♪" The singer makes exaggerated movements as he sings.

As we walk the stares increase. Alissa motions to us and we quickly sit down on a table, it's very snug and comfortable, the low hanging light on the table makes our faces less recognizable.

"♪ Like a hero from legend. He used [Shocking Touch]. He paralyzed the wretched. And bet it all on a clutch! ♪" The singer quietens as the instruments start a crescendo.

A proto-waiter appears before us.

"Good evening grand patrons. Would you like to go to our exclusive room? We can give you more personalized service worthy of someone of your position," his voice rings in our ears but his unnatural emphasis makes it obvious to us what he wants.

"Sure, lead the way," I say.

"♪ The monster was a fearsome foe. No one would dare get so close! He attacked but his heart was filled with woe. Until his companion made the monster explooode! ♪"

The lyrics makes me uncomfortable but the instruments are being played well, with a little tuning it could be an epic song.

We move deeper into the tavern and enter a corridor. The proto-waiter stops and looks around, there's no one here besides us, then he opens a side door leading downstairs and motions for us to go.

"The bottom door," he says and leaves.

The stairs go down for what seems to be a few floors underground, we go deep below the city. There are a few heavy doors flanking us but we continue. We finally reach the end of the stairs and open the last heavy door.

On a very wide and unremarkable grey room Vanea and Haaran are hunched over a table with a few papers and drawings. Surrounding them are men and women in fully plate armor, a few have leather or robes.

Once we enter all heads turns to us and Vanea gives me a wide and genuine smile. Aside from a few people most knights give us looks of annoyance. Alissa and Lina return the stares, they seem unmoved at the attention. Hana is completely unfazed. Ciel and Roxanne shiver as they get the full brunt of both the siblings soul-piercing stare for the first time.

Haaran rolls his eyes and puts a sack of what could be coins, due to the sound they make, on the table. A devil-type knight besides him snickers and puts the sack on his [Item Box].

"What a pleasure to know you are here, Mr. Ryder," Haaran greets me with a bitter smile.

The gazes of the siblings penetrate my [Mental Resistance] and give me a shiver.

"I'm merely fulfilling my part of the deal," I force a smile with a small bow.

"I told you it was a stupid bet," Vanea says with a smug smile towards her brother.

Haaran's face scrunches up for a moment.

"Sir Haaran bet we wouldn't fulfill our word?" Alissa raises an eyebrow in annoyance.

"Not... Exactl-..."

"He bet you would come in all scared and skittish," says the devil-type man.

"Marduk…" Haaran says in a low growl.

The man bites his lips to suppress a smile. This exchange amuses Alissa and Hana, but it only makes Lina angry.

"Anyway, let's continue with our business at hand," Haaran says through gritted teeth and a forced smile.

His embarrassed face makes him look like another person, he looks almost... Normal.

"Come around, everyone, it's time for a briefing," Vanea says and everyone bunches up around the table.

There's a large diagram with what seems to be a map of part of the town. There are a few simple carved wooden soldiers surrounding a specific building. One has a golden dot on the top of its head, another has a silver dot, a third has a red dot, and the others have numbers.

"First of all, context," Vanea starts, her face becomes neutral again, "We are dealing with an information leak, there's a spy in the castle that's hampering our efforts. This is the only information everyone is allowed to share, anything else is on a need-to-know basis. Do not share this information with anyone else besides your superiors."

"For this operation I assembled this team. First is my brother, who will be leading gold squad. His second-in-command is Sir Marduk."

The devil-type man waves. His skin is red as blood and his eyes are black. His features are thin and a bit effeminate. He barely looks like a proper knight with his smirk crooked smile and casual posture.

"For leader of silver squad will be Dame Larana, her second-in-command is Sir Tarano."

A petite werecat woman waves. She reminds me of a Maine coon, grey skin and white hair with black stripes. Small snout, whiskers, yellow cat eyes, and cat ears. Her eyes are sharp and her face is bony and imponent, she looks calm and cold.

A small incubus-type man clenches his fist over his chest. He's similar to Sonny, pale white skin and hair, but red eyes instead of yellow. Small spiral horns on the temples and a dagger-like tail floating besides him. He has a bit of a ratty face with a long nose, thin chin and a suspicious smile.

"And this is the fellowship Helios, they will be red squad. Mr. Wolf and Misses Alissa, Roxanne, Hana, Ciel, and Lina. None of you except for Haaran has fought with him yet but I won't hear a single complaint," her gaze washes over every knight, "I have no time to deal with inflated pride, this operation is too sensitive to let petty feelings get in the way of the results. If any of you have any doubts remember this fellowship killed the Symbol of Hate and fought side-by-side with Haaran during the goblin village extermination."

The mood of the knights turn into surprise and they murmur between each other. A little bit of fear enters their hearts and the annoyance they have with us slowly disappears, no one seems stupid enough to go against her.

"Quiet. Now, for the operation. Two days ago one of our sniffers found a trail of Farana Uiara's scent while she was buying simple groceries on a shop, she was being escorted by two men. We got our stalkers after her and we tracked her going inside this mansion," Vanea points to a large rectangle on the map, "She hasn't come out yet but we had a tracker sense her presence in there."

"We have detected twenty people plus Farana in there. We do not know about their equipment but there hasn't been much movement inside, we think these are well trained guards since they don't go outside. Farana herself is restricting her own movements a lot, she believes she's in danger but she doesn't know just how..." Her face twitches as she forces herself not to swear, " much danger she is in."

"There's movement on the buildings surrounding the mansion. One of my spies confirmed these to be simple guards who rotate their deployment and think they are just protecting the daughter of a merchant."

"A few of the knights will have to deploy around the mansion to hold these guards, we are certainly going to have to fight so I would rather fight with less men than risk being flanked by random confused grunts," Haaran says.

Vanea places around 6 numbered soldier carvings on the buildings surrounding the mansion.

"You all know where the buildings you are assigned are and how to get to them. Any questions?" She looks to the knights in question.

6 plated knights hit their chests with a closed fist and shake their heads.

"No, my dame," says one of them.

"Continuing. The rest of the numbered knights will surround the mansion and guard the exits. If someone tries to run use your signal bombs and try to delay with the rest of your tools, but don't try to fight if you are outnumbered."

7 carvings are positioned around roads leading to the mansion.

"Silver squad will go through the back first and carefully enter the mansion. Two minutes after we will get gold squad and red squad to storm the front. Both gold and silver will use the scrubbers to prevent escape once the assault truly begins. Only Farana gets to live, everyone else don't bother leaving alive," her voice turns cold.

"What if they surrender?" Ciel asks.

"Cut their legs and heal them, then go back to the fight. You shouldn't have a problem with this, right, priestess?" Vanea glares at Ciel.

Ciel sustains her gaze and glares back.

"No, as long as we do not kill with reckless abandon."

"For me the most important thing is that none of my men dies. I don't know how much loyalty these mercenaries have but none of them is worthy of risking one of these knights," Vanea shows a disturbing smile.

A few of the younger knights straighten up in pride, for as much they fear her they still greatly respect her. Haaran raises his hand to call attention to him.

"Anyway, we have to move in the dark like this otherwise she might use a rogue space mage to escape. We know they had contact with one, this means they know where to go for such services so if we try to scout more we risk her escaping. This is an important woman, lover of a very important enemy to Rabanara, she's the key to catching this spy," he says.

"This is it, any questions?" Vanea asks.

All knights hit their chests with a closed fist and repeat in unison.

"No, my dame."

"I would like to speak with Dame Vanea in private," I say to Vanea.

I feel that if I said "you" one of the knights would slap me.

"You are all dismissed!" She waves at the knights.

The knights straighten up and everyone moves towards the exit. The room empties as Haaran is the last one out.

"We have to decide upon a reward," I say.

"Ten gold for each of you," she answers immediately, "Also, thirty more gold coins as the bounty for those kidnappers you killed."

We are taken aback in surprise. I look at Lina and she nods to me. Vanea chuckles.

"Five gold would be the standard for an inexperienced group of mercenaries. But we have no reason even try to rip you off, we treat and pay those who work for us very well," she smiles innocently.

"I would prefer the better treatment than the better pay."

"You don't have to worry, I will value your help greatly. You can even keep the money as a gift of goodwill."

I give her a thankful nod.

"Well then, can you watch over my dragon until we come back? She's not combat-ready for this type of battle.

Aoi looks at me with biggest puppy eyes she can muster, when I show no reaction she looks for support on the other girls. None of them flinch, Hana gives her a kiss on the top of her head and pats her.

"You will be ready in a few years, perhaps," she says.

Vanea raises an eyebrow.

"Sure, I will be waiting in the [Gate] room so she can just stay there. If she stays in the corner of the room nobody will bother her."

"Understood, that is all."

"Come to the first room to the right."

As Vanea leaves I relay the message to Aoi and I feel the same coldness and loneliness of when we first met. Being left alone in the corner with nobody giving attention to her is exactly what her parents did ever since she was born.

"We will not be able to always stay by your side, my little dragon," Hana says with a softness that could even soothe us, "But you have to trust us, we will come back, we are not abandoning you."

"Wolf will never abandon us, we will never abandon him, and we will never abandon you," Lina says.

"Thruus-t..." Aoi forces out.

"Yes trust us as we trust you," I say.

She sadly nods and hangs her head low.

We pull out our recently padded armor. All our chest pieces now have a small white gem near the neck, we just send a small amount of mana to the gem and it will cast [Breeze] depending on the amount of mana, this will keep us from overheating in this amount of fur. Some silver lines circle around the inside of our armor and even go down towards our pants.

We had the two-handed emellanat sword reforged into a smaller bastard sword that Hana can use, the remaining metal of the reforged sword got added to Ciel's shield. I'm using the one-handed emellanat sword. The other shield with emellanat we had it removed and added to Lina's shield. Our front line is nearly spell-immune, emellanat can only absorb a limited amount of "Magic Power" after all.

"How are you feeling, Wolfy?" Alissa asks.

"I'm fine."

She grabs my hand, I notice I'm shaking.

"Well I guess I'm very anxious. What about Lina?"

She looks at us, she's frowning but she's not shaking.

"I guess better than me," I laugh, then I turn to Ciel, "What do the Gods say about killing?"

"A life without conflict goes against the teachings of the God of Change, but we need a very good reason for this conflict. No life shall be wasted."

"Senseless murder", so there are reasons for it to be accepted.

"Are you ready to fight, not for yourself, but for us?" Alissa asks.

That surprises me a little.

"I fought for you when we were attacked by the Red Smile," I say.

"But you lost yourself, you weren't ready."

"I admit I'm fearing this a little…"

"We all are," Hana interrupts.

"Yes, we all are. But right now I am ready, as ready as I'll ever be."

She smiles then gives me a peck on the lips.

I silence the shrieking woman in my head. There's no time for fear, there's only time for being resolute. I need to strike true and with decisiveness, hesitation will get you killed. I will deal with my PTSD some other time.

Fortune favors the bold. Fear is the mind-killer. Hesitation is the kiss of death. Fortune favors the bold. Fear is the mind-killer. Hesitation is the kiss of death. Fortune favors the bold. Fear is the mind-killer. Hesitation is the kiss of death...

 

We enter the room Vanea talked about, it's another unremarkable room. The knights are all forming lines in front of robed men and women I haven't seen before. Vanea points to us to a robed man with no one in front.

"Form a line here, this space mage will send you to your destination. Haaran's squad will appear near you, just remember to follow him and everything will be fine. Here," Vanea motions and a servant besides her opens a box for us.

"Grab one of these necklaces, they have been blessed by the Goddess of Will and will give you some [Mental Resistance], it should be enough to resist against [Illusion Magic]. This is a gift so don't even think about losing or selling it," she gives me a stern look coupled with a sweet smile.

It's similar to Roxanne's, a simple necklace with a metal medallion, a pair of closed eyes is drawn on relief.

We give our thanks as we take the necklaces.

"Everyone ready...? Good. Now... GO!" Vanea orders.

A black circle appears in front of us, we give one last look to Aoi, depressingly curled on the corner of the room and one by one we enter it.

I am ready.

 

We appear in an alley, it ends in a road and on the other side of this road there's another alley. Shining in the moonlight a group of plated knights comes out of it, Haaran in the lead. He waves us over.

My skills are like this: 

Wolf Ryder Skill Report
Physical
Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level
Sword Use	10+8	Dodge	5+5	Parry	5+5
Block	2+8	Shield Bash	0+1	Battlefield Perception	1+1
Muscle Explosion	1+1
Magical
Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level
Sense Mana	3+6	Mana Control	0+9	Mana Recovery	9+0
Mana Efficiency	4+5	Reduced Mana Cost	7+2	Mana Overuse Resistance	0+3
Fire Magic	0+1	Earth Magic	0+3	Wind Magic	0+1
Electric Magic	9+11	Light Magic	4+6	Space Magic	11+19
Summoning Magic	13+17	Blessing Magic	5+15	Nature Magic	0+15
Illusion Magic	0+2	Golemancy	0+2	Redirect Mana (creator)	3
Sense Soul (creator)	3
Miscellaneous
Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level	Skill Name	Level
Andraste Language	6+4	Dismantling	0+3	Massage	0+1
Enhanced Semen Recharge	0+4
OBS: Level means (freepoint)+(trained point)

I discreetly summon Holly behind us and whisper her to fly around the mansion.

We huddle near a corner on the road, if we take that corner the mansion is straight two blocks down. Haaran looks at a clock in his hand, when it turns into exactly 10:10PM a ring on his other hand turns green. Through Holly I see a group of 6 people sneaking towards the back of the mansion, they are completely covered by the darkness so only with night vision they could be seen. Now we wait, two minutes.

Haaran's sword and shield are different. The sword has gems on the handle, his shield also has a few on its back. Makes sense to put those things where people can't really see, enchantments must be hidden from the enemy to catch them unaware. I feel a hint of mana coming from them, definitely powerful enchantments.

 

Not even a minute goes by and the ring turns red.

"They got spotted, charge!" Haaran orders and we rush down the corner.

I feel mana gathering besides us, a mage from Haaran's squad is casting something. Another mage is fiddling with a small black gem, it's the scrubber. In a moment I'm attacked by the discomfort of having my [Gate] blocked.

"[Fireball]!"

The spell flies forward and hits the gate, it burst open the same moment the double doors of the mansion are violently open.

10 men and women pour out of the doors, one familiar cloaked woman is behind them. Everyone looks a bit "odd", it's just slightly straining to keep an eye on them. The necklace is working, they are all using [Ignorance] but its effect was greatly reduced.

4 men step forward with shields, 2 have spears, 2 have bows and 2 have staffs. The shield users have some very thick textile armor, either brigandines or fur-padded chest pieces. Haaran has 2 shield users plus himself, 2 spears, 1 archer and 1 mage. The enemies are level 30-40, the knights are level 40-50, Haaran is level 56.

"She's at the back!" Alissa yells.

All the men and women in front of us looked very wary and angry, after Alissa yell a little bit of fear enters their expressions, they now look desperate and desperate warriors are the most dangerous.

They quickly form a line in front of us, too quickly. They are all completely dressed and armed, this wasn't a complete surprise for them. Worst of all, the shield users bring out war hammers, they were prepared to face the knights.

Now comes an important part, the mages try casting area spells on each other.

"I'll interrupt!" Roxanne yells.

"I'll cast!" Ciel yells.

"I'll cast!" Yells the other mage.

"I'll interrupt" Yells one of the spear users.

I feel a large amount of mana moving wildly around us. Feels like a storm, but this is only a small battle, a real fight between armies could cause a real mana storm to form and consequently, a dungeon.

I feel like there are two black holes near us, creating a swirl of mana and absorbing it when it gets too close, those are area spells being cast directly in the middle of us. One of their spearmen is chanting something, another half-mage like Ciel.

Just like how you control mana at range to cast a spell like [Firestorm], others can also control that mana and interrupt your spells. This phase of the battle is a dick measurement battle, the one with the biggest amount of control wins, but that rarely happens, you need a huge amount of [Mana Control] to finish a spell while being interrupted.

"I'll interrupt!" I yell.

I focus on one of the black holes, controlling mana is like trying to hold on multiple balls at the same time, you eventually learn how to juggle but it's always a large effort. Interrupting a juggle is much easier than juggling yourself, I "grab" the "event horizon" of the spell and pull it apart, it stretches a little and I see the spearman wince.

The other spell gets broken and the black hole disperses. I feel more "hands" grabbing this spell, with all this power the spearman doesn't hold and the spell is pulled apart. The mana is released and the storm recedes, only ripples of this storm remain on the atmosphere. Ciel and the allied mage's spell are broken too.

The front lines are understandably anxiously staring at each other. If one of the spells went off then chaos would have happened without them being able to do a thing.

I cast [Lighting Bolt], the shield guy that receives it didn't even flinch.

"EMELLANAT!" I yell.

Even Hana's [Fire Breath] won't have much effect on the front line.

"ATTACK!" Haaran commands.

Something on his voice lifts our spirits and clears our minds. Did he learn [Godly Language]? Such magic is restricted to high lords and royalty.

No time for this, the front line moves forward and the back line runs for cover. The enemy archers hide behind two trees, they are flanking the small road towards the gate. The front line meets each other at the gate and a tense battle starts.

The enemy's pole arms stay behind the shield users, spears won't do much good to a knight unless they hit a vulnerable spot, which there aren't many. It's best to leave the war hammers in front. Haaran and us assume a similar tactic, better to have more swords in front than poke each other at distance with spears, we have the numeric advantage, we have to use it.

The mansion is encircled with a metal fence, allowing for arrows to fly through. But the gate is not large enough for our front line to use their numerical advantage to full effect, we can't surround them. Hana is also constrained as her wings would get in the way of others, dragonkin do not fight well on a shield line.

In the middle of the street I pull out a barricade made of logs and crouch behind it. Roxanne hides behind the arch of a house to our right. Alissa is behind a porch of the same house as Roxanne's, there's a chest high wall she can hide behind.

Haaran's mage is on the left behind another archway of a house to our left. The archer is behind a pillar of the veranda of that house.

A [Wind Blade] hits my barricade and splinters fly, it can take about 6 more of these hits, this mage is not particularly strong. But the fight won't last as long.

At this position I don't have much I can do, I can't spam spells like [Discharge] because I don't have much mana due to the summons, there's also a large difficulty in not causing friendly-fire.

Alissa and the allied archer trade arrows with the enemy archer and try to flank the shield wall. But there's no angle to fire that won't let them exposed to counter-fire.

Roxanne chucks spells towards the mansion's doors, where the mages are covering themselves. She has the power to destroy the mansion, but I don't want her to waste mana so she's holding herself back.

Good thing Vanea surrounded this area with knights, the explosions definitely woke up the neighborhood.

I need to do something, the battle is on a stalemate right now, they are only giving each other light wounds. The ferocity of the knights is being matched by the resilience of the mercenaries which are like a cornered animal. No one on the shield line is exposing themselves, they need a distraction.

Hana gets impatient pushes a bit forward, she bashes the shield of the swordsman she's fighting and deflects the counter from the spearman. Ciel tries to snag his spear with the hook in her glaive but the man is experienced enough to not fall for it.

The swordsman Hana is fighting regains his composure and bashes her shield. Another swordsman and a spearman on his side help by attacking her in sync, she's too forward and exposed to more attacks.

The attacks have effect and Hana nearly loses her balance. The attacks continue and Ciel supports her back so she doesn't fall. A sword flashes towards Hana's neck.

Hana played them perfectly, she steadies her feet and with incredible speed she hunches over, the sword hits the side of her barbute right where her cheek scales are and crack them along with bending the metal of her barbute. She grabs the hand of the swordsman with her shield hand and blocks the other two fighters, her sword flashes forward.

Ciel manages to get a slash into the shoulder of the second swordsman, it didn't pierce his padded leather but he received a good bruise, his shield arm is going to lose some power. Hana's sword enters the throat of the swordsman in front of her, she twists the sword and the man jumps backwards, escaping her grip.

The spearman immediately drags back the hurt man and starts chanting. That's it, an opening! I should just throw a dog on their back line and they will quickly dissolve!

Mine and Roxanne's Shad's detect mana coming from behind us, it's on the form of a capsule. It turns into a person instantly, there's someone right behind us!

"Invi-...!

"Behi-...!

"UAAAAAH!"

"GAAAAH!"

Alissa and the allied mage's warnings gets drowned by blood curdling screams coming from behind us, the battlefield nearly stops to a standstill. I look back and there's someone kneeling that can only be described as a ninja. Textile body-conforming clothes, balaclava, very light shoes, all black, and a dagger on hand. Multiple ethereal tentacles coming out of my shadow are passing through his body, one is directly on his forehead.

I slash with my sword and his head falls from his shoulders. Roxanne points her staff and fires a chantless [Ice Lance] directly on the head of the assassin behind her, causing it to nearly explode. I feel Alissa get hurt.

"ASSASSINS! STAND YOUR GROUND!" Haaran roars, his words gives my body new vigor.

I look at Alissa, an arrow entered her left cheek and exited through her jaw hinge on the right side, she's nearly tumbling over. I feel the most amount of fear I have ever felt, my legs are frozen. She snaps her head back in place and recovers her posture, with blinding speed she draws her bow and fires an arrow behind where we are.

The arrow flies and suddenly stops in the middle of the air, blood pours from nowhere.

A glowing flask is thrown towards the floating arrow and it breaks on the floor. Hundreds of fireflies pour out in anger. In a second most of them congregate into 3 humanoid shapes. The [Invisibility] wears off and we see 3 assassins, two are archers, one of those has an arrow on his chest, the last one has no weapons and turns to run.

I cast [Lighting Bolt] on the one running, he trips and falls on the floor. Arrows, spells and another chantless [Ice Lance] pepper the surviving archers. A spear knight runs towards the assassin who fell on the ground.

The allied mage has an arrow coming out of his neck, Marduk breaks the arrow and pulls it out. He grabs an ethereal dagger and plunges into the heart of the mage. This is [Martyrism], demon-race magic. He will "absorb" the wound into his soul and "heal" his own soul.

I look at Alissa, she breaks the shaft of the arrow and pulls out the rest from the right side. She looks at me, I see a hint of smugness. My legs that had been like jelly suddenly get a burst of strength when I see blood pouring out of her wounds. I rush towards her.

I immediately cast two strong [Heals], the wound closes up entirely. She pinches my cheek.

"Don't waste so much mana! I can handle a little pain, remember I have [Pain Resistance]!" She chastises me.

"I.. I'm sorry. D-drink some anti-venom, just in case."

"Alright, now go back to the fight, we are back to a stalemate until the knights are back in shape," she leans into the wall and drinks a general anti-venom from a metal flask.

That's right! The dog! I cast [Summon Dog] and grab the light ball.

"Tackle one of them, do as much damage as you can," I tell the ball, in English.

With a shamefully awkward throw the ball lands into garden behind the fence. A German Shepherd comes out and lunges towards the mage hiding behind the doors just as the enemy spearman finishes chanting a heal to the injured swordsman.

"AAAH! HELP ME!" Screams a mage in high-pitched desperation.

Ciel jumps back and mock-chants a [Windstorm] into the archers behind two not-apple trees. They scatter and the enemy spearman tries to interrupt, the last unharmed mage is trying to help his partner mage and can't help interrupt.

Alissa jumps out of hiding and sends an arrow in the chest of the spearman mage. He falls into the ground and stops interrupting the spell.

Ciel casts the storm and moves it after one of the archers. It slashes him in the back and he falls into the ground, the wind digs into his flesh, opening up multiple deep cuts.

The other archer tries to hit Alissa but she casts [Ghost Lights] chantless and he gets blinded for a moment, she turns into a fox and runs back to cover. The archer flips a table and hides behind it. Roxanne fires a [Fireball] into it and the table partially explodes, leaving the archer exposed again. Alissa fires an arrow and the archer protects her face with her arm.

This is my cue, no more archers that can stop me, I cast [Rush]. I concentrate all I can in retaining control. I run towards the fence and jump towards a concrete pillar.

I pull myself up with ease as I cast a short [Telekinesis] on myself and I swing over the other side of the fence. One spearman tries to break from the line and engage me. He's too slow, I rush towards the double doors.

My dog finally dies and I see a mage with a completely shredded arm and partially burned clothes. Embers and the smell of burnt fur fill the air. I'm sorry you died so horribly, doggy.

The last mage is on the middle of the main hall, he sees me and starts chanting, it's a simple [Fireball]. It's not fast enough.

I slide and cut off his left leg right on the knee. He falls sideways and shrieks. I grip my sword backwards and stab him in the back of his head. He gargles, he's going to die in a few seconds.

The enemy spearman is almost catching up to me. Hana finally breaks through the shield line and with her wings she charges towards the spearman. He didn't even see her coming and his head fell from his shoulder.

The last mage lifts his hand towards me. I cast [Earth Bullet] into his face, he starts bleeding profusely from a wound in his forehead. Hana lands in front of me with a smile and turns around, she sees the last mage and sends her own chantless [Earth Bullet], a rock stake pierces his forehead and he stops moving.

I hear footsteps behind us. The door behind us opens and 1 men and two women appear. One woman is an archer, the other is a mage and the man is a spearman. They are winded and wounded, fleeing from their battle with the silver squad. Their faces pale as they see us.

Hana rushes the spearman, he meekly raises his spear only to have it break on her shield. She slashes downwards, he tries to defend with his shield but he gets sprawled on the ground.

I cast [Rush] and dash towards the archer, she quickly abandons trying to pull an arrow and draws her sword just in time to defend my blow. I feint a thrust and slash downwards with a little help of [Telekinesis], she can't handle the surprise weight and loses her sword.

I slash at her wrist and her left hand falls off, she quits trying to draw her dagger from her back and falls on her knees.

"I YIELD!" The archer screams.

The mage girls is shaking and drops her staff.

"I-I y-yield!" The mage is terrified.

I hear footsteps upstairs, must be Farana.

With a broken shield line and no support, multiple weapons fall down on the floor as the remaining mercenaries surrender. Haaran bursts into the hall.

"Where is she!?" He asks in desperation.

His armor is still pristine, only tainted by a few drops of the blood of our enemies.

"Upstairs! I think she's running!" I answer.

"I'll handle them, go!" Hana yells.

I dash through the left stairs while Haaran dash towards the right. I hear the mage woman scream, Hana must have cut her hands so she can't cast spells. Brutal, but necessary.

I cast [Rush] and [Spirit Light] and my head starts hurting. I'm on my last legs here, hopefully she won't fight.

"Hold her in place," I tell my Shad in English, I only feel a sense of someone telling me "yes".

Holly is flying around the mansion, Farana won't escape.

I hear a door bursting open at the far end of the corridor. Gotcha.

I can't even admire the luxury of this mansion, I get over the end of the corridor so fast I almost crash into the wall, [Rush] is still dangerous if I lose concentration for even a second.

I hear Haaran's plate cacophony coming closer. I'm on the entrance of a huge room full of furniture covered by dust, Farana is hiding here somewhere.

"Find her."

I pull my shield up and wait. I get a single glance at a shadowy figure and I sense "death" coming, I pull my shield up just as a dagger clanks against it. Farana tries to run towards the window.

A huge shadow emerges from the ground and covers her. She falls down on the ground, her screams muffled by the Shad.

I walk towards her and remove the 3 other daggers and the shortsword I can see on her waist. I put my sword on her neck and my foot on her back.

"That's enough, back to protecting me."

Farana stops screaming. I see her eyes are vacant, she's stunned by the pain. Slowly as her eyes gain focus she tries to raise herself, only for me to force her back down. Realization of her situation quickly washes over her face.

She's really cute and small. Braided brown hair to the side and a pale freckled face. Her larger than average ass is visible even for me.

A large orange fox and a pristine knight burst into the room. Alissa turns back and aims her drawn bow at Farana. Haaran stops to catch his breath and sighs in relief.

Haaran brings out manacles and quickly restrains Farana, two other knights appear and start patting her down. I move back towards Alissa and relax.

We are sweaty but I don't care, I just hug her and inspect where her wound was.

"It's fine, didn't even leave a scar," she slaps my exploring hands with a smile.

Good.

"What now?" I ask Haaran.

"Return to your fellowship and watch over the prisoners, we will find silver squad."

We quickly walk back to where we came. There's only 7 prisoners there, including the 3 that surrendered to me, the rest haven't surrendered fast enough and were cut down. Once a shield line breaks and people get surrounded things turn bad quickly.

I see Ciel is healing the stumps of the crying mage girl. She might get her hands back later, though I don't know what exactly is going to happen to them, they should be simple mercenaries.

"Wound report," I tell the girls.

"Nothing," says Roxanne.

"Nothing," says Ciel.

"My shield hand hurts a lot," Lina says.

"Just a small bruise and this," Hana says, tapping her crushed scales.

"How do I heal those scales?" I ask.

Some of them are missing parts, things like these don't heal without the level 80 [Regrowth] spell from [Light Magic] or a very long use of [Regeneration].

"Let me find the broken parts and it should heal normally, if not then in about a day-cycle or so they should grow back to normal."

Me, Lina, and Ciel surround the prisoners as Roxanne and Hana search for pieces of her scales.

Hana finds them and lays down on the ground, she puts the broken pieces on her face where they should fit.

"That's it, now just do it."

I signal Ciel with my eyes. Can't tell the prisoners I'm low on mana. She chants quickly and heals her.

"Alright, feels a bit off, some didn't get fully healed but this will go back to normal in a day or two," Hana says.

"Hana, can you bring me the corpses of the assassins? They might have valuable things on them, three of them are our kills so I won't let Vanea have them. Even the one who tried to run could be considered my kill but I will let her have two."

"What spell was that?" Ciel asks.

"[Invisibility], it's level 50, this illusion mage is no joke," I answer.

It's from [Illusion Magic]. The interesting thing about it is that you can't see anything when you use it, light curves around you, which means that light also never enters your eyes. You have to use other means to see where you are going.

Not even Holly can see them if they are using this spell, her vision depends on some sort of particle for vision, somehow, we owe our lives to the Shad's mana vision. The allied mage survived an arrow to the throat but if these assassin had reached us we could have died instantly.

Hana easily drags them, they are all rather small and thin, one is a werecat. The archer's armor is nearly ruined.

We wait nearly 20 minutes until Haaran comes back with Farana and the silver squad, they look beaten and bloodied. Larana looks tired, Tarano is limping and holding his ribs, and there's 2 dead knights with them. Haaran looks very bitter.

"Everyone here...? Good, calling back our way out," he says.

Haaran fiddles with a small gem on his hand. In a minute a group of space mages and a two knights come out of an alley and rush towards the gate.

"You two," Haaran points at the knights, "Find knight number 1, he must have been killed by the assassins. Then get the town guards and scour this area, I want every single hired guard around this mansion under arrest, someone was working with the spy."

"Yes, sir!" They answer in unison.

The space mages open the [Gate] and we are back in the room we came from. A few robed men and women come take a look at the wounded silver squad. Vanea is waiting for us in the middle of the room, her face is stern.

Aoi comes running towards us and tackles my stomach.

"You little... Careful, this hurts."

"Kweh!" She says, she's not sorry.

Aoi tries to lick my mouth but only reaches my chin. Then she jumps off and claws up everyone else, giving them a lick too.

Vanea comes towards us and Haaran. The other knights wordlessly move out of the room, dragging the crying mercenaries and slowly the room clears.

"Report," she says, subduing her anger.

"A spy among the outer guards sent an early warning, silver squad got ambushed and lost two but managed to kill nearly everyone else. There were also invisible assassins, fortunately no one died to them," he sends us a look mixed with concern and confusion, "We can assume that the knight responsible for our flank is dead."

Vanea visibly grinds her teeth, knights are very valuable to a Lord, the only death you want to give them is of old age.

Farana is thrown on Vanea's feet.

"You better be worth this or I will make it worth it," she growls towards Farana, the fury in her words barely masked by a cold expression.

Farana is completely quiet, her face shows pure terror, she barely had the strength to walk as one of the knights had to nearly drag her.

"We didn't find the illusion mage, he could have been entering and leaving the mansion by [Gate]," Haaran continues.

"Then he still has a rogue space mage and a very powerful illusion mage," Vanea says, then she looks at us.

"Our deal was to get Farana," I respond immediately, I let some bitterness in my voice, "Not only that but you greatly underestimated him, my fellowship killed three of the assassins, no thanks to your help."

I'm really bitter about those assassins, if it weren't for the Shads, me and Roxanne would likely be dead and Alissa would be vulnerable and wounded.

She looks at Haaran, he comes towards her and they hurriedly whisper.

"How did you survive?" She asks after a few seconds of whispering.

"I will not answer this."

"If you really want to end this once and for all you will come to fight for us again. You have better chances to survive this than even my own brother."

Both of them stare at us, this time though their eyes show a hint of pleading. My light headache from overuse just intensified.

Lina comes to my side.

"Let's just leave this for later," she whispers.

I agree.

"We will continue this later, we are too tired for such a thing."

"As you wish..." Vanea says with a hint of annoyance.

She might have been trying to force this out of us since we are tired and more vulnerable.

"Here's you rewards. You can also keep the bodies of those assassins you killed."

I just nod in answer, then a proto-butler comes forward and hands me a sack of coins. I put it into my "Items".

She turns to Farana and smiles wickedly. Haaran frowns and moves out of the room, now there's only us, Vanea, her follower, and Farana.

"Careful with her, dame," Ciel says, with a small respectful bow.

"Do not worry, priestess. I will allow you to cast [Detect Evil] on me anytime you wish, I will not throw away all I conquered just for this..." She seems unsure which swear is more appropriate for Farana.

Farana curls up on the ground, one eye staring at Vanea with pure fear.

"I will not go so far, but I must tell you the temple will be keeping an eye on you."

"They already are. I'm well acquainted with the Three Sins, I know very well what 'sadistic torture' means and I assure you my 'Piety' is higher than 10."

Ciel and Vanea start a staring contest.

"That is all that I have for you," Vanea says to us and waves her hand dismissively.

I would like to say that Ciel won the contest.

We give a small bow and take our leave, we take off our armor and leave the tavern. The patrons are all too drunk to even notice us.

On the trip home I use [Regeneration] on Hana's scales to get them back to normal. Once we are home we all go immediately to sleep.

 

Today is the 7th.

I woke up first instead of Alissa. She seems to sleep heavily when she's exhausted. I wanted to give her a surprise and kiss her but this time Roxanne is cuddling with me, her tail is curled up my leg and also curled up on my penis, she's slowly rubbing it with every breath. Ticklish, not stimulating. Her horns go floppy when she sleeps so they look like they are made of rubber and jiggle as her chest inflates with every breath.

The air coming out of her nose tickles my face. I see Hana slept with a hand fondling one of Roxanne's breasts. We all sleep naked now, Ciel sleeps in her panties but we her convinced to sleep without her breast sash, it was an amazing view to see Lina's head buried in the hopes and dreams of men.

I use [Clean] on my mouth and give Roxanne a kiss on the nose. She twitches her nose cutely. I press her nose and she starts to squirm and let out soft cute groans.

"Unyaa~..."

I feel movement on my other side. Alissa is stretching her arms.

"Not fair, you woke up first," she pouts.

"Everyone was too tired, it seems," I say.

She casts [Clean] on her mouth and gives me a kiss. I don't let her go and kiss her as deeply and passionately as I can. Yesterday was close, too close, too damn close!

"You worry too much," she says after I finally release her, she read my heart.

"Yes and I don't plan on changing that."

She smiles and rests her head on my chest, I play with her silky hair. Whatever Roxanne has bought is doing wonders to the hair of the girls, they all feel and smells so good. Alissa's smells like oranges, Hana's smells like strawberries, Roxanne's smells like some flower, I guess it's lavender? Lina's is very, very sweet, and Ciel's reminds me of chocolate.

"How did you notice the assassins?" I ask.

"One of them passed close to me to reach Roxanne. I managed smell him, they stank of a sweat I never smelled before."

Who knows what that arrow would have done if Alissa hadn't moved her head at that time.

Roxanne's tickling turns into tugging that turns into stroking. I look at my side and Roxanne is smiling at me mischievously. I give her a morning kiss too, her mouth is already clean. When we are done Hana gives her morning kiss to my dick as I burst into her mouth.

This time she swallows everything. She cleans her mouth and gives her morning kiss to Roxanne and then to me.

It's already 10AM. I want my arms to turn into noodles or tentacles just so I can tie them all down in bed and spend all day like this. Not that I'm thinking of anything else.

My "Dexterity" increased by 1 (now 10). I guess the focus required to use [Rush] pushed me to increase this stat.

Hana leveled up to 37. She didn't increased any skill so she has some free skill points for me to manipulate.

 

Breakfast is light. The griffin clawed the window of the kitchen until we gave it some piece of raw meat. Then it happily ran off with the meat hanging from its mouth.

"How you all holding up?" I ask.

"What?" Alissa tilts her head.

"I mean, how are you all feeling?"

I guess we should do this often.

"I'm fine," Alissa answers immediately.

"I'm fine..." Roxanne answers, her shoulders are slumped.

"Barely fought, it was quite fast," Hana says with a shrug.

"Same," Ciel says.

"I just defended..." Lina says.

"Kweh," Aoi was lonely.

Ciel looks at me, prodding me to talk. I sigh. It's actually quite hard to talk about your feelings.

"Yesterday scared the shit out of me but when I remember [Godly Language]... What you girls think of me asking for Haaran to teach me [Godly Language] in return for us helping them again?" I ask.

Lina's Trivia: [Godly Language] is a magic school where your voice carries power and other humanoids are compelled to obey, the higher the "Piety" the more effect it has. You can even make these humanoids accomplish things impossible for them, it's almost like bending reality with only your voice. I didn't train this school because you can easily kill yourself if you screw up, it's one where you really need a proper teacher for it.

Lina frowns.

"Was that really [Godly Language]?" Ciel asks.

"Seems like it, just by words he filled us with vigor, I didn't even sense mana or a chant from a spell. Unless it's a unique support spell that he can cast chantless like I can then it's [Godly Language]."

"This might be one of the reasons the capital hates Rabanara, learning this magic school is a privilege only reserved for those of high prestige or direct descendants from the emperor," Alissa says.

"Vanea did mention she wanted to bring [Cursing Magic] school to Rabanara against the wishes of the chairmen of the university. They might be so starved for power to control the Shore of Leaves it must be hurting their reputation," Lina says.

"She also the mentioned blocking soul manipulator necromancers from coming into Rabanara. She might be acquainted with the 'husk' manipulators," Alissa adds.

Lina's Trivia: Necromancy does not create undead, they reanimate flesh and bodies without the need for a soul. These reanimated dead are called "husks". They are not explicitly illegal, you can get a permit to use it but hardly anybody wants smelly, rotting, pestilent zombies walking around. The part of necromancy that deals with forcing a soul back into a body is the one that's illegal. The real "undead" is something else entirely.

"Rabanara got destroyed a few times before the Anara family took control, perhaps this is how they did it, they accepted anything that's not explicitly illegal. They are known to be pragmatics after all," Ciel says.

"So, I assume they might not have qualms with teaching [Godly Language] to a commoner?" I ask.

"Seems so. If Vanea truly is in need of allies then we can squeeze this out of her. But this might be the limit, anymore and we might get her ire," Lina says, her tone seems cold.

"Do any of you girls also want to learn it?" I ask.

"I don't think me and Ciel have enough 'Willpower' for it," Roxanne says.

"It also needs a lot of 'Intelligence'..." Alissa says sadly and looks at Hana.

Both aren't really qualified for this.

"Can't I compensate this with pure 'Willpower'?" Hana asks.

"Perhaps, but it will be difficult," Roxanne answers.

"If she's willing to train for a long time I can teach her after I learn myself," I say.

"I'm fine with this," Hana says.

"So that only leaves you and Lina," Roxanne says.

"I'm... Okay with this, though I might not have enough time until we finish enchanting lessons, no?" Lina says.

"If I learn I can just train you alongside Hana," I say.

"Sounds good," she gives me an adorable smile.

"Anyway, do you all agree in fighting for Vanea one more time in exchange for [Godly Language]?"

"I'm getting anxious about it... Last time was too close," Roxanne says, her posture shrinks.

"I agree. It feels tempting though, [Godly Language] will help against any other humanoid we fight but at what cost," Ciel says, she's concerned but also tempted.

"We could ask for the right to refuse if she's being too reckless," I say.

"That would be nice but Vanea does not seem to be the type to throw lives away," Lina says, "she needs allies and if we can end our relationship on a good note it would be beneficial for her in the future. She knows we want to conquer a dungeon, after all."

"Next time we can properly scout with the Shad's since Wolfy doesn't have to hide his ability anymore, right?" Hana asks.

"Yes, [Invisibility] won't be a problem, I'm scared of what else is gonna be thrown at us," Roxanne says, "Darean is getting put into a corner, what's he gonna do when he's desperate?"

That put us into thought. What else is Darean's backer capable of throwing at us? If he has a mage that can cast [Invisibility] then he certainly has someone powerful behind him, someone not even Vanea might know who it is.

"I think it's worth to risk it," Hana says.

"Me too," Alissa says.

Lina, Ciel, and me are in doubt. I'm leaning towards fighting.

"I think we should," Lina says meekly.

"Why?" I ask.

"We will never get another chance at this."

Roxanne sinks further. We could use a vote but it might not be the best choice, how would she feel if we just ignore her concerns?

"Roxanne... We will be fine, my love," Hana grabs Roxanne by the waist and buries her head on Hana's breasts.

Roxanne closes her eyes. Ciel's head is hanging low but she's staring at Roxanne. I move towards her and do the same as Hana.

"We will be fine, my love," I repeat.

I'm rewarded with a chuckle from Ciel.

"There's also the need to fully end this. If we help deal a strong blow to Darean, Vanea can finish him off without our help," Alissa says.

Roxanne looks at Ciel for help but Ciel answers with a small apologetic smile.

"Alright…"

Hana hugs her tighter.

 

I pull out the 3 corpses of the assassins inside our basement. They have simple black clothes created in a way they are soundless instead of offering any sort of protection. Their daggers are nondescript. The only thing worthy of notice was that they had some paralysis venom, it was the right idea to have Alissa drink a general anti"venom. Roxanne got interested in this venom that she never saw before, even though it isn't particularly strong.

[Invisibility] makes you blind, so how did they find us and even coordinate to attack us? There must have been something else there to aid them that we missed. Could it have been [Sense Presence]? It still wouldn't help them avoiding any sort of obstacle while they walk, they would easily trip on anything. Probably some sort of Unique Spell that faded when they died, all assassins are dead so we can't even ask them.

They even did something to their souls, I can't find their souls using [Soul Touch]. It's possibly what Ciel said where wicked people destroy their souls upon death to escape hell.

 

At nature class the professor tries to teach us [Manasynthesis]. It's a very useful spell for mages since it increases the recovery rate of mana, I would bet most students are here just for this spell. It goes as well as expected since it's a level 30 spell, it will take a few more classes for the students to learn it.

At the break I bring Lina and Alissa with me for support. We knock on Vanea's office door.

"Come in," she says, "Ah, Mr. Ryder. A pleasure to see you so soon."

Vanea has an uncharacteristic pure smile, her hair tied to a ponytail gives her a very refreshing expression.

"Hello, Miss Anara. You seem very happy."

"Yes, I'm taking my time teaching the little bird how to sing," her smile grows wider.

If one didn't knew what she was talking about one would assume she's a pure person teaching a real bird how to sing. The lack of evilness in her smile just makes me worried, I wish I didn't ask.

"Anyway, we are here to talk about your deal to fight again."

"Sure, sit down, please."

This time we sit at her cushy sofas. Alissa brings out tea and cookies for us, Vanea grabs one cup with a kind smile. With this attitude and her ponytail Vanea feels like a sister to Silvane.

"We will only accept with one condition," -Vanea lifts her eyes to me- "if you teach me [Godly Language]."

Vanea continues sipping from her tea and eats a cookie. She calmly reclines on the sofa and looks at the ceiling, thinking. Then she turns her head to me.

"Why would you want to learn this?" Her voice tells she's asking a genuine question.

Truth be told, [Godly Language] is known to be very difficult to learn, but I have the aid of the skill system. Learning anything is much easier for me since I can instantly learn about half of what's necessary to gain any skill.

"Power is power. I also believe I will have an easier time to learn it than the normal."

Vanea looks very amused. She stares at us with a smile while slowly stirring her teacup.

"You don't have any qualms about teaching me this?"

"No..." She shakes her head, her ponytail cutely bounces, "The pompous bastards at the capital be damned. I would rather not announce to the world that I'm teaching you this but I really do not care. If it weren't for the royalty having a near monopoly on this I would have fought for it to be taught at Rabanara instead of [Cursing Magic]."

I felt like asking for [Cursing Magic] instead but [Godly Language] is much more rare and interesting. She sips at her tea again.

"What did you put on this tea? Tonsel? It tastes wonderfully," Silva-, I mean, Vanea asks.

"Yes, it is Tonsel, but I think it tastes better cold and with much more sugar."

"I will try that later," she adorably smiles, "Anyway, I will only teach you this if you agree to hunt down that illusion mage. Your monster summoning is too good and a proper counter for illusions. Not only that but Haaran is sure some of your women cast a chantless spell. As far as we know they have no idea of your skills, we can catch them all by surprise."

Not like last "surprise" worked well for us. But the fact she knows I can use [Summon Monster] is worrying. I don't think she's going to exploit us, our relationship is balanced for now but this will be the last time we make a deal, [Godly Language] seems too good to pass up.

"Hm... I will reserve a right to refuse to participate if I feel you are sending us to our deaths. I won't risk so much again, Alissa got an arrow to the face."

She stares at Alissa for a few moments. The arrow thankfully didn't leave a scar due to my powerful [Heals] but still, the mental scarring of seeing her like that won't disappear so soon.

"Fine."

"Then I accept the deal."

"Now I will be the one to ask for your word, Wolf Ryder, Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge."

I kinda expected this.

"I, Wolf Ryder, leader of Helios, Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge, give you my word. Let the Gods observe me and judge me for my actions."

I feel a small constriction on my heart, it's not painful, it's only a bit uncomfortable. It's the Gods answer to me, they are telling me they heard my oath.

"You have a Symbol of Darkness, right? Do you have a Beholder?"

"Yes to both of these."

"Do you also have a Dream Eater?"

"No, we only went to the 13th floor of the Roulette of the Morning Dew."

"You should get yourself one, they are going to be even more useful than a Symbol of Darkness."

Ciel might really dislike this, she could even be traumatized by them, I really do not want to get her to suffer through this.

"Maybe... I'm very busy this class break, I might not be able to go to that dungeon again."

I also do not want to touch the 14th floor.

"I will get Haaran to capture one. After the end of the coming class break come see me and it should be ready by then. We will start training you in [Godly Language] then."

Can't really go against it when she's just giving me in a platter.

"Understood."

"Then that is all."

"I'll return to you the bodies of the assassins. They didn't really have anything of value in the end."

"Sure, just put them at the empty office just like last time."

I bow and we take our leave, Vanea was much more pleasant this time. Perhaps she wasn't such a fearsome figure until she started to get cornered.

 

"So it's confirmed we are fighting again?" Hana asks.

She's not fearful of Vanea, our dealings with her are going much better than what she was used to with the other nobles. When you are not at each other's throats or competing for the same resources a more pleasant relationship is possible.

"Yes, she knows I can summon monsters, she will give us a Dream Eater so we might end up with a more passive role this time."

Ciel shudders, it really was a good idea not to go to the 14th floor. I grab Roxanne's hand.

"One last fight, so we can end this once and for all."

She looks anxious but she gives me a nod in agreement. We will see this until the end, together.

 

Intermission 7

Everyone is dead or surrendered. My friends, the people I got to know so well, the people who put so much to help me, to keep me safe, they all failed. Everything seems to be falling apart as if a knife is slowly being thrust in my heart. I don't even know where I am anymore.

But that's not the worst.

I hear footsteps coming down towards my filthy hole, there's only one person who would visit me, there's only one thing that that person might want from me.

She stops in front of my hole and stares down into it. With her came the only light I can see, the sphere of light floats behind her head, shadowing her face. Even though I can't see her expression her eyes pierce me like a monster's fang pierces the flesh of its prey.

Just through the eyes I can see all the pain, hatred, fury... And carnage, that those eyes spell. I know it because part of it was caused specifically by me, I'm one of her worst enemies and now all she has to do is close her jaws. I'm scared, I'm so scared.

I feel the floor get wet and warm. Darean, help me..

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