Ch 2.32: ❤ Escape

“What the stars is a Temmie?” the hostage asked, still struggling to get with her bindings.

“We have to run,” Flora said, running over and picking up up Tira off the ground, the latter’s screams started again the second she was pulled away from Carline’s arms.

“Put me down!” Flora obeyed, and Carline resumed healing, but Elaina was still struck by the intensity of the piercing cry of pain, then struck again by the cry from the creature she’d restrained.

“You can’t outrun them,” the hostage said, flopping over onto her side and finally giving up on her attempts to escape. “They’re way too fast, but if you untie me, I can chase them off.”

“Not happening,” Flora said, frowning. “Gods, Tira, you really can’t stand?”

“It’s too much pain,” Carline said, shaking her head. “The venom’s not immobilizing by itself, but I’m surprised she’d even conscious with the pain I’m feeling through her.”

“I’m tougher than I look,” Tira said, still wincing. “But yeah, I can’t fight like this. Carline, it might be better to leave me, let me deal with the pain and pass out.”

“Are you sure?” Elaina asked, walking over to their prisoner, keeping an eye on the bag that she’d tied to her, the bag holding Temmie.

“I can put you to sleep,” Carline said, biting her lip. “But if anything happens to me, no one else will be able to wake you up again.”

“Do it,” Tira said, shaking her head. Even from a distance, Elaina could see the woman sweating vigorously. “I trust you.”

“Help me carry her away from the trees,” Carline said, lifting up on Tira’s arms as Flora grabbed her legs and helped carry her over to the hostage.

Tira’s body was completely limp by the time all the girls reached the hostage, but Elaina barely even recognized that. She was more focused on the giant monster still pulling at the three trees she’d chained it to, and the looming arrival of its friends. Without Tira, they were going to be at a severe disadvantage, and with no real way to gain access to their class gear without exposing themselves to their hostage, they needed some way to shore up the difference.

“Gods, it sure is hot today!” Elaina was already blushing as she uttered the ridiculous statement. It was a perfectly nice afternoon, with a pleasant breeze, but she carried on anyway. “It’s just way too warm!” Feeble justification uttered, Elaina reached for her jacket buttons and started undoing them.

This is insane, she thought as she shrugged her jacket off and on to the ground. No one really paid any mind though until she reached for her skirt, reaching in and undoing the clasp that held it together, letting it go as three heads turned towards her.

“What the fuck?” was the only response, the bewildered shock coming from their captive as Elaina’s legs came into view, her red panties peeking out of the bottom of her shirt.

“It’s too warm; I can’t focus! Can’t you see how red I am?” Elaina said as she started unbuttoning her shirt. Gods that excuse was so stupid, but her plan was working. [Humiliation Factor] was kicking in, maybe even working better than it would normally because of how ridiculous her reasoning for stripping was.

Soon enough she was there in just her boots and lacy red underwear set, a set that barely had any coverage at all. The cups were completely sheer aside from a handful of star shapes stitched into them, doing nothing to hide her obviously erect nipples, and while her crotch was mercifully covered, the back of her panties were as sheer as the bra. She’d worn them expecting she might get to show them off, but not like this.

“What the fuck is with you perverts?” the captive said, face and voice both filled with shock. Elaina’s skill hadn’t been completely maxed out before, but that did it, pushing her shame to the max just as she heard rustling in the trees.

It three of them this time, two smaller ones, but one the same size as the first. “I got the big one,” Elaina said, bracing her feet and running towards them. She needed to be as close as possible for maximum efficiency. She could hear Flora running behind her, Carline too. Elaina wasn’t sure if she’d be able to take on all three, but hopefully the other girls could take the small ones.

The platypus was too far from the trees to restrain the same way, but she had other ideas. When she couldn’t afford to get any closer Elaina planted her feet, activating [Personal Restraint] in the same instant she began conjuring iron, a series of stakes in the ground, flat metal sheets at the bottom to prevent them from being yanked up easily, each connected to chains, all coalescing into one giant bear trap, or a platypus trap as it were.

It was the single largest thing she’d ever made, the thing that took the most energy of anything she’d ever done, but she started to gasp as soon as she’d made it. It’s not enough, she thought, wouldn’t have the effect she needed it to. She’d made the shape, but she hadn’t loaded it with the energy it would need to go off, to snap shut. She could only watch in horror as the monster advanced, stepped on her creation in its quest to kill them, to take Temmie.

But when the beast stepped on the trap, it did go off, snapped right around the creature’s webbed foot, halting it as it cried out in pain. It had been enough, she realized, not because she’d loaded it with the energy it needed to work, but because she’d made it correctly, made it in such a way that it had the energy anyway. She still didn’t fully understand the mechanics behind the trap, the physics of it, but she had read up on it a little, and she wasn’t completely efficient like Sylvas was when he’d demonstrated it for her in Engineering class, but she had done enough to make a functional trap, one that stopped her target in its tracks.

The trap made, she was able to let go of [Personal Restraint] and look to the others. Flora was engaged in a grapple with one of the two smaller creatures, one almost as tall as her. Elaina had a moment of panic as she saw the thing scratching at her body, but no blood was drawn, merely a scraping sound as its claws glided across Flora’s skin.

Flora was fine; it was Carline that needed help. She was circling around the other smaller platypus, Tira’s sides word drawn as she kept it at bay, stabbing out whenever it came close to her. Elaina was running low on mana, but she had enough to deal with that one, creating a shackle around its throat and attaching it to the same spikes in the ground as the one she’d just dealt with.

Things seemed calm, a reprieve in the fighting as the only sounds of struggle were the cries of pain from the one with the trapped leg and the struggle of the two wrestling fighters as Flora managed to drop her opponent to the ground, pinning it down. “Are these things their babies?” Flora asked.

“Probably,” Carline said, lowering her sword slightly and backing off.

“Help!”

All three girls turned around, seeing their hostage still tied up, and being approached by a third smaller platypus, one running faster than any of Elaina’s party could hope to match. There was pure terror in her eyes as she wriggled away in her bindings, a futile attempt to save herself. Without thought Elaina undid the restraints on the girl, letting her scramble to her feet as the monster bounded towards her. She didn’t have enough time though, not with how fast it was moving.

But then the girl grabbed Elaina’s satchel, and both person and bag disappeared in an instant.