Chapter 68 – A Rough Finish

*** Yuki ***

I'm a mess. I've been dancing in circles for the past ten minutes. The leader hasn't flinched once at my magic. Soon, I'm going to have to use my illusions to do something, possibly just escape and hopefully kill her when she goes to follow me out. Maybe I get lucky, and she hops out a window and lets the trap kill her. But if I do that, I would risk letting them know who is behind the attacks. I would need to go begging the Countess to get them to back off, and Mai's revenge would end there.

Now, one instance wouldn't be a deal breaker. The investigators may not even pick it up with all the earth mana stirred up by this bitch. But with the disguise also being illusion mana, I don't want to risk it after I warned Nakuma so much about it. So, around and around, I go. Barely avoiding the traps she set, the random spikes being thrown around, and the spikes directly aimed at me. Cuts and scratches building up over my body. I know Alzi will fret over my tail tomorrow. She'll heal it back to its rightful beauty.

I send out another useless volley of sounds. I the room soundproof so people won't hear the ruckus our spells are causing, and their own reinforcements are keeping the building standing. The worry is how long they hold. My traps will likely go off when the building collapses, causing even more destruction and turning quite a few heads.

If I get lucky, the traps will kill or hurt her, but they'll likely go off too far from her to do anything but threaten me. She'll be able to make a dome to protect her; I'll have to get lucky.

I do one last dive then the spikes all stop.

"Why do you keep this hopeless game up? Just let me spike your head already," comes out in a matter-of-fact tone. I've killed all her allies, yet she thinks I'm going to roll over and die just like that? She should be the one to cut her own head off! I've been working hard while she's just stood there.

"Why would I do that. I'm getting close to running you out of mana, few more minutes and you'll be defenseless."

"You really think I'm stupid enough to run out of mana? Sure, my backup is taking a few minutes longer than they should, but they are coming. Even then, I'll whittle you down to a little stub as you hope I run out of mana. But keep dancing, little ballerina."

The spikes start up with a renewed vigor. Seems I ran into a deaf girl. She was reading my lips! I sectioned her off from my voice, yet she responded to my words. Sure, I didn't say anything she could guess, but she didn't even hint that she didn't hear me. Damn it, what kind of shit luck is this.

Her new speed is also racking up more hits, spilling my pretty red blood all over the place. With my sound magic useless, I really will need to use an illusion to end this. But what kind do I use? She'll likely keep up the random pattern for a bit after I fake my death. Maybe even hitting the door a bit to keep me in here. She may even have extra sensing passives to make up for the lost hearing, making even my illusion magic useless.

Is my best bet waiting for Yuki, hoping she gets here before whatever backup the mage is expecting? Together, we should be able to end this quickly. The problem would then be my injuries and whatever backup may come jumping in on us. That's if she beats them.

If the backup comes first, the best case for me is hiding in the corner when Nakuma comes in shortly after and fights them all alone. Worst case is her getting revenge for killing her lover.

"Oh, here they are, finally."

I sneak a peak at the lone door and find a girl split in two, falling apart there.

"RUN!" I shout before taking a hard hit to the chest. My leather armor stops it from penetrating, but the broken ribs will be there till I get to Kelly and Alzi. The Crazy Kitsune listens well, dodging the blow from behind her. I'm not sure how she got in between the backup, but I'll take a two vs two. Spike Lady will be more limited in her uses now that she has a competent ally. Hopefully, one that isn't deaf. "You need to take this bitch. She doesn't care about my magic one bit!" I call out. I turn my focus to the mage who followed Nakuma in.

With a newcomer, I need to find what magic I can expect from her. She likely knows about my sound magic, having just heard nothing going on in here despite the noise Miss Spike was causing. So far all she did was slash at Nakuma's back with a short sword. If this becomes a sword fight, I'll be counting on Nakuma to find a good time to intervene.

I don't wait long to find her magic as a fireball gets launched. This one I'm able to dispel, she doesn't have the casting speed of the spike woman. I dare to close the space; I'll have to hope she doesn't have much skill with the sword. I'll be able to dispel her spells with no problem, but I'm too tired and weak to have a true sword fight.

*** Nakuma, the minutes before the fight***

She just had to do these attacks at the same time. We could have done them both together. Thirty minutes is small enough to run between two attacks, but that time feels like forever if we need to provide support.

The first twenty minutes were fine, a good run, really, but I found a girl who was walking with purpose. She shouldn't have been this late. The worst part is that she's walking to the same damn warehouse I'm going to. I'm sure she also feels the mana spilling out of the warehouse. Yuki is struggling with the last girl.

Luckily, this girl has a single purpose right now, making it easy to cut her in two when Yuki risks a warning. "RUN!" I take a dive to the right and hear the blade swish past me.

Shit, I, too, focused as well.

"You need to take this bitch. She doesn't care about my magic one bit."

What did she run into, some deaf assassin? Taking a quick peak and yes, Yuki ran into what must be the only deaf assassin in the world. What shit luck.

Hoping for some luck, I pull her in and swing. All I hit was a rock wall. Messing with space some more, I separate the room into two places: one for me and the deaf woman, then Yuki and my stalker. I'll take this slowly, hoping for a moment to pull in Yuki's opponent for a killing blow.

"Hmm, we didn't think there would be two girls attacking us. Did you do some recruiting?"

She doesn't seem like the mobile kind, so I forgo the space traps and instead just start tossing daggers at her, and she starts sending her damn rock spikes at me. In the corner of my eye, I spot Yuki rushing the fire mage. I send a single dagger to her back, but the portal fails to open. They really did plan for me and luck into this matchup for Yuki.

I use my portals to get in close again to the rock lady. In the close fight, she just plays defense, wall after wall, going up in front of my sword as I teleport around her. She has no armor, so a single hit would end it. She tries using a few spike traps, but I just send the space away, letting me keep roaming free.

Yuki's duel isn't going well. The assassin is mediocre at best with a sword. But that's good enough to beat a tired and injured Yuki. Yuki is at least able to do some things with her spells, but both are capable enough to dispel each other's spells.

Giving up on helping Yuki, I focus on slipping through the rock wall in front of me. She can get her wall out fast, but I should be able to dispel it. Defenses are more resistant to dispels, but if I'm setting the place they'll be, I can manage. Keeping my attack predictable, I start to prepare my dispel. I track the time it takes for her to put the wall up, searching for some pattern in the timing.

If it's behind her, it takes a tenth of a second longer than her front. She even reacts faster when it aims for her neck than her thighs. So, I'll aim for her thighs and use the skill quickly.

Few attacks in the front, then switch to the back right for a thigh, dispel skill, and another wall goes up! Damn bitch. Well, how many times can she do it? I've started getting the timings for each different attack, so I just keep casting away, each time finding a second wall in the way.

I can hear Yuki's scream filling the room, likely from a large cut from the whore. DAMNIT ALL!

"DIE WORTHLESS WHORE!" I use a new skill, dimensional slash. The skill rips through everything in my way, giving me a very mangled corpse of the pathic rock bitch.

Wasting no time, I warp space, bringing the fire mage to me while putting Yuki in a corner. The sudden change surprised the girl enough that I was able to get a clean strike across her neck.

"YUKI GET UP WE'VE GOT GO. ROYAL GUARDS ARE GOING TO BE SHOWING UP SHORTLY!" I scream out. She'll have to push through the injury till we're out of here.

I waste no time setting the place ablaze. Yuki forces herself up to the door and sets a few fires herself. We add the crates to the fire on our way out. I, princess, carry Yuki back to the brothel, making sure we're both invisible.

*** Yuki ***

"Kelly, bring me to Kelly," I groan out.

"Nope, Alzi will be better. She'll just swamp the room in her mana and I can go get Kelly after that to direct the mana. Now shut up. Worrying about me nonstop, yet here you are on death's doors, making me use that skill. Fuck, the Queen is going to be investigating it now."

"Sorry."

"Just save your strength. I'm going to have a worried dragon to handle here soon. Just a minute, and I'll move us straight to your room. You'll need to point me to her door."

"Fourth floor, first room."

"Oh, our dragon is the best whore in the capital. Good now, sorry about this."

I feel us go through a tiny tube, our bodies fused together for a second before we become two entities again in the familiar sight of my room. She carries me down the stairs and through the first door to a confused Alzi.

She freezes, looking at the door, and shakes a bit as she starts to panic about the self-opening door.

"OH SHIT, WHAT DID YOU DO TO YUKI! FUCKING CRAZY BITCH I'M GOING TO..."

"SHUT UP AND HEAL HER DUMBASS! I'm going for Kelly." is the last I hear of Nakuma as I'm thrown onto the bed, and life mana fills the room.

"Shit, Yuki, why are we all ending up so hurt. Don't leave me. I need you, please..." the soft rambling of Alzi goes on as she forces my body to heal in the most painful way possible. Damn it, why can't she learn to heal people properly.

All I can do is grit my teeth through the pain; a single wrong word, and she wouldn't be able to do anything for me.

"What in the hell are you two dumbasses doing to cause this much damage? I thought Nakuma was a mess, and here I find you bleeding out on Alzi's bed! Are you all trying to die before Alzi gets free?" breaks up Alzi's worried mumblings. "Alzi, can I get a look at the idiot? I'll start to direct the mana so she gets put back together faster."

Alzi does manage to scoot over enough to let Kelly see me. Nakuma just sits in the corner, allowing the life mana in the room to heal her many scrapes. Kelly just gives me a quick check before a soothing feel pushes out the pain as the healing is directed to the correct spots. I feel my ribs move back in place, letting me breathe correctly. My bruises fade away. Alzi had already forced all my cuts closed, and I'm sure my tail is fine now. With the pain no longer forcing me awake, I drift off.