DD 202 Ch 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19

I had my hood up as I slipped into the 30th floor safe zone. The light at the center was dimmed to a silvery moon as it mimicked the surface.

Felin pulled at her own outfit. “Why wear anything?” She was with me, along with the rest of my five person party.

“Because he doesn’t want other people to oogle you naked. Pride leaders are protective like that.” Des answered quickly.

“No, it’s because your white hair and pale skin stick out like a sore thumb in the dark.” I scowled at Des. “Focus up.” I moved along the edge of the safe zone.

There were no clear watchers of the entrance, but I had realized that Henrich’s sudden appearance the last time we had visited was likely due to one.

“At least she’s not wearing all pink.” Fayeth said, following my lead and keeping her voice down.

“Small improvements.” Des hissed.

Felin had some swagger as she moved whisper quietly through the safe zone.

The outlying shacks were mostly quiet, with a few small fires burning for light.

It was the castle that was in full swing. Warm orange light beamed from the windows, and I could already hear a ruckus rolling out from him.

“Is that a party?” Charlotte asked in her deep green outfit while Bun-bun had one that was a dark gray and perched atop her head with his ears up at full mast scanning ahead.

He chittered something quietly.

“Bun-bun says there is a party. He hears people egging others on to drink more. It sounds rowdy.” Charlotte translated.

“I can’t make anything out, but there are a lot of them.” Felin added her own hearing to the mix.

“Des, want to get your [Demonic Eye] up in the sky and see if we can’t get a better understanding of what we are walking into?” I asked as we circled away from the gate. If we were going to go into the castle, it wasn’t through the front door.

The demonic mage wove a spell and a dark eye with her same pink heart-shaped pupil appeared before her and then shot up into the sky.

“I can’t get too close.” She warned. “People look out windows far more than they look above them.”

We continued on in silence for a minute as Des’ [Demonic Eye] got into position.

“Definitely a party.” She whispered. “Several dozen people. If I had to guess, Brandon invited all of the nobles for a shindig.” She squinted. “No sign of Brandon or Trish though. There’s a woman that seems to be in charge, but she matches the pictures you showed me of Ray.”

“Well, them being drunk might make this easier.” I offered. “Plus they are making some noise to cover us if we go for Brandon first.”

“I’ll look around.” Des focused on her eye.

We’d made it to the castle walls a moment later. I glanced up at the smooth face of them, crouching down before exploding upwards.

The weights stopped me from going as high as I thought I could, and Felin jumped up beside me. The wind followed her motion and carried me up the last few feet to catch the ledge and flip myself over.

I didn’t have time to offer her my thanks, because there was a guard on duty, I lept into action, my blades had a dark sheen of magic over them as I activated [Triple Breach]. The attack blew right through the guard’s chest plate with the crack of shearing metal.

Fayeth landed on the guard, grabbing the guard by the head and throwing her full strength into slamming them to the ground.

Felin’s spear went right for the throat, ending them swiftly. “Almost feel bad for them. They were up against hunters above their ability.” She flicked the spear to the side.

Bun-bun quickly dove under their armor and came out with a few items before nibbling off their CID while I looked around.

There wasn’t another guard on duty that I could see, but it would be best for me to run the length of the wall to be sure there wasn’t another around the other side of the castle.

“One moment.” I activated [Camoflauge]. In the dim light, it was enough to hide my presence as I rushed along the top of the wall.

Sure enough, there was a second guard slowly walking his rounds.

[Shadow Ambush] melted me into the ground and then enabled me to appear beside the other guard as my hand clamped around his mouth. I pulled him tightly to my chest before punching my dagger into his throat.

He struggled, clearly a strength based class as I barely held on even with my leverage. When he couldn’t pry my arm off, he started hammering my ribs with his elbow.

I hit his throat, his heart and several major arteries before he started to lose his strength and sag down.

For my efforts, I’d gotten a nasty set of breaks in my ribs.

Hissing, I hurried the rest of the way around to my party.

Charlotte must have sensed my distress because she came over to me and used her body to shield the light from her heals as she worked on me.

“Anything?” Des asked.

“Just one more guard. Guessing everyone wants to be part of the party.” I took a deeper breath as Charlotte finished healing me.

“No sign of them in the bedrooms, and I’m pretty sure I found the master or king suite in this case. My best guess is that they are in some inner room.” Des reported.

“Do we start hunting?” Felin asked, her tail lashing excitedly behind her.

“We do.” I nodded and jumped down from the wall into the inside of the space, rushing towards the castle.

Despite her being a caster, Felin kept up with me. One of these days I needed to get a look at her stats.

The castle was too shoddily built to have actual glass windows, not that they were really needed in the picturesque weather of a safe zone.

Instead, we were able to slip right into one of the openings and infiltrate the castle.

“There’s a pair of otherwise engaged nobles on the second floor.” Des had a hand over one of her eyes as she split her vision.

I turned down the hall. Remembering the guest area layout, I rushed up the stairs and down the hall, glancing at Des for the room.

“Two down on the left.” She reported.

Felin was on my heels as I shot down the hall, pausing only for Charlotte to get there and open the door for us.

We burst into the room. Bun-bun shot between my feet and jumped on the surprised man’s face growling and slashing with his little claws.

“What tha— Ah. Fuck!” He fell off the bed screaming as Bun-bun destroyed his face.

Fayeth jumped high, her glaive drawing a flashing arc in the air before cutting deep into the woman and cleaving the bed in two.

“Curse of Silence.” Des shouted as a swirling black mass entered the man’s throat.

I joined Fayeth, striking the woman down in short order while Felin’s spear repeatedly stabbed the man who Bun-bun was keeping busy.

It took a number of strikes before the life sagged out of him.

“Hallway clear.” Charlotte said, her voice far calmer than I expected. “Let me make sure you are all in perfect health.”

Bun-bun had blood all over his yorai and was pulling down his ears in distress, trying to get the blood off of them.

Charlotte tried to pick him up and he angrily chittered at her. She sighed and pulled out wet wipes. “You are just going to get dirty again. I’ll give you a big bath when we get back.” She used the wet wipe on his ears with one hand while the other healed him.

“CIDs.” Felin pulled two devices out. “I wonder how much cream I can buy with these.” She frowned as she tapped at them, but they did nothing.

“Locked.” Des took one and examined it. “Do they keep them locked or are these ones programmed to lock you out when the user dies?”

There were certainly enough sensors in one to register the user’s death.

But I’d never heard of them locking before. “Take it back. Maybe my grandparents have a solution.”

A loud bugle horned blared throughout the castle.

“What are the chances that they also detected their deaths?” Fayeth asked.

I glanced at Des and Charlotte to see if they had any insight.

“If they do, the core of this castle has some fairly high grade equipment. That would rquire some UG equipment and not something they’d part with easily.” Des explained. “They don’t like anyone playing with the CIDs, connecting up to an alarm system included.”

“Understandable.” Fayeth summoned her living armor. [Harden Roots] now wrapped around her arm to form a shield, which grew over her shoulders to form a set of full plates and down her other arm to make a gauntlet.

It even grew down to form a skirt of roots around her hips.

The ability protected her and the roots were still alive, adding to her strength.

“No time to waste then.” I agreed, seeing her ready for a larger combat. “Des, where’s the closest person?”

“Those in the dining hall are scrambling, getting their equipment. And a few are taking potions to recover from the alcohol.” She reported. “They aren’t heading in a particular direction. Instead, they just seem to be messaging others and setting up a defense with the tables.”

Either they were incredibly selfish, or they just didn’t know where we were, deciding to protect themselves and create a place of shelter.

Two more of the nobles threw open a door down the hall, from a room that didn’t have a window. 

The two men paused, seeing Fayeth geared up in the hallway.

Felin slapped the elf in the rear with her spear. Then a wind wrapped itself around Fayeth as she shot down the hallway like she’d been launched out of a cannon. “Hehe. I’ve been wanting an excuse to use that.” Felin laughed.

I rushed down the hall as the armored Fayeth crashed into the two adventurers, her armor catching the ax that one of them had brought up and her glaive held low across the ground, tripping them both up.

“If you launch me like that again, I’m going to let the vampires eat you.” Fayeth got to her feet only a moment before the first of the enemies.

I was on them a second later, both blades buried in their backs before I activated [Triple Breach] and my dagger blurred in three strikes. I blew open the shoulder of one. And then using the other blade as a hook, I pulled him to the side and threw his weight against the wall.

Des blew a kiss at the other target. He stumbled forward, looking love drunk before Fayeth’s glaive sent his head crashing into the ground, bouncing painfully.

Felin pinned mine to the wall with spikes of ice before she pounced on the other, stabbing with her spear and twisting with a crack of broken bones. “They are both done.” Felin threw the spear over her shoulder, flecks of blood nearly hitting Bun-bun and making the rabbit growl.

“Still no sign of Brandon Sayer or Trish, but that Ray disappeared. She has a movement skill that turns her into a whirlwind.” Des reported.

“That’s how they were getting around.” I nodded and stepped over the bodies, moving deeper into the castle.

Beyond the hall, there was a set of double doors that opened to a large central chamber. “Send the eye high above the castle. We need to be sure that they don’t escape with that movement ability. Which way did Ray go?”

“Towards the center of the castle.” Des confirmed.

“Could they have a secret escape?” Charlotte asked.

I shook my head. It wasn’t possible to dig more than a foot down in a safe zone before hitting dungeon stone. And beyond Crimson, I didn’t know of an adventurer that could crack dungeon stone. If you tried, you’d be stuck for a while. The dungeon made the stone thick enough it couldn’t be used to bypass a floor.

“We go for them. Whatever they are doing must be important.”

“This way.” Des pointed in the general direction. Sadly, we didn’t have a blueprint for the castle. “The nobles in the hall seem to be ready to settle in. They’ve barred the doors.”

“Leave them then.” I wasn’t highly concerned with them. Rather, the three ringleaders were who needed to perish.

We could always mop up the rest of them later.

Charging through the castle, Fayeth ripped the shoddy doors off their hinges or just blew them away. The castle itself rumbled. The stones were heavy enough that they didn’t shift even with the minimal mortar.

For that, I was thankful, but it was something to consider.

Fayeth shattered another door. Three nobles had been facing another door only to turn as we rushed them.

They only lasted a few seconds before our combined efforts tore them down.

“Check the door they were looking at.” I said.

Fayeth charged it and slammed into it with her shield only for this door to hold and try to bounce her back. “It’s sturdy.”

There was shouting beyond the door, and I was sure that we’d found what we needed. Why else would they spend more on this door?

“Felin, burn it.” I told the shaman.

She flashed a fanged smile before thrusting her spear forward. A burning image of the spear leapt from the tip and scorched the door before turning into a steady stream and slowly blackening it.

“Can’t burn a wooden door?” Des clicked her tongue.

“Fire is not my specialty!” Felin growled. “I use storm and ice magic.”

“Sure. I think it’s all the cream. It’s made you a little lazy.” Fayeth leaned on her glaive. “Should I just knock it down?”

“You already failed. I. Will. Not!” Felin stopped the spell and spun her spear before launching a glob of molten lava the size of my head.

It stuck to the door and started to burn it.

“See.” She did it again before bracing herself and pulling out a mana potion. “Takes a lot of mana though.” She started guzzling it messily.

“Just help me in a moment?” Charlotte held her hands together and a small storm was brewing between them. “Even a healer needs an attack every now and then. My mother said it was good to work on things that can keep enemies away.” Her twin braids flapped with the wind that was coming off her spell.

Bun-bun was holding tightly to her hair, making sure that he wasn’t blown away in the process.

“Ready.” Felin wiped the blue liquid off her chin.

Charlotte pushed the ball of roaring wind forward as Felin added her own wind spell that curled around and buffed it. Together, the spells launched out like hurricane force wind against the door.

It groaned and wood cracked loudly before the doors were ripped off their hinges and thrown deeper into the room.

The doors hit something and then were shattered, leaving Brandon Sayer standing behind them with a pair of axes out.

He clicked his tongue and stood up more naturally. “I wondered who had come to visit us. What are my men doing? Don’t they know we have a VIP here tonight?” He seemed to be talking to the two women in the room rather than be particularly concerned about me. “Then again, you’re here for the VIP aren’t you? Incredible that you knew about his trip down here, not to mention how to find this place.”

I glanced past him, my eyes searching for the VIP and finding a man in a crisp maroon suit sitting calmly with Trish like they were waiting for the help to leave the room so they could begin discussing business again. Also in the room were server banks that glittered with mana crystal technology embedded into them.

Ray was fidgeting to the side like she wanted to sweep all of them away and escape.

Brandon was confident though. He held his axes loosely, yet ready to fight. He had shattered the doors, something we’d struggled with, so I was not going to underestimate his abilities.

But we were prepared, and I was going to take him down.

I sifted my dagger to a reverse grip and braced myself for a fight. A part of me was glad this might be a real fight. My body brimmed with excitement.