DD 202 Ch 23 (Patreon)

Chapter 23

I smirked back at the Prince. “No need to get all testy. It’s not a big deal. Charlotte, just give him a heal and he will be on his way.” I held my hand down to help him up.

He slapped it away. “Enough of this. I have something important to attend to.”

“When will you be back?” His classmate asked.

“Not long. I’ll be back in a few hours. I have to go out to a dead branch of the dungeon.” The Prince likely had his own travel ability, the best money could buy.

Yet, his words stuck with me.

“A dead branch of the dungeon?” I asked like an idiot, just to stall him a bit longer.

He was going to Brandon Sayer’s safe zone, and I had no idea how fast he could travel. If he thought it would be only a few hours for a round trip, then I needed to stall him. My grandparents were still there.

“You can’t be that stupid, or perhaps you can be.” He scoffed and he was the type to take any advantage to talk down to someone, particularly in giving them a lesson. “The dungeon is a branching structure. Somewhere deep down there is a central point that all of the dungeon entrances join up to. The ‘live’ branches as it were connect to dungeon entrances on Earth, The Nekorian World, the Elven world ect. Dead branches don’t connect to a world, but they do join up to one of the live branches at some point. Was that too complex for you?”

“Nope.” I put a hand on his chest and pushed.

The nudge was all it took for him to slip on the soap once again.

“Though, I’d really watch your own footing before talking to people like that.” I took great pride in stalling this man by angering him further.

He drew his saber and kicked off the floor to come at me.

I sidestepped the move with ease and lashed out with my foot to make him stumble on the soap again.

“How dare you!” The classmate that had tried to help earlier jumped to fight me, only for Felin’s spear to flash at his throat.

“I’m enjoying a delicacy known as Irish cream tonight. Do not interrupt my drinking.” Felin gave him a very predatory smile while licking her lips.

“Ken, he might be a little more than you can handle.” Marin warned.

The Prince didn’t hit the ground with my recent hit. Instead he used an ability that threw him forward in a slash at me that caused his saber to glow red hot.

I stepped back, drawing one of my daggers to block him and let the force of his blow slide him back on the slick ground.

His hit left my hand numb. There had been some serious power in that strike. If he had been on stable footing, I wasn’t entirely sure I could have blocked it.

I flipped out a second dagger and braced myself for a fight. I had to admit, I was curious what he could do.

He was the favorite for the DPS competition, which had certainly piqued my interest.

Prince Albar’s eyes flashed in challenge and his blade glowed again, only this time it was an electric blue rather than red.

I caught the strike with both daggers and a burst of lightning shot from his blade right towards my head.

The bolt hit me square in the forehead, driving me back.

“Ouch.” I chuckled. “Going to really have to do better than that if you want to phase me.” What I did not mention was the slight numbing in my entire body.

The door slammed open as a bright flash entered the room.

As soon as the flash subsided, a broad shouldered man in a suit and sunglasses was beside me. “I see you were held up. Allow me to remove the distraction.” The man’s hand moved in a flash and snatched my shoulder with a grip that was like a steel vise.

Pain shot through my shoulder and made me grit my teeth as a table of Trusk students next to us gasped and started to point and talk about the man holding me.

I didn’t need their recognition to realize the man was high level. The power in his grip reminded me of Charlotte’s father.

This was a strength based high level adventurer.

“He was a nuisance. Get rid of him.” Prince Albar sneered at me as he gave the order. “Bye.” He mouthed, seeming satisfied with his power over me in this situation.

The bar exploded in shouts.

“Of course.” The pain on my shoulder exploded, as did the joint under his grip.

Everything else happening in the bar disappeared as my body, despite any training, kicked into panic.

I strangled a cry, trying not to bite my tongue.

Then, the pain subsided a split second before Crimson’s voice broke the cacophony that had started.

“Who’s this?” She held the big man who’d just crushed my shoulder by the scruff of his neck.

Charlotte didn’t wait to see what would happen and threw herself to me and started healing my shoulder.

I couldn’t help it, I looked only to see my shoulder muscles were pulped and looked like they’d gone through an extruder.

“Can’t you hear me?” Crimson’s voice rose loud enough that the entire bar went quiet. “I asked you a question.” She blew the high level adventurer’s leg off. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

The pressure emitting from Crimson had caused everyone at the adjacent tables to pass out and start foaming at the mouth. The rest of the bar wasn’t quiet because of her voice, but because they were standing not far from their potential death.

“Answer me.” She shook the adventurer.

“He works for me, if you’d please let him down.” Prince Albar looked pale, but he was still on his feet.

“So, it’s your fault?” Crimson snorted hot air from her nose before she turned back to the man in her grasp and grabbed his head with both of her hands as she shook him. “Do you realize how hard it was to find a student that could put up with my tortur— er— training?”

God I wish she’d take this more seriously. I could tell this was an act, but I was pretty sure everyone else in the area thought they were about to die.

Well, maybe the prince was stupid enough to think that Crimson wouldn’t turn him into a smear if he interrupted her again.

“This man.” She twisted the high level adventurer’s head towards me. “Is mine. No one else gets to lay their hands on him, capeesh?”

The man gurgled in response.

“I couldn’t hear you. Louder for those in the back.” She shook him like a rag doll.

“I’m sorry.” He eeked out through the pain and likely a damaged chest.

“Good. I’m glad you’re sorry.” She set him down on his one remaining knee. “Now you can die in peace.” With a flick of her wrist, she turned him into a red smear.

The bar was so quiet I could have heard a pin drop.

The only noise was Crimson panting in rage.

“Crimson, you’ve gone too far!” Royal Academy’s professor charged in behind her.

Crimson looked over her shoulder at him like he was a dead man. “Some high level adventurer just about killed my star pupil and you want to stop me? Fine. This one is your star pupil. Let me watch you not make a peep as I kill him too.” She was behind Prince Albar in an instant and snapped his neck like it was a twig. Red lightning crackled out of her eyes.

I paused. Maybe she wasn’t acting.

Crimson was going a touch too far.

If that was the case, then I needed to step in and stop this before she went on a killing spree.

The other professor shrieked and tried to get to the prince, but Crimson kicked him back towards the door where Barret from pendulum caught the man.

“Crimson.” Barret warned.

“What? He didn’t want me to help my student when a high level was trying to kill him. Now that his is in trouble, it’s a very different story. Fuck some trumped up idiot from his school who just ordered a level fifty two to kill my star pupil. I should go teach all of you a lesson and level Royal Academy and to make sure I dig out the root of the problem, kill everyone associated with their sponsors.” Limit Break’s lighting was starting to flow down her shoulders and she might really lose control and follow through on that threat.

My shoulder was still injured, but at least it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t move.

I stood up and wrapped my good arm around Crimson’s shoulders and pulled her back into my chest. “I’m fine, see? Feel my heart? It's still beating.” I tried to calm her down. “Charlotte please revive Prince Albar for me.”

My healer pouted, clearly about to shift with me and continue healing my ruined shoulder, but nodded and turned to revive the prince.

As soon as he was alive, I turned to the other professors, with Crimson pressing herself up against me like she wanted to snuggle me to death.

“Now. One of your students tried to order a high level to kill me. That needs to be punished. I think we can agree letting Crimson go hog wild on the whole academy is not the answer. It needs to be something satisfying enough for her. If we need an impartial solution we can loop in the UG for that.” The upper echelon favored Crimson and I enough that they’d be hard pressed to go too easy on the prince and the Royal Academy.

“That’s fair.” Barret was looking me over appraisingly now. “What about George?” He glanced at the bloody smear on the floor.

That was next.

“Finally, Prince Albar, you have a role to play. I assume you have a revive skill? Perhaps one strong enough to bring him back?”

The Prince, having missed half the conversation, was confused why I was the one dictating the next steps, but he looked at Crimson in my arms and was about to shout before his professor clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a meaningful look. “Yes. Wish.” He intoned the word and blue sparkles shot from him into the bloody smear, pulling it back together into the form of the high level adventurer.

George, I guess was his name, blinked and started to sit up. Sadly, I wasn’t done. “From my personal experience, Crimson often can’t blow off enough steam on someone. They just can’t really survive her anger. So, I’ll let Prince Albar bring this man back to life as much as he can. We’ll see if his mana holds out longer than Crimson’s temper.” I let go of Crimson.

There were surprised noises all around me.

George wasn’t a stupid man. Stupid men died before they reached the level he had in the dungeon.

He flashed and tried to activate his travel skill, but Crimson disappeared before reappearing by the window holding him again.

“This is perfect. Thank you Ken. Hi George. You tried to kill my protege. That made me very upset.” Her fist blurred as it crackled with red lightning and reappeared now having punched straight through his abdomen. “Thankfully, he gave you a way out. All that has to happen is your master has to have more mana than I have anger.” She gave him a smile that promised death, repeatedly.

What happened next was a gruesome affair.

George died twenty three times before Prince Albar passed out from depleting his mana severely with repeatedly reviving him.

No one from the classes so much as blinked. Some of them had likely idolized George. He was one of the strongest adventurers on earth. They got to see the gap between Crimson and the rest of humanity as he tried to escape or fight back every time he was revived.

All of it to no avail.

Crimson caught him like she was playing with someone half her level and destroyed him. It was no contest.

A director of the UG came at one point and begged me to get her to stop, to spare one of the strengths of humanity. The man was a touch too pleading.

I got the feeling that SJS had pulled some strings for him to come beg. It didn’t matter. Crimson was venting and I wasn’t going to stop her.

The area was silent besides Crimson methodically dismantling George before demanding that Prince Albar revive him.

When Prince Albar hit the floor, out cold, his professor hurriedly collected him and ran out, no one even bothered about reviving George again.

Barret cleared his throat. “Are we done then?”

Crimson let out a satisfied sigh. “Yeah. I think so.” She faced the UG representative as well as the two remaining professors. “Let’s make sure we don’t interfere with our students' training and progress anymore, okay?”

Barret’s face twitched. “Deal.”

“Alright.” Crimson clapped. “You guys are coming back with me and training. Ken, I can’t believe you let that man nearly kill you. I’m doubling the amount of time we spar every day. Put your weightsuit back on. We are going to get started as soon as we get back!”

The pity in Barret’s gaze was palpable.

“Don’t worry. She doesn’t kill me. She comes close, but I don’t need a revive.” I smiled at him. After the fighting at Brandon Sayers and then this situation, I was more than happy to get back to training.

Crimson ripped open a portal and shuffled my party through. “So, why did we pick that fight?” Crimson asked as soon as the portal closed. “Not that I am complaining, it was fun, but [Eyes of Wisdom] told me to stall for time?”

“Ah. George was going to bring the prince to the safe zone where my grandmothers are currently dismantling some tech that Brandon Sayer left behind.” I realized then that Crimson had at least in part been doing all of that to help me.

Crimson made a noise of understanding. “Yeah. That would have gone over terribly. George is all strength stats with abilities to make up for his lack of actual speed. He’s also a mass murder. It’s for the best that he’s dead and didn’t reach the safe zone.”

I stared at her for judging someone for being a mass murder.

“What? Alright, time for training. You can fill me in on the details when you are done filling me.” She pulled me by the collar of my shirt towards the tent.

“I thought we were training.” I frowned.

“We are. Stamina training.” Crimson grinned. “Someone needs to put a leash back on my Limit Break. Seeing him hurt you like that really pissed me off. That part wasn’t for show. I wanted to make it crystal clear to those other high levels watching what would happen if someone touched you.”

Knowing I needed to take control now before we got to the bed, I reached up and snapped her choker. “Who are you dragging around?”

The move stopped her dead in her tracks as I hooked two fingers under the choker and started to pull her instead.

“Sorry, master.” Crimson smiled.

“Oh, you bet you are.” I threw her onto the bed and slapped her ass hard. Her body barely jiggled with how tight that suit held her. “You need to give me more than just words.” I pulled out some silk cord to tie her up.

One mention earlier about how I liked how she looked in the silk cords had led to dozens somehow showing up in my CID.

“I’ll be a good girl, I promise.” Crimson played her part and opened her mouth, licking her lips suggestively.

“You will be once I’m done with you.” I pulled her away to our tent.