Chapter 11: Sve Rescue, Cutting Off Manhoods, and a Massage

  Upon returning from Makor, things finally got back to normal at the "Griffin". Elena was bustling about the kitchen, and the smell of roasted meat slowly pushed the stench of blood from the estate's courtyard out of my nostrils. I sat at the bar, twirling a gss of lukewarm water in my fingers. Shnee took the stool next to me, and the new trio – Luthia, Mina, and Ria – was slowly finishing their dinner.

  I could see Luthia slowly regaining her composure. She was reviewing Makor's papers with such focus, as if her life depended on it. At one point, she looked up.

  "Dave..." she started, pcing her hand on one of the parchments. "That motherfucker wasn't working alone. The 'Red Trail' is an entire network. The rest of the girls from my transport are still sitting in cages in a camp north of the city. If we don't go there, they'll ship them to the capital tomorrow."

  I nodded. The peace, however, didn't st long.

  The silence was broken by the crash of forced doors. Four guards marched inside with drawn swords, and behind them barged in a skinny guy in official robes. He looked like a typical bureaucrat who thinks a piece of paper with a stamp gives him immortality.

  "In the name of the City Council!" he yelled until a vein popped out on his neck. "Which one is Dave?! We have a warrant to bring you in for questioning regarding the assault on Marquis Makor's residence!"

  Elena froze, and little Ria instinctively hid behind Luthia. Shnee didn't even flinch, only her eyes became dangerously narrow. She looked at me, just waiting for the signal. I put the gss down on the counter. Slowly.

  "Listen, pal, first: you're ruining my evening," I said calmly, turning on my stool. "Second: you're scaring the kids. That's a fw in your calcution."

  The official turned red, waving the warrant in front of my nose. "Take him!"

  Before any of the guards could flex their muscles, I slightly raised my left hand. Time seemed to stand still. All five of them froze in unnatural poses, hovering a few centimeters above the floor. They struggled, but my telekinesis held them like steel pincers. They were completely immobilized, suspended in the vacuum of my will.

  I zily got up from the stool and walked over to the official. Bck, fucking sharp and hard cws immediately bloomed on my fingers — Abyss Cw. The air around them hissed, as if reality itself was afraid of their touch.

  "I told you not to yell," I muttered.

  In one lightning-fast move, I drove my cws into his chest and tore him in half. Blood and the remnants of his official attire spttered across the floor, but not a single drop touched my clothes. I turned to the remaining four, who were watching this in mute terror.

  "For disposal," I threw out shortly.

  I clenched my hand into a fist. The force of the telekinesis spiked violently, crushing their bodies from every side at once. A wet crack of breaking bones and rupturing organs rang out. Blood shot from their mouths as they were compressed to the size of bloody sacks. A second ter, only a shapeless mass of meat and steel fell to the floor.

  That wasn't the end, though. A sapphire-orange shield made of spinning geometric patterns materialized in front of my hand. I aimed it at what was left of the uninvited guests and slowly twisted my wrist to the right.

  Reality in front of the shield rippled. The bloody remains and broken steel began to dematerialize, turning into pure, white, and very bright energy. There wasn't even a trace left on the floor. When the process was over, I took a deep breath, absorbing this energy straight into my chest. I felt a pleasant warmth spreading through my body.

  "Elena, the floor is clean. You don't even have to sweep," I said, extinguishing the power and returning to the stool. I looked at the stunned Luthia and the terrified, but fascinated Mina and Ria. "Alright, Luthia. You said something about a camp in the woods. Lead the way, it's a pity to waste the night."

  Luthia looked at the empty spot left by the guards, and then at me. I could see she was trying to piece it together in her head, but there was no fear in her eyes – only pure awe.

  "Dave..." she started quietly. "If you want to go there now, we have to hurry. They won't wait until dawn if they find out what happened to Makor."

  "Logically speaking, you're right," I replied, finishing my water. "Shnee, you're coming with me. Elena, lock the doors and don't let anyone in until we get back. If someone is banging on them, just ignore it. In the morning, I'll fix what that skinny guy broke at the entrance."

  We stepped out into the cold, night fog of Oakhaven. Luthia led us confidently towards the northern gate, and then straight into the thicket of the forest. We walked fast. Shnee moved soundlessly, her hand resting on the hilt of her rapier the whole time. I didn't have to sneak – my presence was like a lightning strike to this forest anyway, but I suppressed my aura so as not to spook the prey too early.

  After about an hour of marching, I felt it. The stench of unwashed bodies, cheap burning wood, and fear. A lot of fear.

  "It's here," Luthia whispered, pointing to a clearing surrounded by a makeshift palisade. "I see the wagons. That's where they're holding the girls."

  I narrowed my eyes. My Shin-gan instantly highlighted the structure of the camp. About thirty mercenaries, most were drinking by the fire, thinking the forest protected them. Mistake.

  "Shnee, we're doing this my way," I muttered. "You take care of the ones by the wagons, so none of them get the stupid idea of using a knife on the hostages. I'll take the rest."

  I didn't wait for an answer. I stepped out of the shadows right into the middle of the camp. One of the sentries, a fat guy with an axe, noticed me and opened his mouth to yell, but I didn't give him that chance.

  I raised my hand. Telekinesis grabbed him by the throat and lifted him two meters up. The rest of the mercenaries jumped to their feet, drawing their weapons.

  "What's up, gents," I said with that predatory smile of mine. "I have a proposal you can't refuse. You can die quickly, or I can process you into energy just like your buddies in the city. What do you choose?"

  "Kill the bastard!" yelled their captain, a huge guy with a scar across half his face.

  "Wrong answer," I cut him off.

  In a fraction of a second, I activated Abyss Cw. The bck cws elongated, gleaming with an unnatural light. I moved. I was just a sapphire blur to them. The first mercenary lost his head before he managed to raise his sword. The second one I tore apart at chest height, feeling his ribs cracking under my fingers.

  Shnee, meanwhile, was already by the wagons. I only heard the rhythmic whistle of her rapier and the dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground. She operated with surgical precision, leaving a bloody trail behind her.

  Five of them were left, including the captain. They stood in a tight group, trembling so hard that their steel cttered together.

  "What... what the fuck are you?!" the captain choked out, backing away to the palisade.

  "Your end," I replied calmly.

  I charged at them. I didn't need magic anymore, the Abyss Cw was enough. I ripped the captain open from his sor plexus up to his throat, and then wiped out the remaining four in the blink of an eye. It wasn't a fight, it was a sughter. Bodies fell to the ground, and blood soaked into the forest litter. Only when the st of them stopped thrashing, I straightened up and flicked the remains of the gore off my cws.

  At the same time, Shnee was finishing the cleanup by the wagons. The situation there was disgusting. Two sweaty mercenaries, neighing like cattle, threw one of the girls onto the hay. One of them was already unzipping his pants, ready to inflict trauma on her. A second before he managed to do anything, Shnee slipped between them like a shadow.

  Two lightning-fast rapier thrusts, precise as scalpel cuts, deprived both rapists of their "manhood."

  "AAAAAAAAAAAA!" a roar of pain tore through the night silence of the forest. Both fell to their knees, desperately clutching their crotches. They looked in disbelief at what was left of their organs lying in the mud.

  Shnee stood over them, wiping her bde on the shirt of one of them. Her snow-diamond eyes shone with contempt.

  "Since you can't use this organ for anything other than hurting others, it is simply unnecessary for you," she hissed, and freezing fury could be heard in her voice. "Dave doesn't tolerate trash like you, and I don't intend to look at your pathetic faces for another second."

  With one swift move, she slit their throats, ending their wheezing. The corpses colpsed into the mud.

  I walked up to her, passing the cooling corpse of the captain. Shnee offered a hand to the terrified girl, helping her up and covering her with a cloak. I looked around the battlefield. Dozens of bodies, blood and steel – a lot of wasted matter.

  "Time for recycling," I muttered.

  I brought my hands together, and a sapphire-orange shield fred up in front of me. I twisted my wrist to the right. A white, bright light slowly began pulling in all the corpses from the entire clearing. The sight was hypnotizing – blood disappeared from the ground, bodies dematerialized in a fraction of a second, and all of this turned into pure energy that flowed straight into my chest. I felt my vessel filling with a pleasant warmth.

  When the clearing was already perfectly clean, I raised my hand. A single strike of will and sapphire fire consumed the empty wagons and cages.

  "Good job," I nodded to Shnee. I looked at the rescued girls and Luthia. "We're going back. Elena probably has warm water ready."

  We returned to the "Griffin" in the morning. Chapter 11 closed. The foundations for the new crew were poured with the blood of those who thought they could hurt the weak with impunity.

  When we crossed the threshold of the "Griffin", an unnatural silence prevailed inside. Elena wasn't sleeping – she was waiting for us with a jug of hot brew and a pile of clean towels. The new girls we pulled out of the wagons stayed close to Luthia, looking at the tavern walls as if they expected another trap.

  "Elena, is the upstairs free?" I asked, taking off my cloak, which despite my efforts smelled of smoke from the burning camp.

  "Yes, Dave. The rooms are prepared. The water is heating up," she answered shortly, but I saw her eyes scanning the newcomers. "I will take care of them."

  I stopped by the stairs and turned to the whole group. They stood there: a dark elf, a neko, and a tiefling, and behind them three new ones whose names I didn't know yet. All of them looked at me with a mix of adoration and paralyzing fear.

  "Listen to me carefully," I spoke in a calm but hard voice. "I am not your owner. I am not your master. Makor and that trash from the forest are dead, and their essence fueled my vessel. You are free, but in this city, freedom without protection is a death sentence. I offer you a deal: you stay here, help Elena, and learn how to take care of this pce. In return, you get my protection. And my protection means that no one, absolutely no one, will even dare to look at you the wrong way."

  I walked up to the youngest of them, who was still shivering from the cold. I reached out my hand, and delicate, sapphire sparks danced around my fingers. She didn't pull away. I pced my hand on her shoulder, sending a fraction of the recovered energy to warm her body and soothe the pain from the bindings.

  "There is no pce for svery in my world," I added, looking them straight in the eyes. "If anyone tries to hurt you, they will end up as ash. The rule is one: loyalty. You don't lie to me, you don't scheme behind my back. If you understand this, you are home."

  Luthia bowed first, and the rest followed. It wasn't the bow of a sve, it was the gesture of someone who finally found a foundation to lean on.

  When Elena took the girls upstairs, I sat at the bar. Shnee took the seat next to me, stretching her legs out in front of her with a heavy sigh. I could see she was tired – the night march and the fight in the forest took a toll on her, even though her circuits were now more powerful than ever.

  Instead of reaching for a gss of water, I shifted on my stool. Without a word, I grabbed her right leg and rested it on my knee. Shnee flinched in surprise, stopping the cleaning of the rapier's hilt.

  "Dave? What are you..."

  I didn't answer. Slowly and surely I took off her boot, and then her sock, exposing her slender foot. I began to massage her instep gently and with apothecary precision, breaking the tension in the muscles with my thumbs. I did it thoroughly, inch by inch, focusing on every point that could be bothering her after an all-night raid.

  The reaction was immediate. Shnee literally "cut off". Her rapier slipped from her knees and hit the floor with a ctter, but she didn't even react to it. Her body, usually taut as a string, suddenly became limp. She tilted her head back, and a quiet, guttural purr came from her throat, which was a mix of shock and pure euphoria.

  "I... Dave..." she choked out, and her diamond eyes misted over. She had a total g. Her brain was trying to process a stimulus that wasn't pain or combat, but pure pleasure. "This is... illogical. Why is this so... good? I feel like you're touching my foundations directly."

  "Just rest, Shnee," I muttered, without interrupting the massage. "Your legs carried you today through blood and mud, so you could protect what's ours. You deserve to feel something other than steel and anger."

  Shnee closed her eyes, and an expression of blissful stupor appeared on her face. She looked as if she was about to melt on this stool in a moment.

  "If this is what the Creator's care tastes like... then I never want to leave this bar ever again," she whispered, fully surrendering to my hands.