<~> Chapter 234We had to pick up the pace we were w at now. I was forced to speime talking to each person as I removed their colrs and just had to hope that none of them would cause trouble. Fortunately, I wasn't running into any others who had so muegative karma. Who was that guy? He blew up his cellmate... The image of the beastfolk's viscera all over the walls was siing. He must have been some kind of serial killer, but I didn't have time to dwell on that right now. Our time was running out.

  One of the voices of the guards carried down the hall as I worked through as many of the metal doors as I could, as quickly as I could. "The rioters must have gotten into the building! I heard an explosion from this way!"

  "Give out all of the remaining ons you still have, prioritize people with higher levels," I called out to Mimi, using the bond to indicate that it was her I meant the message for.

  "Got it!" Mimi called ba reply.

  I put my hand on Bel's shoulder. "Watch over that bearkin, he could use some help holding the choke point. I'll bring ahat looks like they need healing to you if they ."

  She nodded. "I'll do my best."

  "I'll stay with you," Torien told me.

  I nodded, "Good," I turan, "Start w on support magic, do you have access to a mana aspects here?"

  "Fire is the most plentiful, if not ideal. It should help a bit," she replied.

  "Do it then, focus on front liners like the bearkin."

  "Sure." Man immediately got started wild casting a modified version of my [Armor of Light] as a fire variant. She had been able to use her knowledge of reverse engineering [Light Imbue] and [Fire Imbue] to find the part of the mana stru for [Armor of Light] that took the element so she could repce it. It would be the first time she's been able to use the armice we reached the capital, this would be her first test in live bat. I gnced over between cells just in time to watch the man light up in magical fire armor as the first group of guards met him. He let out a roar and bowled over the first man that reached him and threw him against the far wall.

  I turned my attention back to the cells, I didn't have time to watch. The faster I got this dohe easier it will be to get everyo of the area. I opehe cell, took a look at the karma of the two, and moved on to the . "Quinhese guys what I told the st guys while I go on to the cell. Bel, take off their colrs."

  The cuy put a fist to his chest. "Yes ma'am," he said with a bit of a cheeky too his voice. I just rolled my eyes and moved on to the cell. This was taking lohan I'd like but my experieh that e told me that cheg their karma was a necessary step. By the time I reached the st cell, I had opened roughly thirty of them, meaning we had around sixty people with det levels and probably arouy civilians with levels uen. The civilians skewed a little youhan the ones with higher levels as well.

  "Lady! You said we would go to the girl's cells! How are we going to do that if we get caught here!" The demi-horsekin that had asked about freeing his wife was getting in my way.

  Before I could reply one of the nearby sves, a former adventurer by his looks, pulled the guy away from me and threw him against the stone wall.

  "Hey! Don't hurt him," I warned.

  The guy who pulled him off of me hesitated. "Sorry, I was trying to help..."

  "It's fine, just don't hurt the guy," I replied. "We'll still go to the female beastkin cells, but I still want to find the elf and humaoo.

  "You're freeing them too?" one of the nearby beastfolk grumbled.

  "We're freeing everyone we ," I replied simply. "The Order of Lilith doesn't like the svery of humans or elves either. Now move aside, I o get back to the hallway."

  I walked through the crowd of people who opened a path for us until we returo the cell that had been blowhe bearkin was fighting two people in the chokepoint with the mad shield Mimi had given him. He hadn't been able to kill any of them yet but his bulky frame made it impossible for them to move past him, especially with the fming armor Man had cast on him. Everying to fight him together, the guards couldn't nd any serious hits. I could also feel remnants of healing magi the air, Bel must have healed him at some point too.

  I turo Quinn, "Are there elf and human cells around here somewhere?"

  "Human and elves?" the cougar asked. "They're held together, a bit further down that hall," he said pointing the way the guards had e from. "It will be hard to go that dire. How do you pn oing all of us out?"

  "We're still w on that," I answered truthfully. "We were going to gh the bazaar. There's a riot going on up above that will give you cover to escape, most of the colrs iy should be suppressed so it's probably chaos out there right now."

  "Right..." Quinn suddenly looked less fident in us, not too surprising since I basically told him we didn't have a particurly good escape route. With this many people cramped into the hallway, a reliable exit option would be nice right now.

  "How many are out there?" I asked the bearkin.

  He shoved one of them back with his shield and growled. "Does it look like I have time to t them?"

  "Five," Mimi said. "There may be more farther away."

  I had expected more of them. I cast [Bde Waltz] on myself and drew my sword. "Back out, let us take your pce."

  The bearkin growled and shoved the closest one before quickly falling back out of the cell. Mimi and I took advantage of the moment to push out into the hallway where we ehe five of them. [Bde Waltz] improved my swordsmanship enough that I was able to parry and deflect all of their blows and Mimi didn't even need a on to deflect all of the attacks levied at her, her body was so durable that she just shrugged off their attacks while she attempted to disarm them. This two versus five might have been difficult if we were alone, but we weren't.

  Lorriene appeared out of the shadows behind one of the guards, stabbing him in the ne the same motion. Four bolts of fire rapidly bsted the other two, distrag them enough that Mimi and I could both press our advantage in our respective matchups. Both of us absolutely dominated our opposition, having signifit level advantages aer equipment. I grit my teeth and itted myself to killing the one I was fighting and while Mimi didn't kill her oppo, they were now suffering from broken arms once she had grappled him to the ground. Lorriene moved to kill the other two, seamlessly coordinating with Man to take advantage of the vulnerable positions that Man had put them in.

  I activated [Karmic Retribution] and the guard I was fighting froze and locked up the moment I managed a solid hit on him. The attack forced him to front all of the bad things he's done in the past and that left him vulnerable long enough for me to finish him off with a ssh across his neck. The mithril bde was so sharp it sliced through his throat like paper, I only felt the softest resistance.

  [You have killed a Soldier level 24][Karmiergy reduced by 400]

  I averted my eyes and frowned. I even lost karma from doing this... Not an insignifit amouher... Lorriene finished off the one Mimi had maimed to stop his screaming, it was quiet in the hallway again.

  "There should be more of them than this," Lorriene said. "Whatever is happening in the bazaar is keeping most of the sver's guards busy. The cell that exploded should have attracted way more people here."

  "I agree, it's odd. There are also those explosie enough to shake the building as well. Something big is happening," I replied.

  "We might want to resider how we get out of here. The bazaar made sense before but I'm not so sure it's the best escape route anymore," Lorriene said.

  "This pce is already taking damage. Should we just blow through a wall?" Man asked.

  "That might be the easiest way to go," I said. "Mimi should be the best at getting through any mundane walls but I'm not sure the outside walls will be as easy, and we don't have a map."

  Quinn cleared his throat. "If you just o find an outside wall I help with that. But you wao hit the other cellblocks right? The elf and human one is that way," he said while pointing.

  I turned and looked at the hole in the wall behind me. "It would be better to leave out of the door rather than trusting everyone io file through this hole in the wall." I turned and tapped Torien on the shoulder. "Go back to the door ahem to start letting everyo into the hallway. roup is rge enough now that it should be hard for a few guards to stop us at this point. Work with the others to try and keep everyoogether. It's still in all of our best is to stay as one group as much as possible. We'll go see about letting out the humans and elves and regroup in this hallway.

  Torien nodded. "Right."

  I turned back to the bear beastkin. "Do you mind staying in that hallway until everyone else is out, in case someone slips past us?"

  He shook his head. "I'll protect everyone ahem together. Good luck."

  Mimi, Bel, Man, and I headed down the hallway following Quinn. "There aren't as many male human and elf sves here so they usually keep them together in this block. There should only be males on this side sihe women are kept oher side of the buildihe others."

  There weren't any other patrols of guards in here and it sounded almost weirdly quiet now. I hadn't even heard any more of those explosions that had been rog the entire building. After a couple of turns, Quinn poio another door. "This is where they keep the elves and humans. The cells look simir to where they were keeping the beastfolk, the block we just came from."

  I nodded and slipped the key into the door before unlog it and opening it. Just like st time there were rows of doors to just as many cells. I opehe first cell and looked io find one elf and one human sharing a cell.

  "The Order of Lilith is here to free as many sves as possible. May I approaove your colrs?"

  I went through the whole process of getting the first two to trust us and using them to help us free the ain. I didn't feel quite as time-ched as before sihere didn't seem to be any muards ing, but I still tried to be as quid effit as possible. It was odd though, I really did think we would run into more resistance here. There were around fifty or so humans and elves, a majority human, but only by a narrow margin. These ones weren't separated by levels the same way as the other side so the range was quite a bit wider. There were even a couple of elves that were about our level. There were a few that were iffy to release based on their karma, but nothing like that guy who blew up that wall... and his cellmate.

  As I removed the colr of one of the more powerful elves, he stared ily at the bracelet I was using to remove it. "That bracelet is of elven make..."

  "It was given to me by an elf," I replied to him.

  "Are you being backed by the Northern Greens?" he asked incredulously.

  "Not officially," I whispered in reply.

  His eyes widened and he nodded. "I'll help. Are we going to the women's side?"

  "Yes, we're meeting up with the rest of the beastfolk before heading back that way."

  He nodded and I led the way back before bining the two groups in the hallway. I could tell everyone was starting to get more restless as I returned with the humans and the elves. They were itg to escape and run away from here but we still had to find the other half of the sves. If we had met more resistahey may have already started running off. I was happy to see there wasn't any fuss as the humans and elves began to mio the group. If anything, I was seeing more fri between different tribes of the beastfolk. The rge group of people standing in the hallway let me pass as I made my way back to the front of the crowd with my friends. It felt o see the respe their eyes.

  Saine

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