After Sage had easily beaten two guards, she put a colr on the woman’s neck that was supposed to block her mana and make her unable to use any skills. We pulled both unconscious guards into an empty room before we moved through the corridors of Malvick’s house.

  Sage was leading us, taking turns as if she knew where to head, until we stopped at a split again. Footsteps were coming from ahead of us, and we waited for Sage to take care of it.

  But the person who stepped into our view was a young woman. She looked under twenty and had a sve colr around her neck. She froze completely, staring at us. Sage didn’t attack her, just stepped forward and pressed her hand to the stunned woman’s mouth.

  “Help me,” Sage whispered. “And I’ll free you. And give you a job if you want.”

  The young woman was staring wide-eyed at Sage, as if paralyzed.

  “Do you understand?” Sage asked, pulling her hand away.

  “C-Can you really do that?”

  “You’re going to lose your master today, no matter your decision.”

  The woman nodded, at first slowly, but then eagerly agreed to Sage’s offer.

  “Is Malvick your master?” Sage asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Is he here?”

  “In his room.”

  “Did they kidnap a dark elf? Pale skin, white hair, long ears.”

  “Yes, they brought her yesterday.”

  Clenching my fists around my spear, mixed emotions flushed over me - anger at those who had kidnapped her and relief that we were going to save her. Or rather, Sage was going to do that, and I would pay for it ter.

  “Do you know where she is?” Sage asked.

  “In the basement,” the woman replied.

  “Is there a guard there?”

  “One woman.”

  “Do you know anything about her css or skills?”

  “No, sorry.”

  “How many people are in the building?”

  “Master Malvick and Miss Clementine are in his room right now. She’s his right hand. Ugh… There are three more women and four men. And three other sves like me.”

  With Sage already getting rid of two women, there were only two left, and we knew their positions. The remaining men shouldn’t be any danger to Sage.

  “Lead us to the dark elf,” Sage ordered.

  The young sve led us to stairs that were going underground. “The first door on the right,” she said. “The guard’s inside, and the elf is in a room connected to it.”

  “Okay, now, collect the other sves and leave through the back exit. You need to get out of the building. Do you understand?” Sage asked.

  After the woman nodded, she ran through the corridor. Sage gnced at me. “I’ll take care of the guard downstairs, you’ll pick up your elven princess, and then run away from the building. I need to take care of Clementine on my own.”

  “Do you know her?”

  “We’ve met before, but I don’t have time to expin,” Sage said and walked down the stairs. She moved quickly, her steps barely making a sound. As we descended underground, the decorative carpets and chandeliers were gone. The floor was bare concrete, lit only by a simple glowing stone set into the ceiling.

  Sage stopped by the first door on the right, listening. Then she pointed at Zoe, made a circur gesture over her, and pointed at the door. Zoe nodded, and Sage raised her hand, counting down from three.

  At zero, Zoe created a silent dome around the room, and Sage barged inside. There was a woman sitting there, reading a book, but in an instant, she dropped it, summoning a mana shield around herself just in time to block Sage’s purple daggers.

  The woman grabbed her sword and unched a missile of darkness toward Sage. She easily dodged it, but when it struck the wall, it exploded, and a wave of bckness engulfed the entire room.

  It sted for less than a second before a bright light shone from the middle of the room, from the ground. Sage blocked the sword coming at her with her purple mana dagger, at the same time summoning another one in her hand and tossing it to the side. It flew around the guard as if searching for a gap in her shield.

  The room was too small to help Sage without risking falling into each other. She blocked another attack, then tried to stab the woman with the dagger in her hand, and at the same time sent the one flying around into her, but both were stopped by the magic shield.

  Mari stepped into the doorway and released a storm of small ice missiles that hit the magic shield time after time, and it seemed the guard was distracted reinforcing it when Sage leapt forward and pierced her dagger through the woman’s shield and her stomach.

  Sage quickly pulled her dagger out and smmed it into her once again before she punched her straight in the face. As the woman slid down to the ground, Sage csped another mana-blocking colr around her throat.

  “Go for your princess, I’ll make sure she doesn’t die,” Sage said, gesturing toward the guard woman bleeding on the ground.

  She had just stabbed her twice, to then try and heal her. But she needed to put the colr on her neck, and until a mage was unconscious, getting close to them was like approaching someone holding a dagger. Dangerous.

  There was only one door that led out of the room, and to my surprise, it was just open. Inside it was dark, but as I carefully opened it, the light slowly shone inside.

  “Fuck you! You pathetic, small-dicked asshole!” Amber shouted from the inside before I managed to fully open the door.

  After making sure there wasn’t another guard waiting inside, I opened the door fully and stepped inside. “Maybe I’m an asshole, but I certainly don't have a small dick,” I said.

  Amber was bound by her hands, hanging from the ceiling. Completely naked, beyond a colr around her neck, that made my blood boil in my body before I recognized it was one blocking her mana.

  As she looked at me, I spotted a bruise on the side of her face, and the anger fired inside my chest again as I clenched my hands on my spear.

  “T-Tobias?” Amber stammered, looking at me with shock clear in her voice and expression.

  Stepping closer, I watched her face - her lower lip was cut, and her cheek was really bruised. “Who did that?” I asked, but it came out like a growl.

  “Y-You came for me?” Amber asked.

  “Hold her,” Mari said, while standing behind me.

  Wrapping my arm around Amber, I pulled her against my body. Mari sent an ice missile at the rope holding the dark elf, and she fell into my hands, supporting herself on me.

  “Of course, I came for you, my little elf,” I murmured, holding her pressed closely against me.

  Her lips were moving as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. When her eyes began glistening with tears, she began blinking quickly, and then buried her face in my chest.

  “Zoe, can you give her some of your clothes?” I asked.

  “My bags are there,” Amber mumbled into my chest, tilting her head toward one of the walls.

  “Come on, we must get out of here,” I said, pushing her gently away from me. Zoe stepped toward us and used her dagger to free Amber’s hands. Noticing abrasions around her wrists, I felt even more anger rising in me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, grabbing her hand and looking at her wounds up close.

  “Now? Yes,” she replied.

  Only after I let go of her hand, she moved toward her bags naked, but as she crouched by them, I spotted a big bruise on the side of her body, running along her ribs.

  “Who did that?” I asked, crouching by her, brushing my finger just below the bruise.

  She looked at her body, then at me, staring with her pale blue eyes without a word.

  “Are you okay?” I asked again.

  “Yes,” she replied, turning toward her bag. “Just surprised that you came for me,” she added, before pulling a small bottle out of her bag. She immediately downed the potion and frowned at the bad taste.

  I stopped myself from commenting on the taste of her potions, as it really wasn't the moment for that. She quickly pulled clothes out of her bag and put them on.

  “Lovebirds, I know it’s a big reunion, but we must go,” Sage said, stepping into the room.

  Amber gnced at Sage before picking up her bags, and we moved out of the room. Sage used her mana to pull the unconscious guard behind us on the ground.

  “How to take off the mana blocking colr?” I asked.

  “Just push mana into it, and it will open,” Sage replied, stepping onto stairs.

  I gnced at Amber, and quickly summoned mana. As I pushed it into the colr’s surface, it clicked open. Taking it off from her neck I put it in one of my bags, before we headed upstairs.

  “What the fuck?!” someone screamed as we stepped onto the ground floor. A middle-aged woman was standing in the corridor, staring at us.

  “Take her and run!” Sage gasped, pushing the unconscious guard into my hands. As I dropped my spear, catching the woman, Zoe dashed and grabbed it. “Run away, she’s too strong!” Sage added, as we didn’t move instantly.

  This time we listened and rushed away from the woman, who I assumed was Clementine, and Sage, who dashed toward her. But before she could reach her, fmes burst out of her hands, and the whole corridor suddenly filled with fire. We barely managed to turn around the corner, and Mari summoned a wall of ice when a surge of fire smmed into it.

  It was like someone had shot a fmethrower through the corridor. When it stopped, the whole corridor was scorched, the curtains burning. As I stepped around the ice wall and peeked into the corridor, I wondered if Sage was able to block it somehow.

  Fortunately the building was made out of brick and didn’t burn completely from that attack, but furniture and curtains along the walls were burning. Doing an attack like that seemed reckless, but as Sage reached the woman, trying to hit her with her dagger, it clearly wasn’t even enough to stop her.

  Sage moved impossibly quickly, striking with her sword - where she pulled it from, I didn’t know - as Clementine created small shields made of fire to block it all.

  Watching Sage attack and at the same time move away from fire missiles, striking accurately all the time and only being blocked by magic shields, was amazing, but in a way scary, knowing that I wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

  When Clementine stopped shooting her fire missiles, she summoned a sword made completely out of fire, trying her chance this way, but it was clear she was going to lose. She barely managed to defend herself, while Sage wasn’t using any skills at all.

  Either Clementine was out of mana or was saving it, but without her skills, her loss was inevitable. As Sage sensed a moment of weakness, she dashed forward to attack more closely. But it seemed Clementine was waiting for that, as fire shot out from both her hands. Sage summoned mana, to push herself away from the fire.

  Clementine tried to use that as an opportunity to attack, but as she sshed with her fire sword at Sage, she just jumped back. And then a new person ran out on the other side of the corridor and immediately released an arrow.

  It struck Clementine in the back, and she screamed in pain. She tried to shoot a fireball at Sage, but she just stepped away from it, as the second person rushed toward them, pulling out her own sword. She was dressed like the woman who was outside, completely in bck, looking like a ninja.

  I wondered if Sage had been waiting for help from the beginning, just buying time. Now, when Clementine was surrounded, she stood no chance. When she turned to block the ninja’s sword, Sage kicked her from the side, into her knee that bent in a really wrong direction.

  As Clementine dropped to her knees, fmes burst from her hands, again completely engulfing the corridor with fire. We quickly dashed behind Mari’s ice wall, hiding from it. Perhaps we should just leave, but it was obvious that Sage was going to beat Clementine now.

  As I gnced around the corner, Sage summoned her mana and formed something like balls, or more like cannonballs, because she used them to sm into Clementine, tossing her on the ground like a rag doll.

  Sage pulled out a mana-blocking colr, and when Clementine dropped by her feet, she leapt forward to csp it around her neck. But just before she managed to put it on, Clementine burst out with fmes again. The colr Sage was holding melted in her hands as she summoned a purple mana shield around her body. This time the fme was weaker and didn’t even reach halfway to us.

  As Sage staggered back, still covered by her shield, the other woman dashed forward and csped a colr around Clementine’s neck.

  Despite her poor state, Clementine grabbed it and screamed. “Fuck!”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, as we approached, looking at Sage’s burned hands.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she replied.

  “I hope those hands fall off, bitch,” Clementine hissed.

  “Oh, Clems, I missed you too. Why didn’t you get in touch for so long?”

  “Fuck you,” Clementine murmured and spat at Sage’s feet.

  “Let’s move out of here,” Sage said, ignoring the woman on her knees.

  “What about Malvick?” I asked.

  “He’s already captured,” Sage replied, as the person helping her lifted Clementine from the ground and pushed through the corridor, with us following behind.

  We quickly left the building, where the first ninja woman was already standing. Or was this the second one? Hard to tell, as both were completely indistinguishable. They were even the same height and had the same posture.

  In front of them y a few bound men and women with colrs around their necks.

  “You fucking piece of shit!” Amber hissed, rushing toward a man on his knees.

  She swung her hand and spped him across the face with full strength, then spat at him. “Look who’s groveling now, coward!” she screamed, lifting her foot as if to stomp on him or kick him - but the ninja woman dashed forward and pushed Amber away.

  “We’re not killing anyone,” Sage said, gring at her.

  “A little beating won’t kill him,” I growled, staring at Malvick.

  “No way, handsome. You’re not going to touch him,” Sage replied, stepping between me and the kneeling man.

  “He doesn’t deserve to live!” Amber shouted.

  “Calm your princess down, or I’ll do it,” Sage said, looking at me.

  As much as I wanted to beat the shit out of him, I stood no chance against Sage, not even mentioning the two ninjas at her side.

  I pulled Amber into my arms. She was tense at first but quickly melted against me. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. He’s going to end up in hell anyway,” I murmured, hoping Sage had pnned something terrible for him.

  “Can you find your way back to Atranth?” Sage asked.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Go. I’ll clean up here and meet you there ter,” she replied.

  I looked at her and at the people she had captured, wondering if I should offer to help, but then realized I wouldn’t really be useful - she already had her ninjas.

  “Let’s go,” I murmured.

  Amber had her arms wrapped tightly around me, her cheek pressed against my chest.

  “Hey, you’re safe now, but we have to go,” I murmured again. Reluctantly, she pulled away, looking at me for a moment as if she wanted to say something. Then she gave me a small nod, grabbed my hand, and we headed toward the city.

  A little battered, but I had my little elf back, and I wasn’t pnning to let her out of my sight anytime soon.

  RPG_Master