"You sure it'll work? The plan seems quite simple and lame!" Kailith said, feeling unsatisfied as she looked at Maruti, her arms crossed tightly.
"It's better than some complex and complicated plan that we all fail to understand!" Maruti shot back, rolling her eyes.
Ravenna nodded in agreement, although Alice still looked puzzled, her brow furrowed in thought.
They were actually hiding behind a corner. In front of them was the same two-story building with multiple rooms, and Esdeath's home was one of them. They had thought of a plan to waste Lortell's time while Maruti would try her best to rescue Esdeath.
"Umm... I don't think it'll be that easy!" Alice said with a dry chuckle, pointing her index finger up towards the sky.
Everyone looked up. There were some dry clouds hovering above with many shining stars, but among them, the brightest one was the moon.
It was a full moon day.
It was the day when the power of vampires, werewolves, and some of the beast kins were at their peak, except for a blood moon, which happened very rarely.
Maruti's lips twitched upon seeing this. A full moon meant Lortell would be at her strongest. But then she shook her head, pushing the worry aside. "Don't think too much, we'll succeed!" she said, trying to sound confident for the team.
She turned to look at Ravenna. "Did you do your work?" she asked.
Ravenna nodded. "Yes, you can look around. There are security guards in every alley," she said in a whisper, her eyes scanning the area.
"Also, don't forget, the name is 'Gaza,' Gaza the plunderer. He is a famous criminal for quite some time!" she added, looking specifically at Kailith and Alice to make sure they remembered.
Their plan was to shout the name to attract the guards, and make them see Lortell as some kind of villain.
Since currently, attacking a guard meant opposing the whole barbarians, and it was quite the complicated matter. This was not the kingdom where Lortell had very high authority and she could do whatever she wanted. Even she would have to restrain herself a little.
"What about you? What did that loli— I mean, Miss Lilith say?" Maruti asked, catching herself just in time as she spoke to Kailith.
Kailith shook her head, her expression flat. "None. She has no weakness. The only way to defeat her is to become stronger than her. There's no other way!"
"She's totally glazing Lortell at this point!" Maruti thought to herself, her lips twitching lightly in annoyance.
Still, there was no point in thinking over it too much. Whether they would succeed or not would depend on how things would go. It was all or nothing now.
"Hope my luck comes in handy", Maruti extended her palm out into the center of their small circle. Then, the others did the same, resting their palms one upon the other in a show of unity.
"Ready?" Maruti asked, her voice low and serious.
Everyone else nodded, their faces set with determination.
"Let's go!" Maruti shouted. At the same time, she and the others pulled their hands back, ready to take action as a team.
****
SLAP!...
Lortell gave another tight slap on Esdeath's butt. Her backside was already red and slightly swollen after taking so many slaps, with clear prints of Lortell's large palm marking her skin.
Sweat was all over her body, making her swimsuit all sticky and slightly transparent.
"Why are you sweating so much? Do you have a fetish for being slapped?" Lortell teased, rubbing her palm on Esdeath's back lightly, a stark contrast to the harsh slaps.
"Of course not! It's hot in here. Let's have some fresh air for some time!" Esdeath demanded, her body still hanging awkwardly in the air.
"Not happening!" Lortell answered, giving another slap that made Esdeath gasp again, her body jerking in the ropes.
"LORTELLLL...",
Out of nowhere, a large shouting voice came from outside. Although the voice felt quite familiar.
Lortell looked back and then turned around, completely ignoring the voice at first. But then—
"LORTELL YOU BITCH, COME OUT OF THE HOUSE!" the shouting came again, louder this time.
Lortell's veins popped up on her forehead. She felt quite irritated that her private time was being interrupted.
"Tch!" she sighed. She then cut off Esdeath's rope with a swift motion of her hand and then bound her to the bed once again with the chains.
"So they are finally here?" Esdeath thought to herself. She clearly knew whose voice it was. She took a deep breath, ready to run away with any chance she got.
"I'll be back in a minute!" Lortell said calmly, her voice devoid of emotion as she left the room.
She opened the main door and arrived on the balcony. As she looked down, she saw Kailith standing there, about a hundred meters away. Yet her voice was loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood.
"Lortell, I had enough of people praising you! I, Kailith Maranthia, will defeat you today and announce myself as the new S-rank of this era!" Kailith shouted, putting a stuttering and lazy tone in her voice on purpose.
She even let her body dangle a little to portray that she was actually quite drunk, trying her best to act the part.
"Do dragons get drunk?" Lortell muttered to herself. It wasn't suspicion; she was genuinely curious, since she had never seen Lilith drunk.
"What's taking you so long?" Kailith gritted her teeth, realizing her act wasn't getting an immediate reaction. She then took something out of her pocket and directly threw it at Lortell.
Before it could hit her, Lortell swiftly caught it without any effort, her hand moving like a blur.
"A lemon?" It was just a slice of lemon, but the smell of alcohol was reeking from it.
"It's not an ordinary lemon, it's a declaration of war!" Kailith shouted, her voice full of false confidence.
Lortell sighed, sounding bored. "Fine, I'll grant your wish!"
Blink!...
In one blink, she was standing on the balcony. In the next, she was in front of Kailith, her red sword already in her hand. The sudden movement made the air swirl.
Kailith immediately stepped back a few meters out of pure surprise, her senses going on full alert. Her heart was pounding in her chest.
"Do you know, dumb people think the rest of the world is dumber than them?" Lortell said quietly, her voice a low whisper as she started unsheathing her red sword.
"W-what do you mean?" Kailith asked back hesitantly. She had already taken a normal battle stance, preparing for the worst.
Lortell chuckled lightly, a cold, humorless sound. "You think I can't see through your act?" she said.
Slash!...
She turned around and swung her sword without even looking. The red sword wave cut through the air and reached where Alice and Maruti were hiding. It sliced right beside them, cutting a deep gouge in the wall, a clear and terrifying warning.
"That level of stealth is nothing to me. You have to be better than that. I'm disappointed!" Lortell said, her voice cold and dark at the same time.
"Shit, we're already exposed!" Maruti gasped, her eyes wide with shock and fear.
She turned around and looked at Alice. "Alice, let's go!"
With no choice left, it was either do or die. Now they could only rely on Kailith and see how long she could hold back Lortell. Thankfully, Ravenna had already left, since she had done her part, so there was no need to get her involved.
Lortell saw them running towards her house. Yet, instead of chasing them, she slowly turned around towards Kailith, without any hurry at all. Even Kailith was left confused by her lack of action.
"Let them try. It'll take them at least a day to break just the barrier. I'll take my sweet time punishing you!" Lortell said, her voice was sweet like honey, but the meaning behind her words was clearly dark.
******
Maruti and Alice directly jumped onto the second floor without using the stairs, their movements swift and silent. As they landed, Alice could immediately sense the barrier around the house, a shimmering, invisible wall of energy that vibrated with a low hum.
It restricted anyone from coming any closer than two meters from the door, pushing back with a firm, unseen force.
But without stopping at all, Maruti directly rushed forward and stood right in front of the door, her body somehow passing through the barrier as if it weren't there.
"Woah, how did you do that?" Alice was clearly amazed, her eyes wide with disbelief at whatever unknown thing Maruti had just done.
Alice herself tried to touch the barrier, but it repelled her back immediately with a sharp, electric jolt, making her stumble.
"It's not time to explain!" Maruti said, her voice strained and urgent. "Just stay here and alert me if she comes!" she added, turning her full attention back to the door.
At the same time, with just one push from her, the whole door was uprooted from its frame and fell downwards with a loud THUD.
She immediately stepped inside, but the moment she took her first step—
BOOM!...
A massive beam of fire burst forth from the house, reaching all the way to the ceiling. It was like a pillar of pure, red-hot fire, designed to disintegrate her body completely. But despite its intense heat, there were no burns on the ceiling at all, the fire contained within a magical boundary.
At the same time, lightning cracked and arced through the fire pillar, its blue-white tendrils wrapping around Maruti and electrifying her entire body. The smell of ozone filled the air, sharp and stinging.
After a few seconds, the attack died down. Most of Maruti's clothes were already burned away, leaving them in tatters, and there were still small bolts of lightning running across her skin, making her muscles twitch uncontrollably.
Fire wasn't the main problem; she had an affinity with the fire element, so those attacks had much less effect on her. But the main damage was done by the lightning.
"Not at the first step, dammit," Maruti sighed to herself, her voice raspy as she fell down to her knees, trying to catch her breath.
"Are you okay?" Alice's eyes widened in shock from her safe spot behind the barrier. She tried to enter again, but the barrier repelled her back once more. She could only watch and feel helpless..
****
BAM!...
CLASH!..
Lortell and Kailith exchanged several blows, the sound of kailith's nails clanging against metal echoing through the night.
Somehow, with each strike from Lortell's sword, Kailith couldn't find any gaps at all. Lortell's movements were too fluid, too perfect. She was left with no choice but to block each one and retreat back a few meters each time, the force of the impacts vibrating up her arms.
"What's happening? It's so hard to dodge!" Kailith thought to herself, a cold sweat of fear starting to form on her brow.
She immediately retreated even further, jumping across the rooftops of several nearby houses while Lortell immediately chased after her, her movements a blur of black and red.
"I'm quite surprised that you got information about it so fast. Who told you? Esdeath or Selene?" Lortell asked with a faint, knowing smile on her lips, her voice calm even as they moved at incredible speed.
They both landed on the rooftop of another house, standing just in front of each other, like ninjas on a mission under the pale moonlight.
Of course, Kailith didn't answer Lortell's question. Instead, she looked around and immediately shouted with all her might, putting on her best act of a terrified citizen.
"Help me! The plunderer, Gaza is here! Help me!" Kailith shouted, her voice carrying through the quiet night.
At the same time, she caused a small explosion in the air with a flick of her wrist and simultaneously cast a stealth spell on herself, vanishing from sight.
Although this level of stealth could be detected by someone as powerful as Lortell, for the guards around the local area, they could never see her. The guards were already informed of the suspicion of criminal Gaza being in the neighborhood, and the small explosion immediately attracted their attention.
"Look there, a white-haired woman!" one guard shouted, pointing up and locating Lortell on the rooftop.
"But isn't Gaza a man?" another guard asked in confusion, scratching his head.
"Can be an accomplice as well! Or the woman who just shouted! Let's go there!" the guard replied, taking charge.
At once, many guards ran through the alleys, their heavy boots pounding on the cobblestones as they rushed to reach that location.
Meanwhile, Lortell just stood there with an unknown, almost amused smile on her face.
"No wonder there were so many guards here. Was this your plan as well?" Lortell asked, her voice directed at the empty air where Kailith was hiding.
"Doesn't matter. Have fun time dealing with them!" Kailith's voice replied, seeming to come from nowhere. Being in stealth, she decided to watch the situation quietly, a smirk on her face.
"I sure will," Lortell chuckled, a dark, chilling sound. And the next moment, she extended her hand towards the group of guards who were now gathering below.
"Blood manipulation," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Pop!..
One of the guard's bodies popped like a balloon, a wet, gruesome sound. Blood and organs splattered everywhere.
And then—
Pop!.. Pop!.. Pop!.. Pop!..
One after another, all the guards' bodies popped like balloons. Their internal organs and blood splattered out, painting the walls and ground in a horrific display of violence. The metallic, coppery smell of blood filled the air, thick and sickening.
Kailith and Maruti had thought that Lortell wouldn't kill, or at best she would use stealth herself, hiding from the guards to avoid trouble. Since killing them had a higher risk of creating problems later on. In either case, she would somehow waste her time.
But what was this? She didn't hesitate for a second to kill them.
"She doesn't give a fuck," Kailith's lips twitched slightly, a cold chill running down her spine. She finally understood, Other than being a person in love, Lortell was a total villain who didn't care about rules or consequences.