"Look out!" I heard a loud thwack, followed by a body hitting the floor as one of the loudmouths once again ended up eating dirt. Mochi had stuck him so hard the stalk shaft split.
"Look out…" I muttered, looking across the cave. 'Was she talking to herself? Or… Warning the guy she was going to hit him…'
After pausing for a moment staring at the broken spear shaft she heard my words and turned to look, blushing slightly from embarrassment as if asking me to forget what I heard.
I sighed, stepping over a man after searching him and scratching my nose with my arm to try and keep blood off my face… Although I'm sure it was too late for that. "Why doesn't he just stay down? It's kind of impressive really…" I patted her on the head. "Good Mochi."
She gave me a weird look, but nothing else. "You're so cool…" She said before turning to look at the giant piles of bodies.
"I try… Hey, do you know which one of these guys has the keys to the cells? It wasn't Magnus… We should probably lock them all up before we head out too."
She shook her head, "No idea."
"Hm… Let's go through them one by one then. Just kind of throw the bodies in a pile after you search them."
She looked down at her hands, questioning her strength. 'Right… She's probably not that strong.' "Uh… Go search the bodies over farther away, oh, and pile all their weapons and armor and stuff over there," I chucked my throwing knife over to a random open spot on the ground as a marker. 'I'll just throw it all back in my storage anyway. If I pawn that off and combine it with their coin purses I bet I'll double what I make from their bounties.''
By the end of it, there was a mound of unconscious half-naked bodies, most of which were covered in blood from various cuts and abrasions from my thorns and blades, and of course, the occasional missing limb that I patched up with tenacity and minimal magic 'Geeze, still no key, really?'
I sent all their gear to storage and picked up my sword again. 'Is the soundproofing good enough that there would be more people downstairs still?'
"What about that last guy? He should have had something."
I sighed, trudging up the mound of people. "I'll check him again…" I grumbled
Suddenly I heard a loud metal clank, followed by the moving of chains. 'What?' I quickly glanced at Mochi. 'She didn't open the door… Someone from the outside?' My lungs began to burn and my throat started to close up as I began to feel the intense pressure from the other side of the door. 'No… I still haven't recovered from the last fight… I haven't even fully reverted back to my old body yet.'
Regardless, even as my breath thinned I felt my mana circuits burn as energy shot through me, making my hair stand up like porcupine needles as I forced myself to take one final deep breath, letting it all out with a chill as I cooled my body with magic.
The massive iron door before me started lifting into the air and natural light shined through, making me squint as my eyes tried to adjust. Looking down it became pretty apparent to me that I didn't look red just because of the lighting, but actually because I was covered in blood. So much so it was even dripping from the tips of my face and clothes. 'Now I feel bad for giving Mochi a hug… Then again… I should have expected this… The battle was clean… But Not making sure they survived after I severed their limbs.'
I kicked the man from atop the pile of bodies to steady my footing and waited to see who was on the other side of the opening door. More light filled the room, and finally, it was revealed. Before I stood Lola, Posy, and even Plutia's rank knight Arther. Who I had met once before.
Both sides were frozen in shock, no one daring to move an inch. "You're late…" I finally growled as the burning in my lungs vanished all at once, replaced with the chill from my magic that seemed to soothe my chest.
"Ch-Chiika?" Lola asked, eyes wide as a dog falling from a diving board.
'So… So late… I'm actually probably more pissed off that they showed up now than if they just hadn't come at all… I bet they're expecting some kind of reward too, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to gather so many adventurers…' I growled again. "Perfect timing… You're a receptionist, right? I'll be claiming the bounty for everyone here, I'm claiming the WHOLE bounty BY MYSELF. OH, and I'm expecting two bonuses. One for the great market letting me be kidnapped and tortured during a trial that involved me, and another because I'm assuming you used MY magic signature to even find this place. I don't know about you… But that sounds like a pretty helpful tip, me telling you the hideout of this whole gang."
I took a deep breath stepping off the mound of bodies and trying to calm down, 'I'm too hot-headed right now… And the number of people here is just making me more anxious… I need to get out of here.' I paused as I stepped onto the ground. 'Wait, no, I need to make sure Mochi gets out of here too.' I turned back to try and find her, but she had already moved.
"You can't just–"
I felt someone's hand wrap around my arm, the memory of being groped was still all too fresh in my mind, not to mention the combat adrenaline. "Don't touch me!" Before I even blinked or finished speaking I rammed the handle of my blade right into his nose sending him to the ground unconscious. 'Have I gotten faster again?'
I had to remind myself to slow down my breathing as I started to shake. "S-sorry," I muttered, too quiet for anyone to hear… Well, he was unconscious anyway… 'It's over… I need to relax… Or at least try and relax… Relax…' No matter how many times I said it all I wanted to do was break something. My breathing was only getting more unsteady, and a final surge of adrenaline made my whole body go numb.
I suddenly heard Mochi scream. Turning my head, sure enough, some of the other members of the party had found her and were forcing her to the ground, tying her up like she was just someone that I missed. Given she was wearing the guild emblem as a magic brand on her shoulder it was no wonder… If I had been capable of thinking through it at the time maybe things would have turned out differently…
"Get you're hands off her!"
I took a limping step, quickly turning into a bound as fast as I could as my ears started to ring. I had to act. I felt like I had to act. If I didn't… I don't know what I thought would happen, nothing good… "Mochi!"
She screamed again and without a second thought, my blade crashed down, severing the man's hand and slicing a gash into the stone underneath us that cried out as the rock scraped against the metal blade.
He fell backward and cried out in pain, but I just ignored it as I pulled my knife and cut the ropes, falling to one knee behind her and pulling her close to my chest, keeping my eyes up. "Mochi are you alright? He didn't hurt you?" I was staining her skin with blood with every touch, but all I could feel was an uncanny sense of relief.
As I started to realize just what I had done my mind went blank.
"I. I don't think you can fight them too, can you?"
"Just stay close to me, it… It'll be fine…"
There wasn't quite a brawl breaking out, but it was certainly intense. 'I really messed up this time… These guys were my allies… And I cut off his freaking hand…'
I started to wheeze. 'I-I could… No, but, no… Maybe if I used magic to…' My thoughts all jumbled up, making me freeze as I started to sway back and forth and my vision faded slightly. 'No way… Why now…'
I felt a soft warm hand touch my own. "I don't really get what's happening… But, if we keep fighting we have to win eventually right?"
I still felt like I couldn't catch my breath, but at least I wasn't about to black out anymore. "That's right…" I said back. 'I have to try and fix this…' "Lola!"
She rolled her eyes, trying to stop a fight from breaking out. "What! I'm a little busy!"
I picked up the hand. "I bet he wants his hand more than he wants to hit me, let's just put it back on!"
She groaned. "Why'd you cut it off in the first place!"
Magic started to fly and barriers were put up until a giant golden beam shot straight up into the sky. Blue and white celestial feathers began falling around us in slow motion and everyone calmed down, waiting to see what would happen next.
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN! We can solve this more easily if we aren't trying to kill each other!" It was the A-rank adventurer, Arthur.
'Perfect.' I carefully stood up, holding onto Mochi tightly as I walked over to where the light was coming from and held out the man's hand. "With your magic, you might not be able to grow new limbs, but I bet you could reattach it right?"
He took it from me with a sigh, almost mirroring Lola's. "Why'd you cut it off in the first place?"
"WOULD EVERYONE STOP ASKING ME THAT AND JUST HELP ME FIX IT ALREADY?"
He smirked rustling my hair, making me feel a bit awkward as he turned to walk away. "Sure, sure why not. He's a member of my party right now so I have to help him don't I?"
I stayed back as he did his thing, and finally, everything seemed to start settling down, but I was completely surrounded, I felt like I was suffocating after weaving myself into the crowd to get to him.
"Mochi, let's go, we have to get out of here…"
Another knight walked up to us "You two need to calm–"
I summoned rending vines all around us, trapping me and Mochi in small shells of thick vines, and curling up around her. "It's fine… We're going to be ok… Don't worry…"
"Y-you said if I followed you I could get out… Is that… Not true anymore?"
I could feel her shaking just as badly as I was, even though in my head I knew that it should all be fine. They were supposed to be the good guys after all…
'No… Regardless… This should be fine…' I let out a nervous chuckle, my facade starting to crack. Clearing my throat I steadied my voice. "What do you mean? We already got out. We're outside the door aren't we?"
She leaned her head against my chest. "I'm sorry… You let me outside, but I was so busy I didn't even get a chance to look at the sky."
"That's hardly…"
In the pitch-black shell I had made, a brilliant glowing light shone from her folded hands. "Plutia." She said. "Please heal us, and grant us a way out."
The light healed my injured leg and began shining brighter and brighter until I finally realized what was happening. "Mochi cover your eyes!"
I unfolded the shell of rending vines and a brilliant light shot up into the sky, breaking the clouds as I covered her eyes for her since she was too slow. She let out a confused scream as it blinded everyone nearby.
'Perfect!' I grabbed her and pulled her up onto my back, taking off as fast as I could. I had no idea where we were, so I just took off running, it wasn't long before some of the scenery started to look familiar. Or, more accurately whatever blessing she gave me recharged my manna, and gave me a sense of direction that told me exactly where we were. The county side just outside the city.
'Turns out praying for all those years paid off after all… Was that the first time she ever used a miracle? Years of divine power… I almost feel bad, we should have gotten out of that situation easily…