The girls broke off, still helping people flee, but also preventing the monsters from taking sneak attacks on the party who was focusing on Shao. As soon as they got close to her, Shao's eyes opened. Dark tides of miasma instantly began attacking the soldiers. However, with their shields at the ready and already using defensive spells, they were able to block some of her attacks.
As for me, I ran around the periphery of their battle, dodging attacks. If I saw someone get hurt, I healed them. When my feet stumbled on a body, I looked down. I realized that it was the body of Lord Tibult. At some point, he had been torn in half. A look of terror was still marked on his face. That meant, at the moment, Shao's slave mark had no owner. No, that wasn't 100% true. It likely went to the Slavers Guild. It's not like the slave mark did any good for anyone.
Wait… or can it? I looked down at my hand, but what I was really doing was checking my skills. Slave Taker. I could take control of her slave mark. She would instantly target me though. She'd also resist. If I could get her to be my slave, it was possible to get her to listen to reason though. I didn't simply have a charm with slaves, but a blessing that increased my affinity to slaves.
A giant shockwave erupted, and several of the men flew back. A few who had been too slow with defenses didn't get back up again. Of the twenty men to start, the Prince had already lost five. The battle was that frantic. A few spells had landed on the Demon Lord, but the damage she took was minimal. She was simply too high of a level for anyone to touch. Unless… I could cap her level with a Cap Slave! I had finally decided that this is what I had to do.
"Prince!" I called out, "I have a way. I might be able to weaken her a bit!"
"Do it!" he said without hesitation. "Men! Give her everything you've got!"
I took as safe of a distance as I could while still being able to target her for the Slave Taker ability. I held out my hand, narrowing my eyes as I looked at Shao.
"Slave Taker!"
Instantly, I felt pressure like a mountain had been tossed on my shoulders. I collapsed to my knees in an instant. Even though her new master didn't even know she existed at the moment, her own resistance towards the change was at a level that is far greater than anything I knew how to cope with. However, I had no choice but to barrel forward. I gritted my teeth and forced my mana into taking over her slave mark. Slowly, yet assuredly, it started to get taken over.
The time that passed was probably less than a minute, but it felt like hours. I was halfway done when her eyes suddenly jumped to me. She seemed to have realized what I was doing.
"You… liars! All of you, liars!" she screamed, a sudden ball of miasma forming at her fingertips.
The guards increased their attacks, but she ignored them, taking some damage. Her eyes were solely focused on me. I was her greatest threat. What were a few cuts over having someone control her slave mark again? Usually, when she used miasma, it was like a whip, shooting out and hitting someone quickly. This time, it was building up, a massive ball of power growing larger every second. As for me, I had no hopes of moving even a step. The pressure was simply too great as I tried to take over her mark.
When everyone realized the spell would go off, three of the guards got in front of me and slammed down their shields.
"Deek!" the girls cried out.
The ball shot out, a massive pillar of darkness. It slammed into the three guards. They lasted barely a second before their bodies were destroyed.
"No!" Terra leaped in front of me, lifting up her arms covered in rock.
Dirt began to rise up like a tsunami, only just reaching full height when the darkness struck it. The two remained at a standstill, Terra's rising dirt and Shao's darkness. The ground rumbled and the pressure became even more unbearable.
The only way to stop this was to enslave Shao. Then, I could possibly weaken her and allow the remaining guards, which was down to ten, to defeat her. I worked all of my strength on the slave mark, trying to take it over as quickly as possible. The torrent of darkness continued to rain down, and Terra's face turned white as she resisted the darkness.
"Come on… come on!" I shouted to myself, now down to a sliver of the slave mark left.
The darkness broke through. I found myself flying back. Just at that second, the slave mark on her body shined, and text scrolled across my vision. After I finished rolling back, I was able to read it.
{Shao is now your slave.}
I got up on my knees and shouted. "Terra, we did it!"
Terra turned back to me and smiled sadly. "That's great… Master…"
Her voice suddenly fluctuated strangely. "T-Terra?"
Crack. Cracks started to appear across her skin. Despite the battle behind her, the world seemed oddly quiet. All I could hear was the cracking.
Crack… crack… crack…
"I'm… sorry… master… I can't… guard you… anymore," she said with tears in her eyes.
"Terra!"
Her body shattered, and then dirt fell to the ground. All that was left in her place, was a pile of earth.