“I will be sprinting the whole way back, I will not slow down if you can’t keep up,” I warned them both.
“My Papa taught you ‘Body Control’, do you really think I would not know ‘Sprint’ too?” Vari asked, giving me a wry grin.
“Then let’s go before it’s too late,” I said, activating ‘Sprint’ and running, Vari and Vision on my heels. I needed and wanted to get back to help my team. I had to trust that the Royal Guard and City Watch could handle the rest.
Chapter 25 - Olaf
“Heath, did you see any roaming patrols?” Olaf asked as soon as the door closed, and Bye-bye was gone.
“Not really, I saw a guard here and there, but they looked like they were walking around more than patrolling. It’s the maids you have to watch out for, they are everywhere,” Heath answered.
“Dangerous?” Olaf asked.
“Don’t think so, but they might be assassins, you can never really tell,” said Heath, shrugging his shoulders.
“Great,” said Rose. “That’s reassuring. Do you know where they are keeping the Duchess?” Rose asked.
“Somewhere upstairs. I was more concerned with finding you,” Heath answered.
“Okay, how about the wedding location? Is there a chapel or something?” Olaf asked.
“Yeah, I heard one of the maids gossiping. There is a shrine to the God Ivaldi somewhere in here,” Heath answered.
“We need to ask someone for directions,” said Rose, looking around the small entry way.
“Whatever we do, we can’t stay here,” said Micaela. “It won’t be long before someone comes to relieve these guards, or a maid wanders past and screams bloody murder.”
The sound of breaking glass drew the groups attention. Just as Micaela had predicted, there was a maid, and at her feet was a tray, shattered mugs, and golden liquid sloshing across the floor.
Heath appeared behind her, a dagger at the girl’s throat before she could scream, “Not a peep, lass.”
The dwarven girl nodded nervously, trying hard not to get her throat cut. She finally spoke softly though the fear in her voice was clear enough. “Please, just let me go, I will not tell anyone. I will just run away. Please, I have been trying to escape for months, so have most of the girls.”
“We need your help first,” said Heath, seeming to believe her.
“Whatever you need, just do not hurt me,” she pleaded.
Olaf stepped forward, trying to be as big and intimidating as possible, which wasn’t very difficult with his size and appearance. Not to mention, it was a skill he had gotten very good at in his youth. Leaning down and looking the maid in the eyes, Olaf snorted like a bull would, a few flecks of snot splattering the girl and making her shake even harder. It was gross, even Olaf could acknowledge that, but it was also very effective. “Listen here girlie, we need to know where the wedding is taking place. You show us the way and we’ll make sure you get out of here in one piece. Clear?”
The girl nodded vigorously, unable to stop the tremble.
“And if you lead us into a trap of any kind, I promise, you’ll be the first to die,” Olaf threatened the girl, placing one of his hand-cannons to the side of the girl’s head. “Do we have an understanding?”
The nodded.
“I can’t hear you,” Olaf tormented her.
“Yessir, I agree,” she stuttered, absolutely terrified.
“Heath, stay next to her. March on girlie,” Olaf ordered.
“Right, on it,” Heath said, vanishing from sight.
Rose quirked an eyebrow at Olaf as she followed just behind the maid, Baby flew just next to Rose, shooting nervous glances as Olaf as she passed.
“Haven’t seen that side of you in a long time,” said Micaela, looking at her husband carefully.
“Haven’t had to use that side of me in a long time,” Olaf said, feeling slightly drained from the interaction.
“Just so long as you remember who you are now Oliver Eastmont and not who you were when you were forced into the Military. Breaking you the first time was more than enough for one lifetime,” said Micaela, walking ahead to rejoin the group.
Olaf shuddered a little as the memory washed over him. In his youth, Olaf was a street thug. He committed a lot of petty crimes, a few assaults. Nothing he was proud of, but for a poor kid in a very bad neighborhood in East End, you did what had to do to survive, which often meant crime in one fashion or another. After watching both his mother and father overdose on some drug or another, Olaf refused to have anything to do with any kind of drugs to the point he won’t even take a pain reliever for a headache. Being unwilling to sell drugs, meant operating on the more physical side of crime.
As is common with most criminals, he robbed the wrong guy and got pinched for it. Judge gave him a choice, prison or the army. Knowing that escaping from prison was near impossible and assuming he would just be able to run away from the army later, he chose to join the military. He also figured some of the skills the army might teach him could translate well to a life of crime.
He was shipped out to a military base for boot camp, that was where he first met his now wife, Drill Sergeant Melanie Meadows. She was quite possibly the meanest, toughest, and most violent woman he had ever met. On the very first day, she had beat him bloody after he ignored an order to get a laugh from his fellow conscripts. Street life had taught him early that he didn’t want to be at the bottom of the pecking order, his attempt to show dominance backfired spectacularly. After that beatdown, not only was he at the bottom of the hierarchy of conscripts, but he quickly became the butt of their jokes. After that, he kept his head down as best he could. Trying to learn what he could and making plans to run away.
Then came the night of his planned departure. They weren’t exactly prisoners, but the fences were still a pain to deal with, so he got in his head to hide on one of the weekly delivery trucks. He didn’t expect to find three of his fellow conscripts pinning down the Drill Sergeant, or for one of them to be working on removing her pants. Olaf was a thug, a criminal, but even he had lines he wouldn’t cross. Without considering the consequences of being caught with a bag, being out of the barracks after curfew or any other concern for his own well-being, he attacked the trio.
After saving the Drill Sergeant, he hoped for a pass from the woman he just saved. Instead, he was arrested for attempted desertion. The other three had their conscriptions voided and were sent directly to prison with a heap of extra crimes on top. Olaf had thought he wouldn’t be far behind them.
Standing in military court, Olaf was stunned when Drill Sergeant Meadows spoke up for him. Said he had some potential. Said it would be a loss of a decent soldier who had a moment of weakness. Nobody had ever stood up for him like that before. The Drill Sergeant had earned his respect and he can admit now, he might have developed a little crush on her then.
Returning to training, the Drill Sergeant was even tougher on Olaf than before the incident. She suddenly held him to a higher standard than the other conscripts. She pushed him hard until he finished Boot Camp at the top of his class and earning him a first-class ticket to southeast Asia, an area that was more or less a warzone.
It was years later, Olaf met the Drill Sergeant again, this time he was brought in as a speaker for one of her trainee groups. It also gave him a chance to talk to the Drill Sergeant again. Talking which led to dinner which led to breakfast which led to everything else that followed.
So, as much as Olaf hated who he was in his youth, he couldn’t help but be grateful for who he was, or he never would have met his wife, had his daughter, or gotten to experience the greatest adventure of his life.
Realizing he had been left behind, Olaf rushed to catch up with his wife and friends.
“Heath, get the archer at the back, I’ll give you 30-seconds to get into position,” said Rose, peaking around the corner. “I’ll pick up the mauler first, dps him down. Olaf, now that you’re here, I need you to deal with the caster, I don’t know if he�
��s a healer or a mage.”
“That is Danori, he’s a cleric,” the maid added helpfully.
“Thank you, Tessa,” said Rose.
Olaf saw the maid’s nameplate now read
“So, Olaf, focus on the cleric,” ordered Rose.
Olaf nodded his agreement. He was actually kind of excited to fight against a caster class. He had only learned a few new skills this week, but one he had yet to be able to use was ‘Silencing Shot’, and now was the perfect time to test it out.
Single Hand-Cannon
Level: 82
Experience: 15.12%
Current Damage Modifiers
Damage: +82.00
Critical Strike Chance: +8.20%
Subskill: Silencing Shot
Skill Effect: Silence target for 10-seconds Cooldown: 15-seconds
Skill Stamina Cost: 182
Subskill: Knee Cap
Reduce Enemy Movement and Attack Speed: 50% Target Receives Increased Damage: +8.20% Duration: 15 Seconds Bleed Effect: 2 Damage per Second Cooldown: 1-minute
Skill Stamina Cost: 264
Subskill: Targeted Shot
Skill Effect: 100% chance to hit target and 100% critical strike chance Cooldown: 2-minutes
Skill Stamina Cost: 264
‘Single Hand-Cannon’ skills were expensive to use, and they all carried a long cooldown. A little secret Olaf figured out not too long ago was that the cooldown is per hand-cannon. That meant he could use ‘Silencing Shot’ with his left hand-cannon and then use it again with this right. He just had to be careful, if he used too many skills in a short period of time he’d risk pulling agro and running out of stamina.
The other skill he picked up this week that he was really looking forward to was ‘Double Blast’, a subskill of ‘Dual Hand-Cannons’.
Dual Hand-Cannons
Level: 82
Experience: 15.12%
Current Damage Modifiers
Damage: +164.00
Critical Strike Chance: +16.40%
Subskill: Double Blast
Damage: +328.00 Cooldown: 60-Seconds
Skill Stamina Cost: 364
Another very expensive skill but for that kind of damage he didn’t mind.
“Pulling,” said Rose, softly before blurring from sight.
Olaf grinned and activated his ‘Bull Rush’ skill, a new racial ability he had gotten when he became a minotaur.
Bull Rush
Level: 1
Experience: 50.00%
Current Damage Modifiers
Damage: +10.00
Skill Stamina Cost: 50
Skill Effect (Active): An innate inborn skill unique to the minotaur race. You charge your target like a raging bull, impaling your target on your horns.
A damage notification of -215-HP as his target,
“What do you think, mate, ready to give up?” asked Olaf, aiming his hand-cannon and ready to unleash a finishing shot.
The cleric glared at Olaf in defiance for only a moment before his eyes softened and he dropped to his knees, hands in the air.
A quick look around showed the other two had been dealt with, Heath’s target was unsurprisingly dead but Rose and Micaela’s warrior was on the ground with his hands behind his head.
“Don’t suppose any of you remembered to bring shackles?” Heath asked.
Olaf cringed. “Yeah, totally didn’t think about that.”
Heath clicked his tongue and shook his head side to side. “Honestly, you would all be bloody lost without me around,” he said, producing a pair of shackles.
“Where did you get shackles?” Rose asked.
“I’m a thief, when I see valuable stuff laying around in places like . . . oh, say . . . a prison, I might just pick them up . . . you know, just in case they fetch a decent price,” said Heath, grinning.
“Klepto,” complained Rose.
“Yeah, but he’s our klepto,” said Baby, giggling.
“You . . . you did not kill them,” said the maid, Tessa, sounding surprised.
“Not if we can help it,” said Rose.
Tessa seemed to be thinking hard about something, glancing from one member of the group to another. “I . . . can I ask . . . will you help me?”
“Depends,” said Olaf, putting on the brutish act again.
“I told you, I have been trying to escape. The maids here . . . we are all prisoners, slaves . . . entertainment,” Tessa added, looking away in shame. “Can you help us? Please help us escape this place.”
Quest Alert: Harem on the Lam (Recommended Level 7-9)
Tessa Hillthumper has asked you to free her and the other girls being held against their will by the Stonebreaker Mafia.
Reward: Experience, Hidden
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“We’ll do what we can,” Rose answered first.
Olaf agreed wholeheartedly but he also knew it couldn’t be this easy. “What’s the catch?”
Tessa cringed.
“Come, out with it, we already promised to help,” Olaf prompted her, trying to look intimidating.
Tessa jumped nervously. “Connie . . . she is . . . the head maid, but she is not really a maid. Mostly, she keeps the girls in line and working. Her and her husband Hyde, the head butler, the only butler really. He’s a brute of man.”
Heath snorted, then giggled earning several disapproving looks. “What? Connie and Hyde, does no one else get it?” he asked, looking slightly affronted.
Baby giggled, then quickly per her hands to her mouth.
“See, she gets it,” said Heath, pointing at the fairy.
“Sorry for them,” said Micaela, putting a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder making her jump. “You’re safe with us. And Connie and Hyde won’t be a problem, promise.”
Tessa shyly looked up at Micaela then nodded nervously.
“Show us the way,” said Olaf.
“We need to go upstairs, it will take us away from the shrine,” Tessa said, honestly and worriedly.
“We’ve got time,” said Micaela, smiling reassuringly at the girl.
Tessa finally nodded. “This way,” she said, hurrying back the way the group came from. Tessa led them into a kitchen first with cooks running around and paying the maid very little attention, then to a narrow stairwell going up steeply. “The servant quarters are up here, sorry for the tight fit.”
Olaf appreciated the sentiment but that didn’t make the reality of squeezing up the tiny stairwell any better, especially with the foot long, razor sharp horns on top of his head. Still, it would have been much worse if he was still an ogre.
“We’ll make do, stay behind me,” said Rose, leading the way up the stairs.
Olaf was the last one up. He wasn’t sure what to expect but a long hall with doors lining both sides, spaced every few feet wasn’t what he expected.
“We have to find Connie, she will have the key,” said Tessa.
“Who needs keys,” said Heath, opening the first of the doors with almost no effort.
Tessa brushed past him into the small room followed closely by Baby.
Tessa and Baby emerged a minute later with a young girl almost the same age as Tessa but dressed in far less.
“This is Birgitta,” said Tessa, introducing the girl.
&nb
sp; “How many girls are there?” Heath asked, having opened three more doors.
“Fifteen to twenty,” Tessa answer.
Heath nodded and opened the next door and paled. “Wait here a moment,” he said, entering the closet sized room and closing the door behind him.
There was a muffled yell from behind the door, “Hey, what’s the meaning of this? It was my turn.” Followed by a “Hey, there’s no need for the knife, we can share her.” And finally, an “Oh God no!”
Heath emerged a minute later, carrying a bloody girl in her arms and rushing her over to Baby.
It took another twenty minutes to empty all the rooms. Heath took three more lives in that time and not a word was said about it.
“We need to get them out of here,” said Rose.
“I can lead them out,” said Birgitta, looking quite a bit better than when the group had found her.
“Not through the kitchens,” said Tessa.
“We can exit through her room,” said Birgitta. “Connie isn’t there right now. She’s up the tower getting the Duchess dressed, probably doping her up.”
“The Duchess,” said Olaf, jumping on that tidbit of information.
“Yes, at the end of the hall, the stairs up lead to the tower, Alone’s private quarters. He has kept the Duchess locked up there,” answered Birgitta.
“He hasn’t . . .” Rose tried to ask but flinched.
“No, he has made it perfectly clear, no one will spoil his pending nuptials by deflowering his prize,” said Birgitta, understanding Rose’s concerns.
Heath looked ready to burst with some comment or other, but the combined glares of warning from Rose, Micaela and Baby gave him pause long enough to think better of it.
“Then that is where we need to go,” said Olaf, directing his gaze to the end of the hall.
“It would seem we need to go that way as well. We go down to get to Connie and Hyde’s room, we can exit from there,” said Tessa.
“Okay, when we get to the stairwell, all of you need to leave. Hide somewhere nearby, but out of sight. We’ll find you and make sure you get back to Root City safely,” ordered Olaf, brooking no room for argument.
World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins Page 43