Fallen apis littered the town square, but even more numerous were her own fallen, which made Leah pale a little. There were less than forty of them left, and she hissed to herself.
Then she caught sight of the woman in the doorway, and Leah froze almost long enough for an apis to kill her. The woman’s arrow glanced off Leah’s armor, but it didn’t change the fact she’d seen a human redhead that matched the description of an adventurer from the previous day.
Rage welled up inside Leah, and she changed her plans, pulling out a magic resistance potion. The apis were going to overwhelm her sooner or later, but the least she could do was wipe out the damnable adventurers first.
* * *
The wave of hot air and smoke rocked Cora back on her heels, almost knocking her over, and the Mage took a second to recover, her ears aching from the deafening explosion. She had absolutely no idea what had happened, and wasn’t about to walk into a wall of smoke. It took a few more seconds before the smoke cleared enough for her to see anything, and Cora stopped, her eyes widening as she blinked, taking in the sight before her.
“Oww…” Joy’s voice was tiny through the ringing in Cora’s ears, and the apis had definitely seen better days. She was on her back against the stairs, her wings splayed out and with numerous holes burnt through them, and the apis’s entire front was covered in soot, at least the part that wasn’t covered by a large, iron-reinforced door that’d been torn off its hinges.
“What happened?” Cora asked, a little appalled by the sight, but moved forward to drag the door off Joy, which was heavy enough to require her to use two hands.
“A guy had a crate with bottles in it, and set it down to pick one up. I threw a dagger at him, and hit him in the hand. He dropped it, and the crate went boom,” Joy said, looking a little dazed as she looked at Cora, then asked plaintively, “Do most bottles go boom? I don’t think I like bottles.”
Cora winced at the description, picking up her staff and offering a hand to Joy as she glanced into what had to be the storeroom. There was a somewhat charred corpse in the hallway nearby, as well as another very charred body in the room, which was now on fire.
“No, they don’t. I think he was moving explosive flasks, Joy. You’re lucky you weren’t next to him when it exploded,” Cora said, helping the apis to her feet and looking at her in disbelief. “That could’ve killed you!”
“Might hurt less?” Joy said, her tone questioning, then shook her head. “But I’m alive! Um, prison, where do you think it is? Ack, fire!”
“Which is another reason to get the prisoners out quick,” Cora said, glancing around, and her gaze settled on a door a short distance down the hall, one with a much more heavily reinforced door, and a heavy lock, one that seemed even more complex than the lock on the door laying on the floor. She pointed at it, and said, “I think that’s it. The question is, where are the keys?”
“Keys? She had keys!” Joy said, pointing at the nearby body, and scurried forward, pausing as she looked into the storeroom, then shuddered and looked away. “Nope, not getting that dagger back. I’ll make a new one.”
Cora didn’t entirely understand what Joy was saying for a second, then she remembered that Joy had thrown a dagger at the man whose corpse was in the room and winced. She really didn’t blame the apis for not wanting to go into a fiery room to get the dagger back. Instead, she headed for the door she’d pointed out, hoping that Joy was right about the keys.
The apis quickly retrieved the key ring from the woman’s body, then raced over, looking slightly triumphant as she offered them to Cora. “Here you go!”
“Thank you, Joy. Now to find out if they’re the right ones…” Cora said, taking the key ring and testing one soot-blackened key, then another. As she worked, her hearing was recovering, and from above she could hear the sound of fighting, which made her worry grow stronger. They really needed to hurry to support Brianna and Stella.
The fifth key turned out to be the right one, and Cora’s eyes lit up as she opened the door. She belatedly tensed as she realized that there could be a guard inside, but relaxed again as she saw the guard room was empty, and beyond it were five cells, only one of which was occupied.
In the cell was a beautiful, busty blonde woman with bright blue eyes, who was wearing spartan clothing that looked like it hadn’t been washed in days, though it looked like the woman had tried to clean herself with water frequently. The woman’s eyes were bright with anger and worry, and her hands were manacled to the wall, and a silver choker was around her neck, a large blue stone set into the front of it.
“Who—no, that doesn’t matter, you obviously aren’t with the Kingdoms of Darkness. Get me out of here!” the woman barked, her voice carrying an air of authority as she stood up. “What was that explosion?”
“Um, my friend hit a soldier and he dropped a flask on a crate of other flasks, which exploded,” Cora said, a little taken aback, but she started forward anyway.
“Who’re you? I’m Joy! Are there any other prisoners?” Joy asked, her words rapid as she turned to look at the other cells.
“What? I’m Guildmaster Abigail the Red. You didn’t know that?” the woman asked, looking a little confused now, though Cora quickly tested different keys on the cell. It didn’t take as many tries this time, but that still gave the Guildmaster time to speak. “The others are in the town prison, not here. The invaders didn’t want to risk them managing to get out and free me, damn it all.”
“Guildmaster?” Cora asked, her eyes widening just a bit, then she flushed and apologized. “Sorry, we nearly were captured by the soldiers yesterday, and don’t know what’s going on, exactly. We got reinforcements, but I don’t know how the fight’s going upstairs, so—”
“Give me that!” Abigail said sharply, snatching the key ring from Cora’s hands, and immediately chose the correct key as she added, frustration in her voice as she unlocked the manacles. “None of these are the keys to my collar, either, which means I’m nearly useless. What reinforcement? Where could you get them? I thought that Silverhoof might be here, but that sounds wrong.”
“The apis decided to help us!” Joy chimed in helpfully. “They’re fighting ants, and want to trade with all of you!”
“Silverhoof is in Irador, as far as I know,” Cora continued, flushing a little as she looked at the collar, realizing that it had a lock on the back, and she asked, “A mana suppression collar?”
“Mana draining, which is a little better. I just don’t know how to get the crystal out of it, which would be enough, combined with a mana potion,” Abigail said, looking a bit frustrated and even more confused as she looked at Joy. “What do you mean, the apis helped us? Why… no, we don’t have time for this! I need to get this off, and deal with some of these invaders!”
“Let me try!” Joy suggested, and quickly stepped forward, sheathing her rapier. Cora saw Abigail nearly recoil, but before the woman could do anything, Joy’s hands were on the collar. Joy’s expression grew more focused after a moment, as she murmured, “Oh, that’s different. And that’s there… where is… ah, found it!”
With a clicking sound, the crystal popped free, and the expression of shocked amazement on Abigail’s face was oddly satisfying, after how rude the woman had been so far. Joy grinned, opening her mouth, but she was interrupted by noise from above.
There was a scream of pain, which wasn’t surprising, followed by Stella’s voice, which was. “Cora, Joy, help!”
Cora’s blood chilled, and she cursed. Before she managed anything more, Joy was off like an arrow, her rapier leaving its sheath as the apis called out, “I’m coming!”
“Here, my emergency potion!” Cora said, fumbling out her emergency mana potion and giving it to Abigail before turning to chase after Joy.
She just hoped it was enough to help the Guildmaster.
Chapter 37
Joy dashed up the stairs, frustrated that the scorched holes in her wings made them useless for now. They’d heal, but
that would take a couple of days, and she wanted them now.
Instead she bounded over three stairs at a time, jumping off the back wall to continue up the stairwell without slowing down. It hurt, with how her body was aching, but she didn’t dare move slower, even when she saw some flames flickering between the floorboards of the hallway ahead of her. Instead she darted over the fire and into the main room, just in time to see Stella stagger backward, her shield arm limp as blood streamed from a gash on her bicep.
Brianna was a couple of feet away, blood on her cheek below a sealed cut, and her armor had a couple of holes in it. Brianna was panting and wide-eyed as she staggered back from her opponent, who was just finishing drinking a bright red potion, and the air seethed as she exuded a thin red mist.
The woman in the doorway was a half-elf with blue eyes and light brown hair, but she had an odd sneer on her face, which was marred by jagged scars from claws, and was wielding a large, black-bladed sword in one hand, a bow slung behind her back. She was wearing a black metal corslet and leather below that, all of it virtually unmarred. Worse, through the front door Joy could see combat still raging, with more apis than she cared to think about on the ground, most of them unmoving. It looked like more people in black were on the ground than apis, but she couldn’t be certain. She didn’t want to be certain, either, not with the traces of yellow blood she saw on the woman’s sword.
“Speed Burst!” Joy exclaimed, and she was able to move much, much more quickly for a few seconds, just as the woman snarled and swung her sword at Stella, the blade moving in a deadly arc.
Joy wasn’t fast enough, even with her ability. For an instant it felt like something in her chest would burst, and Joy’s eyes widened in fear. Not for herself, but for Stella. Then metal flashed as Brianna grunted, and metal clashed on metal.
Brianna and Stella staggered backward, and Brianna’s sword fell from her hand, her fingers trembling and a deep notch cut into the blade from where the woman’s sword had cut into it. The half-elf snarled angrily. “Just die, you—”
It gave Joy enough time, though. Her ability wore off just as she reached the woman, and Joy interrupted in the only way she could think of.
“Stab!” Joy exclaimed, thrusting directly toward the woman’s armpit, the spot she’d learned was usually lightly armored at best.
The woman turned just before her rapier hit, and it bent as it pressed against the armor, skittering off the woman’s breastplate harmlessly. Joy didn’t slow down, instead slamming into the woman, and avoiding the slash of her sword more by incident than by design.
It didn’t save her from getting hit by the woman’s elbow as they staggered, though, and it was like being thrown by the demon again, as the armor on Joy’s side gave way and she went flying into the wall, hard.
“Another of you damned pests?” the woman demanded, spitting and growling as Joy slid halfway to the ground in a daze. “You must be that adventurer apis. To hells with it, I don’t care what Lord Alethus wants, you need to die!”
The woman lashed out angrily, and Joy tried to dodge, but her legs just weren’t working. Brianna’s were, though, and the human kicked the woman in the back of the knee, drawing her dagger as she yelled. “Get away from her!”
“You just don’t know when to quit!” the woman snarled, spinning and kicking Brianna away, tearing the dagger out of the Swordswoman’s grasp, her sword knocking Stella back just as the Acolyte was raising her mace. Before anyone could react, the woman ruthlessly drove the dagger through Brianna’s shoulder, pinning her to the wall, the dagger up to its hilt in her shoulder. “Stay put!”
Brianna’s eyes bulged, choking back a scream, and Joy’s eyes widened as she saw the woman turning on Stella.
“Legs, move. Move!” Joy whispered, drawing her dagger as well as she dragged herself to her feet, wishing it didn’t feel like her legs were made of softened wax.
“Lightning Blast!” Cora’s voice echoed through the room, and a bolt of lightning lanced across the room and slammed into the half-elf, staggering her as electricity arced across the woman’s armor.
“Cora, you got—” Stella began, glancing toward the elf in relief, but Joy’s relief vanished as she saw the half-elf straighten and lunge.
“Stella!” Joy yelped, and threw her dagger at the woman desperately, not taking the time to use her ability.
The dagger hit the woman’s arm, bouncing off the armor, but it gave Stella enough time to react and raise her shield. Not that it helped when the woman’s sword crunched straight through the shield and slammed into her shoulder, driving Stella to her knees as the sound of breaking bone filled the air.
“I thought I’d run into you, so I took measures,” the woman snarled, looking a bit unsteady, but she grinned as she continued. “Too bad you’re nearly ten levels too low. I suppose I’ll just kill your friends, then you!”
Joy’s breath caught as the woman turned back toward Stella, and she charged forward, exclaiming, “Stop it!”
“Fire Blast!” Cora’s voice came at almost the same time, and a ball of fire slammed into the woman, scorching her hair but doing little more than that.
Joy’s legs almost gave out, but relief rushed through her as the woman turned toward her abruptly, swinging her sword ruthlessly, and Joy closed her eyes, hoping she’d resurrect back in Irador.
“Inferno Blaze!” another woman snapped, and a blast of heat hit Joy hard enough she stumbled to a stop, just as the half-elf screamed in pain.
Joy opened her eyes and blanched at the sight of the half-elf, who was almost on her knees, her skin blackened and the floor a charred circle of wood beneath her. Behind Cora was the Guildmaster, Abigail, her eyes blazing with anger as she spoke. “You were saying something about being low level, I believe? Well, I am not.”
“You… how did you get out—” the woman gasped, straightening slowly, her attention focused on Abigail. Joy barely hesitated, since she was already in reach. And this time she didn’t speak.
No armor protected the woman’s ear, and Joy cringed as her rapier penetrated it, quickly retrieving her weapon and taking a step back as the opponent staggered, her eyes wide as her mouth worked, then she fell to the ground.
Abigail blinked, looking at the fallen woman, then at Joy. A moment later she spoke, her voice like iron. “Well, I suppose that works well enough. Now, let’s deal with the others and get someone to keep my guild from burning to the ground. We don’t have much time.”
“A… a little help, here?” Brianna gasped, her face as pale as a sheet.
“Coming!” Joy said, and Cora rushed toward Stella.
Joy ignored the notice in her head, instead focusing on helping Brianna.
Level Up: Apis Rogue Level 12
Chapter 38
The aftermath of the battle was nauseating, even for Cora. Or possibly especially for her, as they looked around at the dead. While the apis hadn’t taken as many losses as they’d feared, at least sixty of the women were dead, and the apis had calmly gathered their fallen. It was strange to Cora how readily they took their losses, even if she saw grief on many of their faces.
It hadn’t taken the apis much longer to get rid of the invaders, and Cora quickly learned that nearly half of the dead apis had fallen at the hands of the woman who’d nearly killed Brianna and Stella, which was a chilling thought. At least Abigail had managed to rally the locals into saving the guild house, though the building was going to need significant repairs.
The Guildmaster had also been kind enough to give each of them a potent healing potion from the guild’s supplies once she’d reclaimed them from the invader’s wagons, even if Cora hadn’t needed hers and Joy had been healed by Stella, and the woman had given Cora a much nicer mana potion than the one she’d had before. Abigail had also found her own gear and changed into it, a flamboyant, bright red outfit with a broad-brimmed hat, and with a staff topped by a red gemstone.
Unfortunately, Cora had also quickly learned that they weren
’t done, as they gathered with other freed adventurers in the town hall while Brianna tested a replacement sword, this one not quite as large as her previous one. All of them had leveled up, and Stella looked a little odd, with a silver crescent moon symbol on her forehead, with the widest part at the bottom. That was probably from her job change, Cora thought, but she hadn’t had a chance to chat with Stella about it yet. The only one of them that was relatively cheerful was Joy, but that was to be expected.
“We have a major problem,” Abigail said, her voice taut as she looked around the room, regarding the thirteen present levelly, not counting the queen’s attendant. “The soldiers who were defeated here were only a quarter of the total force, and the captain that was defeated was one of four, with two even more powerful individuals in command over them. We’re fortunate that the apis came to our aid, but if they attack here, our situation is not promising.”
“While we are happy to help where we can, and would like to trade with you, I’m afraid that the hive is currently in rather dire straits as well. The army ants in the jungle are taking most of our resources to hold back, and keeping up with the losses we’ve taken is difficult,” the attendant replied, shrugging as she looked around the room. “Freeing your town was one thing, but the hive will need us back. If nothing else, some of us need to take our own places on the front lines.”
“Thank you for what you have done. If I have any say in the matter, you’ll get assistance, not just trade. The army ants are a threat to everyone in the region, and we didn’t know they were there,” Abigail said, and her expression brightened as she continued. “The one note of good news is that I got a message back from Irador, and an adventurer escaped and warned them that something had happened here, so Silverhoof and the duke dispatched forces to assist us. They’re coming in force, and should arrive tomorrow morning. The problem is that the invaders came here for a reason, and we can’t let them succeed.”
Webs & Wards (Beesong Chronicles Book 2) Page 23