*** Yuki ***

  I'm a mess. I've been dang in circles for the past ten mihe leader hasn't flinched o my magic. Soon, I'm going to have to use my illusions to do something, possibly just escape and hopefully kill her when she goes to follow me out. Maybe I get lucky, and she hops out a window ahe trap kill her. But if I do that, I would risk letting them know who is behind the attacks. I would o go begging the tess to get them to back off, and Mai's revenge would end there.

  Now, one instance wouldn't be a deal breaker. The iigators may not even pick it up with all the earth mana stirred up by this bitch. But with the disguise also being illusion mana, I don't want to risk it after I warned Nakuma so much about it. So, around and around, I go. Barely avoiding the traps she set, the random spikes being thrown around, and the spikes directly aimed at me. Cuts and scratches building up over my body. I know Alzi will fret over my tail tomorrow. She'll heal it back to its rightful beauty.

  I send out another useless volley of sounds. I the room soundproof so people won't hear the ruckus our spells are causing, and their own reinforts are keeping the building standing. The worry is how long they hold. My traps will likely go off when the building colpses, causing even more destru and turning quite a few heads.

  If I get lucky, the traps will kill or hurt her, but they'll likely go off too far from her to do anything but threaten me. She'll be able to make a dome to protect her; I'll have to get lucky.

  I do o dive then the spikes all stop.

  "Why do you keep this hopeless game up? Just let me spike your head already," es out in a matter-of-fact tone. I've killed all her allies, yet she thinks I'm going to roll over and die just like that? She should be the oo cut her own head off! I've been w hard while she's just stood there.

  "Why would I do that. I'm getting close to running you out of mana, few more minutes and you'll be defenseless."

  "You really think I'm stupid enough to run out of mana? Sure, my backup is taking a few minutes lohan they should, but they are ing. Even then, I'll whittle you down to a little stub as you hope I run out of mana. But keep dang, little ballerina."

  The spikes start up with a renewed vigor. Seems I ran into a deaf girl. She was reading my lips! I seed her off from my voice, yet she respoo my words. Sure, I didn't say anything she could guess, but she didn't even hint that she didn't hear me. Damn it, what kind of shit luck is this.

  Her new speed is also rag up more hits, spilling my pretty red blood all over the pce. With my sound magic useless, I really will o use an illusion to end this. But what kind do I use? She'll likely keep up the random pattern for a bit after I fake my death. Maybe even hitting the door a bit to keep me in here. She may even have extra sensing passives to make up for the lost hearing, making even my illusion magic useless.

  Is my best bet waiting for Yuki, hoping she gets here before whatever backup the mage is expeg? Together, we should be able to end this quickly. The problem would then be my injuries and whatever backup may e jumping in on us. That's if she beats them.

  If the backup es first, the best case for me is hiding in the er when Nakuma es in shortly after and fights them all alone. Worst case is her getting revenge for killing her lover.

  "Oh, here they are, finally."

  I sneak a peak at the lone door and find a girl split in two, falling apart there.

  "RUN!" I shout before taking a hard hit to the chest. My leather armor stops it from peing, but the broken ribs will be there till I get to Kelly and Alzi. The Crazy Kitsune listens well, dodging the blow from behind her. I'm not sure how she got iween the backup, but I'll take a two vs two. Spike Lady will be more limited in her uses now that she has a petent ally. Hopefully, ohat isn't deaf. "You o take this bitch. She doesn't care about my magie bit!" I call out. I turn my focus to the mage who followed Nakuma in.

  With a newer, I o find what magic I expect from her. She likely knows about my sound magic, having just heard nothing going on in here despite the noise Miss Spike was causing. So far all she did was ssh at Nakuma's back with a short sword. If this bees a sword fight, I'll be ting on Nakuma to find a good time to intervene.

  I don't wait long to find her magic as a fireball gets uhis one I'm able to dispel, she doesn't have the casting speed of the spike woman. I dare to close the space; I'll have to hope she doesn't have much skill with the sword. I'll be able to dispel her spells with no problem, but I'm too tired ao have a true sword fight.

  *** Nakuma, the minutes before the fight***

  She just had to do these attacks at the same time. We could have dohem both together. Thirty minutes is small enough to ruween two attacks, but that time feels like forever if we o provide support.

  The first twenty minutes were fine, a good run, really, but I found a girl alking with purpose. She shouldn't have been this te. The worst part is that she's walking to the same damn warehouse I'm going to. I'm sure she also feels the mana spilling out of the warehouse. Yuki is struggling with the st girl.

  Luckily, this girl has a single purpht now, making it easy to cut her in two when Yuki risks a warning. "RUN!" I take a dive to the right ahe bde swish past me.

  Shit, I, too, focused as well.

  "You o take this bitch. She doesn't care about my magie bit."

  What did she run into, some deaf assassin? Taking a quick peak and yes, Yuki ran into what must be the only deaf assassin in the world. What shit luck.

  Hoping for some luck, I pull her in and swing. All I hit was a rock wall. Messing with spaore, I separate the room into two pces: one for me and the deaf woman, then Yuki and my stalker. I'll take this slowly, hoping for a moment to pull in Yuki's oppo for a killing blow.

  "Hmm, we didn't think there would be two girls attag us. Did you do some recruiting?"

  She doesn't seem like the mobile kind, so I fo the space traps and instead just start tossing daggers at her, and she starts sending her damn rock spikes at me. In the er of my eye, I spot Yuki rushing the fire mage. I send a single dagger to her back, but the portal fails to open. They really did pn for me and luto this matchup for Yuki.

  I use my portals to get in close again to the rock dy. In the close fight, she just pys defense, wall after wall, going up in front of my sword as I teleport around her. She has no armor, so a si would end it. She tries using a few spike traps, but I just send the space away, letting me keep roaming free.

  Yuki's duel isn't going well. The assassin is mediocre at best with a sword. But that's good enough to beat a tired and injured Yuki. Yuki is at least able to do some things with her spells, but both are capable enough to dispel each other's spells.

  Giving up on helping Yuki, I focus on slipping through the rock wall in front of me. She get her wall out fast, but I should be able to dispel it. Defenses are more resistant to dispels, but if I'm setting the pce they'll be, I manage. Keeping my attack predictable, I start to prepare my dispel. I track the time it takes for her to put the wall up, searg for some pattern iiming.

  If it's behind her, it takes a tenth of a sed lohan her front. She eves faster when it aims for her hahighs. So, I'll aim for her thighs and use the skill quickly.

  Few attacks in the front, then switch to the back right for a thigh, dispel skill, and another wall goes up! Damn bitch. Well, how many times she do it? I've started getting the timings for each different attack, so I just keep casting away, each time finding a sed wall in the way.

  I hear Yuki's scream filling the room, likely from a rge cut from the whore. DAMNIT ALL!

  "DIE WORTHLESS WHORE!" I use a new skill, dimensional ssh. The skill rips through everything in my way, giving me a very mangled corpse of the pathic rock bitch.

  Wasting no time, I space, bringing the fire mage to me while putting Yuki in a er. The sudden ge surprised the girl enough that I was able to get a strike across her neck.

  "YUKI GET UP WE'VE GOT GO. ROYAL GUARDS ARE GOING TO BE SHOWING UP SHORTLY!" I scream out. She'll have to push through the injury till we're out of here.

  I waste no time setting the pce abze. Yuki forces herself up to the door as a few fires herself. We add the crates to the fire on our way out. I, princess, carry Yuki back to the brothel, making sure we're both invisible.

  *** Yuki ***

  "Kelly, brio Kelly," I groan out.

  "Nope, Alzi will be better. She'll just s the room in her mana and I go get Kelly after that to direct the mana. Now shut up. W about me nonstop, yet here you are oh's doors, making me use that skill. Fuck, the Queen is going to be iigating it now."

  "Sorry."

  "Just save your strength. I'm going to have a worried dragon to handle here soon. Just a minute, and I'll move us straight to your room. You'll o poio her door."

  "Fourth floor, first room."

  "Oh, our dragon is the best whore in the capital. Good now, sorry about this."

  I feel us gh a tiny tube, our bodies fused together for a sed before we bee two entities again in the familiar sight of my room. She carries me dowairs and through the first door to a fused Alzi.

  She freezes, looking at the door, and shakes a bit as she starts to panic about the self-opening door.

  "OH SHIT, WHAT DID YOU DO TO YUKI! FUG CRAZY BITCH I'M GOING TO..."

  "SHUT UP AND HEAL HER DUMBASS! I'm going for Kelly." is the st I hear of Nakuma as I'm thrown onto the bed, and life mana fills the room.

  "Shit, Yuki, why are we all ending up so hurt. Don't leave me. I need you, please..." the soft rambling of Alzi goes on as she forces my body to heal in the most painful ossible. Damn it, why 't she learn to heal people properly.

  All I do is grit my teeth through the pain; a single wrong word, and she wouldn't be able to do anything for me.

  "What in the hell are you two dumbasses doing to cause this much damage? I thought Nakuma was a mess, and here I find you bleeding out on Alzi's bed! Are you all trying to die before Alzi gets free?" breaks up Alzi's worried mumblings. "Alzi, I get a look at the idiot? I'll start to direct the mana so she gets put back together faster."

  Alzi does mao scoot over enough to let Kelly see me. Nakuma just sits in the er, allowing the life mana in the room to heal her many scrapes. Kelly just gives me a quick check before a soothing feel pushes out the pain as the healing is directed to the correct spots. I feel my ribs move ba pce, letting me breathe correctly. My bruises fade away. Alzi had already forced all my cuts closed, and I'm sure my tail is fine now. With the pain no longer f me awake, I drift off.