Chapter -21474836323 (Do You Want to be Free?)
A loud snap echoed through the room, followed by a man screaming. As the skill level up notification rang through Ada’s head, she followed up by stabbing her seax straight into the man’s mouth, through the soft palette, and into the brain stem. The screaming ceased, and the second warrior dropped to the ground, nearly pulling the seax from Ada’s hand.
[*ding!* Congratulations, you have slain [Indominatible Destroyer (Gravity) - 313, Soldier of the Line (Erosion) - 117]!]
As soon as the second warrior dropped, Ada was struck by lightning once again, this time blasting a crater in the center of her chest. It took only a moment to break down the dead man’s mace, and begin using the material to repair the damage, but that moment was more than long enough for a second bolt to strike her, this time in the right shoulder. A third bolt struck her directly in the face, followed closely by a fourth to her abdomen. The lightning mage dropped to one knee, panting, attempting to catch his breath.
Ada’s movement was halted while she reached out with her mind, searching for additional sources of iron that could be used to restore the damage she had sustained. Unfortunately, the lightning had vaporized and rapidly oxidized the material that was excavated, and was no longer a usable source. Neither was the iron in the blood formerly belonging to the two men, now corpses, at her feet, due to the complex protein that bound the ions. While she was somewhat aware of the iron existing, that awareness also indicated its unsuitability. With a silent sigh of resignation, Ada shrank in height as her wounds closed, now fully repaired.
A slightly diminished Ada glared through the shimmering barrier at the pair of mages and released her grip from the seax, which remained hanging in the air, unmoving. Raising her hand, the four tungsten darts rose from the ground and returned to the formation orbiting above her head. Then, she brought all eight spikes down and wrapped them around the knuckles of her right hand. Stepping forward to the translucent barrier, Ada punched.
Once.
“Fuck.”
Twice.
“Your.”
Thrice.
“Fucking.”
Four times.
“Face!”
With a fifth and final strike, the barrier shattered, and the second mage collapsed to the ground, exhausted from mana depletion.
[*ding!* Good job! [One Woman Wrecking Crew] has leveled up! 2 -> 3!]
[*ding!* Good job! [Disruption] has leveled up! 1 -> 7!]
With the barrier gone, Ada grabbed the seax out of the air as the tungsten was removed from her knuckles. She took a step forward and plunged the blade through the man’s skull, then turned to the other mage. Eight tungsten darts accelerated with a sharp crack, releasing shockwaves that echoed through the underground space. All eight projectiles passed through the lightning mage with negligible resistance and struck the ground behind.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
[*ding!* Congratulations, you have slain [Legion Artillerist (Earth) - 189, Summary Electrocutioner (Lightning) - 201]!]
[*ding!* Congratulations, you have slain [Legion Artillerist (Earth) - 249, Auxiliary Defense Specialist (Brilliance) - 274]!]
“Oh gods, please don’t kill me,” a voice squeaked out.
Ada looked down. The voice had come from the laborer, who was now holding up her hands in a protective gesture as she cowered on the ground. She was finally able to take the time to look the girl over. And she was a girl, somewhere in her late teens if Ada had to guess. Mousey brown hair, and rather on the short side, the girl was otherwise rather plain looking. Ada could see that her hands were covered in calluses and scars from minor nicks and cuts, which fit her laborer class tag. Around her neck was a leather collar, and as the girl slowly lowered her hands, Ada spotted a branding scar on her cheek, both indicators that she was enslaved.
“I wasn’t planning to,” said Ada. She broke down the knuckleduster shield and seax, returning the ironsand to her arms, and knelt down to address the girl directly. “You didn’t attack me or even help these fucks when they tried to kill me, so I have no reason to kill you. In fact, I think I can help you, if you want to help me.”
“Oh,” said the girl. “What, uh.. Wh-what do you want from me, then?”
Ada smiled. “Nothing difficult; only information. What were these assholes doing, what were they using you for, how many other guards are in the building above, what is the building above, and do you want to be free? If you can help me out here, I’ll do whatever I can to keep you safe.”
“I, um, ok, let me think. They didn’t tell me anything, not exactly, but every so often they’d bring in new women and others would leave. They never told me why, but the way they talked about the women, I think they were being trained to be pleasure slaves. My second class has some healing abilities. I took it to help myself and the other girls whenever we were disciplined.” Tears began to slowly well up in the girl’s eyes, and she sniffled. “They told me that my job here was to fix the women so they didn’t have scars, especially their faces. I was forbidden from healing anything below their knees, ‘because they don’t need to walk to do their jobs’ they said. I tried one time, and got disciplined for it. I don’t know how many other guards there are upstairs because I was kept down here in this room.” The girl gestured to a corner of the room where there was a stained mat which Ada hoped was intended for her to sleep on, and a bucket. Ada chose not to contemplate what the bucket was for, though she was pretty sure of its purpose. “The guards changed out a couple times a day, but there were always four here and at least two whenever it was ‘training time’. Sometimes the guards would take turns using me in between healing sessions.”
Ada felt rage bubbling up again. That what this girl had gone through was considered perfectly legal was unacceptable. She made a decision then and there that she would make it her life’s work to put a stop to it.
“Alright, I think I get the picture. One last question, and the one you didn’t answer. What’s your name, and do you want to be free?”
Tears were rolling down the girl’s face as she replied, “My name is Tertia, and more than anything, I want to be free of this place.”
Ada reached out with one hand and said, “Then I’ll make that happen, Tertia. I’m going to take care of everyone upstairs responsible for this place, and then I’m going to track down everyone involved and stop them as well. I’ll make sure that you have somewhere safe to live your life how you want. If you want to learn, I can teach you how to fight like I do. For right now, if you can handle it, I could use your help identifying any of the guards you might recognize upstairs. If not, that’s ok. You can stay here until it’s cleared out. The women these fucks captured are in the first room, but they’re all freed from their bonds. I can take you back there to help them with their injuries if you like.”
“I.. I think I’d like to join the others, if that’s ok,” Tertia said, taking the proffered hand.
“Alright, we can do that,” Ada said as she stood, and assisted Tertia to her own feet. “Let’s go see the others.”
