Chapter 2005: Another Look

Quinlan glanced toward the private dining-room door on the inn’s second floor at the innkeeper’s call. At his will, Synchra’s loose fabric hardened into armour around his body, its collar rising to cover his face while Serika withdrew her hands from his shoulders.

Once his helmet had closed, he rose to open the door.

The copper-scaled woman from the gangplank stood beside the innkeeper, long auburn hair falling between her swept-back horns. Her golden eyes moved over his armour with the same interest he remembered from their arrival.

"There you are."

Vex joined him at the doorway, slipping her hand around her sword’s hilt.

"Captain Veshara?" Quinlan asked.

"That’s right." The dragonkin’s thick tail curled beside her armoured leg as she looked past him at the women gathered around the table. "May I come in? I’d like to speak with you and your party."

He stepped aside, and she entered with a pleased rumble. Her attention lingered on the maps before returning to his helmet.

Quinlan thanked the innkeeper and closed the door. Vex followed their guest toward the table, where an empty chair waited near the end.

"Have a seat."

Veshara stopped in the open space beside the table. Beyond her, spare chairs stood beneath the windows overlooking the courtyard, two floors above the inn’s common room.

"In a moment."

Her gaze travelled down his chest, lingering on the metal. The armour fitted him closely enough to leave her very little doubt about the body beneath it, and she seemed to enjoy every bit of what she saw.

"I’ve been wanting another look at you."

"You got it."

A throaty chuckle escaped her. She turned fully toward him, her thick tail uncurling behind her boots as that long, dark tongue slid across her full lips.

"Not quite."

The copper fist crossed the distance before Quinlan could get a word out.

’Fuck!’

Only the primordials had ever moved that fast in front of him. His magic answered on instinct, ready to throw a barrier between them, and he strangled the spell before it formed. An instant, silent cast would expose what Adventurer Black had been concealing.

Across the table, Black Fang’s chair was already falling backward. Vex’s sword flashed toward the striking arm as Quinlan braced his body.

*BOOOM!*

Synchra’s ward blazed crimson beneath Veshara’s knuckles. The punch folded him around her fist, driving the air from his lungs while his heels punched through the floorboards and struck the joists.

The joists split, leaving him balanced on a sagging strip of floor.

The shockwave ripped the windows from their frames. Cracks raced through the outer wall before its upper half burst into the courtyard, taking the spare chairs with it in a storm of bricks and splintered wood.

"Ghh...!"

Quinlan’s breastplate had caved against his chest. Living metal struggled to regain its shape as the red light faded, and the pain in his ribs told him how much of that blow had reached him anyway.

Synchra couldn’t take another like it.

Veshara withdrew her fist beneath Vex’s cut and slapped the flat of the sword with her other palm. The impact wrenched the Hexwitch’s arms sideways, but Vex turned with it, keeping hold of her weapon as Black Fang came over the table.

The serpent blade went straight for Veshara’s throat.

"Oh, this one’s dangerous~"

Veshara bent backward beneath its edge, her grin spreading as she pushed off the ruined floor. Her hips followed her shoulders into a backward flip, bringing her boots up toward the ceiling.

Quinlan saw the kick coming.

"[Earth Armor]!"

Stone tore from the broken wall and layered itself over Synchra. He crossed his reinforced forearms above his head, bracing to meet the feet she was bringing down on him.

Her tail struck behind his knees.

The thick copper limb swept his legs forward with such force that he lost the floor entirely. Suddenly his crossed arms were above his face, his back was falling toward the boards, and both her heels were descending into his guard.

"[Gust]!"

He thrust his arms up, driving a blast of wind against her feet. It slowed her just enough for the stone across his forearms to thicken before she stamped through it.

*KRAAASH!*

Quinlan shot through the dining-room floor.

The ceiling below struck his back and disintegrated. He smashed through the next floor before he could draw breath, wrapped in crumbling stone while Synchra clung to his body beneath it.

On the ground floor, a maid carrying folded tablecloths looked up at the cracking ceiling.

"Eh?"

A black-armoured man crashed down beside her, punched through the common room’s flagstones, and vanished into the earth. The blast threw her against a table, her linen flying as broken crockery rained around her.

"Aaaaah!"

She crawled beneath the table and clung to its leg, staring into the crater where she’d been about to walk.

At the bottom, Quinlan dragged air into his lungs with a sound that hurt to make. His stone armour lay shattered around him. Beneath it, Synchra’s plates were already flowing over the dents in his chest and arms.

The dragonkin had driven him through the fucking building.

Above the hole, Vex was ready to kill.

Her sword caught Veshara across the scaled shoulder as the captain pivoted beside the breach, sparks spitting where its edge scraped copper.

Veshara laughed. "I didn’t know we were having a tickling match!"

Scar was already behind her with both daggers drawn. One thrust went beneath Veshara’s raised arm while the other covered her retreat, forcing the dragonkin to turn into Black Fang’s returning blade.

Before the blades could close, Veshara drove her tail into the surviving masonry beside the hole. The muscular limb bowed under her weight, lowering her shoulders until she was horizontal with the ground, the blades crossing above her face.

"Ahahaha!"

Her tail held as she lifted both feet clear of the floor. One boot kicked Vex’s sword away from her neck; the other struck Scar’s forearm, which instantly broke, while her right hand caught the soul general’s opposite wrist, stopping both daggers short of her body.

Scar turned the trapped wrist to cut the fingers holding her. Forced to release it, Veshara snarled in delight and slapped Vex’s returning blade aside with her free palm.

"[Umbral Step]!"

Blossom vanished from the table’s far side and appeared beside Veshara’s exposed flank, her claw gauntlets tearing toward the gap beneath the captain’s ribs.

Blossom felt her claws touch the seam before Veshara’s tail twisted the dragonkin’s body away from them. Lightning burst across the scales, drawing a pleased rumble from the captain.

"An electric pupper. How adorable!"

A heel came toward Blossom’s raised guard. She tried to withdraw, but the foot was coming faster than she could move.

"[Protective Shield]!" Aurora shouted, thrusting her hand toward her.

Veshara’s kick connected just as the barrier closed over Blossom.

*CRACK!*

Pain shot through Blossom’s left forearm, the barrier destroyed instantly. The kick threw her backward across the table, scattering dishes before she crashed into the chairs beyond it with blood spilling from her mouth.

"Ngh...!"

Her left arm buckled when she tried to push herself up. Blossom snarled through the pain, planted her other gauntlet against the floor, and dragged a knee beneath her body.

She could still stand. The bitch had hit her hard enough to break a bone, but Blossom refused to spend the rest of this fight lying in the wreckage while her friends and master fought.

"Heal!"

The shout came out wet with blood. She spat it onto the floor and forced herself upright, her injured arm hanging at her side while lightning crackled over the claws of her good hand.

"[Healing Light]!"

Sera reached her as she took her first step, catching the broken forearm between glowing palms.

Across the room, Black Fang’s blade swept toward the tail supporting Veshara. Ayame cut at the captain’s shoulder from one side while Lilith drove her sword beneath the other arm.

Veshara’s laughter stopped.

Veshara launched herself between their blades with a savage contraction of her tail. Black Fang’s cut sheared through the masonry she’d been resting on, and she had to twist in the air to keep Ayame’s edge from following her ribs.

Her boots buckled the opposite wall on impact. Before she could kick away, Lilith was coming at her from below while the two black-haired women closed from either side.

"Keep pushing! She’s getting overwhelmed!" Ayame shouted.

Veshara glanced at her face.

The petite swordswoman’s eyes were shining. Beside her, Black Fang’s lips had drawn back from her teeth in a manic grin. Lilith was laughing through her next swing.

They were enjoying themselves.

Veshara had knocked their man through the inn, broken an arm, and thrown their little dogkin across the room. These women kept coming, watching every turn of her body for a place to put a blade. They wanted to bring her down badly enough that the effort delighted them.

Her own grin widened until her cheeks ached.

"You’re fun!"

She kicked off the wall into Lilith’s approach, knocking the woman’s sword aside with her forearm. Ayame’s katana followed her landing, and Veshara spun over it on one foot, her tail sweeping high enough to make Black Fang dodge with immense flexibility.

The assassin came up beneath the sweep with her blade aimed at Veshara’s eye. A turn of the captain’s head took her clear, but her feet had barely found the floor when Serika came around Lilith with a burning fist.

"My turn!"

Beside the hole, Scar backed onto solid floor, her broken forearm held against her side and her remaining dagger ready in her good hand.

Below them, Quinlan heard the impacts travelling through the inn and forced himself upright in the crater. He drew a careful breath, then let it out until the urge to rush back upstairs eased enough for him to think.

"Haaah..."

He could hear his women fighting her. Somewhere above the broken ceilings, Serika grunted as another impact shook dust into the hole.

"[Overlord’s Eyes]."