Shalin, p.31
Shalin, page 31
That would be the mana backlash from his spell failing, which would automatically trigger the alarm enchantment he'd been dismantling.
“Go, go, go!” Dare hissed, picking up Vak and activating Cheetah's Dash for the sprint to the mansion. Lily was at his side, Ash, Pella, and Linia a few paces back and slowly falling behind, and the others closing the distance far more slowly.
“No traps!” the goblin Thief under one arm said as they approached the front doors.
Dare skidded to a halt and bled the rest of his momentum by slamming into a door shoulder first, dropping Vak who immediately began working on the lock. Meanwhile Lily stopped far more gracefully and hefted her bow, looking for enemies.
Inside the mansion lights sprang on, and Dare cursed; if that was Gular, and depending on how panicked he was, a Meteor would drop on their heads within the next twenty seconds. It shouldn't kill any of them, but it would definitely fuck them up and take them out of the fight.
And it would kill everyone else in the mansion, mostly innocents.
There was a soft snick from the lock. “I'm-” Vak started to say.
Dare kicked in the door just as the others arrived and formed up around him, raising his bow and ducking inside and to the left. Lily and Ash were right behind him and went right, while their Thief slipped in on Dare's heels and inspected the interior for traps.
Over their heads Pella and Linia hurled flares, lighting the entryway with a blinding glow after the dark of night. Dare squinted around the fancy room and up the twin spiraling staircases for signs of Stealthers, although he didn't slow his steps taking the leftmost stairs while Lily swept up the rightmost ones.
A man bearing a sword and shield burst out of the room at the top of the stairs, Gular's Level 62 bodyguard. He was otherwise naked and covered with scratch marks, and from within his room came the caterwauls of frightened catgirls.
The spies hadn't been able to determine his classes, but it turned out he was a dual class Flanker/Spellwarder. Dare called the man's classes to his fighters as he sank a flame Burst Arrow into the man's barrier, weakening it. He used Roll and Shoot to take him behind the bodyguard and loosed the free shot at his back, shattering the barrier. Then he used Savage Claw to instantly bring out his spear and slash it across the tank/caster's legs.
The bodyguard stumbled, bellowing in surprise and pain. The attack didn't hurt him much, but it did cause him to drop his shield and begin to twist, opening up for Lily's arrow to hit his neck. He started to Rush her, then stumbled as Pella's lasso flicked expertly around his sword hand and tugged him the other way, making him stumble again.
Ash darted in to snap at the bodyguard's hamstrings, then when the man tried to twist and stomp the little velociraptor leapt with wicked power, eviscerating claw leading straight for the man's eyes. The Flanker managed to get his free arm up and swat the raptor out of the air, raising a screech as Ash's leg snapped. Although the move left him open to one of Lily's arrows sinking in his side, followed by Veressa's and Leilanna's Fireballs.
In spite of the barrage of attacks the man was still several levels higher than most of Dare's group; even without armor, caught by surprise, and outnumbered he had a lot of fight in him. And he was a tank with a large pool of hit points.
Unfortunately for him, that just meant he could take a lot more abuse as nearly twenty fighters swarmed him, the majority ranged. Aside from breaking Ash's leg, which Jurrin healed, and a few quick slashes that Linia and Helima blocked on their shields, he wasn't able to accomplish much.
“Take him alive!” Dare reminded his team as the bodyguard went down to a flurry of blows, having taken enough damage swiftly enough to be rendered insensate. Pella darted in to begin binding his hands and legs with thick chains, while the rest of them continued down the hallway, up two sets of stairways to the fourth floor, and finally towards the elaborate gilded doors leading to Gular's suite.
Ten feet short of the doors they abruptly swept open, tugged at frantically by two terrified dog girls in diaphanous clothes, identical twins by the look of them. At the sight of Dare at the head of his force they whimpered in terror and bolted away.
Leaving an old man in a bedrobe kneeling in the center of the room, hands raised above his head in surrender. He was morbidly obese and pale as if he rarely saw the sun, with a fringe of white hair growing down to his shoulders. Most notably, however, he had the dead eyes of a sociopath.
Dare's Adventurer's Eye identified him as a Level 65 Spellflinger/Enchanter dual class, which meant he'd cast all the defenses on his property himself. And probably other Consortium defenses they'd encountered.
And if he'd been wearing his gear it would probably all be powerfully enchanted, so it was a good thing they'd caught him in bed.
“Whoever you are, I submit,” Gular called in a surprisingly calm voice.
Had he done the math and concluded the fight was pointless, or was he just a complete coward and thought he was important enough he'd be held for ransom?
Pella and the Crusader Succubus approached cautiously, the latter doing her best to bind the Spellflinger's mind with spells and charms while his wife painstakingly tied the man's fingers so he couldn't so much as twitch them, then stuffed a gag into his mouth that completely filled it so he couldn't move his tongue and bound it tight.
That should be enough to keep him from casting spells. But even so Arick and Jlarn watched him like a hawk just in case.
Dare looked around the lavish chambers, eyes settling on an enormous mussed bed where a pair of naked identical fox girl twins cowered beneath a blanket, with identical catgirl twins peeking up from behind it.
The man certainly had a type.
“You won't be harmed,” Dare told them gently. “We're here to bring this evil man to justice for his crimes. We offer you sanctuary with others we've saved from the Consortium, or you're free to go where you will.”
The women glanced at each other, then cautiously edged around his forces towards the door. He grimaced and amended, “After we're finished here and leave, that is. Until then I'm afraid we must secure you for your safety and ours.”
The three sets of beastkin twins didn't seem particularly surprised, and fear warred with resignation as Pella gathered them up, did her best to soothe them, and ensured they dressed in proper winter clothes to be taken outside.
Carnon led most of the group back out to scour the rest of the mansion for more threats, leaving Arick and Jlarn to watch their prisoner and Dare and Veressa with Le'nim to search the master suite for treasure and important documents.
It didn't take long before they got lucky, Veressa finding a familiar cloth in Gular's desk that was an even larger Dimensional Pocket than Dare's.
She began looking through it, humming excitedly. “This asshole put all his eggs in one basket. This holds 331 truesilver coins, a few thousand gold, folders of titles, deeds, and important documents, and his entire set of high quality gear, personally enchanted by h-”
She abruptly broke off and hissed through her teeth, excitement fading to fury. “That son of a bitch.”
He blinked at her outburst and abandoned his investigation of Gular's dresser to join her, Le'nim doing the same and even Pella watching curiously from where she kept a half watchful, half protective eye on the beastkin women. “What is it?” Dare asked.
She reached into the Dimensional Pocket. “Good thing we took him while he was asleep. We would've had trouble beating him down if he was wearing this. Look.”
She pulled out a familiar bundle of fine cloth, shaking it out to give Dare a better view, and his breath caught.
The Vestments of the High Priest of Molzog. The Fabled Level 61 DPS caster robes they'd gotten from the Grand Vault in Gurzan's Last Hold. And now they had the most powerful enchantment Dare had ever seen, for extra mana so the man could cast more of his costly AoE spells.
“That son of the bitch,” he agreed, not just talking about the Spellflinger; Gari had taken his companions' priceless item in the guise of safekeeping before they realized how corrupt the counting houses were.
After Malin had kidnapped Marigold and Marcus and destroyed Phoenix Manor, he must've retrieved the robes from his crony and given them to this bastard. Maybe as a reward for dropping a Meteor on a house full of innocent women and children.
Dare's vampire consort shoved the precious robes back into the Dimensional Pocket. “Close,” she ordered. The cloth fluttered into her hand, and she folded it and tucked it into her pouch as she turned to him with a dark expression. “I hope he suffers in Le'nim's interrogation,” she growled.
“Oh, he fucking will,” his second goblin wife snarled.
“Good!” one of the fox girls burst out. They turned to her in surprise and she wilted slightly, but maintained her defiance. “I hope you make him feel unimaginable torment for a long time.” She looked away, haunted and bitter.
One of the dog girls nodded, tears in her eyes. “It's not just what he does to us. He makes us . . . do things to each other. Hurt and humiliate each other. And we're his favorites . . . he's really cruel to the other girls. Sometimes he makes them fight to the death-”
She cut off with a shudder, shrinking back into herself looking sick, and her sister hugged her comfortingly.
“Your troubles are over now, Miss,” Dare assured her, gritting his teeth as he looked at where Arick and Jlarn watched over the vile man.
The Crusade's rules applied to everyone, and this man would only be interrogated until he cooperated, then he'd face justice for his crimes. Although much as Dare wanted the information Gular had, he hoped he didn't cooperate anytime soon.
Carnon padded back into the lavish room, Linia and Leilanna with him. His expression was thunderous. “We've secured the rest of the mansion and taken everyone into custody. Aside from servants the only other people here were Gular's harem, some fifty concubines of numerous races.” His eyes flashed. “As far as we can tell they're all slaves, and many have been crippled and disfigured. More than a few of them are little more than children.”
Dare felt his fury surge again at that. “We'll take them with us to Freehome and help them recover and start new lives.”
The knight grunted in approval; he was particularly protective of those who'd suffered as his daughter had. “This bastard deserves what's coming,” he growled.
Dare nodded his agreement. “Send Gad to check on our attack on Gular's army. In the meantime we tear this place apart. Grab any documents down to the smallest scrap of parchment for Ireni, take everything of worth, and make sure everyone has been evacuated out of it.”
Veressa gave him a satisfied grin. “Then it's Misini's time to shine?”
“Damn right,” he growled; his catgirl wife had changed to Spellflinger, and worked so hard to level up, motivated by her resolve to drop a Meteor on the house of the man who'd destroyed their beloved home. “Gular is going to watch his house get blasted to kindling.”
It wasn't vindictiveness, or at least wasn't completely. Forcing the Spellflinger to watch as he lost everything would soften him up for his interrogation.
And send a message to the Consortium and its members; the Crusade was coming for all of them, and would confiscate or destroy everything they'd built on the suffering of innocents.
◆◆◆
Two Crusaders died in the attack.
The first had been part of the trio who went after the commander of Gular's small army, a Level 53 fire Mage. As they'd burst into the room the man had hidden behind the two women sharing his bed, using them as a shield as he cast a spell.
The Crusaders had been slowed reaching him while avoiding harming the innocent noncombatants, and in that time he'd got off a Ring of Fire. The AoE had instantly killed his helpless shields and engulfed the Crusaders in flame, sending them to the floor as they struggled to fight past the agony and get back to their feet.
In that time he pelted the nearest Crusader with Flame Needles, killing him, and had gotten off another at the second before the two remaining had managed to reach him and hack him down.
Dare had wanted as many of Gular's goons taken alive as possible, especially their commander, but he couldn't blame his people for killing the man under the circumstances. He just grieved that the scum had used such vile tactics to kill a good man and the innocents he'd been trying to protect.
The second death had been simple numbers. It had taken the Crusade's forces long enough to reach the top floor of the mansion that several of Gular's soldiers had managed to gather, engaging their attackers in a brief but fierce pitched battle in the narrow hallway.
Wakened and caught by surprise without their gear or consumables, and not working particularly well together in spite of their longtime camaraderie as mercenaries together, they hadn't lasted long against superior numbers. But long enough to take down the Crusader Duelist who'd led the charge against them.
But in spite of the tragic deaths, the attack had gone as well as could be hoped.
Gular, his bodyguard, his steward, his Head Maid, his estate manager, and 23 of the 30 soldiers in his army had been captured alive. All their gear had been claimed by the Crusade, including dozens of Exceptional quality pieces and 9 Master pieces. They'd also found around 116,000 gold worth of coin and valuables, give or take.
After combing his mansion they'd found all of his estate finances. Including, incredibly enough, receipts for his services to the Consortium and its affiliated organizations. In other words, evidence pointing to every time he'd dropped a Meteor on his victims, including his attack on Phoenix Manor. There'd been other documents as well, mercenary contracts for his army, business investments and trade deals, and other similar papers. All of which were taken for Ireni's people to search through.
The slaves and oppressed citizens living on his estate had been given the choice to relocate to Freehome, and over two-thirds had agreed. The rest had been cautioned they should flee before the Consortium came asking after Gular's fate.
The stables and barns had yielded a dozen Durese horses, four Utahraptors, and 67 thoroughbred horses. There'd also been 4 carriages and a dozen wagons. They'd also brought back 61 head of cattle, hundreds of chickens, epinds, geese, ducks, goats, sheep, pigs, and other livestock for the villagers of Freehome.
Then there was the food from the pantries and larders, animal feed and tack, furniture, nicknacks, and other odds and ends that could fill dozens of wagons. They took as much as they could of the most valuable or useful items, leaving the rest to be destroyed in the Crusade's final act before getting out of there.
An hour after they first portaled in to start the raid, Misini emptied her mana pool dropping Meteors on Gular's mansion, while Alina did the same for the army's mansion and a few of the more expensive outbuildings. Crusaders then set fire to the others, torching everything that could burn.
They made Gular and his soldiers watch as first one mansion, then the other, collapsed in a fiery explosion as the spells ripped through their roofs and every floor to the ground, leaving an impact crater that shot flaming debris through what remained of the structures.
It was a shocking level of destruction, one of the few spells capable of damaging created items with durability, and Dare's catgirl wife and dark elf lover looked grimly satisfied as they watched the results of their efforts.
Their first stop leaving Sul Sarovar was Freehome, where they helped the people they'd offered sanctuary to settle in. Adherents of the Outsider remained behind with the women who'd been freed from Gular's harem and the clutches of his soldiers, giving them comfort and protection. They'd stay with them for as long as it took before they were recovered enough from their ordeals to move forward with their lives.
They also left behind the livestock, tools, food, and other items, to help the growing town in general and especially to aid the new arrivals in their fresh start. And while Dare was there he looked over the progress of the town and offered advice and help where he could.
It was well on its way to becoming a prosperous community that he was confident would eventually rival Laketown. Although it was harder to arrange trade without revealing the place's location to the Consortium, and they had to produce as much as they could of what they needed on their own.
The Crusade's work in Freehome took the better part of the next morning, and when their force finally returned to Independent most were ready to collapse into bed for an entire day.
But for Dare, his work was just beginning. Starting with shoving Gular into an interrogation room and having a first visit to let him know how things were going to be.
Outside the door Dare took a few deep breaths to steady himself as he prepared for this encounter.
Fear was a valuable tool in interrogation, but it was vital to sell it. So even though part of him was sickened by the conversation he was about to have, he was going to make sure their prisoner believed every word of what would happen to him if he didn't cooperate.
What sickened him even more was that a large part of him did mean every word, and hoped the scum wouldn't cooperate. He tapped into that part as he threw open the door.
The prisoner hadn't even been given the courtesy of being left his undershorts. His flabby body was strapped to the chair nude, hands bound between the fingers and firmly gagged to prevent spellcasting. His head was strapped to the headrest to make sure he couldn't turn away.
He stared at Dare with his dead eyes, looking incapable of remorse or pity.
“Lord Guvid Kiselar of Brenwall,” Dare said, grabbing the other chair in the room and settling down on it in front of the prisoner. “Aka Gular, Spellflinger for hire for the Consortium. Allow me to preface our conversation by introducing myself and letting you know our connection.”
He pulled a paper from his satchel and displayed it so Gular could read. “I'm sure you recognize this from your records. It's a receipt for your services dropping a Meteor on Phoenix Manor in Cordery Province close to two years ago.”
The man looked at the page blankly, then at him.
Dare hardened his voice. “My name is Darren Portsmouth, former Baron of Cordery Province.”
