Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Oh?! Alecia are you going to go? It's strange for you to make the first move". 

"Shut up" Tossing those words, Alecia jumped down and joined the battle.

"Let us go too"…

"Alright alright~" The one who said those words and called out to Alecia was another woman. Decked out in tight black leather garb that tightly accentuated her body and highlighted her attractive curves, she was Arnet.

With her short jet black hair, piercing green eyes and poisonous smile, she was the very definition of a flower with thorn.

Arnet brandished her twin green daggers and smiled in a cruel manner "Against my poison all resistance amounts to nothing"

With that, she left quickly too.

"Wait… Haa!!" Dieter sighed in exhaustion "Why do all the women in our team have to be so headstrong?"…

"Can you complain after seeing how Jordan is?" the last of the five, Joses retorted.

"Haha, you might be right".

Whoosh… with the swiftness of the wind, they too joined the battle. With the addition of the members of the Blades of Ascension, the battle quickly overturned.

What at first looked like a victory for the criminal organisations with their ambush and trap, quickly overturned towards the resisting adventurer's side after Blake stood up to lead the adventurers. Now the victory tipped towards the side of the criminal organisations once again.

"This is bad, at this rate we will have many casualties at our side" Wyot who was fighting a group of criminals, observed.

"What are the ones at the back doing? Have they not cleared a path to the exit yet?" Finishing off the ones in front of him, he turned towards the backlines to stand rooted in his place.

Blood and body decorated the place where their path to exit was. All of the adventurers there were killed in a brutal and cruel manner, their guts and gore spilling on the ground making a strange pattern as if they had been deliberately cut like that by someone.

Who would do something so repulsive and twisted? Wyot did not have to think long before the answer presented itself in front of him.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? Their bowels decorating the floor like an exquisite piece of art?" Sitting on a rock protrusion, a woman carrying two bloody daggers, spoke. She had short black hair and piercing green eyes that made her stand out.

"Blades of Ascension huh" These weren't any ordinary people she cut down, but adventurers who had experienced and fought numerous battles.

Who else but a member of the strongest guild present in the entire north western region could do something like this.

"Oh please, don't associate me with those fools, call me Arnet"

The woman smiled. Given her beauty and her attractive appearance, any man would be smitten by her smile. However, seeing her smile Wyot could only feel a bone piercing chill shooting down his spine. As if he was being preyed on by an enormous venomous snake.

'She is dangerous, I must stop her here' This was the only thought he had facing her.

Wyot raised his guard and clenched his weapons tightly. A droplet of sweat trickled down his head from the immense pressure he was feeling.

"Hehe, you are a fine prey, I'm sure your bowels would look good too. However, it's too bad I'm not interested in a warrior. Mages are more up to my taste…"

Arnet trailed off as her piercing green eyes shifted at a direction behind him. Looking at the direction she was eyeing at, he noticed Frida standing there, supporting the adventurers with her powerful spells from the backlines.

She couldn't be thinking of going after Frida right? If Frida collapses at this moment, not to mention Blake who would be devastated, their entire resistance group would fall apart.

Without her spells, the remaining adventurers wouldn't be able to hold on for long. He cannot let that happen, Wyot resolved. He attacked her with all his strength but Arnet was too fast and agile. She easily evaded him and went into stealth.

"Kugh!!"

Just as he was about to pursue her, he felt his vision go blurry. The world around him started to spin and before he knew it, he lost his footing and fell on the ground.

What was going on? Wyot tried to flail his limbs around only to feel a prickling pain like that of a needle stabbing his body, from his back. Thin tiny needles were stabbing his left ankle.

Poison Darts!!

Since when did he? Before Wyot could think any further, he heard multiple footsteps approaching him. He had been surrounded by multiple criminals.

On another side of the battlefield, Frida was casting one spell after another when her senses suddenly sent her warnin signals. Immediately, she erected a shield around her and in that split second, multiple needles came smashing at her shield.

"Nice reaction" The needles now devoid of their momentum, fell to the ground. Almost at the same instant, a voice came from behind her.

Frida hurriedly turned around only to see Arnet standing there with a smile on her face.

"You why are you here? Wyot should be…"…

"Ah, that guy. I had no interest in an assassin, so I put him to sleep. Instead of him, I'm more interested in mages. Their screams and spilled bowels always make a beautiful art. I wonder how yours would be when I cut it open" With a flushed expression Arnet licked the blade of her dagger.

This woman was crazy, seeing her aroused face, Frida felt a sense of crisis. She opened up a distance and immediately started casting her spells.

All kinds of intermediate and amalgamation magic took form. They carried enough might to even severely hurt a person above level 500. However, it wasn't enough to defeat a member of the Blades of Ascension who are all above level 600.

Not to mention hitting their target, none of the spells Frida cast, could even touch Arnet. She was so fast that it was almost unfair. What more, her enemy did not give her any room to cast her spells and repeatedly attacked her shield to probe its weakness.

It was generally known that despite possessing the greatest firepower out of all the classes, mages were considered weak against agile classes focused on speed and swiftness like the assassin.

It was because they needed time and space to cast their powerful spells. On a battlefield, it was common knowledge to defeat the opponent mage first.

If one could cover the distance against them and bar them from casting any magic, one can essentially shut a mage down. At this point, they would be nothing but dead weight in a battle.

This was also the reason why they had numerous guards and knights protecting them. It was their job to stop the enemy so that the mages could cast their spells without any disturbance.

Arnet was perfectly aware of this weakness of the mages and that is why she liked gutting them the most. What's more, in a situation like this, Frida was alone. No warriors or knight was guarding.

This was practically asking for trouble. How could Arnet who liked killing mages the most, be willing to let go of this opportunity?

Within a few seconds, the magic shield around Frida was riddled with chinks and nicks, indicating that it could collapse at any moment. Once the magic shied was gone, she would be left completely unguarded.

"Hehe, that's what I like about mages. Their face starts showing their fear once their magic shield is about to break" Arnet teased attacking the magic shield relentlessly.

Frida's predicament didn't go unnoticed by Blake and the others. However, their hands were tied in their own battle leaving them with no leverage to go help her. This was especially for Blake.

"Hey… hey…hey… are you ignoring me?"

Jordan spat, the round axe in his hands swung widely causing Blake to take a heavy hit. He who was caught off guard for a second there, went crashing through the rock formations.

"Ah! I used too much strength. Anyway, that guy won't die with just this much, but I have to say Arnet is having too much fun. Will she kill that mage so easily?" Jordan turned his attention towards the other fight.

At this moment, just as the magic shield came crumbling down and the daggers rushed forward to take Frida's life, a shield appeared and timely blocked the attack.

It was not only the shield, two pairs of daggers, a longsword and numerous spells came targeting Arnet forcing her to back down. A group of people appeared around Frida.

When the latter saw who the people who saved her were, her first reaction was to become stumped, then came the disbelief and surprise. Her wide open eyes especially lingered on the silhouettes of two figures among the group for a long time.

"Your Highness and Alvara?!! You are alive"

Being a citizen of the Kingdom, it was normal for her to recognise the princess of the country and the guard captain. However, for Frida and the former members of the Burning Arrows Guild, it was different.

They knew the princess and the guard captain on a personal level. In fact, before finding their own guild, Blake and the others used to live in the capital. And there they had the opportunity to learn the sword techniques from the strongest person of that time, Alvara's brother, the commander of the royal guards.

From there they got to know the princess and Alvara. Of course, these were from the olden days, time when they were still children.