Chương 39: 1-38 A demanding damsel

Even though that scream awakened a certain sense of urgency in all three of them, everyone knew better than to sprint blindly ahead, trying to reach the origin of that sound as quickly as possible. That was a recipe for disaster, as the monsters here were already threatening enough to endanger all of them, so running into another group while breaking formation and out of resources had to be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately, thanks to the instances of Josef's regenerative magic that he had applied in advance, none of them required any medical attention, and his own wounds were going to close up within the next minute. Mana was an entirely different matter, as at least Zippa had spent a significant amount of it, resulting in visible exhaustion. Unlike Josef with his heartstone, the reptile clearly couldn't maintain demanding spells for long and needed a while to recharge afterwards.

Josef briefly wondered if he could invert the use of his Mana Drain spell and inject some of his abundant mana into his friend, but quickly discarded that idea. Even if it were theoretically possible, in practice this would only result in mana poisoning, if the large amount of energy didn't outright cause much worse damage. Naturally, they didn't ignore the new auditory information either, and hurried in its general direction, but used steady steps and careful observation.

A part of Josef wondered if there was a point in doing so anymore, as whoever screamed had most likely already perished, and in case they didn't, that noise would have most likely already attracted many more monsters. However, they had to at least attempt to save that person, as anything else would feel unacceptable. Also, in case they came too late, there was still the responsibility of picking up the next token of identification.

Strangely enough, their path was almost clear, except for some solitary Rachse that must have been split from their pack in another fight. Whatever had happened ahead must have already caught the attention of any nearby pack, or whoever was ahead of them had been quite thorough in clearing the path. Going by the sounds of combat from up ahead, Josef figured it would be a mixture of both.

His hand moved to one of his pant's pockets, checking for Vasaj's token, realizing he had never put it back into his hoard after entering the tenth floor. Which was well enough, as the only people inside the dungeon who should know his identity already did. Getting split from the expedition party was a blessing in disguise in that regard, even if it made it harder to search for Cana. He really hoped she was doing well, or at least better than the group they had just stumbled upon.

"My lady, please retreat while I can yet grant you cover!" In a textbook display of heroism, one knight in gleaming silver armor positioned himself in front of another, holding a broken sword and a shield deeply marred by dents and gouges. The lady in question seemed troubled by this action, apparently stuck between running away and aiding the knight, if her posture was anything to go by.

Understanding the emotions of someone in full plate mail, covered by a helmet, was anything but easy, but Josef was fairly confident in his assessment. What he was far less confident in was the nature of the three-way brawl he had just happened upon. In front of him were both silver-armored knights and a handful of monsters, but the most brutal exchange wasn't between those two groups.

No, it was between that one knight and three others who opposed him, as the remaining creatures around them had mostly routed, with only a scant few remaining to snarl at the knights. Whatever caused this dispute must have started right at the end of their fight against these monsters. Despite being outnumbered, he held on valiantly, though he was clearly in terrible shape, as the blood pouring out of his armor suggested.

Someone must have stabbed him through the segments of his armor, causing injury while bypassing the armor. Perhaps a surprise attack orchestrated by his fellow knights? If they were willing to kill one of their own, then using the element of surprise would be prudent. Finally, the fighting knights spotted the incoming trio of Josef and his companions, causing a momentary lull in their exchange of attacks.

In alarm, one of the three knights yelled, "Halt, who goes there-", but another knight immediately interrupted him.

"You there, I demand that you render aid at once!" the female knight shouted, as if there was no room for argument. Josef briefly halted and exchanged a glance with Bezzo. All of those were potential enemies, so whoever they aided might just turn on them right after. If they declined, in the worst case they would have to face all of them, if those knights decided that letting outsiders survive was worse than whatever internal dispute was going on between them.

For the same reason, running was out of the question, as that would risk a varying number of knights turning up to stab them in the back when they least expected it. The most reasonable route was to aid the smaller party, which was the lady who demanded their help. Should she and her partner decide to betray them afterwards, then at least there were only two of them.

Bezzo clearly had a similar idea as him, or maybe the lizard was a lot more chivalrous than he would have expected, as he simply nodded to Josef after a moment of contemplation. Honestly, he had expected Zippa to take the choice from them, shouting something like "We're happy to help", before immediately taking off, but the older sibling was surprisingly quiet, showing an almost constipated look on his face. Was he having second thoughts about helping those individuals? Reading on Amazon or a pirate site?

This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Josef couldn't fault him, not after what Sanctum did with his arm, which made a bit of resentment on his part perfectly understandable.

"We'll stand with you." He finally took the lead himself, nodding at the lady knight. The opening strike this time belonged to Bezzo, who was the first to engage one knight, with mana-fueled claws raking against a shield. He had immediately singled out the caster of their group, intending to force them into a melee fight, but another knight with a mace and shield intercepted him, providing his ally with cover.

His brother wasn't far behind though, as Zippa wouldn't leave his brother to fight on his own, doubts about the current encounter, or not. Surprisingly enough, he too was caught by the mace-wielding knight, as he skilfully separated from Bezzo with a push of his shield, before spinning his mace into a direct attack as the older sibling tried to rush for the staff-wielding caster in the back.

Caught between his different options of joining the fight, Josef momentarily found himself hesitant on how to support the fight, especially as revealing his healing magic would make him the immediate target of all knights, possibly even their momentary allies. The only one injured right now was the guard of the lady, and despite the state of his equipment and the blood he lost, he was still standing firmly like a rock. Hopefully, he could handle himself a little longer.

With both brothers occupied by one knight with a mace, he finally decided to go after their original target, the staff wielder in the back. If both of them wanted to take that one down first, then that must have had a reason. Josef lacked the experience to know how bad spellcasters could be in this world, but he had played enough games to understand that fragile back-line casters weren't something that he could ignore without risking massive trouble.

That caster already tried to turn the battle in his favor, as magic gathered at the tip of his staff, sending the temperature within the entire tunnel plummeting. It couldn't have been more obvious what element this mage favored, as shards of ice were gathering in front of him, ready to launch a barrage of piercing projectiles at the two brothers. There was nothing any of them could do, as the first wave launched with precision, aiming for the two reptiles that had engaged the caster's companion.

Bezzo, quick on his feet, prevented the worst through a series of quick spins and rolls, reducing most contact to near misses that merely left some ice clinging to his scales. Zippa, however, was never one for quick footwork, and took the brunt of the attack head on, flaring his flaming scales to greater intensity. The heat of his defense helped reduce the impact of the icicles, softening the tips before they could penetrate, but he looked like an icy porcupine before the projectiles quickly melted.

Fortunately, he caught the brunt of it with his arms, rendering the damage mostly into flesh wounds that would be quick to heal afterwards. The mage was already preparing a second wave of his frosty attacks, as Josef himself was still gathering the space mana to facilitate using Blink to engage that man. There was a definite difference in their spell casting speed, or perhaps that frost attack was meant for speed where his teleportation was not.

Whatever the case, he would have been too late to interrupt the second cast, had it not been for someone far more experienced at surprise attacks. Unseen by everyone, Dusty had somehow positioned himself right behind the mage, jumping on him just as he made to wave his staff to send off more projectiles.

Being wholly clad in silver armor, the rabbit's usual biting attack couldn't find an opening to harm the man, but the impact of the rabbit launching himself at his shoulder caused the spell to whiff completely, sending icicles crashing into the ceiling. Furthermore, the knight now had an angry familiar attached to his upper arm, biting at the rim of his armor, kicking wildly.

While attacking in such a manner caused very little actual damage, it still interrupted him while swinging the staff and opened the knight for a follow up assault by the rabbit's summoner. Josef himself arrived moments later, right in front of the struggling pair, making a grab for the staff. He didn't know how well his reinforced strikes would work on a fully armored target, but he would at least try to disarm the man.

Grasping the staff with both hands, he pushed as much space tinted mana into one leg and unceremoniously kicked the caster's groin with his bare, magically enhanced, shin. There was no immediate repulsion, as the armor mostly absorbed the attack that would send any Rachse flying, but a sound like a gong rang out, as the metal covering the man's privates received a small but visible dent from the impact.

While the fallout of this dirty surprise attack wasn't as extreme as Josef had hoped, it still resulted in him gaining a new staff, as the knight reeled back several steps, a gasp sounding out from under his helmet. Dusty used that moment to disengage from the knight, dipping into an area behind the man, disappearing from sight once more. As he didn't know how to use his newly gained implement, Josef promptly took the staff out of the equation permanently by sending it into his hoard with a quick pulse of magic.

The storage space had reached over a cubic meter in size, barely allowing the staff to enter, even though it was a bit of a tight fit.

"How dare you, you bloody bastard!" Finally, the knight had lost his cool and screamed at Josef, who only replied with a smug grin. He could hear him gasp for breath under that helmet, whether it was from pain or sheer anger. Unlike the bestial opponents he had fought so far, that knight was a lot more intelligent and thus dangerous. However, that intelligence could also serve as a downside if disrupted by intense emotion, causing him to make poor decisions.

'Akinat': Silver Mageknight - Level 32 Josef had every intention of leveling the playing field against a higher level knight trained for combat, so an intense emotional assault was called for. Taking stock of the surrounding situation, he found everyone engaged in their own fights. The pair of unknown knights were still holding their own against their original assailant, though the lady had now joined her partner, wielding a greatsword that seemed too large for her stature. Where could she have pulled that from?

Bezzo and Zippa were struggling with the mace-wielding knight, as the younger sibling failed to penetrate the armored man's defenses, and the older one was suppressed by incessant swings of the mace, which left him reeling with every attack, threatening to snap his bones. Right now their stalemate was even, and the addition of Josef's healing magic would certainly tip things in their favor should it become necessary to reveal it, but that time hadn't come yet.

No, for now he had an opponent of his own to handle, two on one, a man and his rabbit against a tin can. He went straight for the jugular.

"Sorry, ma'am, I didn't know you needed that walking aid." He mustered his most apologetic tone. The unarmed knight came straight at him, an angry snarl coming from under his helmet and the glow of mana emanating from his hands.