The Weapons are Inspiring

Dred flew towards the palace, ignoring the artilleries that were pointed at him. “Shouldn’t we move on the ground instead?” Elena asked with a frown, feeling a little threatened.

“No, it’ll be fine,” Dred replied as he flapped his wing and picked up his pace.

“Don’t become hot-headed after our taaaalk!” Elena shouted, but the strong wind blew her voice away.

“Haha, I won’t. Are you really not angry with me anymore? I wouldn’t want that,” he asked as he spun in the air and evaded a rocket. It blew up in the air, covering a large area in fire, but since it wasn’t controlled by anything but nature, Elena easily took control over it.

“I’m not because you had your own reasons. Luckily for you, I’m a very understanding woman, though your prank still makes me annoyed whenever I think about it,” she replied as Dred slowed down and flew only a few meters above the tall buildings.

“This feels very dangerous…” Audrey whispered, her face pale. “But I can sit on your back!” she added, patting Dred’s scales.

“It’s a gift of apology,” Dred commented, his eyes checking his surroundings in every moment. His instincts screamed at him, so he raised his height. A blue line of laser went past his original position and shot far away.

“This will be a rough landing!” he shouted with a chuckle, transforming into his panther form when only a few meters away from the wall of the palace. They somersaulted in the air and Dred was the first to land on the top of the wall. Elena fell on his back and caught Audrey in a Princess Carry.

“No, I’m dropping this wife,” Elena said as she let go of her, making her slide down from Dred’s back.

“Ouch! You bitch!” she cursed out as she landed on her buttocks. “I’ll tell you off when I rejoin with Jake! Damn it, you are bullying me every time we are alone!”

“But you’re just so cute,” Elena held her face, ignoring the gathering guards around them.

“Muh!” Audrey stomped on the ground and climbed back up onto Dred’s back and pinched Elena’s back. Her back arched as she hissed from the sudden pain. Feeling satisfied with the result, Audrey repeated her movement two times.

“Ah! Stop already! My back will be black and blue! I’m sorry, okay? Ugh…” Elena pleaded, rubbing her sore spots.

“I’ll pinch you three times after every prank you make from now on!” Audrey announced her decision.

----

Hector was in his office talking with the General, called Salem. “Report on every front, how is the battle going and where should I go?” Hector asked with furrowed brows as he leaned forward in his throne-like, dark brown armchair and crossed his fingers.

“Since the opening of the portal, the A front collapsed completely. We are prepared for their attack, but they aren’t making a move. Our snipers reported sightings of people high up in the portal, but none of them came down up till now. We don’t know what to expect,” Salem replied with a frown on his face.

“The B front is in a dire state, we have heavy losses since they have a huge number advantage and they are organized enough to live through my tricks. The C-” the knocks on the door interrupted his words, annoying both him and Hector.

“I hope that it’s very important,” Hector shouted at the guard who just barged in, panting heavily.

“My apologies, but a huge flying creature appeared and landed on the wall of the palace,” the guard said since that was the last thing he saw. Hector pulled out a pen-sized black rod and a holographic screen appeared in front of him. Noticing Elena sitting on Dred’s back, he realized who were the ‘intruders’.

“Just lead them here,” he replied with a nod of his head. As the guard left, Hector said, “Now you can meet the people I mentioned before. Be careful how you deal with them. They prefer simple speech, no need for titles. If my instincts are correct, our victory might be in their hands.”

“I understand, my King,” Salem bowed down.

“Heyho!” Elena sprung open the door. Seeing her behavior, Salem raised his brows as he looked at his King.

“Why the raised brows? I just greeted you~ haha,” she mused as she appeared beside Salem without his notice. His eyes darted around the room to notice her, but Elena pinched his right arm before he could look her way. When he looked back up, she was standing in front of the King’s table, Audrey and Dred beside him.

“W-What is this huge panther?” Hector asked with a stiff face, finding his office cramped all of a sudden.

“I’m Dred,” he replied.

“Could you give me that list? I’d like to go. We can come back and visit you at a later time,” Elena questioned as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Yes, we have it ready,” Hector replied as he threw a pen-sized black rod towards her.

Catching it, she examined it before asking, “How do I use it?”

“Just press the button on its tip,” Hector pointed at it. As she pressed it, a holographic list appeared in front of her, showing many names with descriptions of their wrongdoings under them.

“This is really detailed. Rape, rape, rape, torturing for enjoyment, child abuse, beating up common people for enjoyment, and a lot more. There is really everything on this list…” she read aloud, furrowing her brows. Waving her hand, she turned around and walked towards the door, reading the descriptions, “See you later!” her voice resounded in the room. Dred transformed into his Wyvern form when they reached the yard.

After Elena and Audrey sat on his back, he flew into the air, towards the Sliton Empire. “How nice, they gave us a map too,” Audrey muttered as she scrolled to the bottom of the list. Red dots were marking house of each target, making their job much easier. Of course, there were many who had their locations unknown.

“I guess those are the targets they tried to assassinate before,” Dred remarked as he spat a bolt of lightning towards a Skydiving Hawk in front of him. The monster fell to the ground, its feathers and skin scorched.

Since the capital city of Drung Kingdom was quite close to the borders of the new Sliton Empire, they reached it in just twenty minutes on Dred’s back. But their road would take a few hours, so Elena and Audrey closed their eyes to meditate.

The sky was dark by the time they reached the capital city. Dred landed not far away from the city and proceeded forward on the ground. “They probably have some kind of sensors so we should sneak in using our Shadow Forms. Also, you two should cover your heads like me since we don’t know how women are handled in this ‘savage’ empire,” Dred advised as he turned into his Demon form and his shadows formed a dark hoodie around his head.

With the help of Dark Magic, not even his face was visible. Nodding their heads, Elena and Audrey did the same. Their group of three trod through the dark roads, rarely seeing people so late in the night. “How do we go on about this? We could try to look for information, but I’m pretty sure that we would be found out very soon. I believe that people have things in their homes, related to their hobbies,” Dred pointed out.

“Are you saying that we should go and check our targets’ homes at first?” Audrey asked for confirmation. Nodding his head, Dred didn’t say anything.

“I think so,” Elena agreed with him. Looking at the map, she mumbled, “Let’s see, the nearest one is about a kilometer away. Damn it, this city is huge. Let’s move quickly, we should change this Kingdom quickly or Sally and other people might visit this place.”

“And don’t forget those people from the capital city, they were surely powerful Magicians. This place is really bad for us since everybody is so weak and we are getting used to it,” Audrey commented, raising a finger.

“Yes, but we need to do this if we don’t want to get between Atelon King and Bethor. With this, our relationship with Bethor might change for the better in the future! I don’t want a powerful city Lord and a King to hunt me at the same time when we are still weaker,” Elena said with a chuckle.

“It’s not funny…” Audrey commented, shaking her head.

A big mansion appeared in front of them when they turned a corner. Checking it on the map, it turned out that one of their targets was supposed to live there. “Let’s go,” Dred said in a low voice as he fell into the ground in his shadow form and used his Shadow Step to enter the area of the mansion. They went through an opened window on the second floor and found themselves in the middle of a simple bedroom.

A young girl laid on the old bed, her blanket dirty. She sat up upon noticing Elena and co. “I won’t scream,” she said in a low voice, raising her hands.

“You are wise. Who are you?” Elena replied with a smile, asking a question in the next moment.

“Are you… assassins?” she asked with a worried face, clenching her fists.

“We are~” Audrey mused as she appeared beside her, her short sword ready in case the girl still wanted to scream.

“P-Please don’t hurt me! I was captured on the borders of the Prion Kingdom not long ago. I know that you can’t help me, but could you get me out of here? I’d have to be the next girl the Lord could use as his sex slave! I don’t want it to happen, please!” she begged as she got on her knees, in front of Audrey.

“Do you have a family?” Elena asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I have. I’ll get there somehow. Please, just let me out of this house,” she pleaded. Looking into her eyes, Elena saw fear and longing in her eyes. As she tilted her head to the side, Dred grabbed the girl and blinked to the streets with his Shadow Step.

“You can run away now, but if you wait a few seconds, you can loot the house and leave with this guy’s money too. It’s up to you,” he said before turning around.

“Wait! Be careful, the defensive system in the house is very advanced. The window of my room is opened for a reason. It’s the hardest to get in if you go through my room since it is a bait,” the girl spilled the beans after being freed.

“Haha, clever of you, but it doesn’t matter to us. Your words were more than enough to prove the guiltiness of this guy,” he replied with a chuckle, showing his face to the girl.

“W-What kind of creature are you?!” she asked, her face ashen. Ignoring her question, Dred went back to Elena.

“Do we need anything or anyone from this place? It’s easier to just blow it up, along with this disgusting worm,” Elena asked with a frown on her face.

“What about the innocent women?” Audrey asked, raising a brow.

“Honestly? I could care about them and save each and every one of them, but for what? For one, I don’t care about a few humans’ lives and I don’t have the time for it either. But to make it fair, I’ll check their state. If they aren’t broken, then I’ll put them on the streets before leaving,” Elena commented, giving the cold shoulders.

“Eh? But that isn’t any better than killing them off now. They would just starve to the death or their fate would turn even worse,” Audrey realized that neither of Elena’s choices was a ‘good’ one.

“I know, that’s why I plan to simply blow this place up. Maybe they are mothers. Maybe they are women who are sought by their husbands yet I’m going to take away their lives. Isn’t it cruel? Moral compasses, ideals, those are the what make up most of our personalities. I could care about each and every victim, but then we wouldn’t finish everything in time. We would be chased by Sally, who probably thinks that we are a part of Atelon’s forces.”

“They would start an all out war and many people would die in the city. Or, we can ignore these few poor souls and save more ‘good’ lives in the future with the help of this technology. What do you say? I’ll let you decide,” Elena said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, waiting for a reply.

“Wait, I never said that I had a problem with it. I just pointed out that it’s a bit against what you stated as your new goal before,” Audrey replied, waving her hands in front of her.

“Haha, I know, but I never said that I’d care about every soul there is in the world. We are only a group of four-five from now on, after all. I forgot Cor for a moment, hehe,” she corrected herself.

Shrugging her shoulders, Audrey left the building since they didn’t have to check the reliability of the information they’ve got anymore. Elena and Dred followed her. Audrey closed her eyes and focused on the Mana specks in the world. Using the Eon Element, she propelled it towards a Mana speck, in the middle of the mansion. It went through the walls and split the Mana into two halves.

The halves split the nearest Mana specks into two halves, creating a chain reaction. In the blink of an eye, the whole Mansion ‘dispersed’, along with every life and matter in it. As Audrey clapped her hands, the silent explosion of Mana stopped. Opening her eyes, she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Her body was covered in sweat from the fear she felt.

“Damn it, it’s very hard to control this. I almost couldn’t stop it, thanks for helping,” she said through gritted teeth, clenching her fists. Although her Mana control is at a high level, if she wanted to stop the chain reaction, she had to control as many Mana specks as many built up the area of the sphere of the explosion.

Her spell was indeed devastating, but if not for Elena’s and Dred’s help from the first moment, it would have blown up the whole Empire or maybe the planet, along with them. “It was exciting to meet death, wasn’t it?” Elena asked with a manic laughter.

“You are fucking crazy… I won’t use this ever again before I learn full control over Mana,” Audrey shook her red head. As they turned around, she looked back one last time and saw the huge crater that stopped only one meter away from their position. With the speed of the Mana splitting explosion, even a delay of a millisecond could have killed all of them.

“Overpowered skills, huh? Fuck them all, they aren’t even usable in real combat. I’d just kill myself, along with everyone else. I’ll have to think of simpler spells. Now that I think about it, it’s arrogant of me to think that other Mages don’t know these spells. Maybe they do but nobody can use them because they are terribly hard to control,” she mused to herself, following Elena and Dred.

Overhearing her words, Elena said, “That’s likely to be the case. And that’s exactly the reason why I’m a bit worried. In fact, we don’t have any real combat spells or skills other than Devour, Shadow Step, the elements, and a few of our Class skills. We do advance quickly, but most people are much older than us when they get to our level and they have more experience and spells in their hands.”

“Yeah, but Devour is way too powerful, especially in your case. As long as you can draw out the battle, you will win in any case. They will just rot away!” Audrey exasperated as she flailed her arms.

“Haha, indeed. In case I can’t kill somebody with the first strike and my combat skills aren’t good enough, I just have to prolong the battle until I can Devour them.”

Shaking his head, Dred commented, “Seriously… you two are complaining about your lack of spells whilst you have Ekilsta and Devour, which is more than enough for you and Audrey is a Mage, who has a shit ton of simple and big spells at her disposal. Other Magicians would definitely skewer you once they learned of your abilities and heard your complaints.”

“That’s not even true… we just… we just like spells!” Audrey tried to reason with him but failed miserably.

“I can see that.”

“Oh, don’t be such a sore loser. Creating spells is fun!” Elena turned on her heels and leaned forward as they reached their next target.

“...”

“Haha, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t forget your little prank yet,” she waved her finger. Dred turned away, clicking his tongue. “I’m still sorry,” he mumbled.

“How cute~ Alright, let’s see how far my shadows can reach!” Elena’s voice echoed on the empty streets as she stomped on the ground. A second later she opened her eyes, “Five hundred meters. I could kill anyone within that area in just the blink of an eye since they have no Magical Resistances. Humm… let’s check the house of this child abusing Colonel!”

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