Chapter 76: Deadly Ambush

Therina grumpily followed behind a group of merchants as she entered Lagoon Porter City early in the morning.

She was unhappy because she had been moved from her spot without her knowing it. When she woke up and tried to roll over and latch onto Styx, she instead latched onto Aura. The wolf girl ignored her, even as she grasped onto her breasts while trying to pull her off Styx and reclaim her position.

Aura was like an iron rod who wouldn't budge, so she changed strategy and felt Styx's hand reaching down the back of her pants. She had attempted to pull it out and at least regain his arm, but the damn wolf girl's tail curled around and captured it, preventing it from being moved.

Styx's avatar was awake by this point and was excitably squeezing and rubbing her ass. Therina was furious by this point and wanted to draw a dagger, even knowing she had a zero percent chance of it having a favorable outcome.

Styx spoke in their heads and told them not to fight before pulling Aura over until she was lying completely on his body and tugged herself over with his now free arm.

Aura had her hands on his chest while also resting her head there, turned to the side to look at Therina. Her eyes appeared emotionless, but Therina could see the pride and arrogance as clear as day within them.

While even Therina was captured by her beauty and jealous of her perfect figure, this was a challenge she refused to back down from. She glared back but Aura merely smirked mockingly.

'Smirked! She dared to mock me!' Therina was busy with her own thoughts as she registered her citizenship card at the pedestool device that serves as the dungeon city's customs checkpoint.

Therina instantly snapped out of her thoughts though as the registration process seemed to stagnate momentarily and take longer to register her as entering the city.

It was only a slight shift, but it was enough to send off warning signs in her sharp senses.

"Be careful and keep an eye out," Styx commented in her mind as he also detected it. "Magic arrays don't stagnate during processing. Not for such a simple task."

Therina briefly nodded her head before heading into the city with Concealment at full strength. Despite the crowds of people moving along the streets and hawkers on every corner calling out some product or another, the was a scent of danger in the air which Therina couldn't escape from.

She slipped away into an alley, but this feeling of danger only intensified to the point where she felt like a knife was already on her throat.

"What is a pretty girl such as yourself doing here?" A man dressed in rough clothing spoke from behind her, his gaze locked firmly on her body.

Therina only detected him after he appeared, along with the other ruffian looking people behind him. They appeared to be scum from the backwaters of the city, living a life of crime, but she knew better.

Through her keen mana sense, she could tell that they were all of the Third Step. These weren't just some nobodies, but people dressed specifically to look like that.

Therina had just entered the Second Step and Styx had mentioned the issue with stats scaling. A person in the Third Step was enormously more powerful than someone of the Second Step.

"You need to get out of there immediately!" Styx's voice icily stated in her mind. "Try get somewhere public. These people mean the city lord has decided to get rid of you, yet they have to do it in secrecy. It is probably just bureaucracy, but it is to our advantage."

Therina drew one of her soulium hunting knives and slashed at the man with blinding speed. He went to backpedal and avoid the strange knife that seemed to leave phantom shadows in the air, but two smoke like tails appeared out of nowhere and caught him by surprise.

The man was at the Third Step and held a complete advantage, but the sudden appearance of the tails caught him completely unaware. He drew a sword which split the air and cut into the walls and floor around the alley as it cut through the two tails, but they continued unimpeded like phantoms and tried to choke him.

Aware that his attack was ineffective, he started using skills, such as one which caused his entire sword to light up in an ethereal blue glow and give Therina a fatal sense of crisis.

Unafraid of death, she lunged forward while pulling on her twin tails tight around his neck which was stronger than steel.

Therina spun through the air and avoided the fatal sword by a hair's breath before striking with the soulium hunting knife.

The blade pierced through his unprotected shoulder and out the back.

"Urgh," The man let out a grunt and his entire body shook in a pain which ravaged his very soul.

He sword wielding hand dropped to his sword as the now lifeless steel sword dropped to the ground.

Therina knew he wasn't alone and his compatriots were already charging at her with full intention of killing her. They all drew their own swords or spears which glowed an ethereal blue, clear evidence of systematic training among them.

She placed her feet on the collapting man's chest and leapt off him to increase the distance between her and the other mugger imposters.

Her tail curled around the handle of the dagger in the first ambusher's shoulder and was about to pull it out when the attackers caught up. She couldn't even retract her tail as a mana infused sword by some unknown subskill severed the tail in half, sending a pain unlike any other directly up her spine and to her mind.

Almost blacking out, Therina instinctively thrust her remaining tail into the air and created a dreamgate. She fled inside just moments before a flurry of deadly attacks landed on the area she had been and destroyed everything.

The imposters' attacks exploded in a flash of blue light that engulfed the entire alley and blew away the surrounding buildings. Debris flew everywhere and impacted nearby buildings and streets. One splintered beam of wood pierced through another while broken roof tiles rained down upon everyone.

An explosion of dust erupted from the epicentre of the explosion and blew outwards, causing everyone to shield their bodies with their arms and resist being blown away.

The people passing by were dumfounded at first, but quickly broke out into a panic while fleeing the area. Some of the braver ones, mainly adventurers and mercenaries, edged closer to see what was going on.

From the damage alone they could tell it was caused by at least one high level ranker.

Several shadows of people appeared from within the dust cloud which were the "muggers" who caused the damage in the first place. One of them had a large, curved knife in his shoulder and was being carried by another in a state of semi consciousness.

From within the collapsed buildings, several supremely pissed off Second Step rankers pushed their way out of the debris while some body parts of those weaker could be seen lying limply on the ground.

They directly ignored any spectators watching and fled across rooves so fast they were a blur. They were gone before anyone could look long enough to remember their faces.

The battle with Therina took place in a mere three seconds, which she relied on the element of surprise to land an attack and flee into the dream realm. The cost was heavy, but she kept her life.

~~~~~

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In the east wing of Duke Ashburn's giant mansion, the "ruffians" appeared and flashed inside of an open window waiting for them.

"What happened?" Earl Vermonte bon Housen frowned while looking at the returning people.

These weren't just any Third Step rankers, but the royal guard who accompanied him and several companions to the outlands to ensure their safety.

"What the hell did you do?!" Duke Ashburn threw open the doors to the room, his face covered in wrath. "I have just received the notification of 53 people dead!"

Earl Housen snorted in response, not caring about the loss of life.

"An unfortunate matter indeed, but not enough for you to be so upset over."

"These are my citizens that you killed. I requested this because it could not be tied back to me or the city in case it was seen, but you have destroyed an entire area of the city!"

"Then I will have the capital send you 53 migrants and the buildings rebuilt."

"A person's life is not that cheap!"

"No, it is actually worth nothing, so I won't bother with giving you reparations that you are clearly ungrateful for."

The duke was about to take action and arrest the visiting earl when Duchess Euklid strolled through the door.

"Oh my, is central killing citizens in the outlands, like rodents in the sewers? I'm afraid such news won't be received very well, especially when it is the Royal Academy of Research and Technology which is behind such a slaughter."

Despite her calm words, it was clear she was taking the duke's side and had layered a very deep threat in her words than not even Earl Housen could ignore.

"What are you here for, Duchess Euklid?" The earl probed while giving a short formal bow to respect her higher opinion.

She didn't respond to his question but looked at the injured soldier with the strange curved blade piercing through his shoulder, blood still dripping from the protruding blade.

"And what happened to your finest product, pray tell."

"Something I was about to find out."

The earl then commanded the men to explain what happened in minute detail.

"She doesn't have tails. It was a skill or subskill of some kind," The earl stated with an expression displaying his confidence.

"How can you be so sure?" Duchess Euklid teased with a smirk.

"Because elves don't have tails."

"She could just look like an elf, but actually be a beastkin. A beastkin born from an elf"

"Extremely unlikely."

"What do you know about the dagger?"

Earl Vermonte bon Housen looked at the dagger in his guard's shoulder. It was made of an unknown material, or at least, one that was unknown within this kingdom. The guard in question was still unconscious as his forehead was covered in sweat. His condition had been worsening the entire time and forced the earl to order for healers to arrive immediately.

"It is too dangerous to remove until the Priestesses of Eve arrive and can inspect it before administering healing. Just being stabbed through the shoulder has caused his condition to become near catatonic with no signs of improving. He is a Third Step ranker with a body more powerful and containing more mana than most. For such a weapon to exist…"

The duchess adopted a more serious inspection as her gaze hardened on the intricate hilt of the dagger.

"Could it be the Neth'rite Demon Kingdom?"

"It is possible, they dabble in all kinds of occult. But even for them, this appears a bit too advanced. Not only has it never been noted before, but they fight through sheer numbers and blood sacrifice to summon true demons from the outside plane."

"If it's not, then where exactly did it come from?"

"A question I also wish to find the answer for, duchess."

The mugger imposters, now back in their royal guard heavy armor and advanced alloy weapons, exchanged the blood soaked towel used to staunch their companion's bleeding with a clean one.

The healers that were called for also showed up and they frowned upon seeing the almost lifeless corpse on the laboratory table. The head healer of the church had come due to the request being passed to the church from Duke Ashburn himself, while two assistants accompanied her to provide aid.

"What is going on?" The head healer, a beautiful and busty woman with silky black hair running down her back asked.

"This man needs healing, and we need to know why his wound will not stop bleeding."

The lead healer yanked out the dagger and inspected it before placing it to the side with a frown. Her hands lit up with a gentle white light as she begun casting a light of healing over his shoulder, but no matter how long she maintained the basic healing spell, the wound refused to close.

Ever since pulling the knife out, the bleeding had accelerated and the guard was deathly pale from a lack of blood.

Seeing her method not working, she twisted her hands around and the entire room was covered in a golden glow as a hooked golden sewing needle and gold thread materialized out of mana itself.

She controlled the higher level healing art to stitch the wound close, but as soon as the skill was over, the wound only reopened itself and started seeping blood from between the golden mana threads,

"He's not healing for some reason, like his body is not registering the damage. I need to take him back to the church to use our diagnostic equipment, but I'm afraid he won't make it that far."

"What do you mean it's not healing?" The earl scrunched his brow and looked down his nose at the healer.

"It appears he is injured in a far deeper way than is physically apparent. If I had to guess, it is most likely a soul injury, but I have no way to confirm that. The only one who can interfere with the soul would be maybe the two Fourth Rank defenders of the kingdom, or Goddess Eve herself."

The head priest and two assistants clasped their hands and offered prayers to their goddess to look over them and protect the wounded man.

Unbeknownst to them, the eyes of the statue of Eve back in the temple momentarily glowed before returning back to normal.