LIGHTNOVELONLINE 015
"Who are you really?"
I grabbed them by the iron chains on their collars.
I was in no mood to joke around. Time was rapidly trickling away like slipping sand, and the Felicity would come under attack any moment now. @Jasper and the other mercenaries would be able to hold off the pegasus knights temporarily, but they were ultimately just buying time. Sooner or later, they would be overwhelmed, and I needed to secure the hostages before it was too late.
The brunette laughed.
She was the taller of the two transwomen, and her teeth were slightly fanged like a vampire.
"Something wrong, little kitty? Nervous now that the tables have turned?"
The hatred in her eyes was intense. Even though she was bound, despoiled, and smeared with vulgar bodywriting, she looked dangerous and antagonistic. The spirit in her eyes was furious and unbroken, and her arrogance had surged once she realized that victory was nearly within grasp. I realized at this point that this woman definitely wasn't a new player; no ordinary human being would have been so unaffected by the hyper-realistic nightmares in the dungeon.
I was not smiling.
"Call your knights off and we'll set you free. We have no business with Ovum." I said.
The captive girl snorted.
"You do all of this to us and then say you have no business?"
There was a mocking tone in her voice.
"Every single bigoted prick the planet is our business. Transgender human rights are the world's problem. The world hates us for simply existing, so we will destroy the world and recreate it in our image."
I yanked on her leash coldly.
"I'm not sure you're aware of your position," I warned the girl.
A small smoking flame ignited at my fingertips, and I brought it close to her face like a cigarette lighter, as if threatening to set the tips of her long tawny hair on fire. Despite its small size, the magical orb of fire was very hot, and it could certainly burn the flesh off of her skin if I intended to leave marks. There were a number of creative ways to torture a prisoner if you were a fire mage, and I certainly wasn't inexperienced when it came to this kind of gruesome activity.
Virtually everyone on Vetita was exposed to violent interrogations sooner or later. If you weren't good at it, most people picked up the skills fairly quickly. It was a nearly universal practice, which was probably one of the reasons why Vetita had such a reputation for grotesqueness. After a year or two in this nightmarish world, most veteran players were desensitized to the rampant cruelty on the server.
The girl looked completely unimpressed, and she didn't even blink.
"Kill me if you want. I died once already. My sisters will ensure that your ship explodes into tiny bits."
"There are innocents on this airship. Not everyone despises transgender people in the way that you think." I hissed.
I spun around and pointed at the prisoners who were still shackled all around the dungeon.
"Shoot this ship down, and all of them die. Is that what your people want?"
"There are necessary sacrifices in the art of war."
The girl smiled eerily, flashing her small fanged vampire teeth.
She was daring me to take action.
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the hull of the airship.
I almost lost my balance.
The pegasus knights were already here.
They were even faster than I expected, and my heartbeat quickened at the idea that my master was almost certainly fighting on the upper decks. It made me deeply uncomfortable to know that he was fighting alone, and I felt a powerful urge in every fiber of my body to drop everything and immediately run to him. As @Jasper's familiar, I was his primary weapon and his right hand companion. If I wasn't there to help him, he would essentially be fighting handicapped with one hand tied behind his back.
I couldn't just leave him alone up there.
I needed to return to his side as quickly as possible.
My mind racing, I wound the chains in my hands and quickly checked the restraints on the girls. I didn't have the time to bicker with the hostages, and I had zero patience for any kind of nonsense.
"You two are coming with me," I growled impatiently.
"You're going to need to force me to take a single step," the vampire girl shot back.
There was an adamant look of resistance on her face. It was clear that she intended to kick and scream every inch of the way, and I would somehow need to drag her upstairs with my brute strength.
"@Priscilla, let's listen to the cat." The quieter girl suddenly spoke up. "There's no reason for us to fight here."
"Are you kidding me? After all that they did to you? You're ready to be used like a bargain chip again?"
The other transgirl met my eyes.
I hadn't heard her voice until now, mainly because she had been unconscious the last time that I visited the dungeon. This was the same transwoman that the mercenary had tortured with illusion magic, and she was a pink haired rabbit beastgirl. Her clothing was shredded to pieces, so she was scantily clad in a ripped blanket that barely concealed the numerous whip lashes and other signs of abuse on her body.
Despite her miserable state, her emerald pupils were unexpectedly gentle.
"You're a slave, aren't you?" She asked quietly.
I ignored her as I unlocked the cell door and tugged on their chains.
The bunnygirl seemed more willing to abide by my instructions, and she slowly climbed to her feet.
"I know you're just doing your job, but why do you fight for your master?" She asked. "Is it fear? Desperation? We can protect you. Join our side and fight for something that you know is right."
She gave me a pleading look, almost like an abandoned puppy with sparkly eyes.
I knew instantly that she was appealing to my compassion, and I didn't believe her for a single instant. After all of my years on this server, I didn't trust random appeals to sympathy. Everyone had their own objectives, and players were eager to backstab each other as soon as cooperation was no longer necessary. People were treacherous, and lies were a form of currency.
All relationships in this place were transactional.
Moreover, I recognized that kind of cutesy look.
I'm a cat, and I know how to manipulate my charm to get what I want.
"I have my own reasons." I answered coldly, uninterested in the bunny girl's rhetoric.
The vampire girl named @Priscilla looked at me disgust, as if she couldn't believe that her companion was trying to convince me to change sides.
The pink-haired girl continued speaking.
"I don't blame you. It's scary to turn back on your friends." She spoke slowly. "I understand completely."
She sounded disappointed.
"But we'll always have an open door for you, if you ever change your mind." She said.
"Okay. Thanks for the offer."
My gratitude was completely unserious, and the tone of my voice was slightly impatient, as if I was eager for her shut up. To be honest, I wasn't really listening to her. My mind was spinning with other thoughts, and my heart pounded with frenzied thoughts about my master. The only thing I cared about was getting to him as soon as possible, because he needed me.
Multiple different routes through the airship flashed through my head. I thought of the closest emergency exit that led outside, but I also needed a reasonably sized platform that had a good view of the entire battlefield.
I swerved and suddenly pulled the girls into a smaller hallway, which led to an accessory cargo bay with a large hydraulic ramp.
With a quick flick of a switch on the control panel, the loading ramp started descending.
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
A sliver of blue sky became visible as the loading door slowly creaked open.
The weather was beautiful with a wispy trace of white clouds.
Howling wind streamed through the open hatch.
There were flashes of lights outside, and criss-crossing magical spells and explosions intersected in the fair blue sky. Screams and blood and other noises echoed across the aerial battlefield. There were alarm sirens from engine failures and billowing smoke that immediately flooded into the accessory cargo bay. Noxious fumes made my eyes tear, and the girls behind me coughed.
The Felicity was descending, and sections of the charred ship were crumbling as it slowly sank in the sky.
My eyes immediately scanned for @Jasper, desperate to know if he was safe.
I could not find him.
A large flying whale — a Laguna — blocked most of my field of vision. The monstrous animal was terrifying yet beautiful, and it howled mournfully into the wind. The gargantuan creature was armored and equipped like a capital ship, and it was easily five times the size of our measly transport. Despite its incredible length, it was elegant and agile like its aquatic brethren swimming in water.
I dragged the two girls to an exposed part of the ramp that was in full view of the sky.
I turned towards the bunny girl, unsheathed a long dagger that was strapped to my legs, and pressed it against her throat.
Typically, I did not use bladed weapons, but I needed something that was obviously a visual threat.
"I hope you don't make the wrong choice," she said to me quietly.
"I hope so too," I responded as I looked all around me one more time.
This would only work if I somehow managed to get the aggressors' attention.
There was only enough time to put on one last desperate show.
I ignited a fire that blossomed like a beacon around my position, advertising the hostages like a brilliant spotlight.
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
