The vilge ended up being a few days away. Giving Nakuma plenty of ces to annoy Victoria with her perverted desires. Or at least I thought it would annoy her. Instead, Victoria just ences Nakuma to keep doing it.

  Nakuma at least knows her pce at night. Getting on all fours and asking me what she should do. While I worked in a brothel, I'm not a degee, so I wasn't fug her on the road. We just cuddled.

  She may have been naked. Warmth travels better with skin-to-skin tact, and it is getting a bit cold out. Her skin is smooth.

  I don't think that will work for Alzi, but that would be the job of maids and es.

  But, the more important thing is the mission.

  They told me near a vilge, but this is more like between two vilges. Not even that, really. The three form more of a triahese monsters are trying to make their own vilge, copying the Queendoms' style. They just o pay taxes and not attay woman who wanders he town. Small details if you don't think too hard about them.

  Being farther away from the other vilges does mean we don't o talk with the mayor or chief or whatever they want to call themselves. We stay just ihe forest beyond the edge of their fields and handle everything there.

  A lot better than hearing the chief kiss our ass all day long so we solve more of their problems for free.

  The makeshift vilge is half a day's hike from our camp. Little ways up a small mountain. The map the guild gave Nakuma shows it fttening out enough for a small camp, and then add in a few caves, and you have plenty of room for monsters and a pretty good hiding pside the forest. Plenty of room to hunt and even snag a few vilgers that roam too far.

  "Ok, so do we just scout it out today and do the attaorrow?" I ask as we all finish up the mana rations.

  "No, I ain't risking sneaking into that shithole twice," Victoria says. "You two help me into my armor. We have a sound mage now, so we have some kial. We go in and find the big bad bitch of a boss. Off them and thehe fuck out, taking any head we get. You got a free ring for them, right?"

  "Yes, and why do we have to get you in your armor?" I say.

  "Want to wait three hours for me to do it myself? Cause I sure as fuck don't," she curses back.

  "Shouldn't you have some maids or servants or squires or something to do that work?" I ask her.

  "I'm not some rich fuck here, Princess. You pay for that shit if you don't want to do it yourself. But for now, you two get to help," Victoria demands, standing up and stripping down to her undergarments. A simple cloth base yer to build off of.

  "e on, Yuki. It isn't great, but there is a reason she was willing to join us," Nakuma says, moving behind the rge warrior.

  I give out a sigh before joining them. At least the attack will be shorter than I expected. But I would like to be part of these pnning sessions iure.

  It takes us about half an hour to finish tying up all the straps so the armor stays in pce. O's all done, Victoria does a final check while Nakuma and I up the campsite.

  "This feels fine," Victoria calls out to us. "Ready to kill the dams?"

  "Yes," I respond. Nakuma, do you wao create the illusion or just hahe sound?"

  "Umm, do both, I guess. Make it easier for me to haacks. Just be blunt with your calls," Nakuma says as Victoria starts up the mountain. "I think you uand this isn't a fancy group."

  "Ok," I say, starting up the masking skill. "We're all set. We should be silent and basically invisible now."

  We start up the hill, me in the middle so I focus on the skills while they hag for threats. I follow the warrior's steps the best I through the thick forest. The elevation ge breaks up the opy, letting plenty of shrubs grow on the ground.

  The sun is at its peak when we he monster camp. We dodged more than one group of monsters patrolling the area. Even had a few ing back with fresh kills of enemy monsters and animals.

  The patrols are more frequent now, likely a mix of hunting parts and guards, slowing our progress. We may be silent and invisible, but they still see the shifting fauna as we move around. But Victoria leads on, slowly but surely making it to the camp.

  "How good is the smell being masked?" Victoria whispers to me.

  "Should be plete," I say.

  "Manticore plete?" she asks.

  "Yes," I assure her. "If they could smell us, we would've beeed by the first patrol."

  "It's all our asses if you're wrong," Victoria warns. "I've found the way in, and it has a shit ton of guards around it."

  "Lead the way," I tell her.

  We move out of the underbrush and into the ft nd the guild map showed. In the middle is a vilge surrounded by a wooden wall. Victoria leads us to the open gate; two manticores are stationed oher side. Goblins sit ich towers. A few trolls are sitting off to the side, making the manticores look small.

  Our little group walks right past the guards, Victoria spping doeck of something oe.

  "What did you pce down?" I ask.

  "Firestone. I'm sure as shit not ting on us being able to fug kill our way out. Fires and explosions will make it easy to squirm our way out of this mess," she says, tossing more of it around.

  The buildings ihe camp are crude, to put it nicely. Well, calling them buildings is already giving them too much credit. Tents at best. Not that the stupid beasts care. Most of the octs are some deep forest horror. Most likely, some hag brought them here under her spell. The more ohen fell in lih the power the deep forest beasts wield.

  Bastardized animals are what they look like. Jet bck fur and e-tinted eyes. Highly resistant to everything. Nature's great defenses are what Nature's Goddess's priestess calls them. Everyone else just calls them beasts that o be put dowhey get too far from their home.

  Most should run bae when their leader is killed, but I hope the guild was kind enough t over some members to defend the vilges. Some will likely get fused and run in the wrong dire, and these small specks of firestone won't be killing anything. I think we'll be too busy running to make sure they all get routed bato the forest.

  The far side of the vilge does have an actual building or at least it is made of wood. The roof likely leaks, and I don't think the walls stop the wind, but it looks better than the sad tents everyone else gets.

  Victoria takes a winding path to get us there, careful to avoid any area with many monsters. A stant stream of dust is sprinkled out.

  I'm not really sure what our path out of here will look like, but it sure isn't going to be the path we took to the wood structure. Maybe Nakuma teleports us over the wall? Nakuma hasn't voiced any worries, so it should all work out.

  ing up to the side of the building, I hear a faint voice ting out. "ting," I whisper out. "I'm not sure if it is a spell or a potion. I'll filter it out, and we find out whe inside."

  "o figure it out," Victoria says, pulling out her Great sword. "How many shits are inside?"

  "Four," Nakuma says, peeking through one of the gaps in the wall.

  "Sounds like all the fuckers we o kill. t of three, I break the damn wall down. You two kill three, and I ssh the hag," Victoria instructs.

  I give her a nod, pulling out my short sword and a knife.

  "Just kill the three monsters," Victoria says. "Don't fuck with the hag."

  "I uand," I snap back. "I'm not stupid."

  "Ok then. Three. Two. One."

  A loud crash rings out as the wall gets shredded in front of us.

  The hag is boiling a potion while three monsters watch. I take the closest, letting Nakuma's space magic take the st two.

  An Arae. Jet bck, like all deep forest monsters. Just her terrible cincers for ons. Her chitin shell will protect her spider body, and mana to protect her humanoid parts.

  The crash of the wall has everyone looking in our dire, but my skills are still in effect, leaving them looking at ay space.

  A loud POP es on the far side of the structure, most likely a balloon from Nakuma. It doesn't do much to take their attention, but we strike out anyway. My skills finally fall as I strike for the Arae's neck. The ented swets a cut in. It's not enough to take her head, but it does cause her to recoil, letti a sed strike in as I throw my k her abdomen.

  She doesn't bother with the knife, instead moving to block the swing of my sword. Her arms receive the ssh instead of her neck. The dagger bounces off her and falls to the ground, useless.

  I start to look for a third swing when the hag screeches out. A moment ter, it gets cut off as the hag dies. Whatever the hag did to the beast sends my oppo into a state of fusion, allowio lop her head off on my third strike.

  I look for the st two and find Nakuma already has their heads. Their mangled bodies bleeding on the ground.

  "Now what?" I ask.

  "Ssh anything and everything you see. If you get a kill, pull the head into y," Nakuma says with a wild smile. "And we run like hell."