As Tibaut stood up to stop her, Albus got up, though not to stop him.

"Let's get to it, Tibaut."

"You bastard! Was this your plan!?"

The two guards standing by the entrance heard their commotion and saw the maid walking towards them. They held spears in their hands and looked unconcerned as they approached.

"Who the fuck are these losers?"

"No idea, but I say we take the woman for ourselves. She wouldn't mind having some drinks with us, if we capture those two wankers running after her, eh?" The other said with a sly grin.

The other guard looked visibly annoyed and stopped leaning on the nearby wall.

"Tch, this is why I hate being on watch with you, you're always prattling about women. Can you stop thinking with your knob? Stay here, I'll run them off."

He walked over to Avis with his spear over his shoulders.

"Alright, listen you lot this place is under the owne-"

As soon as he began speaking the maid started running at him.

("Holy shit she's fast.")

He immediately swung down his spear and felt the resistance of something.

("Damnit, we'll have to kill the rest of them now.") Is what he thought but the sight before him left him stunned stiff. He hadn't hit the woman and the part of the spear that reached her was cleanly cut off.

He immediately dropped the spear as she moved closer to him and took no time trying to escape. As he turned around to run away he tripped on something and fell to the floor. He looked down at his feet and saw he was mistaken. He didn't trip, he lost one of his legs.

The terror overtaking his mind didn't allow him to scream and the adrenaline surging through didn't even let him think of screaming out in pain. All he could do was crawl away to the entrance.

He saw his comrade look on in horror before making a bolt to the entrance. He wanted to curse him but he knew he'd do the same. Before he reached it, he got blasted with various fire projectiles and sent to the ground, clutching the places he was hit.

He turned back around and saw all three of them walking towards him. As he prayed for his suffering to end quickly, he heard the voice of someone coming behind those three.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Hold on a minute guys!!" Jake shouted.

"Huh? What is it?" Tibaut asked as they approached the man on the floor.

"You aren't planning to kill any of them right?" Jake nervously asked.

Tibaut turned to Albus.

"Well now that you mention it, it'd probably look bad if we killed them all on our way to obtain evidence. Hey Avis!" Albus said.

She had broken away and had placed a string around the throat of the guard. She looked at him before sighing and removing the string. She did however start strangling him before he passed out.

While he didn't like how it was done, Jake could breathe a sigh of relief at the minimum.

"Were you really okay with them killing everyone we came across, Tibaut?"

"Honestly, I'm just here to get information about the cult. It doesn't matter what happens to these kidnappers as long as they get what they deserve. Especially that big dude. Besides, since they've decided this is how we're doing this, it's going to be a real handicap going easy on them."

"(Wow, he's just as cold as Elizabeth. If it weren't for his hair, I'd honestly believe they were siblings.)"

"But."

Jake's eyes widened and he continued listening.

"I suppose there are probably innocent people in there that haven't done anything wrong yet. Your call was probably valid." Tibaut sounded disappointed in himself as he said this which left Jake feeling a bit like a senior having his junior reflect on his actions.

("At this, I might even get him to call me bro.") He thought with a smile on his face. He was beginning to feel the joys of being a mentor.

Avis quickly took off the man's belt and used it to restrict blood flow to his now severed foot.

"While it isn't impossible Master, I will admit it will be substantially more difficult if I'm not allowed to kill my opponents."

Albus looked calm as ever and brushed off her concerns.

"Just use your non-lethal wires."

"She has those?" Tibaut asked. He thought those would be the ones you'd use encountering strange people outside your gate but he never did confirm which ones she used on him, so maybe she did use those ones.

"The dull ones? As you wish, master, but as you know, I'm not exactly a fan of them."

That statement planted some doubt in his mind but she did use the non-lethal ones against him, right?

As they walked to the entrance they heard the footsteps of someone running away.

"Ugh, they heard us. And I hoped this was the only flashy thing we'd do today." Tibaut said, already sounding tired.

"Then we better get a move on before they keep us stuck out here." Avis set off like a rocket into the mine.

"Oi, hold on, why do you think there are four of us here," Tibaut shouted as he ran after her.

The other two began running as well and the four of them ran down the narrow entranceway of the mine.

Tibaut caught up to Avis and the two of them were stopped in the middle of a large passageway that split into several different areas.

It was a group of around less than a hundred and they held pickaxes and sticks of dynamite. Thankfully none of them were lit and the group seemed hesitant to light them

"(Thank God, it seems they understand what would happen if-) What the hell are you doing!?" Tibaut shouted.

What had interrupted his train of thought was Avis picking up a torch on the wall and throwing it at one of the dynamite holders.

The group began scattering and she used this chaos as an opportunity.

Using a darker wire than before she wrapped it around the arm of a dynamite holder who fled and threw him straight into his comrades.