After leaving the tree line they rode north towards the mountains on horseback. After a few hours they reached the edge of the mountain range and entered a ravine where a small river flowed through.

Devin led them past the boulder rocks to the other side of the ravine. Where he pulled out some sort of pendant that lit up.

At that moment some figures came out of the shadows.

"Oy! You return!" Yelled one of the figures that was a Black Rose Mercenary.

"Yes! We return with our prize!" Jeremiah said proudly.

The mercenary laughed, "Oh! Never thought I would see a dark elf in my life."

"You better watch yourself. The Kings Slayer gave her permission to defend herself." Sims said with a grin.

"Really? That's a shame." One of the mercenaries said as they approached.

“Like it matters. It seems this one prefers the company of women.” Dietrich said to his comrate.

“Huh? Really? I aways knew dark elves were fucked up… But that shou~” The merc was interrupted.

“She’s NOT for fucking…” Jeremiah scolded the man.

They were soon surrounded by 5 men who stood about 6 feet tall. Their faces were covered with masks and their weapons were held tightly.

Rya cringed at the thought of being touched by all these men.

'Fucking touch me! I dare you! You are all ugly sons of bitches!' Rya thought angrily.

"Is Rudolf awake?" Jeremiah said coldly.

"Aye, he's in the cave planning something. My guess is we are assaulting Ironside. He had the same look back when we invaded the Dwarven Kingdom." One of the mercenaries answered.

"Good, with this combat slave. We should make short work of Ironside's defenses." Jeremiah said as he and the others dismounted their horses.

"Yea. I'm going to go get Rudolf and the rest. We can depart shortly." The leader of the group said before turning around and heading back to the cave.

"Follow slave. You will be useful here." Jeremiah commanded.

'FUCK YOU!' Rya screamed under her breath as her body moved against her will.

She followed behind the mercs like a puppy dog.

***

Rudolf was sitting in a dimly lit room deep within the caves of Ironside. He was talking to a man and woman. The woman seemed to be focusing on an artifact while the man was standing by as a bodyguard to the woman who was dressed in Duke Alaric Revelia's robes.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"How long is this going to take?" Rudolf asked impatiently.

The bodyguard responded, "Keep distracting her and it will take longer. Or do you wish to anger Duke Alaric Revelia more after what happened to his son?"

'Tck! Dietrich, you better be right about this dark elf. My life will not end because of his failures!' Rudolf thinks to himself as he wants to make it up to the duke by ending the prince's life for his men's incompetents.

"Fine. Do whatever you need to do." Rudolf said annoyed.

After a few minutes for the woman to finish whispering a spell as her mana enters the artifact, she places it down onto the table next to her. The artifact lights up in a blue glow and a figure forms in the particles, no taller than one meter.

The figure looked like an older man who had a royal look to him. His face was slightly wrinkled from age, but his eyes still showed intelligence and anger.

"Rudolf... What's this about my son's death and my pathetic excuse of a nephew surviving the Tomb of the Horde!" Duke Alaric Revelia said angrily.

"I am sorry, Your Grace. It seems I was mistaken about the prince. He seems to have a dark elf that aided him in defeating the dungeon core and killed your son. If I'd known, I would have sent Jeremiah with~" Rudolf quickly cuts off when the duke interrupts him.

"EXCUSES! MY SON IS DEAD! AND NOW MY INCOMPETENT BROTHER'S SON HAS WON THE FAVOR OF MOST OF THE NOBLES! HE IS ALL BUT GUARANTEED THE CROWN!"

Rudolf tried to compose himself before speaking to the duke.

"Your Grace, I am sorry. We are stealing the prince's battle slave as we speak and if what my men say about her is true, we'll use her to destroy Ironside and the prince. We'll blame it on the goblins, so the current king is blamed for the failure. At least you will be on the throne when this all said and done, Your Grace."

"How is all this going to bring back my son?"

Rudolf thought to himself for a moment.

"It will not, Your Grace. But if this dark elf is as powerful as we think she is. We'll give her as a gift to you so you can take the throne." Rudolf said.

"A gift? You still wish to be given lordship over Fiafyr lands?" Duke Alaric asked.

"Yes, Your Grace. I have never been given a chance to rule lands and I wish to be one of your lords if you still wish to keep our deal."

The duke shook his head. "I will be steading assassins after you if you fail to kill the prince... But I will consider keeping some lesser version of the deal if you do bring the prince's head and give me this dark elf. Do whatever you wish to Ironside. They're mostly dwarves anyway."

'Hmm? So, the duke might keep his end of the bargain? Well if he doesn't I might have to use this dark elf on him if he thinks he can assassinate me.' Rudolf thought to himself.

He walked up to the duke and bowed his head.

"It will be done, Your Grace. The Black Roses always come through in the end." Rudolf said.

"You better Rudolf! Failure doesn't look good on you." Duke Alaric warned.

"If you require anything else from me, I shall do what I must to complete our deal." Rudolf said.

With that the magical connection was halted as Duke Alaric vanished from the artifact.

The woman in the robes opened her eyes and grabbed her artifact.

"I hope you succeed, Lord Rudolf. It usually gets ugly for those that fail the duke." Said the bodyguard of the magic speaker mage.

"Worry about yourself, I'm used to dealing with men of Duke Alaric's ilk. You two should leave if you know what's best for you!" Rudolf said.

The speaker mage and the bodyguard looked at each other and nodded.

"We better get going then." The mage said.

"Aye... Lead the way ma'am." The bodyguard said.

They left the room and walked down the corridor of the cave leaving Rudolf by himself.

"Tck! So, the toothless lion has nine lives? Well, he's not going to have any left after tomorrow." Rudolf thought to himself.