Selenia stood there while the man in front of her spouted sophistry about justice and what is good for the people in an attempt to foster friendship between two major powers, She could not help but think "if he knew that I was not part of some powerful faction he would not be so ingratiating towards me... if he knew that I was enslaved to a sentient dungeon he would kill his own mother to please me"

During the speech, she looked around the room as far as she could without moving her hood and found several false walls that would immediately give way if everything went sideways, allowing a quick response to any threat to their master and making it significantly more difficult to escape, she needed him to be closer before she acts.

Salenia interrupted his well-practiced speech "I suddenly remember where I heard of you before" grabbing his attention immediately, he was happy to finally hear the woman speak because he thought it meant she was finally coming around.

"Oh I remember now it was Erasmus Ironhide, except the only thing he would get hard for men," She said with a chuckle, the man was furious and strode towards her with his hand held high in preparation to slap the disgraceful woman in front of him.

He roared "that bitch adventurer was jealous that I did not like her appearance so she called me gay and I will not be spoken to that way by a woman" as his hand came down Selenia grabbed the handle of her sword and pulled out her sword with the intent to take his head in a single stroke, however in her anger she executed the move poorly and because she was unused to the new straight blade she was using the sword snagged in the scabbard.

Erasmus saw her go for her weapon and quickly jumped backwards towards his desk while screaming bloody murder as a blade cut into his back, her blade had slowed down enough to allow him to duck out of the way, but Salenia still managed to create a deep gash across his shoulder.

The ground opened up revealing a secret bright stone lined room under the floor surprising Selenia, The steward jumped out with two short swords that gave off a pale light in hand, Selenia saw the steward turn his head slightly to see the condition of his master with the corner of his eye.

Using the momentary distraction Selenia poured mana into her legs and launched herself forward, the old man seemed to expect this and ducked slightly with his blades raised to intercept, she coated her blade with mana and struck with both hands sending shockwaves throughout the room when the three blades clashed.

Erasmus had used the time his servant granted him to get behind his desk, he slammed his still functioning arm onto the only bare section of his desk with a grimace, lights shot up around the desk and created a soft glowing shield around him, he then gave a sigh of relief then slumped onto the ground in pain from the tear in his back.

Several holes in the walls had opened up by now and soldiers were streaming into the room surrounding the duelling pair, Salenia continued to recklessly strike at the old man in an attempt to disable him so she could flee, however the old man seemed to know what she was thinking because he only stayed on the defensive even when she left gaps open on purpose, he was waiting for her to be surrounded then he could simply wear her down.

The soldiers surrounded the group but kept back from engaging, they were confident in the steward abilities and simply waited for his order to attack, several people in white robes had started to make their way behind the soldiers towards the fallen lord.

Selenias attacks were becoming more and more reckless as time wore on, she would not tire anytime soon with her mana capacity, however, if competent mages arrived then escaping would become impossible, suddenly with a crack Selenias sword shattered after a particularly heavy strike, the bandit that used the blade previously had never taken care of the blade and caused several flaws in the blade.

The steward did not miss the opportunity and dashed forward, Selenia caught off guard by the sudden attack along with the sword breaking could not react in time, she brought her hands back dropping the blade entirely in an attempt to slow him down, while she reached for her dimensional storage at her waist, The steward used his first blade to strike away whats was left of Selenias sword and saw her reaching for her waist as a pale light started to surround her coming from her chest.

Whatever she wanted to do The steward wanted to stop her from doing so he used his remaining sword that was ready to strike the hand reaching for her waist that was still not covered in light.

Selenia's screams filled the room as a dull thud sounded out, a gauntleted hand lay on the ground next to her feet as blood gushed from the stump at the end of her arm.

The enchantment had finished activating from her chest piece, she was waiting for the old man to attack so she could block the blade with the enchantment and get a lethal blow, however, he chose to remain calm and wait no matter how reackless her attacks were.

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Signals of pain bombarded her brain as she used her other hand to grab her blade from storage, the steward tried to strike again, however, the barrier that now surrounded her did not even shimmer after multiple attacks.

Selenia had felt far worse pain so she could block out the part of her that said to give up and try to heal her injuries through sheer force of will, she used her remaining hand to wildly swing her two handed blades towards the old man, this time her reckless swings were not a ruse and had no set pattern or rhythm he could follow.

He managed to deflect all of her unsteady strikes with relative ease, however, his mana was starting to run thin from the continuous exertion, he called out to the soldiers to attack so he could finish it quickly, the soldiers showed surprised expressions because they could not imagine that the famous former adventurer would lose to a one handed opponent that was recklessly swinging her sword around.

Immediately behind her several spears charged for her undefended back, Salenia heard their steps and pushed her back into the spears by taking two steps backward, the steward not wanting to allow her to get distance where he would have to exert more force to deflect her blows dashed forward to stay in range.

The spear heads shattered on her barrier and gave her forward momentum as she dashed forward into the old man, he was shocked by the sudden change and hastily brought his blades up to parry the blow from Selenia.

Blades clashed and one of his swords slipped from his grip due to his exhaustion and sweat, this time Selenia was the one to benefit from an opportunity, she quickly struck again while he only had one weapon, he saw the path of the strike and easily deflected the blade then prepared to dash backwards, however this deflection felt odd to him.

He looked down and saw her blade flying towards the side of the room and was too late to react when a hand appeared in front of his face.

Selenia screamed incoherently from rage and pain then triumph as she caught the steward by the throat, he looked surprised and confused by her actions, without a weapon she could do nothing to him but wait to bleed to death, he grabbed her hand and tried to remove it, however, he realised the shielded arm that was grabbing him would not let lose no matter what he did.

Several soldiers grabbed the two and tried to separate them to no avail, they attack Selenia with everything they had but found the Barrier to be impenetrable, the steward roared to keep attacking to wear out her mana of whatever artifact she had.

While the soldiers desperately attacked Selenia she was watching the old man as she tightened her grip, then smiled as she saw the person who cut off her hand start to panic, panic soon turned to fear, then terror, as he realized that he could not breathe.

The steward began frantically attacking Selenia with his remaining weapon as his face turned blue and the grip tightened.

His attacks became fewer and fewer and her gauntlet started to crack as she kept feeding mana into it, a wet tearing sound echoed throughout the room and Erasmus stared in horror at his servant falling to the ground with part of his throat still clutched in the woman's hand.

Erasmus saw soft lights enter through the second story window and gave a sigh of relief, he said "you see that bitch, that's the sign of your impending slow torturous death, I'm going to send you to a brothel and make sure that every man in the city has a taste of you"

Selenia ignored him and picked up her blade after kicking and tearing a few of the soldiers apart with raw strength, she charged towards the barrier protecting Erasmus and struck it, only for the blade to be deflected to the sound of his taunts, "This shield will last long enough for the Imperial mages to arrive and put you in chains whore"

He wanted to continue to taunt his attacker however her soft laughing caused anything he was going to say to become stuck in his throat, she reached for her waist again and he had a bad premonition about what she was going to use this time.

She softly said "you and I still need to breathe don't we" sending chills down his spine when she honestly admitted the fault in such barriers like her own.

Selenias blade disappeared and she pulled out several packages and let them fall to the ground with a thud as each one landed on the hardwood floors, the smell immediately caused alarm for Erasmus and he began to beg the woman in front of him.

Salenia laughed and lowered her hood revealing her face, he was stunned at first, then his begging turned to insults "It's you, you bitch, ever since you came around everyone was suspicious of me, the rumors never stopped no matter what, do you have any idea how much I lost when deals fell through because other nobles thought I liked men, I will fucking rape you to show you I am a man, then when I'm finished raping every hole you have I will make more holes then fuck them too, until you are nothing but a pile of disgusting meat you arrogant bitch, just because someone doesn't find you attractive makes them homosexual fuck you and anyone who looks like you"

Selenia chuckled again and pulled her sword out then slashed all the packages open as she sprinted away, after she left Erasmus was sent into a coughing fit as the poisons entered his system through the air, he grabbed a pouch from his back waistband and took several pills, however, the amount of poison in the room immediately overpowered the antidote.

He began striking his own barrier in an ineffective attempt to get out however, the barrier was set to only deactivate from an Imperial mage or his steward in case of mind magic attempted to manipulate him into deactivating the field and make trying to threaten him with family pointless, he continued taking the antidote pills as the poison overpowered them.

As the mages arrived a cloud of dust floated out of the mansion causing them to pause, the leader used a small chant then immediately waved a hand signal for everyone to stop before saying "Don't enter yet, the amount of poisons in there would kill us all 100 times over", someone began to ask about the Lord, however, the leader continued "no noble is worth the lives of a group of Imperial battle mages".

They entered the mansion after several minutes of blowing wind magic through the building and found a shriveled corpse inside a barrier clutching a small pouch.