The slavers had split up by the time the twins struck their agreement with Cara and Analie. Two slavers remaining with the gathered villagers in the center of the village, while the other six split up in pairs to search the houses and surrounding area. One pair, apparently finding tracks, was heading towards where the gathered children were hiding.
The twins conferred and decided to ambush the two slavers when they got closer to the forest. Liana climbed a tree just inside the forest, while Lilith moved to a position to lure the slavers. A few minutes later, the first slaver came into view and Lilith cast a spell, blasting the slaver with a burst of dark energy. The man, a human, staggered, then looked to where Lilith stood waiting and charged. The other slaver was a few steps behind, and the dark elf took the time to cast another spell, targeting the same slaver. The man avoided most of the second spell and Lilith braced herself, bringing up her shield just as the man arrived.
He crashed into her shield, forcing her back a step with his greater bulk. She pushed back, stabbing with her sword and missing, but forcing the human back to avoid the strike. He brought up his sword and struck at Lilith, the blade striking her armored arm and making her grunt. They began exchanging blows, deflecting and parrying the strikes of the other.
The second slaver arrived a few seconds behind the first, readying a club to try and subdue Lilith while she was distracted. He didn’t notice Liana as she dropped from the tree above him, blades drawn. She landed on his back, her kukris driving down into the space between his neck and shoulders. The man yelped, falling to his knees and then his face as Liana’s weight drove him into the ground.
Liana released the hilt of the kukris and drew her daggers as Lilith parried a strike from the other slaver, then pushed him back with her shield. Liana sprang forward, driving her daggers into the man’s back, the blades piercing the man’s kidneys. He cried out in surprise and pain, then Lilith’s sword stabbed into his throat, silencing him.
The twins cleaned their weapons after making sure both slavers were dead, then quickly searched the bodies, finding a few silver and a couple of gold coins. Lilith put the coins in her bag, then glanced at her arm where the slaver had struck her. The armor didn’t seem damaged too badly, but the dark elf suspected there would be a nasty bruise later.
Liana sheathed her daggers and kukris, then drew her crossbow and loaded it. “There’s two more about fifty yards that way.” She pointed towards a house on the left, near the edge of the village. “Probably looting instead of searching for this group. I can lure them out, I think, and maybe take one out, or at least wound one, before we engage.”
“I can hit him with a spell if your crossbow doesn’t finish him. That should make it two on one again, but we’ll have a bigger risk of others hearing the fight. Especially if they yell.” Lilith considered the options for a minute. “I don’t think we have another way of doing it. Even trying to lead them away risks them yelling for backup.”
“That’s my guess, too. We’ll have to take them down as fast as we can, and expect them to get reinforcements.” Liana grinned. “If they do get reinforcements, I have a spell that should even the odds. It’s a damage and debuff combo.”
Lilith grinned. “You know, back on Earth we wouldn’t have tried taking on eight men with just two of us, even with guns. Magic is a huge equalizer.”
Her sister nodded enthusiastically. “It really is. With the right spells, if they have them on this world, I think I could take on three or four of these guys by myself. Not in a straight fight, unless they just really suck ass.”
“Well, let’s get going before they decide to kill more villagers. Not that I really care. Our agreement says to kill the slavers, not save villagers.” She grinned and looked at her sister. “Don’t break the catgirl, Lia.”
Liana shrugged. “I don’t intend to break her. I’ll admit I want to fuck her, but maybe it’s time to turn over a new leaf. Maybe it's time to try an actual relationship, and why not with a cute catgirl?”
Lilith blinked, somewhat shocked. Liana had never expressed an interest in relationships before, always just sleeping with the girls she developed an interest in, then ghosting them when she grew bored. Lilith had been the same, but her libido had never matched her sister’s, who rarely went more than two nights without sex. But maybe she was right about making some changes. They were on a new world, after all.
Shrugging, Lilith filed that train of thought away and motioned for Liana to lead the way. The dark elves moved towards the house Liana had indicated, and when they drew closer, could see one of the slavers standing outside. The human was turned away from the twins, watching inside the house. They could hear occasional sounds of things breaking, probably from the other slaver searching the small home.
Liana leveled her crossbow and aimed carefully, then fired. The bolt sped towards the bandit, but unluckily for the dark elf, the man turned to look towards the gathered villagers just as she fired. The bolt struck the man in the back of his right shoulder instead of his neck, and he yelped, making Liana curse quietly. Lilith, true to her word, released the spell she’d been holding, and a familiar blast of dark energy struck the man from above.
Liana quickly reloaded and shot the man again, this time striking him in the chest as he turned around. The slaver fell forward, dead, as the other slaver exited the house, sword in hand, to see what was going on. Spotting his dead companion, he yelled.
“We’re under attack! Hurry! Bjorn is dead!” Answering cries sounded from the center of the village, and the twins rushed the lone slaver, who fell back towards the village center.
Lilith cast her spell again, but the slaver dived to the side, avoiding most of the attack. Liana drew a throwing knife and hurled it, forcing the man to throw himself to the side instead of getting to his feet. That gave Lilith time to reach him, swinging her sword down at him, and slicing into his thigh. The blade nicked the artery in his leg, and Lilith pressed the attack, forcing the man to move and causing him to bleed faster.
He died shortly after, but Liana had already spotted two other slavers, the last of the three search groups. She cast a spell at the one in the lead, making him grunt and stumble as pain spiked his brain. The other man held a longbow with an arrow nocked, and he fired at Liana. She twisted aside, causing the arrow to strike her in the left shoulder instead of the chest.
The dark elf broke the shaft off close to her skin and tossed it aside; she knew enough to not pull out the arrow entirely, from stories she had read. Her left arm was mostly useless to her now, but she could reload her crossbow, and she did, firing at the archer. The bolt missed as he dodged, but spoiled his attempt at a second shot.
Lilith took that chance to rush the two slavers. She closed in, blocking a strike from the man Liana’s spell had damaged with her shield, then triggered a spell she hadn’t had a chance to use yet. A circle of dark energy burst from her body, striking both slavers. They both staggered, and the dark elf shield bashed the archer, taking a blow from the other man on her side. This one pierced the chainmail and stabbed into her side about an inch. Lilith growled, but another spell from Liana struck the man, finishing him off before Lilith could retaliate.
The twins quickly finished off the archer, who had fallen after being smashed by Lilith’s shield, and regrouped. The other two slavers hadn’t shown up, as they expected, believing they wouldn’t leave the villagers being held prisoner. Lilith examined her sister’s shoulder, frowning.
“Yeah, that’s going to hurt when I take it out, Lia.” Lilith carefully probed the area, making her sister hiss from the pain.
“Fuck it. Just do it and heal it up. We still have two more left and we can’t do it if my shoulder is fucked.” Liana grimaced. “Especially if one is a mage.”
“All right, one minute.” Lilith went inside the house, returning with a piece of leather. “Bite down on this.” She held the leather up and Liana bit down hard. Lilith took a dagger and made a cut, then yanked hard on the broken arrow shaft, pulling it free. Liana’s face grew pale as the wound began bleeding profusely, and Lilith could hear the leather creaking before she quickly cast a healing spell, sealing the wound and removing most of the damage.
Liana spat the piece of leather out. “Fuck! That hurt, and that leather tasted nasty.” She rubbed her shoulder, then gave her sister a quick hug. “Thanks, Lil, that feels much better now.”
“You’re welcome, Lia.” Lilith pecked her sister on the cheek and ruffled her hair. “Now, how do we want to handle the last two?”
Liana crouched, rubbing her chin. “It’ll depend on how close they are to the prisoners, and whether we can lure them away. The mage definitely needs to die first…” Liana thought about it. “Maybe the way we fought those rats?”
“Oh, I like that idea, if we can make it work.” Lilith cleaned her sword on the tunic of the dead archer. She paused for a moment. “Do you ever get the feeling that this world is our real home, and Earth wasn’t? It seems like the memories of the time before we came here… like it wasn’t real.”
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Liana took a piece of jerky from her bag and bit into it, chewing while she thought about her sister’s question. “Yeah… yeah, I do feel at home here. Even being changed to a dark elf, it’s like being a human was the lie.” She finished her jerky, then took her waterskin from her bag and drank from it before putting it back. “Anyway, we can ask Malis about it. Let’s kill these fuckers.”
Lilith chuckled, but her sister was right. They wouldn’t be able to get answers here, at least not the ones they wanted. They moved towards the center of the village, moving from house to house. The last two slavers stood there, waiting, one of them with his eyes closed. As they watched, that one, dressed in a robe, opened his eyes and turned in their direction, pointing at their hiding spot.
The other man, wearing armor similar to Lilith, stepped forward. He was tall, over six feet, and muscular. He carried a greataxe in his right hand, resting it over his shoulder. He looked at them after the other slaver pointed them out.
“Well, what do we have here? Dark elves? Interesting. I thought your kind were all on the main continent in hiding.” He scratched his beard. “Why are you interfering with me and mine?”
Liana mumbled under her breath. “Fucking mage. So much for that plan.” Lilith giggled, then walked out to face the men as Liana reloaded her crossbow.
“We were hired to kill you. Nothing personal, but the offered payment was too good to turn down.” Lilith readied her sword and shield. “We would offer to let you run away, but that would violate the terms of our contract – we’ve got to kill all of you to get paid.”
The man frowned. “And what if I have this man here use a spell to kill the villagers when you attack?”
Lilith shrugged. “Contract says to kill all of you. Nothing about keeping them alive. Help yourself.”
“Huh. You really mean that, don’t you?” The man roared with laughter. “I like you. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to kill you, since you've apparently killed my brothers. Too bad. You’d make a good bed slave.”
Lilith could sense her sister’s anger when the man said that. “Well, that was a poor choice of words.”
The man readied his greataxe and charged as Lilith began casting. As he charged, a black bear rushed out from between two houses to intercept him. The slaver spun, swinging his greataxe and striking the bear, only for it to disappear. He cursed loudly. “A gods damned mage!” The distraction gave Lilith time to finish her spell, and a crimson line formed between her and the spellcaster. The mage visibly weakened and fell to his knees.
Lilith rushed the spellcaster as she heard Liana’s crossbow fire. The bolt struck the mage in the shoulder, making him cry out in pain and fall over on his side. The slaver with the greataxe spun towards Lilith as she ran past him, swinging his axe, but she rolled forward to dodge the attack. She got back to her feet and kept running.
Liana wasn’t idle after shooting her crossbow. She began casting a spell she hadn’t needed yet, deciding this was the best time for it, with one of the slavers being a literal tank. Liana focused on the armored slaver as she cast, pushing the magic at the man.
The slaver felt something slide into his mind and he yelled as his body was wracked with pain. Then the whispers began, and he suddenly grew very afraid. What kind of magic did these dark elves have? He decided it was best to flee and began running away as fast as he could go, all thought of battle temporarily forgotten.
Lilith reached the mage and began attacking as he tried to crawl away. Her sword pierced his back, severing his spine, and he collapsed, crying out as he lost all the feeling below his waist. The dark elf stomped on his back, driving him into the ground, then stabbed into his shoulders to disable his arms. Dismissing him as a threat, Lilith turned to see the slaver with the greataxe returning, his face distorted with rage. She grimaced and cast a spell, calling a protective barrier into being around herself. This was going to suck.
Liana drew her kukris and waited for Lilith to engage the slaver. She dashed forward as he reached Lilith and swung the giant axe at her. Lilith deflected the blow with her shield instead of taking the hit directly, correctly guessing the axe would penetrate it. She assumed a defensive stance as she saw Liana running to attack, dodging or deflecting the slaver’s strikes. She fell for his feint, though, deflecting the axe but not seeing the kick. The man’s boot struck her in the chest, knocking her onto her back.
The slaver howled with victory and began to raise his greataxe for a finishing blow on the dark elf when he felt someone land on his back. A pair of slender legs wrapped around his chest from behind, and then a pair of daggers sunk into his eyes, blinding him. The slaver yelled out as the weight dropped from his back, then he felt the daggers slash the backs of his legs. He collapsed to his knees as the tendons were cut, his legs no longer able to support his weight.
Liana kicked the now-blind and crippled slaver in the back, knocking him onto his face. She stepped on his right wrist, then leaned down and hacked off his fingers. “You think you can turn my sister into a sex slave? Fuck you! I’ll make sure that’s something you never worry about again, fucker.”
Lilith stomped on the mage's hands, breaking his fingers, then walked over to where Liana was peeling the armor off of the slaver she’d blinded. She watched, amused, as her sister kicked the man in the crotch several times after tossing his armor aside. After finishing with that, Liana looked up at Lilith. “Hey, Lil. The mage taken care of?”
Lilith nodded, gesturing towards the man, who lay curled up on the ground, whimpering, hands held against his chest. “He won’t be a problem. You going to educate this one?”
“Yeah, I’m going to cut off his balls. Fucker.” Liana kicked the man in the ribs. “Well, maybe not. Just going to kill him since there’s no others left to send a message to, and we’re in a hurry.”
“Very true. Let’s finish these two, get our payment, and get moving. Only a few hours until daylight and I’d like to travel a few more miles, at least.” Lilith stabbed the slaver in the chest a few times, finishing him. “You kill the mage and search him, Lia, maybe he’s got something good.”
Liana grinned and nodded, jogging over to the mage. She crouched down and grabbed the man by the chin. “You want to live, scumbag?” The man looked up at the dark elf, hope in his eyes. “Too bad.” Liana stabbed him in the eye with a dagger, letting his head drop. She searched through his pouches, finding a couple of gold coins and little else. Liana stood up, muttering.
The twins walked over to where the villagers were still gathered. Lilith looked them over. “Okay, the slavers are dead. You’re free to do…. well, whatever villagers do. One of you can go tell the ones in the forest it’s clear, I guess.”
One of the villagers, a wolfkin male, stood up. “Who exactly are you? And why did you help us?”
“Names aren’t important, but you can consider us mercenaries. And we helped because Cara and Analie hired us.” Lilith sheathed her sword and slung her shield over her shoulder, getting a slight twinge of pain from the wound in her side. “Once we get our payment, we’ll be on our way.”
As the rest of the villagers stood, a male catkin stepped forward. “Cara and Analie hired you? How? They can’t possibly have the coin to afford mercenaries.”
Liana looked at him. “None of your fucking business. If they want to tell you, they can. We don’t divulge details of business deals.” She began checking her gear, making sure her blades were cleaned and sheathed and her crossbow was secure as the male catkin fumed.
A few minutes later, the group from the forest returned. Cara and Analie looked around, noting the bodies of the slavers nearby, then looked at the twins as the dark elves walked over to them.
Lilith looked at villagers watching them, then turned to Cara and Analie. “You have a choice. Leave with us tonight, or be at the fortress to the west in one week. Which do you prefer?”
Cara and Analie looked at each other, then walked away a few feet and spoke quietly. The other villagers watched, with some of them appearing as if they wanted to join the two, but Liana’s cold stare as she rested her hands on her weapons kept them in place. After a few minutes, the two girls walked back over to the twins.
“We’ve decided to go tonight. If we wait, the elders may try and prevent us from leaving,” Analie said, gesturing to a group of older villagers. “We might not agree with them, but we don’t want them killed.”
Lilith nodded. “Very well. Gather whatever you want to take with you, then arm yourselves from the weapons the slavers had. We’ll wait where we met for one hour.” The dark elf looked at the elders. “We’d better not have to come find you when the hour is up.”
Lilith tapped Liana on the shoulder and the two dark elves walked towards the forest as the villagers gathered around Cara and Analie.
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Cara’s father, Jor, hurried over to his daughter. “Cara! What were you thinking? And what did they mean that they’ll wait one hour for you?”
“Analie and I hired them to kill the slavers, and for payment, we agreed to be their servants,” the catkin girl explained. “We didn’t have much choice. Either we let the whole village be enslaved, or we work for them. The two of us for the village.”
Jor shook his head. “They might not have found you all, and you could have run away.” He put his hand on his face, sighing. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re not going. They won’t dare come back here – they’re outnumbered.”
Analie laughed. “The slavers were outnumbered, too, and yet two outsiders had to kill them. And do you honestly think anyone here can stop them? Even with weapons? They’re Fated, Jor. Who wants to face a pair of Fated?”
The villagers began muttering as Analie finished speaking, and finally the mayor, Linos, spoke up. “Fated or not, we can’t fight them. No one in this village has a combat Path, and the dark elves have weapons and magic.” He frowned as he spoke. “Even if we drove them off, they’d either come back when we slept or bring reinforcements from the fortress. It’s likely they serve Lady Malis, if that is their destination.”
Silence settled over the villagers at that statement. The fortress was the headquarters of the Hand of Night, the church of Lady Malis, goddess of Evil, and no one wanted to cross her people. Linos nodded as he saw the villagers understand what he was saying.
“Cara and Analie have to go. They made a deal, and from what the dark elf, they’re prepared to come back and get them. And probably kill anyone who tries to stop them,” the mayor said. “You two go pack and get weapons, like she said. No one here will interfere.” He waved for them to go, and the two girls nodded and hurried away to pack.
Linos turned to Jor. “It’s better this way. Neither of them were ever going to give in and follow our rules. They’d have ended up leaving or being banished at some point. At least this way, they will have a chance. And serving a Fated is a great honor, even if they are evil.”
“I don’t want my daughter serving evil, Linos! I don’t care what those damn dark elves said, they’re not taking her!” Jor turned, and as he began to walk away, Linos gestured to some of the other men, who quickly grabbed him. “Damn you! Let me go!”
“Not until they’ve been gone for at least a day, Jor. I’m not letting you risk the village for something that girl wants to do.” Linos motioned at the men holding Jor. “Take him and tie him up. We’ll let him go tomorrow after sunrise.”
The men dragged Jor away and Linos took out a pipe, then filled and lit it, smoking as he looked in the direction the dark elves had gone. “Two Fated, eh? And already gathering followers, too.” The mayor shook his head, walking off as he smoked his pipe.
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