Chapter 270: I Am Strong Enough

Atropos tapped her finger impatiently as she stared at the gate of the partition from the temporary refuge they made for the freed citizens. Her brother standing close by but making sure to survey the area and help where he could with the growing number of people.

Landin had been working tirelessly with Anima, spreading his aura to help heal and recover the people as well, doling out food where he was able.

The three had heard many thanks as well as horrid traumatic stories more times than they could count.

And although small, they had also done as Drake asked, rounding up all the guards that had surrendered. No matter how much some of the freed wished them hard, it wasn't their job to judge.

The teens on more than one occasion since Drake had left nearly half an hour ago had stopped one another from cutting down the guards of the city. They obviously taking advantage of what Drake had ordered the teens to do and surrendering to save their own skin.

"It is taking some time for Lord Drake to return… How large do you suspect this city is?" Atropos asked.

Landin wiped sweat from his brow with his sleeve, kneeling down to pat Anima as she continued to spread out her AOE heal, "Not sure, but the guards were pretty much pushovers. So maybe pretty big? Unless there's someone stronger here."

"Strong enough to give Lord Drake trouble?" she asked, dubious.

Landin shrugged, "The people who came out of the tutorials are miles ahead of us, even with Drake helping us along. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few crazy strong people like him laying around. There was about what, close to ten billion of us when the integration happened."

"Ten billion? What is this number?"

"Let's just say its a very big number," Landin chuckled wryly, "How many people were in your world?"

Atropos turned to Landin, "I do not know. The tribes on our planet were always territorial, but the Ice Wolf Clan had several thousand clansmen before the Great Wolf Gods took us."

Landin stood up, "Hmmm… sounds like you didn't have cellphones or much technology, you guys were surprised when we showed you the tv and games afterall," he mused.

"Cursed pink ball of endless gluttony…" Atropos grumbled, Clotho grumbling in agreement.

The ground suddenly shook, breaking off their conversation and the people within the small camp stirring with confusion and fear.

"What was that?!"

"I knew it was too good to be true!"

"The great Tree has forsaken us!"

Landin tried his best to calm everyone but failed to do so until Clotho roared above them all, spreading out his aura and silencing the crowd.

"Jeez, excessive much?" Landing coughed, "It's fine! That's just Drake, I think… He's the only one I know that can make something like that happen… Why is he letting loose?"

"We must go to him! What if he is in danger!" Atropos shouted.

Landin grabbed her by the arm, "Please. You think we can do anything if Drake is in trouble? Besides, our job is to make sure nothing happens to these people."

Interrupting their conversation once more, they heard a familiar whistle through the air, the teens turning their head towards the gate, seeing Quetz along with a mass of soldiers and citizens of the city droves far larger than the one that was already there.

"We won't have enough room for them," Landin grimaced, "Bring out anything you can to make shelter. Sorry Anima, you're going to be working overtime today."

Anima shook in understanding, waving a bushlike hand.

"Hey, hey!! Quetz brought more people. Drake said you can order around the annoying soldiers however you want," Quetz chirped.

"He did not say that, god damn it," Hudson sighed, "But we'll help however we need ta. This city is the worst thing I've every damned seen…"

Another thunderous boom forced the ground to shake around them, startling the crowd of people once more.

"Damned idjit! Blasted man can make earthquakes now?!" Hudson grunted.

Landin and the rest of the teens just smiled at Hudson's comment, ushering in the new group of people. Soldiers began running around setting up tents and spaces for them to sit comfortably as Anima stretched her area of effect thin to encompass all of them.

Hudson began walking around the small camp, silver magic circles beginning to form small turrets straight out of a scifi movie en mass as well as one larger circle summoning a type of Automaton they had never seen before.

The thunderous quacking they assumed was from Drake fighting had finally ceased, leaving them more assured for several minutes as the camp began to calm down.

Landin ran around as Clotho and Atropos continued to stay vigilant of the surroundings. Landin searched and found several people who were healers among the freed people, giving them instructions to do what they could to help. While doing so he also found several other support classes and range classes that could help with setting up a first line of defense of the area.

A few minutes of doing this was more tiring than fighting in the tournament, Landin wiping his brow and exiting the tents just to cool off with the falling rain.

"Hmmm…." a voice cooed next to him, "A hybrid support class? Guess you die first!"

On instinct, Landin snapped his fingers, his head barely turning in time to see the gleam of a knife mere centimeters from his eye. Before his surroundings changed and he was inside the tent.

"Enemy attack! Clotho, Quetz, Atropos! It's a stealth user!" Landin cried out, Ifirit, Bahamut, and a new Anima materializing next to him as he ran back out of the tent.

Ignoring the startled people around him, Landin flipped the tent flap up, seeing Atropos and Clotho already engaged with what looked like a Mage. The stealth user that attacked Landin nowhere in sight.

Atropos began using her own spells to counteract the spells of the Mage, but she was at a disadvantage. The mage was strong and specialized, and was using several elements compared to her single element.

[Otarrah Breaker Level 18]

I can't let Ifrit help. We still don't know where the stealthy went. Bahamut is underleveled but… Landin cursed.

"Bahamut! Overload! Gale Flare!" Landin shouted, spreading out his aura, his passive buffs activating for his summons.

Bahamut shot off Landin's shoulder, skirting around Atropos and getting in position on an unprotected side of Otarrah.

Flapping his raven black wings, Bahamut began summoning an intense tempest of wind, building it up to a visible gale.

Otarrah, still preoccupied with Atropos, only eyed the crow lazily as spells continued to contest each other between them.

Bahamut released a high pitched shriek, letting loose the gale in a turbulent tornado.

But the result was not as they expected, Bahamut's skill slammed against a bluish shield around Otarrah.

"Do not take me for some naive welp, boy…" Otarrah said, in a surprisingly female voice under the large reddish-brown hat that covered her face.

A moment after, Clotho grunted, pulling with both hands against something, the sound of snapping wire sending out loud pangs.

Revealing themselves with a sneer, a wolf-like man with gray colored hair and fur looked back them, his dagger only a few inches from Atropos's side. Stopped by Clotho's wires.

"Oh, you have some skill there! Yahaa! This is going to be more fun than I thought! A supporter class that can teleport! And a mute that can use strings!" Mae laughed, his dagger hand struggling against the wires.

Mae suddenly dropped his dagger, picking it up with his other hand and disappeared, two arrows sliding into the ground where he had just been.

Reappearing next to Otarrah, he flipped his dagger in his hand, frowning, "Little birdy is a ranger too… At least the information we got is correct."

The exchange broke the magic spell contest between Atropos and Otarrah momentarily, allowing the teens to regroup.

"It's two against four, we have the advantage," Atropos said, her scythe suddenly enveloped by dark purplish flames.

"But they have the level advantage, and they know our skills…" Landin whispered, suddenly regretting using almost his entire kit during the fight in ReUnite.

"Quetz can take on the gloomy looking wolf. She made plenty of colorful bullets for the trip," Quetz chirped.

"Fine, Atropos and I will take on the mage. Quetz, Clotho, we need you to keep the stealth user busy," Landin suggested.

Clotho grumbled, but Landin went into more detail.

"Clotho is the only one who has a chance against him with his kit. Anyone else is in danger of instantly dying if we fight him. He's level 20 after all."

"Yay! CC and Quetz are teaming up!" Quetz cooed, raising her hands, her bow dematerializing and two pistols reappearing in her grip.

"Oi, oi! What the hell is this!!?! MAEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" a booming voice shouted from the gate.

Mae turned visibly displeased, his playful attitude disappearing as he stopped idly tossing his weapon.

"Great… The disgusting city head is here…" Mae grumbled, "Fuck off old man! Go back to your little sex dungeon and let real fighters take care of everything, like always!"

Walking from the gate, a large man with graying blond hair, and a scar running from his eyebrow across his face strutted forward with an ear to ear sneer.

"Shut up mutt! Don't you forget who's in charge here! Your little pussy bat leader might be making us all good money, but this is still my legacy! And what a mess you've made of it!" Xavier growled.

"What did you say, Lesser!? I'll cut you from ass to mouth if you utter another-"

But Mae was silenced, Xavier moving so quickly the teen's thought they were looking at Drake for a moment.

Xavier grabbed the wolfman by the throat slamming him into the ground several times before lifting him once more.

"I can't kill you, stray, but you piss me off any more and you might have a little accident!" he grinned, dropping Mae to the ground.

Mae coughed up several pools of blood, struggling to get to his feet, as Otarrah watched silently.

"We might be in deep shit…" Landin muttered seeing the man.

[Xavier Thornsworth Level 18]

"He just trashed a level 20 with speed comparable to Sarah, maybe even Drake. He's using concealing equipment for his level, I'm sure of it," Landin muttered warily, his eyes drawn to the new people walking through the gate as well.

A line of elven women walked languidly through the gate, their ears noticeably cut except for one at the front. Her condition leagues above the rest, even wearing a clean maid outfit compared to the thin clothing of the others.

"Did this guy really bring an entourage of… sex slaves to a fight?" Landin said in disbelief, only to hear shouting from the tents behind him.

"T-Tanya!!"

Landin swiveled his head, looking behind him and seeing the dwarf woman Drake had first freed, huffing and puffing as she tried her best to yell.

"Tanya! It's going to be o-okay! They've come to s-save us! He's come to save us!! We can finally g-go…home!"

Xavier looked over displeased but didn't move, "Who?" he asked, "These pussies? Ha! They won't even be a warm up!"

Mae downed a red vial, rolling his shoulders with a scowl.

"Fight whoever you want. But we were here first."

Xavier scoffed, "Then run off somewhere with your tail between your legs, I won't stop you."

Landin had turned back around, watching Xavier, Mae, and Otarrah's exchange while also glancing at the girls that were lined up. The only one he saw whose expression changed he assumed was Tanya, the other women seemingly like dolls without emotion or any real semblance of where they were as if drugged.

Yula tried once more to call out to Tanya but was cut off by Xavier.

"Will you shut up already! None of these dirty little skanks even want to leave! Isn't that right?!" Xavier shouted, the women in line saying nothing, "See! They're perfectly happy right here! Hahaha!!"

Landin clenched his fist, tired of hearing the absurdity from this deranged man.

"Listen," Landin whispered to everyone, "Our only shot is for you three to fight and beat the other two, then get Drake back here as fast as you can."

"What will you do?" Atropos asked over her shoulder.

"I'll keep big, tall, and ugly busy as long as I can…" he answered wryly.

A brief silence hung over them, Atropos gripping her scythe before sighing with a nod.

"Clotho, we must give it our all here. Let us meet once more, safe and sound."

Clotho gave a small grunt, leading Quetz to the side, Mae smiling as he followed them.

"Huh? Are we going? Hey, are we going now?" Quetz asked being ushered to the other side of the partition, in the direction the guards originally were leading them.

"Hunt well, Landin," Atropos said softly with a small smile on her lips, "We will return quickly with Lord Drake."

Landin gave a small smile back, raising a hand with a thumbs up.

"Don't count me out just yet, I'll beat this guy before Drake even gets here."