288 Right below

'Why'd I have to come up with a plan!?' Tess thought, trying to calm herself.

Outside, scores of men stood in waiting, all fitted in sleek black clothing, each with a medley of weapons hangin from their body.

Someone had to be here to deal with these men.

But if she had kept her mouth shut in the first place, maybe it didn't have to be her.

They were more lethal than she had anticipated, to the point that her breathing could only be attributed to the presence of Grendolyn.

Her plan was self-admittedly simple. She would be the main offense against these brutes, seeing how Grendolyn wanted to avoid doing anything grandiose in such a vulnerable area. All she needed to do was from a rampart to carry the both of them up here, her nimble hands and arrows would make quick work of the rest.

She didn't, however, consider that maybe these weren't the same run off the mill men Moto-tsune had been sending her way. Whose abilities mostly amounted to pointing their guns in a general direction and leaving the rest to lady luck.

They were leagues more accomplished in this field, their equipments alone could attest to that. The guns all the previous men were outfitted with would only amount to pocket knives against the ones being held in their hands.

And in the same league, the arms handling a bow and arrow would be hard pressed to match the speed of a finger on the trigger.

Not to mention they were grossly outnumbered.

Every time she pulled a single arrow, each men would raining down a burst of 5-6 bullets her way. A strand of her hair wouldn't survive such an onslaught if it so much as peeked out the bloackade Grendolyn had made for them.

"You happy now!?"

The earth mage was just about as ecstatic... As an earth mage fighting high above the flat surface of the earth.

Additionally she wasn't even the kind of mage boys thought about when they spoke that title. The ones that chant and wipe out hordes of men with a single whiff of their wand.

No, she was the kind to read on magic and practice it to further improve her blacksmithing

Which was unquestionably useless for such situations, if only her pride had allow her to admit that prior to climbing up all the way here.

Even then, she'd have probably been conscripted on this futile expedition anyway. Compared to her peers of the same occupation living in this back water city, her mastery of the arcane in this element went far beyond summoning several earth spikes from the ground.

Which, mind you, was a perfectly good spell, if not for the fact that anything shaped like a needle, had no business trying to provide cover from bullets.

"What are you doing!? Didn't you say you were able to shoot them when we got close enough?" The blacksmith screamed as she constantly attempted to repair the barrier which was at the moment being ravaged by bullets.

Though it was a crude method, it was simple and held them from testing out how well their clothes held up against bullets in comparison.

"How do you expect me to shoot!? I don't even have enough time to aim!"

"Then don't aim, let me do the aiming, you just shoot through any opening I give you." Grendolyn said a she strained against her limiters just trying to push the process faster. "I'm going to open the a hole in our wall, make sure you dodge as soon as you release, I can't close it as fast, 3! 2!..."

"Wait! wait! wait! I'm" Tess screamed.

"1!"

"Argh dammit!" Tess cursed as she drew her bow and launched a shot into the first hole that popped up in the earth dome that covered them.

"Argh!" The response came immediately elation of one Tess, who wanted to linger in the feeling much longer than Grendolyn or the men outside would let her. She was rudely pulled out of her moment of minor triumph away from the path of several very unfriendly projectiles.

One in particular originated from the barrel of a man who stood far too close for comfort, his bullet losing little momentum as it entered the girl's safe space, ricocheting around the safe room the girls had constructed for themselves. Prompting the girls to initiate an abrupt game of super speed twister as they blundered over one another trying to avoid getting hit.

As soon as it finished, Grendolyn worked quickly to close the wall back up before turning to Tess, whose carelessness she almost had no words. "Don't celebrate so early, we could've died back there you idiot!" Almost.

"Geez chill out... at least we killed one guy." She annoyedly complained.

"That's great, we killed One! Why don't we head back and report this job as a monumental sucess!!" Gwendolyn responded in exasperation.

Their 'guests' probably found their distress and bickering quite humorous as they began jeer.

"Ladies, you seem to be in a pretty tough spot, a guy like me would really like to avoid unnecessary killing, war or not," He said, drawing their curiosity. Indeed it was better if everyone could leave without much bloodshed and both of them weren't as comfortable with this situation as they had originally thought when they came up here. But then... his words continued. "But seeing as you shot one of our men, I'd find it hard to placate their emotions without some... eh... 'kindness' from your end, or if it makes it better, think of it as reciprocating the kindness we are intending to show you right, now."

"Who would want to show kindness to you!?" Tess answered his offer immediately, nearly poking her head out, if not for the timely interruption of Grendolyn. "Hah! are you the one with that stupid looking mask!?"

"St..Stupid!? I'll have you know this is the latest technology in oxygen masks, keeping our pressure perfect regardless of the altitude, and it has..." The man tried to explain himself.

"B#llshit, latest technology in trying to cover up your face maybe." Grendolyn retorted. "Why aren't any of your friends wearing it. Just be honest and tell us you're too ugly, you'd have a better chance at pity sex with your desperate ass"

His companions couldn't help but snicker at those replies. "Shut up! what are you laughing at!?" He pointed to his comrades who were shaking trying to hold back.

Somehow, girls could be at each other's throats all the time, but once they met a common enemy (Men), they were like a well oiled machine, working together to emasculate a guy to the point of tears.

"F#ck, you know what I was trying to be nice." The guy pointed at their earth wall.

"We know exactly what you were trying to do. Are you sure that mask isn't cutting off the oxygen to your brain instead?" Grendolyn mocked.

"Dammit! some of you switch to the grenade launchers, we'll break that wall instead of waiting for them." The guy commanded.

Wrong move.

"Hey eunuch." Tess's voice echoed, the lot of them turned their head towards the earth wall. "Hahaha! all of you responded to being called eunuch." Her voice rang out again, but this time, instead of from the earth wall, it came from directly below them.