Surprise! Surprise!

"We are so close, yet so far...."

Looking at the ceiling full of vines, Alyssa stared at them as if a child who lost her toy. If her arms were not broken, maybe she would dare to climb just to, well, you get what I mean, but luckily for us destiny had other plans in mind.

As the Sun come up and the light infiltrated through the breaches on the vine ceiling Alyssa finally noticed the huge door that stood by her side silently the whole night.

"Grr...."

No matter how much she loved to waste time appreciating her hobby, Alyssa still had to eat to stay alive. Feeling her stomach protest in a loud noise, she knew it was time to search for some food or another way out.

She arrived close to the door and noticed a palm reader right next to it, on the wall. She knew she was wasting time doing this, but she still went there and put her hand on the plate. A light quickly flashed through the palm reader, scanning her palm, and after just a few seconds an odd sound echoed through the cave.

Bling!!!

The whole palm reader lit up in a green light and the door slowly started opening up, letting the rain water enter inside and effectively draining out the water from the lake.

"Magi ka!?" (Really!?)

Using odd words from a forgotten language, Alyssa expressed her surprised in an extremely honest form... making a surprised face.

Lit! Lit! Lit! Lit! Lit! Lit!

Suddenly the lights lit up one by one, leading the way inside as if welcoming a guest.

Alyssa looked around now that the lights were illuminating the place but aside from the huge corridor there was no where else to proceed, except maybe the ceiling if she could climb the walls or fly, which, of course, she couldn't...

"Well, whatever!!"

Not caring how suspicious the whole place appeared, Alyssa proceeded inside.

--//--

After escaping the fortress Apollo's group was heading back to Negi's camp.

Apollo and the girls had done everything he could and now he could only pray that the attack group obtained success on it's operation.

Actually Apollo's group's results it was closer to a miracle, considering nobody was dead despite having thought a group twice it's size. They had done significant damage to the enemy and retreated just in time to avoid suffering damages themselves.

Maybe this was only possible due to the odd shaped tin can armors and the lack of ranged weapons on the other side, but this was a mistake from the enemy commander and now that he was better aware of the enemy Apollo doubted he would repeat such mistake again...

Because night would arrive soon, the girls started hurrying their march to reach Negi's camp before it turned completely dark, and as the group approached the plains where Negi's camp was located, suddenly multiple arrows were shot at them from all sides.

"Enemy attack!!!"

The girls were quite tired from the long battle and the following escape, making it impossible for them to deflect or dodge all arrows thrown at them. Briony, May, Hime and 2 nurses were hurt, as well as Negi's servants who were being carried by them.

Apollo paled seeing the girls being hurt but he didn't let his initial panic control him and issued some orders.

"Quickly! Circle formation! Healthy soldiers on the outer layer, everybody else inside!"

Following Apollo's words, the girls formed two circles, the outer one made of healthy soldiers and the inner one with everybody else. The enemy didn't let them rest and continued to attack them, but now that they were prepared it became easier to deflect the attacks coming at them.

"Master! The arrows have poison!"

"What!?"

As Apollo prepared to look at the mini-map to locate his enemies, his attention was robbed by this terrifying news. Looking at Briony laying down near him he saw black spots spreading around the arrow wound.

"Can you treat them!?"

"No! We don't have the necessary tools or herbs!"

"Fuck!"

Biting his lips, Apollo looked around for a solution and found himself staring at his maid team who were holding knifes, deflecting any stray arrow coming at them. Rose detected his stare and looked back at him for a second, nodding her head as she read his mind. The 4 maids aside from Hime suddenly disappeared, leaving Apollo staring at the empty space. He knew it was pretty much suicide but someone had to break this stalemate or nobody would survive. A tear dropped from his eyes as a sudden feeling of weakness brought him down to his knees. The maid closed to him caught him right away but was barely able to hear the words that escaped his mouth.

"I'm sorry..."

Rose used her fast steps to quickly reach the attacker located over a branch of a tree. Seeing the green girl in maid uniform suddenly appear by her side, the dark skinned elven ranger turned to her in surprise.

She had seen her own camp's maids blinking about as they served their Master in many ways but never experienced such move being used by them in a fight. It was an enlightening experience that made her wonder if her own camp maids could do the same, but, unfortunately now was not the time to be distracted with random thoughts.

Rose didn't miss the single moment of distraction of the enemy ranger. While she, herself, was surprised in finding out the identity of the enemy, there was no hesitation in the swing of her blade. The enemy girl moved back to dodge but Rose followed her at the exact same speed, piercing the knife in her neck as both fell from the tree.

On the other side of the forest, Lumina was not having as much luck with her opponent. While she had been able to hurt her target, her attack was shallow and unable to take her down. Lumina charged to attack again, but at this time her opponent sounded a whistle, this was obvious not enough to save her but now the allies knew Lumina had moved out of the siege.

Alice attack's were quite brutal. Instead of using a normal knife, she used a kitchen machete. It was thick and heavy, and extremely sharp to allow it to cut bones with a light swing. The innocent smile and lack of killing intent made her battle quite bizarre as she swung it around dismantling her opponent one member at a time before cutting off their head.

Alice's opponent screamed until Alice had finished her off. This attracted more than just a bit of attention of everybody around them and it didn't take long for reinforcements to reach the place. Unfortunately for them, they had arrived just a second too late, but this didn't stop them from seeking revenge, surrounding Alice and attacking her from all sides.

Cindy was the weakest of the maid squad. She hated fighting and it didn't help that she stayed most of the time lazing around inside the HQ. This didn't mean she didn't know how to fight, but she lacked experience and fighting spirit, which resulted in lack lustering results as it was shown right now. While the other three maids had already killed their first target and moved to their next, Cindy still had not even hurt her target at all.

Because she was a bit hesitating, Cindy's first attack started just after the sound of a whistle echoed among the trees. The whistle allowed her target to notice something was wrong and detect her attack early on, allowing her to dodge. The dark girl with pointy ears let go of her bow and took out a hunting knife from her belt, facing Cindy who was charging again at her.

Cindy's attacks were countered and the two exchanged position a couple times before her opponent appear to slip, making Cindy charge recklessly at her. Unfortunately for Cindy this was a trap and just as she drew close to her opponent, her opponent dodged her attack with a spin and stroke the back of her head.

Feeling that the enemy attacks were disrupted, Apollo ordered the soldier girls to go reinforce the maid team while the rangers took care of the defenses temporarily. Fifteen minutes later the soldiers come back with only Rose and Lumina.

Apollo didn't ask anything. He knew already the answer as he watched the whole battle through the mini-map. He just nodded with a sad face and send the command for the group to depart again.

"Master, it was Jaylee's troops! They betrayed us!"

"I see..."

"Master! Order us to take revenge!"

"..."

Apollo wished to do so. He truly did. But, if he did so, all the poisoned girls would die.

Apollo took a deep breath and did his best to control his emotions.

What was the best options?

Should he give up on these girls and attack?

Or should he retreat and come back later?

He had promised to protect them just as they protected him. But if he retreated, he would have to sacrifice even more on the next attack. So... what to do now?

Apollo looked one more time at all girls around him and made his decision.

"Let's..."