Chapter 77 Captives (Part 1)
My increased dexterity allowed me to climb the rock above the trail and move along it, avoiding the collapse area. When I reached the area from which I'd been watching the valley, I found that the situation below had changed dramatically.
Obviously, another army had fallen under the curse of the demons, but it was much farther away from the pass. This one was sent much later and consisted entirely of women. And after they got rid of the curse, they continued on their way and met their brothers from the previous era ....
In general, things were going badly for the men, who were being attacked simultaneously by the new adventurers and their former victims. The forces were so unequal that the organized resistance of the male half of the adventurers was quickly crushed.
The female half, however, was too eager for revenge, and the battles quickly broke up into many skirmishes, with each man being attacked by several angry Furies. The latter, after killing one enemy, would move on to the next. ....
On the path to the valley, the man who had led his brothers in the battle against the women and elves retreated with a fight. He was attacked by as many as five opponents, consisting of a pair of warriors, an archer, a priestess, and a sorceress. Judging by the tattered clothes of the latter, they had been victims of violence and were now eager to fight.
The man turned out to be an unexpectedly skilled warrior, using the narrow path to his advantage. With his back to the front, he was able to swing a long cleaver at both warriors and block the arrows of the archer.
The priestess and the sorceress were blocked by the backs of their opponents, so they had to limit themselves to casting support and strengthening spells on the warriors.
As the path was further destroyed by a landslide, the man had little chance to escape. But he didn't know that, and he continued to fight hard. At one point, he even managed to wound one of the warriors attacking him.
She was immediately treated by the priestess, and the man himself was hit by a hail of spells from the sorceress, for whom the obstacle disappeared. The man was forced to retreat further, waving his cleaver away from the spells.
I intervened, having managed to find a couple of large stones and drag them up. The first threw the sorceress and the archer off the path. The second was meant for the priestess and the warrior she was healing.
But instead, it accidentally knocked down a scout I hadn't seen approaching the man on the rocks. Apparently, she had some sort of camouflage skill, because I didn't notice the adventurer until the very last moment.
I didn't have to look for more rocks - the man easily managed to stun the last able-bodied warrior. Then he twisted and tied up her wounded friend and the priestess, using the scraps of her dress as ropes. He even managed to remember to gag them.
«Thank you, friend,» the man thanked me as I came down to him. «If it weren't for you, I would have been killed.»
«You're welcome,» I shrugged. And wondered. «And at worst, what could you have done?»
«A lot of things. Stick you in a cell and torture you to your heart's content, for instance,» my interlocutor shrugged. «Our sharp-eared benefactors are very resourceful... Anyway, it's best not to get caught. I suggest we follow the trail with me and see if we can save ourselves.»
«The trail won't work. There's a rockslide further down. There are five adventurous women in the valley it leads to. Three of them are of Orichalcum rank.»
«How do you know that?»
«I just escaped from them.»
«Yes... I can't handle three orichalcum women with my mithril rank. I could have defeated one...» the man said sadly. But he immediately offered a new option. «Let's go down the path. As far as I know, the valley you're talking about hasn't started here yet. So there's a chance to get to the foot of the mountains without any unwanted encounters.»
«So maybe we'd better climb up and just follow the rocks to the road.»
«Nah. They have a lot of scouts who are probably already on the rocks. And they'd be reluctant to climb down, preferring to wait for those who have fallen to climb out themselves.»
«What if someone's hurt and can't get out?»
«You're like a first-day adventurer,» the man laughed. «It's us men who help someone. The female half puts their sex quotient first. So if someone survives and can't get out, they think it's better to wait for them to die and be reborn. They'll only climb up for fear that someone like you will think of throwing rocks at them.»
«Yes, you a damn right,» I agreed, casually admiring my interlocutor's experience. I nodded to the two warriors and the priestess. «What are we going to do with them?»
«We could kill them, of course, and send them to rebirth...» the man said thoughtfully, watching the priestess and the wounded warrior tense. «But I'd take her with me. Getting them down isn't much of a problem. And hopefully we can find enough supplies there to sustain them... And to be honest, I've gotten used to having fun with women on a regular basis over the years.»
I'd had enough of the fairer sex lately, so I didn't even look at the captured adventurers. But on second thought, I realized that tomorrow I would probably want one of the captives.
«Well, if you say so... But I'm afraid I won't be much help.»
«Don't worry,» the man brushed it off. «It won't take much from you.»
Whereupon my new acquaintance developed a flurry of activity. The priestess's dress was finally stripped down to ribbons, some of which he tied to the stunned warrior and some of which he wove into a long rope. The belts and straps from the sheaths of our captives were also attached to the rope.
Then he sent me down to find some more or less level ground. Finally, he began to lower me down, first the priestess and then the two warriors. At the same time, I took a look at who we were getting.
The priestess, who went down first, was a tall, slender, blue-eyed woman with golden hair down to the middle of her back. Her dress was completely gone, so now she was wearing tight white panties, white sheer stockings, and high heeled sandals that allowed us to admire her round hips and shapely legs.
Catching and untying the beauty, I found myself involuntarily touching her everywhere, and despite the extremely active pastime of the last twenty-four hours, I felt a renewed desire. But alas, the other prisoners were to be taken now, so I reluctantly placed the beauty under my feet.
The next to come down was a warrior who had never been treated. She wore high boots that reached almost to her hips and had a decent length of stiletto heel. And her clothing consisted of some kind of open bathing suit.
Or rather, two strips of leather that came together between her legs like panties, widened to cover her breasts, and then fastened around her neck. Apparently, the skin was not elastic enough, so she escaped the fate of being use onto the ropes.
The warrior was tall, with wide hips and large breasts. Her hair was the same color and as long as the priestess', and her eyes were black. After touching this beauty wherever I could reach, I laid her on top of the priestess and took the last prisoner.
The second warrior had gray eyes and red hair. She wore a leather breastplate inlaid with steel plates that left the top of her breasts just below average size exposed and secured by a pair of straps slung over her sloping shoulders.
Her skirt was made of leather strips and, though almost knee-length, did not cover anything, leaving her snow-white thighs and plain-looking snow-white panties to be admired. The boots were a little below the knee and had a medium-length heel (unlike most adventurers I had met in this world).
Unlike the previous warrior, this one was noticeably more muscular. However, that didn't make her unattractive - on the contrary.
Since this prisoner was the last one, I was able to touch her slender body everywhere, paying tribute to her firm buttocks and firm breasts. It was during this activity that I was caught by my companion coming down from above.
«Oh, you're wasting no time,» he nodded approvingly. «I suggest we set up camp when we get down there and enjoy our trophies to the fullest.»
«Go ahead, sure,» I didn't argue.
«Fine. You take that one. I'll have fun with the other two,» the man nodded. And chased after me.
I didn't object to his role as commander, nor to the not very fair distribution of the prisoners - without him I'd probably get out. But it was unlikely that I would have been able to capture any of the prisoners.