Chapter 19: Stranger Danger

Nayla couldn’t drop us at the original site of Litheenia’s capital, which was closer to our destination, for obvious reasons. The Peacekeeper’s safety came before all else. She was the limited few who had the ability to transport survivors to Lady Lust’s castle. Instead, we were brought to barren lands, more of the same outlook I’d seen when Faye and I first arrived in Relo-Hell. The only difference was that it was morning time along the border, where the temperature was slightly warmer.

The same rules applied—keep our guard up, and keep our heads down. I was no stranger to living in the shadows, although all of this open land would prove to be more of a challenge. There were no tall buildings or cars to hide in, and no hotels to lay low for a while. Regardless, there was work to be done, and I was ready to get my hands dirty.

“Safe travels, blood squire!” Nayla left me with a tight hug, turned around, and slapped me on the ass with her tail. I jumped, her flirty move unexpected. I tossed her a smirk as she galloped back to her anchor point to return to the castle, the Peacekeeper leaving us to it.

I glanced over to Faye who was still cradling Pochi in her arms, the expression on her face telling me that our situation finally hit her like a ton of bricks. She looked spooked, being back out here again, back in the open with no luxury walls keeping her safe. We were fresh fish out of water, and Faye was smart enough to know that the both of us were more than foreigners here—we were food. 

“I hope they pick a nice place to bury my body…” I heard her mumble under her breath, and I walked over to console her.

“Don’t worry. I saw a nice place along the border, and the sound of the waterfall wasn’t too far from it. It looked like a peaceful plot for a city girl like you.”

Her face went beat red. “Was that supposed to be reassuring?!” she retorted.

I grinned at her. “Relax. The less you think about failure, the easier it’ll be on you. Stop straining yourself and focus on giving it your all.”

“That’s very… reassuring, Butcher. But we clearly didn’t come from the same strokes of life.”

“We still lived in the same shithole we called a home.”

“From one shithole to another?” Maelise chuckled. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Don’t worry. If we do our job right, this won’t be for long.”

“It’s just so much pressure…” Faye whimpered.

“Let us do the heavy work. All you have to do is make sure we are replenished,” I reminded her.

“But first, we need to get to Pothesly! Pochi dear, can you take us airborne?” Maelise requested, and Pochi squealed happily. He jumped out of Faye’s arms and scurried a distance away from us. Once the area was clear, he crouched over, with his back hunched, assuming the position. Suddenly this bright light engulfed him, the radiation from his transformation hitting us from even a few meters away. A walloping cloud of steam broke the barriers of air, whipping past us and tossing sand and debris our way. I shielded my eyes, the transformation taking only a few seconds to complete. When I glanced over, an adult-sized wyvern stretched across from us, flapping his scaled wings gratifyingly.

“Impressive, if I can be honest,” I said, marveled.

“Oh great… he looks positively terrifying again…” Faye whispered, her body frozen stiff after Pochi’s transformation.

Granted, he did look less cute and cuddly, but he was the same Pochi who’d quickly learned to adore Faye. So when he turned his long neck toward her, he bowed his head down and grunted, hot steam rolling out of his nostrils.

“Aww, he wants you to pet him!” Maelise said. I looked over to Faye, her shaky hands reaching over his huge scaly head. But then his eyes snapped open, my chest skipping a beat.

Without warning, Pochi opened his big jowls and snatched Faye right off of the ground! Maelise yelped, and I strapped my hand over my hip dagger, prepared to slice the wyvern right up to rescue Faye. It was an unexpected attack on Pochi’s part, but when he began to run behind us, I understood why he sprung the way he did.

He was only protecting Faye from a band of demons coming over to us from the horizon.

We had company… not even five minutes into our voyage…

There were about six of them, the guy in the middle the bigger one out of the bunch. They all wore heavy plated armor around their arms, and had their demonic horses along with their wagons and crates.

“Hellish minotaurs,” I grunted under my breath. I made note of their features; the black skin, the greasy dark fur, and the mass upon mass of muscle popping out of their broad torsos. Not to mention that hideous mug on them, their bull horns about the width of their shoulders.

I made a wild guess as to who they were affiliated with. Nayla had already warned us that Wrath’s soldiers were paying Litheenia a visit bright and early, but she said inland, closer to our destination. They made it pretty far since, and when I noticed who were in their wagons, I made another guess as to why they’d already left.

Litheenian girls, battered, gagged and roped…. Three of them being shipped away like cargo.

I had no doubt that they’d been kidnapped, the disparity on their faces begging my feet to move. I drew my dagger, then tapped it against my crest along the back of my hand. The stats read confirmed what I already knew—they were in fact the soldiers Nayla had warned us about. Between levels twenty-two and thirty, with the highest bearer being the one in the middle.

“Break!” The bigger one hollered in a grisly voice. They stopped a few meters in front of us, and we traded glares back and forth.

I could hear Maelise preparing her bow and arrow in defense, my other hand hovering over the grip of my shotgun.

The large minotaur huffed with resentment. “If you are wise, then you’ll step aside.”

Step aside? Did he not want to scrap us?

It was when I realized his eyes glancing at my hand, possibly noticing my crest.

“You aren’t going anywhere with our people!” Maelise warned them.

“I am Logar of Reggadon. This is your last warning, move, or we won’t hesitate to strike!”

“Contrary to what you may think, I want you to strike…” I bit back at him, my stance clearly offensive.

He felt compelled to read my stats, his gesture different than what I’d seen thus far. He had a pendant dangling around his neck, and he tapped it twice with his finger. Not even three seconds later, he fell into a boisterous laugh.

Gut wrenching, his cynical reaction was contagious. His entourage laughed along, possibly from noticing my level. But what was strange was how they were no stronger than I, with the biggest one capping at my level.

“What an interesting discovery… The bitch’s blood squire isn’t as threatening as legend has it,” he mocked me, slowly pulling out his sword from his scabbard. “What’s even funnier than that, he has no abilities to his name!”

“And he’s human!” the beast at the far right cried, pointing at me.

“You might have a kill system, but you aren’t making good use of it. Your level is laughable at best!”

You are reading story The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure at novel35.com

I snickered. “Don’t be too harsh on yourself.”

Underestimation, the smell of it was oh so familiar. I dashed in, not bothering with wasting any more time. They could stand there and toss insults at me all they liked, but it wasn’t going to slow me down any. Quite frankly, their idol taunting made them easier targets, my eyes on my first prize, the big mouthed bull-headed beast.

I noticed his stats, and had very little to worry about. He might have been the same level as I was, but he’d used those precious points on brawn and not speed. So when I dashed right toward him and side-stepped his down swinging blade, I made him pay for being so slow, blowing his brains out with my enchanted shotgun at optimal range.

His blood splattered his five beastly friends, who stood there shocked at how fast I was on my feet. Their leader’s headless body dropped on its knees, before keeling over on the cold harsh ground.

“Get him!” the one closest to me in that line of nitwits hollered. Unlike his fallen friend, he didn’t wield a weapon. Instead, he was an elementalist, more specifically, an earth specialist. He stomped his foot on the ground and summoned a large bed of rock, flinging it right at me. I smoothly slid underneath the projectile on my knees, swung my dagger, and sliced away at his ankles. He bucked, which was my cue to work my way up, a barrage of slashes opening up his skin.

He screamed, tensing his back and tightening his back muscles where I stopped my blade, and in another second more, his head exploded.

Four more shots left…

The others weren’t willing to fork over their lives for a bunch of girls they’d just kidnapped. They took the hint, and fled the scene, but I didn’t let them get very far. I dashed right after them, Maelise making it easier on me when she shot an ice arrow into the ground, turning the spot right before them into a mini ice skating rink. They foolishly tumbled and tripped over each other, fumbling around to escape imminent death. I enjoyed getting rid of them just the same, the last bullet splash leaving red streaks along my cheek.

“And that’s game,” I whispered to myself, whipping the blood off my face with the back of my hand. Well, I think I’d just leveled up…

Relo-Stats

Name: Knives Arlyan

Race: Human

Class: Fighter [Kill System]

Rank: Warrior

Level: 31 - Experience: 12933 / 31000 (next level)

Points to be allocated: 6

 [] Brawn: 100

[] Agility: 30

[] Charisma: 10

[] Willpower: 40

[Special Skills: Locked]

[Items]

1400 nudas

5 packs of 20 12 gauge bullets [c]

10 snack bars [c]

2 mana restoration vials [r]

Mana: 100/100

--

Maelise approached me with a witty smirk. “Hey, hubby, not hating or anything but, how about you let us have some fun also?!”

“I’m saving your arrows for a bigger fight. You should feel fortunate,” I said with a grin as I reloaded my gun.

“Downed six demons without using a lick of mana.” She gave me a bubbly smile and bounced on the tip of her toes. “This is the first time I get to see you in action! And I am awestruck! What a lovely way to impress your wife!”

“I jumped an entire level, and instead of getting four points to allocate, I got six.”

“It’s just Onessa being generous with you, my strong Serrian! The rest of us normal folk get four. You might have also gotten double experience points per demon you killed. Just as long as you struck the killing blow, you will get double rewards. For example, if I were to have killed a level thirty demon by myself, I would have gotten three-thousand points. In your case, you’d get 6000, courtesy of your kill system. And to also mention, the more people who fight the demon to defeat, the more ways you’d have to divide the awarded exp. So in our case, if all three of us had helped you defeat that demon, we split 3000 three ways, then you double your reward if you dealt the final blow. Which in the end, equals only 2000 exp.”

“Heh, well, that’s definitely good to know.”

“Keep taking down demons like that, and you’ll climb up the ranks in no time!”

I was just as enthusiastic, the properties of my leveling up system not given in detail until now. I definitely felt a lot stronger after taking out the trash as I walked up to those three girls on the wagon. I slipped my shotgun at my hip holster and approached them with my dagger. In no time, I freed them, slicing the rope around their arms, wrists and ankles. I helped them off the wagon, the girls quickly showing me their appreciation with heartfelt hugs and praise.  “You girls are safe now.”

“Maybe they are, but you, surely not,” a deep grumbling voice called from behind us, my eyes pivoting around to see another minotaur, about triple the size as the ones I’d just fought.

You can find story with these keywords: The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure, Read The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure novel, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure book, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure story, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure full, The Deadly Seven: An Isekai Harem Adventure Latest Chapter