At the broken hole on the second floor of the castle, a rope was thrown out, dangling to the ground.
Stella appeared next, wearing a heavy chainmail armor. She clung tightly to the rope, sliding down with her legs flailing. Just before reaching the ground, she let go of the rope and landed hard on her backside.
Sean followed her out of the wall hole. He carried a longbow on his back and held a sturdy wooden crossbow in his right hand. After firing a few arrows into the hole, he wrapped the rope around his left hand and legs, quickly sliding to the ground.
Sean swiftly helped Stella up, and they fled the castle, heading towards the birch forest behind it.
The last one to emerge was the burly Barrett. He stored a large shield in his spatial ring, grabbed a black canister, and tossed it into the castle. Then, he grasped the rope and, with agility, slid to the ground in a second.
The man then pulled out a throwing axe, flinging it at the second floor to cut the rope. Without looking back, he ran towards the birch forest.
"Boom!" A loud explosion came from the hole, as if the castle had sneezed. A cloud of gray dust burst from the hole, likely from the explosion of the object Barrett had thrown into the castle.
Following this, several long tentacles emerged from the hole, followed by a giant, iron-claw-like mandible. One after another, giant cockroach-like creatures crawled out of the hole.
After these giant insects, human-sized mantises squeezed out of the hole. They waved their razor-sharp forelimbs, their compound eyes rotating in all directions. Their powerful hind legs propelled them towards the direction the three humans had fled. Iron-armored insects squirmed out of the castle, burrowing towards the birch forest.
Eventually, an endless swarm of insects surrounded a short maid, slowly emerging from the hole...
Entoma Vasilissa Zeta stood on the back of a black iron beetle, rapidly advancing towards the birch forest. Her mask-like face showed no expression.
She was also a member of the Great Tomb of Nazarick's battle maid squad, of the Arachnoid race, specializing in controlling insects.
Barrett ran desperately ahead, with Sean carrying Stella sprinting before him. Unexpectedly, this cleric girl had a natural fear of insects. As these oversized bugs swarmed from all directions, her legs turned to jelly, leaving Sean to carry her.
They raced towards where EeDeChi was, intending to warn the adventurer captain, who was locked in a fierce battle, about the new terrifying enemy. It would be wise to escape quickly and avoid further entanglement with the glove-wearing maid.
"What's going on over there?" EeDeChi, having just forced the glove-wearing maid back with a sword strike, called out to the three. She too saw the swarming black mass of insects by the castle and heard the sound of countless creatures crawling on the ground.
"Captain, another maid has appeared, and she controls bugs! There are too many of them, we can't kill them all! Damn it! In my twenty years as an adventurer, I've never seen anything like this!" Barrett panted, cursing for once.
The sound of insects crawling grew louder. EeDeChi looked up to see a black swarm of bugs, wings and antennae tangled together, approaching rapidly. In the midst of them stood a strange girl in a maid outfit.
"Justice Value is -100, similar to 'evil'," EeDeChi noted, glancing at the number above the Insect maid's head. She swung her sword to deflect a steel punch coming at her from behind, nodding. "Let's take down this bug handler first, then deal with the one with the gauntlets."
She twisted her body, turned rapidly, and planted her left foot firmly on the ground, creating a large crater. Ignoring the iron fist maid nearby, she charged towards the Insect maid with her sword raised.
The swarm quickly closed in. A few bugs entangled Barrett, Sean, and Stella. Fortunately, the bugs were numerous but not particularly strong, and they managed to fend them off for now.
The Insect maid Entoma looked at the adventurer captain, her voice sweet, "Are you EeDeChi?" With a flick of her maid sleeve, a thick centipede crawled out, its hundred legs wriggling, black pincers opening wide, aiming for EeDeChi.
EeDeChi shook her head. "Enough with the nonsense." She stood firm, twisted her waist, and with a powerful swing, her giant sword sliced the centipede in half.
The Insect maid stepped back, raising an arm like an insect limb, and threw a yellow talisman into the air. "Thunderbird Talisman!"
The paper transformed into a blue thunderbird, darting towards EeDeChi, exploding into a shower of electric sparks upon contact.
EeDeChi patted her clothes, a hint of confusion in her eyes. "Hmm? A talisman?"
Seeing her attack fail, the Insect maid Entoma pulled out three more yellow talismans with red symbols from her sleeve, shouting, "Chidori Talisman! Sharp Slash Talisman!"
Bright blades of light attacked from all directions, but EeDeChi's giant sword danced around her, blocking the assault.
Furrowing her brow, she yelled, "Playing with talismans? You're not from this world! Prepare to die!"
Outside the manor, Sebas, who was watching EeDeChi's battle, narrowed his eyes sharply, exclaiming, "Not good! This adventurer girl held back when attacking Yuri. Get Entoma out of there, quickly!"
But his warning came too late. EeDeChi leaped into the air, her giant sword slicing down with a fierce blow. The Insect maid Entoma sensed the danger. Her head lifted, her mask falling off, revealing a mouth with sharp mandibles and eyes rapidly contracting, finally showing her true form.
On her back, four long, segmented legs suddenly extended, tearing through the maid outfit and crossing in front of her like shields.
The sword's energy burst out, cutting off all four of the Insect maid's segmented legs.
Defeated, a black armored beetle picked her up and quickly fled in the opposite direction from EeDeChi.
In the previous battle, EeDeChi noticed that the Justice Value of the iron fist maid was 150, so she worried that the iron fist maid was being controlled. To avoid harming her, she fought using only about a third of her strength.
But this Insect maid had a Justice Value of -100 and used powers clearly not from this world, so she held nothing back.
Seeing the Insect maid escaping, EeDeChi prepared to chase after her. Just then, Barrett's shout came from behind: "Captain, save Stella!"
The iron fist maid, whom EeDeChi had abandoned in the duel, was now swinging her massive steel fist towards Stella, who stood frozen on the other side. Barrett and Sean were entangled by several red-footed worms, unable to help.
"A diversion tactic?" EeDeChi shook her head. "Eliminating evil takes priority! This is the perfect chance to capture this bug-and-charm user for interrogation."
With that, she ignored everything else and leaped towards the direction of the Insect maid.
Seeing the iron fist maid getting closer to Stella, the young cleric was in imminent danger. After shooting an arrow through the head of a green-scaled insect, Sean gritted his teeth, abandoned his bow, drew his short sword, and used Martial Art to break free from the swarm, placing himself in front of Stella, barely managing to activate his defensive Martial Art: Solid Fortress.
Close combat was not Sean's forte as a ranger skilled with the bow.
The short sword collided with the gauntlet, the blade snapping, and the hilt flying away.
The iron fist maid punched Sean's sword from his hand with her left hand and struck his shoulder with her right. Sean spat out a mouthful of blood, crashing heavily to the ground, his shoulder pierced by the steel wolf's fangs, bleeding profusely. His arm was clearly useless now.
Seeing Sean, covered in blood, fall in front of her, Stella finally snapped out of her daze. She rushed to the ground where Sean lay grimacing in pain, her face filled with terror, trembling as she cast healing magic, ignoring the iron fist maid who had struck Sean and was now standing right beside them.
"Damn it! That bastard! How can she just abandon her teammates like that?" Barrett growled through gritted teeth as he watched EeDeChi run off into the distance.
He knew that if no one helped soon, Sean and Stella would die under the maid's brutal wolf-fanged fists. Barrett raised his longsword and pinned a cockroach the size of a baby to the ground, then crushed a bottle of insect repellent powder in his hand. Grayish-white smoke dispersed, causing the surrounding insects to scatter temporarily.
Taking advantage of the brief respite, he retrieved a throwing axe from his spatial ring. With his thick arms, he hurled it at the iron fist maid.
The maid turned and knocked the axe aside. Barrett twisted his body and threw two more enchanted throwing axes. The blades spun, flashing with cold light as they sliced towards the maid.
Forced to temporarily abandon Stella and Sean on the ground, the iron fist maid clashed her fists together, smashing the axes aside.
Barrett flipped and pulled a spear from his spatial ring, thrusting it upwards at the maid. She abandoned her pursuit of Stella, easily severing the spearhead and charging straight at Barrett.
Seeing the maid's massive wolf-fanged fist coming directly at him, Barrett felt a bitter despair.
The iron fist maid could exchange dozens of blows with the captain, while he couldn't even withstand a single strike from her. He knew he couldn't defeat this fierce maid, but he braced himself and charged, hoping to buy some time.
The spiked fist came crashing down like a storm. At this critical moment, Barrett's battle-hardened instincts as an elite adventurer kicked in. He swiftly pulled a kite shield from his spatial ring, planting it on the ground, and activated two high-defense Martial Arts skills:
Martial Art: Unyielding Fortress!
Martial Art: Resolute Shield!
It felt like a battering ram had struck the kite shield, making it hum and vibrate. Crouched behind the shield, Barrett's arms went numb.
But a seasoned adventurer doesn't just hunker down and take blows like a turtle. Rising slightly from behind the adamantite kite shield, Barrett thrust out a longsword with fierce speed.
For the first time, a smile appeared on the composed face of the iron fist maid, who wore narrow-rimmed glasses. She gracefully sidestepped the sword and instantly closed in on Barrett's left side...
Meanwhile, EeDeChi pursued the Insect maid, who turned to fight her several times but was always outmatched and forced to retreat.
Soon, EeDeChi had the Insect maid cornered against the castle wall. With a Justice Value of -100, the Insect maid had nowhere left to run. The adventurer captain sneered, raising her giant sword with both hands, ready to strike.
A sharp cry suddenly rang out above her head: "Stop!"
EeDeChi looked up to see a blood-red spear descending from the sky!