The entire room had gone silent, except for some groaning of the wounded, until there was a loud crunch. Nyx was chewing the skull off a skeleton. Only four enemy undead remained and interestingly they had stopped fighting as well. Since they were low tier it meant that they had been ordered to stop. Maybe the necromancers were ready to surrender?

Suddenly I saw a blur and a man materialised right next to Kaito. He wore black leather armour and his face was covered by a hood. The black dagger in his hand was curved and I saw a red gem gleaming in the pommel. The tip of the blade went straight for Kaito's head.

The dullahan's head shot upwards, dodging the blade. The frostfire coming from Kaito's neck intensified. Just as the enemy's hand passed over the neck the flames jumped to his wrist. The attacker cried out, dropping the dagger. He clutched his hand as it slowly froze underneath the flames.

Kaito's head floated back down and he regarded the assassin. "Invisibility might hide you from sight but it is foolish to assume that an enemy has no other means of detection."

By now the man had fallen to his knees, he was desperately trying to extinguish the frostfire, which was slowly spreading. Kaito bent down and picked up the blade, ignoring the screaming man. "What a lovely blade." He mused, while studying it.

"Um, Kaito, we would like him alive." I pointed out.

"Of course! Rest assured, the freezing is reversible." He replied. "I have learned from my earlier mistake inside the tunnel."

"I surrender." The bald man said, watching the spectacle with horror.

"I surrender as well! Please stop!" The freezing man pleaded. Kaito dismissed his frostfire and the man finally stopped screaming.

"We surrender as well." One of the hooded necromancers said.

"I shall deactivate the golems…" The bald man said, just as we heard another explosion.

"I don't think those golems survived Cassie and Skadi." Helena mused.

"Right." Duncan said. His magic pushed the remaining poison clouds out of the way and kept them contained in a small spot. "We can bring in the guards now. We will need more people to process the scene and take care of the prisoners. Connor."

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Connor nodded and left.

Helena walked right next to me. "Kaito was soo cool!"

I giggled. "True."

Then I addressed Colonel Duncan: "Sir, what shall we do with the remaining skeletons? And the prisoners?"

"All their undead need to be destroyed. I trust you to handle that. Administer some first aid to the wounded, ensure they survive. Once the guards arrive they will take them away. And send your undead to secure the other rooms." Duncan replied. Then he walked over to the bald man, starting to ask some questions.

"Hey, how many undead do you have here?" I asked the necromancers.

"Only the ones here…" They replied. I was sceptical but I had no way of knowing.

"Well, I guess they are snacks now. Nyx, Yoru, Kaito,... you can have them. Oh, maybe leave something for Ivy and Kasai." Hatsumi did not consume bones but she did snack on some of our enemies, I suppose. She had bitten at least three people during the fight.

Then we started going through the wounded on the floor. The one person I had hit with the necrotic ray was dead. Another one had been impaled by an ice shard. But we found two who were still alive. We ensured they would not bleed out.

"Huh, looks like you had some fun down here." I heard Skadi say. She and Cassie had just entered the room.

"You should have seen Kaito! He was amazing!" Helena said. The dullahan was currently retrieving one more prisoner from the tunnel.

"Hey, isn't that the woman from the forest?" Cassie asked.

I looked towards Kaito, who dragged a frozen woman into the room. She did look like the one who had ambushed us and gotten away.

"You know her?" Kaito asked.

I studied his captive a bit longer. "Did she use fire magic?" I asked.

"She did, however her training was lacking. She seemed confused by frostfire and panicked, it did not end well for her. I suppose watching the fate of her companion did not help, sadly he was the first and I failed to keep him alive." Kaito replied.

While he downplayed the achievement he had taken out a fire mage. A fire mage with support. Of course, he had not been alone either. Still, it was a nice accomplishment for his first battle. And his frostfire seemed far more powerful than I had anticipated.

"She is cleaner now but that is definitely the woman who ambushed us." Cassie confirmed.

"Shall I question her?" Hatsumi asked.

"No, we will leave that to Duncan." I replied. I might have been curious to learn more about the ambush but questioning subjects was not part of our duties. Maybe Duncan would invite us to help, maybe not. But I did trust him.

"So, I heard you fought a golem? Or golems?" I asked my friends.

Skadi nodded. "Being a spellblade has paid off. There were two of them. Big, made from stone and wielding swords. Even with my enhancements I had to be careful but I was able to keep them engaged."

"The cats jumped on their backs and managed to create small holes with their claws. Then I shoved explosives in them!" Cassie added enthusiastically.

"Which was rather effective, however having a stone golem explode in your face is not pleasant." Skadi added.

"Sorry…" Cassie mumbled, looking guilty.

"It's good that I am sturdy and it was rather effective." Skadi said, while pulling Cassie into a hug.

"Hey, you managed to not get wounded this time, I am proud of you!" Helena said to me, while patting my head.

"Hatsumi did a good job protecting me. Otherwise I would have been in trouble…" I admitted.

Hatsumi smiled. "I am glad to be of service, mis… Koyuki."

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