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We had to pick up the pace we were working at now. I was forced to spend less time talking to each person as I removed their collars and just had to hope that none of them would cause trouble. Fortunately, I wasn't running into any others who had so much negative karma. Who was that guy? He blew up his cellmate... The image of the beastfolk's viscera all over the walls was sickening. He must have been some kind of serial killer, but I didn't have time to dwell on that right now. Our time was running out.

One of the voices of the guards carried down the hall as I worked through as many of the metal doors as I could, as quickly as I could. "The rioters must have gotten into the building! I heard an explosion from this way!"

"Give out all of the remaining weapons you still have, prioritize people with higher levels," I called out to Mimi, using the bond to indicate that it was her I meant the message for.

"Got it!" Mimi called back in reply.

I put my hand on Bella's shoulder. "Watch over that bearkin, he could use some help holding the choke point. I'll bring anyone that looks like they need healing to you if they need it."

She nodded. "I'll do my best."

"I'll stay with you," Torien told me.

I nodded, "Good," I turned to Morrigan, "Start working on support magic, do you have access to any decent mana aspects here?"

"Fire is the most plentiful, if not ideal. It should help a bit," she replied.

"Do it then, focus on front liners like the bearkin."

"Sure." Morrigan immediately got started wild casting a modified version of my [Armor of Light] as a fire variant. She had been able to use her knowledge of reverse engineering [Light Imbue] and [Fire Imbue] to find the part of the mana construction for [Armor of Light] that took the element so she could replace it. It would be the first time she's been able to use the armor magic since we reached the capital, this would be her first test in live combat. I glanced over between cells just in time to watch the man light up in magical fire armor as the first group of guards met him. He let out a roar and bowled over the first man that reached him and threw him against the far wall.

I turned my attention back to the cells, I didn't have time to watch. The faster I got this done the easier it will be to get everyone out of the area. I opened the next cell, took a look at the karma of the two, and moved on to the next. "Quinn, tell these guys what I told the last guys while I go on to the next cell. Bella, take off their collars."

The cougar guy put a fist to his chest. "Yes ma'am," he said with a bit of a cheeky tone to his voice. I just rolled my eyes and moved on to the next cell. This was taking longer than I'd like but my experience with that other mage told me that checking their karma was a necessary step. By the time I reached the last cell, I had opened roughly thirty of them, meaning we had around sixty people with decent levels and probably around eighty civilians with levels under ten. The civilians skewed a little younger than the ones with higher levels as well.

"Lady! You said we would go to the girl's cells! How are we going to do that if we get caught here!" The demi-horsekin that had asked about freeing his wife was getting in my way.

Before I could reply one of the nearby slaves, a former adventurer by his looks, pulled the guy away from me and threw him against the stone wall.

"Hey! Don't hurt him," I warned.

The guy who pulled him off of me hesitated. "Sorry, I was trying to help..."

"It's fine, just don't hurt the guy," I replied. "We'll still go to the female beastkin cells, but I still want to find the elf and human men too.

"You're freeing them too?" one of the nearby beastfolk grumbled.

"We're freeing everyone we can," I replied simply. "The Order of Lilith doesn't like the slavery of humans or elves either. Now move aside, I need to get back to the hallway."

I walked through the crowd of people who opened a path for us until we returned to the cell that had been blown open. The bearkin was fighting two people in the chokepoint with the mace and shield Mimi had given him. He hadn't been able to kill any of them yet but his bulky frame made it impossible for them to move past him, especially with the flaming armor Morrigan had cast on him. Even when trying to fight him together, the guards couldn't land any serious hits. I could also feel remnants of healing magic in the air, Bella must have healed him at some point too.

I turned to Quinn, "Are there elf and human cells around here somewhere?"

"Human and elves?" the cougar asked. "They're held together, a bit further down that hall," he said pointing the way the guards had come from. "It will be hard to go that direction. How do you plan on getting all of us out?"

"We're still working on that," I answered truthfully. "We were going to go through the bazaar. There's a riot going on up above that will give you cover to escape, most of the collars in the city should be suppressed so it's probably chaos out there right now."

"Right..." Quinn suddenly looked less confident in us, not too surprising since I basically told him we didn't have a particularly good escape route. With this many people cramped into the hallway, a reliable exit option would be nice right now.

"How many are out there?" I asked the bearkin.

He shoved one of them back with his shield and growled. "Does it look like I have time to count them?"

"Five," Mimi said. "There may be more farther away."

I had expected more of them. I cast [Blade Waltz] on myself and drew my sword. "Back out, let us take your place."

The bearkin growled and shoved the closest one before quickly falling back out of the cell. Mimi and I took advantage of the moment to push out into the hallway where we engaged the five of them. [Blade Waltz] improved my swordsmanship enough that I was able to parry and deflect all of their blows and Mimi didn't even need a weapon to deflect all of the attacks levied at her, her body was so durable that she just shrugged off their attacks while she attempted to disarm them. This two versus five might have been difficult if we were alone, but we weren't.

Lorriene appeared out of the shadows behind one of the guards, stabbing him in the neck in the same motion. Four bolts of fire rapidly blasted the other two, distracting them enough that Mimi and I could both press our advantage in our respective matchups. Both of us absolutely dominated our opposition, having significant level advantages and better equipment. I grit my teeth and committed myself to killing the one I was fighting and while Mimi didn't kill her opponent, they were now suffering from broken arms once she had grappled him to the ground. Lorriene moved to kill the other two, seamlessly coordinating with Morrigan to take advantage of the vulnerable positions that Morrigan had put them in.

I activated [Karmic Retribution] and the guard I was fighting froze and locked up the moment I managed a solid hit on him. The attack forced him to confront all of the bad things he's done in the past and that left him vulnerable long enough for me to finish him off with a slash across his neck. The mithril blade was so sharp it sliced through his throat like paper, I only felt the softest resistance.

[You have killed a Soldier level 24]

[Karmic Energy reduced by 400]

I averted my eyes and frowned. I even lost karma from doing this... Not an insignificant amount either... Lorriene finished off the one Mimi had maimed to stop his screaming, it was quiet in the hallway again.

"There should be more of them than this," Lorriene said. "Whatever is happening in the bazaar is keeping most of the slaver's guards busy. The cell that exploded should have attracted way more people here."

"I agree, it's odd. There are also those explosions large enough to shake the building as well. Something big is happening," I replied.

"We might want to reconsider how we get out of here. The bazaar made sense before but I'm not so sure it's the best escape route anymore," Lorriene said.

"This place is already taking damage. Should we just blow through a wall?" Morrigan asked.

"That might be the easiest way to go," I said. "Mimi should be the best at getting through any mundane walls but I'm not sure the outside walls will be as easy, and we don't have a map."

Quinn cleared his throat. "If you just need to find an outside wall I can help with that. But you wanted to hit the other cellblocks right? The elf and human one is that way," he said while pointing.

I turned and looked at the hole in the wall behind me. "It would be better to leave out of the door rather than trusting everyone in there to file through this hole in the wall." I turned and tapped Torien on the shoulder. "Go back to the door and tell them to start letting everyone out into the hallway. Our group is large enough now that it should be hard for a few guards to stop us at this point. Work with the others to try and keep everyone together. It's still in all of our best interests to stay as one group as much as possible. We'll go see about letting out the humans and elves and regroup in this hallway.

Torien nodded. "Right."

I turned back to the bear beastkin. "Do you mind staying in that hallway until everyone else is out, in case someone slips past us?"

He shook his head. "I'll protect everyone and keep them together. Good luck."

Mimi, Bella, Morrigan, and I headed down the hallway following Quinn. "There aren't as many male human and elf slaves here so they usually keep them together in this block. There should only be males on this side since the women are kept on the other side of the building near the others."

There weren't any other patrols of guards in here and it sounded almost weirdly quiet now. I hadn't even heard any more of those explosions that had been rocking the entire building. After a couple of turns, Quinn pointed to another door. "This is where they keep the elves and humans. The cells look similar to where they were keeping the beastfolk, the block we just came from."

I nodded and slipped the key into the door before unlocking it and opening it. Just like last time there were rows of doors to just as many cells. I opened the first cell and looked inside to find one elf and one human sharing a cell.

"The Order of Lilith is here to free as many slaves as possible. May I approach to remove your collars?"

I went through the whole process of getting the first two to trust us and using them to help us free the others again. I didn't feel quite as time-crunched as before since there didn't seem to be any more guards coming, but I still tried to be as quick and efficient as possible. It was odd though, I really did think we would run into more resistance here. There were around fifty or so humans and elves, a majority human, but only by a narrow margin. These ones weren't separated by levels the same way as the other side so the range was quite a bit wider. There were even a couple of elves that were about our level. There were a few that were iffy to release based on their karma, but nothing like that guy who blew up that wall... and his cellmate.

As I removed the collar of one of the more powerful elves, he stared intently at the bracelet I was using to remove it. "That bracelet is of elven make..."

"It was given to me by an elf," I replied to him.

"Are you being backed by the Northern Greens?" he asked incredulously.

"Not officially," I whispered in reply.

His eyes widened and he nodded. "I'll help. Are we going to the women's side?"

"Yes, we're meeting up with the rest of the beastfolk before heading back that way."

He nodded and I led the way back before combining the two groups in the hallway. I could tell everyone was starting to get more restless as I returned with the humans and the elves. They were itching to escape and run away from here but we still had to find the other half of the slaves. If we had met more resistance, they may have already started running off. I was happy to see there wasn't any fuss as the humans and elves began to mingle into the group. If anything, I was seeing more friction between different tribes of the beastfolk. The large group of people standing in the hallway let me pass as I made my way back to the front of the crowd with my friends. It felt nice to see the respect in their eyes.