The explosion was too loud to be ignored and could be heard from the castle. It distracted Queen Mab for a moment, allowing Frost Echo and Flame Ripper took the opportunity to slip a blow to her now overpowering ice barrier.
Part of her shield shattered but Queen Mab, filled with years of combat experience, had already prepared a counterattack despite the lapse in her defence.
Maeve chipped in by shooting out projectiles of black magic from her hand to strengthen her mother’s counter attack. Even though she disliked her mother’s appearance, the revelation of the Dark Titania’s fairy stone had made her cowered like a rat behind her mother’s back.
Like her mother, Maeve was shameless in making sure that she always had the advantage regardless of the situation. While Mab sighed that she had to clear her daughter’s mess and come to rescue her, she did not dislike it one bit. In fact, if Mab could, she liked to thank her playthings for allowing her to play the role of the protective mother once in a while to regain the image of Mother in Maeve’s head.
As the Evil Kinktress continued to assist her mother, they had forgotten somebody who was in the Throne Hall for a very long time ever since the beginning of the fight.
The frog swordsman Gaeru suddenly made his presence known as he coiled his tongue around Maeve’s neck, causing her to gasp for breath as part of her body’s reflex. The moment she had a mouth wide open, Gaeru immediately shafted Jin’s sword, Boo into her throat without any mercy.
During the start of the battle, when Gaeru struck Maeve, he was easily deflected by her psychic barrier and was accidentally tossed by a raging Valg to the throne hall’s chandelier. The giant (and broken) lamp lights provided sufficient refuge for Gaeru to recover from the unexpected seismic toss.
That was also when Gaeru realised something was attached at his nape near the edge of his worn, dirty cape the swordsman wore throughout his travels. It was an instant ninja scroll which Kido had previously attached to the frog swordsman should he ever found himself in a pinch.
Gaeru did not expect the honourable penguins still cared for him so much they were charitable enough to attach a secret scroll on him. (More than caring, Kido was actually anxious that Gaeru became too reckless in his pursuit for revenge and hoped that having an instant scroll would aid him in his more dire circumstances.) A small piece of paper filled with instructions was attached to Gaeru’s cape so he could activate it manually else the instant scroll takes its effect the moment the mantle was pulled, tightened, burned or taken off. (In short, any drastic physical movements done to the cape activates the scroll.)
Gaeru grinned when he saw the piece of paper was filled with 4 sketch panels. It was teaching him how to use the scroll of invisibility so that even the most illiterate should be able to understand it. (Well…maybe the System did aid in the clarification when it observed what Gaeru had trouble reading it. Pictures might not be the best representation, especially when all he did in his life was to fight, fight, fight.)
——–
Queen Mab heard the gasping from behind and saw the grotesque image of the frog grabbing her daughter with his tongue while plunging a sword into her mouth. Although the Queen was sure that she was able to save her daughter, and Maeve would be able to recover with her healing magic, it was the frog actions which trigger Mab’s aggressive protective tendencies.
“YOU!!!!!!!!!” Queen Mab shouted at the top of her voice, which shattered not only the remaining glass windows in the throne hall but even made the entire castle infrastructure to shake violently from her scream alone.
While Flame Ripper and Frost Echo were stopped in their tracks from the scream, the Dark Elves was somehow partially unaffected by the yelling. However, this sudden change of circumstances made Reregot realised that he could, in fact, participate in this crazy magical exchange of powers. By factoring the partially broken ice barrier into his throw, Reregot tied his Inverted Cross Relic onto a stone and hurled it towards the injured Maeve.
Gaeru’s eardrums burst for the high pitch scream, and with blood flowing steadily out from his earhole, it made him slightly unconscious and causing his tongue grip to weaken. The scream also made him felt his temperature to decrease drastically, making him shiver.
But it was also precisely that scream that aggravated the swordsman to execute a more drastic action by opening his mouth wide and placed Maeve’s entire head into his mouth as it emits poison through his saliva to numb Maeve.
At the same moment, the Inverted Cross Relic (with a stone) stabbed onto Maeve’s chest and piercing it through her sternum, causing it to absorb her Fey Magic. The impact was strong enough to shatter her sternum and disabling her lungs further.
Queen Mab was in a state of dire shock.
She did not realise that her daughter’s playthings had no neglect of their lives and decided to go all out to defeat the Evil Kinkstress. There had been no one in their lives that was willing to do such despicable acts to them. They had always been revered regardless of their actions since most humans were willing to suffer to gain powers from the whims of gods. But now Maeve’s playthings were so ruthless, willing to bring such a ‘god’ to their knees.
But she did not know that their aim was never to defeat her, but to distract her. It was by chance that there was an opportune timing to inflict damage on Maeve while keeping Queen Mab at bay.
With the ancient fairy stone taking Maeve’s powers away, she panicked and tried to tear the frog’s tongue out of the way. However, both Feys did not know that there was an otherworld power in the works when the frog was thrown aside like a rag.
“Maeve, Princess of the Winter Courts, Summoner of Valgs, the Evil Kinkstress had been successfully captured.” The System reported, and suddenly Maeve disappeared from the world right in front of her mother, making everyone stunned and speechless for a second.
It was when Jin’s Sword, Boo, dropped to the ground which made everyone snapped out into the new predicament they were in. Everyone had forgotten the almighty System was in the background, waiting to capture such a valuable minion. The sword was not just Jin’s weapon but an item previously empowered by the System.
If the monsters were using their own weapons, they had to make sure that the enemy was near death or dead on the floor, unable to move for the System to capture it.
But with Boo? It was practically the substitute of Jin’s capturing app on his phone. There was always a chance for the System to capture it as long as some damage was inflicted to the enemy. It just that it would be much easier for the System and Jin to get the monster into their ranks when it’s dead.
Queen Mab had no idea what was going on. Did Maeve escape from the battlefield? But if she did, how come she could not feel her presence anywhere near? Could Maeve had teleported herself and made her undetectable? Mab knew that fairy stones were not supposed to kill a High Fey or made someone disappear without any warnings.
Things were not adding up, and so were the monsters right in front of her. They were injured but still laughing as if it was their plan all along.
“No matter. I will kill them and find the truth from Maeve.” Queen Mab said to herself as a burst of icy power shot out from her hands and directed to Gaeru without any remorse for removing such an existence from this world.
Gaeru smiled as he gladly took the hit.
