The True Endgame

Book 11: Chapter 22:

While The Shoebill’s crew got to work thinning out the enemy fleet, the battle on land continued on as well. Though, morale began to shift in a rather major way once The Shoebill made her return and started sinking enemy ships.

Those who sought to invade Nameless could not miss the fact that their supporting fleet behind them was getting taken down one by one. They expected some losses, but they did not expect a single ship with a skeleton crew to deal so much damage to them.

Then there were the defenders. While the majority of them did not see what was going on due to hiding behind the walls, all it took was the triumphant return of one individual who saw what was happening to tell the others about it.

Cassiel, bloodied and bruised with messy hair and broken armor that was shredded open in a few different spots, limped her way back behind the walls while doing her best to keep herself healed. Her barrier lasted for most of her fight outside the walls, but not all of it, meaning those toxic fumes got into her system just as they did with Rao.

One of the healers who stayed with the defenders on the other side of the wall rushed out to meet her, taking her place in healing her since she was clearly low on energy.

“Are—are you alright?” the healer girl asked, helping Cassiel stay standing with one arm around her back as she placed her other hand against Cassiel’s abdomen to heal her. Then, no matter how straight the healer might have been, she found it impossible for her eyes not to get drawn toward Cassiel’s chest where most of the armor was conveniently torn through, leaving much of her cleavage exposed.

Fenrir, Serra, and Nell were not the only degenerates within Nameless. But perhaps it was because of their degeneracy that so many other degenerates were attracted to them, resulting in even a random healer girl thinking about how Cassiel looked like a heroine in an eroge about to experience a bad end.

And as soon as Cassiel noticed where the girl’s eyes were focused on, she shot a glare at the girl that was impossible not to feel.

“I’m fine,” Cassiel said before looking around, noticing that her efforts beyond the walls were not for nothing as those who scaled the walls failed to overwhelm the interior defenses. Between the news she had to bring them and the sight of the dead invaders strewn across the street and wall, there was no way for Cassiel to hold back the joy in her voice as she announced, “The Shoe—”

And then she coughed.

After all, even if she was being healed, the toxic gas was still in her system.

The healer and any others nearby who heard her looked at her with confused expressions on their faces.

“The… the shoe?” the healer asked, looking down at Cassiel’s feet.

Even with all the blood on her face, it was easy to tell that Cassiel was still blushing underneath it. “The… The Shoebill is back,” she said, her voice much quieter than before.

Some of the nearest players who heard her rushed over to the same entrance she came in through and looked out through it, not taking long to spot The Shoebill doing laps around the enemy fleet, taking the enemy vessels out one after another.

While there were other ships that belonged to Nameless, they were mainly fishing boats and none of them had the same prestige as The Shoebill. If anything, The Shoebill was another mascot of Nameless second only to Rock.

And there were few things more inspiring than seeing The Shoebill, still beaten up and looking like she might sink at any moment, fighting on her own taking care of the enemy fleet to protect the inhabitants of Nameless.

“The Shoebill’s back!” one of the players at the entrance shouted, earning cheers from the rest of the players nearby.

Cassiel couldn’t help but sigh when she had the hype moment taken away from her, but she still ended up smiling when she saw just how rejuvenated the news made everybody.

And then, seeing just how many of the dead invaders there were, she had an idea.

“What are you all standing around for?!” Cassiel shouted, drawing everybody’s attention back to her. She tried her absolute best not to let any coughing interrupt her again, though her voice still sounded hoarse. “Loot their bodies! Take their masks and any potions they might have still, and get back on the wall to help The Shoebill out! If those masks were good enough for them, they’re good enough for us!”

Lightbulbs went off over most of the players’ heads as they heard the order, rushing over to whichever slain enemies were closest to take their protective gear against the gas.

Before long, the players who were forced off the walls from the toxins were now rushing back up onto it, manning any cannons left in good condition to help The Shoebill out.

Meanwhile, Nell remained in the town’s center to continue coordinating the defense efforts to the best of her ability, and it did not take long for her to receive news of what was happening.

A soft sigh left her lips as she held one hand over her chest. “I am glad to hear that. Thank you for your report. Now please, rejoin the others at the wall,” Nell said to the player who brought the news from the frontline to her.

Once that player ran off, she looked out toward the wall and said, “I do hope that they are being safe. To have but one ship against a fleet of them… well, at least there is—”

Nell’s maids, Rachel excluded as she was still scouting with Shogun, were listening to everything that Nell had to say… but immediately changed gears at the slightest show of trouble.

Nell got interrupted when Emily tackled her to the ground, using her own body as a shield to protect her with. Iris, meanwhile, used her actual and utterly massive shield to position herself between Nell and the threat she still had no idea about, leaving Abigail and Anastasia to charge at the unseen enemy with glares full of murderous intent.

“E-Emily?” Nell said, unsure of what was going on. “What are you—” That time, she cut herself off when she saw blood drip underneath her. It only took a quick look at its source to see that Emily had what looked like the tip of a harpoon sticking out through her abdomen, right next to Nell’s side. “Emily!”

“Are—are you alright?” Emily asked. “Ah… maybe leaving my pain setting enabled was a mistake. This kind of hurts. Oh… wait. If I get really hurt… I bet I could convince Rao to cuddle me a lot so that I feel better.”

“You do not need to get yourself hurt in order to ask your boyfriend for cuddles, you foolish girl!”

“Ah-aha… probably… not. But are you alright? You didn’t get hurt… right?”

“I am fine, Emily, but please… worry about yourself.”

“How can I be worried… when I know I can use this as an excuse to be lazy and get cuddles?”

Nell showed her trusty maid a pout that very few others ever got to see from her, as nobody but her maids were able to make her pout in such a way.

As for Abigail and Anastasia, they had enemies to eliminate.

The two women might have looked rather unsuspecting as they simply dressed like regular maids, and they were probably easily mistaken for people simply cosplaying like maids in the game, so Nell’s assailants did not expect to feel as if they were being charged at by murderous demons.

Abigail, wielding Rao’s old spear, charged forth with her long, white hair flowing behind her. Even though it was only her and one other rushing toward a group of five assailants dressed up in what looked like fantasy scuba gear, there was not a single shred of hesitation nor fear anywhere in her. All that mattered was killing those who sought to harm her lady—her friends.

Anastasia was no different. While she would normally be happily humming away to herself, she ran by Abigail’s side with her shield and spiked flail ready to crush the first enemy she reached, and it didn’t take long for that to happen.

When one of the other attacks with what looked like a low-tech harpoon gun shot at the charging women, Anastasia met the harpoon with her shield and simply knocked it away, not allowing it to slow down their charge.

Two of the attackers then decided to try and meet the murderous maids with drawn swords, but their counterattack was quickly proven futile as Abigail thrust her spear straight through one’s chest while Anastasia swung her flail into the other’s head.

Their attacks were filled with such force and murderous intent that there was no defending against them.

The maids, who kept their training to private so as to not ruin their image of being classy maids, finally revealed just how capable they were in combat.

When the attacker who shot his harpoon gun at Nell realized how screwed they were, he desperately tried to run back toward the river they came from, but Abigail wasn’t about to let that happen and threw her spear into his back.

Seeing that Abigail was unarmed, one of the other attackers, now equipped with an axe, swung at her… only to get intercepted by Anastasia with her shield, knocked down, and then pulped by her flail into his face.

Anastasia might have looked like a pretty normal, classy lady. She was reserved, loved to hum and whistle, looked feminine and elegant with her long, blonde hair—and yet, she turned a mans’ face into pulp with her flail without any concern. Even as some of his blood splashed up onto her face and uniform, there was no reaction aside from her looking down at his body as if he were a roach she just crushed under her heel.

Only two of the enemies were left, and one of them had a spear impaling him.

And yet.

Despite the two assailants being terrified for their lives… both them and most of the other players who happened to be nearby found themselves with a developing fetish for battle-hungry maids.

“I—I surrender!” shouted the one attacker who was still in good condition.

“Your surrender has been rejected,” Anastasia said before swinging her flail into his head with enough force to dent the side of it in while breaking his neck.

Then as the two women approached the final assailant, ready to execute him as well, they stopped in their tracks when they heard Nell shout out, “Wait! Do not kill him. Bind him and capture him, but do not kill him.”

There was no hesitation in accepting Nell’s order as law. Both maids politely bowed to her before apprehending the lone survivor of the group.

“Normally, I would leave the interrogation to my hero… but I believe I will handle it this time,” Nell said, looking the survivor over with even more disgust than how Anastasia looked at the other attacker.

Nameless was going to become a city full of masochists who were into battle maids and princesses at the current rate of fetishes being developed.