Em drew her blade, but Gunnar held her back. “Not yet.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Em seethed.

Jiselle smiled coldly, keeping the wench in front of her like an orc shield. “Oh, this is good,” she whispered. “You escape for a few days and you just couldn’t help yourself.”

Gunnar shrugged. “They always said I was a slow learner. I’m gonna need you to hand over that girl.”

The room rang as Jiselle drew a dagger and held it against the orc’s throat. “Yeah. I don’t think so.”

“What do you think is going to happen here? There’s two of us.”

“And a whole lot more upstairs.”

Gunnar chuckled. “So, this is your plan? You realize if you kill her, we’ll kill you, right?”

“I don’t think you have the guts.” Jiselle began to back toward the stairs.

Without answer, Gunnar reached for one of the throwing blades at his belt and let it fly.

The orc wrestled herself free, and Jiselle staggered back, blade jutting from her palm. She moaned as she tried to pull it out, but the minute she touched the blade, she shuddered and shrieked.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that yourself. A lot of tendons and shit there.”

“Ugh, you bastard!”

Em flinched at the echoing sound. She gripped her blade tight. “Gunnar.”

Blood dripped down Jiselle’s arm, drenching the hem of her gown.

Gunnar strode over to her. She was about to run, but Gunnar raised another blade in warning, and she froze where she stood at the base of the stairs.

“Now, hold still.” He cast a Word of Healing and carefully clotted the wound around the blade. “That’ll help for now. When the blade comes out, it’ll open up again. I’d get a proper healer to do that. Now, you’ve got keys, I presume?”

“What?”

“Keys to these cells, where are they?”

“Keeps ’em in her boobs,” muttered the orc.

Gunnar eyed her low-cut blouse. “I’d prefer if you did those honors, Jiselle.”

“Wh-what’re you doing here?”

“Asking nicely for those keys one last time.”

Jiselle nodded, still grimacing at the pain in her hand. She produced a ring of keys from her bodice and held them out. Gunnar took them and tossed them to the orc.

“Let anyone else out who’s down here. But don’t let any of them leave just yet.”

The orc maiden nodded and quickly began unlocking doors. Em stood watching, daggers at the ready.

Gunnar grabbed Jiselle by the arm and shoved her toward the first cell, where she’d taken the orc.

“You may as well just kill me,” Jiselle muttered.

“I only kill people I see as a threat.”

“Sykes will do it for you when he finds me locked up down here with all his whores missing.”

“And his mermaids,” Gunnar added. “We’re taking them too.”

“So just be a man, and kill me yourself.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Dying in the line of duty looks a lot better. But I don’t think it helped Kohli much. Where is he these days?”

Jiselle shuddered. “Please, Gunnar, you don’t know how cruel Sykes can be.”

Gunnar shrugged. “Sounds like you chose your leader poorly. Now, quit stalling and—”

“Don’t move!”

The new voice echoed from behind them.

Gunnar spun to find another Brutish Thug descending the stairs, presumably the first one’s late-arriving replacement. The formidable man drew a scimitar from his back. The orc had freed four more women and one dude, a slender dawn elf, and they all formed up beside Gunnar and Em.

The Brutish Thug eyed the group, several of whom were already brandishing some of Em’s daggers, then immediately turned and ran back up the stairs.

Gunnar launched his Shooting Star, but the stairway was so narrow, there was a repeated scraping sound and a long pause before any notification.

[You have dealt +5 Damage to Brutish Thug - Level 13!]

The man’s footsteps thundered on ahead, the scraping returned, and after several seconds, the Shooting Star flew back at him, and Gunnar snatched it out of the air.

“Shit,” Em said, picking up the battle axe. “We better hurry.”

Gunnar turned to the group. “We came for the mermaids. We’re gonna spring you all loose too, but we leave together.”

The dawn elf scowled. “You expect us to just wait here? That guard is—”

“Our best shot is together. You go up alone… well, good luck with that.”

The young man pondered for a moment, but Gunnar didn’t wait for his decision.

“Let’s go,” Gunnar said, and motioned down the corridor.

“What about me?” Jiselle asked, still standing at the entrance to one of the cells.

Gunnar shrugged. “The whole idea was to go unnoticed. Too late for that now. You might as well get out of here. My advice? Run fast, and leave this place for good.”

The woman looked at him hesitantly, then ran up the stairs.

“Hurry,” Em said, leading the way back to the mermaid chamber.

Gunnar ordered the rest to remain back at the entrance to the room, but motioned for the orc woman to join him and Em at Lydenestra’s tank.

“Should go without saying,” Gunnar said, “but these mermaids are gonna need to be carried. “Each of us will take one.”

The orc nodded, offering no protest.

“Think we could load them in our Inventory?” Gunnar asked with a laugh.

The orc raised a brow. “Our what?”

“Right,” Gunnar said, realizing she was an NPC. “Never mind.”

“Doesn’t work that way, anyway,” Em said.

The orc shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

Gunnar took the axe from Em and readied himself in front of the tank furthest from the entrance. Like a batter stepping up to the plate, he extended the axe in front of him at waist level, eyeing a target spot on the glass.

“Not in the middle,” the orc said, taking the axe from his hand. She pointed to the bottom corner of the tank. “This is the weakest spot.”

“Well, have at it then.”

The orc swung the axe with a finesse that could only come from a seasoned warrior. How she’d wound up down here, Gunnar had no idea. Despite her strength, the glass did not break on impact, but a spiderweb formed from the corner, and with a second stroke, water exploded from the tank in a rush, sending Lydenestra shooting out onto the floor.

The orc jumped back from the gushing flow of water, though thankfully, the iron plate at the end of the branch seemed to hold back the water from the rest of the tank above. The first holding tank quickly emptied, the water forming a shallow pool across the chamber about two inches above the ground. Em snatched up the axe, and the orc grabbed Lydenestra and slung her on her back.

Em took three strokes, but soon, a second plume of water erupted with the crunch of breaking glass, raising the pool above Gunnar’s ankles. Soon, Em had a mermaid on her back as well, and Gunnar trudged over to the final tank bearing the axe.

There was a loud groaning sound above, though Gunnar was not sure what triggered it. But it was coming from the tank, and it gave him a twisting feeling in his gut. There was a hell of a lot of water being held back by those iron plates, and they had drastically changed the water pressure.

Em looked over at Gunnar with trepidation in her eyes.

“Lead the way out,” Gunnar said, “I’ll be right—”

But he never finished.

There was a clamor of voices up the hall, and the chamber filled with frantic murmurs as the freed women began backing deeper into the chamber. Though there was no other way out.

“You freed us just to be slaughtered,” muttered the dawn elf.

Gunnar’s whole body tightened, and he fought to remain calm and composed.

“We’re getting out of here,” Gunnar said, making eye contact with the man. “Together.”

The tank groaned again. Gunnar could practically feel the tension above him. The glass of the last tank creaked. He didn’t even know glass could make a sound like that.

The voices grew louder and blades began to draw somewhere around the corner. Gunnar’s whole body tightened, but he focused hard and calmed his breaths.

When he caught the first glimpse of the guards running toward him, he activated Sheer Strength and swung the axe with all his might.

The glass shattered in an an instant. Gunnar dove to the side as the tank exploded, and shards of glass shot out like shrapnel from a grenade.

The nearest guards were only ten feet away, and they took the brunt of the onslaught.

[You have dealt +15 Damage to Brutish Thug - Level 13!]

[You have dealt +30 Damage to Brutish Thug - Level 14!]

[You have dealt +40 Damage to Brutish Thug Level 11!]

The iron plate blocking off the tank above gave out at the sudden pressure change, and water exploded from the remains of the tank with torpedo-like force. All the water from the holding tank above and the show tank upstairs rushed out in a veritable wall of water.

The guards who weren’t hit by the glass were knocked from their feet by the sheer force.

“Go! Go! Go!” Gunnar shouted.

And Gunnar, Em, and their freed whores and strippers rushed for the exit.