Exploring The City Finale

Author’s Note (Trigger warning): The following chapter features sexual harassment and possible sexual ****. Skip ahead if this makes you uncomfortable and/or if you wish to know beforehand whether or not they escape.

The window chills me to the bone as I read it. I look back up at the two approaching men, brandishing their swords at us. One of them smirks as he notices my panic. “You’re not going anywhere. You’ll be answering some questions first.” He takes out a phone and taps something. An alarm sounds and within seconds, a dozen men are streaming out of the entrance.

As they lay eyes on us, the whooping and jeering begins. One of them, an absolute Hulk of a man smirks and shouts to the rest. “Well look what we got here boys! A couple of pretty girls, ripe for the taking!” The four of us close ranks instinctively, bunching together. The fear and uncertainty I feel at this turn of events is diminished slightly knowing that we have each other’s backs.

“We’re just travellers. We mean no harm. We wish to leave peacefully.” I repeat, shoving down the anxiety welling up in my system. As he gets closer, I see that my comparison of the bulky man to the Hulk is very much well founded. He easily stands over 2 meters tall and his bulky exterior betrays the strength he harbours.

“I don’t think so little lady.” He says. He wears a black suit, with black pants and a black suit jacket. Along with that, he wears a white undershirt and a black tie. His jet black hair is slicked back and his face is clean shaven. His facial features are pulled back into a triumphant sneer. “You ain’t going anywhere.”

He points at Mia and addresses the gang. “That one, the blonde girl with small tits? She’s a Burgess. She’s free to go.” He turns and looks back at us. “The other three are ours!” He calls. The cheering from the gang along with the predatory, lustful gazes make it very clear what they want us for. “Run!” I yell, firing a mana bolt at a random guy before turning to do just that.

Skylar puts up a wall of shadow to hopefully hold them off and the four of us turn tail to run. A smashing sound indicates the shattering of the barrier as the men stream towards us in a **** frenzy to see who can get to us first. “Mia, go! We’ll deal with this!” I yell, flinging frost magic behind me to slow down our pursuers. She looks at me with a pained expression on her face, but ultimately she breaks off without argument.

Nobody goes after her as she separates from our group. I notice she doesn’t leave and pray to Gaia that she’ll be safe. Looking back at our enemies, I see the multiple men catching up to us. We can’t outrun this fight. We need to face them. “We’ll take them together!” I shout, stopping and turning to face the men. Skylar and Ivy follow my lead, with Skylar putting up another wall.

The massive man in the black suit tears through it like it’s paper. I throw wave after wave of frost magic at them, desperately trying to slow down the fight to something more manageable. Skylar unleashes spears of shadow at the approaching men, and one of them crumples to the ground, unmoving. The XP notification rolls in, but I ignore it.

I unleash a hail of mana bolts, rapidly draining my mana in an attempt to whittle down as many of their number as possible before they get within melee range. One of them goes down screaming from a missing arm, while another falls silent with a hole blown completely through his chest. The second XP notification sounds as I draw my axe and prepare for a hard battle.

Behind me, Ivy is aiding the best that she can by flinging out thorns. She’s a minor annoyance to our enemies more than anything, but she needs to save her mana for healing us. It isn’t long before the first swing of a sword comes at me, and I sway to the side quickly, managing to avoid it and cut at my attacker. He dodges, before another sword comes whistling through the air towards me.

Barely managing to block the cut with my axe, I kick at one of the men and he stumbles backwards. With no time to react, I swing my axe again, and catch the man with a glancing blow to his arm. A punch that I don’t see catches me right on the jaw and pain explodes through my face, even as Gamer’s Body fixes the injury almost immediately.

My eyes tear up and I swing again, slashing blindly with my axe in the vain hope that it achieves something. I feel a sting of panic through the mental connection as somebody attacks Ivy. She uses her mana punch skill to send him flying backwards, but he gets up again just as quickly. She dodges and keeps up the defensive as more men join the fight against us.

A sudden impact to my back sends me sprawling forwards as I’m tackled from behind. I drop my axe and face plant painfully on the concrete. I can feel the panic rising from Ivy as somebody attempts to do the same to her. Her metal body prevents that from happening, but she can’t manage to throw the guy off due to her inferior strength.

I kick wildly, trying with everything I have to wrestle free but the people pinning me are too strong. I fire off a mana bolt in desperation, and I hear a cry of pain from one of the men. Skylar’s screams reach my ears as they finally manage to get Ivy to the ground. I’m turned over onto my back, firing off spells into the air hoping against anything that I’ll be able to stop this.

The men start to try to pull at my clothes, shoving at each other to be the first, and my stomach drops as I realise what’s happening. The panic reaches unbearable levels and I lose control of my motor functions. My mind is overcome with emotion as the reality of the situation sets in. I hope and pray desperately that I get a new skill that lets me gain control of the situation due to the strength of the emotion as my body starts to shake and spasm uncontrollably from the anxiety and desperation.

But no such luck.

Ivy cries for help inside my mind, but I can do nothing. Skylar’s **** pleading for them to stop and leave us alone rips at my very soul. A meaty smack cuts off her scream, replacing it with coughing noises. The women I love, beaten and taken to be violated by these revolting people. And all I can do is lay here and listen as they do the same to me. The dissociation starts to set in as my mind begins to shut down to save my sanity from what’s coming next.

Then a sound.

A rushing sound, like wind. The next thing I know, the men pinning me down are thrown off me. I feel a sense of relief from Ivy as her attackers are subjected to the same treatment. Opening my eyes, my mind taking a few seconds to begin working properly again, I see her. Mia controlling a howling storm of wind, buffeting against the gang members. Even the hulking man in the black suit seems surprised by this turn of events.

My mind kicks back into gear fully, and I shout the first thing that comes to mind. “Mia, what are you doing?!” “Saving your ass, you beautiful idiot! Come on!” I scramble to my feet and help Skylar to hers. I breathe a sigh of relief as I see that her clothes are still on and that they didn’t manage to do anything.

Rapidly observing each of the members of the gang, I find something disheartening. We are severely outmatched. My observe spell just bounces off the hulking man completely. “We can’t win this fight. We need a way to escape.” I tell Mia. “There’s a fateweaver keeping us here. If we disrupt their control over the barrier, we should be able to leave.” She replies, concentrating on holding them all back.

Reading more carefully through each of the observes, my heart leaps when I find the guy. He’s a skinny, frail man, standing a little way away from the battle at hand. “There! He’s our target!” I shout to my guild, pointing at him. His startled face and worried expression tells me that I’ve got the right idea.

With a final push, Mia shoves the gang back as best she can, before all four of us throw offensive spells at the fateweaver blocking our escape. Ivy with her thorns, Mia with her cutting winds, Skylar with her spears of darkness and my mana bolts. The rest of the gang recovers from Mia’s onslaught and begins to charge at us, as we unleash everything we have at one man.

The poor guy doesn’t stand a chance.

With a cry of pain, he goes down, curled up in the fetal position. No XP notification comes through, so I can assume he’s still alive. “Leave, now!” I scream, raising my hand immediately and activating the spell that failed earlier, as the gang charges towards us.

I find myself back in the mundane version of the Sydney Opera House. Panicking for a moment, I look around and relief floods through me as I see my girlfriends appear beside me. “Come on, we need to go!” I say quietly, but urgently. With wide eyes, Ivy nods. Grim expressions on their faces, Mia and Skylar agree.

We set off running as quickly as we can, while still running at mundane speeds. With my agility, I’m now capable of breaking the mundane world record that Usain Bolt set. I have to be careful not to run at superhuman speeds, lest I break Gaia’s rule. That doesn’t stop us from sprinting frantically to the train station though, and getting multiple sets of confused and curious eyes on us from people wondering what we’re running from.

My heart racing, I don’t dare to look back to check whether anybody from that awful gang is pursuing us or not. I’m focused on putting as much distance between us and that barrier as possible. Soon we make it to the station and luckily there’s a train leaving for home as we arrive on the platform. We leap onto the train just as the doors shut.

The carriage is deserted, and all four of us sit down, breathing heavily and still mentally processing everything that just happened. I cuddle Ivy close and thank Gaia that we managed to escape. “Is everybody okay?” I ask, as the train begins to move. The three of them nod, and I begin the process of trying to relax and not have a heart attack.

As the train moves out from the station, I spot a hulking man in a black suit, a white undershirt and a black tie, with jet black, slicked back hair, still standing on the platform. He stares at us, stone faced, as the train whisks us away from immediate danger.

I can take comfort in the fact that we all managed to escape without suffering that awful fate.