No doubt about it. Undine had instantly categorized Baiyi as another one of those barbarians who had been waiting for nightfall to act on his impulse!
That, of course, pissed Baiyi off. All that work, preparation, travelling, putting up with Alpine Barbarians' beauty standards— and all you can do is mistake me was for another horny ass who can't keep it in his pants? That's it! I'm giving you the Miand-Tisdale Misbehaving Treatment.
Baiyi pinched a handful of Undine's cheeks and yanked sideways hard.
"Owww! S-s-shtaph it! Ish hurtssh!"
"Not until you're finally sober."
One could say she was perhaps finally sober, as her eyes lit up immediately at Baiyi's reply, recognizing the owner of the voice. But then again, she reacted by opening her mouth wide to let out another scream. It was as if she had not just been held captive, and was not in the middle of the enemy's territory, and was not previously drugged to keep quiet!
It was fortunate that the distance between her cheeks and her lips wasn't far apart.
"Mmmffff!" Is this woman mad?
She looked at him with a persecuted expression, shaking her head to free her mouth from his hand, even lightly pinching the metacarpal arch of his palm with her lips.
Getting the strong hint, Baiyi let his hand go. The young lady lowered her voice, but to her surprise— and admittingly, gratification— had no intention of staying quiet. "Aren't you that stinky bastard?"
There was only one person in the universe Undine would call stinky bastard, and that was Baiyi's old alter ego, Sven the Rogue Knight.
That honestly threw Baiyi off, as he had already changed his voice prior to saving her. So how could she still recognize him?
"I don't think we've met before, lady."
"Don't deny it!" Undine replied with newfound confidence. "Sure, your voice had gone really weird, but the way you've been talking, acting, and that feeling you are giving me— none of that had changed! I know it's you, stinky bastard!"
Strangely, as she was talking, recalling the details in her mind between Sven and the man before her, her smile had softened into a glowing blithe.
What are you so happy about?! Look at you! You're all tied up like an adult performer! Baiyi gulped in his mind. But this woman… She's really more dangerous than I had expected. Back when I was Sven, we had only interacted for a very brief while and that was apparently enough for her to remember me!
Or… maybe this girl remembers everyone who's been rude to her. Does that make her vindictive, or surprisingly masochistic? … Maybe it's the effect of drinking too much antidote in one go. She's delirious now!
Acting on that thought, Baiyi produced another few batches of antidote and other medicines and started pouring them into her mouth again. 1
"Mmf!" Undine protested but as she was still tied up, she could only take the medicines in her current uncomfortable position. After five bottles of them, she looked at him pitifully. "C'mon, just because I recognized you despite your pathetically flimsy disguise, you're already stuffing things into my mouth?"
Oh, shut up. Be grateful it wasn't some barbarian's wiener I'm putting in right now! Baiyi did not voice that out, but it was obvious that his usual composure had cracked.
And that was not all. Someone in the Void had started speaking up for Undine— or rather, taking the chance to poke fun at him.
"'Pathetically flimsy disguise'? And she is still half-drugged! Damn! Please apply aloe-vera on that burn. I heard it helps."
"Maybe you can try that bushido thing and commit seppuku. Don't accidentally commit sudoku, though!"
"Oh, cut it out, you two! Sir Hope, I'm not here to judge you, I just want to suggest something… maybe next time, go all the way with your disguises? It's time to learn from drag queens!"
Didn't I just mute those gentlemen? So who are these people being sarcastic now? Whoever they are, they are at least smart enough to say them quickly and anonymously before I get a chance to identify them…
In fact, don't tell me the Void operates like a Microsoft device— when did a system update happen and since when can we comment anonymously?
He was not truly angry. As Undine had finally been found, the general hubbub in the Void had turned into one with much levity. After all, now that the object of his mission was recovered, everything else became less daunting.
"How are you doing? Can you move your body?" Baiyi said after a while.
Undine shook her head. "No. I can't feel my limbs and neither can I feel my combat chi."
She raised her head as high as she could, trying to stare through his obscured face. "How come you're here trying to save me, stinky bastard?"
Baiyi ignored her question. He took a large sword from his storage pouch, he had pilfered it from one of the tipis he had snuck into earlier, and cut through the jute rope binding her. True to her words, her body plopped down softly.
Baiyi had already thought of that. He caught her before her body hit the floor, letting her lean onto his back. Then, picking up some of the severed jute ropes, he tied her tautly onto his back. That had always been the go-to solution to all sorts of problems he encountered when travelling with Mia and now Undine had a chance to experience it.
The young lady seemed to be enjoying it, although as soon as her skin felt an odd hard texture, she blurted out, "Is that your armor?"
"Quiet!" Baiyi snapped in a low voice. When he was cutting her loose, he had half-expected a loud siren call or a sudden swarm of guards bursting in. Yet the entire compound did not seem to change. Had he been overestimating the barbarians?
Growing bolder, Baiyi released a little of his psychic energy to scout for danger outside—
"Something's not right."
The voice of a young girl, softly uttered from the royal tipi beside them, was like a bucket of cold water falling from nowhere.
Too late. The barbarians were immediately on alert, crying "Addhba! Addhba!" amidst dozens of torches being lit up suddenly. Booming sounds of footsteps and metallic clanking quickly encircled the tipi Baiyi was in.
Damn that sword of hers! It can detect psychic energy... I really should take that toy home and check it out, Baiyi thought. He wasn't particularly worried about being discovered, as he already had Undine with him— meaning, he could really let loose now. Besides, he had no doubt that he could easily defeat the guards and escape.
With a flash of white, Baiyi's sword cut an opening on the tipi and walked out to the staring eyes of the guards. He waved an updated version of Pyroblast in his hand as the guards watched him tossed it to a pile of miscellaneous things stored at the side, and—
The tipi exploded and it shot right into the dark sky. Flames and sparks were flying in every directions as things were thrown around. Amidst the chaos, Baiyi caught another sword, its blade was on fire, in midair with his free hand and extinguished the flame with a swing.
Now armed with two blades, Baiyi charged towards the ragtag guards.
It was not hard to pinpoint where he was because with a few flashes of light reflected off his sword, the guards instantly fell onto the ground as blood burst out from slices that penetrated even their armors. Pools and geysers of blood followed Baiyi wherever he hacked.
He didn't even need to use any special techniques, it was really just a blind hack-and-slash. The difference was that he had a new power, the power the Ancestors had bestowed on him earlier. That was all he had and those mooks died so fast that they couldn't even report to their own ancestors on how he killed them.
Even Undine, who was tied to his back, had no idea on what was going on. She was spinning and turning and suddenly everyone around them were dead.
I won't be able to do that! Even in peak condition… Undine's mind could not contain her surprise. Damn this stinky bastard. We haven't met for a while and he's already even stronger than when we last clashed swords!
Or, Undine's hidden girl-in-puberty sentiment surfaced, He had always been this strong. He just wasn't being serious the last time we met. This time it's different because he cares about me!
The fallacy in that was the fact that Baiyi was throwing himself into the melee with a defenseless, weak, drugged-for-days girl strapped using only jute rope, onto his back. If she would discard her princess-being-rescued mindset, she would have noticed how dangerous it was and how little care Baiyi was giving to her at the moment. But of course, she was already delirious from her time in captivity. Being strapped onto his back felt really good!
If only I could see him from the front to see whatever moves he is making. I don't have to imagine them myself by then… Why is he wearing a raggedy armor? Grr! It's ruining his gallantness. If he was wearing an ivory cavalier's armor…
The power of teenage fantasy was so strong that colors were returning to her face.
Can anyone blame her though? She was still single, and even if she had been groomed to take on the responsibility of the entire Dole family, she was still a young girl at heart. Especially when she had been through torture at the hands of those monsters and now a dashing man with a tsundere attitude had come all alone (to her knowledge, anyway) just to save her…
Which girl would not fall for that?
Baiyi, of course, was ignorant of the fantasies she had in her mind. Occupying his head was how, with his new strength, he had already caused a massacre among the barbarians. The ones who came later were of course less foolhardy and stupid as their eyes turned to the corpses around him.
They watched Baiyi in fear, retreating.
"This man is too powerful! Protect our king! Call all our best men! Protect our king!" One of the guards, who seemed to be a captain of sorts, roared. Seeing Baiyi like that, he immediately thought that it was an assassination attempt.
Baiyi chuckled and tossed a few more of his Pyroblasts into random tipis close by, creating even more snafu with screams and fire. He never wanted to engage with those mooks anyway, so when everyone was confused, he turned around and ran.
And now that his back was turned towards them, they could finally see that their first prize— the beautiful girl they had snatched earlier, was strapped onto his back.
Suddenly the barbarian's directive changed. "That woman is running away! Get her!"
As a responsible (citation NOT needed) adult, I felt the need to point out that you should never administer medicines in large quantity like that, and certainly not in combination of different meds!—Even if you think you know what they do. In large doses the effects of drugs are way different. Plus, since that drugs are foreign chemicals, it might produce different allergic reactions in different people depending on their immunity system. Alright, PSA over.