Chapter 51: The Shadow Emperor, Jima
George and Eve Frostleaf immediately understood Jima’s intentions.
She planned to disguise herself as a Beastman Shaman, while they would have to pretend to have failed in their assassination attempt and been captured instead.
Jima pulled a thick rope from her dimensional space bag and threw it to the “Silent Phantom” that enveloped her. She infused it with the power of lies, granting it the ability to touch objects.
The Beastman Shaman phantom grabbed the thick rope and approached Eve Frostleaf, staring intently at her long legs with a suspicious smile on its face.
Eve Frostleaf broke out in goosebumps, feeling that Jima truly deserved the title of Succubus, as she portrayed a lustful Beastman Shaman with such finesse.
Jima manipulated the Beastman Shaman, tying the coarse rope around Eve Frostleaf’s neck, and as the rope went lower, it constricted around her chest plate… The more she bound Eve Frostleaf, the more uneasy she felt.
It felt oddly familiar, somehow resembling the “bondage techniques” from “The Queen of Elves in Distress”?
While Jima adeptly attempted to bind her in a compromising way, Eve Frostleaf shot her a cold glare, causing Jima to feel even more excited, pulling harder. But the rope suddenly stiffened and wouldn’t tighten any further, as Eve Frostleaf had gripped it tightly and said:
“Something’s not right.”
At that moment, the figure of a Minotaur behind the white mist grew clearer.
“Quick! There’s no time to explain, lie down.”
Jima lightly kicked Eve Frostleaf’s calf from the phantom, but the latter assumed Jima was taking the opportunity to bully her and remained still.
Just then, George fell to the ground with a loud thud, pretending to have been defeated.
Eve Frostleaf gritted her teeth and also lay down. Jima lifted her foot and stepped on her backside, pulling a rope from her bottom up, and gleefully yanked it, tying Eve Frostleaf’s hands securely. Eve Frostleaf endured the humiliation, gritting her teeth as her pointed silver hair ears flushed bright red.
The surviving Minotaurs emerged from the mist, roaring, still confused about what was happening.
Jima, meanwhile, was manipulating the phantom, quietly rubbing her lucky ring on her middle finger while scolding the Minotaurs in Beastman language:
“You bunch of cattle! Staying up late playing cards, and you let these two biped sheep in here! Almost cost me my life.”
“Shaman?” a Minotaur’s axe drooped. “You’re not dead?”
Behind the phantom, the charred body of the Beastman Shaman still smoldered, with flames not yet extinguished, emitting a foul black smoke.
Jima manipulated the phantom to lift the ram’s skull and asked, “Do I look dead? Why are you still holding your axe? Do you want to chop me?”
The Minotaurs quickly lowered their war axes.
“What about them?”
“I’ve dealt with them all, captured one female,” Jima said. “Later, I will sacrifice her and share her with everyone. You! Pick up that iron can on the ground; I’m taking this captive with me.”
Having said that, Jima tugged on the rope binding Eve Frostleaf’s hands, only to awkwardly find that the phantom’s power was insufficient to pull her up.
A Minotaur looked curiously at the phantom’s stout arms.
Jima said, “These two have drained my strength! Tonight, you four are to be thrown into the arena; only the strongest will survive.”
The Minotaurs trembled in fear.
“What are you still dawdling for? Come over and lend a hand, and also strip off her armor and hang it on the branches.”
The Minotaurs approached, and Eve Frostleaf hurriedly exerted herself to stand up.
“Alright, you’re done; hurry up and get lost!” Jima said joyfully, pulling on the rope tied around Eve Frostleaf’s neck and tugging forcefully.
Eve Frostleaf’s face flushed; she wasn’t sure if it was from anger or embarrassment, but she lifted her gaze and glared at Jima, greatly satisfying Jima’s wicked amusement.
“This iron can!”
At that moment, a Minotaur with a long wound on his body saw George and was filled with rage, raising his axe to cleave into George.
“Stop!”
“Quick, stop!”
The first voice was Eve Frostleaf’s, and the second was that of the “Beastman Shaman.”
The Minotaur’s axe halted mid-air, and the four Minotaurs stared at the “Beastman Shaman” and Eve Frostleaf beside it.
Jima said, “Leave him intact; he will be of great use.”
The Minotaurs removed George’s bucket helmet, and George pretended to be dead, his complexion quite rosy, showing no signs of being a corpse.
“He seems to be faking death,” one Minotaur said, grabbing George’s head and lifting him, placing the axe blade against his neck. “Let’s just cut a little.”
“You! Are you challenging me?!” Jima directed the phantom to raise its hand and point at the Minotaur while cursing inwardly, “You idiot.”
“Ow!”
The Minotaur felt as if his genitals had been viciously squeezed, instantly releasing his grip and lowering the axe.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve nailed a curse into his body a thousand times more powerful than before; he’s practically dead already,” the phantom said. “I want a useful captive.”
One Minotaur asked, “But weren’t you always fond of directly beheading captives?”
Jima immediately thought of an excuse. Just then, a group of beasts trudged through the icy water, emerging from the mist, and one inferior horned beast shouted, “Not good, Shaman! A large group of bipeds with torches is coming!”
“What are you afraid of? Their strongest has already been captured by me,” Jima said. “Bring them along; I want to personally behead these two in front of the line.”
The beasts cheered, raising their weapons, crowding around Jima and the Minotaurs as they made their way to the cave entrance.
Jima tugged on Eve Frostleaf, whose legs were bound, forcing her to take small steps to keep up. George was feeling quite comfortable as a Minotaur carried him on its shoulder.
“If you lot fight bravely without retreating, I’ll spare you.”
The Minotaurs immediately got excited, raising their axes and shouting, “A bunch of bipeds; we will surely chop one down hard.”
“Bring his two-handed sword as well; I’ll use his weapon to behead him.”
“Sure!” The Minotaur carrying George picked up George’s two-handed greatsword too.
Jima walked through the icy water, leaving tiny footprints in the muddy ground. Due to the phantom’s movement, Jima, hiding within the phantom, occasionally “glitched” and revealed her calf.
A horned beast behind noticed that beneath the “Beastman Shaman’s” robe, a small black leg occasionally “slipped out,” resembling that of a young bipedal sheep maiden.
He rubbed his eyes and tapped the shoulder of a nearby companion, asking, “Did you notice? It looks like a black… small leg is coming out from below the Shaman’s robe, like that of a young girl.”
“What small leg? You’re mistaken; it might just be a tail or something.”
“I just feel something’s off.”
His companion whispered, “Don’t say anything foolish; the Shaman is very angry. I just went to the cave and saw a bunch of dead Minotaurs lying inside.”
The clever horned beast scratched his head, secretly dropped to the back of the group, and turned back toward the cave.
Meanwhile, Jima had not expected things to go so smoothly. She proudly led the multitude of beasts to the entrance of the stockade and stopped.
“Great Shaman, are you looking for some good wood to hang them on the wall?”
“No.” Jima manipulated the phantom to raise her hand and pointed at the stockade gate, saying, “Open the door.”
“Ah? You told us to build wooden walls earlier, saying they could defend against the bipeds like behind a wooden wall.”
“What do you know? The situation is different now. If we don’t open the door, how can we chase down that group of bipeds?” Jima said nonsensically. “I have two important captives in my hands, especially this one.”
Having said that, Jima controlled the phantom to bend over and pat Eve Frostleaf’s long leg, who glared at her coldly, causing the surrounding temperature to drop again, making the summer night even colder. The nearby Minotaurs shivered, saying, “Why is it so cold? It must be because of that damn female biped who burned off my fur.”
Eve Frostleaf’s “cold stare attack” only made Jima feel more satisfied; she clapped more energetically, stating, “Bipeds care deeply about our humiliation of their femininity, especially with legs as long and beautiful as hers. Later, when we strip her bare in front of them, it will surely demoralize the bipeds.”
Eve Frostleaf’s neck turned completely red.
The beasts cheered joyously, eagerly pushing open the stockade gate. Four Minotaurs surrounded Jima as they walked out.
Outside the stockade, the just-arrived Holy Army met the sight of the “fallen” Eve Frostleaf and George, all changes in expression.
The accompanying priest shook his head, saying, “Alas, our army must— no matter what, we must rescue them, even if it’s just their headless corpses.”
The beasts poured out of the stockade behind Jima.
While Jima pulled on the rope around Eve Frostleaf’s neck, she shouted, “Archers, let the archers come out first!”
She planned to reveal her treachery after half of the beasts had emerged, as that would cause the maximum damage to the defending forces.
At that moment, a horned beast raced out of the cave, holding a charred sheep skull high, shouting, “He’s a fake, he’s a fake!”
The voice cut through the noisy crowd of beasts but became indistinct by the time it reached the gate.
Bad luck arrived.
Jima saw some lagging Beastmen questioning and then waving their hands, yelling towards the stockade gate: “He’s a fake, he’s a fake.”
A Minotaur beside Jima asked, “What’s fake?”
Jima suddenly had a clever idea, directing the phantom to raise its staff and bellow out a war cry: “Waaaaaagh.”
In response, the crowd of beasts raised their weapons and yelled, drowning out the other voices.
“The time has come,” Jima said, “Give me her silver sword; I want to personally behead her.”
“Alright.”
Jima pointed at the Minotaur carrying George and said, “Put him down, along with the sword.”
“Alright.”
George was placed down while still maintaining his act of being dead.
As a Minotaur beside Jima was about to hand the silver sword to her, a charred sheep skull fell from the wooden wall, passing through the Beastman Shaman phantom and landing on the ground.
The Minotaur stared in shock.
Above, a horned beast poked its head out, shouting, “He’s a fake!”
Jima calmly said, “He said to give me the sword.”
The Minotaur instinctively handed over a pair of silver swords to the “Beastman Shaman,” and hands emerged from the Shaman’s chest, catching the silver sword. The Minotaur quickly swung his axe toward the impostor’s head, but the battle axe merely passed through the phantom’s neck.
The phantom vanished.
Jima swiftly severed the rope binding Eve Frostleaf, saying, “Sister Frostleaf is up to you!”
The flushed Eve Frostleaf shot Jima an annoyed glance, shook off the rope from her body, took the twin swords, and leaped up, swinging the sword at the Minotaur’s neck.
At that moment, George suddenly jumped up from the ground, grabbed the two-handed greatsword, and with no hint of gratitude, swung it at the neck of the Minotaur that had been carrying him.
With two thuds, two Minotaur heads fell to the ground.
The Beastman army was thrown into chaos, each Beastman filled with confusion.
What on earth had happened?
Even the Holy Army was taken aback for a moment.
George grabbed a Minotaur head, raised his sword, and shouted at the Holy Army behind him, “Warriors! Kill them!”
Reacting, the Holy Army standard bearer waved the flag and charged forward.
