Ch 5.7

Ben’s cheek was mashed against the cold marble floor, breath fogging against it.
His arms and legs were pinned tight—coiled relentlessly by that damned enchanted carpet. No matter how he twisted or strained, the fabric only dug in deeper, tightening like a smug serpent.

His muscles bunched, veins straining, but nothing budged.

Unbelievable.
How could I be overwhelmed so easily…?

A heavy heel suddenly pressed between his shoulder blades, grinding him down.

“Well, that was a neat little trick,” the clawed beastwoman mocked, her talons gleaming above his head. “But stay put now, like a good boy.”

Her voice dripped with condescension.

The words stabbed deeper than any weapon. His pride burned hotter than his injuries.
Ben’s teeth ground together, a wild grin stretching across his trapped face.

Whores from a brothel…
Am I losing to this pack of mongrels?
"What a fucking joke," Ben muttered.

“What’s that?” the talon-handed beastwoman snapped, hearing him mutter.
She kicked him sharply in the rear, irritation in every movement.
“Stop your yammering.”

Ben’s laugh was muffled by the carpet, bitter and deranged.

Meanwhile, Chloe’s voice cracked from across the room.
“Please—please don’t hurt him…”

The catwoman holding her sighed, almost pitying.
“Well… that depends entirely on you two.”

Chloe trembled. “Wh-What do you mean? Why are you doing this?”

The catwoman’s tail flicked with restrained annoyance as another sigh left her.

“You brought this on yourselves,” she said, tone flat, cold. “After all… you’re the companions of that wretched wolfman, aren’t you?”

Chloe blinked in confusion.
“The wolfman? He’s just one of the guards the guild hired! Just like Ben there! They’re only supposed to escort me through the continent safely—that’s why we were looking for him!”

The catwoman scoffed. “Doesn’t matter. Orders are orders.”

Her eyes hardened, voice turning razor-sharp.
“And our orders… are to arrest his comrades.”

“Stop resisting already!”
The clawed beastwoman snarled, digging her heel into Ben’s spine.

Both she and the talon-handed beastwoman pinned him down, their combined weight crushing him into the marble.

Strength… sixty percent.

Ben bared his teeth, fury boiling up his throat.
“I refuse to lose to a bunch of whores!”

Mana exploded through his limbs. The carpet binding him bulged, strained, then shrieked like a living thing as he forced it apart inch by inch.

The two beastwomen hissed, muscles bulging as they fought to keep him down.

“Stop struggling already!” the clawed woman snapped, but her voice cracked—Ben was actually overpowering them.

His arms trembled, veins rising like cords beneath his skin.

Still not enough.
Strength… seventy percent.

A violent surge of mana coursed through him. His eyes flushed red, muscles swelling as he tore at the enchanted fabric. Threads snapped. Fibres ripped. The whole carpet writhed like it was in pain.

The catwoman overseeing everything clicked her tongue, irritation flashing across her face. “What a stubborn brat.”

She lifted her hand to cast another spell—when Chloe suddenly lunged forward and sank her teeth into the catwoman’s wrist.

“GEEZ!!” the catwoman yelped, genuinely startled.

Chloe bit harder, eyes squeezed shut in determination—even if her jaw was hardly strong enough to do real damage.

The catwoman growled low.
One flick of her fingers.

Chloe’s clothes writhed—threads twisting, tightening—then the entire outfit locked around her like a straitjacket. She collapsed onto the stairs with a soft thud, arms pinned to her sides.

“What—!? What is this?!” Chloe gasped, wriggling helplessly.

“Now be a good girl,” the catwoman said coolly, rubbing her bitten wrist, “and stay there.”

But Chloe’s distraction had been just enough.

The carpet burst apart with a violent snap, fibres exploding like shrapnel.
Ben sprang free, his mana-charged body forcing the two transmutant beastwomen back several steps.

Before they recovered, Ben had already yanked several seeds from his jacket.

“No, you don’t!”
The earth mage thrust her fist forward.

A slab of stone erupted from the floor with the force of a giant’s hand, slamming into Ben like a pair of clasped hands.

Ben’s eyes flared. His fist shot forward—
CRACK!

Stone shattered under his strike, rubble and dust blasting out in every direction.

“Careful!” the beastwoman shouted. “He’s suddenly gotten strong!”

The room plunged into a fog of dust.
Ben vanished within it.

Inside the haze, he steadied his breath—bloodshot eyes scanning through the drifting grit. Every footstep. Every flicker of movement. Every hostile mana pulse. He tracked them with razor focus.

Then his gaze dropped to his right arm.

There was nothing below the elbow. The impact of his own punch had blown the limb apart—meat, bone, and blood vaporised into red mist that still hung in the air. Only a ragged, cauterised stump remained, steaming faintly.

Tch… seventy percent was too much for the body.

Without hesitation, he poured healing mana into it. Green light crawled along his arm like living vines. In seconds, his hand reformed—bone knitting, muscle crawling back into place, skin sealing smooth.

No time to enjoy it.

Fwip. Fwip.

Knives cut through the smoke like vipers.

Ben twisted, leapt, rolled—barely slipping between the arcs of metal.

Then—
WHACK!
A ceramic pot smashed squarely into his face, staggering him.

“The hell is this—?”

More cups and saucers came whirling at him like angry bees.
Ben swatted them aside, fists cracking pottery into shards.

“Pathetic ability,” he spat.

“You might think so!” the beastwomen barked.

Her fingers danced—and every shattered piece of crockery froze, then spun in the air like a storm of glass. They launched at him in a glittering wave.

Ben moved, but even so—
Thin lines of blood opened across his cheek, jaw, and shoulder.

“So annoying,” he hissed, swiping blood from his face.

The two transmutant beastwomen lunged, claws and talons flashing through the haze. Ben pivoted, weaving backwards as slashes sliced the air where he’d been a heartbeat earlier. Each strike came faster — fast enough to kill a normal man outright — yet he slipped past everyone by inches.

“You’re persistent,” he muttered, voice low, “but sloppy.”

Mana flooded his legs. The instant a taloned foot overcommitted, he drove his heel into her knee.

CRACK.

The joint snapped with a sickening pop. “Aah!” she shrieked, collapsing.

“You bastard!” her partner snarled, charging headlong.

Ben’s grin was razor-thin. He snapped his fingers — Vines whipped up from a seed at her feet, wrapping the clawed beastwomen’s leg and halting her mid-stride.

Strength — forty percent.

He drew his fist back for a punch.

A sudden wall of stone slammed between them. Ben’s punch connected anyway.

BOOM.

The barrier exploded into fragments that hammered the marble like gunfire.
Ben clicked his tongue, red eyes flicking to the staircase where the catwoman still held Chloe pinned.

Tch. This is taking too long. He rolled his shoulder, grin widening. I should just take out the leader.