Reincarnated Maid is About To Be Captured by All Players

The disadvantage of fighting multiple enemies alone was absolute.

Once I couldn't achieve a one-hit kill, the numerical disadvantage would become apparent. Moreover, with my diminished abilities, the gap between the knights and me wasn't that large.

I had no choice but to focus entirely on defense, with chains circling around me, forming solid iron walls.

The knights used magic to enhance their strength, simultaneously slashing at the chains.

Sword blades and chains clashed violently, sparking brilliant flashes, but the chains didn't waver in the slightest.

"..."

The knights also seemed quite surprised. I didn't even know the limits of my chains' hardness myself.

Just in case, I continued using chains to reinforce. The knights retreated in unison.

Above, lightning was continuously gathering.

A mage was casting. The lightning transformed into ball lightning, falling straight down.

Chains were ultimately physical defense, so they wanted to use magical force to penetrate the gaps in the chains.

I pushed the iron ball formed by the condensed chains from inside to escape the lightning, but the knights had already surrounded me completely. During their retreat, someone had applied lightning resistance buffs to them. No matter which direction I fled, they would intercept me.

I could manage to hold out, but Lily...

Just the crackling sound alone was making Lily tremble.

"—Hey."

"?!"

Someone had crawled inside the defensive wall.

"No... Nora?"

"Lady Sister's orders. Don't misunderstand, it's not like I wanted to come save you."

Nora said while swinging the scythe in her hand. The interior of the chains was instantly covered by a thin layer of black substance.

"That's... shadows...?"

The ball lightning descended, and the shadow cleverly absorbed the electric current. Lily and I, positioned inside, weren't harmed by the lightning at all.

"Idiot, what are you spacing out for? Don't you know spatial transfer? Now that their vision is obstructed, they can't interfere with you. Take Lily and escape quickly."

"...It's useless."

I tried to activate spatial transfer. Although it was indeed in a usable state, coordinate positioning was extremely unstable.

"They might be using [Spatial Confusion] to interfere with my coordinate positioning... If I force it, there's a high probability Lily and I will be separated, and there's a chance we'll move to coordinates I didn't target."

Maintaining Spatial Confusion required consuming large amounts of magic power. However, during the skill's duration, the caster could take potions to accelerate recovery. As long as they didn't find the caster and interrupt them, they could sustain it for quite a long time through continuous supply.

"Then I'll cover your breakthrough..."

Before Nora could finish, several beams of light broke through Nora's shadow wall. The shadows that had endured lightning impact were instantly dispersed by the light.

Through the gaps in the chains, a large amount of water droplets penetrated.

"They're not stupid enough to try drowning us, are they?"

"No, they want to—"

They wanted to force me to release the chain defensive wall. Its physical defense was extremely difficult to break through head-on, so they had to use magic to find a workaround.

The water droplets condensed into thick ice blocks and evolved into ice spikes spreading inward. Since the water droplets had penetrated comprehensively, the dense spherical defense instead facilitated the ice spikes forming an almost omnidirectional attack with no blind spots. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel(ꜰ)ire.net

I covered Lily's ears and released oscillating sound waves from my throat, crushing the ice spikes that had penetrated inside the chains.

"Sorry, Nora. I forgot to warn you in the emergency..."

"It's fine. This level is no different from a cat's meow."

"Huh?"

Nora remained completely calm. Despite being close-range sound wave impact, Nora seemed completely unharmed.

The wind pressure from the sound waves blew away the penetrating water droplets, and we successfully withstood this round of attacks.

"My [Shadow Dive] can't transport others. Though it's troublesome, there's no other way besides a frontal breakthrough."

"One side faces the barrier and doesn't need defense. They only need to guard three sides..."

"That's why I'm covering you. Your job is to protect Lily. Show the resolve of protecting your master and protect Lily. Open a skylight for me."

Nora urged me to move quickly. Their reinforcements would only increase, while we had committed all our personnel from the start. Probably no one else would come to support us.

I gritted my teeth and did as Nora instructed, opening an exit above for Nora to pass through.

Nora stepped on the chains and jumped into the air. Her graceful figure was as beautiful as a dancing swan, but what caught my attention was the cold glints in Nora's hands.

Needles?

"Now!"

"...!"

I wasn't quite sure what Nora intended to do, but the correct choice should be to trust Nora.

I released the layered chain defenses. The silver needles in Nora's hands flew like hidden weapons, precisely targeting each knight.

The knights' armor all had powerful defense, and the gaps were also protected by magic. The silver needles absolutely couldn't penetrate any of the knights' defenses.

Seeing me lower my defenses, they intended to stop my escape, but none of them could take a smooth step forward.

—Shadows.

The tiny silver needles landed on the knights' shadows. Due to the illumination magic Morning Star, everyone's elongated shadows were particularly distinct. The needles pinned their shadows to the ground like thumbtacks, preventing the knights from moving an inch.

A knight quickly realized the principle: [Shadow Bind]—a restraint skill that limited the main body's movement by fixing the shadow through some object. However, this skill merely prevented the shadow, or rather the main body, from leaving the fixed point; it didn't limit the main body's freedom. Therefore, they only needed to destroy the fixed object. In this case, the silver needles Nora was using.

"Tempus fugit! (Time, accelerate your flow)"