Chapter 14 — And Let Me Guess, Your Chop Has the Power of a Punch?
The moment they stepped out of the forest into a clearing, the scantily clad woman in front of them suddenly turned and shouted, “Succubus Cutter!”
Birou had no time to react. Everyone here had powers far beyond what ordinary humans could ever hope to achieve, but they could still be taken by surprise. Countless crescent blades erupted from the woman’s lower abdomen, slashing apart everyone around her. The blades sought out their victims’ vitals, killing them in an instant.
Only four survived, Birou among them. He and his partner, Saloa, had been saved by his automatic absolute defense field. Two others survived somehow, but they were not unharmed, judging by the blood coating them.
“Wh-What are you doing?!” There were any number of ways he could have responded, but Birou reflexively shouted that one question.
“Just a bit of screening. Anyone who would die from an attack like that would be useless.”
There was nothing weak about the people she had killed. They all had excellent defense and likely had regenerative abilities to instantly heal most wounds they might have taken. Her power was just that much stronger than theirs.
But that didn’t make her unstoppable. Though he had been caught off guard, Birou’s absolute defense field meant he had nothing to fear from her.
Just as he considered counterattacking, someone else arrived.
“What on earth happened here?! This suddenly seems extremely dangerous!”
“Oh, it’s Carol! Hi!” The woman was distracted by the newcomers.
“Saloa!” Birou called.
“Got it!” Saloa immediately readied her bow and fired. The arrow, wrapped in an intense light, blew off the succubus’s arms.
◇ ◇ ◇
The arrow, like a beam of light, obliterated their enemy’s arms. She had attempted to dodge, but even being grazed by the arrow had dismembered her. The arrow continued into the woods behind her, punching a hole through the trees.
“Owwww. That was really cool, but girls are no good to me.” Despite her reaction, she didn’t seem to be in any pain.
“I suspect we have stumbled onto a battle far beyond our capabilities!” Hanakawa cried.
“It appears that way. In a fight of this scale, we’re helpless,” Ryouko agreed.
“But still, we knew that when we decided to go meet up with Takatou, right?” Now that Carol mentioned it, they really didn’t have any part in this mission to kill Yogiri. They wanted to meet up with him but had no real plan to accomplish it.
“Saloa, keep going!”
The young girl, Saloa, drew her bow again. As if more power was being poured into it, the arrow glowed even brighter than before, and at the moment of release, it sent her flying back.
What she fired could hardly be called an arrow. Something like a small sun shot straight for the succubus, who made no attempt to dodge it. Was she too injured to move? Or did she just know she wouldn’t be able to evade in time? She stood perfectly still as the ball of light raced towards her.
The projectile struck, releasing a tremendous roar as it exploded. The resulting shock wave was so intense that it forced Hanakawa to grab on to a nearby tree to avoid being blown away.
“I cannot imagine anyone would survive such an attack...” When the wind settled and the dust cleared, Hanakawa looked at the archer’s victim. A charred mass, unrecognizable as human, lay smoking on the ground. But the succubus was behind it, deep in a passionate kiss with a man. “Is she seriously doing that right now?!”
Two of the adventurers standing against her had moved to her side. One had stood in front of her, blocking the blast, while the other was lost in her embrace. The succubus threw him away like he was a piece of garbage. Her missing arm had returned, and the man she had discarded fell motionless to the ground, shrunken and desiccated.
“I suppose since she is a succubus, she can steal the life energy of others?” Hanakawa ventured.
“And she used her succubus powers to manipulate that other man into protecting her?” Carol added.
“You’re both right!” the woman said, answering their speculations with glee.
“So what?” the man facing off against the succubus said. “We have a perfect defense and an overwhelming attack. You’re still going to die.” The only ones left were him and the girl who appeared to be his partner, but Hanakawa didn’t understand why the battle had even started.
“Hm? Are you sure your defense is so perfect?” the succubus asked. “We can still talk and see each other, so it’s not blocking light or sound, is it?”
A transparent dome covered the two adventurers. That must have been what had protected them from the succubus’s attack.
“You think a beam or sound attack will work on us?”
“Hmm. I do have a Succubus Beam and Succubus Arrow attack.”
“And let me guess, your chop has the power of a punch?” Hanakawa interjected.
“Exactly! Wait, are you really old enough to get that reference?”
“No, I just came across it on the Internet. Uhh...” Hanakawa suddenly realized how aroused he felt. “Urgh... I-I swear, I am far more interested in an assertive but proper woman than someone so brazen...” He slouched. It was far too embarrassing a state for him to show to Ryouko and Carol.
“Birou?! What’s wrong?!” But there was another man here under the influence of the succubus. As if he was losing vision, his eyes were failing to focus on anything.
“This is...bad... Run...”
“I just have to kill her, right?!” Saloa shot three more arrows. Though fired recklessly, they were no less accurate. The arrows of light had plenty of power behind them, easily enough to kill the succubus, but they never made it to the target.
“What the?! What are you doing?!” Saloa cried. But the barrier protecting them was gone. It had suddenly moved to cover the succubus, protecting her instead.
Birou swung his sword, swiftly beheading his partner.
“Yes, good boy. Come here,” said the succubus.
The adventurer stumbled over at her command.
“Wait, does that mean I am next? Am I going to be violated in all sorts of ways by this woman?” Although he was afraid, Hanakawa couldn’t quite keep the anticipation from his voice.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I don’t really need you.”
“Huh? Then why are your charms being aimed at me? Should the next logical step not be to subordinate myself to you?”
“Ah! That was an accident. I wasn’t actually aiming at you. I pick guys based on their faces, after all.”
Hanakawa felt his arousal recede as the succubus suppressed her own power.
“Just to be sure, you’re not planning on fighting us, are you?” Carol asked.
“Nope. I just wanted some pawns. I wouldn’t steal your boy anyway.”
“Honestly, I’d be more than happy to let you have him.”
“Hmmm... Sorry. I appreciate the offer, but as much as I don’t want to be picky, everyone has their limits, right?”
“I would also like to object!” Hanakawa declared.
“If you wanted pawns, why didn’t you bring some with you from the start?” Carol didn’t feel it was necessary to start the mission here. Hanakawa agreed. Collecting pawns here, of all places, was just begging for trouble.
“Normally guys are expendable. If I sleep with them, I can steal their levels, but that leaves them all empty.”
Hanakawa used his Discernment skill to check the succubus’s stats. “Level...63,000?! Just how much perversion have you been indulging in?!” Anyone joining Cavern Quest had their level reset to 1. Considering her current level, she must have had an incredible number of victims.
“That’s just what a succubus does,” she replied shamelessly. “Oh, right. The Philosopher’s Stones. Go pick them up,” she ordered Birou, who immediately set about searching through the corpses. His dazed, dreamy state made it clear he was under the succubus’s total control.
As he handed the stones he collected over to her, she slid them into her chest. Clearly, there wasn’t enough space there to hold multiple stones, so she must have had something similar to the item box skill she could access from there.
“Okay, I’m gonna go look for some more pawns. See you.”
Birou lifted her up and carried her off towards the pyramid.
“What on earth just happened?” Hanakawa felt like he had been entirely left behind by the situation.
“Hm. Don’t you think it’s possible she could beat Takatou?” Carol asked, as if she had just thought of something.
“I cannot say I am so sure about that,” Hanakawa replied.
“Trying to look sexy to seduce him isn’t really an attack, is it?”
“I see! There is always the possibility she could enthrall him, although now that I think about it, there could hardly be any other way to defeat him, could there?”
Defeating Yogiri meant overcoming his automatic defenses. In other words, you needed to attack him in a way that wasn’t an attack. Seduction may have been the perfect solution. He showed enough interest in Tomochika that he was clearly into women. Seducing him seemed like a far better tactic than trying to fight him head-on.
“I’m not so sure, though I suppose I haven’t heard of any similar cases in the past...” Ryouko seemed incapable of denying the possibility.
“The way you say that makes it sound as if you wish for him to be defeated,” Hanakawa commented.
“Of course,” Carol replied. “If it were possible to kill him, I’d do it in an instant. Having him around is a huge pain.”
“What?!”
“Ryouko would say the same thing, right? Her organization gave up after seeing he was invincible, but if it were possible to neutralize him somehow, they’d jump at the chance. Anyone from any world would feel the same way, don’t you think?”
“Well...”
“Either way, I have no idea if the succubus will be able to take him. It’s not like he’s alone.”
They didn’t know what Yogiri’s party looked like at the moment, but in the past, he’d only had women with him, so that was likely still the case now. His companions might be able to handle the succubus for him.
“But that option is always available to us,” Carol continued. “We’re kunoichi, aren’t we? The art of seduction is an important part of our toolbox!”
“True.” Ryouko nodded. “We have kept a considerable distance from him out of fear, but perhaps we should be making more effort to get close to him. Rather than leaving it all to Dannoura, we should be trying to take her place...”
“I could see it with the ponytailed warrior type, but the blonde-haired ninja speaking broken Japanese? That seems a bit too unorthodox for seduction play.”
“Ohhh! I’m getting real close to killing you now! Do I need to show just how strong we kunoichi are?” From seemingly nowhere, a knife appeared in Carol’s hand, thrust to within a hair’s breadth of Hanakawa’s eyes.
“This is exactly what I am saying! That kind of behavior is what makes you unsuited to the task! You should be aiming to display the virtues of a woman, not a kunoichi!”
As attractive as Carol was, Hanakawa couldn’t overlook the flaws in her character.
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