Monster Hunt (2)
Liana, having climaxed three times from her solo session, barely managed to shake off the lingering pleasure of the aphrodisiac. Her pussy was swollen and puffy. She'd fingered herself so viciously that it throbbed with every step, making her gait unsteady. But she had to report to Yushin why they'd come here in the first place.
The Diablo Slayer was joining the fray. Liana was prepared to drop to her knees in abject humiliation if that's what it took to get his help. Unlike the haughty high elves armored in arrogance, Liana had clawed her way up from the dirt to become a warrior captain—a true rags-to-riches underdog who'd built a wall against pride.
"Fruit smell…."
Yushin sniffed the air, drawn to the thick, fleshy scent wafting from Liana. Her face flushed crimson. Fruit smell. It was the aroma of an elf woman's love juices. He'd smelled the sweet nectar from Alonne's pussy before, but hers had a tangy freshness to it. Liana's was sweeter, denser—like ripe overindulgence. Just as body odors varied from person to person, so did the scents of arousal.
"Heard from Leticia. The Raging Flames Demon King, Sabnack, is on the move."
"Yes, that's right. Warrior Captain Bariteon is holding the front line. Ardena and the other captains are leading reinforcements from Maherith to join the battle."
"Why the sudden formal talk? Just be your usual self."
"…Uh, yeah."
Liana had always treated Yushin like a human slave, but they'd clicked surprisingly well. Still, right now, he felt intimidating to her. She revered and respected him, yet he loomed as an impossibly daunting figure. The Diablo Slayer. And as an Another One with a combat-specialized stigmata ability, he seemed chosen by the gods themselves—stacked with talents and feats that earned the awe of every swordsman in the world.
"Sorry for being rude all this time."
Liana bowed in apology, dipping her head nearly ninety degrees, but Yushin waved it off.
"Never really felt like you were rude. If anything, I was the rude one. Irregular instructor. Teased you about that every time—'irregular gig worker.' Sure, it's accurate, but calling out your irregular status must've stung. No overtime pay even after pulling all-nighters, no extra for going above and beyond. Still, hang in there. Oh, almost forgot: compared to full-timers, you're living that precarious fly-on-the-wall life."
With every word from Yushin, the academy's irregular instructor's face grew redder. She shrugged visibly at "overtime pay," "extra duty," and "fly-on-the-wall life." Even the Diablo Slayer of the Holy Empire couldn't trample her workplace dignity without pushback.
"S-Stop it! You insolent slave!"
"There we go, that's more like it."
"How is a guy like you the Diablo Slayer?! No dignity, no manners, no class—just a rude human slave!"
"Irregular worker, huh? Least I'll never be stuck as one wherever I go. Why? 'Cause I'm the Diablo Slayer. Jealous? Go kill a demon king yourself. Phew, been dying to unload that. Feels good to finally say it."
"Grrrr!!"
Liana clenched her fists, trembling at the barrage of infuriating jabs. She couldn't deny a word—it was all true. That pathetic gap between her and the Diablo Slayer was like the sun versus a firefly. She'd looked down on him as a lowly fourth-class human until his identity as the Holy Empire's hero came out. Now she was stuck taking it.
"Can't go right now. Not ready yet."
"Ready?"
"To take down a demon king."
Yushin revealed he'd been purging the infamous monsters of the unexplored zones to prepare for toppling a demon king. Charging in unprepared was suicide for idiots. He recalled his past martial training, honing the peak swordsmanship and precision that had burned through him when he felled the Tyranny Demon King. That's why he'd slain countless beasts, striving to reclaim that former self.
Yet even now, he lacked confidence against the Raging Flames Demon King.
"Uh, any guess on when you'll be ready?"
Liana asked cautiously. Yushin shook his head.
"No clue. Still no feel for it."
He pressed a fist to his chest. His heartbeat thundered. With each pulse, the six embers of his Six Ember flickered precariously in his heart. The mana sparks concentrated there throbbed like a second heart. He'd hunted notorious monsters to break through to the next realm, Seven Ember, but failed. No life-threatening trial in the unexplored zones had pushed him over.
"From an elf's view… it's like trying to leap from Six Sword Realm to Seven Sword Realm?"
"That seems the surest bet. To surpass how I was against the Tyranny Demon King, I gotta advance realms."
Liana fell silent at his words. In his current state, he couldn't fight the Raging Flames Demon King. Yushin stated it flatly. She'd never battled a demon king, never even seen one. She couldn't refute him. His claim that toppling the six would take ten—no, a hundred—lives finally convinced her, and she nodded reluctantly.
* * *
Lich Cordova of the Demon King Army received deeply unwelcome news. The elves had allied with humans. Elves dying gruesomely amid savage monsters had miraculously survived. He felt a nauseating churn, like vomiting his guts—though as an undead, he had neither stomach nor innards. Still, the report of elves barely escaping the unexplored zones revived the disgust he'd known in life.
"A human wielding lightning appeared."
"The moment he showed up, hundreds of monsters were wiped out!"
The demons monitoring the elves chorused the same report. No ordinary human. A master of exceptional skill. If Cordova knew elf politics well, he might've heard rumors of Yushin Gilliard. Unfortunately, he'd left the demon king's domain for the unexplored zones just as those rumors began spreading. Perfectly mistimed.
That strong, huh? An elf kingdom strike force? Never heard of elves using humans as combat assets when they treat them like slaves…. Did they catch on to our plan? Too perfect to be coincidence. Right when the ritual's about to peak, this pest shows up.
Cordova drowned in unease. What to do? To minimize variables, maybe eliminate the human shaking up the unexplored zones. But wiping out hundreds at once gave him pause. He might not beat him himself. If he—essential to the plan—fell, the whole operation could collapse.
So Cordova hesitated.
"Lord Cordova, the monsters are starting to migrate to other regions."
"That human's the culprit. With their leaders consecutively culled, a power vacuum formed, and monster hierarchies collapsed entirely. The whole area's practically under his thumb."
In the wild law of the jungle, monsters reacted most keenly to strength. They depended on it, submitted to it. The savage beasts began to fear. Their fear? The human suddenly rampaging through the unexplored zones, slaughtering monsters like mad.
Threatened with extinction, they abandoned their habitats. Over time, monster populations between the four central axes plummeted.
"They're really scattering, huh. Want me to step in?"
The evil dragon of Salamanka asked. A beauty cursed with pallor. She giggled at the lich's solitary fretting, her wrinkles twisting with each smirk. Why grovel over one human? Hundreds of monsters? Big deal. Any top predator could manage that. Pathetic for a necromancer—one of Sabnack's four vassals—to flinch at such a foe.
"Don't act rashly, evil dragon."
"Eh, better than a lich too cautious to know when to strike."
"You think I don't know my moment? Far from it. I focus solely on Lady Sabnack's orders. That human can wait till after the mass teleport spell fires."
"Isn't that human why we're on alert? We just heard populations between the axes are tanking. Not funny. Fewer monsters means less force for the op."
The evil dragon of Salamanka seethed with rage. She prodded the lich openly, demanding a decision. A loach muddying her domain. Banished to the unexplored zones by El Seed during the elf wars, she'd claimed it over centuries. Now this mystery human disrupted it. She loathed the situation.
"By the name I lost long ago… I swear it. Leave it to me. I'll handle that human."
The dragon vowed, invoking the name she'd surely borne before breaking ranks. She'd eliminate the human causing chaos, ensuring the Maherith raid went smoothly, she assured Cordova. She radiated murderous intent, dying to rip apart the intruder in her lair right then.
"I'd love to send familiars to the elf kingdom and investigate that human… but you're right—overcaution's no good. Fine. But I'll attach my familiars to you. The moment you leave this lair, you're just the domain's ruling dragon."
"No Demon King Army ties, got it? Weird, though. Traces everywhere, yet you want me hiding my identity to the end."
The dragon cackled. The lich's eyes gleamed darkly in reply.
"Don't forget. Your identity must never leak. The surest secret is silencing those who know."
Kill all witnesses. Cordova meant not just the disruptive human, but every related human and elf. No reason for her to refuse. With a moniker like evil dragon of Salamanka, she loved slaughter and massacre. She thrilled at culling the humans and elves who'd sullied her domain—plus any elf rats hiding within.