Chapter 87

As Ember held her fiery hand against the brick wall, the bricks around Ember’s hand darkened, until they turned completely black from the fire. But Ember was only charging up her spell. And it took only seconds until Beatrice saw something she did not think possible—a few bricks just at the edges of Ember’s hand turned color yet again: brown, dark red, red, orange, yellow. As if Ember was heating up metal! At the same time, Ember continued charging the fire spell in her other hand.

The fire mage’s intent was all but clear. The dead Purple Cape told Ember about the substantial number of Purple Capes located within the Inn, including a captain! A charged up, surprise attack would eliminate a considerable force in one strike. However—

“That’s not even the Inn you’re aiming at!” Beatrice reminded Ember.

“Of course not,” Ember replied unfazed while the first few drops of molten bright yellow liquid trickled down from below her hand. “Otherwise, they would’ve heard all the commotion by now.”

“But what if there’s people inside!? And that man you killed told you that they apprehended everyone that walked into the Inn! You’ll kill countless innocents!”

“‘Innocents’?”

“You know that the Wholesome Inn regulars go to the inn because there’s no depravity permitted there! This isn’t about comeuppance or revenge; you’re just going to burn them all alive because this is easier!”

“Yes, and? You have a better idea?” Ember asked as she melted a hole in the wall and raised her other hand with a charged fire attack.

“I do, actually,” Beatrice responded instantly, even surprising herself at the ease of the solution. “How long can you hold your spell prepared like that?”

“A little over a minute if I can concentrate,” Ember said, her tone changing a little. For the first time since she started her assault on the brick wall, the redhead seemed interested in what Beatrice had to say.

“That works,” Beatrice out loud. But she needed to confirm a few things first. “It’s a ranged attack? Like some fire ball?”

“Yes.”

“How fast will it travel?”

“About the speed of an arrow.”

“How long the effective range?”

“A hundred yards without even trying.”

“How big the area of impact?”

“Somewhere between ten to fifteen yards.”

“Precisely!”

“About fourteen, I didn’t measure it with a—”

But Beatrice already ran out of the alley, every second counting.

Once out of the alley, Beatrice turned and ran toward the Inn. Ember’s alertness became clearer upon a second look. What was yesterday a fun, lively street was now about as cheerful as a cemetery. Most citizens sprint-walked to get through this part without making eye contact with anyone while several figures stood out like sore thumbs because they stood exactly where they were before Beatrice and Ember went into the inn.

And the attempt of a couple to imitate a make-out session look about as inspired as sex between a married couple who hate each other and have been cheating on each other for years. Not that they could be blamed too much for this poor performance—if they had to keep it up since yesterday, it was bound to get old eventually.

“Hey guys! Looking for me!?” Beatrice shouted as she ran toward the Wholesome Inn and waved to no one in particular among the sore thumbs that were the disguised Purple Capes that stood around the general area of the entrance to the Inn. “One of your buddies was standing watch just a little behind me! I didn’t get his name, but he’s dead now!”

“What!?” Several men and beastkin jumped to attention, waking up from a daze-like watch they held up till now.

“Yep, totally dead!” Beatrice shouted as she approached the Inn. “Before he died, he said how neither he nor anyone even thought that I’d show up here and that was why Captain Gamesh left the weakest, most useless captain here ‘just in case’: Rivaldo, the half-inch captain!”

“Pfft!” a few of the disguised Purple Capes snorted. But even those that didn’t were too shocked to do anything. Their target was just running toward them—unarmed and calling for attention while insulting their captain. Do they attack her? Surround her?

Those that were not disguised Purple Capes had a much clearer idea what to do. They ran, as fast as they could, away from what was bound to turn ugly.

“Wow, so it was true, huh?” Beatrice asked and slowed down just some yards away from the entrance into the Wholesome Inn. “That dead dude told me that Rivaldo hides behind his men and lets them do all the dirty work. But he couldn’t determine whether Rivaldo was a coward because he had a tiny dick or was it that his dick grew tinier because he was such a pussy ass little bitch.”

“WHAT THE FUCK!!??” a voice thundered from behind the Inn’s door that blew out off its hinges, flew, and slammed into the opposite building, shattering into a thousand splinters.

A gigantic, larger-than-life beastkin squeezed through the broken door frame of the Wholesome Inn. Covered in thick blue and white fur, with a long, lush tail, and with biceps the size of Beatrice’s head, captain Rivaldo without a doubt dwarfed all other giant men Beatrice met up till now. He wore a galea helmet, and black plate armor that protected his chest and stomach and carried a sword the length and width of his soldiers, and the scabbard on his back.

Isn’t there a food shortage issue in this city? Beatrice thought as she looked up at the enraged, overgrown puppy. How are they all able to keep these figures? ... Oh, right. Beatrice had almost managed to forget the food shortage solution that some participated in more enthusiastically than others and immediately regretted asking herself this question. Wait, how many seconds was it already?

“WHO DARES INSULT MY SPLENDID MANHOOD!!?” Captain Rivaldo thundered as he looked at all the tiny figures before him, barely children compared to his size.

“‘Splendid’?” Beatrice quoted. “Is that what you call it at night?”

“Beatrice,” Rivaldo snarled, finally honing in on the succubus just a few of his giant steps away from him. “It looks like all your development went to your overgrown tits and left nothing for your brain.”

“My tits aren’t the only thing that’s overgrown,” Beatrice said with a smile and patted her crotch, barely covered by her leather skirt. “And unlike you, I have the goods to prove it.”

Beatrice lifted her skirt, moved her panties, and let her cock drop to Rivaldo’s stunned expression.

“Let’s play a game,” Beatrice suggested to the taken aback captain. “Prove to us right now that you are not a ‘half-inch captain’ or you have to SUCK! MY! COCK!”

“Y-you’re insane! As if I would lower myself to—”

“Rivaldo, the half-inch captain too scared to reveal his tiny, shriveled penis!!” Beatrice shouted. “Who wants to see their captain get on his knees and suck a cock he wished he had!?”

Predictably, it did not take long for sheer curiosity to take over their better judgment as a dozen Purple Capes appeared in the windows of the Inn and in the opening behind Rivaldo.

“MORONS!!” Rivaldo swung his massive forearm and crushed the head of one of his own soldiers against the wooden frame, splashing the blood over several others. He then turned to Beatrice, his eyes bright red and veins popping all over his body while his human-sized sword visibly vibrated in his trembling hand. He took a single, giant step toward Beatrice, but suddenly froze in place. His eyes turned from bloody red to white, and after taking a single deep breath, the captain visibly calmed down.

“I can’t imagine how hard the demons must have fucked you in your every orifice to leave you this brain-damaged,” Captain Rivaldo said in an astonishingly calm manner. “Maybe you were hoping for a swift death for your petty little insults. But you will not avoid your fate that easily.”

“See? He can’t—” Beatrice had started to say, but Rivaldo straight up ignored her.

“With that said, you won’t need your legs for what awaits you.”

The hell happened to him? Beatrice wondered, but that ultimately did not matter now.

“I like my legs very much,” Beatrice said as she put away her cock. “And unfortunately, our playtime is up.”

A bright flash behind Beatrice illuminated the street and blinded Rivaldo and all the soldiers in the windows of the Inn behind him.

Beatrice turned around and used [Blink] to instantly move twenty feet as far away from Rivaldo as possible, straight toward Ember. The moment Beatrice reappeared, she used [Refresh Cooldown (+1)] on her [Blink] Skill and cast [Blink] again right as a scorching hot, molten rock engulfed in flame hurled past her with a long, bright white tail of fire.

Twenty stamina for the [Blink], sixty stamina for the refresh, twenty more again for the blink, a hundred in total: well within Beatrice’s Stamina Point Pool and accounted for.

Beatrice reappeared again, much closer to Ember than she was a second ago, and much more nauseous from the instantaneous change of every object in sight that her brain used to orient itself in space and time.

Fuck, Beatrice remembered that she had to sprint to cover more ground for insurance. She did not expect that a double [Blink] would take a toll on hell when a regular one did nothing of the sort and, just as she ordered her body to move with all the delay of an uncooperative dream, a deafening blast slammed a searing shockwave against her back, violently throwing her forward like a doll.

-651 HP

-20 HP

“Ughhh...” Beatrice struggled to get off the pavement. Her body hurt and ached all over, she heard nothing except the incessant ringing in her ears.

-19 HP

What!? Repeated notifications alerted Beatrice to the fact that she was still taking damage despite not realizing it. More precisely, it felt like almost all of her body was on fire, she could have internal bleeding and not realize it.

Beatrice tried to find the cause of the damage, not that that was easy as even turning her head was painful. Her arms were bruised, scratched as if she made love to sandpaper, and whole patches of skin were red and blistered: first- and second-degree burns. Looking down, same with her legs.

-18 HP

Seriously!? Beatrice brought up her character information.

Information

NameBeatrice

Age18

ClassSuccubus

Level27 (19%)

Health Points145/860 (+1.24/sec)

Arousal Points43/396 (+0.01/sec)

Stamina Points189/280 (+0.7/sec)

Physical Attack59

Physical Defense73

Magic Attack53

Magic Defense20

Speed39

Her health regeneration was impressive, but not that impressive. Beatrice had to act fast before she literally bled out, because even though the damage seemed to go lower by one with each tick, she’d be dead long before her regeneration could overtake the damage.

Beatrice didn’t see any major bleeding, only countless minor cuts. Losing my life to something this stupid? As if! As seconds ticked, Beatrice concluded that it was faster for her to literally cure her wounds than to find them. She had used [Fast(er) Recovery (+1)] on herself before, all she needed was her tail. And, thankfully, when Beatrice moved her tail, it followed her commands.

-17 HP

“ ... help ... that,” Beatrice barely made out two words from a female voice. Ember was kneeling over her, doing something over Beatrice’s burning back.

Beatrice decided not to wait for help from the one who caused all the damage and moved her tail toward her utterly uninterested pussy. Despite Beatrice’s Arousal Points showing as forty-three, Beatrice found nothing about this arousing. Still, the [Fast(er) Recovery (+1)] Skill’s requirement for use was “intercourse”. And that was a very loose definition.