Chapter 25

4 SUCCUBUS COUNTRY About two days later. The rain remained relentless. Despite occasional signs of slowing, it continued to pour down heavily through most of the day. Bash and the two whelps were making their way through the rain, step by step. However, it was unclear whether they were actually moving in the desired direction. Luca was in charge of navigating. As a shamaness, she could use magic to pinpoint the direction of the target of their revenge. But she wasn’t able to pin down any particulars, it seemed. And so it felt very much like they were going in circles. Ludo’s training did not seem to be going very well, either. Still, that made sense. If it was possible to become a strong warrior in just two days’ training, no one would ever die in battle. Ludo was giving it his all. Every day, he would be set upon by Bash and forced to run like a scared rabbit. It wasn’t really what you might call training. For Ludo, every day of this was a reminder of how weak he was. No doubt, it was humiliating. But he never complained. So Bash stuck to it as well and continued to train Ludo with patience. He allowed the boy to attack him. Kicked him in the air. Forced him to his feet. Made him flee. Then kicked him again. But perhaps you could call it training. Because now Ludo took longer to slump in the mud. He spent more time on his feet, fighting and fleeing. Did it mean he was growing stronger as a warrior? Uh, no. But it’s still good. No one can become a strong warrior that fast. Even someone of Bash’s caliber takes a year at least to become a full-fledged warrior. For an average soldier to become a world-famous warrior, it would take several years of fierce battles. Ogres and orcs might both start with the letter O, but ogres were actually more suited to combat than orcs were. Orcs are unrivaled in their ability to adapt and propagate, but ogres have them beat in basically every other category. In terms of simple strength, endurance, agility, battle sense, and general smarts, ogres far exceed orcs, on average. So, even though there were many fewer ogres than orcs, they were ranked highly in the Coalition of Seven. And so Bash expected that this training would pay off eventually. Bash wasn’t sure what to make of Ludo and Luca, but the siblings seemed very taken with Bash. Even during meals, the two wanted to hear Bash’s stories of the battlefield. Sheltering from the rain, Bash would tell them tales of the fierce warriors he’d encountered on battlefields gone by, and they would beg to hear more, eyes sparkling. But when he spoke of Frozen Eye Rularula, the two seemed a little despondent and upset. Come to think of it, Bash hadn’t had much experience with children of any race. He’d seen whelps here and there on his travels, but he’d never directly interacted with any. For Bash, children, being not of breeding age, were of no interest to him. But now that he was actually interacting with youngsters for the first time… Bash discovered that he actually sort of liked them. Perhaps it was a sort of protective instinct. A part of him was stirred, quite different from the usual reproductive desire he experienced. Then the cyclical days of training and traveling came to an end. The rain suddenly ceased. “…?” Bash looked dubiously up at the sky, palms held upright, as the rain fizzled out. The sky was covered with thick clouds and was black as pitch. Squinting, he saw that the rain was still falling nearby. However, for some reason, no raindrops fell around Bash and his young friends. Ludo and Luca were also looking around dubiously. By squinting, it was clear to see driving sheets of rain against the ground on the path they had just come by. Beyond that, floods of water. But where Bash and company stood, it was quite dry. “…A barrier, of some sort?” Luca muttered, and they all realized at the same moment that they’d stumbled through a barrier someone had cast. A barrier guarding from rain and wind. And quite a large-scale one, too. Like something that might have been cast during the war, over an entire city… “Eh-heh-heh…” Suddenly, a voice. When Bash turned around, a mist had gathered around him. Its faint peach hue was something no one with experience of the battlefield could ever forget. “This is bad…” Bash quickly covered his nose and mouth and held his breath. This fog. That sweet, sickly smell. Whenever orcs caught a whiff of this scent on the battlefield, their hearts would leap, knowing that reinforcements had arrived. But at the same time, all knew that they had to evacuate the area with all haste. Because any man who inhaled that fog would be rendered completely incapacitated. This is the seductive pink smoke of a succubus! The secret weapon of the succubi, which laid waste to many a battlefield and even to the end of the war—no foolproof way of resisting its effects was ever discovered. It was a devastating form of magic that dissolved a man’s sense of reason and forced his lower body to do the caster’s bidding. “Tee-hee…” Deep in the smoke stood a woman. Light pink hair in bunches. She was short, with a youthful face and body. But with a certain voluptuousness that proved she was a grown woman. She wore a black leather ensemble that just barely concealed her delicate bits, and her skin was milky white, with a slight sheen of sweat, giving her a lustrous appeal that would make any man drool. The owner of the body licked her fingers slowly, a devilish expression on her face. She was a succubus, all right. She had no tail and appeared to be missing a wing, but she was unmistakably a succubus. “Naughty, naughty… What are you all doing out in this terrible weather…?” The fingers she had been licking now drifted south along her abdomen. Parting her thighs wide, she delicately traced the area between her legs, beckoning to Bash and the others with her free hand. At the same time, the eyes of the succubus glowed red. “Didn’t you know? Silly boys who stumble into the domain of the succubi will be slooowly devoured?” Bash’s vision swam. By the time he realized that the succubus’s charms were working on him, it was already too late. His eyes were glued to the succubus’s supple features, his feet propelling him unsteadily toward her. “Ooh, a big, strong orc! Come here, big boy. I’ll show you ecstasy unlike anything you’ve ever known. Yes, look deep into my eyes… Hee-hee… Such a manly man… And so handsome… Oh yeah, you’re just my type…” Bash’s vision distorted, the succubus’s red eyes blurring. Half of his brain was screaming that he was in mortal danger. Don’t. Don’t touch her. If you reach out to her, it will be your end.