THWANKK!!
An explosive burst echoed through the forest. Had it been a direct clash between Yerkchira members, there would have been far more resistance—but against a summoned plant with barely any power funneled into it, the ogre’s blow was more than enough to crush it.
At the top of the towering plant, Laladie suddenly found herself in mid air.
“Oh, she’s really done it now…”
Laladie’s anger toward the ogre—or rather, the ogre’s controller—was insurmountable before, but felt surprisingly little now. She’d given up entirely.
Alraunes were categorically miserable at walking. If Master hadn’t picked her up and taken her with him back when they first met, she’d still be staring blankly into space in that remote corner of the forest. Most of her people, few as they were, almost never uprooted themselves to walk about, so their legs were effectively ornamental. Laladie was a highly unusual alraune in many ways, but mobility was never one of her specialties.
As she plummeted toward the ground, she could see the ogre grinning up at her, waiting until she fell into reach. Sticky saliva dribbled from its lips in great strands, its eyes jubilant that it could finally tear apart its hated enemy.
“GAAAAAARGH…”
“Ugh, gross.”
Any energy she had left quickly left her at the sight. She could try to attack it, but like all her people, she could only draw out her true strength when she was firmly planted on the ground. Laladie wasn’t completely powerless—she could hardly be a member of Yerkchira with such a crippling weakness—and she would be plenty capable of slaying an ordinary ogre. That one was being controlled by that hideous wretch Corine, however, and was anything but normal. Nothing she could do now would dispatch it in time.
“Hahh… What a pain.”
And so, Laladie gave up. There was no point in struggling. If it was the kind of lecherous, vulgar creature that would force itself on its victims before dealing the killing blow, she might have had some avenue of resistance. Regrettably, the ogre was only interested in death and destruction.
“Laladie does have a backup plan, so she doesn’t mind dying here.”
She muttered those puzzling words to herself as she fell. Even if there had been someone within earshot, the rushing winds whipping about her would’ve ensured her voice was lost. Even though alraune were fellkin, she wasn’t immortal and had no means of returning to life. She did, however, have something of a workaround in mind.
She sighed. The incessant whipping of her hair was getting on her nerves. “Is Lala going to hit the ground yet?”
She looked down at the ogre. Its club was already wound at the ready, prepared to bat her clean out of the air. She clamped her eyes shut, awaiting what would hopefully be a relatively quick death.
…
“… Huh?”
No impact came. Instead, she felt something warm and reassuring envelop her, and she caught a whiff of an intoxicating aroma. Both were strikingly familiar. It was exactly what she felt whenever she was being held.
“M-Master?!”
Finally, she put it together and opened her eyes to find herself in Master’s arms. He was holding her in a princess carry, her now-even-tinier body nestled snugly in his arms.
“Grugh?!”
“What?!”
Both the ogre and Maho cried out from beneath them.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
“Ah…”
Her mind froze. His words didn’t sink in somehow, and she was left staring dazedly at his charming smile. Something about the calm, polite look in his eyes prompted her to blush fiercely. He was a prince, rushing in at the nick of time to save his princess, like something out of a fairy tale.
“Ah… Ahhh…”
She was completely naked, her pale green skin utterly exposed to his eyes. She was suddenly aware of the wind on her aggravatingly small yet softly mounded breasts. Her stomach didn’t have the tight compactness that came with maturity, nor did it stick out—it was childlike, despite her great age. Her butt was the only part of her with any element of maturity, and it had a distinctly womanly shape to it. Everything, every part of her body, was utterly bare to Master’s eyes.
“W-Wait!” she pleaded. “L-Lala wants you to see her, b-but not so suddenly…!”
Her words only seemed to confuse him, however, and she pressed her face hard into his clothes to avoid her blushing becoming any more apparent, her tiny hands grasping firmly at him. It felt ridiculous to be so bashful now, but her heart was beating so madly in her chest that she had to cling to her rawest instincts just to maintain her sanity.
Finally, the cessation of the rushing air around them signaled the end of their trip, and their arrival on the ground.
She let out a weak moan. “I-Is it over already?”
Laladie had no intention of relishing the comfort of his warmth, however, and she wrapped her little arms tightly around his neck.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!”
The ogre bellowed in fury as it stomped toward them, its prey snatched from its grasp at the last moment. It was livid with rage at the interloper. It would just have to kill Laladie and the interloper at once.
“If you lay so much as a finger on Master, you’re dead.”
“?!”
The ogre recoiled in shock at the mysterious voice in its head. Something about it struck a primal fear into its heart, so deep that it quivered with terror. Whatever the voice was, it was strong beyond all reason, and its instincts screamed to run and hide. Its prey was similarly strong, but the red-haired woman puppeteering its motions somehow made the fear go away. That was the only thing keeping the monster fighting.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!”
It let out another roar as it sprinted at the pair, this time squarely fixated on the little plant-girl hanging from the man’s neck. It wouldn’t dare argue with the voice, and as if to validate its choice, it could feel its body lighten as it swelled with new might. Its controller approved. Death to the girl, then.
“Don’t worry, Master. Lala is so happy to be in your arms that she thinks she’s going to burst. She can’t lose now. Just keep holding onto her and relax, and she’ll…”
Between his smell, his warmth, and the blissful sensation of being cradled in his arms, she felt all the mana she’d spent come flowing back to her. She had no doubt it was the fruit of Master’s love, as unscientific and impossible as that was.
She didn’t even finish her sentence before he planted a finger on her lips to shush her.
“M-Master…?!”
Her chest began to pound again with the sweet softness of his skin, and she watched wide-eyed as he smiled and told her to leave the rest to him.
“Hmmmhh?!”
Laladie moaned wetly to herself, her body twitching suddenly at the sweetness of his words. Her one relief was that he hadn’t seen her, having already turned toward the charging monster.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!”
It howled at him in frustration. Yuuto and Maho flinched uncomfortably at the sheer volume of the cry, but Master seemed utterly unaffected. He calmly extended his palm toward the creature, and a burst of searing-hot wind struck the ogre head on.
“Huh?”
The gasp of confusion could easily have come from any of them. Yuuto and Maho watched in wide-eyed shock, and despite Laladie’s long history with him, she had never witnessed anything like it.
The heat was roasting the ogre alive, its skin blistering and sizzling at a horrifying rate. It was still conscious enough through the pain to recognize the man as a critical threat. It couldn’t possibly kill the plant without slaying the man first. The voice was clear that no harm was to come to the man, but its mind was made up.
“…?!”
The voice seemed distracted, somehow confused by the latest turn of events. This would likely be the ogre’s only chance.
“GROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!”
It leapt forward with a mighty roar, changed its target in the air, and landed with every intention of killing the man where he stood.
“GRAGH?!”
Something suddenly exploded, assaulting the creature from all sides as if the air itself had ignited. It fell to the ground, stunned, but a moment later, branches from nearby trees lifted it off the ground and pulled its limbs taut in the space between two sizable oaks.
“That’s Lala’s…?!”
She couldn’t believe her eyes. Controlling her plants was her specialty, and yet he had the same skill.
Master’s smile strained slightly at her awe, but he moved on to his next spell without skipping a beat. He formed five spears from the earth at his feat and launched them toward the monster in a single unified volley. Despite the inefficacy of even the Holy Sword, the lances easily pierced the creature’s flesh.
“GYEAAAAAAAAAAGH!!”
With one last horrific cry, the ogre fell limp against its restraints, never to move again.