The four women had made their way to the second floor but to their chagrin, Ruby and her group had passed through the area already.
They headed back to the stairway and ran down.
“You don't think?” Tina asked.
“Hmm, I'm not sure. I considered it a blessing that women took a different path but this may become our undoing. We can only hope they haven't encountered her.”
“Why, we did some good damage to her,” Tina responded, not liking Elizabeth's tone.
“Tina, we annoyed her into leaving. If she killed you we wouldn't be standing here now. I can tell she didn't put all she could into killing us. If she encounters weaker opponents who knows what she'd do.”
“Wait really?” Lily added. “Then aren't they-”
“We can't say for sure they'll encounter her, for the time being, let's focus on finding them.”
The group increased their pace down the stairs to possibly save the whole group from annihilation.
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The red woman seemed substantially less physically gifted than her pale counterparts. Which was the only positive Kevin could list from this situation. And unlike those women, she had more to her than just brute strength.
After tripping over nothing yet again, she placed her hand on the ground and tried her magic. She managed only a single vine and moved it quickly enough to wrap around his hip.
“(Damnit, I can't even dodge stuff like this anymore!)” He cursed in his mind.
He wasn't sure he could even defeat her, much less handle another woman of her type showing up.
She dragged him back as he tried to cut the vine with his teeth. It gave a bitter taste and he contemplated continuing. Based on what his eyes showed it may have been poisonous.
She managed to drag him towards her and brought him to the ground. She quickly released her magic and got on top of him.
“Give me your mana human!” She shouted before turning him over.
“What are you, Gah!?” She ripped the cloth covering the wound on his back and began voraciously licking it.
“I knew I smelled it. Why do you have your own kind's essence human rubbed over yourself?”
She didn't wait for an answer and began biting into his back. She didn't care for his flesh and only paid attention to parts where the dust and his blood mixed, using her teeth to scrape this substance off.
His eyes showed him the path to victory and although it just showed it as green, it was sure it was better than whatever the hell this was. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some powder. He planned to use it the next opportunity he could rest but it'd do him no good if he died before that happened. He threw the powder to the floor and like a dog, she slid to the floor to lap it up.
(“How humiliating!”) She thought while licking it down. His tongue spared the ground no mercy and the thought of how she looked to an outsider infuriated her to no end. She noticed him get up and run away but she couldn't bring herself to follow him.
(“Am I so desperate for mana that I'd do this? The lack of mana must be that boy's doing. Damn him for thinking he can humiliate a great demon like myself!”)
Chapter 316
After finishing all the powder he had ground up, she wasted no time getting back to her feet. She wiped her lips off and looked in the direction he ran off.
(“I've gained back some mana but this is still a pitiful amount. Hmm, based on what he said, this place might have had the mana removed to stifle any demons that come through the terminal.”)
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She clenched her fist and opened it several times. “Pitiful as it may be, mana is mana. I'll have to be conservative in my output.”
She started chasing after the boy she encountered, for nothing more than the fact he pissed her off. She couldn't let a human think themselves superior to her now, could she?
Although he thought so many times before, he truly felt he was on his last legs now. That powder was his insurance and he had already burned through it on this floor. Added to the fact his back stung like it was washed with lemon juice, he couldn't put up with this bullshit anymore.
(“I came into this stupid dungeon for what? Cause of my stupid eyes? I should have run back to meet up with others. Why did I even trust these things to begin with? The only reason I'm even in this mess, was because these things didn't recognise Ezekiel as a danger. If they're so clueless why the hell do I even need them?”) He complained while following the path his eyes provided to him.
He heard the sounds of footsteps coming and he knew without looking who it was.
He tried to push further but ended up tripping himself and falling onto the ground. His eyes told him whatever could benefit was a few metres away around a nearby corner. He just had to crawl a few more feet further and he wouldn't have to run anymore.
But what if there was still more distance he needed to cover?
He tried to ignore that thought but, one way or another, he no longer needed to know what that path held.
He felt something take hold of his foot and drag him away from that corner. He knew it was coming but he didn't have the energy to avoid it.
She used the mana provided to her sparingly and used only to supplement her stamina. Given the distance, she didn't even have to go into her mana reserves to catch him.
After being dragged on the floor for a few metres she turned around and crouched down. She grabbed his neck and lifted him off the floor.
He tried to struggle but his exhausted body stood no chance of escaping her.
“Based on what I tasted of your blood earlier, you don't produce any natural mana of your own. So a pact would be useless.”
“A pact?” He struggled to say as she held a firm grasp on his throat.
“You don't even know what a pact yet you dare enter this dungeon? Hmm, there may be use in you yet then.”
She tossed him to the floor and sat atop him.
(“Huh? What's happening here!?”) He wondered as he tried to push her off.
“Your body should be weak enough to take for myself. Yes, I'll take this body and leave these ruins. Based on your…” As she looked at him she realised he didn't wear the robes of the clergy. “Boy, why have you come down here, are you a prisoner?”
It didn't make sense if he looked like that as a member of the church. Did their training increase in difficulty so much that they have their own men walk around like this?
There was no good move for Kevin in this position. No matter where he looked or what he placed his hand on, the surroundings and the woman herself wouldn't change her red colour.
“I-i'm an adventurer.” He said, resigned to his fate.
“An adventurer? Hmm yes, that is a popular hobby among humans… tell me, child, is this a ruin of sorts from your perspective?”
“Uh, no. It's a hideout for some cultists.”
He noticed something odd. As long as he kept still and answered her questions, his surroundings would turn blue.
“Cultists? What is an adventurer doing in such a place?” She mused to herself.
“Well-”
“Shut up, it's irrelevant. So what you're saying is that this place is not monitored by a church?”
He nodded, hoping she would get off. The wound on his back was killing him due to its contact with the floor.
“Hah, so I don't have to do such a useless thing as a pact. Wonderful.”
She moved closer to his face and brought her mouth to his ear. Her bare chest pressed against his chest before she opened her mouth. There she felt something only the two of them would be able to feel.
“How deplorable. Even in such a situation, a man can't help but lust. Humans never were picky with what they slept with.”
He felt like he wanted to cry from that comment alone but she continued.
“You haven't lied to me, right boy?”
“(Please just leave me alone.) Yes.” He confidently stated.
She kept track of his heartbeat and moved her head back to stare deep into his eyes.
(“The church really isn't here. Leaving such a stronghold of our lord unprotected? Did they think this mana-dampening would be enough to stop me? What fools. I'd like to check the terminal gate but I'd love some fresh air. The lack of mana here is stifling.”)
She eased up off him, though she still sat atop him.
“You're useless to me child.” She commented.
She stood up and picked him off the floor.
“Get out of my sight.” She simply stated.
(“I'm alive~~~”) He exhaustedly thought to himself as he walked off. Who knows what would set this woman off, so he made it his first priority to get out of here.