'Damn it! That idiot had just killed himself!' Xie Xiu cursed as she barely avoided another electric beam created by an elusive Stunflower.
The fight she was in could honestly be called a very desperate one. The moment the aphrodisiac nectars entered the fight, this was how it felt for her.
She knew that an alraune's aphrodisiac was potent. The elder definitely knew that, but the books she read and the experiments she did on herself to get some immunity to the aphrodisiacs clearly understated just how potent an alraune's aphrodisiac was.
There was a rumor that a secret den of alraunes existed somewhere on the sixth floor of the Tong Tian Tower, where countless alraunes seemed to live together, and it was practically ordered, or if one wanted to state it more gently, highly advised, to never enter such an area without an alraune of your own.
Xie Xiu had heard such rumors before, and how such areas were usually sealed shut with powerful barriers and wards, and that no one was allowed to enter such area due to the predatory attitude of the alraunes there and the threat of the aphrodisiac nectars and scents they emanated, though she naturally couldn't have the chance to go check if such thing was actually real or not.
Entering the sixth floor wasn't a choice she could do easily, when Level 6 [Elders] would seemingly become a very common sight there, unlike how such powerhouses are rather rare in the Soaring Dragon Continent, so she had no way to go there safely to check.
But, even she had expected that the few alraunes she had killed at the first and second floors were enough to help her get some resistance to the alraunes and their many poisonous and aphrodisiac nectars.
Now though, she found herself reassessing that thought with extreme prejudice, because she now realized that being resistant to aphrodisiac doesn't mean being immune to it since a large enough quantity of it was enough to break through her resistances to it, and even more so, it seemed that an alraune's aphrodisiac nectar is always changing ever slightly at a very rapid rate, thus ruining any imunity that was about to be generated by her body.
'Damn it all! This is seriously way out of my level by orders of magnitudes.' she groaned as the liquid around and under her froze due to the effects of an enthusiastic Frose, freezing her legs.
Even so, she was still a powerful warrior and ranker. She won't die of something like that. Breaking the ice with little effort, though not a completely negligible one, she kicked the Frose as it got too close, her physical power easily killing the Normal-ranked plant beast, her Camouflage Chameleon protecting her from a thick branch that a Treant Warrior whipped at her stomach.
Clutching her heart in agony, she felt as if she would die at any second, not by the small army of enemies that kept using Division Propagation to replenish their lost numbers, but by her own technique.
Stopping her own heart and body functions was a powerful ability, sure, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that it was extremely rare, honestly. She heard that some experts in healing could even use it to make a patient close to death, but not reaching it, to help purge deadly poisons more safely.
It was a very taxing and lethal skill though. Humans and living beings in general weren't supposed to be capable of stopping their hearts and bodily functions for so long. And they were not supposed to be able to do so and exert themselves while in that state as well.
'At least, this way I would die on my terms, not by becoming a slave to the alraune and the Queen Bee...' she told herself as she lamented the death of Xie Yao.
She very much disliked, and even loathed the guy, but she didn't think he deserved to die that way. Dismembered then frozen, before being eaten by the alraune's hungry mouth.
'You idiot...' a pang of sorrow made itself clear even in the middle of the death battle. She just couldn't help it. Xie Xiu was absolutely certain that even if she survived somehow, Xie Yao would never do so, and that would be one of her regrets in life, if she ever survived.
It was as if an integral piece of her life would no longer exist, and she definitely loathed that feeling more than Xie Yao's usual attitude towards her.
"Annoy me then leave me, why don't you?" she whispered, looking at the remaining flames of Xie Yao's Saber-toothed Blazing Tiger. Even with their source being gone, these flames still burned strongly, vaporizing the nectars around, and resisting the efforts of the weak Frose beasts' efforts to stop the flames from burning.
Had she been more poetic, she could have even attributed it to Xie Yao's and his beast's will to protect her, even if it would only extend her life by a few minutes at most.
The Venomous Viper unleashed another torrent of acid against a rather irritating Heasy, the healing plant beast melting and dying, but unfortunately that mattered little when every alraune could heal their companions just as easily.
Another alraune was killed, eaten by the Gargantuan Earth Worm as it moved nimbly and swallowed the bronze-ranked alraune alive and used the pressure of its body to crush the swallowed prey, though unfortunately it got more wounds from the surrounding plant beasts while doing so.
Xie Xiu knew that in a few more minutes, her beasts would die if things kept going this way, though in her case, it was more of a question of whether she would die by her own stopped heart, or being attacked by the miniature army of plant beasts.
Suddenly, her head looked above for only a moment, noticing the presences of Mei Wu, the Queen Bee and Jiko Ai getting closer.
"Fuck! Is this the end?" she hissed, watching the trio getting closer by the second. "No, if I'm going down, I will at least make it as troublesome as possible for them."
Deciding her approach, she jumped on her Camouflage Chameleon as it activated its invisibility skill, hiding her as well, and the beast jumped dozens of meters in the air.
If she was going to die, then at least, she would make it as difficult as she could, and if she had to turn it into a chase, then so be it.
Thankfully, the plant beasts were mostly clustered where she and the late Xie Yao were fighting them, and so her escape from the immediate area wasn't difficult.
The Venomous Viper and the Gargantuan Earth Worm though, she gave them the order to kill as much as possible of the army, and at least try to damage the trio that would be definitely hunting her.
Apologizing to her beasts in her heart, she and the Camouflage Chameleon ran away as fast as possible, and she slowly deactivated the heart and body stopping skill, feeling her body no longer at the verge of death.
"Hahh..." breathing carefully as her heart started beating once more, she almost dropped to the ground, had she not been so careful. As blood started circulating with vigour in her body, and she immediately started working on purging the remaining aphrodisiacs and poisons that were still in her body.
"If by a miracle I survive this, I will never fight any plant beasts ever again." she grumbled to herself. This fight was a huge eye opener even for her. Plant-type beasts were just so damn annoying and threatening in numbers, especially Bronze and Silver-ranked ones and above!
Had the alraune with Mei Wu started the fight with using aphrodisiacs along with the Division Propagation skill, then Xie Xiu would have probably been killed from the get-go, when factoring Mei Wu's Apoptosis, Tumor Mandala and the Impurity Eater beast. That was what the female elder felt.
'I hope my beasts give you some headache at least...' she wished in her heart as she and her Camouflage Chameleon kept moving away from the assembly of the plant beasts that did not try to run towards her.
She wondered if this meant that the Queen Bee's army was making a siege around her, if the alraune was so certain of her demise.
Little did Xie Xiu know that she was right; the Queen Bee's Protector Bees were indeed watching the entire area to make escape impossible for her. But there was also another surprise she would not expect, prepared by Jiko Ai herself...
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"She ran away, huh?" Mei Wu asked no one as she, Jiko Ai, and the Queen Bee had finally reached the fight between Jiko Ai's army of plant-type beasts and the Venomous Viper and the Gargantuan Earth Worm.
"It seems that our esteemed elder has a desire to defy her own fate at the moment." the alraune responded, stopping right behind the army and watching the flames of the Saber-toothed Blazing Tiger still burning with intensity.
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The flames were clearly weakening even as they still ferociously burned the plant beasts making contact with them, but it was clear that after being affected by the many water and ice abilities unleashed by the Frose plants.
"Still, I am honestly surprised that the flames are still roaring even now. If I was a pretentious and highly superstitious, I would have thought that the tiger's soul and desire for vengeance is trying to haunt us for killing it and its master." giggling, the alraune shook her head in amusement.
'So?' the Queen Bee asked her.
"So, I feel it's a bit of a shame that I would trample on that sacrifice." despite saying so, Jiko Ai clearly held no regret to what she was about to do, as Mei Wu watched with anticipation what Kasumi Ai's alter ego would do.
Still chewing on the corpses of Xie Yao and his tiger, the alraune only grinned, snapping her fingers merely for theatrics, as she sent the commands to her alraunes while the rainbow petals she had on her glowed softly while she raised her left arm to the air.
Under Mei Wu and the Queen Bee's gaze, the two noticed as small spores, barely millimeters in length, amassed at a rapid rate, moving by Jiko Ai's will to form an orb that kept expanding.
One meter... two meters...
Mei Wu watched, her instincts warning her about the sheer danger the orb that was definitely made of nothing but spores would be, a feeling that was unknowingly mutual as the Queen Bee had the same thought.
Just what will these spores do?
As the orb, containing hundreds, if not thousands of spores reached five meters in diameter, Jiko Ai moved it into the air, far above the Venomous Viper and the Gargantuan Earth Worm were still fighting, clearly getting exhausted.
No doubt, the many poisons, including the paralytic and sleeping ones were slowly starting to affect them severely.
"Now, let the show begin. A barbaric, cannibalistic show that is~!" as if responding to her sadism, the orb unleashed by Jiko Ai broke down in the sky, almost exploding as the spores started to fall, spreading far enough that Xie Xiu's beasts would no longer have any free space to move in. The spores being so densely clustered and so tiny, were practically impossible to avoid, even if the target was extremely small, let alone the two beasts that are easily taller than two meters.
Mei Wu watched, her hair standing on end as she felt as if thousands of predators would suddenly appear out of nowhere, which was actually what happened.
The spores, so small and fragile-looking didn't seem to be threatening at all against the imposing, even if highly injured silver-ranked beasts, yet the threat they gave was orders of magnitudes higher than what the Queen Bee could emanate naturally.
The moment the spores made contact with blood stains, meat, or just the nectars on the ground, Alraune Seedlings which looked like a miniature version of Kasumi Ai's monstrous body, with no human body attached to them, along with Spitting Carnivorous Flowers and Carnivorous Thorny Flowers started to grow from them.
On the other hands, alraunes whose human bodies were only decapitated or melted, started to grow roots from their monstrous bodies, and were reborn, creating more alraunes. The same also happened to the Thorny Flowers whose stems wer cut off and laying on the ground, generating new thorny flowers.
In the blink of an eye, a mini sea of small alraunes and thorny flowers was created.
The numerous Thorny Flowers and Alraune Seedlings extended their stalks, twisting and twining as they unfurled towards the Venomous Viper and the Gargantuan Earth Worm's bodies, baring their teeth and fangs and opened their mouths wide.
No matter if it was blood, flesh, bones, or even acid thrown their way. They only craved to eat any and everything of their prey.
For those that started to form directly from the still living flesh of the Venomous Viper and the Gargantuan Earth Worm, they started outright biting hungrily and cruelly at the bodies, nipping directly at the wounds with vigour.
Other spores that were swallowed by the Gargantuan Earth Worm started giving birth to the Alraune Seedlings and Thorny Flowers even inside the giant worm, feasting on it from the inside, as the worm gave a loud and pained wail, as it tried to crush the beasts inside it, but the Alraune Seedlings were already secreting paralytic and sleeping poisons directly inside its body and blood vessels even as they consumed every bit they could put in their mouths.
The Venomous Viper was arguably having a better time due to its inherent resistance to poisons, but even it was becoming too damaged to fight back properly as it spat acid on whatever plant beast that got too close, yet it was already dying, its tail being eaten and soon its body would follow.
Seeing the sheer brutality in the act, Mei Wu unvoluntarily shivered. Her sharp qi sense was giving her full understanding of the utter cruelty and hunger being unleashed by the newly made predatory plant beasts.
When Jiko Ai said that it was barbaric and cannibalistic, she wasn't lying at all. That was honestly horrifying to see, even with the silver lining that Jiko Ai and Kasumi Ai won't do that to her.
... Wait, does that mean that her beloved was going to start feasting on any future enemies they might have with this brutality and savagery? Unleashing such a hell of cannibalistic ravenous clones of herself to bite, chomp and swallow every drop of anyone she decides is deserving of being a prey?
'Oh, by the heavens! I will so have to get used to this sight, won't I? Even more so when Ai'er is the one using this strategy instead of Jiko Ai...' she shuddered, face slightly green even as she kept looking at the scene with disgusted fascination.
She knew that the conversation she would have with Kasumi Ai when she wakes up from the sleep Jiko Ai imposed on her would be... awkward, to say the least.
The Queen Bee was also equally fascinated and a bit scared by the scene in front of her. It was honestly a bit hard to reconcile the image of Kasumi Ai who was very pleasant to the alraune that casually unleashed a hungry hell that desired to feast on and consume anything it touched.
And more disturbingly, both Mei Wu and the Queen Bee could notice how every bit of energy that the Alraune Seedlings and Thorny Flowers had gotten from eating the flesh, swallowing the blood, and chomping on the bones, were somehow being given to Jiko Ai's body.
"Mmmm~!" moaning loudly, the alraune's face flushed red, her excitement clear. "Ah~! That just feels so fucking good~! I feel so fucking powerful~! This is the life of a true Alraune! Hehahahahaha!"
Screaming loudly to the heavens as the Natura Aeterna Nirvana technique blossomed with unprecedented vigour, the Narcissism's glee was unrestrained, as she grinned widely, eyes looking towards the sky and hands raised to the air as her fists clenched with triumph.
"Oh, heavens, save us all." Mei Wu muttered seeing the insanity in front of her as the normal plants started to grow at a rapid rate, and the plant-type beasts got even more invigorated, and literal roses suddenly sprouted from the Venomous Viper's eyes and skin, blinding it and drawing blood as it shrieked and hissed.
Mei Wu even pondered on if the technique decided to make some plants grow inside the beasts as well. The Gargantuan Earth Worm was defintely in pain from more than just being eaten from the inside, from what she was sensing.
'Maybe it was time to change the deal with Jiko Ai...? Oh, who am I trying to convince! It's futile!' Mei Wu felt like crying on the inside, even more when she could fully see Kasumi Ai act the same!
Thus, she only put a hand on her face, as if facepalming, and only sighed. "Let's... let's just go and catch Xie Xiu and be done with it, please... This is too much for me at the moment..."
The green-haired woman immediately looked at the human woman, her head moving so fast it was surprising there was no whiplash, her face changing from glee to shock and betrayal.
"But... Wu-chan... isn't it beautiful, the way they feed on my prey...? Eating them so brutally and making them suffer in agony...?" the alraune that was gleefully sentencing her prey to being eaten alive suddenly turned into the equivalent of a toddler whose favourite toy was taken away, looking at Mei Wu with hurt in her eyes as if she was sentenced to being betrayed and locked in a hyperbolic time chamber for millions of years.
"No." Mei Wu only ordered, not even bothering to answer the alter ego's so-called question.
"Bu-"
'No. Go capture or kill that elder so that we can then talk about what to do next!' whatever argument Jiko Ai was about to give was cut off by the rather annoyed Queen Bee who practically ordered the alraune to get it over.
Scowling at the two, the Narcissism glared before sighing, feeling depressed. Damn it! First time she gets loose for real (and hopefully, Kasumi Ai as well in the future), and her still overpowered 'boss' and her pseudo-lover immediately tell her to be serious and to stop delighting in the sheer pleasure of feasting on her enemies alive!
Life wasn't unfair at all!
"Fine! Party ruiners, both of you... Just you wait, Wu-chan, I'll ask your love to punish you for your insolence." she grumbled, giving a supposed threat towards Mei Wu who shivered at the implications.
"Wait, why are you threatening me in particular?"
The gold-ranked alraune ignored Mei Wu's worried question and generated a huge amount of toxic pollens and nectars, making sure to make them highly paralytic and sleep-inducing ones, condensing the poisons to the maximum before freezing them with the Frose's abilities and throwing the sharp nectar icicle at the giant worm that was apparently trying futilely to escape by hiding under the ground.
The Gargantuan Earth Worm's body was immediately pierced with no resistance, and due to the pressure its insides gave, the icicle immediately melted, invading its insides and spreading the paralytic and sleeping agents as it wailed, as the injuries it sustained, combined with the Alraune Seedlings feasting on it both inside and outside, its blood being drained by the hungry plant beasts, and now the deadly condensed poison invading its rapidly weakening body was too much.
Finally, it became paralyzed, its mind slowly losing consciousness. Even the pain of being eaten alive would not help it stay awake any longer.
As for the Venomous Viper, it was already dying, even if it did a good job staying alive and fighting, but sadly, against so many enemies close to its level and rank, not to mention the characteristics they had, it was futile in the end.
Jiko Ai simply used the ability of the Stunflower once more, absorbing sunlight and morphing it into a powerful electric attack that hit the Venomous Viper's head, piercing it right between the eyes, and thus the life of the creature ended just like that.
Needless to say, the remaining alraunes of different ranks and levels hungrily used that chance to eat everything of its corpse.
"Shame I don't have much more space in my own body..." lamenting, Jiko Ai shook both her human and monstrous heads, before looking at the two fun ruining buddies of her.
"Okay, so now we should leave these here to be eaten. Queen Bee, you want to have some of their meat?" she asked the bee, who shook her head, buzzing.
'Well, since you are offering, I will take half the female elder and her chameleon's corpses.' she told her.
"I can't believe I'm hearing such a discussion..." Mei Wu resisted the urge to sigh, before looking at the alraune and bee.
"By the way, are you certain you blocked all of her possible escape routes?" she asked, and Jiko Ai only grinned at that.
"Oh, don't worry. I did create more silver-ranked alraunes than what you see here, after all. Plus, I feel that the path she chose was just the one I put a very unique surprise to her~!" the alraune giggled, making the human feel goosebumps all over. "After all, her disciples are right there too~!"