As the explosion rocked the ever vibrant red light district and while the peanut gallery were running for their lives, 5 of the Kepeitai ninja's rushed from the shadows to make Theo one head shorter.
They never got close.
3 meters before their blades could touch him, La Ren Sithra snapped her fingers and caused a shockwave that rivaled that of an artillery strike.
The 3 closest to ground zero were instantly turned into paste while the 2 survivors were blasted into nearby buildings.
As for Theo, he was curled to a ball on the ground.
"Good freaking lord all mighty in heaven! At least warn me when you do that! It nearly gave me a heart attack!" said Theo
One does not simply walk away from an explosion. Normally, one gets blasted off one's feet and plant one's face on the ground.
"You know I cant. Speaking might cause something much worse than a big bang." replied La Ren via text message.
Theo was impressed how fast she could text with only her thumb.
"Anyways, Du Al Ryien told me judge you on your combat power. Don't hold back and do whatever you want. All I ask is you to try not to kill any non combatants.... and me. Please don't kill me."
"No promises."
"Tch. Crazy bitch."
Theo reloaded the Milkor MGL with the supposedly non lethal sponge grenades.
Once that was done, he grabbed La Ren by the waist and used the grappling arm on his left hand to pull both of them straight to the 5th floor.
The two broke through the window and spotted Vivi chained to the bed. It seemed that they were doing an BDSM play with the slave Vivi being milked by his 3 mistresses.
Quite fitting for a spineless harem anime protagonist.
"T-Theo!? What are you doing here?!" said the shocked Vivi.
"Dude... You look so pathetic right now." replied Theo as he open fired at the Jade Imp looking bitch.
The Imp was able to react fast enough and blocked the sponge grenade with her bare hands. Seeing how she wasn't howling in pain, it seemed that the Imp was no regular human. Since she wasnt generating large amounts of heat, it was safe to assume that she was a martial artist.
Iron Maiden turned metal and charged the intruders.
In response, La Ren lightly tapped the floor with her foot. The sound was then amplified to an absurd extent that the floor collapsed and sent Iron Maiden, the Imp Bitch and the still bedridden Vivi to the floor below.
The last remaining bitch performed a bunch of hand seals often seen in ninja animes before breathing out a massive fireball.
La Ren snapped her fingers and caused a sound explosion to negate the fireball.
At the same, Theo fired off his grappling arm, dragged the ninja bitch towards him and knocked her unconscious by emptying the gun into her chest.
Her ribs would have caved in if she was a normal person.
"Dont kill them." Theo said to La Ren who had a 'WTF are you saying' face on her. "Vivi has the power to rewind a person's state 10 seconds to the past. That means these bitches will never truly die as long as Vivi desires it. It's better to not give Vivi any reason to use his power. Knocking them out will save us a lot of time in the long run."
Though displeased, La Ren nodded in agreement.
While Theo was reloading his Milkor MGL with more sponge grenades, La Ren jumped down to the floor below to face the Imp bitch and Iron Maiden.
Iron Maiden tried to spear La Ren into the ground, but was blasted back once again by one of the drow's sound explosions.
At this time, the Imp bitch was able to close in the gap and threw a chi powered punch at La Ren's face.
It missed by a mile thanks to a rubber grenade smashing into Imp bitches' head from above.
Before the dazed Imp bitch could recover, La Ren lightly tapped her on the head with a single finger. The sound amplification not only knocked Imp bitch out, it also caused her to violently face plant into the floor.
Once again, Iron Maiden surged forward to trample La Ren.
Theo tried to slow her down, but the sponge bullets simply bounced off her iron armor.
La Ren simply stepped to the side as Iron Maiden powered through.
From there, it became painfully clear to Theo that La Ren was no mere aspirant to the Drow throne.
Iron Maiden threw a flurry of blows at La Ren, but the drow made no effort to hide her boredom as she lightly moved her head and body side to side. And at the same time, she was able to text Theo to disrupt Iron Maiden's movement so that she could gently knock her out.
It was as if the drow was playing a harmless game of tag against a toddler. Iron Maiden did not even register as a threat to La Ren.
Whoever she was, her combat experience vastly exceeded all of the ones present combined.
Anyways, Theo decided to comply with her request.
He dropped 3 meters behind Iron Maiden and waited. The moment the HAA member made a big swing that made her take a wide step, he fired his grappling arm and force her to perform a split.
And as he had hoped, Iron Maiden was not the flexible kind.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Her split came with a bit of tearing and a high pitch scream.
Poor girl. Theo knew her pain because he too was not flexible enough to pull of a split.
La Ren quickly capitalized by approaching Iron Maiden and whispered something into her ear. The girl's head shook before planting her face into the ground.
"What did you do?" asked Theo.
"I rattled her brain through her ear canal." replied La Ren through text.
"Couldn't you just finger flicked their forehead like you did to the other bitch?"
"People with powers such as the metal girl worked in an annoying way. Not only does their hardened exterior increase their strength and defensive capabilities, it also disperses all the damage they receive through out their body. If you want to take such beings down quickly, going through their defenses with brute force is the wrong way to go about it."
"I see. Good to know."
The two then released the still naked Vivi from his masochistic state. And as expected from Theo's best friend and a fellow consumer of all things hentai, the very sight of La Ren made him pop a boner.
Hilariously enough, La Ren found Vivi quite repulsive which further made his lower head rise up even more.
"Huh. I guess not everyone goes for the masochists." said Theo as he transmuted Vivi's cuffs.
"Theo! How dare you hurt the girls! What did they ever do to you!?" roared Vivi as he grabbed Theo by the collars.
Vivi has always been a girly boy so his actions did not elicit any feeling of fear from Theo. Aside from that, Vivi was still naked which made him even more pitiful.
The annoyed La Ren grabbed Vivi by the neck, to which Theo responded by grabbing her hand.
"Calm down. He doesn't know what's happening, so you cant blame his reaction." said Theo to La Ren.
La Ren made a disgusted face before releasing Vivi and stepping back.
But as she went behind Theo, she lightly slapped his ass to which he replied in kind.
La Ren was following a simple script that would force Vivi to shut up and listen to what he had to say.
Nothing would make someone curious more than a plot that revolved around him without his knowledge.
Fortunately, Vivi was slow on the uptake when it came to these types of things despite knowing Theo for so long.
"Theo, just what the hell is happening?" asked Vivi as he looked back and forth from La Ren and Theo.
"I'm sure you heard of this before, but you are the chosen one." replied Theo while shoving some clothes to his naked friend.
He pretty much told Vivi about The Garden of Eden and the dangers it posed to the world.
"Hold on... Ta Kyia Amalik told me something about this in the past.... She said that my loins are more valuable than a hundred men. It sounds so stupid that I pretty much ignored it. I guess I was wrong."
"Oh yeah. You did tell me about that hot drow babe you had a one time stand with. What kind of adventure did you with her?"
"First and foremost, its not a one time thing! Next, we went on a quest to remove a curse from her sire. You're familiar with Du Al Ryien right? That's Ta Kyia's sire."
Vivi went on a short summary of what happened.
Naturally, Theo already heard of this from Du Al Ryien himself but he let Vivi tell his story. People often liked to hear themselves talk.
Technically speaking Ta Kyia Amalik is Du Al Ryien's biological daughter. However, since Drow society have no concept of a family structure, the bond between the two were that of a commander and subordinate.
Despite that, Ta Kyia was particularly close to Duo Al Ryien and was the most proactive to save him when he was in trouble.
She sought out the greatest healer in the magic world, but when she discovered that the curse was so much more complex than that, she dragged said healer into a 5 month long adventure worthy of the big screen.
"That's interesting and I'd like to hear the details in the future, but we got 3 spy organizations that want to literally fuck you. I suggest we make like a banana and-" said Theo before he noticed a bunch of people moving at high speeds towards the building.
He loaded fragmentation grenades onto Milkor MGL as fast as possible.
As Vivi was about to ask what was wrong, a man wearing traditional Jade Imp armor plowed through the wall behind him and tried to grab him.
Theo pulled Vivi towards him and sent a large chunk of steel fragments into the poor man's brain courtesy of the Milkor MGL.
At the same time, 3 of the Imps were able to take La Ren hostage.
"Dont move or the pretty girl gets a face lift!" said one of the Imp as she held a blade to La Ren's throat.
Naturally, Theo and Vivi stopped on their tracks but for very different reasons.
Vivi, who fell in love with La Ren at first sight, cared for her safety.
On the other hand, Theo was worried if they'll be caught up in whatever she was planning to do to the poor mooks.
And based on that evil smile plastered on her face, Theo's bad feeling was about to come true.
He placed Vivi on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes ran out of the room as fast as possible.
"T-Theo!What are you doing?! We cant just leave her there!" complained Vivi before he threw himself and Vivi out onto the hallway.
And not a second later, Theo's premonition came true.
"UNHAND ME INFERIOR BEINGS!" roared La Ren in a volume that literally shook the building right to its core.
Theo thought for a second that the building would collapse after witnessing the cracks form right in front of his eyes.
After a few seconds, Theo received a text.
"I'm done. You can come back now." said La Ren.
What greeted the two's return was a sight they did not expect. Everything in the room except La Ren was turned into molten lava.
"What the hell happened here?" asked Theo.
"And now you understand why I dont talk. My voice causes everything to vibrate, and the effects varies on how much mana I put into it. It could be as light as a shock wave ripping someone's face off, or as severe as a resonance that demolishes a structure's building blocks. It's similar to what happens to buildings during an earthquake."
"And what happens when you direct it to a human?" asked Vivi.
"What happens to a water balloon if it's structure is compromised? It pops."
"Then can you care to explain what the hell happened here?" asked Theo.
"Another one of vibration's many wondrous application is generating heat via rapid movement. I saw one of your guards draw swords that functioned similar to my power."
"Sword? Oh. You mean the high frequency blades. My arm can actually do that too." said Theo as he cranked up the temperature of his left arm.
"So this is what Science is capable of. Humans have always made the most interesting things."
"I could say the same to you Drows. I've seen my share of monsters but I never seen someone use something as simple as sound so creatively. Most impressive."
"I am a candidate for the Dread Queen after all. Of course I'm amazing. I give you permission to glorify me." replied La Ren.
While Theo and La Ren found an affinity with each other due to their love of violence, Vivi felt left out.
As a healer, Vivi was a pacifist that wanted nothing more than to watch anime and meow meow with his harem. This was the main reason why he and Theo got along so well.
Sadly, Vivi was being dragged into the world Theo and La Ren belonged to. It was a world where the only rule was kill or be killed.
If he wanted to get into La Ren's undies, being a kind hearted man with a strong sense of justice was most certainly not the way.
All Theo could do to help his bro was to get him out of this mess alive so that he can get his chance later on.
"Time to head out. Vivi, I hate to do this to you, but you're going to have to play the role of a hostage here." said Theo.
"What?! Why?! I'll fight with you!" replied Vivi in an understandably pissed off manner.
"Listen. We win this if we can get you out of the city with your reputation and your dick in tact. At some point in our great action movie getaway car chase, we will be throwing out of the car. There, my people will take you to Du Al Ryien while me and La Ren will be acting as a distraction. Once we make our fancy escape, we'll meet up with you so that we can hash out a plan to take down the Garden of Eden."
"But what about you 2? You'll be surrounded from all sides if you go through with this. And besides, you're not even hiding your face! You'll kill your rep with this!"
"I'm not sure if you know this but I'm already blacklisted here in the land of the waifus and hentai."
"Eh? For real?"
"Yup. My rep here in Zifang is already at rock bottom. And as for the world at large, I'm not exactly popular either. But I do have friends in high places, so most people wont be able to touch me no matter how much trouble I cause."
".... Dude.... You sound like a Supervillain. Do you know that?"
"I know man..... *sigh*."