“NO!” the assassin roared.

Dreks, unwilling to be beaten, pulled a dart filled with a green liquid from his pocket and jammed it into his neck. The liquid entered his neck, and suddenly, he had a little more life to him. He coated his right hand in gold energy and fired a punch at Elma. The punch flew faster than anything the assassin had tried before. It made contact with her face and she flew back, a trail of spit marking her flight path. Dorthaunzee reacted and caught Elma as she slammed into her.

“You think I don’t know how to deal with poison?!” Dreks roared. He roared and roared until the golden energy covered his body like a dense aura. “Come on, then!”

Dorthaunzee was frantic. She was about to heal Elma when Elma raised her hand.

“Don’t. We’re sticking to the plan!” Elma stood up straight and grinned at Dorthaunzee. “It’s all you.” Elma snapped her gaze toward Dreks and fired her last cloud of mana.

Dreks laughed and released a gust of wind from his right hand, scattering the cloud. “No more tricks, bitch! Huh?!?!”

He bared his teeth as a wide smile overtook his expression. He saw Elma use her disembodied hands to help boost her up onto a roof. She had used them like stepping stones. The sight confused him.

“You running away?!”

Elma sneered at him and shouted. “No! I’m just getting out of the way!”

Alarm bells went off in Dreks’s head, and he turned his gaze back to the nun. Darkness was pouring out from beneath her skirt.

No! What are you doing?! Dreks screamed internally. His every sense was telling him—

Stop her!

He ran toward Dorthaunzee and swiped at her. She, holding onto her staff with both hands, raised her face to meet his eyes, wearing a determined look.

She pulled down the covering obscuring her mouthless face.

The moment his fist was an inch from her face, the skin covering her mouth tore as she opened wide, and a loud, heart-shattering scream escaped. Simultaneously, a large tentacle with a bluish green underside and blue, glowing growths lashed out from the ground and struck Dreks in his side.

“GUH—“

The assassin flew into the side of a building and through to the interior.

On the roof, Elma whistled. “Wow... How terrifying...”

Thirty-two squirming tentacles surrounded Dorthaunzee. With every second, they grew more frantic and energetic. One shot into the building and pulled Dreks out by his ankle.

“W-What is this?!” he asked while upside down.

The tentacle threw him into the air, and another rose and expanded to slap him to the ground.

Dreks hit the ground with a groan. His eyes went wide as three tentacles slammed their mass onto him repeatedly.

“Brutal,” Elma said as she watched. She saw movement from the corner of her eye and narrowly dodged an oncoming tentacle by hopping over it. “Damn! She’s already losing control! Dorthaunzee!”

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Dorthaunzee, meanwhile, was in the center of the tentacles, her hands shaking. She had no experience ever controlling her tentacles. For her, it was either keep them packed within the body or have them out—there was no in-between. Because of that, her tentacles were becoming more rambunctious. They slammed the walls and tore through some. Those were the actions of the unoccupied ones.

Meanwhile, the tentacles fixated on Dreks were having fun. One grabbed him, lifted him into the air, and slammed him back down like he was a hammer. It did this eight times before throwing him into a wall. Then four tentacles shot out to strike his abdomen. They would have torn through him had it not been for the golden energy reinforcing his body. That said, there was a limit to his efforts.

A tentacle wrapped around his neck and wrung him around like he was a rag doll. It then threw him onto a roof, where his golden energy finally dissipated.

He struggled to get up—his whole body was throbbing. His eyes widened as he noticed the shadow that had encompassed him. The tentacle came down on him before he could even look up. It destroyed the shabby roof and sent him to the ground floor.

“G-Gah! Baargh! Ahhhrgh!”

He took the brunt of that attack head-on. A countless number of bones in his body were broken.

Seeing that, Elma called to Dorthaunzee after dodging another tentacle. “Hey! It’s time! Call them off!”

Dorthaunzee nodded many times and shut her eyes. She imagined her new savior and how scary he could be, praying that he could save her once more.

Elma, meanwhile, ran into the house and picked Dreks up. She saw the tentacle coming back and rolled out of the way along with Dreks, the assassin yelling and cursing with every forceful move.

“Bitch! You bitch! I’ll kill you— GAH!”

“Shut it.”

Elma had cut off the fingers of his right hand. With the tentacles still going mad behind her and with Dreks over her shoulder, she ran through what seemed like extremely shoddy living quarters until she spotted the door ahead of the two. With one spin to build momentum, she flung Dreks from her shoulder and into the door.

“Guh—BARGH!”

She followed up with a swift kick to Dreks’s abdomen, using his body to break down the door. The assassin, now puking blood, landed on the ground. Elma ran, stepped on him, and then grabbed him by the hair with her disconnected right hand and dragged him along. Behind her, the sounds of destruction were calming down.

“Good job, Dorthaunzee,” Elma said with a chuckle. She glanced at Dreks with a look of disgust and used all the strength in her body to push him ahead of herself. He slid to a stop, and she stepped on his chest with her muddy boot.

Dreks gasped for air. “W-What do you want?”

“I want to know who your employers are. I need names. I’ll tell you the antidot—“

“Minister Fergus and his ilk!” Dreks roared. “Those bastards! This is their fault! Because of them, I’m like this! Burn! Burn you, bastards!”

Dreks looked at Elma with crazed eyes. He didn’t believe her when she denied affiliation with a guild. She must have been an assassin affiliated with some other group. In other words, he was sure she was like him.

“Those bastards didn’t check if the other guilds had a vested interest in the Hero! So take them out! I was just doing my job! They’re all holed up at this address—“

Elma committed the address to memory and stepped off him.

“Get them! Get them while they’re drinking their guilt away! Bastards!”

Elma shook her head at the grotesque man in pain and shock.

“HEY! The antidote!”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Yeah. You have to release my mana.”

“That’s all?!” he asked, barely able to raise his head to see Elma.

“That’s right. The mana targets living things. It’s the ultimate poison against the living.”

Dreks started chuckling. He turned his right palm up to face the sky. “That’s all?” His laugh grew louder as he shot the witherspell mana into the sky. “Gehehehe! I’m going to survive! Hahahaha!”

Elma walked toward where she left Dorthaunzee. She had a little giggle as well. She knew full well it was probably too late for the man. It was one thing to breathe in trace amounts, but to eat and absorb the mana? Directly like that? Elma had never seen a more violent reaction than the one he showed. Too much of her mana probably got into his internal system. She was sure of it. He would need divine intervention to survive. She chuckled again.

“I know the face of divine intervention now, and it doesn’t smile on you.”

Dorthaunzee ran up to Elma as soon as she saw her ally turn the corner.

“Hey,” Elma said. She looked around and noted the tentacles were indeed gone. “Oh? So, Fainn really is that scary, huh?” Elma giggled. “Great... Well, let’s go. We’ve got a party to crash,” Elma said with a sinister smile.