“I have to say that I’m confused.” I admitted. “What is going on here?”
“Hehe… so we have a virgin who hasn’t been sucked before.” The lead girl giggled in a lewd voice.
One of the other girls licked her lips. “He looks tasty.”
“I’m sorry, isn’t this the territory of Lord Deekson?” I tried again.
“This is boss’s territory!” One of the girls shouted.
“Who is Lord Deekson?” Another asked.
“I-I’m sorry to say… he died…” It was the man on the ground who spoke, looking nervously at the girls as he spoke. “These mons… these girls moved in shortly after.”
“Monsters?” I blinked.
Were they some kind of presence from the wilderness that took over in the power vacuum left over?
“You call us monsters! Do you want to be sucked dry?”
“We should stop talking and just finish him off already!”
“I don’t understand…” I shook my head. “Where is Elaya? Astria?”
The man jerked at those names, and the three women suddenly quieted. A dark expression started forming on each of their faces.
“You blasphemer! You dare to use her name!” The leader shouted. “Girls, punish him!”
The man looked at me pitifully and then turned away. I didn’t have time to process anything else, because two of the women lunged at me. I turned; dodging the strikes they made with their claws.
“Fast!” I admired as I watched their hands move past me.
These weren’t common thugs. Their speed and deadliness were clear. They definitely would have put up a challenge for normal guards and soldiers. At my level, however, they were sorely lacking. The two girls slashed again and again with their hands, but with my status, I simply dodged each of their attacks, barely moving each time.
That’s when one of the girls suddenly disappeared and reappeared. That was a phase shift. It was a skill I wouldn’t have expected them to use. I instinctively pulled out Alysia to block her claw coming in from the side, but I was too slow.
“No!” I cursed, but it was too late.
I chopped the hand off of one of the girls. Alysia was just far too sharp.
“S-sorry!” Alysia cried out.
She hadn’t held back her physical cut. As the girl lost her hand, she leaped back. The other did as well. As far as I had come in white mage, I wasn’t at the point of being able to reattach limbs yet. Of course, there was always the option of killing and resurrecting someone, but going to that extent wasn’t good either.
“I’m sorry…” I responded, only to realize that while all three girls were glaring at me, the girl who lost her hand wasn’t reacting like a woman who had her hand cut off.
“You dare…” She growled, holding out the stump.
Suddenly, her hand seemed to reform from nothing. I looked down to see the hand I had chopped off disappeared into white light. Alysia tended to cauterize wounds as soon as she made them, so the lack of blood hadn’t caught me off guard. However, her arm reattached like it was nothing.
“Hehe… do you see now?” The leader grinned defiantly. “You can’t defeat us, puny human. It’s best if you just accept your fate and die!”
I glanced at the three strange women and then nodded. “So, you’re not human after all.”
“Good.” I smiled back. “Then I don’t have to go easy on you anymore.”