CHAPTER 22 - ONE MOVE, ONE BREATH, ONE ON HER KNEES

Not a word. Not a pause. Not even a taunt.

Just... a growl. A beastly breath in her throat. And she charged.

I barely had time to pivot. Her foot crushed the rock where I'd stood a moment earlier. The basalt column behind me exploded on impact, spraying black stone shards mixed with fire.

A wall of heat grazed the back of my neck.

Fuck.

I rolled to the side, bare feet scraping the cracked ground. My bow was already in my hand by pure reflex. A mental arrow flared between my fingers. I fired, aiming at her flank.

She twisted her hip at the last second. The impact made her stagger slightly. A trace of smoke. No blood. No scream.

And already, she was coming again.

— Tch...

I leapt back three times, slicing through the dust like a hunted insect. She followed, each step like a miniature explosion. Her dark skin gleamed under the dim stars, her muscles taut, swollen, saturated with raw energy. A demon in flesh-forged armor.

One single hit, and I'd be crushed.

I could feel it.

Not wounded. Not broken. Just... pulverized.

A high-pitched hiss made me look up. Further back, perched on her rock, the shaman had just opened her arms. Her pale skin was streaked with red runes, and her staff pulsed with light.

A buff.

I saw it. I felt it.

The warrior sped up again. Her foot carved a crater into the ground. My next arrow ricocheted off her thigh, causing no more than a shiver.

I had nothing. No buffs. No armor. Just my reflexes. And this body, still too weak.

I kept backing up. Panting. My back hit a rock.

— Shit...

She was there. Five meters away. Her red eyes locked on me. Her ragged breath. A fine froth at the corner of her lips. A beast, yes, but a beast in trance. Her swollen chest rose with each breath. Her massive breasts, hard like living marble, gleamed with sweat. Her black cloth thong hid nothing of the fury between her thighs. She wanted to kill me. Crush me. Break me between her legs or under her fists, it didn't matter.

She leapt.

I rolled again, just in time. Her fist smashed the stone behind me. A spray of lava burst from a sudden fissure.

And then...

A red glow appeared in the corner of my vision.

[SYSTEM – LUST v2.01]

15 targets eliminated

Reward: +6 levels; +150 shop points

I dove into the mental interface, not even breathing.

[Status]

A black frame popped up, blurry, unstable, but readable:

Available points: 27 (+18)

— All in Speed, I hissed through my teeth. ALL OF IT.

The next instant, a sharp pain tore through my chest, as if my nerves were burning from the inside. My legs buckled... then straightened.

And the world slowed.

Not like in a dream. No. More... raw. More organic. The air thickened. The light shifted to a static red. Even the shaman's distant cry seemed frozen in my neck, suspended between seconds.

And I moved.

My body became a whip. My muscles, a river of black steel. My blood pulsed against my temples as if it wanted to explode.

— ...Ha...

The warrior struck.

A huge fist sliced the air less than a meter from my temple. I dodged with a step. Just one. Not a roll. Not a flip. Just a glide, calculated, precise, mechanical.

She kept going, blind to my transformation.

I pivoted.

My dagger slashed the air, grazing her flank. A ribbon of blood opened beneath her left breast. She grunted... but didn't stop. Not even a flinch.

I stepped back, pushed off, went back in.

A second hit. Thigh. Just above the knee. Blade to skin. Flesh to metal. Blood spurted, redder than the sky.

She countered.

Her foot slammed the ground — and the ground gave way. A crater formed on impact, sending a shockwave that threw me to the side.

I rolled, struggling to regain balance. Fuck.

She was slower now. Or rather... I was faster. Fast enough to see her attacks. To feel them before they arrived.

But every single one of them could've cut me in half.

I slid under a monstrous hook. My torso brushed against her breasts, swollen, tense, slick with sweat and rage. Her breath burned my neck. I felt a drop of saliva fall on my shoulder, hot like acid.

And I slashed her belly.

A fine line, just below her abs. She didn't scream. She growled. And spun, following with an elbow strike.

I barely dodged. The wind gust lifted my hair, dust smearing my lips.

The ground had become a ruin field. Every strike she launched dug a trench, a fault, a tectonic howl. Fire rose from the cracks. The heat was becoming unbearable. It was a battlefield. And me, naked, sweating, bleeding... still too slow.

I wounded. I cut. I inflicted the dagger's passive skill, bleeding. But she... she never stopped.

Her breasts swung with the violence of her blows, magnificent, brutal, stained with my blood and hers. Her gaze never wavered. Not once. She was a wall. A fucking wall of muscle and hate.

My breathing grew shorter. My vision wavered.

My legs... heavier.

And she kept hitting.

A punch. A blast. I rolled. She jumped on me.

I dodged by a hair. She shattered a stele behind me. Flaming rocks flew around us.

— Fuck... fuck... FUCK...

I backed away. Again. My back hit a basalt wall. My chest heaved, burning. My bow was useless. My dagger slipped in my palm, soaked with sweat and blood.

She kept coming. Always. Each step like a war drum.

The shaman raised her arms to the sky — and the sky went dark.

Not a metaphor. The light withdrew.

The embers died in a single breath, the heat was swallowed, and the air itself seemed to wrap around her like a robe of ink. Every dust swirl, every drop of blood hanging in the air was sucked toward her presence. Her long, gaunt body arched backward in a trance pose. Her pale skin covered in glowing red runes, pulsing to the beat of an invisible heart.

A war incantation.

The succubus stepped back slightly, a smirk on her lips.

The warrior, still standing, panting, straightened once more. Her body dripped with blood, but her eyes didn't flinch. She was about to charge. Again. One last time.

And I was going to die.

I knew it.

I couldn't move anymore. My legs shook. My dagger nearly slipped from my fingers.

Then...

A blade flashed in the silence.

Just behind the shaman.

A pale hand. A black dagger. Silver hair.

And a cold, relentless voice:

— One more move, and she dies.

Sae. Finally.

She was there. Upright. Silent. In a black dress, slit up to the hip. Her body glistened with a fine sheen of sweat, clinging to her bare thighs, arched waist, and the base of her breasts. But her eyes... they were no longer soft. No longer confused.

They were empty. Precise.

The shaman didn't move. Her incantation stopped dead. The air returned suddenly, like the universe gasping. The ground stopped trembling.

The warrior, three steps ahead of me, made the mistake.

She looked away.

Just one second.

One fucking second.

I sprang from the ground like a beast. My hand struck her throat with a sharp backhand. My dagger slid under her chin, slit her trachea, sank into flesh like soaked leather.

She tried to scream. Too late.

Blood gushed, hot, thick, pulsing with each heartbeat.

Her legs buckled.

Her arms dropped.

She stepped back... once... twice... then dropped to her knees, eyes still fixed, as if she didn't understand. Then collapsed on her side, slowly choking on her own open throat.

A rattle. Then nothing.

I stood there, bare-chested, covered in blood, breathing hard. Blade dripping in one hand. And in the other... nothing. Just certainty. Only two remained.

I walked. One step. Then another.

The shaman remained frozen, her throat pressed under Sae's blade. Her body trembled slightly. As if she knew.

But the other one...

The succubus.

She wasn't fleeing. She stared at me. Motionless. Bare-chested, her heavy and perfect breasts glistening with sweat in the rekindled firelight. Her dark skin swallowed the ambient glow. Her hips shifted slowly, in an almost imperceptible wave. A tongue flick. A shimmer in her eyes.

She was smiling.

Her lips parted. A whisper. A vibration.

I felt the impact instantly.

My head exploded. A vertigo. A burning, sliding, sweet vertigo.

My vision blurred. My legs gave out.

I dropped to my knees.

Her face leaned slightly into view. She was gorgeous. Obscenely radiant, invincible. She whispered things without speaking. I felt her tongue on my neck. Her claws between my legs. Her breath inside my skull.

It was...

— No.

A red light flashed in my peripheral vision.

[SYSTEM – LUST v2.01]

Minor Lust Spell detected.

Passive immunity activated: mind domination canceled.

A chill ran down my spine. The mental fog shattered all at once, like a mirror under fire. My mind cleared. My jaw clenched.

I slowly raised my head.

The succubus stepped back with a gasp.

— You really think you can still reach me... you? I said, smiling, teeth bloodied.

She lost her smile.

I turned to Sae.

— Kill her.

— Yes.

Her voice was flat. Sharp.

The blade slid across the shaman's throat without resistance. A single gesture. A single breath.

No scream.

The body crumpled to the ground like a sack of hollow bones.

I stood up. Wiped my dagger on my bare thigh.

And took one more step toward the succubus.

She, for the first time... stepped back.

She had fallen to her knees.

The succubus — this queen of flesh, power, and lust — was now a trembling silhouette, retreating slowly into dust and blood, her hips scraping the rock, her clawed hands reaching behind to gain a few more inches of distance.

Her enormous breasts jolted with each ragged breath. Her dark skin was covered in ash, her thighs spread under half-torn fabric. She no longer looked like a goddess. Just a hunted beast.

And me, naked, marked, bow drawn, I walked toward her.

My steps crushed the tracks of those I had killed. My arrow needed no command. It waited. Charged. Ready to lodge between her eyes — or her breasts, for the final humiliation.

She slowly raised her head.

Her eyes landed on me.

And something changed.

A shiver. A twitch. A sudden stupor.

— ...No, she breathed. I... I don't...

Her throat quivered. She backed up again, on her knees, butt on her heels, pelvis open against her will, exposed and terrified.

— Who... are you?

I didn't answer right away.

I let the silence settle. The wind lifted her grimy hair. A drop of sweat slid between her breasts, lost in the dust.

And I finally spoke.

— It's been a long time...

I paused.

— ...Nyss.

She froze.

— What...?

— You were in the East, once. The Hero's advisor. The one who offered her body, her mouth, her ass... in exchange for power. You didn't even look at me. You said I was too weak.

I crouched slowly, keeping the bow drawn, the arrow pointed between her wide eyes.

— You said I was "useless."

— I... I never saw you, she whispered, breath trembling. I... I don't know who you are.

— I know.

I smiled.

— That's why I'm going to kill you slowly.

She raised a hand, palm out. Begging. A drop of blood welled under her left eye.

— No. Wait. I... I can be useful... I can... teach you things. I can—

I tightened the string.

And then...

A red light blinked at the edge of my vision. A silent whisper etched itself into my skull, like a divine truth only I could hear.

[SYSTEM – LUST v2.01]

Active Mission: Form a Bond with Nyss

Rewards: — +1000 shop ponts;— +9 free points

Failure: no penalty

I froze. Bow still drawn, string taut, eyes locked on the kneeling succubus. She saw nothing. Not the system. Not the mission. Not the fact that her life now hung by a single line of text only I could see.

She breathed fast. Too fast. Her chest heaved against her ribcage, each gasp distorting her heavy, filthy, perfect breasts. Her knees were buried in dust. Her nervous tail whipped the ground. But her eyes... still searched for understanding.

— Are... are you going to kill me? she stammered.

I didn't answer.

I stared at her face, her parted lips, her cheeks streaked with dried blood, and I looked beyond. I looked at the memory. Her. That treacherous bitch. That luxury whore who, in my first life, saw me as a pawn. A distraction. A toy thrown to the others.

And now? She crawled in the ash. Naked. At my feet.

I released the bow. Slowly. Just enough to make the string creak.

She flinched.

— You... you want... to keep me? Keep me alive?

She understood nothing. Absolutely nothing. The system, the bond, the reward. What she saw was a man standing, naked, bloodied, muscles taut from war... and his gaze. Cold. Absolute.

I took a step. Then another.

She crawled back on her knees. Her ass slid in the dust, her breasts bounced, her mouth opened to plead again.

I knelt right in front of her.

My cock nearly brushed her forehead. She held her breath.

I took her chin between two fingers, slowly. Firmly.

I lifted her face to mine.

And I whispered:

— You want to live?

Her eyes widened. A tear slid down her dark cheek.

She nodded faintly. An animal submission, almost instinctive.

I leaned toward her ear. My lips brushed her hot skin.

— Then you're going to belong to me.

I felt her breath hitch.

I stood back up. Naked. Bloodied. Triumphant.

And I finished, without a shred of mercy:

— Body and soul.