Hehe, suffer!


    “Agnis? What are you doing?”


    It was early in the morning and Giana approached me. I was currently layering illusions on the adventurers to give them nightmares.


    Uh, nothing.


    “Don’t go overboard, ok?” She said as she gave me a bewitching smile.


    Uh right…


    Jokes aside, these adventurers need to go, not only will they die if this goes on, they will also be a huge pain in the ass while doing so. So, I hope giving them nightmares about dying horribly will scare them off, also it’s payback for their bullshit.


    I got a better look at our problem a bit later. It was a triple encirclement. They weren''t messing around. Judging by the shape of it, they wanted us to go toward Denga to the south.


    Right, so you’re all wondering why I’ve gathe…


    A random adventurer interrupted me. “Get to the point!”


    Wow ok asshole! Probably jelly that you couldn’t talk to Noelle last night!


    “Wha… how did you know!”


    I know everything!


    “Tss, troublesome little brother.”


    Oh, so you want to get your ass kicked!


    I readied a [Fireball] and targeted the adventurer for some ass kicking.


    “Agnis, calm down, what did you want to say?” Giana said, calming me down.


    Right, since you guys are so stubborn and don’t want to leave, we will go with Plan B! You guys will go bring the idols to safety and I will use trickery to fool the encirclement and lure them away! Any questions? Yes, no? Ok let’s go with that plan!


    “Wait! You can’t go alone! We will go with you!”


    Giana… this doesn’t work if the ones they’re after are coming with me.


    “But don’t you need a healer for when things go wrong?”


    Ok you have a fair point but things are certainly going wrong if I bring their target with me…


    “Noelle will be there too.”


    Noelle, please help me convince Giana.


    “I agree with her! We can’t let you go alone.” Noelle said, although it didn’t seem as she had been fully following this verbal exchange.


    Why!?


    Noelle closed in. “Did you forget what made Giana cry 4 days ago?”


    Yes.


    Noelle gave me a tired stare.


    But that’s not going to happen again!


    “How are you so sure? You aren’t, right? That’s why you’re sending us off to safety.”


    It would’ve been better in this case if you were stupid… but this is counterproductive!


    “Guys, Noelle’s little brother wants to sacrifice himself for us while we run away in safety! What do you think?”


    Giana?


    The adventurers raised their weapons to the sky. “Absolutely not!”


    “Protect the little brother!”


    You guys are insane…


    “There you have it, bring us with you or nothing happens!” Giana stuck out her tongue.


    Fine let’s all get killed then!


    The adventurers all cheered.


    Don’t cheer for that! Ugh my old friend is back.


    “Who?”


    Headache.


    We kept going and the encirclement tightened. Giana kept an eye on me, so I couldn’t sneak off or create illusions.


    This is such a pain. It’s worse because I don’t know how good her Elgards eyes are, she might be bluffing by just keeping a watch on me.


    Enemies broke out of the encirclement from the north, they must want to drive us south. I got up and started shooting [Frost Arrows] with Windglass tips. I got some satisfying kills, but they weren’t enough. It slowed them down, but not by much. I knew they weren''t bandits, so why were they disguised as them?


    “We’re under attack” The adventurers reacted but ran into the magic attacks they couldn’t see.


    Ugh, idiots.


    I jumped on the ground and calibrated myself with the leyline energy. 11.2% affinity, 7.6% authority. Not bad. I used [Water Dragon Dance] to abduct the adventurers and move them away from the onslaught of magic attacks that were flying at us. I could see how skilled our attackers were. None of these attacks would hit a wagon. They were intentionally missing to drive us south.


    Giana was tending to wounded adventurers. Healers are the heart of the group; we are screwed if Giana falls.


    I guess we’re back to ‘Protect the president’ but since we have a healer means I can be as reckless as possible! I grinned and rubbed my hands when I got pulled in by a tail.


    “Absolutely not! I know what you’re thinking!” Giana said after pulling me in.


    About salmon?


    “About doing something reckless!”


    A mind reader?


    I thought about Giana’s figure.


    “Aww, so you like my figure!”


    I was taken aback.  Wait you really are reading my mind?


    “Oh, not exactly, after effects of [Empathic bond], it’s not mind reading, but it comes close.”


    That is so overpowered… wait that means…


    “Yup! Not gonna happen!”


    Ugh, my race is so overpowered…


    “But you’re right, the humans can’t see these attacks; we have to split up from them and have them flee. And no, it’s not better if you go alone!”


    Fine! You win! Noelle stop grinning, we’re going to lure these stalkers away from the humans!


    “Finally, some action!” Noelle cracked her knuckles and her mana started to surge.


    I placed the humans under the illusion that we fought off the bandits and continued our trip. I wanted to put our stalkers under illusions, but if they know Giana is a 9t, they should have measures against illusions. The question is, what do they want from her.


    Right, this might be a bad idea, but we''re going south.


    The chicks got picked up with water dragons and I used [Waterfall].


    The chicks smelled nice, sounded nice and Giana, who was pressing herself into me, felt nice. Zen Agnis requested another holiday, which got declined as I needed to stay focused.


    Giana was staring. “Oh, I didn’t know you could dance too.”


    I can’t, I need these movements to keep this going.


    “Hmm, so this is quite different from Giana, you’re fast, and she is slow.”


    “Noelle! You’re not particularly fast either!”


    So, 2 slow chicks want to lure stalkers away from humans, what could go possibly wrong?


    “Nothing! We have you to protect us!”


    “You mean he will protect you! I will protect my little brother!”


    I am already tired…  I said as I rolled my eyes.


    These chicks talked a lot. I tried to tune out, but Giana noticed when I did. So i got forced to contribute and steer the conversation in a direction that’s interesting.


    So, Noelle, can you stop blocking my teleports? I’ve tried to teleport out multiple times.


    “Huh, I’m not blocking your teleports, why would I?”


    Uh oh.


    I looked around, whatever is doing this has an enormous range. Is it a Dimsha? This whole idea became worse by the second.


    So 7t are good in defense, right?


    “Yup! I’m not joking when I say I’m going to protect you for Giana’s sake!”


    Aha. In that case!


    I disconnected from the leyline currents and caught Giana, since she was light. Noelle landed successfully with a loud stomp, I located my targets and flashed 3 magic circles.


    “What was that magic, those magic circles were crazy fast!” Noelle said, as she was creating a road on this rocky terrain.


    “Agnis what did you do?”


    Not much just a small present for our stalkers.


    The sky started to brighten and one of my favorite fire magic skills parted the clouds.


    “[Meteor]?!” Giana said as she tied her hair in a ponytail.


    Not one but 3!


    Noelle stomped. “Hey! Isn’t this overkill? Protecting you from 3 [Meteors] is a bit much to ask!”


    Oh, you don’t need to protect me, you need to protect Giana.


    “Ooh I wonder how they will get out of this!” Giana said.


    I assume she was also observing how the stalkers were dealing with this.


    “Ugh, you 9t are all the same!”


    A [Meteor] was getting dissolved. Another one got pushed back, and the last one dropped and the impact could be felt from here.


    Ah the fresh smell of [Meteor] in the morning!


    “It feels a bit therapeutic, yeah.”


    Noelle emerged from some cool crystal armor. “You two are perfect for each other… I feel like a fool for worrying, don’t you 2 have stupid high fire resistances?”


    “Ah, yeah.”


    Hmm, that didn’t seem to do much, what are these guys. Then again, they are trying to catch a 9t. They should expect a [Meteor] or two.


    “Really? I never saw Giana use [Meteor].”


    Wasn’t her attack power like 0?


    “Hey! I can do damage!” She shot an [Ice spike] at me, but I detected that it had 0 firepower. It hit me and did no damage. “Wha?”


    “I’m sorry Giana, if you can’t even damage your race, which is known for being squishy, then you’re not doing damage at all. Agnis want to find out if my punch hurts?”


    No thanks, I’m sure it hurts like hell.


    I tried to figure out what they were planning with this formation. When something popped up.


    Say, what did your management think of the fan mail that admired your spirit?


    “That it happens all the time and that we should ignore it.”


    I had to walk slowly as these chicks were extremely slow. Are they cursed?


    What do you know about spirits?


    Giana shook her head and her ponytail danced. “I don’t know. I’ve never met one.”


    Do you know that our race falls under ‘Spirit’?


    She stopped and I put my hand on her back to ensure she kept walking. “Huh really?”


    Yes, I know right! I had the same reaction!


    “But, it’s right there, nine tailed  spirit  fox…”


    Giana and I looked at Noelle as if she was crazy. “You know what never mind go bond more over your race.”


    So how I see this, they are quite literal in admiring your spirit, I first thought that these stalkers were something else but now I think they are spirit mages.


    “What did you think they were then?”


    Uhh, doesn’t matter… but all is good they’re just spirit mages that want to force you into a spirit contract or something!


    “But is that even possible? I’m a vixen.”


    Yes, and a spirit, I don’t blame you, it also took me a while to accept that I’m a spirit.


    “This is ridiculous… it’s like not knowing I can use crystals…” Noelle sighed and tried to speed up.


    “But won’t they come after you too then?”


    They don’t know I’m a 9t. That’s why I wanted to lure them away because I will be fine.


    “I can’t risk it!” She said as she ran at me and locked arms with me.


    Ugh, stop being so sweet, I need to ditch you 2 so you can make it back safely.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Zen Agnis applied for a paid leave. It would be nice if Zen Agnis could stay here until I get these idols to safety. This is the first time I’ve had this much trouble dealing with women. Is it because my racial traits have locked in? I looked at Giana, who seemed quite happy and tried to keep ‘Raishin Thoughts’ out.


    “Do I need to make a room for you two?” Noelle asked with an annoying grin on her face.


    Luckily for me, something required me to focus.


    Oh, something is coming.


    A crystal wall blocked the strange [Lightning Bolts].


    Nice! You guys go that way! I will go this way!


    Giana pounced on me. “Stop trying to ditch us!” Giana caught me in a headlock.


    Owowow that hurts! Wait it doesn’t? How low is your attack power? I will just lure them away!


    “No! you’re not luring them away from us! We are safer together!”


    Stop being so selfless and protecting me! you have a concert in several days I assume, shouldn’t you focus on your career and get that done?


    “Hmm, she’s actually quite selfish, and it’s a good thing she found something she values more than her career.” Noelle stomped and made a strange crystal pyramid.


    Noelle pointed. “So, these are the things she finds important, this here is sleep, this here is clothes and food, this up here is us and her career on the top. But now!” She dropped a rock on the top of the pyramid.


    Noelle pointed at the rock. “This is you!”


    I’m a rock?


    “You are a rock for not understanding the analogy yes!”


    Well, I get it, thank you but this rock wants you to ehh continue being able to have ‘the rock’ on top and for that you need to stay alive, so shoo let ‘the rock’ solve this.


    Giana kept up her headlock. “No! I’m staying with you!”


    My race is such a pain in the ass…


    “I agree!”


    I focused, and we ran to a cave I spotted in a mountain. And when I say we ran, I mean I ran, I had to use [Water Dragon Dance] to carry them inside because both of them were very slow. It was as if they were running in slow motion. I tried to check if they had the [Slow] debuff on them but Giana caught me, and they found it rude that I thought they had the [Slow] debuff.


    “Why did we run into a cave if we’re surrounded?”


    We will give them the slip here. This is a cave complex. Can you dig silently? They will think we’re in the cave complex but in reality, we will dig to the magma chamber below us and escape from there.


    Noelle narrowed her eyes. “And why would this idea come up? Have you used this idea before?”


    Nope!


    “So why a magma chamber?”


    Because they will have difficulties following us there if they find us?


    “Ok let’s go!” Giana started a short dance that boosted earth magic.


    “Hey wait a second there Giana… magma chambers are hot and hostile…”


    “Yes, I know.”


    See! Giana understands! Start digging!


    “I really need to keep an eye on you two…” Noelle started digging and I was impressed.


    She made sturdy pillars and arches at intervals in the tunnel she was digging. She will probably give Yttroz a run for their money, it didn’t look like a tunnel at all but a fancy corridor, there was one problem though…


    I know that stability and order is your thing, but the point of this is to fill the hole up behind us and to make sure they don’t find out we went down here, this is basically pointing them directly at us.


    “But! You’re right…”


    It’s your nature, I know…


    Noelle stomped and the tunnel collapsed behind us, it somehow still collapsed in a quite orderly fashion. I am not sure if an orderly collapsed tunnel is going to fool them… This might be the reason why 7t and 9t are a strong combo, the 7t are the order to the 9t’s chaos and vice versa. Blowing up this tunnel might have been a bit more convincing.


    “It is starting to get hot in here…” Noelle fanned herself while digging orderly so I made a [Frost cloak] around her. “Thanks!”


    We made it to the magma chamber. Noelle made a rocky foothold to which she and Giana landed on, but I landed on the magma.


    “Agnis!”


    What? I’m immune to magma!


    “Oh, he’s right, this isn’t so bad.” Giana said, as she had also jumped on the magma.


    “You foxes and your stupidly high fire resistances…”


    Heh, jealous?


    “My overall resistances are way higher than you!”


    Not my fault we’re squishy!


    Noelle pointed at me and then at Giana. “You mean you’re squishy! Giana is not!”


    Huh how does that work?


    “She is sturdier than I am!” Noelle said proudly.


    Hmm interesting another anomaly I see.


    “Well, I am not a pure spirit fox, but that isn’t important, what are we going to do now?”


    We run!


    Giana cocked her head. “Run? How?”


    Right, I mean I will run, Giana can you hold my waist with one of your tail and grab Noelle with another, try to always keep yourselves facing forward with your heads pointing up.


    “That is awfully specific, you haven’t done this before did you?” Giana asked as I felt her Elgards eyes on me.


    Uhh, perhaps, we are light so we don’t have to necessarily obey to gravity, but turning you two into milkshakes is also a bad idea.


    “So, this is going to happen? Lil bro is going to run over lava?”


    Unless you want to tunnel us through the magma


    Noelle stomped, moved some magma to the side and observed how it flowed back to its original position. “So, let’s get going then!”


    Giana grabbed me and Noelle.


    Oh, these could use a brush.


    The Elgards eyes gaze on me increased. “You brush your tails?”


    Uhh yeah? You don’t?


    “I do, but I can’t get it to how I want.”


    Uhh, probably not your fault. Let’s go!


    I started to run over the magma with a bias toward the south.


    “So how many times have you ran over magma before?” Noelle asked after scooping up some magma and confirming its temperature.


    Uhm, there was Boshi town, multiple times in Fernys, was there anything after that? I don’t think so. Fernys was every day for a month or something. So, enough times, I guess?


    “And are we going toward Gittrian?”


    Uhm, not really, there is a large cave that may or may not have collapsed between Gittrian and the Aurelia river. I don’t know how large that one is, but I want to avoid it, so my plan is to go south, pop out from under the ocean and bring you back to Gittrian from there.


    “So, another time you ran over magma then!”


    Well, that was different!


    I kept being interrogated about strange activities I may or may not have done.


    Hmm chatting time is over, so there is good news and bad news.


    “Isn’t everything always bad news with you? It seems that way to me.” Noelle said as she started flinging magma.


    Ok that is a fair point Giana, how about this there is bad news and worse news!


    “That’s the bad news over there!” Noelle pointed at some figures that were following us, they looked quite strange, like half human half monster.


    Oh yes, that’s the bad news, the worse news is that they have adjusted their encirclement and it now also spans underground and in the air. If you two have a secret escape plan, now is the time!


    Noelle cracked her knuckles. “How about we beat them up!?” I’m starting to wonder if Noelle is a muscle head.


    “How about diving in the magma?”


    Beating them up is rejected, it will take forever, and the objective is to keep you two safe, diving in the magma… not a bad plan but our mobility… my mobility will drop considerably and that would most certainly get us caught. The best idea is for me to lu...


    I got hit by another headlock. “Give up on that idea! I won’t let go until you do!” I tried to focus on escaping, Giana’s headlocks were quite… soft. Is this a 9t seduction technique I don’t know about?


    “Giana, you do know you’re rubbing your chest in his face when you do that, right?”


    “I don’t care!”


    I was right, it probably is some strange technique I don’t know about. Charm users are so dangerous.


    I guess beating them up it is, then, what are your specialties?


    “Earth magic, crystals and punching! But in adventurers'' terms, I’m probably an Iron Wall!”


    “Water magic, support singing and dancing, I would be a Golden Angel I think.”


    So, both are super tanky, slow and do no damage, great. So why did you want to fight again?


    I hopped over some rocks and took a sharp turn. I messed up and Noelle crashed into the rocky corner, but it seemed as if she hardly noticed. “I can do damage if you hit me with your foxfire or something!”


    Uhh burning my allies isn’t my hobby.


    “Don’t worry! Have a skill that makes me use attacks of my allies as my own! Works especially good if I fight with 9t!” Noelle told me about her race’s specialty [Polygonic Armament].


    Ah right you guys get stupidly OP when fighting with us, I guess this might work. You can let go of me now, Giana.


    “No!” The headlock intensified.


    Ugh, fine, don’t blame me if I make silly mistakes then.


    Noelle handled defense and Giana was uhm… singing? Never mind her songs seemed to provide buffs and I knew she was an idol, but holy shit this chick can sing.


    “I can’t really use water magic here, but I can assist with my voice. What buffs do you need besides speed?” She said while continuing to sing.


    It appears that she doesn''t have just one voice but multiple. Singing and talking at the same time can be considered a cheat skill, right?


    A very beautiful voice indeed, don’t mind me, just keep assisting Noelle, I will be picking up speed in a bit.


    “Wait, you can go faster than this?”


    Let me demonstrate.


    My shoes were toast anyway since I was walking on lava, so [Accel Step] wouldn’t be an issue, and I started to accelerate and summoned [Ignis].


    Go get them buddy!


    Ignis, the magma snake, tried to attack and instantly got blasted to pieces. Ignis had a terrible win rate. I had actually forgotten about him and hadn’t improved him.


    Well, that was awkward…


    “Leave them to me!” Noelle created various [Magma Waves], earth and crystal pillars, or just made parts of the chamber collapse to hinder and block the path of our pursuers.


    I left a [Flame wave] behind, and this one seemed to severely burn those that got hit.


    “That fire magic was extremely potent, you melted that jerk''s face off!” Noelle seemed oddly excited by the power of a regular fire spell.


    That''s what [Flame Waves] tend to do…


    Giana sent a [Flame wave] and it only singed some eyebrows.


    Well, you guys have 0 firepower, so that was a poor example!


    Noelle face tanked a [Flame wave] an enemy sent at her and pointed at herself, showing she was unscathed.


    Yes, and you are tanky as fuck so that doesn''t count either! You know what? I should have expected this! Ok this is the plan, we go back up, we reduce their numbers, and then go to Gittrian. I will have my clone lure them away, I stress and repeat, my clone will lure them away. Is that, ok?


    “That is fine.” Noelle said as she sent out [Magma Punches] at the stalkers.


    “As long as we stick together.”


    Selfish chicks… either way, I understand why they do this. I think. There isn’t much left from Hourai and people from Hourai do tend to stick together. It is just not always efficient. I tried to use [Ignis] again. He survived for a bit longer and got blasted to pieces. It’s mean toward [Ignis] but he’s quite useless…


    32 individuals were following us at the moment. All using some form of spirit magic. I didn’t know much about spirit magic, even though I should, but I was sure that spirit mages fight differently. They have spirit tethers wrapped around them, but they turn red right before they enter their bodies. There is so much wrong with this


    My hypothesis is that they do some form of reverse possession, judging by the spirit tethers, this isn’t good for the spirit. Some sort of parasitic symbiosis.


    I got shivers through my spine.


    I have changed my mind a bit. Giana, if push comes to shove, I will ditch you guys and lure them away, something possibly worse than death will wait you if they catch you.


    “What? Why? What is worse than dea…”


    I swerved because some stalkers appeared in front of us. I should have moved more carefully as my head was almost completely buried in Giana’s chest due to this. If I didn’t know better, I would think she is doing this on purpose and sabotaging me. How am I supposed to focus like this?


    More stalkers appeared and another swerve. Giana didn’t keep herself and Noelle stable, so they got flung around. Giana was still holding on to Noelle and me with her tails.


    Sorry about that, Noelle can you bust a hole through the ceiling in a bit. I’m going to drown these stalkers. And Giana… please, I can’t focus like this.


    “Drown them in a magma chamber? I want to see that!” Giana said, completely ignoring my request and leaking dangerous pink energy. 9t are such a pain in the ass.


    I had to connect to the underground leyline current and used a weak [Drowning Pulse]. The water evaporated instantly and slowly drove up the humidity.


    “Are going to drown them with steam?”


    Nope they would wish that was my plan.


    I had to stay in the same area to make this effective. These stalkers might have heat resistance, but it doesn’t protect them from secondary effects created by the heat. I created veils around Noelle and Giana and tried to get out of this headlock.


    I drove the humidity up and up. The stalkers started to cough and choke. The insides of their lungs were one of the coolest place on their bodies, and that’s where all the water would condense, filling up their lungs with fluid. Some stalkers seemed to have a high body temperature so they were immune to this effect, but I still took out 28 stalkers like this.


    Science rocks! So, can you let go n…


    “They really did drown… not like how I expected, though.” Giana said and buffed my speed.


    Not many people protect their insides from outside factors.


    I made peace with the fact that she wasn’t going to let go. I don’t think that the ‘I can’t see’ excuse would work…


    “Well, because doing that doesn’t make any sense, normally… So, it is possible to still deal damage with water without attacking… Do you mind if I copy some of your water techniques and ideas?”


    I don’t mind, go ahead, feel free to copy and steal anything if it can keep you alive.


    “Oho, so she is allowed to steal you to stay alive?”


    Noelle, please… can you get us to the surface?


    “I need to stomp on something.” I made a frost cube and swapped it with a stalker.


    Stomp on him.


    “Eww no! I’m not in those kinds of things! I need to stomp on some rocks or earth, even magma would work!”


    Ah.


    I used [Kryokym] on the stalker and tossed him at another stalker.


    Well get to it Giana, you’re holding her.


    A patch of rocks could be seen in the distance and I headed over to them.


    So about this headlock, is it really necessary?


    "I don''t want you to do weird stuff and leave us behind." I sighed.


    "She means risky stuff you nine-tailed foxes like to do, and she has all reason to after seeing how you lived your life up until now."


    "Yeah… I''m surprised that you are still alive…" somehow the headlock turned into a hug. "Can you promise to be careful?"


    I didn''t know what to do in this situation. Being careful sounds good on paper, but that generally doesn''t work for me, especially not now that I need to "Protect the President", a team dynamic greatly changes when a healer is around. As long as you don''t get one shot and instantly die, you can be as reckless as you can get away with, which would be perfect in this situation. As long as I keep Giana safe, I can do whatever is needed to get the job done, however I don''t know if I should say this to her. Giana tightened her hug in response to my silence.


    We need to keep going, I will do my best.


    This   answer seemed to satisfy her enough, and she let go.


    "So, when is the wedding?" Noelle asked while looking at us with a smirk.


    Less talking, more digging! Get us up to the surface!


    Giana flung Noelle at a protruding rock, who stomped after she landed. It created a platform, and the shockwave made the ceiling above her crumble. The rock cleared away and created a tunnel lined with light purple crystals.


    One [Waterspout] coming up! Keep your head, limbs and tails inside because we’re going fast!


    I jumped next to Noelle on the platform. Giana grabbed her and I made the movements for [Waterspout] and we went up.