BXBX NOVEL Chapter 5 - 5 Succubi
Chapter 5: Succubi
He took one step forward, and squinted his eyes in an overly dramatic manner;
"You will rue the day you met me. Trust me on that."
Deepening his voice further, he uttered the final word;
"GO."
The death and destruction all around, the black towering pillars of smoke rising steadily, and the burning trees, all served as a reminder to what they had just witnessed. Wasting no time, the leader and his men jumped up with a quickness.
As they took off, they fell upon each other in their haste- before the crazy fire-splitting-dude could change his mind and waste them. They did not even bother with the horses anymore. They simply wanted to be out of his sight, and out of his mind.
In silence, they made their way northtward, and did not speak a word until they had put a significant number of miles between them and Nexus.
Finally, a brown bearded fat man broke the ice.
"So much for going succubus hunting. What a fuckin\' waste of time!"
Some bloke answered him from the back;
"Shut your hole Felipe. Don\'t think I didn\'t see you pissing your pants back there."
He grunted a reply;
"Suck my dick Ranger."
The yellow haired man cut in; "Both ya\'ll shut the hell up. This ain\'t the time for bickering. We\'ve got absolutely nothing to show for all our work. . ."
"Aye, we chased that damn succubus across the forest for fuck sakes! I had to piss with you bastards watching me!"
"Nobody wants to see that peanut you call a cock Ranger. Don\'t flatter yourself."
Some light bickering sparked up, and then died down again when someone finally asked a constructive question;
"Say boss, what\'s the move? We really gon cut our losses? Was that all for nothing?"
The leader who had been quiet all this while suddenly stopped mid stride, and turned towards his men. The whole band came to a halt as well, waiting on the words to fall from his mouth.
"Of course not boys. . .of course not. . ."
Back at the clearing, Nexus was left alone with the succubus.
Still perched up against the tree, the rescued girl could not take her eyes off this mysterious stranger. Overwhelmed by a deep, and profound sense of gratitude, the girl\'s chest tightened in nervousness as she watched Nexus sweep through the horizon with a powerful gaze, trying to discern if the hunters had truly gone.
Visibility had been hampered by the collateral damage from the battle. The skyline was mildly darkened by the black funnel-like smoke emanating from the inferno, causing a kind of temporal eclipse. The wind swept up the smoldering ambers from the burning trees, filling the air with a slightly aromatic smell of burning herbs.
Determined to express her gratitude, despite still being weak from the exhausting encounter from the past few days, the girl struggled to drop to her knees;
"I owe you my life... I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am..."
Her voice came out weak, low and barely audible.
"... thank you kind stranger... thank you... you saved my life... t-t-thank youuu."
Her head bowed low, she began to whimper. Nexus only knew she was weeping when her shoulders started to tremble.
Touched by how vulnerable she looked, Nexus\' eyelids dropped in compassion;
"It\'s alright now. Conserving your strength should be your top priority, you don\'t need to say anything."
She shook her head mournfully; "No sir, you have to realize how grateful I am! I haven\'t had anyone got to the bat for me like this, least of all from a human."
"Come on now, not all humans are terrible."
"Oh no, please I didn\'t mean it like that." She looked up at him with tear filled eyes; "I\'ve already been told by my folks that there might be some humans that would show kindness to a succubus..."
She lowered her gaze shyly;
"I just never thought I would meet one that\'s all. Forgive me if I meant any disrespect."
Nexus waved it off;
"Oh none at all. Here, let me help you up."
He crouched down, lowering himself to her level; "There- that\'s it, easy now. Do you feel any pain anywhere?"
The girl\'s face turned bright red as she blushed hard at the way Nexus was making a fuss over her.
Nexus took notice of how flushed she looked, and was immediately apprehensive, mistakening to be a symptom of some kind of medical emergency;
"Okay miss you really shouldn\'t be talking, I think you need to lie down right away."
She watched him keenly as he hastily gathered some dry leaves to prop up her head as a makeshift pillow. She still couldn\'t believe a human was showing a succbus like her genuine kindness.
She made to open her mouth to say thank you again, but Nexus held up his finger to her mouth.
"I already told you to try your best not to speak for now. There\'ll be time a plenty for conversations later on."
He stood up; "I need to go check the surrounding for any water, or herbs, and also to make sure this spot is secure. I\'ll be back in a jiffy alright?"
Wide eyed, the succubus nodded.
She listened as Nexus footsteps bounded off into the bushes, echoing and echoing, until the sound trailed off completely. What a phenomenal human- she thought.
Coincidentally, Nexus just so happened to be also thinking along that same line. As he ruminating on how extraordinary this girl was, the system\'s intrusive voice came sounding in his ears, taking him by surprise;
[CONGRATULATIONS NEXUS.]
Nexus seriously doubted if he would ever get used to the incredibly insane manner with which the Dual Cultivation system usually crept up on him;
"For heavens sake, would it kill you knock or something? You tryina give me a heart attack?!"
[THIS MISSION HAS BEEN SUCESSFULLY MARKED AS COMPLETE.]
[THE SUCCUBUS HAS BEEN SUCESSFULLY RESCUED.]
Nexus shrugged indifferently. He really did not see it as an accomplishment. It was something he would have done, with or without the system\'s go ahead.
[STANDBY FOR MISSION LOG:]
[NUMBER OF CASUALTIES: ELEVEN MALES.]
[COLLATERAL DAMAGE: MEDIUM.]
[TIME TAKEN FOR INITIAL RESCUE: THREE MINUTES, SEVENTEEN SECONDS.]
[EXPERIENCE LEVEL: UPDATED BY THREE PERCENT.]
[STAMINA: INCREASED BY THREE PERCENT.]
[SWORD SKILLS: INCREASED BY SEVEN PERCENT.]
Nexus could not stiffle his laughter.
"This has got to be some kind of joke right? A WATER GOURD?"
[AFFIRMATIVE.]
"Thanks for such a thoughtful reward, but I think I\'m good. I\'m not about to---"
A quick thought crossed his mind;
"Hold on, could I maybe trade it in for some gold instead? I think that would be fair considerin---"
[NEGATIVE.]
No surprise there, the system did not read the implied sarcasm.
[TO GAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING YOUR REWARD, ISSUE THE COMMAND PROMPT \'PROCEED.\']
"Sure, why not. PROCEED."
[ITEM: WATER GOURD.]
[CLASS: MAGIC ARTIFACT.]
Nexus\' attention level spiked immediately.
[FUNCTION: THIS OBJECT IS AN ELEMENTAL CONDUIT, USED PRIMARILY FOR THE MANIPULATION OF WATER MAGIC UP TO B-RANK. IT CAN BE USED AS A DEFENSIVE WEAPON, AS WELL AS AN ASSAULT WEAPON.]
[ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: ITS USE IS NOT SOLELY RESTRICTED TO COMBAT BASED FUNCTIONS.
THE WATER GOURD\'S ADAPTIONS CAN BE EXTENDED TO THE FORMATION OF EXCELLENT CONVENIENCE FURNITURE. DEPENDING ON THE USER\'S DEXTERITY, ANY SHAPE OR OBJECT CAN BE FORMED.]
[USER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.]
Nexus absorbed all this at lightning speed.
Finally, something cool! This was what he came here for. At last, he could finally begin to dabble in magic.
Having a magic artifact was cool and all, but there was something that was still troubling Nexus- he still had absolutely no idea what the hell a succubus was. He had heard the word from the leader of the hunters, and the system itself had used it a couple of times.
So he asked;
"System, I didn\'t realize I haven\'t asked this before, what I\'m dealing with here? What is exactly is a succubus?"
[PLEASE BE ADVISED, A SUCCUBUS IS A MEMBER OF AN ANCIENT RACE OF WOMEN CALLED SUCCUBI.]
[THIS IS A RACE OF WOMEN WITH HEIGHTENED SEXUALLY CHARGED ENERGY.]
[WHILE HUMANS AND BEASTS CONSUME PLANT AND ANIMAL BASED FOOD, THE ONLY NUTRIENT THAT CAN SUSTAIN A SUCCUBUS IS HUMAN SEMEN.]