Pay with your life

Hiro’s POV:

Hill and his entourage had dark faces upon seeing me and my dear wife killing this whole horde of monsters so easily. I’m sure that they felt threatened. Although they could have killed this horde too, considering their strengths, but after seeing that we have done it so easily, they had to realize that we aren’t so easy to deal with. All of them came out and encircled us. Rose’s hands were trembling and she had unwilling eyes. I don’t know if it was because she believed that we can kill all of them and she didn’t want to die or if it was because she didn’t want to kill us, but it didn’t matter.

“Rose, I don’t know if you can answer, but if you can then make some kind of sign, that you are under control.” Alice sent a message to her with her mind power.

We’ve got the expected effect from her as she was gesturing with her eyes, saying yes. I don’t know what kind of treasure can do such a thing but to be honest I’m not really interested in it. I’m sure that it can’t be used on cultivators who are more powerful than you and I don’t need to control someone who is weaker than me. If he, she is my enemy then I can simply kill that person and if the person is more powerful than us then we won’t be able to control him or her anyway.

“Shall we start?” Alice said out loudly with a bloodthirsty smile as she cracked her fingers.

They didn’t answer her as they only took a position and we did the same. The air felt really heavy at the moment and it was deadly silent. They still didn’t know about our clones which could come as a great surprise for them. Rose was the first to attack with unwilling eyes. I quickly made five clones and I used my minds to attack them. They were all at the early seventh stage. I quickly hit Rose on the back of her head. Her head might hurt when she wakes up but it was still better. Since my clones were covering us it wasn’t hard.

We had almost as much strength as Rose so it wasn’t hard to beat her. As she fell unconscious I threw her body towards the resting room. I feel sorry for it but I wasn’t in the position to be soft with her.

[You are saying that but you would rather take a hit than to throw me like that. Fufu~] Alice didn’t forget to comment on my action with a naughty voice. I’m in pain… in numerous ways.

[You are different, dear.] I answered her with a smile, then I turned towards our enemies.

Alice also summoned her clones with bows in hands, making the whole place crowded. Two becoming ten in such a short time was surprising by all means. Hill’s group had ten people in it, making it into nine after we killed the guy from before. I poured my energy into the runes on my spear as I also controlled all five of my clones. Since I was still at the back I used my energy to attack from the back. I poured my energy out of my body into the form of a huge six-headed Hydra. This is going to take a lot of my energy but I’m sure that at least one of them is going to die.

My five clones were pinning them down with Alice’s clones, making it hard for them to move. Seeing the huge Hydra made up of pure energy appear startled them. They knew that if they take this attack, then that’s going to mean their deaths! I shot my attack towards one of them. I have a feeling that Hill Dow would stay alive one way or the after, so I’d rather not risk wasting this attack. Alice used her original and a clone of her to completely pin my target down. As he tried to defend against the incoming arrows, I used my clone to jump towards him, getting through his defense.

As he was falling from the sudden push, I dissolved my clone and called it back. At the same time, I also shot my attack towards him. He made a despaired face and he tried to escape by controlling the space around him to regain his balance but it was all for naught as this wasn’t a slow attack. It quickly arrived at its destination and struck his body head on. His stupid armor was shredded into pieces and he became equal with a bloody pulp. This attack was called the Hydra’s Descent. It consumes a lot of energy but when I use it, I’m able to control my energy to take the form of a Hydra and upon releasing it, it would shred my target into pieces.

Now that we were ten against eight it was much easier. I quickly gulped down an Energy Replenishing pill and then charged at the remaining people. Alice was shooting powerful attacks towards them non-stop, and those arrows were also filled with Chaos Magic, making it hard to defend against. The only problem with Chaos Magic was that it couldn’t be controlled! If you were to be hit with it, then you could easily get wounded.

[Let’s kill this woman next.] I said to Alice through our bond.

I jumped into the air as I thrust my spear towards the woman who was closest to me. She had a shield so she raised it to defend against my thrust. As my spear struck her shield, I was the one to fall back slightly which was surprising. They indeed had much more strength than us. That shield also had three enchantments on it such as ‘Toughness’ and alike. But even like that, I saw a tiny crack appearing on it making it clear that Alice’s inscriptions amplified my pierce and penetrate enchantments greatly.

She smirked at me upon seeing how I fell back slightly because she didn’t notice the crack on her shield. I controlled my clone which was fighting with her up till now and fought two on one. We weren’t stupid enough to give only one kind of weapon for our clones too. Although I used spear mainly, but what could stop me from giving shields, greatswords, staves and such things to our other clones? Of course, our clones didn’t have such good weapons as us because we didn’t have the necessary materials for it, though now we have them, but we should get back to use them.

This clone of mine had a hammer in his hand. I thrust my spear towards the woman, and she once again used the shield in her left hand to block my attack. When I was about to hit her shield I pulled back my spear and jumped into the air with a somersault so that I’ll be able to stop the raging energy which was generated from my sudden stop. She wanted to cut me into two halves while I was in the air but my clone swung his hammer from above towards her. She raised her shield to defend against my powerful strike. At this time Alice also shot an arrow towards her side and I used Hydro mind on her.

She stopped only for a single moment which was enough for me to smash her with my clone, for Alice’s arrow to pierce her heart and chest, and for me with my original body to pierce her head which was nowhere to be seen so I simply struck the ground… At this time Hill charged at me out of nowhere and I felt a binding on my body for a moment. He thrust his sword through my chest with an evil grin. I ignored his greatness as I used this body to do something good.

“What are you so happy for? You idiot…” I said as I laughed at him. I switched weapons with my clone, making it into my ‘original’ body. I could call any of these my ‘original’ body.

I used my spear to try piercing his head and I didn’t forget to use the Binding Clock on him. He had a despaired face upon seeing this. What did he think? I’m not a normal beastmen or human. Not even my clone died from it being pierced. I had five other hearts left in that body. When we transform, our body structures are changing so that our new organs can fill in. Unexpectedly, at this time he took out a big ball, out of nowhere and crushed it. The ball released a thick layer of blue energy around his body, which stopped my spear strike.

“What do you think how long you can escape? But… just how many humans have you killed to get so many things out of this place?” I asked him since I was curious.

“Hehe~ quite a lot, but you are going to be the one to die!” Hill answered back with an evil face. He looked at Alice then at me, then said with an irritating face- “Haha- I’ll take care of her for you. She is a real beauty under those scales and I’ve seen her when you have arrived in the hall. I’m wondering how she feels in the bed.”

I didn’t react too strongly to this thanks to Alice’s Jagged Bell of Rage and Cold. It was ringing all this while making me calmer than I was supposed to be after such a remark. The temperature suddenly fell in the room with about two hundred degrees thanks to me. All I said to him was that: “You are going to be sorry for this.”

Since it’s likely that I can’t break through this blue shell of his, I used Ethereal Delusion on him, and Alice also used Hydro Mind on him. [Nice shot honey~] I said to her. I always felt great and happy when I saw how perfectly we are in sync.

He was stuck in place for about two seconds and such a long amount of time was perfect for me to clean up the trash. Since he left my clone where it was I had another one man free. Three of us ran towards a single target who was fighting with one of Alice’s clone. Alice also had to use her sword to fight because the others weren’t looking around at the back... She shot arrows only with her original body as her clones were fighting with the remaining people. Considering that getting some support from the back would be great I attacked a guy who was fighting with Alice’s clone. The four of us quickly overran him.

He was pierced, smashed, and blasted into pieces a single moment. I still had a little time so the four of us helped out the fifth clone. We quickly killed a guy closest to us, also freeing up another one of Alice’s clones. At this time she also released her Dragon’s Descent, killing a woman who was about to slash at Alice’s back. She perished like smoke after being struck with Alice’s attack. We and our clones also gulped down an Energy Replenishing pill. Originally we have such high reserves because we aren’t using our clones but when do, our energies are divided up into as many parts as many clones we make.

Since we were using them, it was easier to spend all of our energies. Now there were only four of them left, while we were still ten, though one of my clones was pierced through its chest but it was nothing serious. That body of mine was already recovering. Hill recovered only to see so many of his comrades being killed in such a short time.

“YOU BASTARDS! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS! AND YOU SLUTTY BITCH! I’M GOING TO ENJOY YOUR BODY!” He shouted towards us with an enraged face as his body was trembling. He turned his head upwards to shout towards the ceiling as he charged towards us with his four remaining lackeys in tow.

“Hahaha~ We'll see about it, you loser!” We both shouted back. We couldn’t help to ridicule him. Even his offensive words towards Alice were laughable at this point.

I jumped towards him with one of my clones to take him on and Alice supported me from the back with her arrows. I rolled on the ground and thrust my spear towards his stomach but he deflected it with his sword. Interestingly enough he didn’t let me hit his blue bulb. Maybe that blue bubble can take only a determined amount of damage? If that’s the case he has to defend or else it’s going to be spent quickly. My clone wasn’t looking around without doing anything, so it quickly swung its sword towards Hill’s side. He raised his sword to deflect my clone’s swing but he wasn’t able to protect himself from Alice’s arrow.

It struck his blue bubble making its blue glow diminish by a large margin. Originally it was dark blue but now it had a relatively light blue color, and it was also thinner. Alice’s clones and my clones combined quickly took care of the remaining four people. It was seven against four so it was no big deal. Out of rage, Hill wanted to grab me at my throat, but I used my sharp claws to cut his extending arm.

[?! What? How did I cut him? So this bubble can’t extend farther from a determined point. Interesting… Though it’s irrelevant because I don’t think that he is going to try something like this again.]

[Yes. At least I surely wouldn’t try something so stupid twice.] Alice agreed to my thoughts as she shot arrows towards Hill once again.

I moved my five clones to stand in a circle around him, though most of them were slightly injured and one of them had its left arm missing but it was nothing serious. Alice has got two clones killed in the last struggling battle because she wasn’t able to control her clones perfectly. A little delay in command might cause our deaths and such was the case with Alice. She had two minds which had quicker process than mine, but they were still only two in the end. Our clones also had weaker weapons.

[We really need to change on this weapon matter when we get back… also, I think that it would be better if you would use only one clone or maybe two and replace it only if one of them is killed.] I advised to Alice.

[Yes. It’s harder to control my clones like this. It’s better if I can fully utilize my battle potential with my original body and a single clone or maybe two just to stay safe, and I can always replace them if something were to happen.] Alice also agreed with me on that. Or more like we agreed on anything the other has said…

Now our positions have swapped as we were the ones encircling Hill Dow, who was in his little blue ball, standing there with a dark face. I’m sure that he felt it. He felt the death creeping up on his back, reaching his neck and his brain. I saw that the fear in his eyes slowly crept into his brain and nestled itself in his brain. Just like a cornered animal, he too shouted out towards the ceiling with a raging and unwilling voice, feeling his impending doom: “AAAARGH!! I’m going to kill you all!”

He charged towards us and I controlled one of my clones to jump on him. He swung his sword intending to cut it in two but I was able to use the Binding Clock once again and we pounded his mind with eight Hydro Minds and we used our bloodlust too. Such a flurry of mind attacks disabled him completely. The eight of us released powerful attacks towards his body, and the blue ball quickly gave up and dispersed into the air. We made four pointy and sharp columns made up of our energies and pierced them through his four limbs. It was at that time, that he recovered.

“ARRGH!! FUCK!!” He shouted out in pain.

We didn’t answer his shouting. I squatted down right beside him and I put my claws on his face. I tore off his jaw, taking away his voice, as only the air was coming out of his throat. I said to him with an evil smile. “Man, it’s good that you are a cultivator! A normal human would die too easily! So how was that? Are you going to enjoy my wife’s body? That was your intention?”

"N- NO! I wouldn’t dare to! Please release me! I- I swear that I’m never going to cause you any trouble! Just let me go! Or- Or would you take me as your servant? I’m willing to serve you but please don’t take away my life!" Hill sent a message with his mind power. Sadly for him, I was never interested in getting slaves or servants. What use do they have? If someone were to do everything in my place then what is going to keep me interested in living? It would become boring! Of course, I have Alice to love every day, but we can’t live like shut-ins who do nothing else other than having sex.

Alice also squatted down right next to him as she put her hand under her chin. She looked at Hill with a face which was devoid of any feelings. It was really cold. It would be terrible if she were to ever look at me like that. That would be a tragedy to me. It’s good that I don’t have to care about it. She released her bloodlust completely through her cold green eyes, which scared the shit out of Hill. He started trembling in fear. Alice put one of her claws on his chest and pierced it slowly, puncturing his lungs. He shouted out in pain and tried to catch his breath which was slipping through the hole on his chest and his missing throat.

At such a stage and level he wouldn’t die unless we cut his spine so it was alright. After being done with that she made a ball of energy and shot it through his… balls. Ugh- I wouldn’t want that. Air gushed out of his throat but he couldn’t scream without his vocal cords. We didn’t want to listen to his ‘pig being slaughtered’ like sound, so that’s why I tore off his jaw. Alice made a smiling face as she looked at him but such a smile wasn’t something that I would like to see… It was cold and devoid of emotions. She rolled her fingers into a fist and smashed through his whole stomach making a gaping hole on his body.

“Let’s get done here. We still have two floors to clear. We can love each other after Rose leaves…” I said as I smashed Hill’s blue-haired head with my tail. Blue was mixed with red in a single moment making it into purple. I made a remark about this. “How nice. Look how the colors are mixing together. I always like to see it, how everything turns into a single piece in the end.”

“Though that’s quite a gross example…” Alice remarked as she stood up and held her hands out for me to grab. I took it and stood up.

“What shall we do with Rose? She is still unconscious. Did you kill her or what?” Alice questioned me with a joking smile.

“Haha- of course, I wouldn’t kill her. What do you take me for?” I went over to her and splashed some cold water on her face with the help of water and ice magic. She opened her eyes widely as she sat up and caught her breath.

“HUUUH. W- What? Where am I? U- Ugh. My head hurts…” She was talking to herself as she grumbled. She soon noticed us and I saw that she started to remember what has happened before. Her face became sad, yet happy at the same time. “I- I’m alive? I thought that you would kill me for ‘betraying’ you. But I swear that it was because of a treasure he had! When he commanded me to leave you there with his group, he took it out and so I saw it! It’s on his neck in the form of a pendant! Please look at it if you don’t believe me! I- I was being controlled! I- I have never intended to betray you!”

She didn’t stop even for a single moment. We saw that she was telling the truth through her eyes but we didn’t care about it, to begin with. We knew it long ago that she was controlled. Her quick explanation made us laugh at her panicked and red face. Seeing us laughing at her she felt offended and threw a tantrum.

“W- What are you laughing at? You bastards! You are at it once again! Are you here to haunt me or what? Hahaha” - even she laughed at it at the end which soon stopped and her face turned into a grateful one. - “I- I don’t know what to say. I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you saved my life. H- He said things like, he is going to enjoy me when we leave this dungeon. A- And when we left you, he used the same monster horde to kill numerous groups of humans. They were laughing at how they died! So I’m telling you once again, that you have saved my life and for that, I’m really grateful. I’m really happy that I chose to join your group at that time.”

Rose was thanking us non-stop. Alice put a hand on her shoulder to make her stop, as she said with a smiling face: “It’s alright Rose.”

She stopped blabbering, as she started crying. She clung onto Alice making her scales all snotty. A cultivator at the fourth level crying? That’s quite a rare sight. Now I’m sure that she is cultivating in a weird way! Alice looked at me with helpless eyes. I shrugged my shoulders not knowing what to do. We are so terrible at soothing others… We don’t like skinship with people other than us even though usually that is what’s necessary at times like these. In the end, she put her right arm around her back weirdly. Rose soon stopped her crying as she stood up with red eyes.

“E- Ehm. I’m sorry that you had to see me in such a shape. I don’t know what’s got into me. L- Let’s go okay?” Rose said stutteringly. We didn’t want to make her cry once again so we answered her with a simple - ‘No problem, let’s go.’ - as we started walking. She followed after us. Her face was still red from crying. We dissolved our clones and robbed the corpses of their possessions. We have gained a REALLY lot of herbs, metals, weapons, armors and pills. This was the loot from every other human they have killed on the way here, which was no small amount.

We also found a treasure similar to our Binding Clock except that it was working only on the target’s body, and it wasn’t a growing artifact like ours. We stored everything in our storage spaces which seemed to be getting filled up! We simply crushed the mind controlling pendant which was in Hill’s neck. Or what was left of his neck… As we turned around we saw Rose standing there, all alone, empty handed, which made us feel weird.

[I- I feel like a bad girl… How am I supposed to leave like this? Look at her; Standing there without any real benefit.]

[Though she has advanced a lot from the perspective of normal cultivators… but yeah, I too feel weird. Should we make an armor for her at least?] I agreed with Alice’s thoughts. Alice quickly voiced our thoughts. “I- If you want to, then we can make a good armor for you. It’s not a big deal as we have gained a lot this time…” She said as she twirled her hair around her finger and made a circle on the ground with the tip of her toes. It was really cute in my eyes but it still wasn’t the right moment for it… unfortunately.

“Y- You would make an armor for me? But I was a burden for you and I even caused trouble for you. I don’t know how you killed them, but I’m sure that it wasn’t easy and even I was there… controlled like a stupid woman.” Rose said with an unbelieving voice and she started getting angrier when she thought about what has happened to her.

“Don’t mind it. It’s no big deal. Let’s say that it’s going to be our present. Don’t question it’s reason because even we don’t understand our weird sympathy… Anyway, let’s go. We still have to fuck when you leave!” Alice quickly answered her and didn’t forget to add such a ridiculous part to the end of her sentence. Hearing her say so Rose’s face became as red as a red rose. I bet that she is a virgin. Though that’s not a problem. I always respect those who aren’t throwing it away for anyone and keep it for the one they are going to choose in the end!

We left the eighteenth floor and after two hours of fighting, and realizing that we are being lost, we also completed the nineteenth floor. The sound of the dungeon came from all around us when we entered the resting room.

“Nice… I didn’t expect that you are going to reach this far. There are still a few humans inside the maze but I don’t see too much chance for them to leave it alive, though… who knows!? Anyway, you can leave if you want through this portal” - it said as a blue mirror-like portal appeared. On it, we saw the outside world in all its glory. We really wanted to go out, but after spending so much time here, we didn’t intend to leave just like that. - “If you want to fight the boss of this dungeon, then you just have to stay. You can spend as much time in the resting room as you wish, before starting your final challenge.”

Rose looked at us with a somewhat sad face. I guess she didn’t want to leave us just like this. What can I say? I took a liking to her. Naturally, not in a loving way, but in a friendly way. Although I don’t believe in friendship between man and woman but that’s more like true friendship. The generic, empty, shell-like friendship most people have can be quite easily achieved, without any repercussions. I’m sure that I would feel awkward if we were to stay alone together, but with Alice around it’s completely different. I’m sure that everyone has had such a feeling.

When you feel good in someone’s company, but when your other friend leaves, you feel awkward with the other person, and you don’t really know what to talk about. This is one such case for me. I’d feel really weird if Alice were to leave me alone with her. I really don’t want that… She hugged Alice and then looked awkwardly at us and after a little bow, she jumped through the portal. See? This is what I was talking about. She too would feel awkward! We can be in each other's company only with a third wheel called Alice!

“How rude. I’m not a third wheel. I’m a lustful dragon, who is soaking wet!” She said as the portal closed and jumped on me.

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(AN:&.5 is coming soon… *cough* Uhm… I had something on mind but I forgot it… Let me think! XD Okay, I have no idea. XDD Sorry! Teaser for chapter 47! - A strange egg! Man, I really would like to see your faces when I reveal the next step, which might be connected to this egg. Depends on which of the two ideas I have, I select. I’m quite sure that you haven’t read something like that before. I mean, I haven’t met a concept like that before, only a similar one I guess.)