Harriet flew out of the dungeon leading the beasts toward the tower. As soon as she stepped out of the cave, she felt the burning sun and the heat pressing down on her. The landscape was bland and desolate. The air was dry.
'I should not have had high expectations of a desert... And I once said I wanted to visit a desert... Me and my big mouth.'
"Let's go! We don't have time to lose. We need to quickly defeat the dungeon. This way, we won't have to suffer under the sun for too long."
The beasts grunted. They were also inconvenienced by the sand. Each step would cause them to sink to some extent. They were not adapted for this hostile environment. It was even worse for the Nosferatu who started complaining as soon as they step into the light. Their blood was not very pure, allowing them to survive but they still felt uncomfortable under the sun.
The only one who felt at ease was Ishan and the Flame Scarabs; the desert was their natural environment.
The monsters moved quickly. There was no need to hide or try to be discreet; there were no hiding spots at all. Harriet soon saw a group of monsters emerging from the tower and naturally, she was also spotted.
There was no need to directly engage in a fight. As if a tacit agreement was made, the two armies adjusted their path and ended up moving in two giant arcs, avoiding each other. The two dungeons came up with the same strategy; to have an army to attack and one to defend.
Harriet clicked her tongue; her mouth felt dry. "Ishan! Prepare yourself and keep an eye on our back just in case."
"Alice. Be careful and stay with your sisters and the others to deal with the weaker monsters. The beasts and I will deal with their core. I hope that the tower is not too small..."
As if answering her wishes, monsters started pouring out of the tower as they approached it. The enemy monsters deployed their wings and arranged their formation.
"It is about to begin," declared Harriet.
"Scree!" The Cobalt Eagle and the Purple-eyed Vulture both screamed, commanding the birds to fly around them.
The beasts on the ground growled in annoyance, preparing their charge. Without any warning, the two sides clashed and the battle officially began.
The monsters coming out of the tower ranged from level 20 to level 40. So far, only three species appeared: Succubi, Incubi and Angels.
'No wonder they decided to fight outside of the tower. They all have wings and benefits from an open area,' thought Harriet. She did not immediately join the fight; she knew she needed to conserve her strength for when she would face the opposing boss monsters.
Furthermore, she did not even need to act. The beasts were powerful enough to stand on their own. The core of the battle happened in the sky but the Blue Eagles and the Black Vultures were able to control the situation.
With the help of the harpies and the Nosferatu, the ground monsters were also able to inflict some damage to the enemy monsters. The Angels were forced to land on the ground and fight to stop the beasts' progression.
The monsters continually poured out of the dungeon. There seemed to be an endless stream of monsters.
Harriet observed the situation from above. The battle was going well so far. She knew she needed to act fast but at the same time, she needed to be cautious. She naturally noticed the level 50 Encantado in the group heading toward the dungeon. Deep inside she doubted Dreidus would be able to repel three of them but at the same time, it also meant that the tower was not protected by them anymore.
Both sides suffered considerable losses before another type of monsters stepped out of the tower. Unexpectedly, they were winged men.
Having stayed under the sun for a while; her face was already completely red. Her entire body reddened considerably but Harriet did not think much of it. The only abnormal behavior she found in herself was her fast breathing. She had yet to enter the battle but she was already breathing so quickly. Her blood was already boiling; she was excited.
With the addition of the winged men, the dynamics of the battle changed. The enemy monsters were constantly receiving more reinforcement while Harriet's group only had a limited number of members. Harriet hesitated to take action but as the enemy boss monsters have yet to appear, she held herself back.
After the winged men, another group of monsters appeared. They were Cambions, the rejected offsprings of the succubi. The balance was slowly tilting in the enemy's favor.
"Scree!"
Harriet frowned upon hearing the Cobalt Eagle's cry. She did not understand the Beast Language but she already knew what the Cobalt Eagle was asking. Harriet hesitated. She also wanted to make a move but being the one to pull the trigger would put them at a disadvantage.
'D*mn. If I don't make the first move, we might still be here after the challenge is over. I don't know how many monsters they have in the tower but it just seems endless at this rate.'
She bit her lips and finally gave her command. "Fine! Let's all attack and see what they can do."
As soon as the words left her mouth, the opposing side seemed to react. Like a perfectly orchestrated machine, the monsters moved aside, allowing their own Boss Monsters to appear.
"Then, let's see who's stronger. Aim for one each!" said Harriet as she activated her skill. Aiming directly for the entrance of the dungeon, she cast [Aeroblast].
There were three Boss Monsters at the entrance: A level 43 Blood Angel, a level 46 Incubus Consort and a level 49 Succubus Dowager. They did not try to stop the giant sphere of wind. Instead, they stepped aside, allowing a fourth silhouette to appear.
Without a word, the man raised his hand and the giant sphere of wind disappeared out of nowhere.
Harriet was stunned. It was the first time someone was able to negate her skill like that. She looked at the newcomer and froze. That silhouette felt extremely familiar. There was quite a distance between them but Harriet's instincts were warning her that she was right. She felt her heart squeeze in pain as she hesitantly moved closer, murmuring: "Ivan... Is that you?"
On the ground, Ivan raised his head to look at the source of the attack. He instantly froze. He narrowed his eyes and deployed his wings. "Stop! Everyone! Fall back, now!"
His powerful voice sounded across the battlefield. The monsters were taken aback and confused. Nevertheless, they obeyed their commander and put some distance between them and the attackers.
He flew upward toward Harriet and as he got closer, a smile blossomed on his face. "Harriet. Is that you?"
"Ivan! What are you doing here? How did you end up here?" asked Harriet. Her mind was racing; it was in a complete mess. She did not know how to react.
The atmosphere on the battlefield became awkward. The two sides stared at each other but they did not dare to fight without the consent of the two boss monsters. At the same time, they were curious about the situation.
On the side, Alice crossed her arms and assessed Ivan from head to toe. 'Hmmp! I would say that mother has good taste but his character is garbage!'
Ivan opened his arms and approached Harriet but the latter rapidly flew back, avoiding the hug. Ivan froze and scratched his head in embarrassment. "Sorry. It's just the habit. What are you doing here? When my dungeon master told me we will be fighting someone, I did not think it would be you."
Harriet maintained a reasonable distance between them. She felt that Ivan had changed. After all that time, he seemed to have become even more handsome than before; he was a real lady-killer, exuding sex appeal. Harriet got excited just by looking at him; the thought of jumping in his arms even crossed her mind but her last bit of common-sense stopped her from doing so. Many things could have changed in two years and she had a lot of questions to ask.
"Ivan. What happened during the last two years. I returned to the clan a few months ago a learned that you were recruited in a dungeon recently but you still had a lot of free time before that. Why did you not come to find me?" asked Harriet with a pained expression.
"This. I am sorry. I was grounded at home. My clan canceled our engagement as soon as you left and arranged another one for me. I was not allowed to go out and look for you. I did what I could but the elders were always watching me," answered Ivan with an embarrassed expression. He knew he needed to buy time. The pheromones were already starting to corrupt Harriet. It was only a matter of time before he could ask her to come with him.
"So that's what happened. But weren't you also being watched by the elders before, how come you could escape at that time? Still two years. Who was it?"
"Who what?" blurted out Ivan, dodging the first question.
"Your new fiancé. Who was it?" asked Harriet as she narrowed her eyes. She could feel that something was not right. She did not hear anything about this at the clan and it seemed that Ivan was rather agitated.
"Ah. Yes. It was Anna from the Empyrean Clan..." quickly answered Ivan. He could feel Harriet's inquisitive stare and did his best to maintain a straight face. He peeked at the harpy queen briefly; she was still as beautiful as before. 'She is already blushing. Just a little bit longer and she won't be able to control herself anymore.'
The two remained silent. Seeing Ivan's uncomfortable position, the Succubus Dowager deployed her wings and approached the two. "Ivan. What are you waiting for? We are wasting time here."
Harriet shot her a glance. She had a bad feeling about the Succubus Dowager. With her female instincts, she could tell that the relationship between her and Ivan was not as simple as it looked.
"Oh. Isa. This is Harriet. I told you about her. Harriet, this is Isa, one of my friends," presented Ivan. He cursed in his heart, 'Idiot. Can't you see that I am letting the pheromones take effect.'
Harriet frowned at the approaching succubus.
"Ivan. Come on. You are wasting time. Just take her and bring her back to the dungeon. She will be a nice addition to the harem." Isa chuckled as she leaned against Ivan, taunting Harriet.
The latter was taken aback. "What? A harem? Ivan. Is that true?"
Ivan did not know how to answer. 'Stupid woman! You just wasted everything I tried to do. She might go crazy now because of the lust she accumulated.' He hesitated before answering, "Well... Yeah. I did have some relations with the monsters at the dungeon. Just like everyone else, it is the custom here."
Isa laughed lightly, unaware of Ivan's thoughts. "Come on. Why are you acting so sheepishly? She will join the dungeon after today anyway. You will have all the time for the sweet talk then. She is just too innocent for our taste right now. Let her experience the core a little bit and I am sure she'll become more amorous and join our party too."
'That's what I have been doing the whole time!' shouted Ivan in his heart.
Harriet exploded. "You! What are you talking about? Ivan. Is that really what you want?"
The winged man bit his lips. "Well. It would be great to have you. I am sure you will forgive me with time."
Harriet was about to retort but before she could, Ivan made his move and became a blur. "I am sorry for lying to you but once you become one of the monsters of the dungeon, we'll have all the time to discuss this."
Harriet's eyes widened. She could not believe what just happened. She felt the pain coming out of her side and hurriedly flapped her wings to move away. Ivan held a short blade covered in blood; he used it to swiftly stab Harriet's side.
Fortunately, Harriet was a level 57 Boss Monster. She was not so weak to die from a single stab. "I trusted you, Ivan. It was my fault for lowering my guard. I did not think you would use such an underhanded move."
"All of you! Attack!" She shouted at the monsters at her side as she herself activated her battle form.
However, to her surprise, nothing happened.
She heard a light chuckle coming from Isa. The Succubus Dowager glanced at Harriet with an amused expression. "It is useless. Anyone hit by Ivan's blade cannot use a battle form for a whole day."
Ivan wore an apologetic expression. "Very sorry, Harriet. I do not want to hurt you. So please just accept your fate. We'll end up together in the end."
"Who wants to be together with you? I waited all that time for you Ivan and what were you doing? You were fooling around with other women! I was so stupid to believe your words!" Harriet shouted as she activated her spells. She could not use her battle form, but she could still fight.
Isa sighed. "You are so persistent. I hope you will get used to the pain soon." She took out a long whip and activated her own battle form. Her wings became longer and sharper. Her eyes turned blood red as horns appeared between her hair.
Similarly, Ivan used his battle form. He became taller and emitted a dark aura, giving him a demonic appearance. Around them, the battle that suddenly came to a halt, resumed as abruptly as it stopped.
[Eye of the Storm]
Using herself as the center, Harriet unleashed her powerful attack. The Cobalt Eagle and the Purple-eyed Vulture hurriedly put some distance between them and started attacking the other monsters.
Isa frowned and hid behind Ivan. The latter smacked his lips in annoyance. "It is useless to resist. You have always only trained in wind magic. Once I remove the wind, you won't be able to fight back anymore."
[Vacuum Trap]
The air current around Harriet suddenly disappeared. She frowned as she felt the environment around her change. The air was disappearing. Even the air inside her lungs! She could no longer breath.
She instantly understood what Ivan did but she could not counter it. It was a level 60 spell, the bane of all wind mages. Fortunately, just like Harriet, Ivan also became unable to use the wind to attack her. It was also his specialty; as a winged man, he was naturally talented for wind magic.
However, it was not the same for Isa. The Succubus Dowager smiled as she charged at Harriet and used her whip to attack.
Harriet frowned as she took the hit. She hurriedly drew her Harpy's Blood but the short dagger was not very suitable when facing the ranged weapon of the Succubus Dowager. To top it off, although her flying ability was not inconvenienced, Harriet was taking a lot of suffocation damage every second. She was unable to hear anything because of the vacuum but she could still watch as the monsters perished one after another.
Outside the vacuum, Ivan warned the Succubus. "You messed up. I could have had her join us peacefully once she became consumed by her lust. You better not get too close to the vacuum. Or I might just you inside."
Isa wrily smiled. 'Do you really think I did not notice that?'
"My bad but you should deal with the small fries below," answered Isa. She continually whipped Harriet who was unable to free herself from Ivan's skill. Without her battle form, she was simply unable to fight against another boss monster who adopted his own battle form.
After hearing Isa's words, Ivan nodded and without warning any of his allies, activated his other level 60 skill: [Endless Whirlwind]
The air around the battlefield started to flow around in a circle. It spun faster and faster until it became strong enough to pose a threat to all the monsters. They were stunned by the sudden change and were unable to react before being pulled by the powerful air current. It was not just the beasts who were sucked in, even Ivan's allies suffered the same fate. The Incubus Consort and the Blood Angel were pulled into the giant whirlwind and flung around with the other monsters.
Due to the environment, the sand rose around and combined with the whirlwind, forming a giant sand tornado. Only Harriet, Ivan and Isa who held onto Ivan remained unaffected by the powerful skill.
As the [Endless Whirlwind] came to an end, the ground was now covered in shredded corpses. Most of the monsters died and the few unlucky ones who managed to survived were bound to be buried alive by the sand that was slowly falling down to its place.
This was the power of a level 60 monster under his battle form. Level 60 represented yet another major milestone. With a single skill, he wiped out the entire battlefield. Even the Cobalt Eagle, the Purple-eyed Vulture, and the Three-Horned Rhinoceros were unable to resist the skill.
With the battlefield having been cleared out, Ivan turned his attention back on Harriet. He could see the Harpy Queen desperately fighting for her life. She was lacking air to breath; her insides were burning. Her HP dropped quickly. It had already fallen below 20%. She tried to scream but no sound came out of her mouth.
Isa looked at the scene and licked her lips. 'It was a good thing to stick to Ivan. Someone at Level 60 is not someone to be trifled with. If I do it enough time with him, I'll absorb enough of his essence to reach level 60 too. I just need to keep the other girls away from him for a bit longer.'
The pair looked at Harriet's last agonizing moment. Suffocating to death was a horrible way to die but at the very least, her body would remain intact and would not be scared. Ivan thought it was the best way for him to kill his childhood sweetheart; it felt like he was not really the one killing her.
Harriet trembled with resentment as her HP hit zero. 'Out of all the ways I could have met Ivan again, I did not think it would end up like this.'
Just like that, the powerful Harpy Queen lost her life. As soon as it happened, Ivan canceled the [Vacuum Trap] and held her body. He slowly landed on the sand and put her body down. "I am sorry but you will thank me later. I'll make you mine in a few days. Your resistance to the pheromones is quite high but I guess it still impaired your thinking to some extent."
He absentmindedly stared at Harriet for a moment before finally standing up. "Tell the cowards who are still hiding in the tower to come out. We are going to the dungeon to end it more quickly."
Isa looked at Ivan, not understanding his motive. "We are going there? Why? Aren't the Encantados enough to deal with that dungeon?"
"They are but the faster we end it, the earlier we'll be able to revive her."
"She still holds a place in your heart. I see. But why do we all need to come with you?" asked Isa.
"You think I don't know about some of those guys' weird Necrophilia fetish? Hurry up and tell them to bring their *ss here. If I learn that one of them hid in the dungeon, I will personally deal with that person."
"Fine fine. I get it."
...
A few minutes after the monsters left the tower, the sand at the entrance of the tower shook. A small creature poked its head out and observed its surroundings. Having confirmed the departure of the monsters, the creature lightly squeaked and soon, more creatures popped out of the sand.
The Platinum Armadillo squeaked again as it was pushed on the surface.
"Stop squeaking. Move your fat b*tt! Can't you see you are blocking the way?" grumbled Ishan as he crawled out of the hole from which the Platinum Armadillo previously emerged.
Long chapters... A bit too long