"Hope you'd like this." He said while placing the plate of blue rare meat drizzled in some kind of red colour sauce in front of her. It already smelt and looked appetizing. Her stomach finally growled with hunger she did not know she was suffering from and the desire to hunt for much more arose within her.
I see... I really wouldn't know how much I'm craving for meat unless I'm around my prey or when it's too late. She stared at the generous serving on her plate then looked at him. "Do you not need to eat?"
"I'll eat whenever I feel like it. I do not suffer the same dependency on food like other demons."
"I see." Vanora returned her attention to her meal and proceeded on to cut off a chunk of meat. The moment the flavour and taste hit her, she could not help but let out a sound of pleasant surprise. "Mm!"
She could tell that he gave her something of premium quality yet again. It tasted so good that she could not help but wonder if everything else she ate after this that was below this standard would taste plain from now on.
Vlad was put in a very good mood to see Vanora enjoying her food. "Take your time to eat, I'll be back in a jiffy." And he left again the moment he was done speaking. He really just comes and goes as he wants.
She returned to eating without a care in the world and did not take very long to wolf down her meal. By the time she was done eating, Vlad coincidentally appeared back in the middle of the room.
"Just in time." Vanora said as she stood up to walk to him.
He smiled and walked towards her as well then curled his arms around her waist. As soon as he made contact with her, the familiar grey fog started covering the scene around them. This time when the fog lifted, Vanora found that they were on a vast barren land standing in front of a random cave entrance.
"Fight to your heart's content." Vlad said while he extended a hand towards the cave.
Vanora looked at the cave with a raised eyebrow. This is like some dungeon quest to be completed in fantasy stories or games. I wonder if the monsters gradually become tougher the deeper in you travel too.
BaoBao took it as a prompt to check what was inside. I think it may be. I can't tell how strong they are but they do look like different demons the deeper in you travel. Also, the cave goes deeper and deeper underground but it will level off after about 1 kilometre under then there will be an exit on the other side.
Vanora had intended it as a joke but with BaoBao's information, she wondered to herself while she entered the cave. I didn't know hell was so... organised.
The path was brightly lit up by the flame torches lining the wall of the cave. They walked on for quite awhile and like BaoBao said, she could feel that she was very gradually going down a slope. Finally, the tunnel opened up into a big open space that looked like an arena ideal for battle. She could feel like she was being watched the moment she stepped foot into the open space but nothing appeared, so she took decisive steps toward the center of the arena.
This feels so... scripted.
The moment she reached the center with Vlad, several ugly and deformed winged creatures swooped down towards her from the darkness above her. However, she had been expecting it. She jumped up and kicked the one above her to crash into another then moving on to deal with the others. She found that although there were a lot of the creatures and they were very fast, they were considerably weak. She easily matched their speed and knocked them out in either one or two hits. The floor was increasingly littered with their still bodies. She did not know how long exactly she took but she was slightly panting by the time she was done. It's... a perfect warm up exercise...
She held onto her doubts and moved on deeper into the cave, entering the tunnel on the other side of the arena. Vlad had been skillfully staying out of her way and dodging each time a body came flying towards him. Now he quietly but happily followed behind her like a faithful puppy.
Before long, she reached yet another big open space. Instead of an arena in the middle, it was a lake that she had to cross to get to the other side. She did not dare to jump straight into the water without knowing the size of her opponent. The demon she ate was big enough to swallow a human whole, so she did not want to risk being swallowed whole if the creature in this lake was the same.
She looked around to find smaller stones and spent some time gathering a pile of them at her top speed. When she was satisfied with the number of stones she had, she began throwing them into the water at a speed that made it fly like a bullet. The stones continuously flew into the water several at a time. It did not take long for some dead bodies to surface and even more making their move in countering her attack.
The creatures this time have almost humanoid figures but their skins were scaly and their features were far from human. Their eyes bulged out like fishes and their teeth that could be clearly seen were razor sharp. They also had fins at the top of their head and what seemed like their calves and elbows. In size, they were around the same size as her, pretty small. She could tell water was their advantage from the way they moved swiftly in the water as compared to those that moved on land.
Those that were in still in the lake shot water back her that also flew as fast as bullets and were needle-sharp while those on land surrounded her. She jumped up to dodge the bullets that hit those behind her and down onto the creatures on her right. After stomping on one, she wasted no time in attacking the others by kicking them all at once before putting down her leg again to jump and dodge yet another flurry of water needle bullets. She did the same to the ones that were on her left. Just like this, those on land were completely finished.
She did not know how many were still underwater and felt that waiting for them or slowly driving them out of the water may take too long for her liking. So she decided to challenge herself by fighting them in water. It would also be a good time to test if her enhanced body statistics would work underwater where there was much higher resistance and if her hellfire could be used.
BaoBao knew that Vanora did not like to be assisted during her training which was why he has been keeping quiet even though he could have informed her of the size and number of creatures that were in the water, however knowing what she planned to do made him unable to hold back his words any longer. Be careful.
BaoBao's warning gave her a hint that it might be more than she could handle. She covered her body in hellfire while she dived in without warning. She immediately realised two matters upon entering the water. One was that her hellfire worked underwater. The next was that the water was actually very clear. She only could not see anything else beyond the area that was illuminated by her fire because it was so dark underwater. She spread out her fire as far as she could and when she did, she noticed a lot of water disturbance and some shadows swimming away from the hellfire. Are they avoiding me and not attacking because of the fire?
She tested out her hypothesis by swimming about the lake for a while. While doing so, she realised that the lake was actually bigger than what it appears to be on the surface. Also, there were indeed many more hiding underwater than she could imagine. So many that it gave her the creeps if she pictured how many eyes must be looking at her right now.
Once she confirmed that they were not approaching her and were in fact avoiding her, she surfaced back up for air. Although she could easily advance to the next section now, she did not want to consider this kind of victory as successful training. They let her go, she did not win.
She took a deep breath, went back underwater again, then tried swimming as fast as she could towards the creatures. Finding that her lolita clothes was adding to the water resistance, she decisively shed the clothes and let it sink to the bottom of the lake. Now that she was in only her undergarments, she did go faster. However, no matter how fast she swam, she still could not catch up to them. Both Vanora and the creatures zoomed through the water at superhuman speed as if they were monsters playing tag. She could not beat their physical abilities on their home ground in the end. She felt completely like a dog herding sheep.
Wait a minute. Herding...
She went back up once more for air and quickly dived back down with an idea. The flames that were around her body suddenly extended towards the front to direct the swarm towards the direction that she wanted. It then extended on both sides of her to surround and corner them to the side of the lake. Now they had no choice but to fight her. Yet unexpectedly, the moment they had nowhere else left to run and they pushed into each other to the extent of looking like packed sardines in an imaginary can, they collectively passed out as if it was from fear or running out of oxygen. The bodies then floated to the surface.
Finding it weird, she decided to try it again but each time she did, it all ended the same way. In the end, this round of fighting felt more like it was simply helping her fine tune the flexible use of her flames and the speed at which she could adjust her flames to where she needed it to be so that she could herd them to where she wanted them to be.
Eventually, the time came when all the creatures were knocked out. Their sheer numbers formed a thick layer that prevented her from surfacing for air. The sight of it made her skin crawl and she was already out of breath from not surfacing for a long while. She shot upwards without holding back and knocked anything in her path upwards. She burst out of the water along with a few bodies except that it was only her that landed on land gracefully while the rest dropped with dull thuds.
Vlad had been patiently waiting for her near the tunnel that continued deeper into the cave but his face was now filled with shock to find her in only her undergarments. "What happe-"
"It was a burden." Vanora explained without waiting for him to finish his question then continued to walk into the tunnel.
Although her undergarments were a camisole and shorts that only bared her arms and legs, nothing else, he still felt that she was exposed far too much for his liking. It simply disturbed him that others could see her this way.
... That dress is no good. It was a bad choice after all. Ahhh! And I was thinking that it was a good choice since she looked so cute in it! His expression changed from a sour one to one of frustration while he followed silently behind her. He ended up taking off his grey blazer for her to wear.
"Wear this." It was a command that gave no room for rebuttal.
"..." Vanora could only accept it speechlessly.
