How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 257

286. Premonition (5)

“What?! This guy, what kind of power… just what is his body made of?!”

Alnix was shocked not just by the immense strength, but because Elles’s body was moving in ways that seemed physically impossible.

Not to mention her waist, her shoulder clearly rotated nearly 300 degrees.

She had twisted her arm backward to intercept the attack coming from behind.

But there’s no time to be surprised.

Immediately, Elles’s attacks spread out towards Sylvester and Alnix.

They were taken aback by the bizarre trajectory of the attacks, which seemed to defy the normal range of motion of human joints, and quickly created some distance.

“…Didn’t her waist just turn… like, way too far?”

“…It seems like something has been done to her body, some kind of modification.”

Even as undead, it wasn’t a pleasant sight to see a being in human form with shoulders, waist, and neck spinning around at unnatural angles.

Elles calmly addressed Sylvester and his companions, who wore expressions of discomfort.

“You were the ones who first defined me as dead. Surely, the way the dead and the living move must be different, wouldn’t you agree?”

Looking closely, only the skin of each joint was covered with a strange, dark material.

It must have been modified.

If so, rather than undead…

“Corpse doll.”

Elles herself offered the term.

“…Is that title your master’s hobby?”

“No. It’s an observation made by an intruder the girl encountered before. I thought the expression was quite fitting, so I adopted it.”

“I’m curious, what happened to the one who made that comment?”

“I disassembled them carefully and used them effectively for experiments.”

“Impressive.”

“I’m one to not waste things.”

Sylvester’s eyes narrowed.

He reevaluated the enemy’s capabilities.

‘It seems that the unnatural movements are not the only trick she has…’

The movements that couldn’t be produced by a typical human body structure were proving difficult for Sylvester and Alnix to counter.

Usually, interpersonal combat techniques such as swordsmanship or fistfights are trained and used in actual combat based on the assumption that the opponent has a typical human form and moves within a perfectly normal range.

So, bizarre movements that defy those assumptions are difficult to deal with.

Just when you think you’ve blocked an attack, it comes from an unexpected direction. How are you supposed to predict that?

Of course, the annoyance of that undead girl wasn’t just limited to her strange movements.

“Alnix, Rucel. I’ll take her on alone first.”

Sylvester completely revised his assumptions about her movements in his head.

Without hesitation, he took the initiative and jumped towards the undead girl, swinging his sword.

“Do you think you can simply overpower me?”

However, Elles blocked the sword energy that Sylvester swung, using only her rapier.

Her skill was undeniable, but if you looked closely, the blade of the rapier she wielded was also imbued with a dark aura.

An aura emitted by so-called black magic [magic that draws power from dark or destructive sources].

“It seems the girl has been underestimated as well.”

Elles’s movements shifted again.

This time, it wasn’t a display of bizarre contortions, but a swordsmanship that adhered strictly to the fundamentals.

Clang!

With a light metallic sound, she knocked away Sylvester’s sword, disrupting its trajectory, and in that instant, she unleashed dozens of thrusts in quick succession.

“It’s a fortunate encounter. The girl is also somewhat confident in her swordsmanship…”

“Tch! Is her swordsmanship also top-notch…?”

Sylvester barely managed to deflect all the thrusts.

But he didn’t deflect them all perfectly.

Some of the grazing sword energy scraped off the aura surrounding Sylvester’s body.

“And I can do a little something else too…”

Elles made a gesture as if turning over her empty hand.

Then, a black magic circle was drawn on Sylvester’s left side, and a black fireball was launched from it.

“Black magic?!”

“Even the undead can use this much.”

Following swordsmanship at the level of an aura master [a master swordsman who can imbue their sword with their life energy], she even uses high-level black magic.

This was unexpected.

The first time, Sylvester quickly deflected it by swinging his sword energy, but immediately after, a second and third fireball chased after him, aiming for any opening.

If he’s distracted by the fireballs, that undead girl will aim for that blind spot and stab him with her sword.

In fact, she’s subtly moving her body as if using the fireballs as a shield.

‘In that case, I’ll have to spread out my aura to block the flames… deflect the sword…’

Sylvester gritted his teeth, bracing himself for some damage.

“Ah! Seriously! What are you doing, showing off alone!”

Rucel, with quick thinking, activated spirit magic [magic that draws power from spirits or nature] from behind.

A shield of ice appeared next to Sylvester.

It was a defense using the spirit of ice.

“Saved me, Rucel!”

Sylvester thanked his companion and focused solely on the undead girl, swinging his sword.

Elles also seemed annoyed by the spirit magic and gave Rucel a frustrated look, but she seemed to have judged that dealing with Sylvester was a priority and unleashed her sword energy.

Dozens of black thrusts, like those fired by dozens of archers, poured down on Sylvester, and he deflected them by unfolding a graceful sword energy.

Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!

The sound of swords colliding incessantly rang out fiercely.

Exchanging offense and defense, Sylvester gradually and subtly narrowed the gap.

“Are you planning to attack carefully? You won’t. In that case, the girl too…”

“Yeah, you’ll use other means.”

“…?”

“I think so too.”

Sylvester wore a mischievous smile and emitted a sword energy that was clearly different in nature from before.

“I’ll finish it in one go.”

Sylvester’s sword energy was enveloped in a blue lightning, and it began to rage intensely.

“The reason I narrowed the gap was to get you used to my sword energy.”

And taking advantage of the moment she became accustomed to the speed, he unleashes a technique with a clearly different nature and crushes her with force at once.

Zzzzzzzzz!

The sword imbued with lightning cut Elles’s waist in half.

Her rapier, unable to block that attack, was melted and broken as if half of it had been torn away by the lightning.

“Moreover, the energy of a divine creature and the energy of the undead wouldn’t be compatible, would they.”

As expected, she couldn’t even properly defend against Sylvester’s sword and was cut down so easily.

“…”

Elles gives a look as if she is silently surprised.

But after all, the opponent is dead.

There is no reason to show mercy to the dead.

Sylvester didn’t care and immediately unleashed the next series of attacks.

“Just go to sleep, you corpse puppet.”

The aura and lightning storm emitted from Sylvester’s thrust pierced her shoulder and swallowed her whole, blasting her against the wall.

* * *

After defeating Elles.

Sylvester decided to check what remained.

What was the purpose of this place?

What were they aiming for, having so many black mages and such a powerful undead presence?

Now, he couldn’t move on without confirming it.

And they were about to witness something unexpected.

“……What is this?”

Lucell barely managed to mutter, looking disgusted.

“Here…… what were these guys doing?”

“I share the same question this time.”

Alnix frowned as well, mirroring Lucell’s reaction.

“This is definitely unpleasant. ……Hey, Sylvester. Do all black mages live like this?”

“I can’t say for sure. I’m not interested.”

Sylvester replied calmly, surprisingly, and went ahead to examine the things directly.

The section they entered was filled with bizarre things for some reason.

Perhaps this was a workshop filled with the materials for their research.

Things floating in tanks filled with something like black magic.

When Lucell first saw it, she reflexively suppressed a gag reflex.

Parts of living things, all sorts of organs, were in there.

“……No matter how I look at it, these aren’t from monsters, right?”

“At least not from what I can see. ……Damn it.”

The problem was that they looked suspiciously like human parts.

No, they were clearly parts of humans.

Even if roughly estimated, there were hundreds, no, maybe even thousands.

They were spread out all over the place.

“……I feel strange.”

“Yeah…… It feels like some kind of obsession is accumulated here.”

What reason could there be for such a sight to unfold?

What on earth were the black mages doing here?

“……Could it be.”

Sylvester, the only one who remained silent among them, continued to mutter something as he moved forward.

He didn’t listen to his companions’ attempts to stop him, saying it was a reckless action, and continued to head inside.

“Wait, Sylvester! What if you get ambushed?!”

“……If they were going to do that, they would have done it already.”

“Huh?”

“No. More than that, there’s something inside.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know exactly…….”

Sylvester stared at the place and said quietly.

“……The presence of a living creature.”

“Even if it’s a living creature, hey…… Don’t tell me you’re mistaking these things?”

“It’s different. Unlike those things…… there’s a distinct presence.”

That was what bothered him.

“For now, be prepared. It might be remnants still left.”

“Ugh…… There’s no option to not look, huh.”

“……If it’s the owner of this place, there are things I want to ask.”

Sylvester placed his hand on the hilt of the sword hanging at his waist and carefully moved forward.

It wasn’t just because he was curious.

He had dug into suspicious places and faced villains several times so far.

Even if a more terrible hellscape unfolded, he wouldn’t be surprised, but there was no reason to be this nervous.

‘……What is it.’

It might be called a premonition.

There was something.

And as if being drawn to it, his steps were heading there before he knew it.

As if refusing was not allowed.

‘What’s there…… what’s pulling me…….’

Sylvester opened the door to that place to see it with his own eyes.

He finally found it.

And he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“…….”

“What! Wait a minute! This doesn’t make sense.”

Lucell shouted, as if speaking for his inner thoughts.

It couldn’t be helped.

She was the one among them who would be most shaken by seeing that.

Because what was floating, submerged in the huge tank, looked like nothing other than an elf.

Moreover, a girl who looked about ten years old.

“……A fellow elf? But that…….”

“Don’t worry. She’s alive.”

Sylvester said, reassuring her.

“Forget it! We can’t leave her like that! We have to get her out!”

As it was a problem involving her own kind, Lucell spoke with a more anxious voice than usual and ran towards the tank.

Fortunately, there were no traps visible.

‘But…… then here…… what, what happened?’

It was an unexpected situation even for Sylvester.

“Sylvester!”

“Y-Yeah. First, let’s rescue that child.”

Sylvester quickly drew his sword and stood in front of the tank.

As the swung sword drew a line, the wall of the tank shattered and collapsed.

The liquid that overflowed as the tank broke scattered as soon as it touched the air.

“It wasn’t water?”

“It seems to be liquefied mana [concentrated magical energy]. I don’t know the details, but it will probably scatter as it touches the outside.”

There was no harm unless you inhaled it excessively.

After warning them, Sylvester quickly jumped up and caught the girl falling through the pouring liquefied mana.

“……Fortunately, she seems unharmed.”

He could tell just from her presence, but he was worried just in case.

But fortunately, the girl was breathing properly, and there was definitely warmth left.

She was definitely a living being.

“So, it’s good that you saved that kid, but what are you going to do?”

“……We have to retreat.”

Sylvester decided to retreat.