Chapter 157: Because... I am what a real man is!

[Contract Resonance Time Remaining: 09:21]

The notification had barely faded when the black-haired Succubus stopped laughing. She braced one hand against the cracked wall and slowly straightened, but her eyes never left the elemental currents circling Erik.

A man who had just entered Bronze being able to wield several elements at once was already unbelievable.

After witnessing that power, she should have been interested in a new toy. Yet what irritated her most was the way Erik looked at her. He was not begging, not looking for somewhere to hide, and had no intention of waiting for another woman to come protect him.

"Do you really intend to keep fighting?" she asked. "Looking like that, and you still want to play the hero?"

Erik did not respond. He lowered the tip of his spare spear, kept Elowen within his sight, and shifted one foot sideways to block the opponent’s path toward her.

The female Succubus frowned. In this world, men were protected, pampered, and placed in a noble position. Even men with combat abilities rarely stood on the front line themselves, and had even less reason to trade their lives for a Succubus.

Yet the man before her was doing the opposite, even with his right upper arm sliced deeply to the bone, blood soaking through his clothing until it was drenched dark red.

"I truly don’t understand you." She laughed, but her voice had lost its relaxed quality. "All you need to do is lower your head, and countless women would be willing to die in your place."

"I don’t need anyone to die in my place." Erik lightly rotated the spear shaft in his left hand. "I only need you to stay away from Elowen."

His answer stunned her for a moment. Then the female soldier’s face twisted, and the black veins around her neck swelled all at once.

"Then let’s see how long you can keep that attitude!"

She stomped hard. Dark Mist erupted from behind her back, propelling her forward at terrifying speed. The black blade in her left hand slashed straight for Erik’s neck, while the claws on her right swept toward his side, forcing him to block one of the two attacks.

Erik used the wind to push his body out of the blade’s path while angling his spear to stop the claws. But his opponent immediately transformed the tips of the claws into a thin blade, which slithered along the spearhead before closing down like enormous scissors.

Clang!

The metal spearhead shattered, flying over Erik’s shoulder and embedding itself in the stone floor behind him. He immediately pulled the weapon back, but only a shaft without a spearhead remained in his left hand. The layer of Wind element wrapped around its end helped him knock aside the next strike, but Dark Mist had already coiled around the wood, causing tiny cracks to spread continuously.

Erik turned his hips and used the remaining length of the shaft to strike the cluster of tentacles rushing toward him. The impact scattered several black strands, opening enough space for him to advance. But another wave of mana from the guard post entrance immediately filled that opening.

He understood that he could not keep using this weapon. His opponent’s transformations were faster than he could adjust his spear technique, and every impact sent a jolt of pain through his injured right arm.

When five black spikes shot toward him at once, Erik suddenly spun and threw the remaining spear shaft with all his strength. The Wind element erupted behind it, turning the piece of wood into a crude spear that pierced through the tentacles protecting the female soldier’s chest.

She hurriedly tilted her head to avoid it. The shaft grazed her shoulder and embedded itself deeply into the wall, forcing the tentacles to coil up and catch the falling stones. That brief moment was enough for Erik to close the distance.

He did not take out another spear.

Instead, Erik clenched his left hand. The Wind element wrapped around his forearm, ice crystals covered his finger joints, and the Fire element condensed into thin red lines of light around his fist. The remaining currents of energy pressed close to his body, supporting his footing and stabilizing his stance. They were no longer as flashy as when he had first activated Contract Resonance.

The female Succubus’s eyes widened.

"You... intend to fight barehanded?"

Erik answered by charging forward.

The woman immediately formed a massive black axe and brought it down toward the top of his head. Erik stepped diagonally to the left, used the Wind element to shift his shoulder aside, then threw a straight punch at the axe blade.

Boom!

His fist collided with the axe blade, yet Erik’s fist was not cut apart by that bizarre weapon. Instead, a burst of pressure exploded outward.

The axe blew apart into hundreds of pieces of Dark Mist. Before the black fragments could gather again, he quickly pulled back his arm, and Erik’s second fist struck straight at the mana connecting to the female soldier’s wrist.

Bam!

The punch knocked her entire arm aside.

He turned to avoid her counterattack, then drove his knee into his opponent’s stomach, forcing her back several steps.

"Huk!" The female Succubus clutched her stomach, groaning in pain as she looked at him as though she had encountered a monster even more incomprehensible than the Dark Mist.

A man had just used his bare hands to shatter her weapon.

That was already absurd enough. Yet he was seriously injured, and after every attack, more blood seeped through his right sleeve.

Clearly, he could have used his newfound power to flee with his fiancée. Instead, he chose to close in on an enemy who could tear him apart.

"Do you know what you are doing?" she practically shouted. "What benefit is there if a man like you dies here?!"

"I don’t intend to die yet," Erik calmly replied, though his breathing had grown heavier. "And you had better return that girl’s body to her."

That answer only made her angrier. Dark Mist surged from her shoulders and back, transforming into two long blades and countless hooks. She no longer rushed at him head-on, instead attacking continuously from many angles. Every strike changed shape midway through, making it difficult for Erik to predict their true range.

"Damn it!" Erik cursed inwardly.

He had just broken one blade with his left fist when a hook whipped across his waist, tearing another line through his clothes and leaving a fairly deep cut. Fresh blood sprayed out like water from a burst pipe.

"Ack!" Erik gritted his teeth, enduring the terrible pain as his flesh was torn open.

From a distance, Elowen saw the sight, her eyes widening as her face turned pale with terror.

The next strike forced him back against the wall, but Erik immediately used ice to pin the hook to the stone floor, then spun around and threw a punch that shattered the remaining tentacles.

The repeated impacts made the entire room shake. Ice broke apart, fire went out and flared up again. Dark Mist was scattered into fog, only to quickly gather again from the mana beyond the doorway.

Erik could destroy his opponent’s weapons, but he could not destroy them permanently. If he were even half a beat too slow, those blades could still take his life.

Elowen stood behind the stone slab, feeling as if her heart were being crushed.

She had seen Erik fight before, but she had never witnessed him fight in this condition. Since childhood, Elowen had been taught that protecting men was a Succubus’s responsibility. She had once believed that no matter what happened, she should be the one standing in front of her fiancé, not the other way around.

Yet now, he stood between her and the enemy. Every time she saw a black blade rush toward him, Elowen wanted to run to him, to pull him far away to somewhere without the sound of weapons or the smell of blood. But Erik had looked back at her many times to make sure she was safe. He did not look as though he were trying to prove anything. He simply refused to let her be hurt any more.

That was what made Elowen feel both moved and terrified enough to tremble.

She loved his gentleness, and she loved how he always respected the choices of others. But she did not want to trade Erik’s life for his protection. Thinking about the possibility that he might fall before her eyes made her throat tighten, and her grip on the bow became painful.

"Elowen!" Erik called out as he avoided a black blade. "If she gets close to you, use wind magic and leave immediately!"

"I won’t leave you behind!" Elowen said through a choked voice.

"I know." He knocked aside another tentacle, his voice still calm. "But first, don’t let her catch you."

Elowen bit her lip and forced herself to focus. She could not let fear slow down her arrows. When the female Succubus raised her hand to create another weapon, a Wind element arrow shot forward and lodged directly in the tentacles at her side, giving Erik enough space to escape the pincer attack.

[Contract Resonance Time Remaining: 06:48]

There was not much time left.

Erik had begun to realize that the power he had borrowed, although incredible, still could not completely overwhelm his opponent. That female Succubus could use the Dark Mist outside to replenish her mana, requiring almost no rest between attacks. Meanwhile, even though he had part of Meira and Elowen’s power, his body was still only Bronze Rank 1, already injured, and unused to controlling so many elements.

He could not win by endlessly scattering tentacles.

After several exchanges, Erik noticed that whenever his opponent prepared to create a large weapon, the black veins on the female soldier’s neck would swell first. Behind her collar, a small cluster of roots frequently twitched, with strands connected to the Dark Mist beyond the guard post entrance.

That did not resemble mana naturally produced by her body.

Erik remembered how the masked person had stopped his scythe right before the female soldier’s neck, even though he had clearly been able to kill her. Perhaps that person had also seen where the thing controlling her was actually attached.

He changed his attack pattern, deliberately exposing an opening near his left shoulder.

The female Succubus immediately seized the opportunity, forming the Dark Mist into a spear and thrusting straight at him. Erik tilted just enough to avoid the tip, used the Wind element to pull the weapon’s shaft aside, then rushed deep into her reach. His left fist struck the cluster of roots that had just emerged beneath her collar.

Boom!

The Dark Mist behind the female soldier’s neck exploded. She collapsed to her knees, a broken scream escaping her lips, then another voice suddenly slipped out, weak and trembling.

"Save... me..."

The female soldier’s eyes briefly became clear. She looked at Erik, tears spilling down her cheeks as her trembling fingers tried to clutch the hem of his clothes.

"Don’t let... it come back..."

Erik immediately stopped his fist and lowered his voice. "I’ll try to get you out of this. Don’t resist, alright?"

The female soldier did not have time to answer before the black veins twitched violently. Her head snapped back, both arms jerking upward like a puppet’s, and a piercing laugh rang from her mouth again.

"How troublesome! I hate toys that dare to speak on their own!"

The female Succubus suddenly swung her hand, and dozens of tentacles shot up from the floor, forcing Erik to retreat. But even after regaining control, she continued looking at him with a strange expression.

She could understand a female soldier risking her life to protect a man. She had seen countless Succubi do so, out of duty, Contract, or simply to please their Partner. But Erik was doing the opposite. He was trying to save a complete stranger he could easily abandon.

"Are you really a man?" she asked, her voice no longer mocking for the first time. "Why go this far? Do you know your body will not be able to endure much longer?"

Erik let out a breath. His eyes reddened like those of a cornered beast, as though they were about to bleed, and he ground out each word.

"Because... I am what a real man is!"