Korgath, acting on pure survival instinct, hoisted his massive wolf-bone club just as Lilith sliced through the air with her black talons. A metallic screech and the roar of the impact shook the surroundings as claws collided with hard bone. To the surprise of both, the goblin did not budge an inch. He roared with all his might, tensing his bulging muscles and shifting his entire body weight onto his weapon to shove the attacker back.
Lilith felt the raw, primitive physical strength of her opponent. Her scarlet eyes widened in surprise; with a violent beat of her wings, she cushioned the momentum and quickly retreated into the air, maintaining a safe distance. Seeing this, Korgath's fear evaporated instantly, giving way to arrogance.
"You might look powerful, bitch, but it's just a facade!" he snorted, spitting blood onto the ground. "Your strength is pathetic at best."
Lilith responded only with a short snort, though inwardly she had to admit he was right. Despite being a Primordial Succubus, her nature was based on desire, not brute force; her strength stat was a mere 10 points.
What the hell is the point of this sky-high Charisma if this green idiot doesn't even react to it? she thought with irritation.
However, Korgath was the exception. The other three ordinary goblins, who were somehow still alive, stood completely paralyzed. They stared at Lilith with dazed expressions, their primitive loincloths tightening visibly. Saliva dripped from their ugly muzzles; the Monarch's charm had completely shut down their self-preservation instinct, leaving them staring with terrifying infatuation and lust.
Vrak, seeing Lilith's focus on the leader, saw it as the perfect opportunity. He began to form his [Sulfur Fireball], intending to strike her in the back. He didn't manage to finish the incantation, however. Three ice spears, launched with lethal precision by Lysandra, pierced his chest through and through. He fell to his knees, choking on his own green blood which flooded the ground.
Dammit... how could I forget about them? flashed through his mind as his fading gaze fell upon the two succubi.
[Lysandra has killed a Goblin-Hero. Hero Soul +1!]
Korgath spat thick phlegm at Lilith's feet, gripping the handle of his bone club so hard his knuckles turned white. He looked around wildly - he was alone among the corpses of his companions, but a mad hope still burned in his eyes.
Lilith's charm was so potent that even Vrak - despite being a Hero - had completely forgotten in the crucial moment that his target did not fight alone. Mina snorted with contempt and stepped on the pyromaniac's cooling body with her foot in disgust, before both succubi joined their Lady.
"What's the matter, 'Great Demon King'?" he rasped, flexing muscles swollen from evolutionary steroids. "Afraid to come closer? Hiding behind skeletons, and now hiding behind your whores? Come here and fight like a King should, and I'll smash that pretty head of yours to pulp with one blow!"
Lilith did not move a millimeter. She tilted her head slightly, her purple lips curving into a smile full of venomous sweetness.
"Fight you?" her voice dripped with mockery. "Look at yourself, Korgath. You're just a small, green error of evolution who not only looks disgusting but thinks he's a God or some hero from legend. Your 'strength' is just a borrowed suit that reeks of fear and wet fur. You thought killing me was a shortcut? The only thing you shortened was the distance to your own grave."
Mina, hearing Lilith's words, suddenly smiled and looked at the green goblin before them with revulsion.
"Oh, look at those short little legs," she chirped, pointing a finger at the goblin. "Did you really think that with such an appearance you could aspire to anything more than being a footstool? You're so predictable and primitive that even the skeletons you hacked so passionately had more grace and class than you've had in your entire miserable life."
Korgath felt the blood rush to his head. The insults hit straight at his biggest complex - the fact that despite his power, he was still just a wretched goblin.
"ENOUGH! SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!" he roared, spray flying from his maw. "[SKULL CRUSHER]!"
He launched off the ground with the force of an explosion. His body spun through the air in a furious flip, his wolf-bone club glowing with a bloody aura. He swung, putting all his hatred and the last of his mana into the strike.
In that same fraction of a second, three pairs of wings struck the air in perfect synchronization. Lilith, Lysandra, and Mina soared vertically upward, leaving only a streak of violet light beneath them.
Korgath struck a vacuum. The club slammed into the packed earth, raising clouds of dust where the three succubi had stood moments ago. But before he could straighten his back and look up at the mocking succubi, he felt a sudden, paralyzing resistance beneath his feet.
From the ground, exactly where he landed, a thick, violet plant spike shot upward. It was no ordinary sprout - it was hard as steel and tipped with a blade that entered between his groin with a macabre crunch, passed through his entire torso, and exited through the top, piercing his collarbone and throat.
Korgath froze, impaled like hunted game. His club fell from nerveless hands. He tried to say something, but only a wet, bubbling sound came from his mouth as his lungs filled with blood.
From above, Mina's pearly, joyful laughter reached him.
"You actually did it!" she called out, spinning pirouettes in the air. "You let yourself be played! You were so busy waving that stick of yours that you didn't even feel me setting the trap underground, you didn't even feel the earth starting to pulse with my magic! What a perfect conclusion to your 'great path,' Goblin. You'll make truly excellent fertilizer!"
Korgath tried to look at her with hatred once more, but instead of the succubus's face, he saw only three ice spikes hurtling straight toward him. The projectiles pierced his skull and heart almost simultaneously.
The dead leader of the Heroes fell to the ground, and his bone club rolled aside, landing in the mud.
While the three succubi were still in the air, Lilith felt strange. She looked at Lysandra and Mina in a completely new light. Seeing their ruthless effectiveness and perfect coordination in battle, she realized her subordinates were far more powerful than she had initially assumed.
[You have killed a Goblin-Hero. Hero Soul +1!]
[Lysandra has killed a Goblin-Hero. Hero Soul +1!]
Mina suddenly froze in mid-air, her eyes opening unnaturally wide. A system notification pulsed before her face, the contents of which made the blood in her veins boil. She snapped her head toward Lysandra, her face contorting into a grimace of pure hatred.
"You stole my kill!" she screamed, pointing an accusatory talon at her. "You bitch! You actually did it?! You stole my kill!"
Lysandra slowly turned her cold, unfazed gaze toward her. Her voice was low and irritatingly composed.
"I didn't steal it," she replied dispassionately. "I simply made sure he didn't survive. It's a matter of efficiency, nothing more."
Mina's eyes turned blood-red with fury in a single second. Her whole body began to tremble, and her voice rose to a hysterical pitch.
"You know perfectly well that we gain massive benefits for killing Heroes!" she shouted, closing in on Lysandra. "And you?! You killed all of them today! The system didn't credit me with a single kill because of your 'making sure'! Not one!"
On Lysandra's previously stony and cold face, a barely perceptible but incredibly cunning smile appeared. It was the kind of smile that hurt more than a blade.
"Next time, simply make sure you finish off your opponent fast enough," Lysandra murmured, adjusting her hair. "If you give someone time to intervene, that is your weakness, not my error."
Mina looked like she was about to explode from the emotional overload. Her wings beat violently against the air, and a low growl escaped her throat. Before she could throw herself at the older succubus, however, Lilith flashed between them, spreading her powerful arms.
"Enough!" the Monarch roared, silencing both subordinates. "We don't have time for your bickering now. We must return to Kala immediately to see how she's faring and if there were any other heroes who attacked us!"
Lysandra immediately acknowledged this with a short nod, returning to her role as a disciplined soldier. Mina, meanwhile, shifted her furious gaze from one to the other. She felt frustration mounting - she knew she wouldn't win this argument, and she was the only one to come out of this battle empty-handed, losing the chance for a massive power boost. She grit her teeth so hard they ground together and, with a loud sigh, finally relented, though a promise of revenge on Lysandra still flickered in her eyes.
Just as the three succubi were about to soar higher to fly back toward the Altar, Lilith suddenly went still. Something caught her attention below. She looked at the three ordinary goblins, who were still standing in the same spot as if time had stopped for them. Their gazes were empty, dazed, and fixed solely on her, while saliva mindlessly dripped onto their dirty rags.
Lilith furrowed her brow, feeling a mix of disgust and consternation. She pointed at them with a blood-stained talon.
"What... what are we supposed to do with them?" she asked, uncertain of the next move.
Lysandra and Mina hovered beside her, looking down. Both succubi stared at the surviving creatures with visible surprise. The sight of goblins whose minds had completely evaporated under the influence of their Lady's aura was so absurd that even they didn't know how to react. There stood only three primitive beings, completely enslaved by a beauty they were unable to comprehend.