User blog:RedNSFW/Echidna : What Would You Do? - Ronchellster

"You are a Hero in training who joined a group of king's soldiers to expel a Wight's one of his strongholds. Your partner, a powerful magician, also applied to help you, but you are not sure whether to accept.

''Your reasons are as follows: She claims to be able to use one of the eighth level magic, but most mages can only use up to the fourth level, some masters can use up to the fifth level, a hero could use a sixth level or even seventh level if he has a powerful artifact with him. Above that it is not humanly possible, but if by chance it is a disguised Echidna, then it would make sense.''

She certainly will not hurt you, but if it is a Mamono there is no way to know which interests her.

What do you do?"

I have a bad feeling : maybe the wight will turn the entire town into a demon realm if nobody does anything soon.

I think a little while about the mamono the magician next to me could be. If she was a succubus, she would already have tried to seduce me. If she was a lilim, she would probably have silver hair. There is no reason she would fight if she was a gyoubu danuki, either. The only logical explanation I come up with is that she is an echidna. So, as long as I don't show my battle skills too much, or she doesn't insist to train me, I should be fine, right? Or maybe not at all, since monsters are quite unpredictable.

Still, I decide to take the risk teaming up with her, and regret this decision when in the middle of the operation the group's leader decides we should split up the party into pairs, which have been defined before our departure to better organize the raid. Great.

Most monsters already have husbands, so I do not need to mind them, and even when an unmarried one pops out of nowhere, I defend myself rather than attacking, then my teammate repels them almost instantly. At this point, I begin to assume she has already taken a liking to me, and that she will do her best for me to remain unclaimed until she can trap me.

Once we arrive in front of the wight, she does not seem surprised at all, as if she was expecting us. I ask her if she could kindly leave the stronghold, but apparently she wants to make this place her home. Then the woman next to me uses a teleportation spell on the wight and her husband, and tells me she has successfully teleported them in the neighbour country. Having focused on the spell itself, I had not realized that her skin had turned to blue, and she had grown a snake tail.

She tells me it is an effect of using a too powerful spell, and that it has disrupted her disguise. She does not seem to be ready to coil around me, but the undead lady's lack of reaction still intrigues me. Then the echidna sets up a barrier inside the room, preventing any external intervention.

She says she had set everything up with the wight's help to lure me in, that she also felt I was holding back during the whole operation, and eventually declares she will test my potential here and now, as she materializes a strange magical sword from thin air. Well, that was to be expected.

Like during the raid, I stay mostly in a defensive stance, but she sees through my "strategy" (not that I really have one) and attacks quite aggressively to try to make me lose my balance, with a big grin on her face. I hold on for a few minutes, but I start getting tired, thinking that on the one hand, if I don't try anything, I will get exhausted very soon and collapse, which might be the end of me, while on the other hand, if I DO try something, she might just like me and try to catch me, while increasing the speed and intensity of her attacks (which would probably end up the same way).

Then something comes to my mind : what would happen if I just dropped my sword, and maybe even remained still? No, stupid idea, she would probably wait for me to get it again while still attacking me, or coil around me if I stopped moving. But then, what if I say I don't want to fight anymore? I doubt she would even listen... Maybe I should just try to break the barrier, since that's what's holding me in this fight?

I dodge her attacks, try to get some distance and get close to the magical wall. She sees the opportunity to deliver a series of quick and powerful blows, and I think about kicking her- NO! She will probably grab my foot and hold it tight, then everything will be lost. I dash on my right side, flip left and make a swing towards the barrier with my right arm, blocking a blow at the same time. The pommel hits the barrier pretty violently, but not enough to break it, while I am stuck against the barrier and struggle with my twisted arm, with the echidna pushing on my blade with the flat of hers. Her smile widens, meaning it was probably a very bad idea to even attempt this, especially with her magic level.

I clench my left fist and hit as hard as I can the point of impact, where I am still trying to push with the end of the handle. Once. The echidna looks surprised but keeps pushing on my sword, looking satisfied by the show I'm giving her. Twice. The hit draws her attention and she doubles the strength she's been appying until now. A third time. She stops pushing, removes her blade and aims for my right hand. I make a quarter-turn, block the attack with the piece of armor on my arm and...

A fourth time. The barrier looks like it is slightly shattered. I push a little harder with my fist, and it "collapses". So do I after falling forwards. I take back my breath, when I notice the echidna is still frozen into place, her face showing her shock. Maybe nobody had managed or even tried to ever break this spell. Maybe that's the perfect time for me to run too, but I'm not sure I can run that far away in my current state...

Then she looks at me, as shocked as before, then more pleased than I have ever seen her since I met her. I guess that's it... She jumps on me, you know what happens next.

Two days later, the town the wight was sent in has been turned into a demon realm as expected, and this one too thanks to the echidna's plot, which consisted in getting rid of powerful knights during that raid, claiming me for her alone, and letting monsters invade the city. However, I am not complaining about it, she really managed to surprise me.