Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Cramped into the streets and alleys, in front of the houses, on the walls, on the roofs, and even a few inside the houses. There were people who looked like they had been made from fish everywhere they looked.

Alzara turned to glance at Yanael with a cocky smirk.

"It seems like you got what you wished for. Don't drag me down, knight."

"Hmph." Yanael scoffed as she pushed past Alzara while unsheathing her weapons and calling upon her halo and her wings. "Don't get in my way, witch."

Alzara chuckled as Yanael dashed forward. She flicked her wrists and brought her daggers into her hands. Zach saw her focus for a moment before the engravings on her daggers lit up.

"Curse of Weakness."

After tying a curse to her daggers, one that didn't need her blood as a catalyst, Alzara joined Yanael in the battle, though she fought the fish people on the other side of Zach. After all, they were here for him.

Even if Yanael and Alzara fought them, killed them, and slaughtered them, they would still target them. They had to reduce their numbers and their area of movement as much as possible.

There was also the fact that they would get in each others' ways if they fought too close to each other. Opposite sides of Zach was the furthest they could get.

Each one of the fish people was as strong as the tiger. It was Zach's only real benchmark since that striped monster had left behind such a deep mark in his mind.

But a lot of time had passed since then, and Yanael had grown a lot stronger. Zach had grown a lot stronger. And they had a new companion, one who was also very strong.

Yanael didn't budge in the slightest when she blocked the fish people's weapons and claws with her shield, and her sword severed limbs and spilled guts as she willingly took on the brunt of their assault. She remained fixed in place like a statue as she eased the burden on Zach's barrier the best she could.

Alzara took a different approach.

After initially setting out opposite side of Zach to Yanael, she danced through the sea of fish people, gracefully nicking them with her daggers, inflicting them with the Curse of Weakness. If she saw an opportunity to do it without getting hit or letting another go, she also slit their throats, punctured their lungs, or severed their spinal cords.

Zach didn't see the effects of the Curse of Weakness immediately. It wasn't like the Curse of Decay that made flesh rot.

However, after a while, he noticed that the fishpeople were slower. They stumbled and fumbled around. They accidentally hit each other with their weapons. The light in their eyes dimmed slightly.

But that wasn't it. Those were merely the side effects of the curse.

After a while when Weakness had set in and most of the fish people in a stone throw's range had been cut by Alzara's whirlwind dance of twirling daggers, Alzara changed combat style.

If her first style had relied on her agility, flexibility, and long strides, her second style made full use of the size of her hands, the length of her arms, and the strength of a body made to survive even the harshest deserts.

Her daggers vanished.

Alzara grabbed the nearest head and with a light movement, like plucking a flower, she popped it off the body, which promptly collapsed. Each hand held a head like they were apples.

With a surprising cruelty and condescension, she threw the heads. She didn't need to aim at anyone or anything. Wherever she threw them, she would hit another fish person.

It didn't look like she aimed, either.

But she hit another two heads with the first ones. All four exploded on impact despite the seeming ease with which Alzara had thrown them. She flicked her wrists and the heads soared lightly through the air.

The explosion wasn't proportional to the force she had put in.

Zach realized why it was so flashy. It was also the reason why their heads had come loose so easily.

It was the Curse of Weakness. It made them frail and extra susceptible to damage. They didn't stand a chance against Alzara before, but now they were less than cattle at the slaughter.

Zach couldn't remember ever having felt pity for monsters, especially ones that came at him with such ferocity and palpable bloodthirst.

But when he watched Alzara grab another pair of heads and launch them through the torsos of several fish people, he couldn't help but pity them.

The fish people looked mindless, much like the ratlings had done in the Jira Labyrinth. They only followed their instincts, and those instincts told them to attack Zach. They didn't strategize. They didn't think. They didn't feel.

There was no need or reason to pity such hollow beings.

But Alzara's slaughter was just that brutal.

Yanael wasn't any more merciful. She didn't care what part of the fish people she cut. She was happy just to kill and see the fish people fall and pile up around her.

But there was just something about the forethought and calculation behind Alzara's actions that made Zach reconsider how he had looked at her until now. She was still his dear familiar. She was more than that, even. She was a close confidant and some kind of friend.

But maybe there was more to her past than a gentle potion-making desert witch.

However, above all else, she was reliable.

Zach looked at the fish people mindlessly attacking his barrier with their weapons, claws, teeth, and heads.

Now, if only he was more reliable. All he could do was defend, and neither Alzara nor Yanael needed defending. The only one who needed it was him, and that was because he couldn't kill the fish people on his own.

Zach sighed. He regretted not bringing his spear along. It was unwieldy carrying around a spear, and he wasn't very good at it. The only reason he was using it was because it was a good spear and he risked his life in the fight against the rat king. It would be a shame if he didn't use it.

But against an enemy that he needed a weapon to fight against, a spear he didn't know how to use would only make it harder for him.

"What to do, what to do…" Zach sat down and pondered on his future.