B2 Ch 105 - Blood Frenzy

“Your Highness, are you comfortable riding me like this?”

“It feels a little strange being on top of you, but... I can’t say it’s entirely unpleasant.”

“Really? You didn’t seem this shy when you rode Sliora before. Tell me, Your Highness, just how many others have you ridden?”

Jester let out a strained breath, trying not to react to how wrong that question sounded without context. He was still awkwardly positioned on Vanessa’s back, his legs locked tightly around her sides as he strengthened his grip on her shoulders. With every powerful beat of her wings, Jester’s body bounced against her back, forcing another breathless gasp from his lips.

“Hold me tighter. Keep moving like that and you’re going to fall off. Put your arms around my shoulders and cling to me properly.”

“Could you stop saying things like that? You’re making this entire situation sound incredibly questionable, Vanessa.”

“What? I’m only telling you how to ride me properly, Your Highness.”

“That. Exactly that.”

The wind slammed into them again, and Jester immediately tightened his hold, pressing himself closer to Vanessa as he fought to stay in place. This was ridiculous. Of all the situations he could have imagined himself getting into, desperately clinging to the back of a freaking bat had never been one of them. A vampire bat, no less. And this was not even some ordinary vampire bat.

This was Vanessa in her bat form. And Jester was in his Pocket Form.

Vanessa’s wings beat rapidly through the night, making the flight far from comfortable. Every sudden rise and drop made Jester’s stomach twist, yet they continued onward. From this height, the vast land beneath them was much easier to see, especially beneath the unusually bright moon. Its silver light washed over the landscape, revealing roads, forests, and distant structures that would have disappeared into darkness from the ground.

“Have you considered making me your permanent mount, Your Highness?”

“Absolutely not. My heart is pounding, I could fall off at any moment, and riding you is nowhere near as comfortable as you seem to think!”

“My, how cruel. After letting you stay on top of me this entire time, that’s all I get?”

“Vanessa.”

“What? I was talking about flying.”

The bat continued beating her wings through the night, cutting across a distance that would normally take far longer to cover in only a fraction of the time. And really, Jester would not have gone this far if he had not learned that something had happened to one of the maids involved in his plans. There was no one else he could leave this to. This time, he had to step in personally and settle the problem himself.

Vanessa, in all fairness, was one of the few people under him whom Jester could confidently place in the reliable category, especially when it came to complicated tasks that required more than simple strength. Igrio was already beyond consideration. There was no point questioning that man’s reliability. Sliora was another one who could handle difficult assignments and adapt when things went wrong, and then there was Vanessa.

She had a surprisingly complete set of abilities, and more importantly, nearly all of them were practical. Her mobility alone was excellent thanks to this bat transformation, and turning into a full bat was not even her only option. In her human form, Vanessa could simply manifest her wings whenever she needed them, allowing her to move through the air without completely transforming herself.

Vanessa could engage in battle without much trouble, control the flow of a fight thanks to the extraordinary range of her senses, and escape just as easily if the situation became unfavorable. That also made her particularly useful for rescue missions. Getting into a dangerous place was one thing, but having someone capable of getting back out while carrying another person was far more valuable.

She was fast and aggressive when fighting at close range, but physical combat was hardly her only strength. Vanessa was also highly skilled with magic, particularly spells that interfered with the mind by manipulating emotions, perception, and judgment.

It was exactly that kind of magic she had used to great effect when disrupting Rania’s forces some time ago.

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Vanessa had placed subtle mental influences on several of the knights, gradually pushing their emotions in the direction she wanted until they began acting without their usual restraint. From there, all she had needed to do was provoke the players around them and let their own tempers finish the job.

Though, to be fair, players were naturally easy to provoke.

Far too many of them looked down on NPCs simply because they were NPCs. To those players, the people of this world were little more than characters standing beneath them. A dismissive remark, a small insult, even the slightest challenge to their pride could be enough to set them off.

Pearl had taken the place of a knight with enough influence to affect those around her. Meanwhile, Vanessa had worked quietly from behind the scenes, manipulating the emotions of both knights and players. Together, their actions had allowed Jester to spread chaos throughout Rania’s ranks.

Whatever had truly happened behind the attack Esta brought to Necroton some time ago, one fact remained unchanged. Whether Rania had personally ordered it or whether someone else had pushed events in that direction, Esta was still someone operating beneath her authority. And if Jester wanted Rania to behave herself from now on, then perhaps it was time to give her a lesson she would actually remember.

There was also the small problem of what he had said back then while using Caelan’s mouth. He had declared that he would make her kneel before him.

Tch.

Those were Caelan’s words. Jester had merely been forced to imitate the sort of thing that bastard would say in that situation. That was all.

It was not as if Jester was trying to run away from responsibility for saying it, of course. It just so happened that a considerably larger problem had appeared at exactly the right time.

A problem involving a Ranked Demon.

Naturally, Jester had no intention of allowing an opportunity this enormous to simply pass him by. Something like this did not appear every day, and if he was already being dragged into the situation, then he might as well squeeze every possible benefit out of it.

And what would he receive if he actually managed to kill a Ranked Demon? Something enormous, obviously.

There were only seventy-two of them.

Seventy-two in the entire world. No, across the entire two worlds! Yunatea and Hell.

More importantly, they did not simply respawn after being killed like ordinary monsters. Ranked Demons were special entities, named characters with their own identities and positions in the world.

Killing one was not the same as clearing some hunting ground and waiting for the monster to appear again later. Once one of them died, that death actually meant something.

Of course, Jester understood very clearly what that also implied. A Ranked Demon was not an opponent anyone could afford to underestimate.

He would need considerable strength. He would need a carefully prepared plan. More people would have to be moved into position, certain individuals would need to be influenced, others manipulated without realizing it, and every useful piece on the board would have to be pushed in exactly the right direction.

If Jester wanted to bring down one of the seventy-two Ranked Demons, charging straight at it would never be enough.

He would have to turn the entire situation into his weapon first.

The flight continued until something finally appeared in the distance, making Jester narrow his eyes slightly. At first, it was little more than a tiny speck against the darkness, but as they drew closer, its shape gradually became clearer. Down in an open clearing between the trees, the first thing he noticed was the violent red aura blazing around a moving figure.

“Your Highness, I need to fly faster,” Vanessa said.

“Yes, do it.”

Jester immediately tightened his grip again, leaning closer and wrapping his arms firmly around Vanessa’s shoulders as she accelerated. The figure they were chasing was moving absurdly fast.

Its movements were wild and brutal, almost like those of a beast. It tore across the ground with its entire body wrapped in a blood-red aura, moving at a speed that was difficult to follow even from above.

Every now and then, the figure seemed to disappear completely, only to reappear somewhere farther ahead a moment later, as if using some kind of short-range teleportation.

Vanessa pushed herself harder when the figure suddenly shot forward from behind and rushed toward a group of players farther ahead. There seemed to be around five of them.

“They’re not going to survive!” Jester said.

“The fight won’t last long,” Vanessa replied.

The figure wrapped in red energy closed the distance almost instantly and tore into the player at the very back of the group. The others shouted in alarm and hurried to take their positions, but before they could properly organize themselves, the creature vanished again.

It appeared from another side. Another player died. Then it disappeared once more.

Vanessa managed to close some of the distance, but it hardly mattered. Within moments, the remaining players were slaughtered one after another, barely given enough time to understand what was attacking them, much less fight back.

The red figure dropped low afterward, both hands and feet touching the ground as it crouched over its latest victim like a wild animal. Its posture was disturbingly inhuman, ready to spring forward again at any moment.

Then, without warning, its head turned.

Up.

Straight toward Jester.

“Vanessa!”

Jester kicked against her side in warning, but the figure below had already vanished.

In the next instant, something appeared in the air above them.

Jester’s eyes widened.

There it was. The Frenzy.

From Jester’s pocket-sized form, the creature looming above them seemed absolutely enormous. Its horrifying silhouette hung against the moon, swallowing the pale light behind it and casting both Jester and Vanessa beneath its shadow.

For one brief moment, it simply hovered there.

Then its arm shot downward. Fast. Far too fast.

A clawed hand closed around Jester’s tiny body and ripped him straight from Vanessa’s back.

“You’re mine!”