The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 337 - Reinforcing Unorthodox Taunting Behaviors

Chapter 337: Chapter 337 - Reinforcing Unorthodox Taunting Behaviors

"You would tell me. If I was the problem."

Dull mint eyes searched the set of pigeon blues, finding only truth in them despite the other contradictory signals. Despite the taller girl practically warning the spiritualist not to touch that part of each other together. And El... knew better than to push.

To not dive inside with her spiritual sense and figure out if her partner was being deceptive.

’Whether I am or I’m not, when she learns I did it because I absolutely tell her... well, people don’t like that.’

"Then at what? Can I do anything?"

Qat glanced at the dissolving Voidling... at the destroyed ritual site... at the approaching researchers and cultivators forming perimeters around the remaining enemies. People who would soon shower her with praise she wasn’t sure she deserved considering her complicity in ruining their goal.

People that would understand, wouldn’t trust her wife - even if she tried to tell them directly her reasons for doing it. Who would label the girl as dangerous for her knowledge on one hand and valuable on the other.

"No. Just frustrated at everything else. We’ll talk later."

The low voice rumbled softly down as the girl hesitated to do what she actually wanted. But the thumb that ran a soft, teasing press across the lower lip on Elua’s face... and the fingers that trailed and lifted so reluctantly from under her jaw that the girl’s chin came up and forward with them... told her wife through physical means alone what she was thinking.

’Hnn... w-what have I done to myself? I’ve let her become too seductive...’

Eyes filled with dazed dreamy light watched her husband-wife rise to her full height and turn to meet with the lead researchers quickly approaching. Master Jevri surveyed the ruins with an expression of disappointment barely mingled with relief for the pair’s seeming safety.

"Look at this... the data... our plans. All of it, lost."

"It was probably-"

"Excuse me, but we’re not finished with hostilities quite yet. Please remain at my wife’s side."

Master Wohjat, the middle-aged sigilist that had been about to start an argument by claiming it was a mistake in the design that would not have happened if he had been involved from the start, closed his mouth and nodded.

"Of course. I’ll protect my pupil."

As the Yecine stalked away towards more fighting, there was a fluttering twinge in the rigid and distant tendrils. One that someone who had watched her ever since that representation of spirit started to exist understood as amusement, even without directly connecting to them to ’feel’ it.

’She... she’s laughing at them for thinking I need the protection! Even after she just went ballistic on that Voidling, for my sake.’

With a cheek puffed out and hands clutching the edge of her dress, Elua sincerely thought about whether to stay or follow. After all, the order for *them* had been to stay with her - but she had received no orders to stay put!

"There’s another of the bigger ones out there, you know."

"W-what? You mean a leader-class?"

As the brunette spoke - and Jevri jumped and spun around to look for it, like it was attached to his shadow - Wohjat grabbed for his husband’s elbow to keep him from hurting himself.

"Maybe we should move closer to the other forces?"

"That’s a reasonable idea. As expected from my mentor. Shall we?"

They followed at a distance as Qatrand strode right toward the edge of the devastated ritual site. Men of the Steelbound Tempest had established a defensive line and pushed towards the aggressive invaders. Weapons struck at reaching vantablack limbs and a constant sound of small shrieks wore on the fighters’ senses.

The final Intermediate-class Voidling lurked beyond the treeline, periodically sending squads of lessers to try and overwhelm what it found to be weaknesses amongst the scrum.

"Senior."

The Steelbound field commander turned at the voice with a face showing both respect and wariness. He’d witnessed enough just before to know the Yecine wasn’t just another young cultivator. Enough to know that he had never witnessed anything like that short but violent fight in the maelstrom of essence.

"Yecine. Well done. Joining us or is it something else?"

"May I make a suggestion regarding the remaining forces?"

He gestured for the tall, back clothed blonde to continue. While the older man wasn’t sure what this visual difference in the hair was about, it didn’t really change the warrior as far as he was concerned.

"Instead of letting them dictate the flow, I can draw their attacks instead. Giving your fighters more predictably acting targets."

The other cultivator’s brow pinched together. There hadn’t been much time to talk, but the archer of the young man’s little group had informed some of the men of what was supposed to have happened these last few days. Of the strange way the creatures acted toward Qatrand.

"You want to use yourself as bait again? Right after facing a leader?"

Pigeon blues met his brown gaze steadily. The blade in her hand still dropped ichor from its length, as she hadn’t taken the time to clean it other than a single short swipe while walking - to fling some of the large enemy’s poisonous substance aside.

"My Physique allows me to direct enemy attention specifically toward me. I’d be a focal point they can’t look away from."

"So, bait."

The field commander was surprised to see the very short laugh show up out of the face of a member of that taciturn family. Followed by a nod and light *smile*.

"Arguing that seems futile. If you position your ranged fighters in a fan formation behind me, with close-range cultivators extending out on the flanks, then when I draw the enemies your forces can strike them down."

After a few exchanged glances with other senior members of the Brotherhood, the man nodded back slowly.

"It’s unorthodox, but if it works like you say..."

"It will. And it’s an opportunity for your Guild to learn how to fight alongside this ability, in case other cultivators discover that they have it."

This was something she had been thinking about ever since the ability activated. How to make it useful and how she might leverage it to protect more people. But she was sure that, with the number of cultivators on the Continent with unidentified Physiques... more like her must exist.

’And if not, then more still may in the future.’

"Ryder from the Void Defense Society has had the experience already. Speak with him so that together, we can begin to find the most effective ways to deploy it in the war efforts. Our failure here for the research team should count for something more."

Within a pair of minutes, the forces had repositioned and Qat stood at the center of their strange reverse-wedge formation. The fighting had never stopped as the hundreds of little enemies harassed the cultivators. She took a deep, centering breath, before activating her Cynosure Physique.

Flame-point whites of the lesser Voidlings visible at the forest edge all pivoted toward her simultaneously. The uncomfortable intensity of burning sensation began to crawl all over her. Even from this distance, she could feel the Intermediate’s particular attention lock onto her.

’Weaker than the moments before I slayed the first leader, but stronger than any of these other individuals.’

"They will see me as their primary target. However, be ready for anything!"

She called out loudly, without turning away from the horde surging forward. Her blade flashed as she cut down the nearest who had already reached. Squads flanking the flow of enemies began cautiously attacking without trying to ’redirect’ the rush.

Distracted Voidlings were sliced, hacked, and pierced from the sides. The creatures barely registered the attacks, their focus so unnaturally fixed on Qat. Only the few being ’directly’ controlled by the more powerful eldritch being seemed to try lashing out at the opponents as they passed.

A second wave, the enemies that had been hiding in the forest behind the Intermediate, followed while they were still lowering the ’living’ number of enemies. Sweat beaded on the Yecine’s forehead as the fever-like heat of her Physique intensified. She locked pigeon-blues onto the larger humanoid, which had emerged partially from the treeline.

And the swordswoman could feel the moment it lost its head - as did everyone.

While the Steelbound cultivators adapted quickly, striking with greater confidence as they realized the enemies wouldn’t turn entirely on them, they startled at the nightmare screech and sudden flailing of every single Voidling in the area.

"Ranged teams, target the Intermediate!"

A barrage of projectiles shot and arced toward the humanoid Voidling. It broke from its fixation on Qat long enough to dodge, but in doing so, lost control of its momentarily coordinated assault. The gap of inactivity led many of the vantablack creatures to have their cores pierced by opportunistic humans.

Strain burned through her as she pushed past her limits. Focusing intently on the most troubling enemy. Daring it with a pulse of physical energy against her skin, like asking if anything was more important to pay attention to. Knowing it couldn’t hear ’words’ but that it would understand.

"You can’t look away from me now. I won’t let you."

In the next moments, the creature made the fatal error of charging directly down the killzone toward her. Abandoning any semblance of tactical positioning in favor of eliminating the source of interference. A suicidal rush, even as a few of its furthest lessers were ordered to escape.

The Steelbound fighters closed in from all sides as more and more projectiles and blades rained on its form. Ichor slung in all kinds of directions as it’s Void-composed form began to be pulled apart. Finally collapsing a dozen yards away from its target.

No one moved until Qat stepped forward. Extinguishing her Physique as best she could. Enhancing her blade with Gravity essence. The killing blow was anticlimactic - a single downward chop that cleaved through the organ it had tried protecting.

’It didn’t even bother to scream.’

Cultivators had now witnessed first-hand how her ability could transform battlefield dynamics. And a certain brunette wanted to make sure there was some words to go along with that. Slightly high pitched, ’cheerful’, and young... the voice called out in praise and *reinforcement*.

"This is how a battle is fought with a Cynosure Physique~!"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l