Unlimited Power 02 – The Ranger's Domain

"We will exterminate all the succubus now," Alissa declared after breakfast. "This time, I will join the fight for real in order to prevent losses on our side."

Alissa didn't say that Ryan shouldn't help, but she also didn't say that she needed his help. Things became quite complicated between them, but weirdly enough, Alissa couldn't bring herself to say that Ryan didn't have to help her any longer. Still, Ryan was fine with the things going that way. He would feel annoyed if he doesn't pay his debt, after all.

Without wasting any more time, the operation to exterminate the succubus started. As much as Ryan wanted to snipe them all, that would take a long time. So, he had to focus on speed and by firing his arrows at a pretty close distance. Thanks to that, he began to feel the effects of the succubus magic.

"The heck is this…" Ryan frowned when he felt his sense getting all messed up.

When a succubus group was fifty meters away from him, Ryan's vision began to get blurred. Aiming was nearly impossible in that state, but such effect only lasted for a few moments. However, those creatures had more surprises in hand… when Ryan's eyesight returned to normal, the succubus changed. Suddenly, they looked human, and their body looked far more appealing than before. That was weird, but Ryan's heart began to beat faster, but suddenly he felt annoyed when he saw that some of them looked a lot like Mia.

"I shouldn't expect any less from monsters…"

Before Ryan could do anything, their appearances changed, and those effects disappeared the very moment the succubus got killed by Alissa. She had to work fast because some of her 'soldiers' also began to act weird. As if that wasn't bad enough, Ryan noticed that the succubus also made of their allies look like enemies. He had to be careful. Otherwise, he might kill some of the survivors by accident.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Charm Resistance.

Effect: Decreases the effect of spells and abilities that might charm you by one percent.

You obtained 01 status point.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Illusion Resistance.

Effect: Decreases the effect of spells and abilities that might confuse you by one percent.

You obtained 01 status point.

"If fifty meters their range… I have to keep that distance from them."

Ryan had to move a lot in order to achieve that, but eventually, he found a better way to counter the succubus magic: attack first and cause them pain. While they scream in agony, the monsters were unable to use their magic and control the humans. A good Flame Arrow on their faces was more than enough for that.

"I see…" Alissa nodded in satisfaction when she realized that. "In the end, it looks like they still will have decent training."

Instead of Flame Arrows, Alissa used Fire Bullets. Still, her projectiles were powerful enough to destroy the limbs of the monsters. So, the difficulty of the battle decreased more than she wanted. In any case, the noise caused by the start of the fights attracted all the monsters in the area, so things got a little bit more balanced.

"If the ordinary succubus can be this troublesome… what about the bosses near the dungeon? Come to think of it, the previous boss of that demons' dungeon was smart like a human… what will happen when a dungeon breaks happen, and several of those creatures appear?" 

Those were only some of several troublesome questions that were bothering Ryan's mind. Although their chances of losing with Alissa on their side was pretty low, Ryan still wanted to think of a way to solve the situation by himself. He managed to snipe Bolvath and kill it with a single arrow before, but he had to concentrate a Power Shot for a full minute. Maybe he could do that and defeat a boss with a single strike without emptying all of his mana and stamina, but Ryan was fully aware that he wouldn't be able to do that more than two or three times.

"So much to become a one-man army…"

Ryan still had a long way ahead of him, and in order to shorten his path toward his goal, he could only do a single thing: fight as much as possible. Regardless, even though the survivors were much weaker than the succubus, the fight proceeded quite well for several hours, but then the succubus began to appear from all sides.

"What is this?" Alissa asked, confused.

"Maybe the bosses noticed that something is happening, and they decided to call back the succubus that had left the city and headed toward other areas."

That seemed like a plausible explanation… but to think that those creatures could control their minions to that point was beyond troublesome. In any case, there was no point in complaining or wondering if that was true or not. Ryan only focused on attacking the monsters before they could use their troublesome skills.

Alissa also stopped holding back in order to make her soldiers gain as much battle experience as possible. She pulled her crossbows and then began to massacre the succubus before they could get surrounded.

Although none of the survivors had died yet, their exhaustion was reaching the limit. Alissa could help them recover their energy, but then she will have to stop attacking the monsters… it was only a matter of time before the balance of the battle breaks. Without any other choice, Ryan decided to use Call and make his treant join the battle, but before that happens, he heard some footsteps coming from behind… when he turned around, Ryan saw the survivors who were training with his slimes approaching, picking the weapons that were dropped by the monsters and then joining the fight.

"Well… I didn't expect that."

Ryan told them to show their guts by training as hard as possible, but it looked like they decided to do that by fighting as well. Even though with their strength, not even five humans could take down a single succubus.

"Ah… I can use that."

Ryan used War Drum, and the sound caused by his spell increased the strength of all his allies in the area. Things got a lot easier after that, not because of the bonus in the spell's strength, but because the spell leveled up several times by affecting many people.