Chapter 57

The man with the fake arm took out his rifle and began shooting down my remaining clones while hiding behind the armored guy. I couldn't see the status of the armored guy but both of them were superb with their sharpshooting skill.

To compensate for my lost clones, I continued to manufacture more and more of the disk version of my flying clones and began hiding them, carefully not to let them see me. Even if I couldn't be tracked, my remote controlled clones could be, or so it seemed. I rather not they track my position indirectly and launch a surprise attack.

I like surprises, but not from muscle men. Tch, now I'm in a pickle. I really wanted to save that man for last but if he's this stubborn...

Do I have any paralysis poison doesn't kill with minor overdose? Do I? I don't, right? There's no way to tell how strong a poison is just from the menu. Then it'll be down to luck.

Let's see how lucky you are! The wheel of fortune grinds slowly.

Since I couldn't really neutralize the armored guy without also killing both of them, I decided to use poisonous needles coated with the usual paralysis poison. Knowing that the guy had |iron will| trait, the chance of overdosing was quite high because he was bound to fight to the last breath without giving in to the poison.

One at a time, I shot poisonous needles at his exposed skin.

As expected, even after multiple direct hits, he still stood strong. He didn't even bother pulling any of the needles out of his skin.  Meanwhile, I lost another five clones from gunfire.

He's got guts. Normally, seven should be more than enough.

It wasn't like he wasn't affected. His movements had slowed down considerably after the seventh shot.

Wait a second, I just remembered. That mage isn't around anymore. I can just overwhelm him with darts.

After making a short preparation, I unleashed two hundred darts in his direction. The only direction I couldn't cover was his back because that was where the inner city's main entrance was.

Just as my darts were about to reach him, a light flashed at the centre of the armored man's chest. Immediately following that, an explosion blew away majority of my poisonous darts.

What now? He had more tricks up his sleeves?

Without wasting a second, the two of them charged into the entrance, heading straight for the next gate. They probably planned to bust open the gate and cause as much ruckus as possible before their final breath.

Oh no you don't! Not on my watch.

I quickly recovered the remaining darts and sent them after those two fellows. To ensure they couldn't escape, I unleashed [synthesis] at a much higher output on my clones that had closed in on them.

Immediately, a huge wave of greeneries burst forth like a tidal wave. The two were quickly swallowed whole.

Boom!

A shockwave in the shape of a wall pushed back my clones. Following that was another explosive echo.

Oh shoot, they broke through. One hit? Such power. Why didn't they use it earlier?

Unfortunately for them, there was another stone gate ahead. Though, that was the final gate.

Of course, I didn't give them any breathers. My clones in the shape of vines and tendrils chased after them like a horde of zombies that simple refused to die. Meanwhile, my fey body had to move to keep my advancing clones within my effective control range.

It's game over now!

Within seconds, before they could reach the final gate, I captured both of them and began using absorption to steal their mana. Or, that was how it was supposed to go. I was able to capture the fake arm man. His mana was quickly drained to prevent him from using abilities that cost mana.

As for the armored guy, or the man in full mobile suit, he finally pulled out his giant sword behind his back. He was swinging it like a boss, cutting down my vines with flashy moves.

Well, well, how long can you keep that up?

I wanted that mobile suit. There was no reason not to capture such a priceless technology. Darts and tendrils swarmed him endlessly.

One second, two seconds, three seconds... Eleven seconds.

I counted to eleven before he was completely overwhelmed and lost all his mana.

Good fight. It wasn't even a fight. Thanks for the free toy! Now... How do I open my present?

I sat near the entrance examining the two captives remotely via my |tactician| trait. Since I didn't want to damage the thing, I spent quite a bit of time poking around before I gave up.

After a bit, I had the fake arm man carried out and placed before me. He was still somewhat awake, so I greeted him, "Hello there. Have we met before?"

His eyes squinted, "You monster..."

"That's right, I'm a monster. If I'm a monster, then you're a beast, no? Answer me, have you tried to capture a strawberry fey before?"

"Ugh... I'll kill you, you bastard! It's you, isn't it! I knew I should have killed you."

Confirmed. Maybe I should cut him up so he could feel the pain I went through? Hmm...

"Too bad. I don't know how you levelled up so fast. Since I'm very cute and friendly, want to play a game?" I smirked.

There was no one who could rescue him. All the tanks within the city had been neutralized by me. There wasn't any more reinforcements coming because I already destroyed their local headquarter underneath. Any remaining soldiers still in the city would not be able to hinder me. Most of them were out of my reach as well so I left them alone. The cleanup could be saved for later anyway.

"You'll never get anything out of me! Curse you, you strawberry devil!"

Strawberry devil? You mean strawberry cutie? Bad man has bad taste.

Calling myself a devil was one thing but being called a devil by someone else just didn't sit right with me. At least he got the first part right.

"I don't need anything."

Four thick vines wrapped around his four limbs.

I chuckled, "Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?"

"Ugh. Never!"

Slowly but surely, the vines tugged and pulled. Soon, he was stretched with all his limbs out like a starfish. There were a couple refreshing popping sounds.

"Fun, fun. Are you having fun?" I asked.

"Ughhh." He groaned.

No screams yet? Let's pull a little harder. The end goal was to kill him anyway.

A minute later, the fake arm torn off and a bit of blood spilled out.

"What a nice looking arm. I wonder if this gave you the boost in levels."

I could clearly tell this thing could store some mana. However, examining him didn't give me any conclusive evidence of it. Sure, he lost some physical stats, but that was all.

His face was flushed and yet he still didn't let out a scream. He was mumbling something as if he was delirious. Since it didn't sound like a spell, I didn't bother gagging him.

The next limb to come off was his other arm. This time, a lot more blood was flowing out.

Nothing, not a single whimper came from him.

I'm bored.

With a snap of my finger, a leg came off before I used [absorption] to erase him completely. In the end, he only let out a single grunt. His trait |iron will| was apparently not just for show.

"Good for you. You have my approval, now rest in hell."

With this business finished, I went around the city to clean up all the corpses and paralyzed soldiers. By cleanup, I meant using [absorption] on them. All the broken clones were also absorbed back into me.

I'm doing good for the city. Now they don't have to worry about diseases and digging burial sites. I'm so convenient!

I had to leave the mobile suit person tangled up and bound because I didn't know how to open it. It was air tight like a space suit. There was probably a lock on the inside but I couldn't see interiors of bodies even with |tactician| trait. No matter what, without a mana core, it shouldn't be able to move.

After my cleanup was complete, the city was super clean, not a single soldier to be found. Their clothes and equipment were left around but that had nothing to do with me! I did my part, and the remaining part was for someone else.

Actually, I didn't clean up the tunnels or any of the beastfolk corpses. It was in consideration of the surviving beastfolks who might wish to see their relatives' remains. I was super considerate!

On the higher grounds, clouds were now indistinguishable from heavy fog, obscuring my vision of any hidden battlegrounds.

Looking up, the aerial battle seemed to have concluded. There were no more explosions or flashes coming from above and I hadn't seen any magitech ship crashing through the clouds for a while.

As if announcing the end of a great battle, heavy rain descended upon the land, calming the land while washing away filth and debris.

Ah shoot, I just remembered. I forgot to turn off the poisonous gas synthesis.

Even now, poisonous gas was continuously being synthesized which I had completely forgot about. I quickly turned it off and found a nice place to sit on the ascending path to the mountain temple.