Chương 33: “A Drink Tastes Better When a Girl Pours It for You!”

Ch 33 "A Drink Tastes Better When a Girl Pours It for You!"

Tusk's eyes rolled back as the demonic elixir coursed through his veins. Black veins webbed across his face and neck, pulsing with unnatural energy. His body convulsed violently, but Amber kept her iron grip on his jaw.

"More?" she asked sweetly, grabbing another vial. Her Abyssal Seal burned in her palm at the proximity.

"You have so many stored here. It must be your favorite drink!" The rotund man's pupils dilated wider until they were entirely black. Foam mixed with dark liquid bubbled at the corners of his mouth. He tried to speak, but only gurgling sounds emerged.

"A friend of mine said a drink tastes better when a girl pours it for you! Tell me, was he right?"

"Pl-please!" he tried to choke out.

"What's that? I can't hear you! Speak up!" Amber tilted her head as she shoved the upside down bottle into his mouth. The tiger like gleam in her golden eyes intensified as she watched him struggle. The fury generated by the Saint Tiger Qi was in full effect, spurred on by the anger of almost being made into a slave by a blood magic mask, like the tragic fate of Bone Eater. Something in her remembered stabbing all those terrified men to death after they had failed to kill her first.

She had been angry, sad, frustrated… and yet, something else. Seeing a man who'd terrorized so many others reduced to a pathetic, trembling mess felt… right. Amber threw him to the floor as his throat started seizing and liquid merely poured back out onto the floor, oozing demonic vapor. Tusk's body suddenly went rigid. His muscles bulged grotesquely beneath his expensive robes, tearing the fabric in places. His greying skin and black eyes spasmed as he looked upon the girl.

"You… bitch!" he choked as his head seemed to spasm and jerk in different directions.

"There we go!" Amber applauded the man as he tossed violently on the floor.

"This look suits your personality! Less ugly, too!" Mr. Tusk suddenly rose to his feet with snappy, unnatural movements. He seemed to struggle to breathe, his weak body being corrupted by the demonic Qi flooding his system. His head leaned back, his spine bent till it looked as if it might snap. The man let out a slow painful groan that reverberated throughout the warehouse.

"Let's have a critical hit match, shall we? You love those! You know the rules. We stop when the judges say stop." Amber cracked her fists as her body surged with the orange cloak of Saint Tiger Qi. Tusk lunged with surprising speed, a newly clawed hand swiping toward her head as he gurgled an animalistic roar. Amber slipped it easily and stepped to the side, rotating into a spinning back kick that caught him in the ribs.

The impact sent him crashing through the window of the warehouse office, onto a shelf below where the wooden frame fractured and flew apart in a mix of splinters and wares.

"Oh no! It looks like no flags were raised! The fight continues!" Amber yelled, her fierce slit pupils beaming murderous intent through her golden eyes. The man thrashed, gasping inhuman moans of pain as Amber leapt over him from the broken office window above. She came down like a punishment from God as her foot crushed his ribs. Tiger Descends the Mountain! Sick cracking sounds along with horrid demonic screams filled the air as the man's blackened eyes widened in terror.

Amber gazed down as he writhed on the floor underneath her.

"Looks like there's still no flag! Can you believe the judges here?" Amber asked as orange Qi flickered off of her body.

"Please, please—""So you haven't lost your mind yet! Good! I need you to stay with me." She smiled as she stepped off of his body and raised him up with both hands, fierce orange Saint Tiger Qi filling her body with strength. His blackened demonic eyes looked down in terror into her slit golden eyes.

"I can give you anything you want—I have money! Money! A-and—""You know what your problem is, Tusk?" Amber interrupted the man with a dirty look as she shook him hard.

"You rely on money to make other people do everything for you!" She dropped him to his feet as she unleashed a devastating left hook.

"When has it ever been you fighting for your life?" she yelled, as black blood splattered from his mouth. He didn't even have time to fall down as a powerful right hook blew his face back to the opposite side.

"This is for Wood! Even though he's an asshole!" Another vicious blow landed with so much force that he wasn't allowed to fall.

"This is for Bone Eater! And for putting that fucking mask on him!" Another chained blow to his torso had dark viscous liquid spraying from his face as his gut retched and his mouth heaved.

"And this is for trying to put that bullshit on me!" She jumped high and grabbed his head, rocketing her knee into the Gold Dragon's hardened demonic flesh and completely shattering his nose in an explosion of black blood. Tiger Ascends the Mountain! He screamed, falling backwards while clutching his face. Suddenly, a disgusting slimy rope of black flesh ripped out of his back and surged towards the girl as he bellowed in a mixture of rage and misery.

Thanks to the heightened reactions of her Saint Tiger Qi, she barely made it backwards as the tip hit her ribs and begged to burrow into her flesh. One second later and she would have been skewered like a street-cart dumpling! Her hand rushed to the hole in her shirt over her ribs, expecting to stop the blood from flowing out. But there was none! She was immensely grateful as she remembered she was wearing her new 'stab-resistant' chainmail under her top!

The man, or creature, continued to scream as more and more fleshly appendages exploded out from his back. It seemed he had all ready lost his reasoning.

"Well, fuck!" she muttered, reaching under her clothes and drawing a couple of her hidden knives. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. She had gotten caught up in teaching the man a lesson, and maybe she had gone a bit far. Her Saint Tiger Qi gave her a powerful advantage, but it drastically charged her emotions as well. Not to mention, without a drop of Tiger Saint blood, she only had a bit of the Saint Tiger Qi in her body.

And it was reaching the bottom after the chase and fight. The air cracked as the tendrils lashed out like whips, unpredictable in their pattern and difficult to read. This was just like Mud in the woods after he drained two of his men of their demonic essence! All traces of humanity seemed to leave the Gold Dragon as he wailed demonically. Amber's palm marked seared with heat in response to the demonic presence.

It was almost as if it was begging to be used, but she didn't want to rely on something she didn't have experience with in a life or death situation if she could help it. Amber activated Predator and quickly danced in place, twisting and turning as hungry demonic flesh whips targeted her. The sounds of cracks and metal cutting flesh filled the stagnant warehouse air as she used her two blades to sever or maim as many as she could.

She grunted as her arms and legs burned with effort, the furious deadlock becoming a battle of attrition. How many of these things did this guy have? Amber rocketed one foot up as a tendril tried to wrap itself around her leg but grasped air. More followed suit with the tactic as she hopped backwards, only to feel her back slam on a shelf full of wares. Damn! She hadn't realized she was cornered.

The creature hissed and its tendrils spread out like a cage around her, grabbing the huge industrial shelf and pulling it down onto the girl!

"Whoa!" Amber yelled as she sharply leapt up, through the slight gap between heavy boxes and escaped out of the backside of the shelf as it crashed down loudly. The tendrils were already wiggling as they threatened their next assault, their owner screaming inhumanely in multiple tones. She channeled the last bit of Saint Tiger Qi she had into her arm and aimed all of her focus onto the creature. The girl yelled as she threw a knife with all of her might. It hit the monster directly in the face!

"Critical hit!" she yelled in victory.

"Let's see some flags!" But the knife didn't sink in, and bounced off of the demonic thing's face. I guess throwing a knife is different than a hunting spear! Amber gritted her teeth as the former Mr. Tusk screamed at the new bloody gash across its face. The tendrils stopped quivering in pain and all pointed straight at the girl as she froze. They zoomed in all at once, rapidly changing angles of assault and whipping with furious speed as the creature bellowed a roar.

Amber dodged left, right, up, and down as she spun frantically through the assault, trying to cut down the ones she could. Despite her best efforts she was pelted over and over, painful lashes leaving tears in her clothing and drawing blood on her exposed arms and neck. She cried out in pain as they lashed against her and left stinging welts that wept blood, but she couldn't let her attention be pulled from her defense for even a moment or she was done. How many fucking tendrils did he have?

He seemed to be regrowing the ones she cut away! Suddenly, from the wreckage of the warehouse shelves around her, tendrils shot up off the floor and wrapped around her neck like a mighty vine. The immense pressure around her neck was nearly incapacitating and her knife fell out of her grasp, clanging to the floor. The girl was raised into the air as her feet kicked at nothing and her mouth could only choke. Shit! They were hiding! she thought as her face went red.

And even worse, that son of a bitch was making some sort of demonic laugh! Her options began to dwindle. Finally, she gave in to the call of her palm mark. She grabbed at the tendrils with her Abyssal Seal. Crackles of dark energy began to whoosh and spark around the creature and its tendrils as her palm began to hungrily suck the dark energy out of its host. The creature howled in pain as the tendrils threw the girl into another shelf, eager to get the little parasite girl away.

Her body crashed through the wares to the other side of the shelf in a cloud of splinters. The girl yelled in pain as her body crashed and rolled. She struggled to her feet trying to regain her breath and grabbed at her bruised throat. Her left leg felt a huge pain in her knee joint, while her right ankle shouted pain signals at the girl. Her arms weren't much better. Nothing seemed broken, at least. Through the darkness she could see the white of one of Tusk's eyes, while the other remained black.

She had really sucked some demonic Qi out! Although she had done it a couple of times, she had doubted what was actually happening. After all, she couldn't feel the demonic Qi in her body after absorption.

"Y-You bitch! What have you done to me!" Tusk yelled out, writhing in pain. It seemed his mind had returned somewhat with the removal of the demonic Qi.

"I-it hurts… so fuckin' bad!" His skin had begun to crack and peel, revealing raw, bleeding flesh beneath. The demonic energy that had held his corrupted form together was rapidly dissipating, and his body was paying the price for the unnatural transformation it had undergone.

"Tusk!" Amber yelled, staggering towards him, her golden eyes glinting with rage.

"You lived like a demon and now you'll die like one!" A wounded tiger was still a tiger.

"No…! No! Stay away from me! I'm the Gold Dragon of Blue Cloud City! I won't die! Not to some filthy cabbage bitch!" His body continued to deteriorate as he turned and staggered away.

"Run, Tusk! Run for your life!" Amber yelled, limping her pained legs after him.

"Try and be sorry during your last moments!" The two heaved and limped in a slow, sad chase. Tusk reached the stairs to his office and stumbled onto them, his body crashing down hard as he screamed. He began to crawl up the stairs.

"Name your price! We can negotiate!" Tusk's voice cracked as his nails dug into the stairs, desperately pulling himself away from the female specter of death.

"I want your life!" she shouted, almost to the stairs, pushing past the cries of her screaming legs.

"Just tell me what you want! I can make it happen!"

"I want you to die!" Amber roared. Her lungs felt good, at least. The man pulled himself along the stairs despite the pain in his torn tendons. He finally made it back into his office and began to spin a huge iron dial on a metal box about one meter tall." Fuck!" he yelled. The black blood coating his shaking hands obscured the numbers on the dial as he tried to input his code.

"It's over!" A chill ran up his spine as his fingers slid. He could feel the menacing shadow of the cabbage girl standing at the door.

"Any last words?" The safe door wailed open as the man started laughing again.

"Yeah! Fuck you!" The man spun around to look her menacingly in the eyes as he tore apart a piece of paper with scribblings written all over it. A large explosion rocked the ground so hard that Amber fell down, the slam pushing all the air out of her chest. Another explosion downstairs quickly followed and even made her body painfully bounce off of the floor.

"What the FUCK did you do?" Amber cried out.

"This is one of my warehouses! And you thought you could kill me here? THE Gold Dragon? You demonic cabbage bitch! Now DIE for your arrogance! Bahahahaha!" Tusk laughed as flames rose and explosion after explosion rocked the building. Amber forced the last remnants of Saint Tiger Qi from the living flicker within her. The building shook violently as she leapt forward and pulled out a knife from under her clothing.

She crashed into him and plunged the weapon into his jowls, sliding it all the way to the back, as Tusk gurgled out mouthfuls of black blood. His demon stained eyes looked up in terror at the slit pupils above him.

"Remember who killed you!" she whispered. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ City Guard Captain Joy marched down the street with six of her men, the rest having been left to watch Tusk's captured and tied-up men.

"Is this where the trail leads? You're sure?"

"Yes, Captain!" A guard saluted.

"Straight to that warehouse! The door's been breached and there are no signs of exit! The warehouse is one that officials have refused to sign search warrants for in the past!"

"Hmm. Well, we don't need one tonight." She smiled coldly.

"The longer they get away with it, the sloppier they get. And tonight, he gave us a reason." She drew a long cold saber from her belt and raised it into the air.

"Men! In formation. Prepare to breach! Wait for my signal!" The ground shook violently beneath Captain Joy's feet as a thunderous explosion erupted from within the warehouse. Orange flames burst through the windows, seeming to burn even the mist of Blue Cloud City. Debris and rubble rained down around them.

"Get down!" she shouted, throwing herself behind a nearby cart as her men scrambled for cover. A second explosion followed immediately after, even more powerful than the first, sending a shockwave that rattled her teeth and made her ears ring. A few more violated the peaceful night air as they huddled in cover. As the initial shock faded, Joy looked up to see thick black smoke and plumes of orange flames billowing from the structure. Whatever was happening inside, someone had just made a very desperate move.

"Change of plans!" she barked at her men, her voice cutting through the chaos.