Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 90 Borrowed Land

Harpies, also considered as one of the most annoying monsters of the Underworld due to their intelligent and tricky nature… Rhys disagrees.

The way they disemboweled the robbers in front of him, killing them all in one swoop by pretending to be dead was truly… beautiful.

And now, even as these feathered women turn to look at him, Rhys could not help but just stare at them. Their faces truly looked like women, perhaps just slightly alien due to the gap between their eyes being a lot wider.

Their faces were all women, but only 7 of the 13 harpies had Hearts floating above their heads — and upon further observation, even though the remaining six had breasts hanging from their torso, they also had… something hanging between their thighs.

…Is this what they meant by tricky?

'Eat. Eat. Human. Eat!'

And soon, Rhys's thoughts were finally disrupted by the desires of the female harpies as they sneakily and very subtly used their sharp talons to practically crawl toward Rhys inch by inch.

"I… can't really fulfill that desire," Rhys could really only scratch his chin as threads began slithering from his fingers,

"...Are none of you just itchy?"

"!!!"

And as the harpies let out a wail that caused even the dust resting on the ground to ripple, Rhys found himself instinctively covering his ears; it almost felt like his brain was being put in a blender and then reassembled back.

And even as Rhys fell to the ground, the harpies did not let up as they continued to scream while surrounding him, only stopping as he completely lay lifeless; his face drowning on the hard ground and blood profusely trailing from his ears, eyes, and nose.

The harpies then started looking at each other in confusion, before quickly leaning down and licking Rhys's blood. And as soon as even just a tinge of Rhys's blood touched their tongues, their feathers all rose up and started to rattle.

And once all the blood was either gone or just absorbed by the wasteland, the harpies once again looked at each other; the smiles they carried on their faces almost reaching from ear to ear. Some even licked the blood from their brethren's chin as they did not want to waste a single drop of it.

And when there was nothing else to look forward to, the harpies started moving in circles around Rhys and started tearing his flesh with their sharp teeth…

…or at least that is what they thought would happen.

The only thing their talons did was lift Rhys up; their teeth, almost just getting stuck on his skin.

"So, playing dead truly is effective…" And while the harpies were confused as to what was happening, Rhys's head suddenly moved as he looked at the harpy trying to chew on his remaining arm,

"...Falling for your own tricks, not that smart after all." Not exactly, as Rhys truly lost consciousness for a second. But with those words, Rhys pulled his arm away from the harpy's mouth. The harpy did not have time to process its teeth shattering, however, as it saw its vision suddenly shift. And it wasn't alone.

The other harpies found themselves suddenly tripping to the floor as Rhys stood up; his hand, holding several threads which were all tied to the harpies' feet.

"Kree!"

And as soon as they realized they were caught, the harpies immediately flapped their wings.

"Woah!" Rhys let out a deep breath as he was suddenly yanked in the air. Suffice it to say, for someone that was used to just falling down, floating up was quite an… exhilarating experience for Rhys. The view of the Danger Zone was slowly revealing itself to him, and there, Rhys could see remnants of what seemed to be buildings of old; ruined… devastated.

The wasteland seemed like it did not even end.

They were told that the humans had already reclaimed the Surface from the monsters. But looking at this bleak and barren land beneath him, Rhys could not help but question that.

Have they, truly? Or were they merely just living in a world they thought was theirs, or were they merely like these harpies? Thinking they have won and were flying to their freedom, thinking they had Rhys chained and he will just fall to his death…

…when they were the ones actually flying to the end of their flight?

"Kreek!?"

The harpies all let out sharp gasps as they felt themselves slightly but violently being pulled down — they weren't really pulled back to the ground, however. And their limbs were still intact — but Rhys was now already floating right in the middle of them; his body as straight as an arrow as the face that covered his hair very slowly lifted up.

Rhys then gently whipped the threads in his hand, causing them to wrap around the harpies' body and wings, and as he started to fall, Rhys kicked in the air hard to the point that he started to spin violently — and with this, the threads wrapped around the harpies tightened… hard.

The threads, now digging through their bodies as they all started to fall with Rhys, who did not really carry any emotions on his face. After all, falling was already a second nature to him as much as these bird people.

And as the ground got closer and closer, Rhys slammed his hand down, creating a snap in the air as the hair-thin threads attached to his hand brutally whipped. And before the harpies' bodies could even hit the ground, their limbs, wings, and torsos already separated from each other.

At the same time, however, their body parts almost merged as they hit each other on the way down, creating a sort of mound…

…which Rhys landed on.

And in that instant, all the flesh and bone were thrown away, while the feathers just exploded and very slowly danced in the air as Rhys very slowly stood up.

"Hm…" Rhys then looked up from where he should have fallen from. The height should be higher than the dormitory building back in the Old York High School, and yet here he was, completely unscathed and unharmed. He then turned to look toward the bus, which was really only a few meters away from where he landed,

"...I guess that's that."

He walked back to the bus, rummaging through the robbers' corpses until he found the key to the bus. He didn't bother getting or checking anything else, as the authorities might be interested in inspecting it at a later time.

And then, with a short but very deep sigh, Rhys started the bus and started driving to where the bus manager, driver, and the other Explorers should have run to; slightly having a hard time due to his missing hand.

And eventually, after a few minutes of trying to find them through the barren wasteland, Rhys saw them still running for their lives — even hastening their marathon as they heard Rhys blow the horn.

Sadly, none of them were gifted with the blood of Hermes and Rhys immediately blocked all of their paths… and the bus manager immediately started kneeling and begging for his life.

"Please… please spare m—What the… aren't you the Lowborn!?"

"Get up...

...We still have a Hole to explore."