Exiled Prince and His Succubus Army-Chapter 24: Green liquid

Aya and Kaede both turned to look at Renji, and their faces were alight with glee. Despite the blood splattered across their clothes and skin, despite the exhaustion already showing in the slight tremor of their limbs, they were grinning with the pure joy of victory.

Renji returned their look of triumph with a grin of his own, though his expression carried a hint of rueful amusement as well. The realization hit him with both humor and a touch of wounded pride, his succubi had managed to achieve a kill before him. It was somewhat embarrassing but he couldn’t deny that he was also genuinely proud of them. They were growing stronger, more capable, more confident with each fight.

However, their moment of celebratory triumph was short-lived.

The death of one of their number seemed to trigger something fundamental in the remaining tortoise-leopard beasts. It was as if a switch had been flipped in their primitive brains, transforming them from individually aggressive predators into something more organized, more dangerous. The four surviving creatures suddenly pulled back from their scattered positions and regrouped into a tight formation, their shells nearly touching as they formed a defensive cluster. Their leopard heads swiveled on those powerful necks, golden eyes assessing the threat level of each human fighter with cold, predatory intelligence.

Then they began to hiss violently, the sound unlike anything Renji had heard before. It wasn’t the simple hiss of a cat or the warning of a snake. This was something deeper, more resonant, a sound that seemed to vibrate in his chest and make his bones ache. The hissing rose in volume and intensity until it was almost deafening, echoing through the forest and sending nearby birds fleeing in panic from their perches.

When the creatures moved again, they did so with clear tactical purpose. Three of them broke away from the formation and headed directly toward Aya and Kaede with frightening speed, their clawed feet tearing up the ground as they charged. Their leopard heads were extended fully from their shells now, mouths open to reveal those razor-sharp teeth, eyes locked on their targets with single-minded focus.

Only one of the beasts remained to fight Renji, and that realization stung more than he wanted to admit.

"Oh, come on," Renji moaned aloud, unable to keep the complaint from escaping his lips. "The beasts respect the two girls more than they respect me? That’s just insulting." Here he was, a prince, the supposed leader of this little expedition, and even the monsters they were fighting considered him less of a threat than his two female companions. It was humiliating in a way that cut right to his ego.

But his wounded pride became the least of his concerns in the next instant.

The single beast that had remained to face him suddenly moved with a speed that completely surprised Renji. It was noticeably faster than it had been before, as if the death of its packmate and the subsequent regrouping had somehow enhanced its capabilities. The creature’s leopard head shot forward with frightening velocity, jaws snapping viciously as it tried to bite him. Those teeth came within inches of his arm, close enough that he could see the serrated edges designed to tear through flesh and the remnants of previous meals still stuck between them.

Renji dodged desperately, throwing himself to the side with every ounce of speed his enhanced reflexes could provide. His heart hammered in his chest as he realized just how close that had been, how easily those jaws could have closed around his limb.

But the beast wasn’t finished with its assault. Even as Renji was still moving from his dodge, still off-balance and vulnerable, the creature did something completely unexpected. Its mouth opened wider than should have been anatomically possible, and it spewed out a stream of green liquid directly at him. The substance moved so fast that Renji barely had time to register what was happening. One moment the beast’s mouth was opening, and the next there was a jet of neon-green fluid shooting through the air toward his face and torso.

Some combat instinct buried deep in his hindbrain screamed a warning, and Renji threw himself sideways with every bit of desperate energy he could muster. He hit the ground hard, rolling through dirt and leaves and moss, feeling branches scrape against his skin and rocks dig into his ribs. He only barely managed to get out of the trajectory of that green liquid, missing it by what couldn’t have been more than a few inches. He felt the heat of it as it passed through the space his body had occupied just a fraction of a second earlier.

As he rolled and came back to his feet in a crouch, his eyes tracked the liquid’s movement through the air almost against his will. He watched as the stream of green substance completed its arc and splashed against the thick trunk of a nearby tree. What happened next made his blood run cold.

The moment the green liquid made contact with the tree’s bark, it began to sizzle and smoke. The sound was horrific, a hissing, bubbling noise that spoke of rapid chemical reactions and organic material breaking down at an accelerated rate. The liquid burned through the outer bark almost instantly, eating through it like it was wet paper rather than solid wood. It continued burning deeper, cutting into the tree’s flesh, creating a smoking, steaming wound that spread outward from the point of contact.

Within seconds, the corrosive substance had burned completely through a root that was easily as thick as Renji’s thigh. The wood blackened and crumbled, turning to ash and carbon as the acid ate through cellular structures with terrifying efficiency. The acrid smell of burning wood filled the air, making Renji’s nose wrinkle and his eyes water.

His eyes opened wide with pure, undiluted terror as the full implications of what he’d just witnessed crashed over him like a physical wave. That green liquid was some kind of incredibly powerful acid, strong enough to burn through solid wood in seconds. And if it could do that to a tree, what would it do to human flesh? To skin and muscle and bone?

If that substance had hit him, if he’d been even a split second slower in his dodge, he would be dead right now. Or worse than dead, dying slowly as the acid ate through his body while he screamed in agony, unable to do anything but feel every excruciating moment of his own dissolution.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​