Torne grabbed Seraphina by the hair. At the same time, he opened his hand, and one end of the magical rope binding her appeared, extending into his palm. He pulled her hair upward, forcing her to look at him.
"You're going to stay right here and keep your mouth shut. If you open it, you'll get beaten. Do you understand?"
Seraphina was not the kind of woman who took orders from men. If he had spoken to her like that under normal circumstances, she would have served his balls as the cafeteria's daily special. But in this situation, there was nothing she could do except obey.
Torne tightly tied the end of the rope around a stone pillar before walking toward Geldrad to face the woman.
She stared at the two men. She was clearly at a disadvantage, yet she remained unfazed. She spread her hands and slammed them against the ground. A faint tremor rippled through the earth, and both men leaped aside just as a plume of yellow smoke burst from the ground like a geyser. They avoided it easily. The smoke struck the leaves of a nearby tree, which immediately began to dissolve until only the bare branches remained.
Torne noticed.
He rushed forward.
The girl drew a dagger coated with a strange liquid and hurled it toward Torne. The blade passed close to him, but he dodged while extending his hand. The wood behind the girl suddenly came alive, branches twisting as they tried to seize her. She slipped away, and Gerald appeared at her side with a flaming fist.
She noticed him and instantly released a cloud of yellow mist in front of her face. Gerald abruptly halted his charge. The mist brushed against his face before he realized it, yet he managed to retreat as though nothing had happened.
Torne noticed that as well.
He continued manipulating the branches toward her. Once again, she used the smoke, but this time she compressed it into a much smaller area, forming what looked like a dense bubble of liquid. It struck the branch.
The extending limb was corroded and severed from the tree, ending the pursuit.
Torne caught that too and shouted to Gerald immediately.
"The strength of her acid depends on how concentrated it is! If she uses the smoke, don't dodge it!"
The woman's eyes widened in surprise.
"So I figured out your secret, huh, bitch?" Torne thought.
At that very moment, he took advantage of a detail.
The forest they were in was filled with Gredozea trees, a species famous for storing mana inside the vacuoles of its leaves. He manipulated the leaves toward himself, absorbing their mana to replenish what he had spent while also strengthening himself with Overmana.
Because of the tremendous mana control provided by men's testicles, they are capable of storing more mana than their bodies would normally allow. This state is known as Overmana. The excess mana gathers around the orbs, which act almost like mana magnets. This greatly enhances nearly every spell the mage casts while also increasing casting speed. It is an extraordinarily powerful technique, but it is rarely used because natural sources of easily absorbable mana are difficult to find.
The bulge beneath Torne's pants glowed faintly.
Gerald's did the same.
"Ohoho! Nice catch, man! That girl's screwed now!"
The girl cautiously stepped backward, trying to gain some distance.
"Run, you idiot! Those guys are going to kill you!"
Seraphina shouted desperately, fearing for the girl's life. She knew exactly how dangerous mages empowered with Overmana were.
"This isn't a joke, you idiot! Don't fight them, just run! Co... Mmph! Mmph!"
Seraphina's mouth was suddenly silenced by a leaf that instantly appeared over it.
Torne had merely extended his hand.
"I told you to stay quiet over there, cow tits."
The girl took another step back.
"Ohhh... you're not running after all, huh, bitch?"
Geldrad's fist erupted into an enormous blaze, far larger than before.
"Ohohoho! Look at this!"
he shouted in excitement.
The girl drew another dagger and threw it at Gerald, who dodged effortlessly.
At the same instant, she hurled another toward Torne.
He dodged as well.
The dagger buried itself in the ground.
Gerald sprinted toward the girl while Torne unleashed a bolt of lightning in the same direction.
She threw her hat at Gerald, briefly blocking his vision. Although the hat was obliterated by the flames within a second, that slight delay placed Gerald directly in the path of Torne's spell.
"HEY! GET OUT OF THE WAY, IDIOT!"
Gerald heard him and ducked at the last possible instant.
With great effort, Torne redirected the lightning to the right, where it slammed into a nearby tree.
"HEY, MORON! WATCH WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE DOING! DON'T DO ANYTHING IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO GET IN MY WAY!"
"Damn... our teamwork still sucks..."
Torne thought, knowing neither of them had truly been at fault for the near friendly fire.
At that very moment, Gerald looked upward and saw the woman directly in front of him.
Using the momentum from his bent knees, he sprang high above her head.
She rolled backward and tossed a glass vial filled with thick yellow liquid onto the spot where she had just been standing.
"That's obviously the concentrated version!"
Gerald thought as he descended toward it.
He panicked for a split second, but quickly came up with an idea.
He spread his legs apart, landing with one foot on each side of the puddle.
"Masterful move... hehe."
he muttered to himself before turning back toward his opponent.
"NO, YOU IDIOT!"
Torne screamed behind him.
The moment Gerald met the woman's smiling eyes, he realized he had fallen into a trap.
Until now she had done nothing but retreat.
This time, she charged.
Her leg swung back before snapping forward with the speed and effortless grace every woman seems to possess when she's determined to crush a man's balls.
The tip of her high heel struck both dangling spheres.
Then, with a subtle adjustment of her foot, the heel slid and pressed only his right testicle against his pelvis, crushing it without destroying it.
"Uh... uhn... uh..."
His mouth hung open as weak groans escaped him.
Both hands instinctively clutched between his legs.
The girl laughed.
She raised her leg as high as she could.
Gerald saw the sole of her shoe.
Those cursed balls marked with a giant X.
She planted her foot against his face and shoved.
Gerald crashed onto the ground, writhing in agony.
"Damn it, you idiot!"
Torne shouted as he charged toward the woman.
"I need to buy time until that moron recovers."
he thought.
"Or... I could just kill this bitch."
He stretched out his hand.
A magical rune appeared.
Several ice spikes burst from it, launching themselves toward the girl.
She ducked behind a tree and released the yellow smoke once more.
The ice spikes began disappearing inside the mist.
Suddenly another dagger flew toward Torne.
"Hmph."
He dodged again.
"That one was close."
The smoke finally dispersed.
He saw that every ice spike embedded in the tree had vanished.
"Huh? Wait... something's wrong... Those ice spikes carry a considerable amount of mana. If manipulated correctly, they can even serve as defensive constructs. They shouldn't melt that easily..."
Torne frowned in confusion.
Another dagger shot out from behind a tree.
"Ugh."
He dodged once more.
"That was close."
At last, the girl stepped out from behind the trunk and charged directly at him, releasing a massive cloud of yellow mist.
Torne reacted immediately.
Taking advantage of her charging straight at him, he fired another lightning spell.
To his astonishment, the spell dissipated once again.
Torne's eyes went wide.
"What... how is that possible?!"
His mind raced, trying to understand what was happening, when another dagger flew toward him.
He dodged again.
"There has to be an explanation! Did the poison suddenly become stronger? Strong enough to dissolve magic?... Dissolve magic... magic... mana..."
Torne looked up at the leaves of the trees and finally noticed a pattern.
"That's it! The poison isn't affected by concentration... it reacts to mana!"
He instinctively took a few steps back.
"Alright... alright... I get it now. The poison reacts to mana. In that case, I'll just have to fight... the old fashioned way. If I don't use magic, you can't use your poison."
He spoke while drawing two daggers.
"I should warn you, though... I'm quite skilled in close combat."
"Who said I have to fight you?"
the girl replied with a snap of her fingers.
Every dagger she had thrown instantly burst into yellow smoke, blanketing the entire battlefield.
"If I were you, I'd get that Overmana out of your sack as fast as possible."
she said with a grin.
Torne's eyes shot open.
He had completely forgotten that he had activated Overmana.
"DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!"
He shouted as he dropped his daggers and desperately began releasing mana as quickly as possible.
It wasn't fast enough.
Within seconds, the smoke had already reached the height of his groin.
It reached Gerald's as well, who was still overflowing with Overmana.
A strange burning sensation began deep inside them.
It steadily grew worse.
"What?! Stop! Stop! Make it stop! AH! AHHH! AAAAHHHH! MAKE IT STOP!"
"Sorry, sweetheart."
the girl answered calmly.
"The poison has already taken effect."
She slowly walked over to Torne, who had already curled into the fetal position on his knees.
She gently ran her fingers through his hair.
"Now all that's left is to wait for your testicles to give out and burn from the inside out. I'm sorry, sweetheart... but your balls are already doomed."
Torne could do nothing except cry on the ground.
"Make it stop! Make it stop!"
At the same time, Gerald's screams echoed nearby.
"AAAAAGH! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! AAAAAAH! MY BALLS! MY BALLS! THEY'RE BURNING! AAAAGH!"
The girl calmly walked toward Seraphina.
Unable to see anything through the dense smoke, Seraphina could only imagine what was happening from the familiar, pitiful screams of men begging for their balls.
The girl finally emerged from the smoke and looked at her.
"Well... I don't know who you are, but they obviously don't like you... and, you know... the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Seraphina was still tied up, and the leaf Torne had conjured still covered her mouth.
"Mmph... mmph..."
"Oh, relax. Don't worry. The spells keeping you restrained should disappear soon. I'd say... in about ten seconds the poison will start destroying everything inside that soft little sack, and his magic will collapse."
Exactly ten seconds later, the ropes binding Seraphina vanished, along with the leaf covering her mouth.
"Thank you... I don't even know how to repay you."
"You don't have to. Well... I should get back upstairs. My boss seems to be beating the hell out of a couple of bitches right now."
"About that... I'd recommend you don't go in."
"Huh?"
"The two women who went inside... they're far stronger than these two. In fact, see this ridiculous collar?"
Seraphina pointed at the collar around her neck.
"It suppresses my magic. And if it's still active, that means Eliza's spell is still active too... which means she's still alive."
The girl looked at Seraphina.
Then she looked toward the doorway.
"I... I don't know..."
"Please, trust me. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"I... I..."
The girl glanced at Seraphina's enormous chest, fully aware she was a witch with unimaginable power.
Then her eyes returned to the collar around her neck.
"AGH... DAMN IT! FINE! I TRUST YOU!"
She cursed under her breath.
The two of them turned and ran, leaving behind the two men writhing on the ground, groaning and crying over their balls.