Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

"Annoying bugs…" A sharp voice rang out from the cloud of dust in the city. It reached the camp without so much as a fly's wing flaps disturbing it.

"The Great Ugor told me to stabilize it, but when you come down to me like this…" A figure like a looming shadow appeared against the cloud as the source of the voice walked forward on the roof of a nearby house partly caught up in the blast.

The figure left the cloud of dust and leaped from the roof to outside the city walls in one go.

"With weapons like these…" The short, blue-skinned, long-eared, long-haired man held up a glass bottle with a sloshing, whitish liquid inside.

"Well, let's just say you leave me no choice." The underworlder's pale blue lips split up in a crooked smile, revealing a set of uneven, sharp, unkempt teeth. The underworlder looked on, his completely dark blue, almost black eyes shining with excitement as panic slowly set in at the camp.

The ones at the edge closest to the city saw the underworlder. They didn't need to know much about the Underworld to fear. Their instincts as living beings were enough. Those instincts screamed at the people to run, run for their pitiful lives. The ones not frozen stiff in fear did just that.

They ran as quickly as their legs could carry them and quicker than they should have in a crowded, densely populated camp.

The fleeing citizens crashed into each other, tents, tables, and fortunately unlit campfires.

It was chaos.

But amidst that chaos, a few figures moved like rocks in a stream toward the edge of the camp.

Zach and his club members. Several of the other students. A few Exterminators who had been lying low this whole time. A swordsman. An archer. What appeared to be a mage.

A slightly shorter person in a full suit of armor with a tower shield. Another swordsman with two blades.

They convened on one side of the open field between the camp and the city, the underworlder on the other. The blue underworlder scanned them, one at a time, with his eyes. They warily looked at him and tried to get a read on his strength.

The blue underworlder had burst out of the ground with a lot of fanfare. He had leaped from within the city to outside it. But he hadn't burst through the ground outside the city, where the tunnels led.

Either he wasn't strong enough. Or, he couldn't be bothered.

Most likely, the underworlder in front of them had caused the tremor from just now.

"Wow, what a reception! It's a little unfair that I got one when I didn't give your comrade one." The underworlder shook his head like it was a shame.

"Are you going to fight or what?" Anerias asked impatiently. The tension was getting to his nerves. It was the first time he was faced with such powerfully blatant bloodthirst.

The monsters they had fought, including the wolf and the bear, were strong. They were bloodthirsty. But their bloodthirst and viciousness weren't intelligent. It was a twisted perversion of a predator's natural hunting instinct.

The underworlder in front of them was nothing like that. He was hostile for the sake of being hostile. He thirsted after blood, not because he needed it, but because he wanted it. There was a hint of calculation and pleasure that monsters usually didn't have.

"Fight?" The underworlder asked rhetorically as if to make sure he heard right.

"No, no. I'm here to warn you." The underworlder glanced back at where he came from.

"I am an obedient slave, after all. If the Great Ugor tells me to jump, I jump. If he orders me to keep things under control, you better know I keep things under control.

"So, when annoying pests try to disturb me, I oughta get rid of them. Unfortunately, these annoying pests are too annoying for their own good." The underworlder dangled the potion.

He looked at them.

"If you guys even think of using one of these again, I will slaughter every last one of you and all of those cowards fleeing faster than their wimpy legs can carry them. I've seen them. I've memorized them. I've memorized their smells. There's no escaping."

"And if we heed your warning?" Nessa asked, doing her best not to appear scared.

"Then, I won't slaughter you."

"Can—"

"Yet," he interrupted before Nessa could ask if they could trust that.

"As pests, I don't expect anything from you, but in case you haven't noticed it yet, we're working on something. It's not done yet. Until it is, I won't touch so much as a hair or strand of grass up here."

"...So you want us to sit on our hands and do nothing but wait for you to finish what might very well be a powerful weapon?" Nessa asked, more angry than scared this time. She had glanced at Zach. He was frowning, not trembling. That was enough to comfort and steady her.

The underworlder shrugged.

"I don't mind if you do that. It only makes things easier for me. But, as I said, you annoying pests can be creative sometimes. If it gives you hope, feel free to do all you can to prepare. Train. Grow stronger.

Make more things. Do all that you can.

"When the time comes, all the effort you put in will make that despair so much sweeter." The underworlder smiled, ill intent all over his face.

"You aren't exactly selling your deal with that," Dukiel pointed out. The underworlder turned to him with a sharp gaze before shrugging.

"It's not my deal. It's the Great Ugor's compromise. Personally, I would much rather you guys chose to entertain me. I am not a patient man, you know?" The underworlder's eyes flicked into the far distance as if to look at the still-running citizens.

There was hunger in his eyes.

The Underworld Exterminators looked at the underworlder. Underworlders were rarely this conversational or even capable of this much speech or free thought. It was a Named. But did that mean they could trust his words?

The students slowly turned to look at Zach.

At this point, it was natural for them to turn to him. He had matured a lot, compared to how he was at the beginning of their first year. He was strong. He was resourceful. No one would admit it, especially not to Zach's face, but he made for a decent leader.

They waited for him to say something.

"Sure. Scurry on back down, you rat. We won't do anything as long as you hold your deal. As soon as there's a suspicious disappearance, though, we'll be raining down things like that." Zach nodded toward the potion still in the underworlder's hand.

"You…" The underworlder's eyes narrowed as he looked at Zach.

"You're the one, huh? My Name is Mursoth. It'd do you all well to remember it."

They couldn't even ask why before Mursoth took his leave with a swift jump back into the hole he came out of.

As soon as he did, everyone turned to Zach with varying degrees of intensity in their eyes.