Release That Succubus

Zach was confident because he could entrust this matter to Diana. Had he been alone, he might not have been as confident in using the same strategy. But Diana had been practicing with a bow to shoot ever since her rebellious days when she used to run away from home to improve her combat skills. She had not only honed her skills in a hostile environment but had also become an accomplished archer before shifting over to the hot weapons that Zach introduced her to. But expecting such a situation, Diana had never stopped practicing her archery despite knowing that better range weapons were available to her.

Since Zach didn't tell her anything about the contents of the bottles, Diana could only take a guess as to what the bottles contained inside them. She believed that it must be some kind of a strong poison that could help them in battle. They didn't have the time for her to bring up such an important matter at this crucial time.

When the two were sufficiently close to the beasts that were rushing towards them with surprising agility, Zach finally threw out the bottles in succession towards the beasts.

The throws made a parabolic pattern so that there would be enough time for Diana to shoot the bottles down and rain their contents on top of the giant mantises.

Diana didn't wait for the bottles to reach the lowest point of the parabolic arc. Instead she shot the arrows aiming at the bottles when they were still some distance above the beasts so as the surprise hidden inside the bottles would get enough spread to cover most of the beasts.

Several bottles were broken mid flight by her successive arrows and the pesticide inside got spilled on the mantises. The condition of the Mantises therefore became extremely unbelievable. Each of the Iron Mantises was swaying like drunkards in a thunderstorm. There blade like limbs were flailing around as if they had lost all control over them. The agility of the Iron Mantises was now acting against them as they swayed heavily whenever they tried to move and their scythe like arms carved deep crevices into the ground.

Some of the Iron Mantises even rolled around on the ground in their dizziness and were completely unaware of the danger that was coming for them soon.

Diana had long since been waiting for this opportunity as she had already deduced from Zach's words that the Iron Mantises would be rendered powerless or injured after Zach's plan reached fruition. Therefore, she had already asked her men to remain on standby to exploit the opportunity bought by their leader.

They pulled the pins on the grenades hanging by their belts and rushed towards the Iron Mantises groveling on the ground. Each of them was trained in the art of grenade lobbing and would hardly ever miss the timing of the explosions. Therefore, when they threw the grenades in their hands one by one into the open mouths of the metallic beasts, the beasts couldn't resist the invasion of the explosive devices at all.

The soldiers didn't hesitate to fall back as soon as they completed their mission so as to leave the effective range of the explosion hurriedly and to take shelter before the grenades exploded.

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As soon as the last of the men were completely hidden and protected from the blast radius, a huge explosion took the surrounding area by surprise. The silent surroundings resounded with the deafening blast conjured by the simultaneous explosion of several grenades in a row and wreaked havoc inside the bodies of the Iron Mantises.

Their bodies might have been extremely durable when it came to external defenses, but the internal organs were far from being as strong as the exterior. The few grenades were enough to tear apart the body of the beasts from within.

The scene that the people witnessed that day would have been too bloody and full of gore had it not been for the pesticide in the air which caught fire as soon as the grenades exploded. The bodies of the Iron Mantises along with the surroundings that were covered in the pesticides sprinkled by Zach and Diana's combo caught fire from the explosion as well.

The Iron Mantises that were supposed to be the hunters turned into harmless prey as even their corpses were on the path to being burnt to ashes. The fire surrounding them soon engulfed them completely and Zach was sure that not a single trace of the bodies would be left after the fire extinguished.

The leading girl of the other group could only open and close her mouth in an attempt to say something. She was too shocked to even try to say something to Zach or the soldiers who were competent enough to take down such beasts with such ease.

Only now did she remember how foolish she must have appeared to Zach when she tried to advise him to run away from the Iron Mantises not too long ago. The same man she had been calling a fool had destroyed the beasts completely within a minute and without putting in too much effort as if it was a slightly more troublesome problem rather than an impossible one.

It took her a long time to finally get her runaway emotions under control. As soon as her mental faculty returned to her and she began to accept the reality of the situation, the girl finally started to simmer down.

She turned towards her saviors Zach and Diana and opened her petite little mouth to introduce herself to her saviors. She could not just keep calling them, 'Hey' or 'you' to address her benefactors.

eαglesnᴏνel "I apologize for my behavior earlier. I looked down on you because I have never seen soldiers as capable as yours and underestimated their abilities. Of course the same goes for you as well. I am sorry for not believing in you earlier and for calling you ignorant."

Zach didn't' blame her and gave a carefree nod as if he was not the least bit affected by her statements from earlier. Diana was the same as well since she for one knew how unorthodox Zach's techniques and battle strategies were. She couldn't blame someone she had met for the first time to understand the greatness of Zach without having had the chance to witness his true capabilities in person.

Seeing that their eyes only contained encouragement and forgiveness, the girl too didn't' hesitate in reveal her identity to Zach and his subordinates.

"I am called Clara. I am from a nearby city of Byzantine. You must have heard of it even if you all have come from afar."

Diana couldn't help but get curious. She couldn't understand how Clara could have deduced that they had come from afar. It wasn't as if there was a plaque hanging from their foreheads that stated that they had traveled a long distance to come here.

"I don't mean it in a derogatory manner. I just wanted to say that a local would have never tried to fight against the group of Iron Mantises. From the way you fight to the weapons you use are all beyond my understanding. At least the people from the surrounding areas aren't that capable."

Zach could not feel a sense of awe in her even though she kept praising them. Therefore he deduced that the girl was probably from a prominent background in Byzantine city.

"Which family are you from?"

"I am a part of the Windsor family that is based in Byzantine city." Diana felt that Clara looked quite smug as she revealed the name of her family but took it as the naivety of a young girl who had yet to see the bigger world.

What Diana couldn't have expected was that the girl really had the ability to be smug with such a powerful background. Bruce on the other hand heard their conversation from a distance and almost rushed towards them.

Bruce wasn't the head of a prominent family for nothing for all these years. He had accumulated a wealth of knowledge that was in no way inferior to anyone settled in the capital of the empire. He almost knew about all the prominent and influential families of the empire that were worth knowing about and could generate enough ripples in the world to leave their mark behind.

The Windsor family's reputation preceded them and Bruce had long since heard of their influence even though he had never met them before. Therefore, as soon as he heard the girl utter the name of her family, the cogs in his head began to turn mechanically as he rushed to implement the scheme he had just thought up of.

Bruce summoned all his acting skills and acted as if he was a travelling businessman with a plethora of merchandise to sell. He practically pushed Zach and Diana back as he introduced himself to Clara.

"I am Bruce. Diana is my little sister. I am a travelling merchant by profession and bring goods from far off to trade with the local specialties. I have always wanted to visit Mesore state but never got an opportunity to do so. Now that I am here, I am thinking of setting up a shop here so that I can stay for a little while and enjoy the lives of the common folk. Is there a place you can suggest that might be good for business around here?" Bruce acted his part perfectly and even Clara who looked to be quite shrewd and cautious didn't feel any sense of falsity from him.