Messed up in more ways than one...

"...huh…?"

Despite causing that sort of injury, the vampire partially changed into his monster form and let out a shocked gasp, staring at the swaying girl as if he saw a ghost.

"Wh-why aren't you dead…?! Y-your defense stat should drop to 0!"

"...you…"

The vampire let out a fearful squawk while Melinda's eyes wandered for a second…

"You."

"!!!"

But the next moment, her vision regained focus and concentrated the full power of the glare of her sharp eyes at the demon - although there was something more than just glare mixed in there.

"UHGHHH...!"

The oppressive atmosphere that crushed down on the vampire made him drop on all fours, with every single fiber of his body screaming danger.

It felt like his natural danger-detection skill had turned against him, making it impossible for him to make even the most basic decision and forcing him into… doing nothing, frozen from pure, primal fear.

"I gave you a… FUCKING CHANCE!"

"!!!"

At the girl's furious roar, the demon could not see it himself, but his hair, which was more fur-like, turned gray at that moment.

It wasn't a conscientious transformation or anything of the sort.

Just horror.

"WHOOOOOSH*

Luckily for him, his agony didn't last long - Melinda stumbled her way to him, grabbed him by the tight collar of his shirt, and then simply threw him into the sky.

*SQUELCH* *WHOOOOOOOOO*

The low-rank vampire could not handle the sudden acceleration, pressure, or temperature, so it was crushed into fine powder, which immediately burned up into smoke that was blasted into the atmosphere.

But the disguised girl wasn't finished.

Enraged by the pain in her side, she raised her right hand after the smudge of light the demon turned into and then pulled back not her index but her middle finger before flicking it.

*THUMP* *&^%$%^&^%$%^&*

What she unleashed was an attack their world forgot centuries ago - it was the first time a beam of plasma was shot into the sky to chase the nonexistent remains of the vampire since the times of the ancient Draconids roaming the land.

The power of the unleashed flick destroyed the surrounding buildings, leaving only the one Melinda was standing in, like some freakish eye of the storm.

Luckily for the Jade City, the bulk of the power was aimed straight up with nothing to stop it, which meant that the complete destruction was limited to a radius of half a mile.

In a radius of up to one mile there was already nothing that could shatter, and only things in over two-mile radius were relatively safe.

"If that FUCKER stabbed me with Gore's fang, I FUCKING swear I will eradicate all of them together with their FUCKING continent…!"

Melinda lowered her hand, still full of fury, gritting her teeth as she began to lift her shirt to examine the wound.

"...eh…? Wait a second… a cobweb of black veins…?"

Upon taking the bloodied fabric out of the way, the disguised girl furrowed her brows and muttered, staring in disbelief at the dark, jagged lines spreading from a round wound that got something like a piece of black marble mixed with gold stuck inside.

"...wait… the scream should not damage me to this degree… it's almost as if my defense stat dropped to 0… No…! No way!"

Melinda muttered, but with each word she was perking up and her eyes ended up sparkling at the end.

"Royal Hydra's claw?! Was that little bastard actually working directly for Gore's favorite nutjob of a scientist?! This is insane! Absolutely insane! The late-game holy grail of a loot dropped right into my lap!"

Despite the loss of blood, Melinda cheered out, unable to contain a massive - and very creepy - grin forcing its way on her face.

"MY LADY!"

Out of nowhere, a maid appeared by the gold-haired girl, raising her voice in panic as she clenched a scroll in one hand.

"What happened?! Wait, no… Heal party leader, Melinda Fenrioette!"

The made, pale as a ghost, gasped but almost immediately shook her head and ripped the scroll, targeting the magic sealed within it at the disguised girl.

"...eh…?"

But then nothing happened…

"What? But…! But we're in an encounter with half the city's population!"

A maid gasped in disbelief, unable to comprehend why the full heal scroll would fail at a time like this.

"Adi~! No, no. Healing will not work on me now. I have this. It blocks the healing and recovery magic!"

"My lady!?"

Melinda blinked a few times before realizing why the maid was looking so distressed. So, she pulled up her bloody shirt to show off the wound, the cobweb-like grid of black veins, and the object sticking out of its center.

"Dear Perseverance! My lady, if this prevents you from getting healed, then we have to take it out immediately!"

A maid gasped in terror and reached out her hands to grab the end of the black and gold object…

"Whoa there!"

"MELLY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? We have to get that thing out!"

Melinda called out and backed off, protectively covering the wound and making the maid cry out about to lose it from worry.

"Adi, hear me out! This is a claw of Royal Hydra! It drops the defense stat of the person struck to 0 and then progressively drains their HP!"

"WHY ARE YOU SAYING IT LIKE THAT'S A GOOD THING?! THAT'S TERRIBLE! LET ME GET IT OUT!"

Melinda tired to explain but the maid screamed in horror, desperately trying to get a hold of the object.

Her attempt was completely futile as the gold-haired girl turned her body so the wounded side would be away from the maid and then reached out her hand and put it against the maid's chest.

With how the rules of the real world mixed with the game worked, a stalemate like that was not a defense check but a strength one.

And heavens know that it was impossible for the maid to win under that condition.

"Melly! Why are you doing this?!"

"...hmmm…"

Unable to do anything about the situation, the maid could not hold back tears and started sobbing, which caused Melinda to furrow her brows and squint her eyes at the other girl.

"Adi, you might not have noticed, but my ears don't work right now. The vampire that used this on me blew my eardrums with a soundwave attack."

"...eh…?"

Melinda ended up tilting her head to show off her bleeding ears, explaining in such a casual voice that the maid could only freeze in place and let out a dumbstruck voice.

"I'm just guessing at his point because, you know, I can't read lips yet… but from your reaction, I'm assuming you aren't familiar with the Royal Hydra Fang properties."

"..."

The disguised girl continued while the maid had no other choice but to stare at her in disbelief.

"Royal Hydra is a special kind of beast. There are a few specimens around the world, all hard to find. The more heads they have, the more immunities they have. They are gimmicky opponents that can be a nightmare to deal with if you don't know their weaknesses. On top of that, their claws had the dreadful property of completely decimating their target's defense stat."

"Melly… that sounds absolutely terrible. When is it getting better?"

As the disguised girl was speaking, the maid sniffled and asked with a pitiful expression.

"The thing is, there is an amazing catch to it. It is something difficult to pull off, but if the broken claw ends up within the body of the target while it drains the HP, it also increases the resistance of the target! The more HP it drains, the better the resistance gets. If you have enough HP you can gain the resistances corresponding to all the immunities the hydra that attacked you has! It, of course, has another catch - while the claw is inside, no healing magic or items will affect you. Secondly, the passing of resistances works only once per person, which means that once I pull the fang out, that's it. I could stab myself with it until I keel over, but I will not gain any more resistances. It's a one-shot chance. And before you try to say something like we can always try with a fang of another specimen. That is not the case. The increase of resistance works once per person but also once per whole species. Ehem. Sorry, my throat got a bit sore."

Melinda declared as the disturbing grin of a fanatic returned to her face—at least until she coughed and smiled awkwardly.

"...how in the world did you get yourself in this situation!? Did you know that someone with such a dangerous item will be here? And… did… didn't you mention that it was a vampire that stabbed you? As in a demonkin?!"

A maid calmed down a little bit, not much but still, and asked, gulping down her saliva.

"Adi, I cannot hear you, remember…?"

"...ah…"

Melinda looked at her for a bit before tilting her head once more to show off her ears again, making the maid let out an embarrassed gasp.

"I'm guessing you say that I should be careful about my HP because no amount of resistances will aid me once I'm dead, but I have an interesting idea."

"...that was not at all what I was saying, but please continue…"

The disguised girl said confidently to which the maid let out a disheartened sigh before nodding her head to appear as if the assumption was correct.

"Hmhm~! I knew it. You see, the answer is this little thing~!"

Melinda hummed triumphantly, stepping back and reaching out to her shirt to show off her necklace.

"This thing gives me a portion of the vitality of a monster I kill. The way it works, it doesn't give me something like an empty space that will get filled with HP but instead increases my actual HP. What I want to say is… Let's go for a hunt so I can get the most out of this chance without dying~!"

The disguised girl chuckled happily, trotting over to the maid and throwing her arms around her neck with the most innocent smile and trusting gaze of the otherwise sharp eyes.

"Melly, you are unbelievable. You are so much more troublesome to deal with than my own little sister! And she entered her rebellious phase and hasn't written to me once since she entered the Brylant Academy! What am I supposed to do with you?"

"...was that a yes? Oh~! I'll take it as a yes."

A maid sighed, shaking her head at the clueless, momentarily deaf girl before picking her up into a princess carry.

"Hmhm~! Onwards! Let's look for strong monsters!"

Melinda declared, raising one hand and pointing it towards the north.

"No, but seriously, let's get to some strong monsters. I am afraid that shock and the levels of adrenaline in my bloodstream are dropping. When I will start feeling the pain any moment now, I imagine I will turn useless for quite a while…"

"You can always take that thing out, you know!?"

But then the disguised girl's expression darkened, and she muttered, nuzzling to the maid, who closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh before taking off with a fearsome speed.