Chapter 3: Cat and Mouse

Oh man… what did he get himself into this time?

Smoothly dodging another attempt of making contact from the succubus again, Luka couldn't help but think of how it all started out. What was supposed to be a simple socialising exercise ended up with him being chased around in a forest by a very persistent monster girl.

When she introduced herself as the queen of succubus he had nearly passed out from the sudden pressure. Not only is he bad at this, now he had foolishly decided to start practicing with someone who came from royalty?

Yeah… the chance of him making it through this conversation without making a fool of himself is as big as his self confidence, which is to say, none.

Then she started getting closer and went to grab him before he moved behind her and saw that she had this… unusual look on her face that sent shivers down his spine.

He knew then, that talking time was over.

The way her scarlet eyes shone accompanied by that wide smile is… it reminds the young man of when he was younger. How his instincts would shouts at him to ran at the slightest glimpse of danger. Only this time it didn't came from a fear of the unknown a child would have, quite the opposite, he know exactly what's in front of him and that doesn't made it less dangerous.

In fact, it's worst.

"Come here you~" She called out playfully, body moving with impossible level of athletic as she glides across the greeneries.

She's strong, really strong. Her presence alone dwarf everything else in the forest sans Sylph and he has a feeling that there's more than this. Meaning that this is her, while holding back.

Knowing this, he did his best to not angered her and see if he could convince her to leave peacefully. Well that was the plan anyway. The best he could do now is to retreat back to his safe heaven and hope that the monster girl would get bored and left without causing any damage to the surrounding forest.

If only it was that easy…

"What's your answer to this~?" Swiping her hand in the air, two set of wind blade shots towards him at respectable speed.

Hoping from the branch he was perching on, the pair of wind magic she sends after him failed in their pursuit. Not that it discourage the succubus at all as she then made ten more in an attempt to overwhelm him.

Zigzagging his way through all of them he manoeuvre himself a fair distance away from the succubus before launching himself upward with some help from the wind to gained better view of his surroundings.

His escape plan was fairly simple, he would just run really, really fast.

In order for this to work he has to calculate the distance between himself and his safe heaven, see if he's near enough to pull it off and disappear from her field of vision as fast as he possibly can, leaving her with nothing she can work with in finding him.

As unrelenting as ever, she lounges herself at his airborne figure. Arms spread wide as invitingly as they are dangerous and he waited for her to get as close as possible before he moves.

When her face were inches away from him, he leans back and quietly said, "Sorry about this."

"?!" Her expression shifted from confusion to shock as he stomps the space bellow him with all his might, the wind eagerly helping their favourite forest dweller.

A loud BOOM! echoes throughout the forest of spirit as Luka broke the sound barrier right in front of the heavenly knight, her surprise gasp being the only thing he heard before zooming ahead, leaving the succubus in the dust.

With the shockwaves of his kick pushing her back, he hurriedly tried to get himself out of her sight. Rushing his way through the sky by stepping on the air.

Unfortunately for Luka, all Alma Elma had to do was stop holding back and she immediately appears above him. Her hair a bit more messy thanks to him and a pout replacing her playful smile.

"Well now, leaving so soon?"

"Wha-!?" Flustered as he was, Luka didn't even realise the tail coiling around his abdomen before it's too late.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, saving it from the whiplash as they both abruptly stop. Now in the middle of the air, the young man begin to understand how just bad the situation got.

His mind started working overtime. Trying it's best to find any way out of this before something bad happen to him and the sensation of having their bodies so close wasn't helping at all.

He didn't even bother to struggle, the difference in physique between the two of them is already evident enough to know it's futile.

Slipping away is also next to impossible with how possessive her hold on him is. Luka's trapped in the softest, most comfortable and alluring prison that is Alma Elma.

The next best thing he can do is-

"How rude." The succubus whispered in his ear.

Looming closer, she grinned as their noses almost touched. "Here I am, actually putting an effort to catch you and you won't even give me your attention? Veeeery naughty, Luka-boy~"

"…" Looking away, he did his best not to look at her directly in the eyes. Distracting himself from thinking of her breath on his neck and how nice she sm-

'No!' He shook his head. 'Focus Luka! Don't get distracted!'

Before things could progress however, something else happened that catches them both off guard.

===0===

Gleefully chasing after the young man, Alma Elma took tone of how flexible his moves are. Dashing, sliding, and leaping his way through the trees as he dodges her advances, it's a wonder how a human, especially one that looks as thin as him, can maintain this level of momentum without slowing down at all.

Not only that, he's not even looking where he's going and yet navigating doesn't seem to be a problem. Either that mean her new source of entertainment has some sort of ability that allows him to always be aware of his location at all times or that he was already familiar with the layout of the forest.

The more she theorize the more intriguing it all become.

Swiping her hand in front of her, she lets out some of her weaker magic spells to see how he'll deal with them and was presently surprised when he easily senses them coming, hoping away just in time to avoid being cut in half.

Not that she'll let that happen, but still.

When sent more to surround him, he immediately jumped to safety, higher than any normal human could.

Maybe he's sensitive to wind magic? With how effortlessly he dealt with them.

Maybe he's a hero who has successfully made a contract with the spirit of wind? That could explain his unnatural speed.

Maybe he lives here? If so, then it's no wonder he have no problems making his way through the forest.

Maybe she should go over there and lick every inch of his body until he's twitching on the ground begging her for more?

"That sounds like a great idea~"

Launching herself at the forest dweller, arms open wide as if she's welcoming her victory, not once did she expects him to lean backwards and stomp the air below him. Causing a sonic boom that flung her back a considerable distance.

When she's done spinning through the air, a ruffled Alma Elma huffed and decided to stop holding back.

"That's not very nice now." Her eyes narrowed. Focusing her power and throws herself in his direction again, only this time she didn't make it as obvious.

His sensory ability must have some rules that they abide by, be it only working if magic is involved, or that whenever someone has an ill intent towards him.

None of that matter however, as she is the heavenly knight of wind, one of the fastest monster girls to have ever live.

And if she has decided to chase someone down, nothing short of teleportation magic could save them.

Everything turns to blur as she accelerates and by the time she stop Luka is just below her, his sensory ability being too late to save him now that she's already here.

"Well now, leaving so soon?"

She enjoys every moment that came after, from his adorable squeak of surprise when her tail wrapped around him, to how his expression pale at the realisation of his situation, and the way to his face scrunched in concentration, trying to find a way out of this.

It's cute that he thought there is any.

"How rude." Pressing herself closer, a smug self-satisfied grin on her face meet his increasingly reddening one. "Here I am, actually putting an effort to catch you and you won't even give me your attention? Veeeery naughty, Luka-boy~"

Forcing his soft blue eyes away from her, Luka shook his head, either out of denial or defiant, she doesn't know. But what she does know, is that the next couple of hours is going to be very enjoyable~

The air changes. Instantly putting the succubus on high alert as she could no longer felt the playful winds which would normally be around her.

An unspoken warning was laid out, one she could clearly tell was directed at her.

…

Looking down, Luka seems just as confused as she is. Weather or not that's good or bad remains to be seen.

Well now… this complicates thing.

Her tongue trails across his neck all the way up to his cheek. "How sweet~" Not that it'll stop her if course. And as his face exploded into a new spectrum of red, she could feel the wind around her moving chaotically in anger.

She found herself being repel from the purplette and flung back by a verdant sphere of condensed wind magic surrounding him. It lasted for a couple seconds before disappearing, taking Luka with it and leaving her there alone.

The puzzle that is Luka is growing more and more. Piecing it all together would be her pleasure, but until then...

She lick her lips "Till we meet again, Luka-boy~"

===0===

"Sylph!?" Luka shouted out in surprise when he came to, looking around him and realising that their back at home.

"Annnnddd… safe~" Said the wind spirit as she dropped him on the living room floor.

"Oof!"

"Opps! sorry about that." She floated near to see if he's alright. "You said to trust you, but things were getting pretty bad back there so the wind and I bailed you out."

"No, no, I'm find." He got up gradually and asked, "I didn't know you can do that…"

At that she gave a proud smirk and started boasting "Ehehe! Of course it's me, your one and only spirit companion! Though… I can only do this when we're near our house. It would take too much out of me if I were to try this somewhere far away."

"Made sense…" Patting down on his cloak of any dust, he idly respond. The spell must've been some 'last resort' type of things.

The young man could see how it could be impractical in some case, not something you can pull off in the middle of a fight unless you have someone else do it for you like she did for him. It's no wonder she never tried to teach him that.

"So…" Chimes Sylph.

Luka turn his head to her and find his friend smiling at him imploringly. "Hmm?"

"Did you have fun flirting with that purple succubus lady?"

It caught Luka off guard with how casual she asked that, spluttering a respond in haste he said, "T-that wasn't- I wasn't trying to flirt with her!" The normally quiet forest dweller said out loud.

"Really?" Sylph seems genuinely confused at this. "So when you ask me to hide in your cloak for a bit, it wasn't because you wanted to try your chances with her?"

"No way!" Luka vehemently opposed the idea, "I could barely get myself to say anything at all, if I even tried to flirt with her I'd explode!" He's exaggerating, but still.

"Then, why did you put yourself out there in the open?"

Luka faltered at that, "A-ah, that… I was just…" He ended up with no reasonable answer to give her. Itwaspretty stupid of him after all.

"You were just…?"

"… I was trying to practice talking to someone new. I thought that it's okay because I could always just ran away if things got bad, but then I meet her and she ended up catching me instead…" The shame was clear in his voice.

"Do you think it's worth the trouble?" She asked, not a single ounce of judgement in her voice.

He stare at the floor for a bit.

"No." Came the answer solemnly, "Not really, it's dumb of me to have tried that. No amount of learning experiences can excuse that recklessness."

"Huh. Ok then." She accepted his words easily enough and follow along as he started making his way upstairs. It's not even halfway through the day and yet he's already done with it.

Walking pass the sizable bookshelf, he headed straight to bed, sat down, and gave out a tired sight. Safe to say his socialising battery for the day has ran dry.

Looking over the window, the purplette couldn't help but remembering about a certain troublesome succubus he has meet today. From her unique appearance, to her dangerously playful personality, and her terrifying strength. Everything about her spells trouble and he wonder why he ever decided to socialise with her.

Who knows? Maybe, deep inside he was just bored of the monotonous nature of his safe heaven. Stuff gets boring after awhile, same thing could be applied here too he guess.

What was it? There's this quote he remembered reading in one of the many collection of books kept by the previous owner of the house. He think it goes something like: "Variety is the spice of life" if he recalled.

Could it be that the forest dweller may have just been starving of a new source of stimulation? All this time he was here with no one but his fairy friend might have been bad for him in some ways. Not that he regretted them of course, meeting Sylph was and still is the best thing that has ever happened to him after all.

Speaking of her, the wind spirit is currently busy making some adjustments to her 'book fort' and it sounded as weird as it is because she's the one who came up with it. They don't have enough pillows to made a fort with so she suggested they just settled with using books instead since they have so many just laying around.

It's surprisingly a lot of fun too. Now the three foot tall structure that Luka and Sylph made all those years ago stood proudly at the once empty space they had in the corner of the master bedroom.

'Hey Sylph…' He tapped into their mental link.

'Hmm~?' She inquire, not even looking away from her work.

'The succubus back then… she was really strong. Do you think there's any other way I could have handle that situation?'

'Well… it wasn't really your fault that you meet someone so strong out of nowhere like that, so don't beat yourself up over it okay?'

'I know that much at least, but thanks buddy.'

'No probs! Though it wouldn't have been so troublesome if you have a weapon or something.'

'Weapon?'He perked at that.

'Yeah, ya'know? Like a sword, or a bow that suits you!'

Will having a weapon helped that much? Sure, he can see the logic in it, of course having a weapon will help you fend off someone better, but he just couldn't believe that all he needed was some fancy looking tool to bridge the gap between him and Alma Elma; that woman was so overwhelming after all.

There's not much he can do but try, maybe there's one in the house he could find? The previous owner was an elf, Sylph said they would travel from place to place but would always came back here eventually. He was betting on the monster girl to stored any weapons they might have came across on their journey somewhere inside the house.

'Maybe I'll give it a try...'

'Oh! Tell me if you found anything okay?'

'Sure thing.' He finish the mental discussion with a nod.

Getting up from the comfortable bed, Luka make his way downstairs after taking off his cloak to start his search. Hopefully he'll find something useful by the end of the day.

…

…

…

That hope however would slowly diminish as he has yet to find anything after a whole day of searching through the house, he even call upon the wind around him for help, not that it does anything.

Luka was honestly about ready to call it quit when he realised the sun was setting before he stumbled into an old, rusted treasure chest buried under a pile of dirty clothes in the backyard.

The space was filled with abandoned stuff the previous owner had thrown away, from damaged books, to broken furniture. Looking at it now, he feels guilty for always neglecting to clean this place up. He tried, he really did. But it the act itself would have been so tedious and time consuming that any sense of productivity he has immediately disappeared at the thought of it.

After prying the it open, the forest dweller was greeted with a pretty disappointing sight. It's a… well to be honest, he's not even sure.

"…" He unsurely examine the vaguely shaped weapon in his hand. The old thing is covered in moss and grimes, clearing some of it with the wind he summons, he could now start guessing it's true identity.

It's one of those wooden sword he remembered the knights in the books would use to practice swordsmanship without the risk of cutting themselves. Though with the state of this thing, he doubt it could survive being swung at all.

No wonder the wind didn't tell him about it, the thing could barely be considered a weapon. Just the thought of confronting anyone with it is embarrassing, let alone Alma Elma.

… She would probably just laughed.

"It's useless." He sighed, turning around and uncaringly tosses the old wooden sword aside. Viewing the whole thing as nothing more than a waste of time and effort.

Just as he about to enter the house, a small, stuttering noise reached out to him.

"…-artner…"

He freezes, feeling the wind around for any intruders that managed to somehow breach into his safe heaven before finding there's none.

"What…?" Scanning the area, he couldn't figured out where the noise had come from. His backyard is still as messy and clustered as usual, nothing is out of the ordinary. Nothing, except if course…

Luka looked down at the old wooden sword, still where he left it earlier. And then he heard it again.

It's so fragile, like a glass about to break, barely audible for him to realise it's actually a voice.

"…train…again."

"It's you…" Walking over, Luka picked it from the ground. "The voice, it came from you." He said to it.

"Always…" It confirmed.

His eyes widened as fate intertwines once more. The story, ever-changing.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's note: What self respecting elf doesn't have any weapons hidden somewhere in their home just in case something bad happen right?