Gacha Harem System

The lion blurred towards her, its amber eyes glowing softly as it attacked.

Akira grinned, blocking the first swipe on her vambrace, the force driving her arm sideways, then she used the deflection to spin to its flank.

With a soft grunt, she punched, her fist driving into the lion’s ribs.

The lion had anticipated the attack, and flexed its muscles in response.

Its hide absorbed most of the impact from her punch, the thick fur and dense muscle dispersing the force into its body, but the lion still grunted and shifted away.

Using the little distance between them, it turned its head towards Akira, opened its mouth, and roared.

Unlike its previous roars, this one was localized in one direction only. At Akira.

The sound hit her like she’d run into a wall, sending a concussive wave that rattled her vision and sent a spike of pain through her ears.

Her knees trembled, and her sense of direction blurred for half a second. But even with that, she never kept her eyes off the lion.

As she’d expected, the lion beast closed the distance while the roar was still ringing in the air, one massive paw driving towards her chest.

She bent at the waist, dodging the attack and feeling the air ruffle her hair as its claws swept over her head.

The moment her palms touched the ground, she dug her nails in and threw herself forward into the lion’s legs.

Of course, the tackle didn’t bring it down. The lion was way too heavy for that to work.

However, her move disrupted the follow-up attack, the second paw coming down short. She pushed off its legs and leapt back, putting space between them.

Just as she landed, the lion roared again.

Just before the wave of sound hit her, she dove behind a tree trunk. The roar smashed into the tree, splintering it and sending wood flying everywhere.

She peeked out from behind the still standing tree just in time to see the lion leap on her.

She surged to her feet, crossing her arms and catching both of its forepaws on her vambraces.

The impact drove her back two full steps, her boots tearing up the ground. The lion pressed down with its entire weight, forcing her arms down by a few degrees.

Then it opened its mouth, about to roar directly in her face.

Her eyes widened. She knew what would happen if the lion succeeded, so she simply stopped resisting.

She dropped suddenly, letting the lion’s own pressure carry its head down towards her, and as it fell, she grabbed the sides of its skull with both hands.

She’d fought more Nemean Lions than most Awakeners. That meant she knew exactly how hard she needed to squeeze.

The lion thrashed, trying to bite her arm off, but she held on, her boots braced against the ground. She used her strength to hold it in place, and before its paws could slash towards her, she drove its head into the ground.

Crack!

As its head slammed into the ground, the earth splintered, a crater forming.

The force of the impact surged past the lion’s hide, slamming into its skull and shattering it. The shattered bone dug straight into its brain, ending its life in an instant.

Ding!

[You have killed an S-rank Nemean Lion]

Akira straightened, her grin still on her face. Blood ran down her forearms from a cut she hadn’t even noticed. When she’d been blocking the lion, its claws had cut through her vambrace, and created a thin cut on her arm.

She chuckled, looking down at the lion. "You fought hard, but it’s a bit unfortunate that you met me."

***

Lukas and Melody stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the lioness swipe at empty air, its movements growing increasingly frantic.

There was an expression of focus on Melody’s face as she controlled the illusion that was holding the lioness’ attention.

"Damn," she said, "this isn’t as easy as I thought it’ll be. If not for the damage you did to its head, it’ll have escaped this illusion easily."

Lukas said nothing, simply chuckling.

Then a loud roar filled the air from the direction Akira was fighting the lion, the sound rolling through the forest with more force than they’d expected.

The ground beneath them vibrated, and they shared a glance.

"That almost broke the illusion." Melody hissed. "What could be going on?"

Lukas glanced towards the sound. "Akira might need [Temptation] to kill her lion. We need to finish this now."

Melody was already moving.

She closed the distance to the lioness at full speed, [Temptation] raised.

Even trapped inside the illusion, some deeper instinct in the beast registered the sword’s presence, and it turned, breaking partially free of the illusion, beginning to dodge the attack.

But it was not fast enough.

Melody’s swing caught it cleanly across the neck. The lioness’s head separated from its shoulders and hit the ground before the body finished falling.

Melody straightened and turned around, already running to where Akira was. "Let’s go."

They dashed through the trees and broke into the clearing just in time to see Akira straightening to her feet, brushing her hair back from her face.

The lion lay at her feet, already dead.

Lukas let out a low whistle. "That’s impressive."

Akira laughed, the sound bright and unguarded. "The Sisterhood raised me to do exactly this. I’ve been killing beasts since I was old enough to hold a sword properly."

She glanced down at the lion. "This one was better than most, but still suffered the same fate."

Lukas said nothing, but everyone could see the grin on his face. They could tell. Akira was strong. Strong enough to face the other S-ranks of Havenhart and win more than she lost.

Then a notification appeared in front of Lukas.

Ding!

[Quest: Perfect Product]

[Skin the two dead Nemean Lions without a single mistake, preserving their hides in perfect condition.]

[Reward: +100 Gacha Points]

[Penalty: -1,000 Mana for 12 hours]

He blinked in surprise, before chuckling.

One hundred points. That was exactly the amount of points he needed to pull from the Skills banner.

He turned to Melody and held out his hand. "It’s finally my turn to use [Temptation]."