Another mouthful of filthy, murky water choked her lungs.
Her desire for survival triggered a few final, frantic struggles, but eventually her strength gave out, and she sank limply toward the lake bottom.
The monsters no longer hesitated, slicing through the current to rush toward the prey that had delivered itself to them.
But Lucoco was faster.
While her slender tentacles whisked Leno away, her remaining tentacles transformed into sharp spikes, skewering the incoming monsters through.
The authority of [Demon King] had been activated.
Lucoco needed to borrow that 2,000% attribute bonus to handle the current situation.
She was only Level 12, while those dark shadows were around Level 30.
As for their rank, she hadn’t discovered anything above Common grade yet.
In her hazy consciousness, Leno only felt herself being pulled and flipped.
It felt as though a pair of thin, tender arms were gripping her tightly, breaking through the water and ascending.
After hauling Leno along, Lucoco’s [Magic Field] instantly expanded, enveloping the two of them.
The tentacles wrapped around Leno tightened and then released, attempting to squeeze the foul water out of her belly and lungs.
“Ugh… *cough*, *ack*, *cough*… *hurgh*!!”
Dirty water pooled at the bottom of the barrier.
Leno felt as though she had vomited up all her bile.
She finally stopped.
“Haa! Haa…”
Leno breathed greedily, the thin air bringing back some of her consciousness.
In her blurred vision, a small figure stood close by.
Crimson eyes full of curiosity gazed back at her.
“Don’t be afraid… saving you.”
The voice was crisp, with a hint of awkwardness.
A soft, holy light bloomed from a small palm, turning into a soothing, warm current.
Her stamina recovered rapidly.
Leno was finally able to speak, her voice raspy and anxious as she squeezed out a few syllables: “Watch out… the assassins…”
Hearing this, Lucoco simply shook her head slightly.
“They… can’t see… not afraid.”
Just as she spoke, several dark shadows streaked past the outside of the barrier, kicking up bubbles and mud, yet they acted as if the [Magic Field] didn’t exist.
This was Lucoco’s skill, [Sense Block · S].
Not only could it lower her presence, but it could also make other targets outside the range completely lose information about this area.
Her vision cleared, and Leno saw the figure before her clearly: a very young demi-demon girl.
The despair of being on the brink of death finally passed.
Tears of relief wouldn’t stop falling.
Looking at her savior, a thousand words condensed into one: “Thank you…”
Lucoco shook her head gently without saying much, continuing to manipulate the magic barrier to rise slowly.
The air inside the barrier was almost exhausted, evidenced by Leno’s increasingly heavy breathing.
More importantly, the mission interface had an optional branch: [Optional: Attempt to help Prince Ian].
She opened her map radar and locked onto the two red dots being besieged by green dots within the closest range.
Combining this with the images she had glimpsed before entering the lake, she quickly identified one of the locations.
Just as they were about to surface, Lucoco stopped the healing magic.
Her gaze swept over the layers of Leno’s elaborate clothing, then she checked the map where more and more green dots were gathering.
She squatted down and said, “I’ll help… take it off…”
“Huh?”
Leno instinctively shielded her chest, her eyes wide.
“Decoy…”
Without another word, Lucoco pried her hands away and began stripping off her outer robe.
“…”
Leno understood and allowed Lucoco to strip her down to her thin inner garment.
Then, she watched with her own eyes as Lucoco’s lower limbs turned into tentacles and her right arm extended into a lash, flexibly tossing the pile of heavy, ornate clothes into the lake water before quickly retracting.
The lake was soon stirred up by those diving figures, becoming even murkier until nothing could be seen.
Taking the opportunity, the spherical [Magic Field] quickly surfaced and stopped at the shore before dispersing like bubbles.
The muffling sensation in her ears vanished.
The clashing of blades, the roar of magic, and the sounds of angry shouting and cursing echoed through the forest.
A massive magic-powered ship was lodged diagonally into the mountainside, with a raging fire spreading rapidly.
Lucoco extended a tentacle to help Leno up.
She squinted as she looked at a group of knights breaking through the assassins’ encirclement and charging toward the lake.
Within her Demon King authority’s perception, those knights were a mixture of red and green—meaning there were demons mixed in among them.
“Over there—*mph*!”
Leno pointed at the squad of knights in a frenzy of joy, but Lucoco immediately covered her mouth.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Leno’s forehead.
She realized she had messed up and prayed in her heart that there were no assassins nearby to hear.
Unfortunately, luck was not on their side.
With a shrill whistle, [Sense Block] was shattered.
Seven or eight assassins wrapped in black cloth lunged from the water and the dense forest, pouncing toward the two of them.
“Tsk!”
Spitting on the ground, Lucoco directly hoisted Leno over her head.
Using her tentacles and the aid of her levitation magic, she began to sprint.
She was so fast that even the assassins, known for their agility, could not catch up.
“S-Slow down…”
Leno’s face was pale, and tears fell one after another, her eyes full of guilt.
‘Crying! What the hell is crying going to do!’
Lucoco didn’t respond.
She was truly fed up with this princess and began to doubt: ‘Is this really the Princess Leno from the official guide?’
Suddenly, Leno noticed Lucoco was running in the wrong direction, so she timidly pointed toward the knight squad.
“The knights…”
“Shut up!”
Lucoco cut her off sternly, looking displeased.
“Those are… assassins…”
Leno’s pale face turned green.
She instinctively covered her mouth, her eyes full of suspicion and uncertainty.
‘Those are the guards personally selected by my father! How could they be assassins?’
Seeing the look on Leno’s face out of the corner of her eye, Lucoco couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smirk, speaking ominously: “Then… should I send you over there?”
“No! No thanks… I’m sorry…”
Leno immediately refused. Whether it was true or not, she was truly terrified.
After running for only half a minute, over twenty dark shadows were trailing behind them.
The constant shrill whistles drew even more attention.
Escaping was absolutely impossible, but Lucoco already had a plan.
“Assassins… too many. I…”
“Put me down. Their target is me,” Leno interrupted suddenly, her pace of speech very fast.
“And—*mmgh*!!”
A tentacle went straight into her mouth, cutting off her next words.
Lucoco continued, “I… you… that person… send away.”
Only then did she withdraw the tentacle from Leno’s mouth.
“Ugh… *cough*, *cough*!!”
The strange texture and the feeling of choking made Leno’s nose run and tears flow.
She finally caught her breath.
Just as she was about to ask, she saw a familiar person fighting assassins up ahead. Her pupils shrank.
“Brother!”
“It’s him… don’t move!”
While Lucoco responded, several tentacles aimed directly at the battlefield.
Incandescent white lightning gathered in an instant, turning into snakes of lightning that struck the black figures.
Whether it was intentional or not, two of the bolts passed right by Leno’s cheeks.
*Boom!*
“Screech!!”
“Screech! Screech!”
The sudden thunder threw the assassins into chaos.
Several dark shadows were charred before they could react, and the rest fell into a brief state of panic.
*Boom! Boom!*
Another series of thunderstorms exploded in the center of the battlefield.
Several assassins fell to the ground!
This time, it was Prince Ian taking the opportunity to counterattack.
With the pressure reduced, Prince Ian instantly broke through the encirclement.
He thought the Church monks had come to help, but he looked up only to see a demi-demon girl.
She was holding his teary-eyed sister high with her tentacles while sprinting toward him.
Seeing Prince Ian break through, Lucoco immediately changed direction and sped toward another side.
‘Leno doesn’t know lightning magic, so it must have been this demi-demon girl who acted.’
Without time to think, Ian fought as he retreated, quickly moving closer to the two.
Another bolt of lightning sliced through the air with a piercing hiss.
Two pursuing assassins couldn’t dodge in time and rolled onto the ground, unable to get back up.
Ian finally met up with them under the cover of Lucoco, who had slowed her pace.
Leno had also recovered a bit of mana.
Tottering, she struggled to chant a spell: “Wall of Gaia!”
The earth shook violently.
Several thick earthen walls rose from the ground, forming a high wall nearly 200 meters long, temporarily blocking the pursuing assassins.
Once the magic was complete, Leno went limp, looking as if she had no bones left.