How I Tame My Valkyrie Harem

Chapter 204: Die Insects! Die! Final Part

"I’m sorry, my prince!" Alicia pulled away from my neck the moment she realized she had squeezed me too tightly.

"Don’t worry, I’m okay..." I said, trying to ease her conscience, then stared at what was left of my enemies.

The three bees that had opposed me had been completely sliced apart in a short span of time, and that was only with the skills I had obtained from Sarah’s Class.

"Rick, look!" Alicia called out to me. I followed her finger, which was pointing in Diane’s direction. She was now facing three bees by herself, a bit far from us.

Even from that distance, I could see that she was a little nervous. I decided to stay where I was and see how my girl would deal with the challenge in front of her. I trusted her and believed that she believed she could do it.

Diane took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind before the battle, and then called out her skill, "Shadow Clone!"

As soon as she invoked her power, some kind of dark specter seemed to emerge from Diane’s body, enveloping her in smoke. After the dark smoke dissipated, there were three Dianes. Two of them were clones created by her skill, but I couldn’t tell which one was the real one.

Without waiting even a second, the Dianes ran forward, each one drawing the attention of a different Insect, separating them in order to take them down. Once they were properly separated, the bees began attacking the Dianes.

The bee on the right tried to sting the girl, but she managed to dodge without much difficulty, the stinger passing by her breasts by a hair. The one in the middle managed to position herself behind the Insect and struck it with a powerful Fatal Slash, finishing it off. The same couldn’t be said for the third Diane.

My eyes widened at the sight of Diane being pierced by one of the bees’ stingers, impaling her through the stomach.

"D-Diane..." Alicia was speechless at what she was seeing, and after she came back to her senses, she said, "L-Let’s go! Take me closer to her so I can heal her—"

Alicia stopped as soon as she looked at the scene a second time. The Diane who had been pierced began turning dark like a shadow and dissolving into smoke.

"A clone..." I mumbled.

"Phew!" Alicia let out a sigh of relief.

I didn’t even have time to feel relieved that Diane hadn’t been seriously hurt, because she was now behind the same Insect, going in for another kill.

With two knives moving in opposite directions, Diane made two horizontal cuts across the bee’s back, eliminating it.

Meanwhile, the other Diane attacked the remaining bee head-on with two knives in her hands. At this point, I already believed this one was the clone. Her movements were somewhat clumsy, and it looked like she wanted the Insect to hit her.

At least, that was how I saw it. The Insect wasn’t intelligent, because it took the very obvious bait.

When it pierced through the clone, her body turned into the same dark smoke as the previous one, and right after that, it turned around, heading towards where my Valkyrie was.

The real Diane threw one of her knives at the creature, hitting it in the eye. The bee stopped advancing, writhing in midair. A single spasm of pain, a single opening. That was enough for Diane.

She passed through the creature with incredible speed, cutting the bee’s head in half.

"Incredible!" Alicia said, happy that her friend had won.

’She really was incredible.’ I agreed with Alicia in my thoughts.

Alone, Diane had defeated those three bees. The girl fixed her bob-cut hair, as if some strand I couldn’t even see had fallen out of place. When I came back to my senses, I was standing there admiring her. Not only her strength but also her beauty had left me speechless.

But it wasn’t just her.

Farther ahead from where I was, Sarah was surrounded by five of those bees. Two were attacking her, one from the front and the other from behind. Sarah didn’t have a Shadow Clone, so if she was impaled, it would be for real.

The Swordmaster then crouched down, spreading her legs into a split and keeping her body from gaining two new and unwanted holes. With both hands on her sword, she cut off the two stingers of her enemies and continued slicing through the rest, taking them down.

I was amazed as I watched her sword style, her beautiful red hair fluttering in the wind.

Justine and Erina were doing a great job on their side too. Erina landed headshot after headshot on the bees, while Justine used her fire and electricity powers to knock down as many of them as possible with each skill she spent.

That efficiency-focused style was very much like my Sage, but it was fine as long as she didn’t set the tree on fire. We were going to use it to protect ourselves at night, after all.

Camula was fighting too. She had moved away from Sarah for some reason, but she seemed very motivated to kill the monsters.

"Die, you damn Insects!" she shouted at the monsters while tearing them apart with her claws. "Die so I can receive a sex reward from my Master!"

Out of all of them, she was the one who looked the least graceful, her arms smeared with the monsters’ purple blood and a wicked smile on her face.

After so many Insects had been crushed, no more came to attack us. My Valkyries came over to me excitedly, thinking the battle had finally ended.

"Rick~" The first one to reach me was Erina, holding her sniper with a smile on her face. "Looks like I’ll be the one to win the reward! I killed more than Justine!"

"Seriously?" I asked her, curious.

"Unfortunately," Justine said with an annoyed look, as if she still hadn’t accepted her defeat.

"That’s right! Aren’t I incredible?" she said, puffing out her chest.

Sarah approached with her arms crossed and addressed Erina. "How many did you kill, then?"

"60," Erina announced.

"I only managed to kill 57," Justine said dejectedly. Her voice sounded so down that I began stroking her head so she would feel better.

"N-No way," Sarah said to Erina. "I also killed 60 Insects."

"You’re not lying, are you?" Erina said to Sarah, glaring at her angrily.

"You can count them if you want, but I’m telling the truth," Sarah replied, with a look of equal intensity.

"Why did I only manage to kill 23 of them?" Camula was sitting on the ground, hugging her legs with a gloomy aura all around her. "Am I really that useless? How can I serve Master Rick if I can’t do something as simple as killing 60 of those monsters?"

I stroked her head too to comfort her. She was one of my dear Valkyries, so I would cheer her up if she was feeling down.

"Then I guess we tied." Erina said to Sarah, "I wanted to receive my reward by myself, but I guess there’s nothing that can be done about that."

"Erina, sorry to break it to you too, but I can’t give you girls the reward now." I said to them.

"Eh? Why not—"

"BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!" A buzzing sound began to ring out from near the tree where we were. The sound was different from what we had heard before. It wasn’t being produced by a group of bees, but seemed to be coming from just one Insect, only much larger than the others.

"Our fight isn’t over yet, that’s why," I said to her, staring at the monster we still had to face.

The bee in front of us was about four times larger than its underlings. If I had compared the smaller ones to wolves in size, this one could have been the size of a small car.

It had yellow fur around its neck and legs, as if to naturally set itself apart from the others.

"How dare you kill my subordinates, you barbarians?" Her irritated voice echoed inside my head.

"That thing can talk?!" Sarah asked in surprise.

"Telepathy. It can transfer its thoughts directly into our minds," Justine explained to Sarah.

"So this one was still left, hmm?" Erina said, analyzing the Queen Bee in front of her.

"That’s right, but don’t worry," I said to Erina. "As soon as I finish taking her down, I’ll be able to give you and Sarah the reward you want so badly."

[

Monster: Queen Bee

Level: 33

Health: 700 points

Mana: 300 points

Strength: 30 points

Defense: 40 points

Magic: 50 points

Agility: 30 points

]

With my current level of power, it was possible to face the Queen Bee with some difficulty, but I believed I could defeat her alone. However, it seemed my two Valkyries had other plans.

"What are you two doing?" I asked Sarah and Erina, who were standing between me and the giant Insect.

Sarah and Erina turned to me and spoke in unison. "What else would it be? If I defeat this thing, I win the competition, right?"