I Only Summon Villainesses

I swung at her, bringing my sword down in a hard arc, but she was nimble. Before I knew it she’d leaped a few meters back, landing without a sound.

She twisted her head curiously, studying me like something was wrong with my very being and she was trying to figure out what. I put it to you, aside from being hot, something was indeed wrong with my very being, but if anyone was going to figure it out, it certainly wouldn’t be a Spirit Beast.

“Uh? How did this manage to happen? I’m sure I did everything right.” Nisha, no, the creature, beast, whatever it was taking the shape and face of Nisha, almost flawlessly in fact, straightened up and scratched its head in confusion.

I stared at it with a dark look in my eyes. ’Of course I’d know. What did you think, asshole?’

I pointed my sword at the thing. “First of all, Nisha does not have an ass like that, you rotten creature, what the hell? How could you create that kind of sumptuous ass? It was flawlessly done but hell no, that’s not Nisha’s ass!”

I paused for a moment.

’Wait, am I complimenting it or chastising it?’

It almost sounded like both.

I yanked my already lowering hand forward with more guardedness. “Anyways! A fraud is what you are and a fool too, stupid. If you want to trick someone, learn to do it properly, you piece of wooden and leafy poop. Where did you put Nisha?!”

The creature twisted its head sideways, to the left first then to the right, in a manner that made my skin crawl.

Then that wide smile spread again. This time, instead of the teeth it had copied, a row of jagged fangs revealed themselves, sharper and more vicious than a shark’s. The teeth alone disfigured the entire face, splitting it into something that finally looked deserving of the monstrous thing it actually was.

A long tongue dripped out from between those fangs as the abomination’s jaw cracked open, slow and deliberate. The tongue lashed at me. I raised my sword and caught the strike, but the force threw me backward. I landed on my feet, boots skidding across the dirt for several meters before I finally stopped.

The creature was already moving. It leaped and latched itself onto a tree, claws digging into the bark. Its eyes were changing. So was the body it had worn. The irises turned yellowish, each pupil narrowing into a black vertical slit. They were tearing through the face from the inside, and the skin underneath was beginning to reveal itself, both flesh and clothes simply peeling away like a second hide, as if the beast was merely shedding one disguise for another.

Then it croaked, and the entire woodland vibrated in response. Before I could brace myself, the bastard lunged, spinning into a cannonball and slamming into my stomach before I could get my guard up. I folded like a piece of paper and went flying.

My back screamed as I crashed into a tall white tree. For a moment I saw nothing but white, and it felt like I might actually die. But the next moment, I heard my own voice.

’No, you piece of ass, they’re the ones going to die.’

I sent waves of red fog rolling outward as I released [Emperor’s Presence]. A semblance of strength returned and I managed to straighten for a bit, my spine cracking in protest.

Kassie was unavailable. I couldn’t reach Maggie either, which meant I had to deal with this myself somehow.

’Yea, this is encouraging. It’s just what I wanted.’

The creature had revealed itself completely now, and what I was seeing before me was a giant chameleon, so to say. It certainly wasn’t a normal chameleon because it was much larger and uglier than any chameleon I had ever set my eyes upon.

Its humongous body latched to the white wood, already half as tall as the tree itself. Its tail wrapped around the trunk, trailing downward and softly sweeping the ground.

Its head was a mass of disjointed skull. The eyes were so huge they seemed to sit where they didn’t belong, bulging out of their sockets, and then the teeth made everything worse. It was an ugly beast capable of shredding my body apart with little effort, so I had to be very careful and make sure that somehow, I didn’t find my way into its maw.

’Why am I even thinking about fighting this baastard?’

It was tempting to run even though I had said so many bad things about running.

’I’m so sorry, running. I didn’t know better.’

At the same time, running would be stupid. Run to where, exactly? Lest I forget, the forest was a trap, and no matter how far I went there seemed to be no end.

I considered that it might be because the Spirit Beast had been leading me in circles to begin with, but I had noticed the landscape of the forest change with my own eyes. I was the one who had even brought it to Nisha’s attention.

Or should I say… this vicious monster, whom I had first thought was Nisha until I had to check the ass and noticed the size.

Knowing there was nowhere for me to run, I slowly stood up and looked at the damned creature, still wincing because even though I was upright, I was still in serious pain.

“So I guess the only way forward is to defeat you?”

The chameleon looked into my eyes and spread those vicious teeth, sweeping its tongue across its lips. Then it released a disturbing voice that sounded like multiple ancient creatures struggling to force their speech together.

“Can… you?”

I grinned. “I guess we’ll find out.”

The bastard grinned too and released that disturbing speech once again. “I guess we’ll find out.”

It began to laugh, a sound like someone scraping rocks against each other. Then it looked directly at me, and the strangest thing happened.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

This time, the creature spoke in a slightly hoarse and clean tone, sounding exactly like me.

“You motherfucker, how dare you?!”