Reborn as a Succubus: Time To Live My Best Life!

The sun rose over the military camp, making everything look golden in a way that made last night's battle seem like a bad dream someone else had.

Melisa sat outside her tent, choking down a cup of something that the army had the audacity to call coffee but tasted like dirt mixed with tears and broken dreams.

Isabella finally showed up, strolling out of some random soldier's tent. Her hair was a complete disaster and she wore the shit-eating grin of someone who'd just had her brains fucked out.

"Morning, sunshine," she said, plopping down next to Melisa. "You look like shit."

"Thanks," Melisa grunted. "I feel like it too."

After the battle, she'd spent a bit of time helping the healers patch up the wounded. The Blood Magic she'd used had left her horny enough to fuck a tree, but there hadn't been time to do anything about it. By the time she'd crawled into her tent, she'd been too exhausted to even flick the bean.

"Blackflame!"

Melisa looked up to see Captain Fenris marching toward her. The woman had a black eye and a fresh cut on her cheek, but moved like she hadn't just killed a bunch of darians six hours ago.

"Captain," Melisa stood, putting down her sad excuse for coffee.

"Walk with me," Fenris ordered.

Melisa followed her through the camp. Soldiers scrambled around reinforcing walls, hauling supplies, and taking care of the wounded. Everyone looked like death warmed over, but they moved with serious purpose now.

"That was some solid magic last night," Fenris said when they reached an empty training area. "But I need to know what else you've got."

"What do you mean?"

Fenris pulled out her sword.

"Spar with me."

Melisa blinked.

"With magic?"

"With whatever you've got. Magic, weapons, fists. I need to know what you can really do."

[Is she fucking serious? She wants to fight NOW?]

"I've trained a bit but I'm not exactly a sword expert," Melisa admitted.

Fenris tossed her a wooden training sword.

"Then today's when you learn. I'm one of the best swordswomen in the kingdom."

Melisa caught the wooden sword, her eyes getting big.

[One of the best in the kingdom?]

"Really?" she asked before she could stop herself.

Fenris smiled, and her whole face changed.

"You want to be a fighter too, don't you? Not just a mage."

"I..." Melisa had never told anyone that. "How did you know?"

"The way you moved last night. The way you watch others fight. There's a certain... hunger in your eyes."

Melisa felt a rush of excitement. This was her chance to learn from a total pro. She raised her training sword into what she hoped wasn't a completely stupid stance.

"Okay, then. Show me how it's done."

For the next hour, Fenris beat the shit out of her.

Melisa had picked up some good sword moves throughout the years at the Academy, but Fenris's style was completely different—smooth, efficient, and brutal.

"Keep your guard up!" Fenris barked, smacking Melisa's knuckles with the wooden blade. "Again!"

As they trained, Fenris told her about the war. Not the clean version that had reached the Academy, but the raw truth of what had been happening while Melisa had been studying magic and boning her way through school.

"The darians have been hitting border villages for years," Fenris said, easily blocking Melisa's attack. "But something changed six months ago. You know how Rhaya is composed of several different tribes? Well, those tribes got organized. Out of nowhere, really."

"We barely heard anything about this at the Academy," Melisa admitted, ducking a swing.

"Of course you didn't. The crown doesn't want everyone losing their minds. Especially not Aria, who's been trying to resolve the war diplomatically." Fenris's blade stopped an inch from Melisa's throat. "Dead. Again."

Melisa reset her stance, breathing hard.

"What changed? Why are they attacking this way now?"

"New leadership is my best guess. Someone's united all the darian clans." Fenris showed her a complicated move. "Try that."

Melisa tried and failed spectacularly.

"No, like this." Fenris fixed Melisa's grip. "Anyway, the darians have always hated humans, but they've never gotten their shit together enough to have a real shot at winning this war. Until now."

By the time they finished, Melisa was drenched in sweat and covered in bruises. Fenris hadn't pulled any punches, but Melisa had managed to land a couple of hits by the end.

"Not bad," Fenris said as Melisa healed herself, which from her probably meant "you're amazing." "Your instincts don't suck. You just need training."

"Thanks," Melisa panted, bent over with her hands on her knees. "I think."

Fenris looked her up and down.

"I'm sending a patrol to check the area before we move out. You're going with them."

"Now? After you just kicked my ass for an hour?"

"Welcome to the military, Blackflame. Rest is for dead people."

---

An hour later, Melisa dragged herself through the forest with five soldiers. Her muscles screamed from the sparring session, and she was starting to think this whole mission was a huge mistake.

[Two weeks. Just two weeks of this bullshit and then Koros gets to live. Simple.]

"You really took down three darians by yourself last night?" asked one of the soldiers, a young guy with a scar across his nose.

"I had help," Melisa said, trying to be modest.

"Bullshit. I saw that fire spell. Never seen anything like it."

The soldiers kept giving her these weird side-glances—half "holy shit that's amazing" and half "please don't murder me." Word of her magic had spread through the camp faster than an STD in a brothel.

"It was just a fire tornado," she shrugged, then added, "Nothing special."

They kept walking through the forest, and the soldiers gradually stopped acting like she might explode. They cracked jokes, talked about old battles, bitched about the food. It was almost... nice.

Until the arrow hit the scarred soldier right in the fucking eye.

He dropped without making a sound. Before Melisa could even blink, darians burst from the trees. Five of them, huge and armed to the teeth.

"Ambush!" shouted one of the soldiers, yanking out his sword.

Melisa's hands moved on autopilot, drawing spellsigns in the air.

"Glacies, spica, perforare!"

Ice spikes shot up from the ground, skewering one darian and pushing the others back. Another soldier went down, his head almost completely off from a darian axe.

[Shit, shit, shit!]

Melisa dodged a flying spear, rolled, and came up casting.

"Ventus, lapis, impetu!"

The wind-stone impact spell sent another darian flying backward into a tree with a crack that definitely meant death. Two soldiers were still fighting, back-to-back, surrounded by the remaining darians.

Melisa ran toward them, starting another spell, when something hard slammed into the back of her head.

Pain exploded through her skull.

The world went sideways.

The last thing she saw before everything went black was a pair of familiar blue eyes in a face framed by fire-red hair.