Viego in Arknights

Viego was dragging W with one hand and supporting Ines with the other, carrying the two heavily injured women through the ruined buildings.

Viego felt f*cking great.

—Don't get me wrong, it wasn't because he was in physical contact with Ines and W. Viego wasn't that much of a beta male. It was just that with such a large area of physical contact, the speed at which the Ruination was absorbing the fragments from within Ines and W had greatly increased.

To make an analogy:

The previous Viego was like a free user of a download service. Despite having a gigabit fiber connection, he could only download at a speed of a few dozen kb/s.

But the current Viego was a noble SVIP user, a super member. The download speed was uncapped, hitting hundreds of MB per second. It was a hundredfold increase, a speed that was simply off the charts!

The Ruination was being replenished, his power was being enhanced. Viego loved this feeling; it brought a sense of spiritual joy.

—It was like playing Nasus, watching yourself farm Q for an entire game, and finally seeing the number of stacks go from 0 to a thousand. It was the joy of finally entering the harvest season.

And as the Ruination grew stronger, Viego's ability to sense the fragments also improved. Before, it was like looking at flowers through frosted glass. Now, it was like observing them directly through a smooth mirror.

Viego could sense that if he continued to absorb at this speed, in less than three days, the two fragments inside Ines and W would be completely drained by him. He just didn't know if they could recover after being drained, achieving a state of perpetual motion... but Viego also felt that was unlikely. After all, the Ruination was strictly speaking just a special kind of energy body. Without new energy replenishment, the fragments would naturally not regenerate new Ruination power.

—Unless, the fragments inside W and Ines had formed a "parasitic" relationship with their bodies, and could draw the required energy from them.

But Viego hoped that wasn't the case. It would make him feel like he was sucking the blood of these two women, like eating a human-blood steamed bun. Viego could kill his enemies without hesitation, using their life force to strengthen himself, but he couldn't accept achieving his own strength by using the life force of his "comrades." This was also the reason why Viego had reacted so strongly and felt so much for the two mercenary members who had died by his blade.

Perhaps this was also one of the biggest differences between Viego and the former Ruined King.

From time to time, Ines would look up towards the rear and the north, a faint light flickering in her golden pupils. "…The pursuers are getting closer."

"I think you should rest for a bit, Captain Ines." Viego looked at the cold-faced, but clearly sweating and red-eyed Ines.

"There's no need to scout anymore," he said. "If the pursuers catch up, I'll kill them all."

"Oh... so you have this much confidence now? Is it because you're holding two women in your arms?" Ines said coldly. "Don't be blinded by blind confidence and the desire to show off, Viego."

"I need to clarify, I'm not holding you and W in my arms. This is a necessary means to help you survive. I have no extra thoughts about you," Viego emphasized, then asked, "What, Captain Ines doesn't believe me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ines retorted. "If you were me, would you believe such words? At the beginning of the battle, you were barely able to win against two Sarkaz mercenaries. Now you're telling me you can kill a large group of pursuers who are much more elite than those mercenaries?"

"Hmm, that's true. If I were in Captain Ines's position, I wouldn't believe it either," Viego laughed. "That being said, I still hope Captain Ines can have a little more trust in me? I'm actually not a person who is good at lying."

"Hmph… I hope so." Ines's expression didn't change, still the same cold look. "But you'd better not expect me to have more trust in you, Viego. I've said it before, I will always be wary of you."

"Do you have to say this kind of thing while I'm dragging you to escape, my good captain?" Viego said helplessly.

Ines's expression stiffened. "Watch your wording, Viego. I am not 'your' property."

"You're too sensitive, Captain Ines."

"The moment I fcking open my eyes, I hear you two shameless dogs flirting… can you two fcking be quiet and let me rest for a bit?" W's voice, gritting her teeth, sounded out. "Viego, can you fcking move your hand up a bit, put it on my ribs? It's squeezing my stomach. Have you fcking never held a woman before? Or are you so thrilled to have two women in your arms that you've gotten carried away?"

"Uh… sorry, I really haven't held anyone before." Viego apologetically adjusted his posture according to W's words. "But I have to reiterate again—I am not feeling thrilled because I'm holding you and Ines, much less have I gotten carried away. Don't you go slandering me, W."

My thoughts are on the fragments inside your bodies, not the two of you.

What's so interesting about women? Heh, even if you two stretched out your legs in front of me and let me touch them as I pleased, I wouldn't feel a thing!

—He couldn't feel anything. His body, strictly speaking, was just a reanimated corpse of a resentful spirit.

W sneered. "Hehe, are you saying you'd only get thrilled if you put your hands on our legs?"

"I'm not a leg-fetishist!" Viego said seriously. "Really not."

"Can you two stop it?" Ines couldn't take it anymore. "W, how do you still have the strength to argue with people when you're so heavily injured?"

"None of your damn business, Ines! Aren't you just as full of life? You're the one who f*cking woke me up, and you have the nerve to say that to me?" W, having woken up from her stupor, was as foul-mouthed as ever. It seems her brain wasn't fried by that spell.

But Viego hoped she had temporary amnesia, forgetting what she had said about a reward when he saved her. He really had just been spouting some flirty nonsense to W, just like when you make a cool play in League and boast to your teammates. He wasn't really looking for any substantial reward… much less did he want to touch W's black stockings. Although her black stockings looked like they would be very smooth and comfortable to touch… Viego really didn't want to touch them!

Not at all! Viego wasn't a leg-fetishist, and he had no particular hobby for black stockings or long legs.

"…Ladies, I think we can shut up now. Of course, if you want to continue bickering, I have no objections." Viego stopped in his tracks, interrupting Ines and W's bickering, and looked at the mercenary team that had appeared before them. "I was just about to say, I think we've been discovered."

The mercenaries in front raised their crossbows at them.

—"Oh, now you can remove the 'I think.' We've definitely been discovered."