"I'll pass," Akira said, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his dagger.

As he drew the weapon, the blade didn't just reflect the dim light; it began to pulse.

The temperature in the immediate vicinity dropped sharply, his breath hitching as a localised mist formed around his hand. "I'm not in the mood for a nap, and I certainly don't plan on joining your interior design project."

The Parasite's lazy, beautiful smile vanished in an instant, replaced by a hungry look. Two of the massive, whip-like tendrils on its back detached from the ceiling with a wet, tearing sound, snapping forward like vipers striking at prey.

"Then I shall take you by force, little bird," the creature hissed, its dual voices vibrating with a sudden, jagged edge. "I wonder... how long can you scream before your lungs freeze over?"

"Let's find out," Akira retorted.

"Akira, look out!" Ai's voice screamed in his mind.

Before he could even process the warning, a third tendril erupted from the shadows of the floorboards, moving faster than the eye could follow.

Akira dove to the left, the tip of the tendril smashing into the concrete floor where he had been standing a microsecond before. The impact was thunderous, pulverising the stone into a fine powder and sending shards of concrete flying like shrapnel.

He rolled across the gritty floor and came up on his feet, but the creature was already ahead of him. Another tendril lashed out from below, wrapping around his right wrist with the speed of a snapping trap.

"Agh!" Akira gasped.

The contact was painful. It didn't just squeeze; it felt like it was burning. The thin, see-through tendril was covered in a harsh, acidic slime that started to eat through his jacket sleeve.

"It's draining your stamina directly through the skin!" Ai shouted.

Akira didn't panic.

He focused the cold essence into his dagger and slashed downward in a wide arc. The glowing dagger cut through the thick vine easily, like a hot knife through butter. A burst of thick, bright-green ichor shot out from the cut end. It hissed and bubbled when it hit the floor, melting holes in it.

The Parasite threw its head back and laughed, sounding like a dozen people screaming in harmony. "Feisty! Even better! The more you struggle, the sweeter the essence becomes!"

The creature didn't give him a moment to breathe. It launched five tendrils simultaneously, hoping to corner him.

Akira's enhanced Dexterity kicked in, his body moving like an acrobat. He spun, ducked, and leaped over the searching whips, his eyes tracking the iridescent blur of their movements.

"You want cold?" Akira growled, his hand extending toward the creature. "Take it!"

He tapped into the core of Shirayuki's essence buried deep in his marrow. Instead of just launching one attack, he imagined a storm of power. A dozen sharp ice shards, each as pointy as a diamond, formed in the air around him and shot forward.

The Parasite tried to parry them with its tendrils, but the shards were too fast. They impaled three of the creature's limbs, the frost spreading instantly from the impact sites and freezing the tendrils solid. The iridescent colours died, replaced by a dull, brittle white.

The creature let out a high-pitched, dual-toned scream, retracting its frozen limbs so quickly they shattered against the floorboards.

It stepped back a few feet into the deeper, darker part of the warehouse. Now, its breathing sounded wet and ragged.

"Cold... you wield the Ice Queen's cold!" it hissed, its body shimmering as it tried to regenerate. "Interesting... very interesting."

[TARGET WEAKNESS IDENTIFIED: EXTREME TEMPERATURES]

"He's vulnerable to thermal shock, Akira!" Ai noted. "But your dagger is too short for a killing blow against a target that large. You need more reach."

"I know," Akira thought. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, picturing the weight and balance of a longer weapon.

The blue light from his hand intensified, expanding and solidifying. The ice didn't just form; it grew. A long, elegant sword of translucent blue ice manifested in his right hand, followed by a heavy, triangular shield on his left arm.

"Let's try this again," Akira said as he activated Aura of Dominance.

He lunged forward, the ice sword trailing a wake of frost. The Parasite shrieked and whipped a massive tendril at his head, but Akira caught it on the ice shield.

The impact was heavy, but the shield held, the freezing contact slowing the creature's limb. Akira countered with a thrust, the ice blade sinking deep into the creature's shoulder.

Green ichor bubbled out, freezing mid-air. The Parasite tried to grab him, but Akira turned. His sword changed into a long, sharp ice spear. He quickly stabbed the spear through the creature's chest, holding it to a wooden post for a moment.

"Is that all?" Akira taunted, his eyes glowing with a cold, predatory light.

The Parasite's expression changed. The fear vanished, replaced by a dark, shimmering amusement. "Oh, little bird... you think this is a physical hunt? You are so young."

The creature's body began to vibrate, and its shiny skin turned dark, bruised purple. It opened its mouth wide, but no sound came out. Instead, a thick, shimmering cloud of pale pink pheromones burst from its skin, quickly filling the air around Akira.

Akira stepped back, waving his hand to clear the air, but it was too late. He inhaled a lungful of the sweet, cloying scent.

Immediately, his head began to swim. The adrenaline of the fight didn't vanish, but it twisted into something else. A sudden, intense heat flared in his loins, his blood rushing south with a dizzying force. His knees felt weak, and the grip on his ice spear faltered.

[WARNING: APHRODISIAC TOXIN DETECTED]

[EFFECTS: REDUCED WILLPOWER, INCREASED SENSITIVITY, HALLUCINATIONS]

"Akira! Resist it!" Ai's voice sounded muffled, as if she were underwater. "It's attacking your nervous system!"

[MENTAL RESISTANCE CHECK: ... ... ... PASSED]

Akira bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood, the sharp pain helping to clear the fog in his mind, but the arousal remained… a heavy, distracting throb that made every movement feel sluggish.

"Why resist, Akira?" the Parasite asked. Its dual voice had changed; it was no longer a harmony but a seductive, overlapping whisper.

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