Chapter 157
Chapter 157
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: The Beast Master's Pursuit
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Gazelle, legs."
The woman spoke calmly, and just as her arms had previously morphed into grizzly bear front paws, this time her legs were overlaid with the form of a gazelle racing across the plains.
The sight of the slender woman's body fused with grizzly front paws and gazelle hind legs' energy forms wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye.
But the power radiating from her was impossible to ignore.
Thwang!
The woman lightly kicked off with her hind legs like a gazelle, and in an instant, the distance between us shrank.
Then came her swinging arm once more.
Craaack!
"Ngh!"
Even as I channeled my aura and deflected the attack with Pankration, the blow still rattled my insides.
"What the hell is this out of nowhere...!"
"You're the ones who targeted us first—what bullshit is this?"
She had it all wrong. This woman was so trapped in her own delusions that she wasn't even trying to grasp the situation.
There was that old saying about a midnight cleaver strike, but even so.
'I just stepped out after a bath, and now I'm getting ambushed? This is too much!'
And her attacks— they felt light on impact, yet they reverberated deep inside me with insane rebound force.
Last winter, I'd set steel aside to refine my cultivation technique, reaching advanced master level with pure aura and Pankration alone.
But clashing with her using only aura, without steel? All I could do was hold on.
Where the hell had a powerhouse like this popped up from?
'If I used steel, I could put up a real fight...'
But I hadn't baked her head with a fireball or anything. Using steel right here was out of the question.
"What's going on?!"
"It's coming from the direction of the Ikenia Kingdom delegation!"
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
This was smack in the middle of the Empire. For any other nation, maybe, but in this heretic-mad country, unleashing a Heterogenous Power was basically begging for execution.
In that sense, this woman wasn't right in the head.
Pulling off a rampage in a temple, openly using a Heterogenous Power? Unthinkable.
"Ngh!"
No choice.
Even if a few more of this temple's ordinary(?) holy knights joined in, they'd just be mantises blocking a cart.
Staying sealed without my Heterogenous Power would only rack up more casualties.
Steel resolve in place, I used Moon Step to flee outside the temple.
Hovering high in the air with Moon Step, I scanned the surroundings. Damn. No hills worth calling mountains.
'Hell, no helping it.'
Only option: head for the open plains beyond the border.
"Think you can escape?"
Thwang!
The woman pursued like a beast, kicking off the temple walls—a perfect gazelle.
Her eyes, following from behind, caught sight of me far ahead.
To flee that far in such a short time.
"Looks like Veras put some real thought into this pursuer, huh?"
Maybe even one close to the main lineage among the branches.
"Guess I'll have to leave her alive, at least."
Things to ask, after all.
"Cheetah, legs."
At her words, the grizzly and gazelle phantoms on her arms and legs vanished, replaced by a cheetah's form enveloping her body.
Fatima was a vast city bordering Ikenia, Dalton, Sharon, and Yak Kingdoms.
Thus, its walls stretched endlessly, spreading soldiers thin inevitably.
In other words.
Relatively easy to slip out.
'Normally, no big deal.'
But now, as part of the delegation here on the Emperor's orders.
Better to stay low-key.
Whoosh!
I'd tossed myself beyond the walls quietly, but apparently, the woman tailing me had other ideas.
Booom!
"You crazy bitch!"
Smashing through the gates like a brute made that clear.
Dong-dong-dong!
"Intruder! Intruders!"
Intruders? More like escapees.
The woman's eyes half-rolled back, glaring at me like I murdered her parents.
"What grudge do you even have against me?!"
I couldn't claim a spotless record gazing at the heavens... but I'd never crossed anyone with a Heterogenous Power.
'Ah.'
A memory flashed mid-Moon Step escape.
Right. There was that guy using a Heterogenous Power I'd beefed with.
On the way to Fran Kingdom, the creepy bastard cackling through blood-smeared lips. Vladimir, was it?
'One of his crew, huh.'
My body heated up from the chase, but my mind cooled sharp.
The Holy Empire, loathing Black Lions, and in Fatima no less, with its strong church faction. Starting trouble here?
What audacity.
I ran far from Fatima, reaching some nameless plain.
Vast expanse, no lights anywhere nearby.
This spot—no prying eyes to worry about.
Tap!
"Oh? Settling here? Your grave."
The woman who'd chased me down. She could've caught me sooner but followed without complaint—must've noticed I was heading somewhere deserted.
"...Just avoiding hassle."
Vmmm!
I fully channeled my aura and began operating steel in earnest.
Steel-gray and golden aura spread across my body.
"Heterogenous Powers aren't easy to use inside the Empire."
Her expression chilled further as she saw me wielding aura and a Heterogenous Power.
"...Young-looking, but you've got skills. Yeah. To threaten Him, you need at least this much."
'Him...'
Vladimir called the Black Wing, Veras, that way too.
That phrasing confirmed it. She was Veras's assassin. No other reason to charge headlong in the Holy Empire of all places.
"Won't be that easy."
My thigh muscles bulged like they might burst, every nerve locking into the fight ahead.
Booom!
"Shabel Tiger, arms!"
Shriiip!
The savage tiger front paws that had shredded those pests invading Yak Kingdom's forests not long ago sliced viciously through the air.
Enough to tear apart a greenhorn without a whisker in one strike.
No one but that damned Veras could block her blow.
But contrary to her thoughts.
Splat!
The beast-shaking strike merely grazed the punk's skin.
'Dodged again?'
She'd chalked up dodging the grizzly strike in the Empire's temple as luck, but judgment erred.
Boyish looks aside, his battle sense was unreal.
Take now.
Whoosh!
He dodged and swung a pitch-black fist mercilessly.
Damn brat. Threatening a delicate(?) woman's face like that.
She crossed her arms, shifting energies.
"Dragon Turtle, shell!"
The tiger's ferocious energy vanished, replaced by an impenetrable turtle carapace.
Craaang!
The fist met the turtle energy head-on. Their clash rang out like shattering metal across the plains.
As the crossed arms locked against his fist, energies pushing.
Sproing!
His legs coiled like springs, then sprang up, whipping a whirlwind kick with the other leg.
"Gryphon, wings!"
Gryphon energy erupted from her back, lifting her body lightly out of range of that brutal leg.
Plop.
Like a regal king soaring the skies, Lamfang floated gracefully before slowly descending.
'What the hell is this guy?'
His aura control was no joke even at a glance, and he neutralized Dragon Turtle shell with skilled Heterogenous Power use.
Plus that battle sense from before.
Not honed in one or two fights.
'Looks barely twenties, with skills like this...'
Then the punk taunted.
"All that bark, but this is it?"
Her face twisted at his words. Seemed she'd never faced taunts like this.
Fair enough. She herself was shocked by his prowess.
Aura laced with steel. And his aura control far more refined than last winter.
Now, he could trade even blows with a peak-condition Four Marquises.
Yet she wasn't yielding an inch.
He'd deflected all her attacks, but she'd blocked his too—tit for tat.
"...Fine. Looks like I underestimated you, kid."
Then her aura shifted entirely.
Ruuuumble!
As her words ended, the air compressed under pressure.
"Consider it an honor. I didn't prep this technique for trash like you."
The aura wafting now screamed that prior bout was mere play—like an untamed savage beast.
'This energy?'
Such absurd power.
Not quite Father's level, but equal to—or beyond—Minerva's pressure.
No way a powerhouse like this was mere Veras flunky.
'A Black Lion at this realm... no way?'
Never seen personally, but heard of. Hell, weirder not to know as a Black Lion.
Damn, why hadn't he noticed sooner? Even frantic in Fatima, no excuse—curse his own dullness for missing the signs.
Obvious beast borrowing. Surviving it without clocking her.
Haughty and elegant, yet sowing bloodpaths for foes: White Wing.
Ruler over continent's beasts.
Beast Master Lamfang.
No one else fit.
'But why target me?'
Lamfang led the pure faction. Same lineage as him—she'd welcome, not reject.
Rumble-rumble!
The plain's earth cracked. No time for questions.
Couldn't slack against Beast Master. Whatever—block first.
"Damn it all, why suddenly...?"
He urgently raised his energy to meet hers, but Lamfang abruptly released.
Misunderstanding cleared? Her face said no.
"...Interlopers showed. Lucky, kid."
"Hey, wait...!"
Fwhoosh!
Lamfang clicked her tongue and bolted before he could speak.
Soon after she left, Saladin, Miron, Misha, and Luna arrived leading Empire temple troops.
"Jerome! What happened?!"
Saladin rushed over, checking him urgently. Chased this far despite the distance.
Gratitude mixed with solid reassurance swelled.
"How'd you know to come?"
"How? Heard a boom mid-bath, came out to you getting jumped and bolting. Asked around, followed the guards' directions from the walls. What dragged you this far?"
"White Wing attacked me."
"White Wing or White Ink, some psycho? Why target someone fresh in the Empire today... wait, White Wing?"
The Empire city's first day, and chaos. Saladin grumbled, then sensed oddity and backtracked.
"Yeah, White Wing."
"That Beast Master, one of the Black Lions' top dogs?"
Nod.
"......"
Saladin froze like a glitchy machine, then clapped.
"Good work! Enjoy the rest of your Empire trip. I'm out!"
Jerome grabbed the neck of Saladin, yanking the reins back as he flailed, sinking into thought.
'Lamfang... why me?'
Time to dig deeper.
Cheetah phantom overlaid, Lamfang raced toward the Empire walls, grinding her teeth.
Grind!
'First time. Failed to kill a Veras dog.'
She'd underestimated from his youthful looks, botching it.
Planned quick kill and ghost, but dawdled too long—Empire soldiers closed in unfinished.
Empire differed from others. Its vastness unmatched. Flee elsewhere? Likely still Empire soil.
Sloppy exposure risked pursuit by not just Veras, but Empire too.
"That punk... called him Ibarella, right."
Crunch!
Gnashing, Lamfang's eyes gleamed.
She'd tracked Jerome on mere telepathy mentioning Ibarella, unknown source.
To infiltrate Black Lions into Holy Empire, needed clean cover at minimum.
Naturally spotted the delegation-lookalikes.
Intent aside, delegation would move from Fatima soon.
"A few more days of life, kid."
Killing intent swirled in Lamfang's eyes.
Spare him, word reaches Veras—no way.
Lamfang vaulted Fatima's walls leisurely, vowing again to eliminate any threat to her master's safety.