༺ Beasts, their Kings, and Humans – 1 ༻
When the scent of blood reached Nabi, she jumped as if she had been burned. Her head jerked up, scanning the area. Her attention was drawn away despite the air being full of the aroma of mana cigars, made from processed catnip and world tree leaves. It seemed like she was scared, or anxious perhaps.
“Me-yow?!”
I hastily grabbed Tyr and stepped back.
Nabi sniffed around for a long while before approaching the colonel’s corpse. She made sure he was dead, multiple times over, before breaking out into shivers, staring down at his body.
“No, no good. Mew servant, mew servant’s servant is dead.”
Needless to say, she didn’t appear enraged over the servant’s death, just as junkies don’t mourn the death of a dealer.
“There’s no one to give m-mew tributes.”
She was just doleful. The cigar pack was open and its contents were scattered everywhere, yet Nabi writhed like someone who had lost her drugs forever. She touched her face wildly, not even realizing her nails were scratching her skin as she wailed.
“Meoow—! Meoow!”
Ohh, I saw this coming. I was trying to be careful, but cats are capricious.
Putting aside real cats that couldn’t beat humans, there was no need for the Cat King to bother obeying humans to receive mana cigars as “tributes” as if it were some charity. If she attacked and robbed the people with the cigars, how was she to be stopped?
Force wasn’t an option. There was only one way to deal with her, which was, naturally, to tame her.
It took a few deaths along the way, but they ingrained in her that stealing wouldn’t grant her all the mana cigars she desired. When she returned in a fury after exhausting her stolen stash, they kept her tantalized with a small supply of cigars, gradually breaking down her body and mind with the drugs. This process was repeated every time she stole.
After multiple iterations of this cycle, Nabi began to obey humans instead of harming the person managing the mana cigars, deluding herself into thinking it was a price and a tribute.
Feeling suspicious about the cat’s obedience, I read Lieutenant General Ebon’s mind and barely managed to uncover the truth. That’s why I was wary of the spreading scent of blood.
Tyr spoke to me in a nerve-wracked voice.
“…The Cat King is in a peculiar state.”
“Well, even human junkies get a bit weird.”
This was probably why Ebon had the colonel manage such important items like the mana cigar instead of doing it himself. Killing the cigar holder would trigger the Cat King into mad fits, after all… though there was a slightly different reason for that as well.
In any case, Nabi had a breakdown in reaction to the colonel’s death.
“Myagh! He died, the stupid servant’s stupid servant died meow!”
Nabi nodded to herself, her movements rigid, and her eyes unfocused.
“Mew, this is bad. Mew, mew tribute, mew happiness…”
Her tail twitched as she slowly curled her body in a bizarre manner.
“Mew, two, three, four… N-no, four, it’s no way near enough. It’ll run out by tomo-tomorrow meow…”
The way she fell apart provoked anxiety. She looked crazed. No, she really was whacked out on drugs. The Cat King used to be clever, playful, and an exceptional clean freak, yet now, she looked unnatural like a puzzle that didn’t fit.
To confront her, Ralion stepped forward with a whinny. Tyr also reacted, pulling at me upon sensing the ominous air. I didn’t resist, as even I could see that I was in the most danger.
I gave a suggestion.
“Now first, why don’t we keep eye contact with Nabi and slowly back off? Like treating a wild animal—”
“Kyahahahah!”
Nabi’s eyes gleamed, her irises turning to slits. The hair on her whole body bristled as the savagery hidden in her came pouncing for me.
“Damn it!”
I couldn’t read a beast’s thoughts, and I was up against a Beast King—an opponent I could never match with my puny strength. I could choke her with a rope, but a single shake of her head would break me as if I were put in a beating threshing machine.
As death approached, Tyr covered me and cried out.
“Ralion!”
With a fierce whinny, Ralion shielded me, stamping the ground with its massive, blood-red hooves. When those hooves came for Nabi, she leaped to evade, growling menacingly at Ralion.
“Tyr, I take back saying you became weak! You hold your own with Ralion alone!”
“Enough with the nonsense and go! Leave this place to me!”
“No, to deal with that right now…!”
Just when I looked away for a second, Nabi’s figure hazily appeared in front of me. She was so stealthy that the sanguine steed, and Tyr herself, were late in noticing. A cat’s stealth was that of a hunter, instinctively targeting the vulnerability of prey.
“Ah.”
Dammit, this is why I hate felines. It’s ridiculous that a mind reader gets taken by surprise.
Swiftly, I raised both arms in defense, though I doubted it would make a difference. Sharp claws came hurtling toward me.
But then, something with tawny fur leaped into my sight.
“Woof!”
Alright, that’s Azzy for you!
Azzy appeared with the clanking chain in tow, lunging at Nabi to bite down with her sharp fangs. It was a surprise attack on a surprise attack, but the moment she heard the chain, Nabi was already reacting. She twisted around and thrust her front paw at Azzy.
Azzy tried to counter with her right paw, but the chain clanked, and her eyes trembled; the end of the chain was connected to Callis’ neck. Instead of attacking, Azzy hastily turned and took Nabi’s attack with her back. Wham! The cat’s paw landed.
Unlike dogs, felines were more skilled in using their paws. Unable to even defend, Azzy whimpered sharply in pain as she was sent rolling across the ground. But through it all, she outstretched her arm to prevent pulling on the chain. If it ever wrapped around her body, Callis would die.
Still, she couldn’t do anything about the impact. Connected to the chain, Callis was propelled away.
“Agh…! Koff, koff!”
Callis coughed from being choked. Azzy looked down at the chain and howled urgently.
“Awoo! Awoooo!”
“Kyahah!”
Azzy growled, only to whimper again. Her handicap was worse than having one hand tied. If she swung her paw too strongly, she’d snap off a human’s head. To protect her, the Dog King had no choice but to hold back, but fighting this way would never lead to a victory against her fellow Beast King, Nabi.
She whined, struggling to block Nabi’s swipes with a single paw. Wham, wham. Azzy’s body violently shook with each ruthless blow. Her flesh tore, and she bled, her whole arm turning black and blue with bruises.
Yet, she couldn’t even fight back with her other arm, let alone use it to block. If the chain ever
caught on Nabi’s paws, that would be the moment the human would lose her head.
“Kyahahahah!”
Nabi’s paw flashed out of sight, targeting the chain on Azzy’s right arm with what seemed deliberate intent.
Azzy instinctively moved to block that attack with all she had.
“Arf…”
Slam. Her whole body shook from the impact. Azzy couldn’t endure and fell, rolling on the ground, blood spurting from her mouth.
As Nabi approached her, Tyr shouted to her familiar.
“Ralion! Aid the Dog King!”
Ralion galloped into the fray with a fierce whinny. The house-sized sanguine steed proved a threat even to Nabi. She jumped left and right to dodge the charge, and proceeded to relentlessly maul Ralion.
The odds were looking terrible, and I wasn’t the only one thinking that. Tyr’s voice contained more urgency than ever before as she cried out to me.
“Hu! Let us take this moment to leave!”
“Hold on! We need Azzy to take Nabi down! It’s that chain!”
“Stay away for now! I shall handle it!”
“It should be incredibly sturdy, can you cut it?”
This was level 4 alchemic steel we were talking about—the strongest steel that could be obtained by common means in the Military State. And I didn’t think the vampire was the type that threw hard hits.
After a fleeting moment of thought, Tyr’s eyes glowed red.
“It does not necessarily have to be the chain, does it?”
Aha, so you’ll pull out the anchor instead, as in Callis’ head? Since that would get rid of the leash? Wow, such a rational and cold suggestion… one that shouldn’t be followed!
“That’s a bit dangerous, though? Azzy does have the intelligence to infer the causation of death! She’ll be devastated if a human died because of her! That’ll make her powerless all the same!”
“Then what must be done?”
“We need to undo that chain! Could you help me get over there?”
“In the middle of that?”
Nabi was just in the middle of butchering Ralion’s whole body. The familiar desperately stood against her, even as its flesh was mangled and hooves were ripped off, but alas, even against Azzy it had been forced on the defensive. The ferocity of Nabi’s rampaging went far beyond what Azzy showed in the past, so it didn’t seem possible for Ralion to bring her to a proper stop.
Amidst the frenzy, Azzy was swaying to her feet, while Callis was suffering from the series of shocks.
“No. I cannot send you over.”
Tyr shook her head resolutely.
“I shall do it instead. I do not die. In the meanwhile, you stay safe. Please…”
“I think it’ll be hard for you to pick locks or undo knots.”
“I will manage. If I somehow control that chain through bloodcraft and open it…”
But as she was murmuring in thought, Tyr caught sight of something she shouldn’t be seeing—Nabi.
The Cat King was raising her paw aiming for me, her sharp fangs bared and slitted eyes glinting, ignoring Ralion and Azzy. She had instinctively captured a moment of weakness and turned to make yet another surprise attack.
Ugh, this is why I hate beasts.
“Hu!”
Tyr let out an urgent scream as she positioned herself to shield me. Nabi’s paw came for both of us.
On the outside, it looked like the antics of a little girl, but she was a Beast King. The tremendous power contained in her paw was enough to gouge out the earth and rip a house-sized horse to shreds.
As I sensed death upon me, Tyr reflexively raised her arms to stop the incoming attack. But her arms were thin, like candlelight before the wind.
｢I cannot stop it.｣
Tyrkanzyaka the Progenitor was an embodiment of power. She was a commander who crafted familiars of blood, infused strength into her retainers, and led an army of immortals; dark knights shimmering with Blood Aura, Ralion, the thirteen vampire elders, and the thousands under their covens.
She was the Progenitor of vampires, the Queen of Shadows capable of conjuring disasters out of nothing, the wielder of might comparable to that of a nation.
｢However, my body… is utterly feeble. Immortality is the reason I neglected this vessel of mine.｣
Her neglect didn’t matter as death couldn’t take her anyway. Even removing her heart presented no issue. Instead of breathing with her lungs, she could expel her blood to absorb air and return it to her body. In truth though, she didn’t even need to simulate life in that manner. She would be perfectly fine without the likes of oxygen. Her god-like bloodcraft had stolen the intensity of life from her.
｢Yet now, with even bloodcraft opposing my will… I am merely powerless.｣
She wouldn’t die, but the man behind her would. The result was determined whether she blocked or not.
Even so, Tyr stood before Nabi.
｢Nevertheless, I cannot let Hu die.｣
With the current state of her bloodcraft, she couldn’t even bring him back as a vampire. He was a man who was always so pleasant and enjoyable to be around. He was the one who gifted her a heart… and he was as dear to her as the very gift he gave.
She was being driven by an imperative surpassing even the yearning she had for the life she desired for 1200 years. This feeling, it was most likely…
Reliving her emotions, Tyr mustered every ounce of strength she had. She had to save him. He had to live.
｢No matter what it takes, even if I must sacrifice everything.｣
With sheer determination to protect, Tyr extended her arm to meet the Cat King’s unstoppable strike. Her arm was blown off, blood spattering in vain as Nabi’s paw liquefied her flesh.
In the face of that overwhelming force which dared no opposition, Tyr’s fragile flesh was obliterated like a rock hit by a tidal wave. And next, it was coming for me…
However, the paw never reached me. Her arm was destroyed, yet at the same time, it wasn’t.
Bloodcraft was a branch of Qi Art, and Qi Art was mainly used for self-defense. Even the regressor used bloodcraft after acquiring it to recover her blood or briefly accelerate her blood flow.
But for Tyr, the boundary between the world and herself had blurred due to her death, enabling her to apply such Qi Art on all things. She could assert dominance through the Sanguine Mark, bestow power, and even revive the dead as a homunculus.
If magic represented the inner world’s manifestation, the Progenitor’s Bloodcraft was a division of herself, sharing her pieces with the world.
It was exceedingly magical, yet different from magic.
It was the Divine.
However, now that she had regained her heart and become grounded within the mortal realm, Bloodcraft, her very powers over blood… had become concentrated inside her physical being.
Tyr grasped Nabi’s paw, and it twisted with the crack of breaking bone. Her arm had surely been blown to bits, and her ragged dress proved this; the explosion of blood, bone, and flesh had torn it apart. Yet, it had returned to its original state in the blink of an eye.
With the boundary between her world and the outside finally established, her bloodcraft didn’t permit her body to disperse. The fragments of her flesh reconstructed themselves as if nothing had occurred.
Nabi’s eyes widened as she struggled, seemingly feeling threatened, but the hard grip on her didn’t budge. With Tyr’s power of bloodcraft entirely concentrated inside her, she surprisingly proved strong enough to overpower Nabi.
“Me…ow?”
“So this is how it feels.”
It was only after using it that Tyr realized her strength.
“Never before have I partaken in such rowdy combat. However…”
This strength wasn’t emanating from her grip but her bloodcraft, which governed every drop of her life essence. She wielded her art with efficiency and full control, “moving” the blood within her body that was now distinctly connected to the world. Through this bond, she could exert immense force upon reality.
“In order to protect, I am left with no choice.”
“Me-meow?!”
Tyr’s fist struck Nabi’s chest with colossal impact.
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