The wolf-beastman’s fist stopped a few centimeters away from Mordred’s face. Unfortunately, the force behind the attack was so strong that the air was galvanized, thus automatically creating a projectile of invisible fist force. The fist force was extremely weak, if compared to rank 1 attacks. In the first place, the wolf-beastman did not intend to generate fist force.
However, it was powerful enough to knock Mordred out cold.
“I assumed that if I didn’t stop, you would kill Yūji?” The wolf-beastman glanced at Yūji, whose head is slowly being caressed by a muscular man who quietly arrived with a movement-type martial art.
The muscular man, Kenji, tapped Yūji’s head a few times. The teen suffered from dizziness since Kenji’s ‘gentle’ tap is strong enough to crush rocks. “No. If you were to kill him, Katyusha would’ve refined your corpse into an icy golem after I’m done with you.” He muttered coldly, “And my captain would murder 3 generations of your clan even if it took her a lifetime. I guarantee it.”
“Oh my, I’m shaking in my boots.” The wolf-beastman’s legs trembled, but even Kenji in his non-combat state could tell it was fake. “Leave him alone.” The wolf-beastman’s threat contained a hint of killing intent.
In response, Kenji opened up his left fist upwards, his palm producing black liquid. “Yuuna, have you ever heard [Castigation Fire]?” The black liquid slowly coagulates into a ball, floating on top of his palm.
Ookami Yuuna, the wolf-beastman with black fur, frowned the moment she saw the black ball. “Your captain has imparted that to you?” she questioned, disapproving if he were to claim that the black ball was [Castigation Fire]. Yuuna might be unhinged, but messing around with the captain of Twin Helix directly is a line she wouldn’t dare to cross. At most, she would skirt around the edges of her boundaries, but outright challenging the captain was out of the question.
“Of course not.” Kenji denied with a smile. “No matter how much I begged, she wouldn’t give me her prized trump card. What I got instead is its derivation product, [Tertiary Nanoswarm Heart]...”
With her doubts confirmed that it truly wasn’t [Castigation Fire], Ookami Yuuna’s fighting spirit suddenly became ignited, and her radiation, martial aura, began to slowly emanate from her body. It looked as if her entire being was being engulfed by a transparent flame. Unlike mages who have permanent defensive force fields, rank 1 martial artists like Yuuna lacked such static protection. However, in exchange, they possessed a dynamic martial aura that can be more flexible and versatile for both offense and defense.
Kenji pat Yūji once more with his right hand, “Let’s be civil and put Satoru down. If you want to fight, I’ll be happy to oblige. Let the apprentice solve their own problems, don’t use them as proxies to beat around the bushes just because my captain is unavailable and Katyusha is occupied”, he assured. As he spoke, the ball floating on top of his left arm returned to his grasp, and he channeled more nanoms into it.
The ball slowly gained mass, transforming into a stick at first, but soon taking the shape of a sledgehammer.
Yuuna was no stranger to Kenji’s fighting style, which had evolved and been refined multiple times throughout his career as an official Hunter. However, one thing remained constant: heavy weapons were his specialty. “I see you’ve taken out your heavy nanom weaponry… Very well,” she acknowledged. Setting ‘Satoru’ down gently, she quickly vanished from sight, utilizing movement martial arts.
With a stern look at the onlookers, including the kobolds mutants and other official Hunters in the crowed, Kenji shouted, “The fuck are you looking at? Scram!” When he saw Sakuya arrive at the scene with an expression of worry, he left to chase Yuuna.
…
“What happened…” Mordred groaned as he regained consciousness, his head throbbing from the aftermath. The leftover damage caused by a strength-path martial artist does not inflict a secondary elemental wound, but that doesn’t make it less powerful.
The one who nursed Mordred back to health was Seraphina the petite elf medic of Twin Helix. She patted him reassuringly and addressed Sakuya, “There shouldn’t be any leftover damage. He should be fine,” before leaving the tent.
The warmage wore an expression as if she had chewed shit. “You can never tell what’s on that crazy bitch’s mind…” she sighed, “Never mind that. I saw what you did to Yūji. Well done!”
“There was nobody stopping him from doing what he pleases. Were the kobolds blind?” Mordred complained.
“It’s not that simple.” Sakuya sighed once more, expressing her helplessness in this matter. “If Sumire mobilizes his kobolds for something like that, Ookami Yuuna, the captain of team Savage Moon, will escalate. She’ll mobilize her own beast slaves, werewolves, to suppress Sumire’s Kobolds. As far as everyone is concerned, she is on the same level as Sumire, the leader of our 4-team group. You’ve seen her yourself, she isn’t physically weak like our Sumire, she is a strength-path and enslavement-path body cultivator, excelling both in strategic and direct battle! And so, most of the time, she acts as she pleases.”
Just as Sakuya said her piece, there were distant rumbles in the distance. It was so loud and the shockwave was so powerful that the vibration of the battle could be felt from the tent.
“Are we under attack?” Mordred quickly stood up, a reflex response that ‘Satoru’ had developed.
“Calm down.” Sakuya led Mordred by the hand, “It’s those two, they were having a go.”
Exiting the tent, the first thing that greeted Mordred is the freshwater lake, its wave crashing upon the shore incessantly. The source of the thunderous shockwaves was a large formation of Hydrium Hardwater Crystal, jutting out from the water’s surface not too far away. While it appeared like an island, it was, in reality, an immense underwater deposit with a portion protruding above the waterline. Upon this unique crystal construct, two black figures engaged in a fierce battle. One was a black-furred werewolf with a height of 2.1 meter tall, and the other an enigmatic figure clad in dark armor, wielding a powerful warhammer.
With each resounding strike of the warhammer, the bluish Hydrium Hardwater Crystal trembled as if enduring an onslaught of artillery bombardment. Yet, it was the black werewolf who bore the brunt of the attack, seemingly undeterred by the damage. Despite suffering skull-shattering blows, the werewolf showed an uncanny resilience, quickly recovering from her wounds. The crystal island was stained with an obscene amount of blood, presumably that of the werewolf’s.
Still, it’s not like the black armored figure is perfectly capable of defending against the werewolf’s counterattack. Unlike the typical werewolf that uses claws or their fangs, this werewolf is a fervent user of martial arts, specifically, strength-path martial arts that uses heavy force to bypass armored defenses.
Sometimes, the werewolf struck the armored figure with palm strikes so powerful that silvery blood leaked through the gaps in the armor, despite the armor having no openings at all.
“That’s Kenji and Yuuna, they’ve been going at it for the last ten minutes.” Sakuya sighed. “Even though he has been accumulating nanoms… to exhaust them wastefully like this before our most dangerous battle is not wise.” the red-haired warmage began massaging her temples.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Accumulating nanoms?” Mordred asked, puzzled.
“Yeah.” Sakuya glanced around her to ensure nobody snooped around. Still feeling insecure, she established a telepathic link to Mordred. < Kenji possessed a second heart, an implanted magic machinery artifact known as [Tertiary Nanoswarm Heart]. It is a nanom fabricator that would passively refine all sorts of nanom strains as long as the nutrient allows it. His original body type is slender, but his current body is swole because all the ironhide-strain nanoms being stored within him. >
< Depending on their strains, most nanoms are not as durable as Kenji’s cells, so they would break down into silver dust. That’s why he has been accumulating them for our next battle. He should be fully aware about this… >
Just as he received the telepathic message, Mordred witnessed Kenji merging back his nanom warhammer back into his hand, forming it into a gauntlet that covered his right hand. With a swift motion of twisting his waist, he punched Yuuna with a force that was too quick for the werewolf to react. The gauntlet was changing form, undulating like a canon, as it went for the werewolf’s stomach.
BOOM! The sound of directional force explosion resounded as the werewolf threw back hard, embedding herself into the hydrium crystal wall. Cracks were spreading amongst the superheavy crystal, the very same crystal that could endure all of their brutal strength all this time.
Kenji observed the motionless werewolf and decided it was safe to disengage. He relaxed his stance, allowing the nanom gauntlet and armor to seamlessly dissolve into his body. As they reabsorbed, a mesmerizing cascade of silvery dust gracefully emanated from his person, swirling and dispersing into the air. He then left the wounded werewolf, going back to Katyusha’s side not too far from that small island.
< Everytime he fought, some nanoms would be exhausted for various reasons, but they were mostly unable to endure the burden of his strength-path martial arts. The captain has been looking for nanom-recycling artifacts that could be implanted into his body, but she hasn't found them yet. This is why Kenji can’t fight with 100% of his combat power all the time. >
Mordred nodded. “I see, it makes sense.” He then glanced at Sakuya, “Now that we’ve rendezvous with another group, are we departing soon?”
“Tomorrow, yes.” Sakuya led him back to the tent, “There’s something that I need to tell you about tomorrow’s operation, it’s very important.”
“What is it?” Mordred inquired as both reached the tent.
“Beasts are differentiated not only by their ranks but also size. You remember the crocodile beasts that we’ve fought during our first battle with greenskins?”
Morded nodded. “The ones that are 2-3 meters tall and 5-8 meters long?”
“That’s right, they are merely categorized as medium-class beasts.” Sakuya elaborated with a serious expression. “Just as we, intellectual races, can accumulate body runes, artifacts, bloodline abilities and magic spells to boost our combat prowess, beasts evolved to increase their strength. One of the easiest ways to gauge a beast’s strength is by their body size, since more volume equals more muscle mass.
The murlocs you’ve been hunting all this time? They are tiny-class lifeforms, and humans are but merely small-class. We are currently on Hartina Kingdom’s soil, medium-class lifeforms are relatively a rare sight thanks to the Hunter Association dispatching Hunters left and right to hunt them. However, outside the borders of our kingdom, well, outside any civilized regions, really, they are the most commonly found lifeforms.”
She added, “With that said, the reason why we haven’t been struggling is because the enemy we fought are medium-class beasts at best, but things would be different from here on out. Reports indicate that our route has been blocked by a rank 2 large-class beast. We have no time to take an alternate route because the Shinkansen is scheduled to arrive at the rendezvous point soon and concealing ourselves is not possible with the amount of people we have. Therefore, we have to break through the blockade with brute force!”
After some pondering, Morded asked, “How powerful would this rank 2 large-class beast be?”
Sakuya touched her chin for a brief moment, “Well, let’s see… A rank 1 hunter team like Radiant Desolation is designed to handle a group of medium-class beasts at or a single large-class beast of the same rank at once. As for Twin Helix, we’re a bit different since we can handle multiple rank 1 large-class beasts at once. But to take on a single rank 2 large-class beast, it would require a veteran team consisting of at least ten rank 2 Lords.”
Mordred seemingly wanted to ask more questions, but she cut him off. “I know, the comparison is not linear because as beasts evolve, they become exponentially more dangerous than cultivators, especially since high-rank beasts usually lead their own packs.”
His eyebrow raised in concern. “So, we can assume the rank 2 large-class beast is surrounded by dozens of rank 1 medium-class beasts and countless rank 0 small-class beasts?
Sakuya nodded gravely. “Exactly. Sumire has provided combat experience to the apprentices of Mira village to ensure that apprentices like you can fend for yourself, but it’s still very dangerous. If you were to get too close to rank 2 beast, their mere radiation could kill you, so I want you to prioritize protecting yourself over others since I can’t keep an eye on you at all times.”
“I understand.” Mordred can only heed her request. “But, if this rank 2 beast is as strong as you said, I don’t see a way for us to get through.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Despite the absence of Twin Helix’s captain, we have our trump card against rank 2 beast: Katyusha. She would be able to occupy the beast long enough that we could pass through its territory. I need to emphasize that she is not trying to kill it, but rather occupy its attention until we pass through its territory.”
Seeing the doubtful look that Mordred had, Sakuya elaborated further. “It’s a dark-path insect beast specialized in stealth and enslavement, Darkshroud Formic Lord. The insect beast has a relatively weak upper limit of destructive power, but in exchange, its military might is off the charts. As long as Official Hunters are not swarmed by the formic lord’s soldier ants, then that person should last for quite some time.”
“I see.” Mordred nodded in understanding.
Unlike most beasts, enslavement-path beasts are relatively weaker compared to their counterparts, but it does not invalidate their strength. A rank 2 beast is still a rank 2 beast, their mere radiation is extremely harmful to rank 1 cultivators, and lethal to rank 0 apprentices. Nevertheless, Mordred’s early estimates indicate that the winter woman, Katyusha, should be powerful enough to at least occupy a rank 2 beast, considering the secrets that she harbored.
“There’s no need for you to worry about the Darkshroud Formic Lord since Katyusha will handle it, what you need to take notice of are its soldier ants. Since this is an enslavement-path beast we’re talking about, don’t think that you can defeat all the soldier ants that you encounter. One of the Formic Lord’s bloodline abilities is to produce offspring, the energy reserve of a rank 2 large-class beast is so vast that an infinite amount of rank 0 apprentices can never hope to compete. Instead, I want you to prioritize yourself over others and don’t engage in unnecessary battles. Conserve all the resources that you can because even if I gave you a dimensional storage that you can use at this very instance, it wouldn’t matter much in the overall situation.”
Mordred suppresses a chuckle, considering that he is the bane of all enslavement-path cultivators. “I understand.”
Sakuya pat Satoru's reddening hair. “Good boy.” She took out two boxes from her dimensional storage. “Now let’s talk about arming you with new bullets.” She opened both of the boxes, one containing the regular bullets that he has been using, while the other is a new variant color coded with darker red hue. “You can take all the regular ones that you can, but let’s focus on the new ones.”
Sakuya tinkered around with the magic machinery gauntlet on her hands, shifting its mechanical parts to the side which revealed a small compartment that held five of the darker color-coded rounds. “These [Fireball] spell rounds have small blast radius, high directional explosive force, linear vector, low velocity, but high penetrative power. Although you already have the ability to generate blastscales, at your current level, it can only serve as concussion grenades, useless to insects who can’t feel motion sickness. These new rounds, however, can be considered as armor-piercing. The firepower generated by these spell rounds is lower than my average rank 0 [Fireball] spells, but it is definitely higher than what you can do with those regular anti-humanoid bullets.”
She tapped her combat gauntlet, its parts shifted once more to hide the vulnerable components. “However, you need to take note of the backlash. The recoil of these armor-piercing rounds are so strong that it could dislocate mortal’s arms. I know you can take Wyverian form to mitigate the recoil, but considering the amount of soldier ants that we’re about to face, I don’t think any amount of recoil mitigation can help you-” Her voice trailed off as she suddenly stopped in her tracks, her attention drawn elsewhere.
Mordred could sense the change in her demeanor, as if she’s receiving a telepathic message or sensing something of great significance. He looked around the tent, puzzled. “Um, Miss Sakuya, what happened?”
“Sorry…” Sakuya replied, pulling her focus back to Mordred. “The captain of Twin Helix had just returned to this material world…” She paused, a hint of excitement and anticipation dancing in her eyes.