Chapter 59: The Bloodshadow Cult

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: The Bloodshadow Cult

Steel Hyenas were infamous for their physical defenses. Their bodies were incredibly dense, almost as though they had been forged from iron, and an ordinary Foundation Establishment martial artist could struggle to inflict meaningful damage on one.

A single Steel Hyena was not necessarily terrifying, since a sixth star Foundation Establishment martial artist or stronger could fight one head on, and even if they could not kill it, escaping was not particularly difficult.

The real problem was that Steel Hyenas never hunted alone. They traveled in packs, and their speed and stamina were also exceptional, meaning running away from them would be extremely difficult.

The creature leading this pack was even more dangerous.

The Steel Hyenas stood roughly two meters tall, while the Hyena Queen was over two and a half meters.

Among all the peak second tier beasts Grant had encountered inside the secret realm, the Hyena Queen ranked among the most troublesome.

Still, Grant remained composed. There were only fourteen or fifteen beasts, and with the four of them working together, they could handle it.

"Timothy, stay with Evelyn," Grant ordered. "I’ll cover Mira. Whatever happens, don’t let the pack separate us."

"Understood, Captain," Timothy said, nodding. But beneath his calm expression, there was an unmistakable flicker of excitement.

The pack was almost upon them.

"Kill!" Grant roared.

He gripped his sword with both hands and shot forward.

His blade slammed into the head of the leading Steel Hyena with a sound like metal striking metal, yet despite the tremendous force behind the attack, the blade only managed to carve a shallow wound into the beast’s hide.

It was not even two centimeters deep.

Grant’s eyes narrowed. The reputation of the Steel Hyena was certainly deserved. Still, he did not retreat.

He immediately followed with another series of attacks, his sword becoming a blur as countless streaks of blade light tore through the air.

Blood sprayed from the Steel Hyena’s body as Grant relentlessly battered it.

He could not kill the beast instantly, but every strike from a peak Foundation Establishment martial artist carried enough force to injure it, and for the moment none of the other hyenas could get close to him.

Mira naturally was not going to stand by and watch. She tightened her grip around her longsword and entered the battlefield.

Her swordsmanship was fierce and precise, and although she could not match Grant’s overwhelming strength, the Frost Phoenix bloodline gave every attack an additional layer of chilling energy.

Frost spread wherever her sword passed, and the surrounding Steel Hyenas slowed noticeably whenever they approached her.

Mira deliberately held back her strongest technique.

That ability consumed far too much physical energy to use recklessly, and more importantly, these beasts possessed extraordinarily powerful defenses, and there were simply too many of them.

She was not confident that unleashing her trump card would be enough to turn the entire battle around.

Behind them, Evelyn continuously fired arrows from her crossbow.

Unfortunately, ordinary attacks could not penetrate the Steel Hyenas’ defenses. She tried repeatedly to target their eyes, but the creatures were extremely agile and seemed to sense danger before the arrows even reached them.

The battle gradually settled into a stalemate.

Under normal circumstances, Grant’s original plan should have allowed them to gain the advantage fairly quickly, since he had already fought Steel Hyenas several days ago with his teammates and understood their habits and weaknesses.

The Hyena Queen was also strangely standing behind the pack, watching without participating. Everything should have been under control.

But something was wrong. Grant’s eyes swept across the battlefield, and then he suddenly realized what it was. His gaze snapped toward Timothy.

"Timothy!" he shouted, his voice sharp. "What the hell are you doing?"

The moment the words left his mouth, a cold flash suddenly shot toward him.

Grant’s pupils contracted, and he barely managed to raise his sword in time. A dagger collided with his blade with a sharp clang, and the attacker immediately pulled back.

Grant stared at the man in disbelief. The person who had just tried to kill him was not an enemy who had infiltrated their group. It was Timothy. His trusted teammate.

Timothy retreated several steps, and with every step his appearance changed.

His tall frame rapidly shrank, his facial structure twisted, and his body became thinner and thinner until the man standing before Grant was no longer the burly warrior he knew.

Instead, he had transformed into a short, gaunt man barely one and a half meters tall.

The stranger flexed his shoulders and glanced down at his transformed body with annoyance.

"This disguise is such a nuisance," he said, rolling his neck. "My movements are much smoother in my real body."

Then he raised his head and gave Grant a sinister grin.

"Heh. Captain Grant," he rasped, his voice hoarse and completely unfamiliar. "Surely you haven’t forgotten me?"

Grant’s expression changed dramatically, his grip tightening around his sword.

"You..." he breathed, recognition finally flashing across his eyes. "Shadow! You’re one of the Bloodshadow cult assassins!"

The Bloodshadow cult was infamous throughout the eastern coastal cities. It was a criminal organization built around assassination and robbery, and its members were responsible for countless murders.

Their leader had been placed on the state’s A-level wanted list several years ago, yet despite the enormous reward offered for his capture, he remained at large.

He was simply too skilled at changing his identity and never stayed in one place long enough for the authorities to catch him.

And Shadow was one of the Bloodshadow cult silver ranked assassins. Grant knew exactly who he was.

Last year, during a mission, one of Grant’s teammates had been murdered by Shadow. The method had been almost identical.

Shadow had hidden himself among the group, waiting patiently for the perfect opening, and the instant his target let down their guard, he struck.

If the first attack failed, he immediately retreated without hesitation. His teammate had not even realized what was happening before Shadow’s dagger pierced his heart.

Grant never expected that, after all this time, he would encounter the assassin again. But there was one question that immediately surfaced in his mind.

Who was Shadow here to kill?

A deep sense of danger suddenly settled over Grant’s heart.

Shadow was one of the Bloodshadow Cult’s most notorious assassins. No one knew his birth name.

In fact, Shadow himself had long since forgotten it. He had been abandoned as a child and taken in by the Bloodshadow Cult, where he was trained from an early age to become a weapon that existed only to kill.

The strange phenomenon that had appeared over Valemont when Mira awakened her frost phoenix bloodline had immediately caught the attention of countless powerful factions.

The Bloodshadow Cult was no exception.

Their leader had given Shadow a simple order: find the person responsible for the phenomenon and bring her back, dead or alive.

Shadow began gathering information almost immediately, and it did not take long for him to discover Mira’s identity through the black market.

Unfortunately, she spent most of her time inside Arcadia Academy, which made assassination nearly impossible. So Shadow waited.

Two days ago, however, an informant brought him the news he had been waiting for.

Mira would soon enter the Hunting Ground Secret Realm under Grant’s protection. That was the opening he needed.

Shadow secretly tracked down Grant’s former teammate, Timothy. Then he killed him.

Afterward, he used his exceptional disguise abilities to take Timothy’s appearance and infiltrate Grant’s team.

If Grant had been paying closer attention, he might have noticed something strange.

Since entering the secret realm, the man he believed to be Timothy had barely participated in any of the battles.

But Grant had been focused on protecting Mira and Evelyn, so he had not given the matter much thought.

Now the disguise had served its purpose. The moment Shadow decided to strike, there was no longer any reason to maintain it.

In truth, he had almost exposed himself several hours earlier.

When the giant lion appeared, Shadow had considered attacking. The chaos created by such a powerful beast would have been the perfect cover.

Unfortunately, after calculating the situation, he realized that killing Mira, Evelyn, and Grant while ensuring his own escape would still be extremely difficult.

Then the mysterious alchemist appeared. His sudden arrival completely ruined Shadow’s calculations.

Not only was that man’s strength frightening, but it was obvious that he had some kind of connection with Mira and Evelyn.

Shadow immediately abandoned the idea of attacking and returned to his disguise.

But things had changed again. After Mira obtained the demon core, her cultivation had jumped dramatically.

She had gone from a 6th-star Foundation Establishment martial artist to a 7th-star in almost no time.

That growth was far too abnormal. If he continued waiting, Shadow was not confident that he would still be able to kill her.

He had to act. Fortunately, the Steel Hyena pack had arrived at exactly the right moment. The battlefield had instantly descended into chaos. Shadow knew this opportunity might never come again.

So he attacked.