Supreme Monarch

Chapter 208: Battle at the Riverside

•Razor Wind•

With several swings from his blade, razor-sharp winds sliced through the air rapidly at the leopardkin. The attack was vicious and made it difficult to be avoided for a normal person. However, as a predatory beastman, he was very elusive and agile. 

Able to move flawlessly from an unbalanced posture, he avoided the attack and prepared another firebolt, augmenting it with his ability. However, Jin wouldn’t let him as a barrage of arrows was launched at him at varying speed and strength, cutting off his counterattack and giving Jarret the time to recover his stance as he charged at him once more.

Raz also charged at him with his blade but he was able to swiftly avoid his attack. Forgoing his firebolt spell, he used earth wall to block Jin’s arrows for a moment after augmenting the spell.

As a Tier 4 Magic fighter, he was able to easily avoid the attacks of Jarret and Raz and was about to counter with another spell when Raz suddenly cast his sword away and activated the delayed magic he had set up a while back by snapping his fingers.

Raz was a mage and not a swordsman so his skills with the sword were average at best, but it was enough to fool his opponents as he had immediately cast the spell, Acid Arrows to blindside the elusive opponent.

Several arrows made from corrosive liquids shot at him and due to the immense pressure from Jarret, avoiding the attack completely was impossible. 

“You Bastards! Don’t you dare underestimate me!”

•Savage Dance•

Feeling frustrated with himself for being trapped by weaker opponents, his claws grew sharper and longer as he used his ability to augment their strength. With the aid of his superhuman reflexes, his aura wrap around his body as he moved with superhuman speed and was able to block the corrosive attacks without taking any damage.

The shockwave from his strikes were even powerful enough to send Jarret flying back.

Not giving them another chance to recover, he lunged at Jin who had caused him the most trouble until now as the same aura expanded from his claws.

Jarret— who managed to parry the strokes and remain standing, immediately tried to intercept but the speed of the leopardkin was far greater than his and he could not catch up to him.

Even Raz who had used another spell was unable to land a hit as the leopardkin closed in on Jin and swung both claws with all his might with an underhanded motion.

“Die! Damn pest.”

•Seismic Slash•

••••••••••

On the other side, the battle between Nadine and the Jaguarkin had intensified greatly. As they were both predatory beastmen and were at the same level. Their physical abilities were equal and canceled each other out so there was no chance of overwhelming her opponent with brute strength.

In the end, it would all boil down to their techniques and battle instincts. Nadine was a battle prodigy that got better the more she fought. She had only just attained this power so she was yet to unlock her full potential. However, she was able to keep up with the Jaguar girl’s refined techniques by her instincts alone as she had never been properly trained to use her Bo-staff.

Both parties would occasionally use skills in between their attacks but they would just cancel each other out. However, their deadlock was about to change as Nadine realized that the girl was unable to use spells like she was and that would be the deciding factor of this match.

However—

Nadine felt like this girl had something else up her sleeve which made her hesitant. Besides, there were three of these opponents and the last one was still focused on feeding their horses and hadn’t even paid attention to them. 

Although she didn’t feel like the woman was that much stronger than the one she was fighting, there was a chance she was only hiding her abilities and that would be extremely dangerous. While she may have acted recklessly at first. It was simply because she wanted to catch them by surprise and draw out all their trump cards.

That plan of attack didn’t seem to have worked though, as the strange beastkin by the river didn’t seem particularly interested in their bout. She also couldn’t sense any anxiety or malice from her. It was as though she wasn’t worried about her companions at all, even when they were being forced into an unfavorable situation. 

It didn’t feel like they were being underestimated but it was as though she didn’t expect this battle to end seriously. Being distracted by this thought that did not belong amid battle. The Jaguarkin wrapped her sword in an intense soul-binding aura that suppressed Nadine’s movements for a moment and one of her barrage of attacks finally connected, sending Nadine tumbling back.

•Astra Binding Barrage•

‘Damn it!’ 

Nadine complained internationally as she managed to remain standing after that attack. Her physical body hadn’t taken any damage but it felt like almost all her stamina had been drained. It would seem like that aura didn’t cause damage to the physical body but the soul. 

And for her to resist such an attack, most of her stamina had been consumed in the process. If she was hit by another one of those attacks, it would be her loss as she would be rendered immobile and the third attack would destroy her soul. 

However, seeing the breathing of the Jaguarkin become unstable and erratic. It was safe to assume that the skill took a lot out of her as well and she wouldn’t be able to use it again easily. 

—It was a stalemate.

Returning to a fighting stance, Nadine contemplated her next move when she suddenly felt the ground vibrate. Turning her head at the same time as the Jaguarkin, she saw the Leopard guy send an underhanded claw strikes at Jin and several large streaks of yellow aura tore a path through the ground at the defenseless Jin who attempted to cancel the attack by firing multiple enchanted arrows at it but failed miserably.

‘Damn it! Damn it, Damn it!’

It hadn’t even been up to 48 hours since the guys had died in the battle with Mammon and was revived by Lord Ty yet this had happened. To let them die again would be outrageous and an insult to her master who had gone through the trouble of reviving them. 

Not to mention how much it had hurt him to see them die. Being responsible for making her master sad was not something she was willing to be part of. She needed to find a way to save him.

The Leopardkin seems to have the ability to augment his attacks somehow and that had boosted that strike to the strength of peak Tier 4 attacks and there was no way for Jin to survive that. 

Ignoring the Jaguarkin, Nadine rushed towards Jin as she attempted to cast a spell even though she was saving her spells for her own battle. However, it was already too late as tye streaking aura crashed into Jin in a loud Boom.

Both she and Jarret who had failed to catch up to the charging Leopardkin frowned. Their expression changed along with their auras as anger rose within them.

“You should pay attention to the opponent in front of you.”

Nadine immediately turned around and raised her Bo-staff. The moment she did, her weapons absorbed a massive impact that sent her sliding back by at least 5 meters. Her arm felt numb from the force.

The Jaguarkin had kicked towards her head and she had managed to block it at the last second. While she was frustrated she hadn’t been able to protect Jin even though that was the reason Lord Ty had sent her along with them, she still couldn’t ignore the lady in front of her. 

Seeing his attack connect, the Leopardkin smirked arrogantly at the angry Jarret that had finally caught up with him and was currently bombarding him with a barrage of attacks of his own. The beast-man mage seemed to be most affected by his comrade’s death as he stood rooted in place with a look of horror plastered on his face.

“Haha… One down, this would be easier than o thought.”

Was it a flag?

Perhaps. As the atmosphere in the river bank instantly changed the moment the dust began to settle. A deathly aura loomed over the area that drove chills down their spines. All battles in this space had seized at the appearance of a single person.

A shadowy figure with glowing red eyes was now standing in front of the frightened Jin who had his eyes tightly shut from the threat of death.

“W-what the hell!”

The Leopardkin exclaimed and even Jarret was on the verge of agreeing with him as the figure exuded an aura that was like the manifestation of death itself. It was like a Grim Reaper had taken the shape of a beautiful female figure and now stood before them with cold and emotionless eyes that pierced through their souls.

The lady that had been taking care of the two horses in a river that should be frozen in winter, finally stopped at the appearance of this figure and slowly started walking towards them.

The only one who had quickly recovered from her daze was Nadine who soon recognize who that was as the shadowy aura slowly disperse from the space revealing her appearance. Naturally, Jarret and Raz would slowly recognize her as well.

She had long curly red hair, the same colored eyes, and a deathly pale skin tone with cracks of negative corruption running along her skin quite stylishly. Although she had an extremely pretty face, her cold eyes and the rest of her appearance had a wild side to it that made it seem like she was looking down on life itself.

She held a red one-handed crossbow that gave off a bone-chilling aura and was clad in a raven black rogues outfit. Pointing the tip of the weapon at the Leopardkin, she let loose a black arrow with enough force to level a mountain as it destroyed the terrain in its wake.

•Concentrated Shadow Assault•

“Crap!”

Aimed at him, the Leopardkin’s face went paled in the face of such a powerful attack as he was frozen in place. There was nothing he had in his Arsenal that could save him from this and he knew that. Even with his augmentation ability, he would die the moment this death arrow hits him.

“WRYNN YOU IDIOT, DODGE!!!”

Startled by the voice of his sister, Wrynn suddenly felt his body being yanked back as she moved in front of him. She had moved the moment the attack began. She swung her rapier forcefully in a slash attack that contained the remnants of her almost exhausted energy.

•Tri-Rainbow Incision•

Three rainbow flashes of light shot out of her rapier to meet the dark arrows in a wave that could almost match the attack. However, her attack was blown away by the continuous assault of the dark energy and the arrow maintained its trajectory.

“You kids these days are so energetic. I’m quite envious.”

The one who spoke was the only beastman with a dragon-like tail that hadn’t participated in this battle yet. She appeared in front of the Jaguarkin and at her last word, a large bow manifested in the air from emotional energy and she fired.

The arrows impacted with each other with perfectly equal strength and the opposing forces collars in a gust of wind that cleared the cloudy sky.

“I hope we’re all now aquatinted with each other. There’s no need for any more fighting so let’s all calmly talk about this okay.”

Seeing the dragonkin smile at them, Jarret couldn’t help but sigh in relief as her strength was no joke and they were bound to lose even with the aid of Kali.

The lady then turned to the pair of predatory beastmen on the ground and spoke with a serious expression.

“I understand you wanting to protect me and we’re currently in a precarious position but attacking others who have nothing to do with our enemies is not what I expect from you. Especially you Yeva, I can understand Wrynn but I expected more from you.”

The pair looked at her in confusion as they stared at the others who hadn’t taken the chance to attack and finally understood what she meant. They hadn’t sensed any strong killing intent from the beginning and should’ve known they were not related to the ones that were after them.

“It seems you both finally got it so you should apologize— *cough *cough *cough…”

In the midst of her scolding, she had broken into a fit of cough as she collapsed on the ground while breathing heavily. It seems she had overexerted herself with that last attack.