Chapter 142 – The Four-Hundred-Kilogram Shadow.

Diana's patience began to be tested exactly twenty minutes after breakfast.

The Commander went up to the second-floor bathroom to wash her face and inspect the healing at her temples around the base of her obsidian horns. She shut the solid wood door, slid the iron bolt into place, and turned the tap on the stone basin.

Not even thirty seconds passed.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

The sound of thick claws rhythmic scraping against the oak paneling of the door echoed through the bathroom.

Diana paused with the damp towel in hand.

Next, the sound of a snout snuffling at the crack beneath the door puffed dust inward across the floor. A raspy, curious voice drifted through the keyhole:

“Diana? Sweet scent? Did you fall in there? Why did you lock the wood?”

Diana closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath to maintain her composure.

Before she could answer, Rhea's voice erupted in the hallway outside:

“GET AWAY FROM THAT DOOR, YOU CRAZY CAT!”

“I'm just keeping watch!” Mai's voice replied with complete nonchalance. “What if there's a monster in the drain?!”

“The drain is three centimeters wide, you striped dunce!”

Diana tossed the towel onto the sink counter, threw back the bolt with an irritated jerk, and flung the bathroom door wide open.

Mai was squatting on her haunches in the middle of the hallway, her loose gray tunic bunched at her knees, striped tail thumping against the wood floor and tiger ears perked upright.

Rhea stood a meter away with crossed arms, her night-blue coat flared, amber pupils narrowed in pure territorial hostility.

Diana stood in the doorway, sizing Mai up from head to toe:

“What did I say about personal space during the morning meeting, Mai?”

Mai blinked her amber eyes with disarming innocence, resting her elbows on her knees:

“You said not to enter your room without knocking, Commander. But this is the hallway! And the house is too big, if you vanish I can't catch your scent.”

“I have been in the bathroom for two minutes,” Diana said, her voice clinical and cold. “You don't need to stand guard in front of the keyhole.”

“My instinct tells me to stay close.” Mai stood up with feline suppleness, brushing dust from her clothes. “If I stay far away, the mana in my head starts throbbing again.”

***

The trouble was that Mai's idea of "staying close" possessed no conventional physical boundaries.

When Diana went down the stairs toward the kitchen, Mai followed glued exactly half a step behind her, treading on the very same stairs.

When Diana stopped before the stone hearth to set the water kettle over the fire, Mai stopped so close that she rested her chin on the Commander's right shoulder, watching the flames with her round ears twitching at every pop of burning wood.

If Diana took two steps to the left to reach a mug from the shelf, Mai took two steps to the left. If Diana turned her body to grab the sugar jar, the tiger girl shifted her torso on instinct without budging an inch from her shadow.

Kael was seated at the table finishing a wedge of cheese, holding back laughter behind a broad hand backed by 64 Strength.

Aurelia-Elysia leaned over the counter with her hands over her mouth, laughing so hard her cheeks flushed crimson:

“Commander... it looks like you gained an extra four-hundred-kilogram tail!”

Rhea, on the other hand, found none of it amusing. The wolf girl had sat on the bench beside the table with her plate untouched, glaring daggers at Mai for every second the tiger girl spent leaning against Diana's leather coat.

***

Diana tried changing environments to regain her focus.

She picked up the basket of reagents and headed down the stone staircase toward the basement cistern to brew a batch of mana potions.

Mai trailed behind, step for step.

In the cool laboratory, Diana laid out the ceramic vials and tempered glass crucible across the clean counter.

Mai simply hopped barefoot onto the corner of the stone table, perching like an alley cat on a ledge, craning her neck to sniff the bitter sulfur vapor drifting from the burner.

The girl's striped tail brushed two centimeters from a test tube filled with concentrated mineral acid.

Diana seized Mai's tunic collar with her gloved hand, hauling the brawler off the workbench before the glassware could shatter on the floor:

“Mai! If you brush your tail against this vial of acid, your fur will dissolve in three seconds!”

Mai sniffed near the tube, sneezed twice from the sharp sulfur stench, and retreated half a span, plopping down onto the cold floor pressed against Diana's legs.

Diana rubbed her temple near the Crown of Sovereignty with a long sigh.

Her 237 Intelligence mind analyzed the situation clearly:

Mai was not doing this out of malice or to antagonize the group.

The girl had spent three solid months trapped in the state of a feral beast, where pack instinct and reliance on the pack leader's scent were paramount for survival. Furthermore, the Level 45 brawler's frame was overflowing with pent-up physical energy that needed to be burned in battle.

Diana put the reagents away in the cabinet and extinguished the burner.

“Enough laboratory work,” Diana said, turning to the tiger girl. “You want to stick close to me? Then you're going to work in the courtyard.”

***

Diana climbed the stairs, crossed the kitchen, and led Mai out to the walled inner courtyard.

Kael was sitting on the porch with the Volcanic Shield resting on the ground, drinking a cup of cool water. Rhea and Seraphina stepped out right behind, curious about the stir.

Diana walked to the central matrix on the gravel floor and turned the stone dial with the tip of her obsidian claw:

Runic Gravity Circle adjusted to three times normal weight.

The courtyard air crackled under the sudden gravitational load.

Diana pointed with her dagger to the center of the training ring:

“Kael, grab your shield and get into the center of the matrix.”

Kael rose that very instant, cinching the straps over his thick arms backed by his 1,080 hit points and 64 Strength, stepping into the gravity field with heavy, solid strides.

Diana turned to Mai:

“You said your class is Black Fire Spiritual Brawler and that you have twelve hundred health. So stop sniffing my heels and show me the strength of your clan. Attack Kael's shield with everything you have.”

Mai's amber eyes dilated on the spot.

The girl's lazy, nonchalant demeanor vanished in half a second. Her round ears flattened into attack posture, her tail lashed against the gravel with a dry whip-crack, and both of the brawler's fists ignited in dense black flames.

“Bring it on, kitty!” Kael banged his iron gauntlet against the face of the volcanic shield, grinning broadly behind his visor. “This armor stopped the strike of a Level 40 dragon!”

Mai let loose a short, guttural roar of a wild feline and charged straight across the gravel matrix.

BOOM!

Mai's first black fire punch slammed into the steel face of Kael's Volcanic Shield with a cannon-like crack that sent dust billowing across the entire courtyard.

Kael braced his legs backed by 103 Vitality, absorbing the impact of the girl's 48 Strength without yielding an inch of ground, while the shield's reflected flames scattered red embers into the air.

Mai did not back down: she unleashed a relentless barrage of six strikes with both blazing fists, laughing with her pointed fangs bared as the red earth shook beneath triple gravity.

Diana walked to the back porch and sat on the wooden bench beside Rhea.

The Commander took a mug of mint tea Aurelia brought out from the kitchen and took a slow sip, feeling peace at last reclaim her space.

Rhea sat pressed snug against Diana's left shoulder, watching the dust fly in the courtyard with a satisfied gaze as she saw the tiger girl busy punching metal ten meters away.

The manor remained noisy, but now the energy was channeled where it belonged.

Diana watched the impact of the black fire fists crashing against Kael's iron shield with a quiet, calm smile. The Arcane Greed Faction's frontline was growing more solid by the hour.