Chapter 364 - 326: That Leopard Has a Death Wish

Chapter 364: Chapter 326: That Leopard Has a Death Wish

"Philinos!"

Gu Ning’s hoarse cry was swallowed by the endless darkness.

Philinos was gone.

Without any warning or notice, he had silently vanished. Or rather, he had left.

At first, Gu Ning thought he had just stepped away for a moment. Given their dangerous situation, she didn’t dare call out to him again and settled down to wait.

She waited for a long time, but Philinos did not return.

The large black Leopard beneath her showed no intention of stopping to wait for him, either.

’Why did Philinos leave so suddenly? What did he go to do? Will he catch up?’

Gu Ning’s mind raced, trying to guess the reason for his abrupt departure. He had never said anything about leaving halfway or having something else to do. From the very beginning, he had acted as if he would stay with her.

Gu Ning didn’t believe he would abandon her. Knowing his aloof and solitary nature, he must have made some plan in secret.

A heavy sense of unease spread through Gu Ning’s heart.

"Stop! COUGH, COUGH, COUGH—" Gu Ning had a gut feeling Philinos was off to do something dangerous. She bent low over the black Leopard, tugging hard at his fur. "Stop, Wanai!"

Wanai ignored her, continuing to sprint forward with all his might. He was moving so fast that Gu Ning gave up any thought of getting off his back.

The cold wind of the wilderness swept over Gu Ning, and her heart grew half as cold as her body.

She buried her face in the large black Leopard’s back, burrowing her frozen hands into his fur.

A Leopard’s fur wasn’t as thick as a wolf’s, but his body heat radiated more easily. After just a few moments of lying on his back, Gu Ning felt much warmer.

Right now, the only thing she could do was try to make herself more comfortable.

In the darkness, Wanai glanced back at her.

"Where are you taking me?" Gu Ning murmured softly. Her breathing was heavy, and a dull ache throbbed in her chest and head.

Before long, her consciousness began to drift.

The sound of train tracks came from the distance. Gu Ning roused herself slightly, turning her head to stare blankly at a train passing in front of her to the right, gradually disappearing behind her...

No, that wasn’t right. The train hadn’t disappeared behind her.

Wanai had caught up to the train and left it far behind.

"You’re so fast," Gu Ning mumbled against the Leopard’s back. "Even faster than Alex. No wonder you vanished without a trace that night. They couldn’t catch you."

Her vision and consciousness began to blur, and she mumbled in a mix of her mother tongue and the common Beastman language. Wanai only understood "you’re so fast" and "Alex."

’Is she comparing me to that Black Wolf?’

Wanai bared his teeth. ’When it comes to speed,’ he thought, ’not a single Beastman in their convoy can match me.’

"You’re a good Leopard, right?" Gu Ning’s voice grew fainter, and her hand, which had been clutching Wanai’s fur, slowly loosened. "Can I trust you...?"

Wanai felt the female on his back go limp. His emerald-green, slitted pupils contracted, and he accelerated again, running faster than ever before.

Up ahead, the lights of a transit station grew closer and closer.

At the same time, the number of figures pursuing them from behind was growing.

"Faster!" Barto stared at the figures pulling further and further away, so consumed with impatience that he slammed a fist on the alpha wolf beneath him, wishing he could shift into his beast form to give chase himself.

After being tied up for half the day by the group sent from the Third Military District, his patience had worn thin.

But he couldn’t change into his beast form—only back into a throwback fox.

Anger mixed with powerlessness filled his chest, and his agitation caused his pupils to flicker between round and slitted.

"Whoa, that guy’s fast," Leighton, riding a giant lion beside him, said with narrowed eyes. "He’s dead set on taking the little rabbit. The nerve on him."

He patted the lion beneath him. "Pick up the pace, little lion. We’re about to fall to the back of the pack."

Mingxi immediately sped up, nearly overtaking Alex.

But no matter how fast they ran, they couldn’t catch the Leopard up ahead. ’Is he insane, running this fast?’ they all thought.

Even for a Leopard, a natural sprinter, his speed was astonishing.

It seemed that in his desperation to take Gu Ning, the Leopard had a death wish.

He feared neither the laws of the Beast Alliance nor whether his own body could withstand the limits of such a frantic sprint.

「Meanwhile, several kilometers away in the opposite direction, a silver blade flew from behind and pierced Philinos’s wing, pinning him to an abandoned clock tower.」

In the blink of an eye, several dark figures surrounded him in mid-air.

Philinos pressed his lips into a thin line and brutally ripped his wing free from the silver blade.

Once free, he tossed aside the wooden decoy—roughly half his height and wrapped in old clothes carrying Gu Ning’s scent. He brandished his blue blade and charged the Heavenly Beast Clan Beastmen before him.

In an instant, Philinos broke through their encirclement, flashing through a blur of blue light to appear before the dark figure at the very center.

With a sharp ring of colliding blades, the one-armed figure parried his attack.

In a mere moment, the silver and blue blades clashed for several rounds. The injured Philinos and the one-armed Black-winged Beastman were almost evenly matched.

The Black-winged Beastman, however, had no patience for a prolonged fight. Their objective was to find the female.

Two more Heavenly Beast Clan members joined the fray, striking Philinos and knocking him out of the sky.

A silver blade followed close behind, slashing down at him through the darkness.

Philinos scrambled to his feet and raised his knife to block—

A sharp sound, like shattering glass, echoed in his ears. In that same instant, dozens of tiny blue lights flashed before his eyes.

His long knife, forged from a special Crystal Stone, had shattered. Shards of all sizes fell before him like a meteor shower.

After the blue light faded, a cold silver blade was pressed against his neck.

"Where is she?" the Black-winged Beastman asked, his face devoid of expression.

Philinos looked down at his Crystal Stone Knife, of which only a third, including the hilt, remained. An image of Gu Ning washing herself by the fire flashed through his mind.

She was bathed in the firelight, looking toward him like an indescribable, beautiful dream.

Philinos slowly closed his eyes, savoring the peaceful bliss Gu Ning brought him in this final moment.

Dark figures landed one by one around Philinos, the exposed Silver Armor on their bodies glinting coldly.

The Black-winged Beastman saw that Philinos had no intention of answering and raised his hand—

CLANG!

A bullet flying from the distance knocked the silver blade from the Black-winged Beastman’s hand, sending sparks flying.

Philinos whipped his head toward the direction the bullet had come from.

More bullets flew in, the dense fire forcing back all the Heavenly Beast Clan members around him.

The Heavenly Beast Clan members, all clad in Silver Armor, prepared to fight back. But their leader, the Black-winged Beastman, saw who had arrived and turned, disappearing cleanly into the darkness.

The other Heavenly Beast Clan Beastmen followed without a moment’s hesitation.

The squad of Bird Clan soldiers that had launched the attack immediately gave chase.

CHIRP!

Ah Mo landed beside Philinos with a few other birdmen. They formed a circle around the two, facing outward on guard.

"You fool, are you alright?!" he chirped.

Philinos wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand and looked at Ah Mo. "How did you get here?"

After speaking, he glanced at the soldiers standing guard around them. Seeing the style of their combat uniforms and their insignia, he frowned. "The Fifth Military District... You revealed..."