Chapter 153: Cat and Mouse Game — Genius? Monster?

Chapter 153: Chapter 153: Cat and Mouse Game — Genius? Monster?

"Wait a minute..." One of the group members abruptly stopped walking.

The other two looked confused.

"What’s wrong?"

"Is something the matter?"

Cat No. 2 swept his gaze around: "Don’t you smell an Order Mouse nearby?"

Hearing this, his companions took a light sniff: "...Seems like there really is."

While the other two were still confirming, the cat who first noticed the anomaly had already advanced toward the pile of rubble in the front corner.

Mouse No. 16, hiding in the shadows, slightly narrowed her eyes. The Nocturne Bow in her hand was already drawn, just waiting to be released.

Jeremy reached out and pressed her wrist down, shaking his head to signal her not to act rashly. The opponents had three people, an overwhelming numbers advantage. The best approach right now was to evade.

Mouse No. 16 shrugged and said nothing, but she still complied, lowering her bow.

Jeremy picked up a few stones and, borrowing the propulsive force of his magic power, threw them through a gap on the opposite side. Exiting this area, they smashed hard against a wall in a different direction.

That sound instantly drew the complete attention of the three. The advancing cat halted and turned to look back.

"Let’s go," Jeremy notified her in a hushed voice.

Mouse No. 16 didn’t really want to hide. But after weighing her options for a few seconds, she cooperated anyway.

The two’s movements were as light as possible. Yet the three Chaos Cats still discovered them.

Realizing he had just been tricked by that superficial diversionary tactic, the leading cat’s expression twisted completely.

"It really is a mouse. Chase them!" He didn’t waste half a word of nonsense, immediately lunging forward in pursuit.

"Huh? Oh, right."

The remaining two blanked for a beat before hastily following behind.

Cats received a strength buff, while Mice received a speed buff. Thanks to that disparity, Jeremy and Mouse No. 16 managed to maintain a safe distance.

But the opponents acted as if they had attached tracking devices to the two of them. No matter how they twisted and turned, their exact location was always pinpointed.

The reason lay in the scent that one of those three had just mentioned. The scents of Cats and Mice were different, allowing them to differentiate.

And currently, neither Jeremy nor Mouse No. 16 had managed to exchange for a scent-concealing skill, making it hard to avoid falling into a passive position.

"Should we just fight?" Being chased continuously, Mouse No. 16 was also starting to lose her patience.

"Are you sure we can win?" Jeremy cut straight to the core issue.

"How would we know without trying?" Her voice was lazy.

Jeremy saw through that determination. He pondered for a moment, then flew toward the abandoned central area ahead: "If you want to try, then let’s try."

In this game, Cats held the absolute advantage — Mice could not eliminate Cats; they could only defeat them.

Cats, on the other hand, could eliminate Mice. They just needed to crush the numbered badge on the opponent’s chest and it was done. Only the Star-Reverser, situated in the middle, had the qualification to eliminate both factions.

Mouse No. 16 had already prepared herself mentally to be rejected. She didn’t expect Jeremy to nod so decisively. In her heart, she became even more satisfied with her decision to form a team.

Saying no more, she spun around and drew her bow.

The ink-wash patterns on the Nocturne Bow were harmoniously shaded. When the arrows left the string, they tore through the fog, like wild geese skimming the water’s surface, so fast they were reduced to blurs.

Three arrows were fired simultaneously.

Seeing her make a move, Jeremy also chose to coordinate.

The white ribbon on his wrist vibrated. The Lumina Ribbon tore through the wind, resembling a goose’s shadow gliding under the moonlight. It looked soft and gentle, but the moment magic power was pumped into it, the ribbon transformed into a razor-sharp blade, hiding a fatal killing intent within.

The three individuals bearing the Chaos Cat roles never expected these two mice to dare stop in their tracks. While still astonished, they hastily summoned their weapons to engage in battle.

But the very next second, they saw the Lumina Ribbon flying in mid-air get struck precisely by that ink-colored arrow.

Of the three arrows, one missed, while the other two collided straight into the ribbon. Before the two streams of attacks could even reach the cats, they neutralized each other.

The leading cat froze, almost failing to react in time.

If the rules this time hadn’t clearly stated there were no moles other than the Star-Reversers, he would have suspected a cat had infiltrated the two opponents.

Never mind them. Even Jeremy was stunned. The rebounding shockwave left his entire arm numb.

"?"

Jeremy turned his head to look at Mouse No. 16, questioning her in silence.

Catching that gaze, Mouse No. 16 raised a hand to cover her face. For the first time since the day of enrollment, she felt embarrassed: "...Sorry. Forgot to wear my glasses, I can’t see clearly from a distance."

Earlier, she could fight the griffin flock because the opponents’ sizes were so massive that she could still see their blurry outlines. But now, with the far distance coupled with a human’s inherently small build, all she had in front of her was a blurred smudge.

Even though she could rely on auras for rough positioning, doing so required focusing her entire mind to the point where everything else was ignored.

"..."

Jeremy fell silent.

No wonder she kept narrowing her eyes constantly throughout the journey and never agreed to stand at the frontline.

He had assumed it was the habit of someone who didn’t want to expose their back to others. It turned out she was simply severely nearsighted.

Seeing the three cats closing in, Jeremy had no choice but to say: "Give me the bow. You start setting up a wide-range target-locking spell."

Mouse No. 16, who was preparing to plunge into close combat, didn’t hesitate for half a second upon hearing this, tossing the bow right over.

So decisive that just a glance was enough to tell how much she detested this weapon.

Jeremy reached out to catch it.

Right at that moment, the cat with the highest realm among the three had also closed in. A longsword grazed past Jeremy’s shoulder.

Because medicinal herbs were prohibited and no medicine could be found, the wound originally clawed by the griffin hadn’t closed yet. Healing magic had only barely managed to stop the bleeding. Now, under the strike of this sword aura, it split open again.

The pain, however, made Jeremy more clear-headed.

Simultaneously, the remaining two cats took the opportunity to launch a pincer attack from the left and right.

The weapons of all three were longswords. Three blades thrust forward in the exact same beat; Jeremy slightly furrowed his brows in annoyance.

The Lumina Ribbon in his hand instantly acted like a living thread, moving entirely according to his will.

Every time it was drawn back and lashed out, it was accompanied by the sound of tearing wind. The long ribbon functioned exactly like a long whip, yet it was many times more flexible than a leather whip.

Wrapping, slicing, lashing, looping. Each attack method was extremely fluid. Strung together, they carried an added elegance like a dance. But wherever the ribbon landed, it was entirely filled with lethal moves.

The ribbon’s body tightly bound all three longswords together as one, locking them securely.

While the three were still bewildered, Jeremy vaulted into the air at an extremely tight angle.

Having widened the distance, before they could break the bindings, he raised a foot to draw the bow, his long leg stretching straight out, pulling the string into the shape of a full moon.

The moment his toes released the string, the arrow’s shadow tore through the wind.

At the same time, the white ribbon in his hand abruptly retracted. With a flick of his wrist, the ribbon shot out like a snake, constricting straight around the throats of the three cats.

Controlling two completely different weapons simultaneously, yet there was not a single trace of struggle visible on him. There was only untamed grace.

The three Chaos Cats were forced back, everyone’s face bearing the same expression: terror and disbelief.

At this point, they seriously doubted there was a problem with the opponent’s realm.

Was this even human?

...An Intermediate Stage Three-Star fighting one-on-three against three Intermediate Stage Four-Stars?

"Ugh..."

The bodies of the three had been carved with countless bleeding wounds by the ribbon. Having just dodged the attack, forcibly slashing the arrows away and knocking off the ribbon, they looked up only to see a myriad of pitch-black feather blades raining down from the sky.

In this instant, the dark element seemed to have recognized its master. Centered around Mouse No. 16, they swirled into a hurricane.

The sky-covering, wide-range attack had taken shape.

A bone-piercing chill swept over, penetrating straight into their souls, causing the three to shiver uncontrollably.

A wide-range summoning spell... completed in such a short amount of time?

What kind of monsters were these two mice anyway?!

At this very moment, a sliver of despair flared up in the hearts of the three Chaos Cats.