by Virlyce
I had to cripple a few people who fought the top twenty, but after the third person, people stopped fighting them. This is what it means by having face! Who dares attack those I want to protect!? It’s great. I’m definitely going to be super famous by the end of this competition. I’ll have accomplished Durandal’s dream. Happy days, many happy days ahead.
But there’s just one sore spot. Snow. Where the heck is he? He was definitely supposed to show up as that marquis’ representative, but he hasn’t appeared. I had Ilya ask around, and it turns out that the marquis showed up to the city but vanished a day later. He probably fell to some dastardly plot of Snow’s.
All that’s left is to watch these people fight each other, but it’s boring. Like seriously, seriously boring. Can I claim my legendary beast core, half the human empire, and leave already? I have to hurry up and become a legendary warrior to truly make Durandal mine! But where am I going to find legendary beasts to hunt? The only way I’m going to be able to reach the legendary realm is to consume a lot of cores like I did to enter the divine realm. Legendary creatures are like dragons, phoenixes, qilin, pixiu, turtle-snakes, five-horned cows, and unicorns. The last time a dragon was sighted was over ninety years ago which the Godking killed. How did the man in the sky get a dragon’s core? I’ll have to ask him to find new hunting grounds.
Ah, something interesting happen, please! Three, two, one! …Well, I didn’t expect that to work anyway. Maybe if—
“Cain! Help!”
A giant portal opened up in the sky, and the spectators who were watching jumped into the coliseum. There was a roar, and hundreds of people screamed as they fought and shoved to enter the portal. …I didn’t do that, right? That totally didn’t happen because of me! I deny everything. I didn’t ask for interesting things to occur. Nuh-uh.
“What’s going on?” the man in the sky asked while frowning. There was another roar and people were shoved aside as a creature ripped its way through the portal. The people in the way were shredded like paper, and blood rained from the sky. The man in the sky’s eyes widened as he stumbled. “It can’t be!?” A second later, he fell from the sky and landed with a splat. Is he dead?
“Predator!” someone shouted. “It’s a predator!”
Predator…, why does that sound so familiar?
“Lucia!” Ilya grabbed her number two and ran behind me. “You’re the only one who can stop it! It’s the predator, the thing that prevents people from casting spells. We ran into it while running from Teacher Shinx, remember?”
“Is that why the man in the sky fell from the sky?”
“Is that how you refer to Cain in your head?” Ilya asked. She smacked my forehead. Ow! Why didn’t my Armor of Slaughter activate? “That’s not the time for this! We’re all helpless magicians and the warriors are too weak!”
More people screamed as limbs and blood were thrown into the air. This predator’s obviously quite fierce! It looks like a…, the fuck? “Uh, Ilya? That’s the predator?”
“Yes!” Ilya pushed me from behind while trembling. “You have to stop it before it kills anyone else!”
“But…”
“Lucia! Now’s not the time for this!”
“It’s, it’s a giant squirrel! How the hell is that thing the predator!?” It looks like a giant red squirrel with pointy foxlike ears and all! It’s too cute to be a vicious beast!
“Lucia! People are dying!”
If they’re being killed by a squirrel…, don’t they deserve to die? Seriously, the heck? Who dies to a squirrel? Even the man in the sky is running away from it. Does it really stop all mana? Alright, then let’s hit it with a Breaking Blade to see how strong its defenses are. “Breaking Blade!” …Huh? “Ah? Nothing happened.”
“You can’t use your qi?” Ilya asked.
“Nope.” I guess that’s why my Armor of Slaughter didn’t activate. “Doesn’t this mean we’re like helpless cows waiting to be slaughtered?”
“Helpless my ass!” Ilya smacked my back. “You can pick up a fifty-ton object with one hand! Go wrestle it!”
“Hah, alright. This will make me super-duper famous, right?” I’ll be even more of a legend! The first person to take down a predator, I’ll definitely get some recognition for that. …Wait a moment. Won’t I be even more famous if I tame it!? Girl slays predator or girl tames predator and uses it as a badass mount to terrorize all mages…. The latter’s definitely more shocking. New goal, acquired! “Future mount, ready yourself for a beating!”
The giant squirrel dropped the bloody person in its claws and raised its head to stare at me. Hah! Its tail is stiffening! Mine isn’t—this’ll be a piece of cake. “Breaking Qiless Fist!” Ah? It’s running away? “Get back here! Who said you could run!?”
Why is this thing so darn fast? I must be getting out of shape. It’s because of all the hot chocolate and acorn stew I’ve been drinking, isn’t it? No! I refuse to believe hot chocolate is holding me back in any way, shape, or form. If I can’t run as fast as the squirrel, all I have to do is slow it down. I’ll throw something at it! But what do I have to throw in my interspacial ring…? Oh, this is perfect. “Secret Acorn Stew Bowl Throwing Technique! Go!”
Direct hit! The squirrel screeched and stumbled once the bowl hit its leg. It got up to run but stopped for a second. It turned its head and sniffed at the puddle of stew, and in that moment of distraction, I pounced on it. “You’re mine!”
***
I’ll be honest; I was a little afraid when Lucia charged at the predator. I wasn’t sure if she’d win or not, considering the difference between their sizes. If Lucia couldn’t use her qi, she was almost like a normal person … with the bodily strength of a divine beast. I know that’s how strong she is, but she’s only the size of the predator’s head! It doesn’t make any sense for her to overpower something that has more mass than her. It’s simple applied mechanics. Larger things generate more force, but I forgot Lucia is an existence that isn’t logical at all. I think she’s the first person to ever kill a predator. …Kill a predator. …Kill the predator! “What the heck are you doing, Lucia!?”
“Giving my mount belly rubs!” Lucia said.
I can see that, but why!? Wait. Did she say mount? “M-mount?”
“Uh-huh.” Lucia puffed her chest out and patted the predator on the head. “Say hello to Mr. Wuffletush.”
“It’s a female.”
“Mrs. Wuffletush.”
“You can’t have a predator as a mount!” I’m getting nightmares just thinking about it. A divine beast that disrupts all forms of mana merely by existing. If she ever brought that to the capital, half of our infrastructure would shut down: the streetlights wouldn’t work, the refrigerators would break, and the toilets wouldn’t flush. It would be a complete disaster.
“Why not?” Lucia tilted her head, and the predator copied her. How the heck are they already that close? The predator’s a fierce wild beast that killed a group of ninth-circle magicians. …Lucia might as well be a wild beast too. I guess, they suit each other? No! Wait. It’s definitely because they’re both squirrels.
“Everything would break if you kept the predator as a mount.”
“That’s not true,” Lucia said. She patted her hand. “My interspacial ring still works.” A bowl of acorn stew appeared in her palm and she fed it to the predator. “See?”
It does work. Why does it work? It shouldn’t be working. My interspacial ring works too. Interesting, maybe the capital wouldn’t fall into chaos if Lucia paraded it around…. Who am I kidding? The citizens would be terrified. The predator is the bane of mages; there’s no way anyone will allow it to live. “You have to kill it, Lucia.”
“I’m not killing Mrs. Wuffletush!” Lucia said and hugged the predator. The predator licked her face and wrapped its tail around Lucia’s body. “She’s too cute to be killed.”
“No one’s going to allow it to live.” Why doesn’t she understand? The predator fundamentally breaks society. Everyth
ing that people trained for is rendered useless in front of the predator. Years spent dedicated to magic and martial arts, wasted because of a giant squirrel. In the presence of the predator, a commoner might as well be as strong as a noble. Something that threatens the position of a noble can’t be allowed to exist. I don’t approve of such thinking, but that’s how it is. If Lucia keeps the predator as a mount, her life will be in danger.
“Oh really?” Lucia asked and pulled a saddle out of her interspacial ring. When did she buy a saddle and why does it fit Mrs. Wuffletush perfectly? No, Ilya! You can’t acknowledge the predator’s name! Lucia stood on the predator’s back and glared at everyone in the coliseum. “Then I’ll kill anyone who wants to hurt Mrs. Wuffletush! In a world without qi and mana, I’m literally the strongest person to ever exist. If you want to fight me, then bring it on!”
Oh my lord, she’s right. Only someone who can kill a predator is qualified to fight Lucia. And Lucia’s the only person to ever subdue a predator. Is, is she invincible now? Who the heck brought the predator here!? I need to give them a beating for breaking the world’s balance. Wait! That’s it! The person who brought the predator definitely has a way to beat it.
“Alright,” Lucia said and nodded. “It looks like no one wants to fight. Great.” She looked at me. “See, Ilya? Everyone’s fine with Mrs. Wuffletush’s existence.”
There’s a difference between accepting something because you want to and accepting something because you’d be dead if you didn’t. “Then what happens now? I don’t think the Godking’s Brawl can go on. Besides, you already ruined the whole concept once you sold the top twenty places.”
“Lady Pentorn’s right,” Cain said. “I declare the Godking’s Brawl officially over. The top ten should line up in front of me to receive their rewards.”
“Wait!” someone shouted. She was covered in blood, and her arm was hanging limply by her side. “That predator…, it’s not alone! There are four more outside the coliseum. Someone teleported five predators into the city!”
“Five predators…?” Cain asked, his jaw dropping open. “You’re serious.”
“Hey! Man in the sky! Give me my legendary beast core and let me out of here,” Lucia shouted. Mrs. Wuffletush ran up to Cain and picked him up with her claws. “I don’t see Ilya’s dad or Ilya Number Two’s grandmother here. That means they’re still outside.”
That’s right! Even Father would be helpless against four predators!
“You, you’re going to fight them?” Cain asked Lucia.
“Shut up! Give me my core and open the exit!” Lucia shouted. She grabbed Cain and stripped him naked before tossing him off Mrs. Wuffletush. “You were taking too long, so I took a slowness tax!” As Cain hit the ground, a portal opened up in the sky and a few people jumped through. “Go, Mrs. Wuffletush!”
The people who were entering the coliseum screamed as Lucia’s predator bounded towards them. A few peed their pants as Mrs. Wuffletush ran past them and leapt outside, the portal closing behind her. And in the end, I started calling the predator Mrs. Wuffletush. If Lucia saves the people outside, they definitely wouldn’t bother her about owning a predator. Or five. She’s not planning on taming them all, is she? Well, even if she is, please let her save my father in time.
***
Everything’s a mess. A huge, ugly mess. There’s dead people everywhere. And limbs—there’s lots of limbs as well. But no sign of any predators. Who did this? Practically every important person was here for the competition; this is like declaring war on the whole world. It’s probably Snow, that crazy bastard. I have no evidence, but my hunches are only wrong 80% of the time! That means there’s a 20% chance I’m right. I was already wrong four times this week, so that means this was definitely Snow’s plot! And Ilya said I didn’t know how numbers worked.
“Can you track the other predators, Mrs. Wuffletush?”
Mrs. Wuffletush nodded and sniffed the ground. A second later, she dashed off at speeds faster than I could run. Faint screams were resounding from the distance, but they were getting closer with every step Mrs. Wuffletush took. How does she run so fast? It’s because she has four legs, isn’t it? I bet I could run just as fast as her if I had another pair of legs.
“It’s another one!” someone shouted. “We’re doomed!”
More screams ensued as Mrs. Wuffletush leapt into a barricaded area. There were a dozen or so people hiding in an alley, and a destroyed building blocked off one end. But that didn’t do much to stop us from entering. The people dashed away, and I didn’t stop them. Why would I? I’m only here for Ilya’s dad and Ilya Number Two’s grandmother. “Mrs. Wuffletush, can you locate Ilya’s dad’s scent? Ilya was the short person who was with me. Ah, I have some of her dad’s shampoo over here, smell it.”
Mrs. Wuffletush stared at me like I was an idiot. Then she shook her head. Well, I guess even giant squirrels aren’t like dogs. I was hoping her sense of smell would be enough to track Ilya’s dad down. Wait a minute…. “Puppers!”
“This is degrading,” Puppers said as he climbed out of my socks and hung his head. “I’m not a dog.”
“Shut up, you’re already a sock spirit; how can you fall even further? Can you track him or not?”
Puppers sighed and opened the shampoo bottle before sniffing it. He handed the bottle back to me and pointed his nose towards the sky while closing his eyes. His snout twitched, and he sneezed. “That way,” he said while rubbing his nose and pointing in the direction we had just come from.
“Why didn’t you tell us that before we came here?” I patted Mrs. Wuffletush and urged her back towards the coliseum.
“You didn’t ask,” Puppers said and sighed. “You’re just going to leave those people behind? What about the predator? It should be close.”
“I’m not a hero! The dad and grandmother pair are my top priority right now. Everyone else can wait.” That’s how the world works. If something happened to Ilya’s dad while I was saving a bunch of random people, I’d never forgive myself. I don’t think Ilya would forgive me either. “Hurry up, Mrs. Wuffletush. I’ll be sure to treat you to something even better than acorn stew if we can save them with no issues!”
Mrs. Wuffletush’s speed increased even further, and I was almost thrown off of her body. Good thing her ears are right there to hold onto or I really would’ve fallen off my mount. How embarrassing would that be? “Keep giving directions, Puppers!” ...Why isn’t he responding? “Puppers?” Ah! He fell off!
“Keep going straight!” Puppers yelled. “I’ll go back to help the—” His words cut off and he disappeared and reappeared beside me. He coughed. “Uh, I forgot I had to stay within a certain range of you or that would happen. We’re getting really close to the smell, slow down a bit.”
I patted Mrs. Wuffletush and she bounced to a halt. Puppers sniffed the air and squinted. “That way,” he said and pointed towards the right. I tugged on my mount’s ear, and she whirled around.
“Go! But why aren’t there any screams? Maybe they managed to hide from the predators—that must be it. They can’t be dead.” Ugh, I feel sick. I hate the feeling of dread so much; it reminds me of my time as a slave. But this time, I actually have things to lose. Please be alright, Ilya’s dad and Number Two’s grandmother!
“One’s coming! Now!”
Huh? Doesn’t that voice sound like Ilya’s dad? Wait! What the heck are those people doing up there!?
“Set it on fire!” That was Ilya’s dad! But what’s he doing standing on the roof with a barrel of something that smells suspiciously like oil? Ah!
“Stop! Stop! Don’t set anyone on fire!”
“Huh? Lucia?” Ilya’s dad asked from his position on the roof. “Are you riding a predator?”
Before I could respond, someone threw a torch into the alleyway I was in. The walls and ground were set ablaze. “Gah! Mrs. Wuffletush, up, go up!” I think my tail’s on fire. I think Mrs. Wuffletush’s tail is also on fire. Why is it always the squirr
ely tails that get set aflame!? How come Puppers’ tail is perfectly fine?
Mrs. Wuffletush climbed to the top of the roof, and smacked her tail repeatedly against the tiles. I joined her, and it didn’t take long for our tails to stop burning. But they weren’t fluffy anymore. I look like a rat. “Who threw that torch!?”
“S-sorry!” a demon shouted and dropped to his knees, banging his head on the roof. “It was instinct!”
“What’s going on, Lucia?” Ilya’s dad asked, stepping in front of the kowtowing man. “Where’s Ilya? Is she alright?”
“Ilya’s fine. Mrs. Wuffletush ran into the competition area, and I tamed her. Ilya’s still hiding around in the coliseum since it’s dangerous out here.” I’m glad Ilya’s dad is safe. Phew. And Ilya Number Two’s grandmother is also here! Two birds with one stone! “Il—Mirta’s fine too.”
“Thank the lord,” Ilya’s dad said and exhaled. “When those predators came out of nowhere, I thought I was going to die. If it wasn’t for Marilyn’s quick thinking, our group would’ve perished at the start.”
“Quick thinking?” How’d they escape from a group of predators?
“I threw a barrel of acorn stew in the opposite direction we were running to,” Ilya Number Two’s grandmother said. “I was saving it for you after I saw you helping Mirta out during the competition, but I couldn’t hold onto it in the end. Sorry.”
“Your strange taste indirectly saved our lives,” Ilya’s dad said.
There’s nothing strange about my taste!
