Chapter 105 of 136

Chapter 93: Preparing for the end…

By Basically_God • 2,764 words • Code: NV-1QyaZ6N

While Promicarus & Emily were making their way downtown Elizabeth Jr. Bloodleaf was doing the exact opposite as she walked towards the eastern gate towards the mountain range.

The reason for them splitting up was simply because they had different jobs yet Eel was certain that she would be meeting ‘Icky’ very soon. Their job on the surface was to gather information on the golems from the surroundings - a job usually left to the ‘social hip-shaker’ which was their local goblin fuka. With her being quite out of commission that fortunately made Promicarus’ task way easier which brought an excited smile to Eel’s face.

Since she was going out alone for the first time in a while she of course was holding her bone spear which she actually rested across the scuff of her neck. Her arms came up to hook around either side of the spear, balancing it on her nape using her elbow pits, while letting her hands freely relax on the bar giving her a laid back feeling. Due to being on the other gate of the city less people were clearly aware of her ‘prior’ actions so they just looked confused.

Not everyday you see a weird mutated purple fox-kin with 9 tails afterall; on top of that the girl was dressed like an adventurer heading towards the gate. Although when the bottom of the range was more peaceful some orphans would gather herbs to try and earn a little extra cash to hopefully save up for a weapon. That could be said to be a safe, steady job due to the veterans having an unspoken rule of killing any monsters at the bottom yet not touching the herbs to help out the kids.

However that only applied to when the mountain range wasn’t swarming with more golems than the veterans could clean up. From the report from the branch guild master it was quite clear they were likely being mass produced - whether by the mountains themselves or a third party was the problem. Then again Eel had a feeling this lined up with the real reason she was here.

Closing her eyes she lowered her head with a smug smirk upon her face while she simply shook her head ever so slightly.

Approaching the gate second by second the gazes upon her began to change from ones of curiosity to confusion and by the time the gate was in front of her many held worry. Not that the little beast would recognise the worry of a mere mortal; all she knew was she was getting attention which was something she ironically loved. It wasn’t exactly productive for a hunter to enjoy being in the limelight after all.

A fair amount of time had actually passed since they first arrived in the city so before heading out she let her nose guide her - turning her head up with a wiggling nose. Having a strong sense of smell it obviously didn’t take her long to pick up her goal of the most charred meat skewers obtainable for the stalls by the city gate. Leaning forward she began to almost be ‘pulled in’ by the scent with a satisfied smile where a young boy would be getting a stern warning from who seemed to be his father.

“I told you to keep a close eye on the meat while it was roasting *sigh*.” <Stall Owner>

The fairly young, maybe just barely pushing thirty, man gazed towards the burnt meat cubes resting on a standard device for roasting. They weren’t from {Indigo-Stratos Empire} so could hardly afford the magic-stone powered stalls for cooking - they essentially just had a metal plate over a place to stoke a live flame. Beside him was a boy about Eel’s age who lowered his head in an ashamed fashion as even if his father never shouted at him it didn’t change the fact he messed up.

There was something strange about them for Orrid; both had very noticeable fluffy coyote ears upon their heads which were sadly lowered.

“S-sorry…” <Owner Son>

“Sorry won’t unburn the meat - humans don’t enjoy charred meat son… Well don’t worry too much as I’m sure we can get some more prepared. You’ll just have to forget getting any fruits for the meantime so we can make back the mo-.” <Stall Owner>

Suddenly the instincts of the boy & father shouted at them to behave with the utmost respect as if they were in front of the king of all beasts. The father reacted by pulling his child behind him with an arm, protecting him both physically as well as hiding him behind himself, as he turned towards the source of this feeling. Yet what he saw was a purple fox girl with nine tails leaning forward to openly sniff the meat yet all beasts instinctively knew when a fellow beast-type came from a regal bloodline even if they were only ‘beast-kin’.

A mammal could sense a mammal, a bird could sense a bird and a reptile could sense a reptile.

Not to mention it wasn’t as if the girl was even hiding her 9-tails which had more than a few legends written about them. On top of that the man was from a tribe that lived in the mountains where a fox tribe were - having interacted with an actual beast tribe of foxes. They weren’t fox-kin but proper fox beasts which certainly regaled them with tales of their multiple tails represented as well as the meaning of 9-tails.

Still he was at least sure she wasn’t here because she was displeased with them. In fact if Emily was here she would likely have a nosebleed from how Elizabeth Jr.’s tails & ears cutely twitched as she enjoyed the scent of the ‘well cooked’ meat. It did perfectly suit her appetite as a beast that reduced her prey to nothing but charcoal through chemical warfare (with her currently non existent dragon's breath).

“C-can I help you?” <Stall Owner>

“Hm~?” <Eel>

Seeing her action the owner decided to take a risk in asking if she needed help which resulted in the kit turning her head up, tilting her head curiously. Her nose twitched as she sniffed the two beast-kin with closed eyes as if trying to discover something about them. A moment later she opened her eyes with a smile.

“Ooo~ you two are coyote-kin aren’t you, I thought coyote only worked as low-level bandits but I suppose Orrid never has been a good source of information~.” <Eel>

Those words caused a bitter smile on his face as the man nervously began to scratch the back of his neck with her left arm while still hiding his son with the left.

“Well we actually have feral instincts like most other predators yet being smaller led us to pick up those sorts of jobs. I myself worked with a tribe who lived in the mountain range - a bunch of us work as mercenaries who focus more on outnumbering our opponent… Or doing dirty jobs since we aren’t as worried about morals as beasts. N-not that I killed anyone or anything like that miss!" <Stall Owner>

“Eh~ not all dirty jobs are necessarily immoral - they just happen to be unpleasant - not that I care either way~.” <Eel>

Since she wasn’t a human herself she wouldn’t give two hoots about a certain race being particularly prone to taking advantage of them. Humanity took advantage of just about every other mortal race, probably more than even that if given the chance, while also taking advantage of the monsters when given the chance. Instead she would rather focus on something else as she pointed towards the meat with a smug grin on her face.

“More importantly~ these cost 40 bronze pieces total so I’ll give you 20~!” <Eel>

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Throwing a piece of meat into her mouth while holding the other pieces inside her left palm while balancing her spear on her right shoulder/arm.

She was now about to step through the gate while some adventurers who were clearly veterans based on their equipment. Not only that but they even carried behind them some fairly impressive beasts - such as a party carrying a D-rank [Rock Rhino]. A sturdy beast who will charge down anything with shocking speed like the blind murder horse it is.

Despite things not going well the overall feeling between the adventurers appeared to be jolly yet when they looked towards Eel they felt nothing short of befuddlement. One of them even reached out to attempt to block her - looking towards her with a ‘warm smile’ in order to not make her feel scared. With the amount of scars as well as bulging muscle it would likely make a child more likely to cry than calm them down however.

“Hey I don’t think it’s safe to go out to get her-” <Veteran Adventurer>

Since she was enjoying her meat she just reached into a pouch with her right hand, throwing a piece of meat in her mouth, before pulling out her adventurer card. Upon seeing it the adventurer’s eyes widened only to step out of her way. He let out a nervous laugh while welcoming the girl to walk on.

“I-I didn’t expect {The Adventurer Prince} to be visiting our humble mountain range - please don’t mind me and get on with your day.” <Veteran Adventurer>

Eel just merely nodded while placing her card back into her belt pouch. Her name had already managed to spread among the veterans thanks to her ‘habit’ of challenging them to fights so those who weren’t battle maniacs obviously would avoid her like the plague. Since most veterans were veterans due to being careful they thus avoided her.

Walking on Eel soon found herself away from the city by herself, looking around to ensure nobody else had followed her, a smirk formed on her face. Twirling her spear around she thrust it into the floor before reaching out behind herself - a pair of tails moved to place a bottle of brandy in her now open arm. Moving the expensive brandy to her lips to pull out the cork.

Spitting out the cork she threw her head back with a wide open mouth thus letting the liquid pour freely into her mouth; a strong scent of alcohol already leaving into the surroundings. After a swig she let out a relieved sigh before throwing another piece of burnt meat into her mouth only to turn her head with a smirk still present. Already she could sense movements yet at the same time could tell they held little life-force within themselves.

Casting her gaze she saw what at first may look like a pack of weasels peering at her curiously from the underbrush yet their eyes were dead as if made from marbles. With her own sight she could easily tell the reason for that - they were actually made from common little ‘gems’ anyone could find in a river bed. Not only that but they also had no actual ‘fur’.

The bodies of the creatures were just rock carved in such a way where one may mistake them from a distance or be curious as to their origin. In fact Eel’s smirk grew as she could already feel that these golems were in fact surrounding her with more actually coming down from the very mountain she was about to climb. How could she not be excited?

“Ah~ it seems Icky the Plastic Princess had prepared a welcome party to let me get warmed up before we go in raw fufufu~!” <Eel>

Throwing the meat squares up in the air she caught them in her mouth while cackling like a mad woman with a battle thirsty aura; using her now free left hand to take the spear.

“Heh~ well I may as well take this time to test out something I’ve been keeping secret from her since it would suck if I messed up mid-fight~!” <Eel>

Previously, thanks to her being blessed by the world as the hero, she was able to use all the mortal ‘elements’ fairly easily. That changed when she unlocked her demonic nature however which is why she hasn’t used any lightning based attacks. Having watched {Sovereign of Storms} it wasn’t as if she had no idea how to possibly use them.

Eel didn’t consider that a loss though.

Blood red sparks began to fly out from her muscles as she tilted her head back with her mouth opened to reveal her fangs fully - two fangs clearly more prominent. Compared to mortal lightning it could be said this element was far more volatile (mortal lightning already fierce) yet also far more destructive. It was also quicker than any mortal type of lightning as it rippled across her form.

She was granted this thanks to her vampire blood; every vampire tends to have an affinity of their own on top of the regular. Commonly most just have some form of shadows or darkness while even the talented may have something like moonlight. Royalty gets something far more powerful than that.

Arcane.

Taking a swig from the bottle just as the golems were about to attack only for her to vanish from her position with the only indication she had been there was the crimson sparks. A flash of blood red sparks shot around between the tree’s and collided with the golems causing gigantic holes to form upon their bodies. Taking so much damage that they weren’t able to retain their structure thus crumbling.

Like a wave of destruction the quicker than normal golems were helpless no matter which animal golem appeared - just a straight line of broken rocks. Soon the flash came upon the thinning of the forest yet that only made them attack more golems. By the time the crimson arrived towards the peak thousands of golems had been reduced to dust through accuracy puncturing wounds hitting them right in their cores.

When it arrived at the stop it finally stopped to reveal the form of Eel still mid swig of the brandy with stone powder pouring off from the tip of the spear in her left. Her skin showed some tearing around her muscles which the crackling lightning came from her yet she was a Venus. In terms of regeneration even other vampires could only cry.

“Ah~ that is some good stuff, as expected from one of the strongest mortals on this shitty continent he sure knows how to spend his gold. Those golems were also somewhat interesting with how they seemed to take advantage of the summonable, creatable and natural forms of golems though as expected… They were totally made by Icky~!” <Eel>

Slowly she began to walk up to the peak where she could just barely see the falling sun between two far taller mountains in the distance. There appeared to be nothing around as far as the eye could see - now that she had reached the top - except the random pieces of stone rubble with some signs of fighting such as scorched ground and random gashes. Looking around Eel even spotted some signs of camping from her fellow adventurers no doubt.

Finding a good rock she jumped over to have her rump lie on it while gazing at the beautiful glare caused by the sun lowering between the twin peaks in the distance.

“This~ is a good spot for a battle to the death~!” <Eel>

A big grin on her face as she slammed her spear into the floor while taking another swig from the large brandy bottle. While she was doing that strangely her tails began to glow - all except the centre most foxtail in fact. Two random tails went invisible while the other 6 glowed with a large amount of spiritual energy as they began to change shape.