“…yes.”
‘I have to say, admitting that I’m here to assassinate someone in front of said person is something…I really can’t get used to…but the circumstances have demanded so. Well, best not to act too arrogant for now…’ Thus, I merely nodded my head in hope that I wouldn’t draw too much hatred onto myself.
“Haha, my foolish little sister, to think she actually resorted to outsiders…we haven’t met in a long while but still, I would have never expected her to stoop to such levels…hmph, you wish to force me to surrender…with just the lot of you?”
Anmi swept his eyes over the ten guardcats before calmly stating: “I doubt you have that many soldiers left after having your army delayed by Her Highness’s own army. Just us is enough.”
“And if you add in the Elders’ Consortium?”
“The rules state that as long as we do not cause too much harm to you, the Elders’ Consortium won’t act against us. Outside help is considered a part of one’s arsenal after all.”
“Anmi, that mouth of yours has really grown quite sharp since the last time we met.”
Anmi placidly replied: “You’re too kind with your praises, Your Highness.”
“Praises? Does it look like I’m praising you?” At that, the Eldest Prince fiercely swished his tail in the air and bellowed: “My most loyal guardcats, arrest these fools who dare to belittle your master!”
The moment that command was given, the ten guardcats immediately tensed up and an instant later, ten piercing set of eyes were locked right onto us, each ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
At the end of the day, this was the prince’s castle and as its master, he had the biggest say here. When one’s lord was belittled, as soldiers, one would feel insulted as well. These guardcats were tasked with protecting the Eldest Prince and no matter what the reason was, if the target of their protection ended up being bullied, it would count as a dereliction of duty if they did nothing. To some extent, all that could have only happened because they were powerless.
In China, there was an ancient saying that went ‘a monarch’s humiliation, a subject’s death.’
“NYAAAAH!!”
The atmosphere tensed up in an instant.
“Don’t worry, these cats are just bluffing. The strongest amongst them are those two Five-stars, as for the other eight of them, they are all Four-stars. We’re more than enough to take care of them.” Because he had predicted this development, Anmi wasn’t the least bit anxious as he reassured us once more: “Stand strong everyone, they are just weaklings.”
“Then who will handle Prince Weiderly?”
“Him? He won’t interfere in a fight like this…”
Before he could finish his sentence however, one of the guardcats’ team leader cut him off with a sharp retort: “Who are you calling weak, Anmi?!”
The other Five-stars glared at Anmi as well: “You’d better run while you still can, otherwise, don’t blame us for not showing mercy once the fight starts.”
Anmi: “Haha, who doesn’t know how to boast? I don’t need your mercy, I think you two should consider your own situation instead.”
“Together now!” No longer able to endure Anmi’s taunting, the two guardcat team leaders exchanged a brief glance before simultaneously charging at him.
“FIGHT!” At the exact same moment, we let forth a battlecry as well.
Sinmosa and Sasani matched themselves against the two Five-stars team leader, both of whom initially planned on ganging up on Anmi instead, unfortunately for them, their plan was foiled before it even began by the two Cerberuses. Being Four-stars Flame Demon Childes themselves, No.3 and Big 4 weren’t too shabby in the combat strength department either so they each paired off against a Four-stars Guardcat.
Mo Na too was paired off against a single guardcat. Despite her multitude of talents which included flame, shadow and undead spells, she was still too young and inexperienced with fights to take on multiple opponents at once so I decided to play it safe for now. As for the remaining guardcats, they all surrounded Anmi, leaving me all by my lonely self. In their eyes, a Three-stars devil wasn’t even a threat at all.
Like that, I became the only person lazing about even though the battle had already started…whoops, there’s still that prince and Cinderel resting in my arms.
To be honest, this scene was kind of comical to me in an ironic sense: being the two instigators of this fight, the Prince and I ended up being spectators instead…
Having fought with Anmi not too long ago, the Cerberus couple already had a plan in mind for this fight. They knew that they held the absolute advantage in terms of physical strength, thus they started with an all in charge against the two Five-stars team leaders.
“Raging Flame Charge!”
“Raging Flame Charge!”
A mass of flames roared to life around the two Cerberuses an instant later as they both charged at the two guardcats. All around them, the already uncomfortably warm air began to heat up even further, reaching the point where it started to burn the throats of those who tried to breath in. Scorching winds blowing, those who stood in the way were hit with an oppressive wall of wind that seemed to close in around them.
Right at the very last second however, the two Cerberuses suddenly crossed paths in an X that caught their individual guardcats off guard. The two Five-stars cats, having prepared for the Cerberus right in front of them, simply couldn’t react in time to sudden and well-coordinated flanking attack from the couple and stood there stunned, though for only the slightest of seconds. Still, that was more than enough to decide their fate.
With their strength already at a massive disadvantage, the two cats basically had no chance now especially since they had just lost the initiative thanks to that sudden swap.
“Meeeowww….” The two guardcats gave out a long, drawn out meow before collapsing to ground, tumbling around several times in the process and fainting right after.
I had to hand it to them, the couple’s brilliant manipulation of their opponents was truly a testament to their unparalleled teamwork. With just one simple maneuver, they disorientated their opponents and clinched us a rousing victory right off the bat.
On the other side where No.3 and Big 4 squared off against a Four-stars guardcat of their own, because both parties possessed a degree of flame resistance so the battle ended up being a tough one for the two Flame Demon Childes. While they clearly possessed a strength advantage over their diminutive opponents, their opponents, in turn, possessed an overwhelming advantage in terms of agility.
Thus, the two devils ended up being thoroughly abused by the two cats. Perhaps it was merely out sheer habit of wanting to toy with their opponents, the two cats didn’t try to end the fight right away but instead slowly wore them down, using their superior mobility to run circles around the two helpless devils.
From time to time, they would swoop in for a quick swipe that wasn’t all that heavy –the kind which wasn’t exactly painful but neither was it painless. As their claws raked across the crimson hide of No.3 and Big 4, they would tear open a blood-red line that was just enough to cause them to bleed but not enough to count as a major wound. Given the natural regenerative abilities of the devils, it wouldn’t take long for them to heal up from such wounds. Thus, while it might have seemed like they were getting pushed around, the battle wasn’t exactly over either; they could still counterattack from time to time.
Having met with the anthropomorphized Grimoire of the Dead, Mo Na had been learning a number of spells throughout our journey, all through those dreams of hers. Previously, she didn’t have much chance to practise with these spells, now however…her chance had finally come.
With a Four-stars guardcat assigned to her, she excitedly flew off towards the poor feline and randomly tossed out curses in quick succession.
“Weakness Curse, Enfeeblement Curse, Slow, Aging Curse…”
Faced with four great curses, what was once a cat raring to fight was immediately reduced to a jelly-legged wreck…
Last was Anmi’s fight. For a Five-stars cat, his strength was impressively strong. In a one on one, even Sinmosa and Sasani weren’t his match at all. Thus when faced with a bunch of Four-stars, he clearly had a relaxed time dealing with them.
“Demon Flame Charge!”
While his signature skill might seem riddled with weaknesses to a Cerberus, it was still extremely effective against his own clanscat. Wrapping himself in both shadows and flames, he dove headfirst into the pile of guardcats and sent them flying right away.
With that settled, he even stepped in to help No.3 and Big 4 clean up their opponents with a quick slap of his meaty paws…
“Done.” It was then that Mo Na finished off her opponent as well by creating a black house of bones around the enfeebled and weakened cat…
Ever so slightly, I could hear the pitiful meows of the cat hidden inside the house…
“Meeow, meeeooooww…” With the lights turned off all of a sudden for him, the poor fellow must’ve been really frightened…I had to say, this black house of hers was rather cruel…
As I stood there with Cinderel safely tucked away in an embrace, I basically had to do nothing at all but watch. In a sense, this was great…after all, who wouldn’t want to win a battle just by acting as a flower vase.
“Alright then, Your Highness, how about we have a nice talk now?” With no more opponents to deal with, Anmi confidently and leisurely squared off against the Eldest Prince once more: “About those succession rights…”
“It’s not over yet…look I’ve been injured, Elders, did you see that?!” As he comfortably sat there on his platform, he completely ignored Anmi’s taunts and instead turned his head to face a certain room at the side: “There are assassins here! If you don’t come out soon, I’ll be dead!”
‘Elders? Sh*t, how could I have forgotten about the Elders’ Consortium?! Even though they won’t interfere in our fight, should the Prince ever get injured…’
“Remember this Anmi, you forced my paws here. Time for my ultimate move, TAKE THIS!” The Eldest Prince raised his right claw up high and without any special effects whatsoever, or even any force for that matter, he then stuck that paw of his into his mouth and bit down… ‘Ah, there’s blood…’
“Ahhhhh, I’m bleeding…someone is trying to assassinate me. To me! I need protection quick…I’m injured…I’m going to die…ahhhhh…” The Prince went off on some bizarre one-cat show…the moronic kind no less…
‘You clearly bit your own paw and still you claim it’s an assassination…’ Putting aside his exaggerated acting however, this move of his wasn’t without merits, at the very least, we were in deep trouble now.
‘HEY! Be reasonable here! How can you pull out the big guns just like that? I swear…the worst part is that we aren’t even the ones who hit you…’ Just as I thought we were about to get beaten up by some giant kitty paw descending from the heavens, a sombre and stately cat voice echoed from within the room the Prince was currently focused on.
“That wound was self-inflicted, it doesn’t count.”
