Chapter 2754 Strange Sheep <TOC> Chapter 2756 Void Demon
Translator: SumTLMan
The one who made the sound was Shrew; at this moment she had almost pressed up against the outside of the dome, eyes wide, staring fixedly at the gray-black robe on Kael’s body.
「What’s wrong?」Gray Merchant looked toward Shrew in puzzlement.
「That garment…… that garment…… there’s absolutely no mistake……」Shrew muttered as if possessed, as though she had entered her own world and had no response to the outside at all.
Gray Merchant didn’t know what had happened to her, but guided by her whispering, he too fixed his attention on that gray-black robe; at this look, his brows knit ever so slightly.
To the naked eye, the robe couldn’t have been more ordinary. But when he observed it from the perspective of mental power, an astonishing change appeared.
The robe was like filth fallen into limpid water, ceaselessly bubbling pitch-black smoke from within outward.
Looking closely, the robe was simply like a giant abyssal maw, its interior a lightless gloom, with baleful black miasma continuously seeping from that maw.
This black smoke, which could only be detected through a probe of mental power, was not something Gray Merchant had never seen before. When the resentment, hatred, and unwillingness of a powerful monster in life become manifest after death, a black mist like this baleful energy will well forth.
For ordinary people who come into contact with such baleful energy, the harm is tremendous: not only will their temperament grow savage and cruel, but as time goes by they will be completely corroded, becoming walking corpses that know only killing.
But for transcendents, the harm of such baleful energy is limited. If paired with the resentful soul of the powerful monster from life, it might cause backlash against a transcendent; yet this robe obviously held no such resentful soul, mere baleful energy would not affect its user.
From this information one could essentially infer that this black robe was fashioned from the hide of some powerful monster.
As for exactly which monster, Gray Merchant could not yet discern. Still, for the baleful energy to be so great as to begin overflowing, this was exceedingly rare. Either the monster’s strength in life had reached a terrifying degree, or it had suffered unprecedented torment before death; its unwillingness and hatred surged forth before the end and left aftereffects even in death. Even so, in such a case the monster would still not have been weak.
Such a piece of monster hide was quite precious, by no means something an ordinary apprentice could bring out.
If the monster also had some notable provenance, the value would be all the more frightening.
Barring surprises, this monster hide was likely supplied by the opposing wizard, perhaps…… from the Noah family. If it did come from the Noah family, then with the vast power and heritage of that clan, obtaining the hide of a powerful monster would be no difficult task.
Although Gray Merchant could perceive the robe’s abnormality, regarding its effects and Shrew’s reaction he still had many points of confusion.
What had Shrew discovered to make her so astonished?
And what use was this robe that Kael had produced?
The first question could not be answered for the time being, but as for the second, simply watching on should yield the answer.
……
On the arena platform.
After donning the robe, Kael did not pause in the slightest; he directly entered a casting state. The spatial fluctuations around him all but reached visibility to the naked eye; light and shadow twisted, and there were even obvious spatial mislayerings.
It was the first time Kael’s casting had generated spatial ripples this great; this seemed to mean he was casting a powerful space cantrip.
Seeing this, Shepherd felt mildly puzzled. Previously Kael had kept trying to cast spatial rifts, and Shepherd had interrupted them one by one; now he was straightaway casting an even stronger space cantrip? If it were interrupted, the chance of backlash would be far greater than for a spatial rift; once backlashed, Kael would be gravely injured if not dead.
「Is he going all-in, or……」Shepherd mused inwardly, his gaze sizing up Kael’s robe:「Does he have other backing?」
If it were the latter, it would most likely be related to this robe.
Shepherd could not see through the robe, but since Kael had produced it with such solemnity, and upon producing it at once began casting a high-level cantrip, he had to deal with this cautiously.
Caution does not, however, mean retreat. Previously, when Ghost Shadow fought that apprentice of the Noah family, it could have kept ambushing to whittle away the opponent’s energy; precisely because it later became cautious, it gave the opponent time to recover, leading to a crushing defeat.
Thus, though Shepherd was cautious, he did not halt his attack on Kael.
Only this time he did not attack personally; instead he slowly raised his right hand, pointed to the sky, and called out in a low voice:「Beibei!」
With his cry, at the spot his finger indicated there gradually condensed a bold, high-spirited shepherd dog.
It was a majestic black-backed, brown-toed shepherd dog, its build nearly comparable to that of a human youth, quite large as shepherd dogs go.
The moment it appeared it drew all eyes; it seemed proud as well, and at once prepared to throw back its head and howl, to display the domineering side of its「wolf-blood boiling」.
Only, just as it raised its head, it sensed something was off.
Why did the ground beneath its feet feel so hollow, practically as if it had stepped into emptiness?
It lowered its head in puzzlement.
Its eyes snapped wide, this wasn’t「as if stepping into emptiness」; it was literally in midair!
Round eyes filled with terror, its ears flapped like fans as if to use them for wings; but its body was too huge, and the「ear-wings」could not possibly support its weight. In the next second, with a mournful cry, Shepherd dog fell out of the air.
Bang
After a thunderous thump, Shepherd dog lay sprawled on the ground with eyes like mosquito coils, rolling whites and a crooked mouth, its tongue lolling of its own accord, a picture of「I’m broken」.
But Shepherd paid no heed to its pitiful state, stretching out his palm, where a spiral wind visible to the naked eye spun.
「W-wait…… wait……」Shepherd dog sprang up, and, astonishingly, spoke human words.
Shepherd still acted as though he hadn’t heard; the spiral wind flashed forth, striking Shepherd dog’s body directly. Carried by inertia, the dog spun like the blade of a windmill and whirled away.
「You bastard, may you die a wretched death!」Shepherd dog roared, flying straight toward Kael, who was in the midst of casting.
Shepherd pressed his hands together and murmured softly:「Don’t blame me, don’t blame me, no choice…… If only your entrance pose were a little less, and your entrance soliloquy could be reduced to a single line, next time I’ll definitely let you go on with them.」
Earlier, the crowd had not understood why Shepherd was so brutal to Shepherd dog, but upon hearing his sotto voce explanation, they seemed to get it a little.
This was probably a…… showboating shepherd dog?
Still cursing up a storm in midair, the dog’s spectacle seemed to make Shepherd a bit embarrassed; a blush drifted across his fair face, and he shouted:「If you shut up, I’ll make you a hat from Baobao’s fur.」
Shepherd dog’s once-fierce eyes suddenly lit up:「Don’t touch my Baobao, use Black Three’s fur. I can’t stand the sight of him; Baobao even dotes on him most. You must pluck him bald for me!」
Shepherd:「Fine…………」
Upon hearing Shepherd’s promise, Beibei perked up at once; it recovered control of its previously errant body and stretched itself out directly in midair. Then, fixing its gaze on Kael:「So it’s you, how dare you lay hands on Baobao. I’ll make you pay!」
Behind it, Shepherd muttered:「Baobao’s fine.」
Shepherd dog froze, then promptly changed its line:「Though Shepherd is a jerk, only I get to knead this jerk. I’m definitely going to make you pay!」
Shepherd:「I’m fine too.」
At that, Shepherd dog fell silent, then turned into a sharp arrow and lunged at Kael.
From the outside, Kael had not moved all this time, seemingly still gathering power to cast. In reality, he had already finished casting.
In fact, by the time Shepherd had summoned that strange shepherd dog Beibei, he had already completed his casting.
The reason there had been no movement was for another reason.
Now that Shepherd dog was charging him, Kael would hardly sit and await doom; he immediately released the cantrip he had already constructed.
Before Kael, two spatial rifts appeared out of thin air…… more precisely, it should be called half a space fissure and an extended version of a spatial rift.
At the very front was a space fissure that cleaved across horizontally; the gap was immense, sufficient for a human body to enter, hence it was termed a「gap」rather than a「crack」.
It was called「half a」space fissure because its length was not great; although a human could pass through, at most a small child or a youth bent at the waist could make it, equivalent to a「crude version」of a normal space fissure. To call it half a one was already overestimating it; at most it was a third or a quarter.
The other spatial rift was far more slender than an ordinary one, at least ten times longer. And not only was the rift long, its three-dimensional angles were exceedingly cantripy.
The spatial rift coiled and coiled like a sinewy old root, wrapping Kael up tight; the only way through still had to pass the transverse half-fissure in front. Whoever blundered in would absolutely be chopped into eight pieces by the rift; even if they avoided the rift, they might be swallowed by the space fissure.
It could be said this was a space cantrip that integrated offense and defense.
Beibei likely had not expected Kael’s casting speed to be beyond imagination; its sprint was too fast to brake.
Shepherd dog plunged straight into Kael’s rift「birdcage」.
Screams of agony poured from its mouth.
When the dog charged, Kael took a few steps back to avoid the impact. However, he had not left the range of the spatial rifts, so he was still not far from the dog, and he personally witnessed the moment it dove into the rifts.
Because Kael had twisted the spatial rifts into a「birdcage」, when the dog could not brake and rushed into it, its body was chopped into eight pieces.
Visibly, Shepherd dog was disassembled on the spot; even its head split into several segments.
But to Kael’s startled disbelief, the dog’s separately fallen「mouth」was still howling nonstop, as though its already shredded body could truly still inflict pain upon it.
What happened next left Kael even more flabbergasted.
The dog’s「fragments」suddenly began to tremble, then, like pieces of a jigsaw, they tracked to one another automatically.
Very soon, a whole shepherd dog once more stood before Kael.
However, Beibei was still wailing; from the shrill cry it was clear that this tearing apart and reassembly truly hurt it.
Though in pain, the dog had not forgotten its purpose. Having suffered once and finally barged into the spatial rifts, it naturally would not let the chance slip.
Enduring the pain, it charged Kael again.
In the next second, its eyes bulged round once more.
「Why?!」
Right before its eyes, yet another spatial rift had appeared, longer than before! Moreover, like a「ribbon」at Kael’s casual placement, with all manner of three-dimensional corners, all manner of bends and twists, its disorder rivaled a ball of yarn after a kitten’s play.
In such circumstances, even if the shepherd dog responded swiftly, it still could not avoid being dismembered by the new spatial rift.
Agonized screams rang out again.
Several seconds later, though it「reassembled」yet again, it lost its nerve; not daring to advance, it skulked back to a place without rifts and shouted loudly:「I surrender! I’ll stand on your side. I hate that bastard too, let’s team up and take him down! Brother!」
Kael, Shepherd:「……」Who is your brother, and who is supposed to be your brother?
Although Kael felt this shepherd dog was far too unreliable, he still stayed his hand against it and instead looked toward Shepherd.
Shepherd narrowed his eyes and asked in a low voice:「Does that robe speed up casting?」
Know this: earlier Kael had also tried to cast space cantrips, but even the most basic spatial rift required time to prepare; and relying on the wind’s blessing, Shepherd had been able to interrupt Kael’s casting every time.
But this time, Shepherd had not been slow; he dispatched Beibei at once to interrupt Kael, yet before Beibei even reached him, Kael had already successively cast spatial rifts after spatial rift. This casting speed was entirely different from before!
Exactly how much efficiency had improved remained unknown, but from Kael’s second casting of a spatial rift it could be seen that, if it had been a single rift, it had practically reached instant-cast.
To interrupt Kael’s spatial rifts as before was no longer possible.
Kael did not answer; he merely lowered his brows and made a gesture for the duel to continue.
Just then Shepherd suddenly called to him:「Watch your back!」
Kael hesitated a beat, not understanding Shepherd’s meaning. He looked back to see that the previously fearful shepherd dog had utterly changed, eyes squinting with a sly grin, head proudly raised, paw scything down at him in a sudden rake!
If Kael had retreated the instant he heard Shepherd’s warning, he could have completely avoided Shepherd dog’s sneak attack.
But after all, Shepherd was his opponent in the duel, the only enemy on the arena platform; Kael could not blindly obey his words. Thus, by the time he sought to dodge again, the shepherd dog’s strike could no longer be stopped!