Chapter 324
Chapter 324
Half a day had flown by.
Since then, fifteen more participants had become victims of Dick Baker’s and his unknown assistant’s dishonorable robbery. The last thing they heard and saw was the fat freak waving his staff, reciting a mantra, a loud BOOM, and then darkness.
Some of them became victims twice, like the first prince of Liberia. People like him tried to cut and run as soon as possible. The most desperate and stupid among them were asking for being robbed again.
When Kyon was a couple of kilometers away from another robbed participant, he playfully licked his lips, imperceptibly approached the unsuspecting tigress and roared deafeningly straight into her ear: «Rо-о-оа-а-а-а-r!»
Triana jumped twenty meters up, her eyes nearly popped out of her head, getting the size of saucers, her tail bristled. Triana never expected to hear someone roar her in the ear during a peaceful walk through the forest. She had been taken by surprise for the first time in her life! It was so sneaky!
When he met Triana’s shocked gaze, Kyon couldn’t help laughing. Not so long ago, she made fun of his promise to scare her. Now it was his turn to laugh! It was worth taking the risk of getting a blow in the head from the frightened tigress, but, fortunately, everything turned out okay.
Triana’s pride was hurt, but it meant nothing compared to her woken dominant instinct! Some pipsqueak wanted to show her who was in charge here! It was ridiculous! She urgently had to put him in his place! The tigress approached the laughing master and let out the roar of a real alpha tiger: «RО-О-ОА-А-А-А-А-АR!»
The powerful sound wave created whipping winds that left behind torn off leaves, broken branches, severely leaning trees. Fifty kilometers around them, the birds flew into the air, the animals howled and roared, bowing to their leader.
Kyon nearly jumped out of his skin. He looked dumbfounded at the tigress who smirked smugly, proud to have put the arrogant omega in his place.
«YOU STUPID FOOL! Are you out of your mind?!» – Lovr barked angrily: the tiger’s roar in the proximity of the tournament participants significantly increased the chances of being accused after the Hunters’ investigation.
The expression on Triana’s changed at once: «What? You started it! I had to take you down a notch. Besides, I did scare you! Even if it was a kind of trick, after all… but I didn’t do it on purpose.» – Triana snorted, making excuses.
«To hell with you! Take the tiger form, quickly!» – Kyon ordered.
«It wasn’t my fault!» – Triana protested, stripping for the transformation.
Over the next few hours, they had covered about a thousand kilometers.
The tigress returned to human form, caught some wild game and gave it to Kyon to cook.
Kyon could barely eat at lunch. Triana’s intent amber gaze made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end: «Why are you staring at me like that? Do you want to lick me again?»
Triana kept a straight face: «No, thank you. On second thought, you look more delicious now but as always ugly.»
«Thank you very much. That’s a compliment from a predator. Be honest, you liked my tongue and now you want more, damned man-eater! I order you to give up human flesh forever!» – Kyon’s voice was cold like ice.
«You have already forbidden me to eat human flesh! I wasn’t going to. It was your fault! But there’s something else… I don’t understand why my attitude towards you has changed after your pale imitation of the alpha-roar…»
Triana couldn’t sort out her feelings. She started to see a male in her master. Theoretically, he could be her full-fledged alpha if he were hundreds and thousands of times stronger. In other words, she began to consider her owner as a potential man, even if he was nowhere in the league of other candidates that were thousands in the supreme beasts empire, the best of whom was Fenrir.
But Kyon couldn’t care less for the feelings of his pet: «Speaking of roaring. Can you summon here beasts in the advanced phase and above within ten-kilometer distance?»
Triana felt it was a nice moment to prove her value to the owner, even if she had to repeat herself. She straightened her back, put her hand on her chest and said proudly: «I am Triana Tirindun, the third princess of the purest royal bloodline of white tigers. Everyone in the animal kingdom respects me on an instinctive level. I can summon unreasonable animals with my roar if they are below the lord phase within a fifty-kilometer distance…»
«Careful! The crown is falling!» – Kyon warned her.
«Where? What crown?» – She touched her head in confusion. Suddenly, a bird crapped on her hand.
Kyon burst out laughing: «Everyone in the animal kingdom respects you! I see!»
Triana was red in the face. How dared the feathered creature poop on her after her proud speech! It was so humiliating that she wanted to stick her head in the ground.
«Gro-oo-ar-r-r!» – Her aggressive, imperative roar was meant for the bird.
The feathered culprit, who turned out to be a fat pigeon, obediently flew down. However, the bird didn’t land in the paws of the tigress who was eager to tear it apart but on the man’s shoulder who was still laughing like a hyena.
«THE QUEEN OF THE BEASTS! HA-HA-HA!» – Kyon was almost rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter.
Triana blushed like a tomato. She had never felt such burning humiliation. How could the damned bird disobey the leader? More than that, how dared it to crap on her from above right at the moment when she was trying to win her master’s favor? It didn’t work this way!
Because of the feathered creature, she had disgraced herself in front of her master! It was unforgivable! The tigress rushed to punish the insolent pigeon, but Kyon protected the bird, covering it with his hand.
«Why are you protecting this pigeon? Did you…» – Triana’s anger instantly gave way to confusion. She remembered the talking parrot and other birds constantly flying over her head, and it suddenly dawned on her. – «…train it? Of course! I knew it!»
Kyon slapped his fingers: «Smart baby tiger!»
«But how could the bird ignore the alpha’s order? It is absolutely impossible, even if you were the best trainer in the world! They don’t have enough will to resist! My piercing roar penetrates every beast’s heart and soul!»
{This bird has no soul.} – Lovr thought and said: «I have trained the birds and harnessed the strong-willed tiger. As you can see, nothing is impossible for me.» – When he said this, he spread his arms wide – the very image of a grand maestro – and dozens of birds from the nearest branches flew down and perched on them.
Triana opened her mouth in amazement.
Kyon scattered grains, and the birds began to peck at them.
It awoke Triana’s hunting instinct: her pupils dilated, she took a pouncing position. A moment, and she leapt at the fattest pigeon, the very one…
«I order you to do them no harm!» – Kyon hurried to order her.
The tigress stopped, licked the bird’s neck and wondered: «I don’t understand! This pigeon… These birds… They aren’t afraid of me. It can’t be!» – Her voice wavered. – «Uhn… Wait… Why… Why can’t I feel their souls?» – Triana stood rooted to the spot. She couldn’t feel the birds’ soul! Either they all were imperial phasers (7), or they all were dead. There was no other explanation, and both options were equally unbelievable!
«I’ll tell you one day.» – Kyon put on a mysterious look. He wanted to enjoy the tigress’s humiliation a little longer, but she was already distracted. Too bad, but it was his fault.
«Are you going to keep silent again? I want to know the answer! Are you a necromancer? Tell me!» – Triana grabbed the owner by the collar. Her amber eyes glowed with intense curiosity. She would knock the truth out of him if she had her way.
«Next time, baby tiger.» – Kyon waved her off.
«But, but…» – Triana arched her thin eyebrows sadly and tucked her furry ears in frustration. Her owner was too taciturn! Where did he get monstrous regeneration and durability? And his amazing power or magic tricks? How could he be so quick for his level? Did he really train soulless birds? It was a waste of time trying to find the answers. He never gave anything away!
Whatever he was up to, it clearly worked! He had piqued her curiosity and held it, and if he had given her an answer, she would have lost her interest in him. The damned mystery about him attracted her like a siren song. He must be playing with her feline curiosity for some insidious purpose.
«Is there any chance I will get the answers to my questions?» – Triana asked hopefully.
Kyon scratched his head thoughtfully and then nodded: «I guess there might be. I’ll think of something. Now listen to my order. Use your alpha roar to summon as many animals in the advanced phase and above as possible and kill them as painlessly as can be. Collect all the keys and hand them over to me, then bury the dead bodies as deep as possible so that there will be no traces of digging in the soil. You have about six hours to finish everything before the tournament participants arrive. Hurry up.»
His order aroused a strong protest in Triana’s heart, but she decided not to argue with him. The truth was on his side: overpopulated animal species were a threat to humans.
Triana took a deep breath and let out a powerful roar.
From all corners of the forest within a fifty-kilometer distance, animals rushed to the call like puppets. They had lost control of their lives and their future. All their instincts had disappeared, leaving a single one: to follow their leader.
In half an hour, a thousand animals in the advanced phase and above gathered around Triana: foxes, wolves, bears, large lizards, all kinds of felines, snakes, giant spiders, horned animals, and many others. They bowed silently to the white-haired girl who looked at them with pity. When she called them to die for her, the tigress didn’t feel any sympathy. It was a worthy death protecting the third princess of white tigers. Now a human was going to take their lives for his selfish purposes.
The tigress closed her eyes, mentally apologizing to all the animals. Silver claws grew in place of her nails. The space around them vibrated with power. Little, bright fireflies concentrated in a single attack. The light attribute left a golden train of with the slightest movement of her fingers.
When the technique was fully charged, Triana opened her glowing eyes. Her hands cut the air crosswise at lightning speed. Each claw sent an extremely thin and long, razor-sharp golden arch. In the blink of an eye, the thousand beasts turned into pieces of meat. The animals didn’t even feel anything.
Triana sighed and started collecting the keys.
{Not bad.} – Kyon gave a low whistle. He had already heard about all the tigress’s features. What he just saw was called the Fury of the Jade Claws – an ultimatum technique with an hour rollback that required a long time to prepare and took lots of energy, but it was incredibly powerful and massive. She could easily cut even his strong head with a direct blow.
Lovr walked around the pile of meat, absorbing souls. The terrible stench of blood and entrails could turn anyone’s stomach inside out, but neither he nor the supreme beast minded it in the least.
Hundreds of souls filled the core with every second. 1% … 2% … 5% … 10% … As he had absorbed all thousand souls, Kyon loaded the nucleus by one tenth, which meant 37% in total (the hunters had given him the main part). The amount was amazing! It would have taken him several months of hunting in the forest to fill up the core, but with Triana’s help, three days will be enough!
While Triana was darting from one carcass to another at high speed, Kyon used his ability to suck life force from any inanimate organic matter, i.e., he turned a couple of bodies into skin and bones. He determined that it would require at least a million corpses to fill the nucleus with elements (one of the conditions of his body of the void). It would be easier to buy medicine rich in elements than get involved in this nonsense for months on end, exterminating the inhabitants of the forest. There was also something else to consider: Kyon read in the Boston library about so-called “blood energy” contained in the blood of living beings. It was allegedly a result of the body’s vital force and granted protection against poisons among other things. However, Kyon didn’t find any signs of this energy even after draining a couple of animal carcasses. Apparently, the body of the void was too rough and indiscriminate to benefit from such delicate matter as blood.
A few hours later, Triana threw up her hands, sending a powerful earthquake over many kilometers of the forest. The ground hummed as if the end of the world had come. Gradually, a huge crack opened at the site of the massacre. Tens and hundreds of corpses fell into the abyss, fertilizing the forest and bringing joy to the worms.
When all traces of the living creatures disappeared in the abyss, Triana masterfully closed the crack as if nothing had happened. As for countless splashes and pools of blood, the forest would completely absorb them in a couple of days, and the rain would wash away the rest.
The tigress was soaked in blood as if she had just escaped from a gory battle. She approached the owner with a heavy bag full of keys of the advanced phasers and above.
«Well done! You’ve completed one eighth of the task. It���s about a week until the end of the tournament, and you need to arrange nine more sessions like this. Let’s do it again today, and even twice.» – Kyon said cheerfully, hiding his belongings in the ring. He was pleased with his body development, or rather, the progress in fulfilling one of the conditions.
Unlike her master, Triana was upset. She looked at him hopefully and asked: «Will you give me freedom if I help you kill ten thousand animals and win the tournament?»
Kyon patted her naive head with a smile: «Nice try, but no.»
Triana thought for a while and said: «And what if I ask my father to give you many, many keys and spheres? Will you let me go?» – He could tell by her voice how much she wants to be free and away from all this.
Lovr remembered that blackmail didn’t work on the supreme beasts, and he is not ready to exchange his adorable tigress for any material values: «Don’t even think about it. If you want a reward, I guess, I know how to thank you for your work.»
«Are you going to stick your tongue in my mouth again?» – Triana crossed her arms on her chest with a skeptical expression on her face.