25 Wise Beast
Zulu sat at a round wooden table with four other individuals. The atmosphere was tense, and his mind was madly churning out ideas to escape the situation.
'The blonde-haired man is no problem, but those three with the robes give me a bad feeling. I'm not sure that I could beat them. In a one-on-one fight, probably. All three at once? Not a chance in hell. I need to find a way out, but until I think of a way to go about doing that, I might as well hear what these goons have to say.'
Zulu was the one to break the silence, "So who are you, and what is it you wanted to chat about, Mr…?"
"Roy Hadberg, Captain of the 31st Guard Regiment of Valewaren City. You're name is?" Roy asked with a narrowed gaze.
"Claudia," Zulu said firmly.
"It is nice to meet you, Claudia. Would you mind lowering your hood so we could have a proper conversation? You know, face-to-face?" Roy asked, his face beaming with a grin.
'Clever bastard,' Zulu thought.
"No, I'd prefer not to," Zulu said.
"Oh? And why's that?" Roy said, leaning forward to apply pressure.
Zulu didn't hesitate in his response, "I was horribly disfigured at birth. As a woman, it is rather shameful. I'd rather not show my hideousness to the world if you don't mind," He said, a tinge of sorrow underlying his voice.
Roy leaned backward at his response, "I see. How unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear about that."
"Thank you. Now, why have you stopped me?" Zulu asked with a more serious tone.
"Right, right. Actually, I was curious about you," Roy said with a smile.
"Are you hitting on me, Mr. Roy?" Zulu asked, pulling backward from the table.
"Haha, no! Of course not! I just wanted to know more about you. In all honesty, you're a suspect in a case I'm working on," Roy said, his gaze sharpening.
'A suspect? Did they find his body so soon? How in the hell did they even manage to link that to me? Did they catch me on the magical cameras or something?' Zulu thought.
"That is very interesting, Mr. Roy. I'm not sure what crime I could possibly be suspected of. Perhaps you could enlighten me?" Zulu asked casually.
"Naturally, I wouldn't rashly accuse you with no good reason. Truth is, we know that you've been traveling with a woman; Her name's Raya, right? Yeah, she's one of my guards. As a result of that, we've learned about your monstrous strength after you beat down two of my guards in my outpost; Only a Tier 2 human is capable of such a feat, or a magical creature; Both of which are certainly capable of casting magic. Of course, your scuffle with the man called Tom yesterday is further evidence of that. From that, we could derive that you're capable of casting magic; I don't believe your appearance in Greenleaf Forest coinciding with the appearance of a fire mage is only a coincidence. You wanna know the crazy part? That same fire magic — which you can surely cast — was used to slaughter the goblins at a certain encampment. We know this due to the remains of a [Fireball] spell that can be found there. Thing is, the goblins were reduced to bones; Since when does fire magic do that? If you ask me, I'd say it looks as though something ate them. You know, like a beast?"
'What... the fuck? Who did I run into? Sherlock Holmes?!' Zulu thought incredulously.
"Assuming that what you say is true, how is this at all something you should be concerned about? Where's the crime?" Zulu asked.
"We'll get to that. Tell me, have you heard of wise beasts?" Roy asked, placing his elbows on the table and resting his chin on intertwined hands.
"Of what?" Zulu asked, perplexed by the term.
"They're beasts with abnormally high intelligence, as smart as humans even. Scary, no?"
'Wow, he really hit the nail on the head. I didn't realize my case was not a unique occurrence,' Zulu thought, surprised, 'I'm a wise beast, huh?'
"Yes, very scary," Zulu nonchalantly agreed.
"Now, do you understand what I'm implying?" Roy asked with a smile, "We know you killed the guard outside Bone Marrow Cave."
Before Zulu could retort, a heavy gust of wind directly impacted his face, throwing his hood backward and revealing his countenance to the rest of the table. One of the mages could be seen sticking his finger outward, pointing it at Zulu.
'A wind mage?' Zulu thought.
"Now that's what I've been waiting to see! Now I understand what that man was talking about," Roy said, his expression dominated by his interest, "Not much left to hide now, eh?"
Zulu's vertically-slit eyes were revealed for all to see; It was obvious that he was not normal.
'Seems like we're about to fight. I should began preparing for a distraction now. [Fireball],' Zulu thought, beginning to gather mana in the palm of his hand, which quickly formed into a swirling mini-fireball. All the while, he kept his hand discreetly hidden under the table.
As Zulu prepared his spell, he spoke with a relaxed tone, "You figured it out, huh? Well, that's fine, I suppose. I planned on becoming the enemy of humans to begin with; After all, you are no more than food to me. Soon enough, I will have humanity pressed under my foot."
'As they did to me in my past life, I will do to them in this one,' Zulu thought.
Roy's expression didn't waver in the slightest as he responded, "How many creatures have thought just as you do? You are not special; You are not unique. You're just another monster; Just another thing for the human race to extinguish and take apart like a loaf of bread; A bundle of resources to be exploited. You're value is less than that of a sack of potatoes."
Roy's words cut deep, and Zulu had to resist the urge to climb over the table and strangle him. He had pride, just as everyone else did; He couldn't stand being compared to simple consumer goods.
'At least value me at the price of something cool like a warhammer or battle-axe, you bastard!' Zulu thought, utterly incensed.
"I'll remember your face, Roy, and I will come for you. Maybe not today; Maybe not tomorrow, or even a year from now, but I will end your bloodline at this generation."
"Is that so?" Roy asked calmly.
"Do you have a wife? I'd recommend you stay away from her for awhile. I'll eat her too if she's there when I come to claim your corpse," Zulu said.
Roy ignored his threat, "Okay, now that we've all come to the unanimous agreement that you, Claudia, are a wise beast, there's only a single thing I want to ask," He said as his face darkened, "Where the hell is Raya, you son of a bitch?"
"Why don't you cut open my stomach and find out?" Zulu said with a grin before pulling his hand out from under the table and launching the fireball directly into it.
The ball of writhing red flame detonated upon impacting the table. Splinters of singed wood scattered in all directions while Roy was knocked backward out of his chair. The three mages all immediately cast defensive spells to protect themselves from the blast.
Roy laid on his back with wide eyes. The front of his guard uniform was scorched to tatters and his eyebrows were entirely singed off. However, much of his skin had only been lightly burned by the wave of flames; After all, he wasn't completely without protection.
As the explosion occurred, a ring on Roy's index finger released a faint blue light. It was a magic ring, which protected its wearer from a minor amount of magical damage. It ultimately shielded him from the majority of the fireball's damage; Zulu had only formed a small-scale fireball after all. The ring wasn't full proof, as evident by the burns on his torso, but it saved his life nonetheless.
The guild hall had descended into mass hysteria, terrified by the explosion. People were fleeing out of the main entrance while others ducked under tables. Most of the men in the guild had Tier 0 bodies and were simply trying to make a living. Something like magic was beyond their comprehension. Even Cassie had quickly hidden under her counter.
As the smoke above the obliterated table cleared, Roy found that Zulu had vanished. Looking into the mass of bodies that crowded the doorway, he could only shake his head. The wise beast had used the frantic commotion to escape.
'It is indeed wise,' Roy thought.
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Zulu turned down a random alleyway as he sprinted as fast as his [Quick Feet] allowed. He wasn't sure if he was being chased or not, so he didn't dare slow his pace.
'They'll surely run to the front gate first, and I don't know how long those stubborn guards would force me to wait before they opened them; Going to the front gate is just too risky. I'll have to find another way out. As for ridding the curse, that can wait. I have the token and over three weeks remaining before it kills me.'
Thinking that, Zulu began to run in the opposite direction of the main gate. As he ran, he searched for sewers or rivers that could lead outside of the walls; However, he was having no such luck.
'Dammit! What do you mean there's no convenient exit? Who just makes a town with only one entrance anyway? Shouldn't there be another gate? Haa, even if there was, it would be too risky going there regardless. Luckily for me, the walls are only three meters tall or so. I'm capable of jumping roughly two meters in height with my Rank 2 strength to begin with. Now I just need to find some sort of platform to jump from, like a roof or something.'
After only a minute of running, Zulu came across the back wall of the town. The land along the edge of the wall was mostly sparse, consisting of only backyard gardens and empty fields of grass; However, that did not deter his search.
For another few minutes, Zulu frantically ran along the wall, looking for any sort of footing from which to jump; Yet, all he could manage to find was a decrepit wood cart.
'I can't risk wasting more time. Who knows when one of those mages will pass by here? This damn apple cart or whatever the hell it is will have to do.'
The cart was relatively low to the ground with only two rear wheels; It was the type of cart that would be pulled behind only a single horse. The wood was old and worn, and the wheel axle was broken. It was left alongside the wall with no goods to transport; It had seemingly been abandoned a long time ago.
Zulu pushed the back end of the desolate cart near the wall before flipping it over, leaning it upright against the wall at an angle. He had effectively turned in into a pseudo-ramp on which to run up.
'Alright, this should work as long I don't fall through the bottom of the damn thing.'
Zulu backed up a few meters before sprinting forward and up the overturned cart. As he reached its peak, he threw himself up towards the ledge of the wall. He flew up for only a short moment before gracefully landing on top of the wall.
'Haha! Perfect landing! Man, I'm kind of a badass,' Zulu inwardly mused.
On the other side of the wall was a wide field of golden wheat that gleamed under the sun. A lone farm house could be seen in the distance on the other side of the field.
Zulu looked at Noelenwood once more, watching the serenely humble town. Before he could turn away to leave, an ear-piercing shriek echoed throughout the streets.
'Ah, it seems they've found the house. I should probably go now.'
At that thought, Zulu deactivated [Corporeal Illusion], discarded his human clothing and dagger, and dropped down from the wall, landing as light as a feather on the other side in his fox form. Immediately after, he vanished into the field of wheat, sprinting away from the town.
'The entrance to Noelenwood is on its south side, and the Reinheld Woodland is to the north of Noelenwood; I just need to keep the wall directly behind me, and I'll eventually arrive in the Golden Forest,' Zulu thought.
As Zulu exchanged the cover of wheat for the cover of prairie grass, he glanced back at Noelenwood to make sure he was still moving in the correct direction. When he did so, his eyes widened in astonishment.
'What the hell! Am I being chased by the flash?'
Zulu was referring to the distant figure of a red robed mage following behind him. The mage was moving at a remarkable velocity, far beyond what normal humans were capable of. The mage was quickly gaining ground on him.
'Fortunately, he seems to be alone. This mage thinks that he can run me down like a dog?' Zulu thought with a grin, 'Just more Essence for me.'
It only took the mage half a minute to catch up to Zulu, bringing their separation to only a dozen meters.
The prairie may have obscured Zulu's body, but the mage could follow easily enough due to the path of rustling grass that Zulu left as he ran.
As the mage entered within ten meters of Zulu, he began charging up some sort of spell.
'Here it comes,' Zulu thought, triggering his [Fireball] spell.
The mage's long sleeves billowed backward as he released three ethereal slashes in the direction of Zulu's expected path; That is to say, a few meters in front of him.
Zulu instantly halted his sprint and froze in place. The abrupt stop was so immediate that even the mage had not predicted it; Zulu's ability to stop and change direction with his [Quick Feet] was top-notch after all.
The three wind slashes flew clear above Zulu's head before cleanly slicing a wide row of grass in half.
Zulu spun around and launched the fireball directly in front of the mage. It detonated at the mage's feet, vaporizing the nearby grass and leaving a one meter wide crater with singed dirt.
The mage hastily formed a wind shield, which managed to protect him from the explosion; However, as he dispelled it and the smoke cleared, he could not regain sight of the wise beast. He found that the prairie had grown still; There was no path to follow.
The mage warily watched the tall grass that remained around the scorched circle of dirt in which he stood. He listened carefully; However, he could only hear the prairie grass swaying in the gentle breeze.
As the mage questioned whether or not the beast had fled, the sound of writhing flames approached him from behind. He quickly created a wind shield and turned to block the attack; However, he found that there was nothing there! His ears had played a trick on him! Then the sound of flames ambushed him again; However, when he turned, there was still nothing there! Again, it came from his right. Then to his left. The auditory assault was endless and utterly maddening!
The mage spun in place with a wind shield cast in front of him, panicked by the situation in which he now found himself in. As he did so, the sound of flames grew in intensity. It was constant and overbearing. Every direction seemed as though he were about to be blasted by hell flame!
Before the mage could discern the truth from illusion, another wave of flames approached, this time from above. He looked upward to verify his senses. For once, his ears hadn't lied to him; However, it was too late.
Above the mage charged a fully ablaze snake. It descended towards the top of his head before devouring it with fiery maws. It traveled down his body and soon wrapped it entirely in a scorching inferno.
The mage screamed with a shrill voice. His red robe was rapidly burned away, revealing the old man that hid beneath it. He writhed in the dirt in sheer agony for a few moments, desperately trying to rid his body of the menacing flame. What remained of his hair quickly vanished under the excruciating heat, followed soon by his skin and muscle.
The mage's body twitched mindlessly for a few seconds before the flames ceased their relentless assault, fading away into the wind and revealing the charred corpse that they had concealed.
'Stupid man. Did you really think I was only capable of casting fire magic? You must've gone senile in your old age, underestimating opponents like that. It's truly a miracle you survived this long with such a careless attitude,' Zulu thought with a sly grin.
Zulu quickly ate the corpse of the mage before burying the remains deep under the dirt. He flattened the ground to remove any evidence of his [Fireball] before disappearing into the tall grass, heading towards his new home, the Golden Forest.
