The Hunt (5)

The young woman looked over the battle, firstly at the chameleon tiger and the ash lion high beast. She was brimming with power, but this time she was the one in control of her body. After confirming their strengths, she then stared at Kate. She already heard about her from Lilia and Shui, so she was able to recognize her easily. After a look at the girl who was the top candidate for the position of Shui's wife, she had to nod her head in approval. She could only fuse with the spear because it was made that way, but Kate managed to reach the resonance stage with her own ability.

"Master would be very proud." Lily said.

Kate didn't understand what Lily meant, but she felt awkward when she heard it. The way Lily looked at her made her feel as if she was meeting her future mother-in-law or something.

Lily continued after moving her gaze to the ash lion high beast.

"You can focus on the chameleon tiger, we'll handle the rest."

"..."

The young woman's cultivation seemed lower than hers, but Kate's instincts told her that the strength she possessed was no less than hers, and something about her aura made her seem reliable. After deciding to trust her, Kate's eyes moved away from Lily and quickly locked on the wounded chameleon tiger fast enough to stop it from getting away. It naturally tried to go into hiding, but its camouflage didn't work on the arrows that stuck out of it, so it had to give up.

The ash lion wanted to continue aiding the chameleon tiger, but it couldn't allow Ryan and Lily to be unmarked. Its senses weren't weak enough to not notice how dangerous Lily was, so it could only hope that the chameleon tiger would be able to last as long as possible.

Meanwhile, the chameleon tiger was completely suppressed by Kate. She might have been injured and tired, but the chameleon tiger wasn't unharmed either. With Ryan slowly culling the beast spirits and Lily fighting the ash lion high beast with a spear, the chameleon tiger knew that it had to take care of itself.

"Rawr!!!"

The chameleon tiger's skin gained a shade of red and its aura explosively increased. Kate didn't expect this surprise boost in power, but luckily her sharp instincts allowed her to narrowly dodge the chameleon tiger's claw when it suddenly reached for her head. That one hit could have killed her, so Kate sharpened her focus and prepared to force out any power left in her to kill the high beast. She could detect the vitality being sacrificed for the chameleon tiger's boost in strength, but rather than try to stall for time, she was determined to finish off the beast while it was at its desperate peak. Especially due to being in her resonant state, she had to end this fight in a way she could be satisfied with.

However, instead of getting impatient and rushing to attack, Kate settled down. While the tiger marks stayed on her face, her eyes were no longer red and her mind was clear. The swift swipes that the chameleon tiger unleashed with its paws were all seen by her eyes and she felt no hurry to evade each one. The chameleon tiger could now overwhelm her with its strength, and yet it seemed even weaker than before.

The chameleon tiger didn't understand how Kate was able to deal with its attacks so calmly, and its decreasing vitality made it angsty. It rained down a tempest of blows to finish her off, but the most it did was add a few scratches to her skin.

Seeing the chameleon tiger lose its composure, Kate waited for her chance. The danger had jumped, but she could still evade its attacks until her chance came.

Then, right after it pounced on her with its mouth wide open and its claw poised to kill, Kate shot wind bullets at its eyes. This wasn't enough to kill it, so while its body still had momentum, she swiftly and smoothly went under it and flipped it to the ground. Considering its bloody eyes, this flip did nothing in comparison, but it was enough to get it into a position where Kate could finish it off. Before it could regain its composure and use its other senses to detect her, she made a spear hand and plunged it into the beast's neck.

"Finally."

Once the chameleon tiger was finally dead, the red layer cleared from Kate's skin and she plopped down to her bottom. Fusing with the Red Tiger Paws had sapped her of her energy, while going into a state of extreme focus had drained her mind. While trying to catch her breath on the ground, she looked at how Lily and Ryan were doing, and had to gasp once more.

Lily pulled her spear out of the fallen ash lion high beast while Ryan was surrounded by the corpses of beast spirits. And both of them didn't have a single injury on their bodies.

Kate was stunned in awe of their strength. While she could handle beast spirits by herself, the way Ryan killed them made it seem as if they were common mutts. With his little strength, he was still able to kill each of them in one fatal blow.

'Who the hell are these two?'

Kate thought of herself as humble, but she knew that she was talented and everyone who knew her had to acknowledge it. However, these two, both with lower cultivations than her, seemed to be much more skilled than she was. Although they were older than her, Kate felt frustrated by the fact that they appeared so much better.

Both Ryan and Lily noticed her feelings, but they could only show wry smiles. In the first place, Lily was only borrowing Shui's power, and while Ryan was using his own strength most of the beast spirits were on the weaker side so they only had power comparable to early Soul Realm.

After taking the beast core from the ash lion high beast, the two of them started leaving, but Kate stopped them.

"Wait!"

Both of them stood in place before Lily looked back at her.

"What is it?"

"Um, shouldn't take more of the beast cores?"

"No, this'll be enough for us."

"Oh, uh, thank you."

She fidgeted while saying it, but the earnest bow that Kate gave to her as she expressed her gratitude put a smile on Lily's face.

"It's fine. You should be thanking the one who sent us."

"Huh? Who...?"

Right as Kate lifted her head to ask what Lily meant, the two were already gone out of sight. Meanwhile, Shui had exited the secret world and was having a telepathic communication with Lily.

'It's been taken care of, Young Master.'

'Thanks, Lily.'

'No, it's only natural that I aid the one who could become your wife.'

'Uh, yeah. Later.'

Shui laughed awkwardly before cutting off the link. He only finished absorbing the green orb on the last day that they could be in the secret world, and instinctively felt that Kate was in danger the moment he stepped out of the secret world. Shui was shocked to find out that Kate could use resonance with the gloves he made for her, but thanks to that he was able to clearly sense her presence. However, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't the boost he experienced in the secret world. Thanks to absorbing that green orb, Shui's soul had undergone a qualitative change so he could now spread his spiritual sense across the entire forest without him needing to use harmonic trinity.