Chapter 62: Cat Ninjas

As a team, we have defeated 8 other disciples so far. 7 for me and 1 for Randy, although I don't know about Scarlet and Alice. They could've taken out some disciples for all I know.

Randy and I were searching for the last Iron Defense Squad member, who is probably wandering alone at the moment. He was leading me to where he fought them earlier, and I was careful of my surroundings since I don't have my mana barrier protecting me.

Then, I heard the barely audible footsteps around us. I was naturally startled and stopped Randy from walking any further.

I looked around everywhere, vigilant of an ambush.

I don't know how many they are so I decided that there must be four of them. If there are four of them, then that must mean that this might be the Feline Team, an all-female group.

"Randy," I whispered, warning him of the opponents in the shadows.

He nodded, "Yeah, I can also feel their presence," He whispered back.

Taking out six red horizontal bombs, holding 3 in each of his hands. Then, before throwing them, he yelled, "Well, it's party time!" He threw the bombs everywhere, and as they exploded, I disappeared. These bombs dispense a large amount of smoke after being thrown, which is a lot more useful than you could imagine.

I heard loud coughing behind the trees and immediately knew that there were enemies there.

Using my stealth, I slowly approached the person behind the trees and when I was already near her, I jumped and grabbed her throat with both of my hands and pushed her to the ground!

I saw a brown-haired girl with shiny yellow eyes, who was quite frankly, scared.

I didn't give her any mercy as I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the middle, where Randy was standing.

"L-Let go, you stupid baby!" She yelled, gaining the attention of her teammates.

Annoyed, I pulled her hair even harder, making her scream in pain.

I stood in the middle of the Feline team members who were hiding behind the trees, and said as I smirked darkly, "Look! I got your teammate here, and if all of you don't surrender, I will torture her right in front of all of you! Do you think I won't do it, huh!?"

To make an example, I stepped on her shoulder hard and dislocated it.

"Kyaaahh! It hurts! Please stop!" She yelled in pain, begging me to let her go, but I simply looked at her coldly.

No, I am not enjoying this, I am even disgusted by it. But I have to do this because cat demi-humans are known to be sneaky assassins, or, what they prefer to call themselves, "Ninja". If I remember correctly, they are hired killers, either by other demi-humans or humans who want them to do the dirty jobs.

Likewise, they use these things called "Ninjutsu", "Taijutsu", and "Genjutsu", just like those of the fantasy novels I read.

Ninjutsu is just a spell, taijutsu is just a fighting style, and genjutsu is just illusion magic.

They have many subversions of those "Jutsu" thingies, but I don't care about that. I am wary of them because all of them are cunning bastards. They could poison me when I'm fighting them, and my skin isn't exactly impenetrable. And, like me, they fight dirty, maybe even dirtier than me!

Frowning as I didn't get any response from, I said, "If you all don't come out now to surrender, I will injure her enough that she'll never be able to heal from it! As long as I don't kill her, I will be able to do anything I want with her!! C'mon, c'mon, come out already!"

I was smiling darkly, feeling their horrors as I stomped and stomped on the poor girl's shoulder.

"Aaaahh!! Sisters, sisters, help me!" She tried to beg for her teammates to help her, yet she didn't see a shadow of them.

Suddenly, I realized, their presence was already gone!

"Hahahahaha!" I laughed at their insanity to leave their teammate here!

"I should've known; these ninjas aren't loyal to anybody! Hm, hm, hm, how about it, girly? Would you like to surrender now or later, after I torture you?" I said, looking down on the despaired teen, watching as she slowly became downhearted.

"Hey, don't worry," I said with faked worry, "Here, I have this pill that will heal your injury. I'm sorry, but you'll have to retire now," I put a rejuvenation pill in her hands, and, with a chop after seeing her confused face, she fainted and disappeared from my sight.

I turned around to Randy, and sighed, "Hais, I could've gotten them if they were a bit emotional!"

He looked as if he was uncomfortable, and said, "Did you have to do all that? She didn't even hurt us, yet you stomped and dislocated her shoulder!"

"Hmm, yes, she didn't hurt us, but she could've. I am not merciful, Randy, and I think you know that. Besides, this is a tournament with only a few rules in it, they should've expected this before marching into this," I said, harshly.

"But imagine if this happened to Scarlet or Alice!? Would you still say that!?" He said, almost yelling at me.

I replied with, "Of course I'll kill the ones who did those to them. It's as simple as that."

"You're a hypocrite, Auguste," He said.

Hmm, I didn't realize that before.

A hypocrite, huh…

I simply said, "Heh, sure, let's just go with this. What am I gonna do about it anyway?"

I always believed that everybody in this world is a hypocrite. By reading the history books, I saw the most famous figures in the past going against their beliefs.

For example, a pope who swore to do good and nothing but good. Lo and behold, a few years later, he turned out to be a pedophile and a sadistic maniac who tortures people for fun.

He was a hypocrite, but that's a bad comparison.

Let's try another.

What about simple things? Every person in the world has advised others about something, and yet, even if the one they told their advice to listens to them, they will never listen to their own advice.

Isn't that kind of hypocritical? I judge them even though I'm a hypocrite because that's what hypocrites do.

But, even then, hypocrisy is not that rare in people; it's most common.

Hypocrisy is wrong, yet it is one of the natures of intelligent creatures like humans.

I carelessly smiled at Randy, and said, "C'mon, stop dwelling on useless things. Let's go and hunt for more points!"

He just shook his head and sighed before saying, "Let's find Alice and Scarlet. I became more worried about them when I said that earlier."