Chapter 80: Jungle From Hell
Boom!
Cadmus' Dragon Slayer formed a defensive strike. A shockwave born from the sudden strike fluttered Kyriaki's black & white tracksuit and her hair, pushing her back by two steps.
Her human-like golden iris glowed and the pupils turned to slits for a second, filled with amusement and scrutiny.
Kyriaki twisted her wrist and side stepped, pushing the opponent back and jumping back to secure a safe distance. She flicked her sword, testing her wrist. The earlier exchange had told her that her opponent was superior in strength to her.
'Do the thing.'
[Ding!]
[Fire Mane Lion
Category: Monster
Variant: Magical Beast
Rank: SSS-
Description: An aggressive type of beast lives around the desert or active volcanoes. Always can be seen with a Pride and known to never leave their habituate as they become keepers of their area. Fire mane lion bloodline is famous for their limitless growth, leading to kill on sight actions from lesser races. There are even historical records of DT rank Fire Mane Lions appearing. This rare monster is used as ingredients from many alchemy potions. The most valuable fur for fabric production and heart for special medicinal elixirs are high in demand in human domains. Be careful of
Kyriaki stared at the giant lion, the size of a two story building, after sending her sword back to the inventory. It had a yellowish red fur and a fierce crimson red mane. And it's crimson eyes…
Oh, those rage filled, fire burning eyes…
They were like the manifestation of pure rage as it fixed its gaze upon her.
Kyriaki very much liked those eyes.
She strangely wanted to see those eyes going dim, never to light up again. She wanted to see the fierce expression on the lion's face to melt into pain and despair.
'Wait a minute. Am I…a sadist?' Kyriaki blinked her eyes, her expression went blank for a second.
Roar!!!
A tremendous roar took Kyriaki's wandering attention. Kyriaki immediately recognized the crowd control skill in one glance.
[Ding!]
[You've been attacked by
[Lion's Flaming Pride
Rank: SSS-
Category: Mental
Type: Active Skill
Description: A mental type skill in the form of a lion roar. A crowd control (cc) skill dealing heavy mental damage to mentally weak or those of lower rank than the Lion. After getting hit, the target gets either stunned for ten seconds or completely loses confidence in fighting due to fear. The more they lose confidence the more the lion's strength, speed and regeneration boost.]
[
"Very well, if you want to play like that—"
Bam!
A pressure no less terrifying than the fire mane lion's erupted from Kyriaki like an awakened volcano, crushing a heavy weight on the beast's body.
The lion froze momentarily, eyeing Kyriaki wryly. For the first time it immediately understood the one in front of her wasn't prey, it was a predator just like it. Even more, it was an enemy it should be wary of. It felt it as primal beastly emotions; One wrong move and it would lose its life.
Kyriaki was far from a simple hatchling. Her dragon aura was already on the verge of transforming into
Usually, it took a hatchling five hundred years to arouse primal fear from their opponent with just their aura. And until they undergo their second growth pace, it wouldn't manifest like a skill either.
However, with all the experience of bloodbath and battle royales in her past life, together with her billion years of imprisonment and three different people's entire life's worth of memories, Kyriaki was different.
That difference led her to have natural killing intent, charisma, cold rationality and charm of a true dragon early on.
If she had unleashed Dragon Fear instead of current weakened aura, the fire mane lion would be running away with its tail tucked between its legs.
Both her and the lion understood that fact.
Hrrrrr.
The lion took a few steps back, its belly nearly touched the floor beneath as it displayed its wariness openly.
Kyriaki, unbothered, just scanned the beast with cynical eyes.
"Why is a mid-boss level monster at the entrance to the dungeon?"
The lion took another step. Clearly intend to retreat. No beast could dare to attack a dragon that openly showed who they were.
"Oh my, that won't do." Sensing the monster's intentions, Kyriaki smiled with a knowing look before sommoning…
"Hey! Are you serious?!" Theodoros shouted from a far, his expression that of disbelief.
Kyriaki glanced at the four hatchlings controlling the lion pride with their combined hatchling aura. Together, their pressure was decent, even surfacing Kyriaki.
The lion pride had circled them the moment they stepped into the dungeon. And Kyriaki had left them to take care of the entire pride made of ten lionesses.
Currently, not only Theodoros, but all the other hatchlings were expressing their disbelief in Kyriaki's choice of weapon.
"I've seen her do this often, but I can never get used to this." Euclid mumbled as he summoned his twin blades.
"What's wrong with a viola!" Kyriaki shot him a look before happily waving her 12 inch viola.
Yes. What Kyriaki summoned as a weapon wasn't Cadmus' Dragon Slayer, it was an elegant and sturdy looking viola.
"I always wanted to smash a viola on a lion's head while watching Animal Kingdom on TV." She mumbled to herself, recalling her past human life.
Meanwhile, the fire mane lion let out another growl bordered between groaning and regret before turning around to run away.
"Uh-ah…you can't leave now, kitty. Amuse me longer." Kiriaki lifted her free hand.
There wasn't even a chance to blink. Fine magic circles manifested around the lion like crafted from white opals. The arcane runes and symbols resembled a clock and hourglasses as it spun in place. Before anyone could register, five Multicolored chains, thick and sturdy, shot out and wrapped the lion in place.
The fire mane lion suddenly shuddered as if it was personally shouldering the burden of Time itself.
Roar!
Now completely soaked in fear, the lion trembled and helplessly looked towards Kyriaki without even daring to move. Its movements lessened by half.
That was the effect of manipulating Time. More than sentient beings, beasts like them knew how primordial this power was. Although still a 5th circle magic spell, it didn't weaken the grandeur of the element itself.
Tak-tak-tak.
Kyriaki flicked some magma came her way with her wrist and gracefully walked closer to the lion, inspecting it as if she was a meticulous merchant giving value to her newly acquired merchandise.
"By the way, you don't have a fire mane, though?" She tilted her head, examining luxurious mane that emitted a reddish yellow glow, harmoniously blending with the flames and magma around them.
According to her five years of academy life, Fire Mane Lions have two stages to their combat capabilities. In the first stage, it looked like this. Normal and common. But in the second stage, it used its ultimate bloodline skill
Kyriaki suddenly felt like she wanted to experience that beauty.
After all, what's the point of a second life if she walked the passage of time as a mere killing machine?
Snap!
Kyriaki snapped her fingers, dispelling her magic spell and releasing the fearful beast. She also retraced her dragon aura, smiling kindly, and failing to do so spectually. None would believe her kindness in a situation like this.
"Alright," She said, "Fight me with everything you got, Kitty."
The lion understood her. It wasn't an extremely intelligent beast, but coupled with a dragon's natural talent to communicate with any race, it understood Kyriaki's speech as well as her hidden intentions as if peeking to a clear water lake.
Hence, it hesitated.
"Who knows? Maybe I'll let you leave?" Noting its hesitation, Kyriaki shrugged her shoulders. Her golden eyes gleamed with a sinister aura, yet her calm demeanor hid it perfectly.
And that got a reaction.
Roar!
The lion roared. This time with more certainty and vigor, as if it was agreeing to her suggestion. Seeing this, Kyriaki chuckled.
"Right of first attack to you, Kitty."
Boom!
No sooner than she let out those words, the lion leaped towards her with terrifying speed. It turned into a yellow blur and pounced on her like it's life depends on it.
And it truly did.
Kyriaki calmly observed the path of the attack. Thanks to
She adjusted her balance slightly and shifted her weight to her right leg. Her leg rose and with a powerful motion. Time seemed to slow down for a mere second before a loud bang rang through the air. With the sound, it became apparent that she had kicked the lion right on the face.
Fire Mane Lion was sent flying to the side like a rag doll.
Snap!
Kyriaki snapped her fingers once again.
A hidden galaxy shone on the forehead of the beast. A handiwork of Kyriaki. When she trapped it with her Time Element spell before, she had marked the beast at that moment for later uses.
The space around the beast rippled. As if it was being thrown into a calm lake, the beast vanished leaving behind more rippled and a faint sound of water splashing.
The next moment, space over Kyriaki rippled the same way. She calmly took three steps back. In a quarter of a second, something blurry crashed on where she once stood.
"Again. Try your bloodline ability." She glanced at the colossal beast laying on the floor. It's red eyes fixed on her with a mixture of fear and resentment. She gave it a cold and commanding look before poking its face with her viola.
Hrrrr.
"C'mon. You can do better than that, Mighty King of the jungle from hell."
Grrrr!
The monster got on its feet with everything it got, its strong limbs, packed with sturdy muscles, twitched under Kyriaki's persistent gaze. It shook its head, the elegant mane ruffled with each move, displaying beautiful silk-like fur.
Kyriaki nodded, acknowledging the opponent's will to persist. Then, she disappeared from her place. The lion blinked, but didn't panic. It looked ahead to see Kyriaki staring at it with the same cold and calculating eyes, with her amused grin still decorating those seemingly innocent looking lips.
"Don't worry, this is for better observation. I'm too short to get a clearer look than from here." She just waved her wrist lazily.
The monster looked like its pride was crumbling. But what can it do? It was in Kyriaki's mercy.
Flashing its murderous fangs, The Fire Mane Lions called forth its bloodline ability.
Instantly, the delicate fur of the lion's body burned and disappeared from the sight without even leaving ashes behind. Its skin turned black and cracks appeared all over like a half cooled magma river. Lava dripped from those cracks, leaving the ground beneath with hisses and groans.
Its mane was already replaced by a dancing flame. Red and yellow like a small sun, threatening to burn down everything on its path.
"Oh, Yes." Kyriaki smiled. This time, there was no amusement or mocking edge to her smile. It was genuine, filled with admiration. "Wonderful. You look drop-dead georgus."
The lion's maw opened, its eyes gleaming with murderous intent that surpassed all fear and resentment.
There's a saying that goes like; A beast is always a beast.
And Fire Mane Lion proved it true.
A fire lance, as thick as two adult males' waists, shot from its maw.
Woosh!
The speed of the spell casting and approaching was terrifying. To a normal person, that is.
With just a whisper, Kyriaki turned into a ball of light before dashing upward. Although it lacked the true speed of light, it was still faster than wind or lightning element speed spells.
Boom!
The fire lance crashed the floor where Kyriaki once was, leaving an approximate of three meter crater behind. However there was no time to accurately guess those things as the Fire Mane Lions launched more fire lances at the small ball of light.
What followed was an utterly beautiful piece of art.
The light ball moved as if it predicted the attack beforehand. On the other hand, her path was unpredictable to the beast. Within just a minute, she had turned mid-air hundred different times, dancing to hundred different moves and rhymes with ease.
To an outsider, it looked beautiful like a falling star had come to life, dancing like playing a mischievous prank on an innocent child.
But the one who was being pranked didn't appreciate this beauty.
The Fire Mane Lion's Flaming mane flickered like a bonfire flame, sparks few around like petals. It took a deep breath and stomp its front paw on the ground, leaving cracks behind.
A massive wave of heat exploded from its body like a sound wave. It rushed outwards, even damaging the air and melting surrounding debris.
Kyriaki immediately turned back to her human form and cast a skill on herself. This skill manifested after she painstakingly brainstormed to manifest a unique space attribute skill. Although not in the unique skill category, Kyriaki felt this skill was quite rare.
It temporarily separated her from this dimension, pacing between this one and a randomly connected separated one somewhere in isolated cosmos.
Once the lion's skills ended, Kyriaki gracefully spun in the air and brought her body down with momentum. The viola, coated in holy power mixed sword aura, directly crashed on the lion's head.
Boom!
Instead of breaking apart, the viola held it all in, violently cracking the beast's head. It embedded deeply inside the head, smashing the brain in one go. The Fire Mane Lion had no time to even whimper before its body went limp.
The colossal body crashed down like a poppet cut out of strings.
Kyriaki landed in front of it skillfully, not a sweat on her body. She flicked her blood strained viola, her eyes still fixed on the lion.
It had lost its beauty, turning back to the former reddish yellow fur beast. With the loss of that majestic fire physique, Kyriaki's golden eyes also lost interest.
"Tsk…What's the point of beauty if you're too weak?"
[Ding!]
[You've slayed a Fire Mane Lion (SSS-)]
[ Core energy +0.5]
[Sub-authority:
[Collecting the Fire Mane Lion's skill;
[Congratulations! You've gained a new skill
"Done?" Ignoring her notification window, Kyriaki turned to her teammates.
Slash!
"Yes!" Theodoros casually gave a thumbs up, watching Sirius cut down the last monster.
"Lovely." Kyriaki also wanted to give a thumbs up after watching Sirius' flawless basic scythe arts. It looked more like an art than a killing technique.
"A mid-boss level monster appearing right at the star is suspicious, what are we going to do, team leader?"
Euclid appeared out of nowhere, blocking her view from Sirius and asking earnestly. His ocean blue mixed with blatant anxiety and jealousy. He didn't even pretend to hide them.
"I know," Kyriaki agreed with him as she brushed away his emotions and other unnecessary actions. "I suppose someone is very eager to gift us surprises."
"I don't like surprises." Euclid frowned.
"Neither do I." Golden eyes, previously burning hot like the sun, immediately cooled down like a cold hard yellow diamond.
"So what's the plan?" Kyrios stepped forward, sensing Kyriaki's emotions.
"We move forward," Kyriaki shrugged. "Eliminate every living being inside this dungeon. I'll allow all types of support if you face any abnormalities. Reporting can be done later, be sure to survive first."
Her words made the hatchlings tense for a moment.
Usually, they are forbidden from using support in missions. No artifact, no potion, no alchemy or blacksmithy gadgets as long as you aren't the creator. But five years ago, in the incident now known as the "Void trap case" they almost faced extreme difficulties due to that rule.
After that incident, Elysium re-established an old law that was used only in wartime. According to this law, EESOP students can break this no support rule in emergencies.
SSS+ dungeon instead of a S rank one is already categorized as an emergency. And since Kyriaki confirmed it, no matter how powerful they are, the hatchlings are bound to feel a bit of tension.
"Let's clear this dungeon quickly. I don't want to visit the Void again this soon." Euclid sighed.
The other four unspokenly agreed. And the next second they all vanished from where they stood.
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