CHAPTER 367: I DECLARE SINGLE! (1/2)

Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, our party successfully made it out of the castle. Even though Meisian was still hot on our tails riding her Elemental Segregation Platform, its speed wasn’t comparable to ours at all. There were a few cats here and there who got in our way when they heard Meisian’s calls, but they were all promptly smacked away by Sasani and Sinmosa.

On average, the Purgatory Shadowcats were at the level of Two-stars to Three-stars. Four-stars was an elite, while five was a captain’s level. Once they reached Six-stars, they became an elder. Spearheading our escape were two Five-star Cerberuses, barring any interference from their Elders’ Consortium, nothing could really stand in our way.

For the most part, that held true all the way till we made it to the city gates. It was at that point that we finally met with the advance party of the Elders’ Consortium. There were two elders blocking our exit, along with seven other elders who surrounded us. These elders were roughly the size of a wolf dog, but based on the aura they emitted, those Five-stars we met before were nothing compared to them.

Besides their sizes being roughly equal, there was also another similarity shared by these nine cats, and that was the hand of black cards floating beside each of them. These cards were all completely black, made of a material that seemed neither like wood nor like stone. Even though their material wasn’t exactly clear, it was still obvious to the casual observer that they were hefty.

In the meantime, those dozen or so guardcats who were previously distracted by the Vengeful Soul finally caught up to us under the guidance of that larger guardcat captain.

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“Esteemed Overlord, we’re here…” They casually greeted Meisian but were immediately snapped at by a moody Meisian. “What took you all so long?! Bunch of useless cats! What am I even feeding you all for?!”

One of the guardcats quietly mumbled to himself, “It’s not like the Ashen Fur Mice we eat are raised by you. Our Meowberries aren’t grown by you either…”

“What did you say?”

Hearing as sharp as her pointy ears, Meisian picked up on that poor guardcat’s griping. “I dare you to say that again!”

“…” With nowhere else to hide from her withering gaze, the guilty cat lowered his head and answered, “We were just saying, your Highness, the great Cat King, is absolutely right, we are all just a bunch of good-for-nothings…”

‘I completely understand if you look down on yourself, but why did you drag your companions down with you as well…’

The other guardcats immediately glared at him. “I mean I’m the good-for-nothing, I’m the useless one. My colleagues have nothing to do with this…”

“I say, didn’t I tell you not to disturb us unless there’s something important, little Meisian?” As if he didn’t hear that praise at all, one of the elders blocking the exit plopped himself on the ground and gave Meisian a rueful stare. Then with a nod of his head, he sent one of the black cards flying down onto the ground. “A nine!”

“A nine right from the start! Do you even know how to play?” His companion rolled his eyes at him before eyeing his own cards. “Pass.” He sighed.

“A nine from the start…that’s definitely a bad hand…I’ll pass as well.” One of the elders surrounding us five meters away said, equally as exasperated by that cat’s opening move.

“Pass.”

“Pass.”

The next two elders passed their turn as well.

“A one.” The elder who threw down the one card sneered at the cat who threw down a nine. “Let’s see you throw out that cat card to beat my one!”

“There’s no need to wait for Masrow to throw out the card, I have a cat card that can beat you… None of you plan on throwing out another card, right? In that case, I’ll throw out a pair of threes, and if no one has a pair of fours…”

“Hold it.” The cat who threw out the nine at the start, also known as Masrow, interrupted his companion and said, “I have three eights here.” As he said that, three of the cards above him immediately flew down onto the ground, revealing the number eight carved in Devil language on each of them.

Having made sure the other cats had no moves to make, he threw out a straight of four, five and six. Then, with a happy wag of his tail, he declared, fully confident that victory was in paw, “I declare single!”

Declaring single meant that he only had one card left.

“Hey, whoever can answer that, better answer it now or the game’s over.”

“That’s right, that’s right. If you have a five six seven, you’d better play it now. Even a triple is fine, just stop Masrow. I swear it’s like he cheats every round, blast it.”

“He only has one card, if anyone can play right now, do it. There’s no way he can make a move after.”