266 Chapter 266: Hit and Run (2/2)

”…eh?”

All five dudes looked up, only to see a screaming fiery meteor descend upon them. Lilith's Hellfire Bear materialized and crashed onto them, crushing two screaming ninjas before they could escape. The other three succeeded in dodging, but just barely.

”Fuck!” the leader swore angrily as he tried to roll to his feet. He parried the Hellfire Bear's claws when it swiped at him, and was flung across the forest. He crashed into a tree, splintering the trunk and uprooting it. ”Kuh!”

Wiping the blood from his mouth, he tried to look for his surviving subordinates, but he caught sight of the two of them being mauled by a pack of Leo Minor. They were desperately flinging spells at the Constellation spirits and screaming. The lions nimbly dodged the fire and earth spells while slashing at them.

”You…!”

Hollering in fury, the leader cast his own spell and imbued his arms with what seemed like gigantic claws. Throwing his arm out, he unleashed three surges of sharp mana that scythed across the air and cut through the grass and trees. The pride of Leo Minor were forced to dodge, but one of them was cleaved apart by the razor-sharp spell.

”Tiger Claws!”

The leader lunged forward, both of his arms wreathed in deadly mana. The maelstrom of energies washed over another unfortunate Leo Minor, ripping him to shreds, while the rest ducked. The Hellfire Bear turned to face him, and bellowed as his intense energies ripped a bloody swathe through its protective fiery fur.

”I don't care what you are, I'll destroy you!”

The leader barreled into the Hellfire Bear, tearing into it. The immense Soul Beast roared in agony and swiped at him, but he agilely dodged it while retaliating with another slash into its face.

”He's really skilled,” Lilith muttered, impressed. I nodded detachedly, but I was more concerned with the amount of time we had left. Any moment now Ji Xuan or one of the higher-ups would be demanding a report, and realize something was amiss when they couldn't contact this particular team. Not to mention he would just inform them of our ambush and give our position away.

I needed to finish him off as quickly as I could.

”Leo, Regulus.”

”?!”

A golden pillar of light surged forward and slammed into the ninja leader. He cried out before he was sent hurtling across the forest, crashing headfirst into a tree. Before he could even get up from under the broken, splintered trunk, Leo pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with a huge paw. His claws dug deeply into the poor ninja leader's back, drawing blood.

”Ugh…”

The guy heaved and struggled, to no avail. Even as his mana swirled around him and he attempted to break free by slashing Leo with his Tiger Claws, the lion was protected by a sturdy aura reminiscent of the Nemean Lion's armored fur. He didn't receive any damage at all.

Croaking and gasping, he forcibly turned his head to see what happened to his subordinates. They were already fading away, after their blood tokens were sequestered by me and Lilith. Swearing under his breath, he glared at me defiantly.

”You won't get away with this!”

I snorted. ”Making me sound like the villain now, are you? You and your friends are the ones trying to murder me. You and your friends are the ones attempting to rape Lilith. We're just defending ourselves, and we even held back so as to not kill you guys, yet you're acting as if I'm the villain and I won't get away with it? Get away with what? Self-defense? Protecting myself from your assault? Are you an absolute moron?”

The guy went still and at least had the temerity to look embarrassed and ashamed of himself.

”We never intended to murder you,” he finally admitted. ”That was just us talking big. We would just have beaten you up and taken your blood token, but none of us ever actually thought of killing you. We're not stupid enough to commit such a blatant crime under the noses of the Federation.”

That much was true, I knew. Kids always loved to exaggerate and make threats like ”I'll kill you!” But nobody actually goes through with that. Seriously, did you guys really not go through school hearing guys make all these empty threats, but nothing worse than an altercation or a fight happened and nobody died?

Not to mention, the Federation was monitoring the entire training camp from outside the Spiritual Road. Unless the students wanted to be disqualified and arrested for murder, they weren't stupid enough to actually kill anyone inside the Spiritual Road. You all probably remember what happened to Mu Chen when he was forced to kill a bunch of people in the Spiritual Road after being led to a trap by Ji Xuan. Well, here we actually had modern rules governing us, and the perpetuators wouldn't be let off with a simple disqualification. There would be an enquiry, an investigation, and the culprits would be sentenced to death. Or at the very least, life imprisonment.

”I know. That's why I'm not going to kill you. But you have to be really deluded if you think I'm just going to stand there and let you guys beat me up without fighting back.” At my mental command, Leo sank his claws deeper into the poor dude's back, causing him to writhe and moan audibly in agony. Crouching, I then took the blood token from him. ”Thanks for this.”

”You won't be able to defeat Ji Xuan!” the ninja leader shouted. ”He'll utterly destroy you!”

”Then I'll do my best to avoid him,” I replied with a smile. ”Just like how I've eluded you guys this entire time.”

The dude howled in frustration before he disappeared, forcibly teleported out of the Spiritual Road. Rising back up, I turned to Lilith.

”All right. Let us get out of here before their comrades notice something is wrong and send some people to check on these guys.”

Just like incorporeal phantoms, the both of us melted away into the shadows and disappeared without a trace. By the time the ninjas' friends arrived, there was no sign that either of us had ever been here.