Chapter 68: Ia-nuna (2)
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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“Grrrrr…!”
The Black Mane was enraged.
It charged with the greatest speed and strength it had ever exerted, but its attack was blocked by a frail creature that looked as though it could be blown away by a single puff of wind.
For him, born a ruler, a tyrant, that fact was unbearably shameful.
If he hadn’t been an alpha, if he had lived by his instincts, abandoning his intellect like other monsters, the Black Mane would not have obsessed over a meaningless prey that was hard to catch and offered little nutrition. But he was an alpha.
He was an alpha Black Mane, born to adapt, evolve, and surpass the limits of his species by becoming stronger than any of his kind. Therefore, he could not tolerate his pride being hurt.
For a king, pride was something that must never be broken.
“Grrrrrrk…!”
The Black Mane, high in the sky, with everything beneath its feet, was accumulating power and speed using the elasticity of its mana plate, just as it had done before.
The charge from before was the limit of the power the Black Mane could display, but he was a being that thought, adapted, and evolved.
The moment his finishing blow was nullified, the Black Mane had obtained information about Faster’s Rabbit Burrow.
That was, Rabbit Burrow could only be used by making contact.
If contact was necessary to move the opponent, then he just had to make it impossible to make contact.
The Black Mane recalled a massive monster among the many powerful enemies he had met while growing up, one that inflicted damage on its opponent just by defending, armed with sharp thorns all over its body.
“Grind… Crunch…!”
The moment the image was complete in its mind, the Black Mane’s body began to evolve according to that image.
Its rough, thick black mane transformed, each strand of fur becoming a sharp, pointed black thorn, and the skin from which those thorns grew hardened like steel armor.
The evolution, as if it were wearing armor studded with thorns, took away the Black Mane’s flexible mobility, but in return, it gave him an armor that was not easily touched.
-Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
The weakened leaping power due to its heavier body was not a problem for the Black Mane, which had learned to use the elasticity of its mana plate.
The Black Mane, which could now accelerate with just elasticity even while standing still, transformed the last of its fur into a hard thorn and then launched itself towards the annoying Faster on the ground.
-Thwoooom!!!!
Although the Black Mane was launched using elasticity like a slingshot, its size, weight, strength, and sharpness were far too excessive to be called a slingshot.
But even this excessive charge was not enough to represent the alpha’s anger.
To release the Black Mane’s anger, there was nothing but to tear and crush the weak creature that had wounded his pride until not even its form remained.
-Whoooooooosh!!!
Feeling the rough wind with its fur that had turned into thorns, the Black Mane scraped its throat forcefully.
“Grrrrrraaaaaak!!!!”
The roar of the ruler, imbued with mana, shattered the weak objects around it, and the Black Mane, cutting through the mist of shattered glass, opened its jaws towards the creature that had insulted it.
“Just rest for a moment. Faster…”
But when he spotted the unconscious Faster with a line of bright red blood on his lips, and Ia Aris, who had carefully laid him down and was looking at him with dead eyes, the Black Mane reflexively canceled its finishing blow.
“Krrroong?!!”
-Thwaaaang!!!
With a bewildered cry, the Black Mane created a mana plate in its path.
The mana plate, with its supreme elasticity and strength, barely managed to repel the black massive body, and the Black Mane felt a great strain on its neck bones.
-Craaaaaash!!!
The repelled Black Mane crashed into the outer wall of a nearby skyscraper.
Because it was a skyscraper in Hypocity, which boasted the world’s best safety, it only broke the outer wall and did not collapse, but it only added to the shock for the Black Mane that was embedded in the outer wall.
“Grrrrrk… Krrroooork…”
Even in the shock that made its whole body tingle, the Black Mane, which had held onto its consciousness by shaking its head, peeked its head out from the outer wall of the building and looked at the white skinned female who had dared to stop it.
“Hmm…”
The white-skinned female, Ia Aris, simply looked back at the two eyes of the Black Mane, which was 3m tall and 8m long and clad in thorn armor, without a word.
“Grrrrrrrrr…”
At Ia Aris’s sharp gaze, the Black Mane felt an unprecedented anxiety, but at the same time, the annoyance that a small, weak creature that would be sent flying with a single touch was making eye contact with him, who was born a king, made him forget that anxiety.
-Rumble…!
The ground and buildings began to tremble from the two auras clashing in the air.
The Black Mane, while constantly emitting its aura and burning with fighting spirit, did not stop observing Ia Aris.
She’s not holding anything sharp. Bare hands. Small and delicate. Even her fellow creatures, who were holding sharp, large, and pointed things, couldn’t even scratch me. The aura she’s emitting is incomparable to anything I’ve faced so far, but that’s all. She can’t hurt me, who is armed with thorns, with her bare hands.
The Black Mane judged that Ia Aris was no match for it. Because the Black Mane’s common sense was telling it that she couldn’t win against him, who was covered in sharp thorns, with her bare hands.
“Grrrrrrrrr…!”
As the Black Mane had judged, there were not many Awakeners who could pierce the hardened fur of an A-rank alpha Black Mane with their bare hands.
Especially a physical enhancement-type Awakener like Ia Aris, who fought by simply strengthening her body with mana.
Moreover, Ia Aris had the handicap of having to fight while protecting the immobile Faster and a few other extras.
The Black Mane also knew that fact, so it judged that the fight with Ia Aris, who had reflexively stopped it just by existing, was worth a try.
This duel was, in many ways, a one sided fight, a fight whose outcome was decided before it even began.
-Grrrrrrraaaaaak!!!
The intelligent Black Mane wolf kicked off the outer wall of the building and leaped.
But the direction of its leap was not Ia Aris, but the empty air. To be precise, it was the mana plate it had created in the empty air.
It was now the Black Mane’s signature move, elastic acceleration, but Ia Aris was just watching it.
Because Ia Aris, who had people to protect right next to her and a few other extras, could not leave her position.
The Black Mane, who had even figured that out, leisurely and carefully accelerated its body for the strongest charge.
-Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Watching the swift wolf, whose bus sized black massive body looked blurry, Ia Aris silently clenched her fist.
-Thwoooooooom!!!!
-Kwoooooooong!!!
At the same time, the Black Mane, which had accelerated to its limit, launched itself towards her.
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His insides were a mess. He looked fine on the outside, so I thought he would be okay. I shouldn’t have. The only thing I have over the other S-ranks is that I can personally treat Faster. If I can’t even do that in time, what am I even trying to do? What advantage am I trying to gain!
Ia Aris couldn’t control the anger boiling up in her chest. From the moment Faster had vomited blood and collapsed, she had been unable to maintain her reason.
And yet, her face remained coldly frozen.
What am I even doing? Why didn’t I focus more on his words that he was in pain? I just looked at his seemingly fine face and was relieved on my own. And in the end, I made him vomit blood and collapse. I could have prevented it before it happened. I could have not created the dangerous situation in the first place.
Her clenched fist tightened even more. Her nails dug into her palm, and blood dripped, but her unique healing ability quickly healed her palm.
At the same time it was healing, however, her nails dug into her palm again. In that moment, her palm became covered in blood.
Even as her palm was being ravaged by her own nails, her face remained expressionless.
This doesn’t even hurt. The one who’s really in pain is Faster. Faster’s pain is my pain. It must have hurt a lot. His insides were a mess, and he vomited so much blood, so of course it would hurt. Even in such pain, Faster greeted me brightly, smiled for me, and called me nuna. He even held my hand, and blushed shyly at my stroking. For me. To express his gratitude to me, who had run to him in the middle of the night.
A delusion, different from the truth, swelled in Ia Aris’s mind.
In fact, Faster’s insides were a mess due to the backlash from using the red and blue sparks in a desperate situation, but he hadn’t felt any particular pain.
He had just vomited blood and fainted before he could feel the pain.
But Ia Aris, true to her nickname of “crazy bitch”, began to run her despair circuit at full throttle on her own, and in the end, she even came to think this way.
Before he collapsed, he definitely… said he trusted me. Faster said he trusted me. Yes, the only person he can trust is me. It was the same last time, wasn’t it? He said the only person he could trust was Ia-nuna. Yes, I am the only person Faster can trust. But what did I do? I betrayed Faster’s trust that I would treat him.
Faster had definitely said he trusted Ia Aris, but he had never said he trusted her that much.
“I’m sorry, Faster. I forgot for a moment. I was just so happy to see you like this in the middle of the night… No, no. I won’t make excuses. From now on, I will not betray any of your trust. Just trust me one last time. Okay?”
Ia Aris, who was muttering with unfocused eyes, was showing a madness sufficient for a normal person to scream “crazy bitch”. But there was no one watching her now, and the only one watching her was a tens of ton wolf type monster falling vertically from the sky.
-Kwoooooooong!!!!
Ia Aris regained her lost focus and faced the large, thorny black wolf. It was clear that her fist would be torn to shreds if she faced it with her bare hands, but to her now, such things were not particularly important.
What was important to her was to quickly take Faster home, lay him in bed, and nurse him with utmost care.
In that respect, the thorny wolf in front of her was nothing more than an obstacle in her way.
“Get lost.”
With a single word of dismissal, Ia Aris, clad in white mana, struck the wolf’s jaw with all her might.
-Crack. Crunch. Snap. Crackle!
Starting from the jaw, all the bones in its face were crushed to powder, and the vital parts protected by the bones were turned to mush. At the same time, the thorns on its face pierced Ia Aris’s fist.
Even though her fist was pierced, her expression did not change.
As long as she could crush the opponent’s face and turn its brain to mush to kill it, she didn’t care what happened to her own hand.
-Craaaaaash!!!!
The black wolf, sent flying by her fist, crashed through an entire skyscraper and became what was once a Black Mane, its head no longer recognizable.
-Rumble… Craaaaaash!!!!
Ia Aris, without even a glance at the monster she had killed and the building she had destroyed, caressed Faster’s cheek with her instantly restored hand.
“Faster, it’s all over now. Let’s go to nuna’s house. You trust nuna, right?”
Faster furrowed his brow and trembled at the question he couldn’t hear because he was unconscious.
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