Translated by: TaffyGirl13
Edited by: Zaza, FatChinee, Surjit
TLCed by: Shiroyukineko
"Summon, Phantom Panther. " The bright-eyed thief quickly placed her palm on the Silver Grimoire, preparing to summon her third Beast.
"Too late. "
The triangular-eyed man who had just flashed out from the gate said in an extremely pleasing voice.
Without a single summoning movement, a small creature enshrouded in black flames appeared behind him. Yue Yang had seen illustrations of different types of Beasts in the books that Yue Bing had brought back from school before, and so he knew that the small creature in front of him was slightly similar to the illustration of a Fire Essence Beast. According to the description underneath that Beast illustration, the Fire Essence Beast didn't have a very strong attack, but it was good at creating fireballs. The Fire Essence Beast was a product of profound magic, and such evil life forms didn't exist in the Soaring Dragon Continent.
Seeing that the Fire Essence Beast followed the triangular-eyed man without a summon made all of the mercenaries clamor loudly.
Rather than gasping in awe at his strength, they despised it.
Both mercenaries and warriors had an unwritten rule. At the beginning of an official duel, both parties must use open and candid summons to face off.
Only despicable and shameless bastards would secretly summon a Beast to mount a sneak attack on their opponent.
This man with the triangular eyes called Xie Huo had definitely summoned this Fire Essence Beast secretly in Merry Forest's building. He had simply kept the Beast and himself hidden, and waited for Wu Yi to be at a disadvantage before conveniently revealing his Beast. In spite of the one-on-one face-off, the fact that there had been an interference was annoying enough. On top of that, he even summoned a Beast beforehand; this was really something that people couldn't put up with. If it weren't for the fact that the mercenaries recognized the bastard and knew that they were no match for him, they would've definitely charged over and killed him.
When another Devil Bee materialized behind Xie Huo again, everyone was so sick and tired of his dishonesty that they didn't even have the energy to expend on cursing him. Such a shameless bastard should be struck by lightning; such people shouldn't even be allowed to live in this world.
If Xie Huo said that his Fire Essence Beast hadn't been purposely summoned to go against the bright-eyed thief's Bewildering Butterfly, perhaps a few of the dumber mercenaries would have believed him.
However, now that black and yellow striped Devil Bee had appeared as well, even idiots would be able to understand what happened.
An exceptionally wretched moral character like this trash, Xie Huo, had obviously summoned monsters to especially counter against the bright-eyed thief. Combined with his earlier declaration of demanding the right to her first night, everyone suddenly felt that even if they, themselves, weren't good people and had done a mass of bad deeds, they were still practically saints compared to this Xie Huo.
They had seen such trashy moral characters before, but never such an extreme case.
An insect-type Beast like the Bewildering Butterfly was most afraid of flames and ice. The Fire Essence Beast could definitely kill the defenseless Bewildering Butterfly in an instant.
Also, the valiant Spider Witch's only natural enemy was the Devil Bee.
The Devil Bee could nimbly dodge a spider's web and was also unafraid of a spider's poison. Its stinger could paralyze the Spider Witch and even kill it…. Seeing Xie Huo's two Beasts, the bright-eyed thief began to tremble nervously. Following her command, the Bewildering Butterfly quickly flew up, preparing to return and fly back into the Halo Shield to be recalled back into the Silver Grimoire. However, it was all too late.
The Fire Essence Beast spat out a black fireball, which arched in a wide parabola and chased after the Bewildering Butterfly. Eventually, it exploded at the Bewildering Butterfly's wings.
"Boom!"
The Bewildering Butterfly combusted into scorched fragments, leaving behind scattered ashes and smoke.
Having lost the Bewildering Butterfly that was controlling it, the Rock Golem immediately began to move. It strode over and raised its enormous rock fists, smashing heavily into the Phantom Panther that the bright-eyed thief had just summoned. It wasn't very likely that its sluggish movements would hit the Phantom Panther, which was well known for its ability to conceal itself. However, the Phantom Panther also didn't have any way of countering the Rock Golem, and thus it could only dodge around quickly.
The Rock Golem's heavy fists struck the ground.
With an explosive, thunder-like sound, the ground began to tremble.
On the other side, the Spider Witch shrieked in fear and began to run as fast it could towards the Halo Shield. After a series of jumps, it finally managed to take cover within the Halo Shield before the Devil Bee could catch up.
Although it had managed to run away, it still couldn't stop trembling in fear. It was evident that the Spider Witch was extremely afraid of its natural enemy.
"So summoned beasts to fight like this. Interesting. " Yue Yang watched with great pleasure. He had finally gotten the chance to watch a battle between summoners using their beasts.
A duel not only requires combat strength but wits as well.
The beasts weren't all-powerful, and using them with appropriate tactics was the most important thing to do.
For example, a Bewildering Butterfly would never be able to beat a Battle Eagle, but it was extremely effective against a Rock Golem. The Spider Witch was the nemesis of flying-type Beasts, but the Devil Bee was the exception. On the other hand, the Fire essence Beast could instantly kill the Bewildering Butterfly with a mere fireball, but its actual combat strength wasn't even 1% of the Rock Golems.
After watching this duel, Yue Yang came to a conclusion.
For every monster, even a seemingly invincible one, there exists another that can subdue it.
There was no such thing as an unmatched, invincible Beasts in this world. There were, however, countless combinations of battle and countering tactics to fight against different Beasts.
Yue Yang now understood why warriors using Summoning Grimoires had such great advantages.
The reason was simple. Firstly, warriors with Summoning Grimoires all had an eternally loyal Guardian Beast that could be revived when it died. Secondly, with a Summoning Grimoire, the contracted Beasts didn't have many restrictions. They were able to utilize more Beasts to carry out counters as a battle strategy. In this battle, if it were not for Xie Huo's sudden interference, Wu Yi would have been ripped into pieces by the Phantom Panther in the overall clash of tactics.
As for now, the bright-eyed thief's situation was far from good…
"Hurry up and go. Wu Yi will soon summon an even stronger Beast; I can't hold on for much longer. " The bright-eyed thief was unable to appease the Spider Witch, so she quickly passed Yue Yang a delicately made scroll, "This is a 'Delivery Scroll'. If you open it and input spirit energy into it, you can release something similar to a typical summoned Beast. "
"Summoned Beast?" Yue Yang feigned innocence as he blinked at the thief with eyes as bright as stars.
"Ah, you don't even know how to summon a Beast?" The bright-eyed thief felt as if a bolt had just struck down on top of her head. She inwardly thought to herself, "Could it be that this brat normally spent all his time picking up girls? He doesn't even have a single Beast to summon?"
No wonder he had only just applied to be a mercenary a few days ago.
This time, they were doomed.
"You want to leave? It won't be that easy. " Xie Huo sneered.
He made an extremely strange gesture, and then used a dagger to cut open his palm, and dripped his blood onto an illustration.
The illustration flashed with a red light. Two specks of light shot straight up into the sky and exploded like fireworks, causing bits of red light to scatter in all directions. At the same time, a wave of thought was suddenly transmitted to Yue Yang's mind: Your enemy is forcing you to carry out a 'Death Match'. Before one of the two parties dies in battle, one cannot leave the perimeter of the 'Realm of Blood and Death'. Otherwise, God's punishment will descend upon you. All the meridians in your body will be ruptured and you will die. "
The bright-eyed thief's hands began to shake. It was evident that she had received the exact same message about Xie Huo's 'Death Match'.
Xie Huo had also needed to fulfill certain requirements to initiate this Death Match. His face was as white as a sheet of paper, and his bloody hand seemed to have been swallowed by some invisible creature. The wound constantly bled, and it even began to rot, releasing a vile odor.
"You should be honored that you are going to die for me, hahaha. " Xie Huo pressed his bloody hand onto the Fire Essence Beast's head. It exploded with a bang, sending blood and flesh flying in all directions.
"Good job, Keke, I can finally summon it. It is finally time… . for you to die. " Wu Yi began to bleed from all openings on his face. It looked extremely horrifying. His spirit power began to overflow, and the extremely powerful summon made his body deteriorate rapidly. The strange part was that the blood coming out of his body turned into rays of light that flowed into the red crystal that was in his palm. Finally, after the red crystal had absorbed enough blood and spirit power, it began to emit a demonic red light. The glow spread throughout the air, dyeing it a blood red.
The nearby mercenaries all began to feel a strange fear and the more cowardly mercenaries' jaws had begun to tremble uncontrollably.
The mercenaries shivered as if they were in a world of ice and snow.
The powerful Beast summoned with Wu Yi's blood finally appeared successfully after 3 minutes.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
A terrifying howl made the Devil Bee that was previously hovering above everyone's heads so scared that it fell to the ground. Trembling, it began to squirm and crawl around, seemingly unable to fly back into the air. Even the Spider Witch, which was currently hiding under the safety of the Halo Shield, couldn't withstand the fear. It turned into a flash of green light and voluntarily re-entered the Silver Grimoire. It had completely abandoned its owner and fled from the battlefield.
Yue Yang saw that Wu Yi had summoned an enormous bull covered with dark green patches of snakeskin and blood-red eyes.
The frightened mercenaries all scattered in different directions; not a single person dared to stay any longer.
Even the spectating warriors standing on the Merry Forest's balconies turned pale with fear. They cried out in fear, "Heavens, that fellow Wu Yi even went as far as to summon the Bronze Barbaric Bull. "
"Bronze Barbaric Bull?" Yue Yang curiously asked the bright-eyed thief, "Is this the legendary Bronze Barbaric Bull who had the Doom Eyes that could kill anyone with just a glare?"