Kotori watched Yooma leap forward and try to land a hit on the turtlelike Shu with his club. unlike last time where Yooma's attack left Shu damaged and near broke. His club struck Shu's armor and bounced off.
Dirt Spirit (Shu)
Race: [Greater Spirit] Age: 2
HP: 91 (+66)
Mana: 17
Agility: 78 (+66)
Strength: 85 (+66)
Defense: 93 (+66)
Skills: [Rock Bullet]
Traits: [Earth Spirit] [Stone Skin](New!) [Form Manifestation](Locked)
Yooma looked shocked
"It seems you've all grown stronger"
"Indeed," Kotori said as Shu shrugged off the blow. The roomed was extremely cramped as a result of Shu's and Umi's size.
Kotori gestured and Shu jumped backed smashing a large hole in the Earl's house and falling into the garden.
Kotori, Umi, and Amelie followed along jumping out of the house as well. Kotori felt her karma go down as a result of the property destruction and realized that the earl was likely not an enemy towards her.
"Sorry" She said looking apologetically at the Earl whose face was not pale after this sequence of events. She once again checked Yooma's stats
Yooma
Race: [Human] Age: 46
HP: 124
Mana: 50
Agility: 86
Strength: 75
Defense: 42
Karma: [N/A]
Skills: [Sword Smith]
Traits: [Pawn]
[Alright same as before] She thought. They were mush stronger now and her mana pool had grown. Before then they could barely keep up but now, they were likely an even fight if not able to completely overpower Yooma.
Yooma leaped out of the hole to trail after them in his hands two silvery katanas that shimmered.
"This doesn't have to end this way he said as he entered a readied stance."
Yooma gave off the air of a trained warrior compared to when that fought in the sewer Kotori could tell he was much more serious than before.
He didn't move. His blades were steady not trembling.
The area around the earl's house was in a commotion as the nobles who were out on walks quickly left the area.
Yooma was silent amidst this.
"Do you know what it means to be a pawn of the king?" Yooma asked calmly
Kotori gave a confused looked
He continued
"We are hand-selected warriors "Above me is the queen, the Bishops, the Rooks, and the knights."
"But I am the leader of the Pawns," he said
[Well, he's just a pawn] Kotori mused
[I wonder what the [pawn] trait does]
"Don't give me that look" Yooma said
"Even if you defeat me, you will have the other warriors hunting you down," he said
"A criminal as dangerous as you would not be given mercy"
Kotori was slightly intimidated but felt as though she and her party would be able to work it out.
"However…" he continued
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. You still have to defeat me first" He finished
He slashed toward them
Kotori immediately didn't dodge, but somehow, she felt something was off and took a step back.
Something whipped past her face. If it weren't for her small step back her head would've been cleaved in half.
She looked at Yooma and saw his blade elongated. They were slowly slivering back to their original form.
He smirked, "the nice part about magical blades, is that I make whatever I want."
Amelie held Kotori back.
"I will take this," She said her face giving a determined look
She walked forward with her mother's saber in her hand.
"Shishou, will you not let us go"
Yooma's expression soften
"Unfortunately, my loyalties were defined long before you were born"
Race: [Half Wood Elf] Age: 18
HP: 96 (+66!)
Mana: 0
Agility: 90 (+66!)
Strength: 91 (+66!)
Defense: 86 (+66!)
Skills: [Ninjistu]
Traits: [Wood Elf's Blessing]
Amelie jumped towards him. Her kick against the ground leaving a cloud of dirt. Smashing gouging the perfectly manicured lawn of the Earls garden
Yooma defended, due to the nature of his blade the mana that made them were quickly broken.
The swords broke and he instantly materialized a no-dachi sword in his hand.
He defends his blade going vertical. Shu shot a [Rock Bullet] towards Yooma but he quickly cut down the rock with the dachi.
"No" Amelie said "Just me"
Shu nodded understanding her.
Kotori began to see people approaching. It seemed the city guard was coming to investigate the commotion. They had been fighting for less than 10 minutes but the guards were already showing up. It was just the difference between being rich and poor it seemed.
The district guard was weak. They were well equipped, but ultimately, they were normal humans who had not activated skills yet.
Kotori let Shu and Umi deal with them. She gave explicit orders to not kill them since she was not willing to let her karma drop too low. Shu lowered the power of his [Rock Bullet] and Umi fought to incapacitate them.
[Hmm] Kotori thought
She was getting an idea. It had been a while since she feasted on humans and although she had never really tried to eat something that was still alive.
Bodies would leak mana once they died since the soul's physicals connection to the world is cut. That was how [Hunter] worked it would simply suck up existing mana. This is why Kotori thought the skill was weirdly named.
She wanted to try eating something that was alive. She walked over to one of the unconscious guards.
[Just a little taste right?]
She slowly activated [Hunter] and felt around the guard's mana. There was a thin cloudy layer surrounding a hard wall.
[Hmm] Kotori thought
While she could eat the thin layer it was more difficult to try and break past the mana layer
[is that the soul?]
The thin layer tasted like the residual mana that monsters would leave what she was going to tentatively call the "soul" which was much more difficult to try and break. It almost felt like trying to bite in a walnut.
"Urgh!" The soldier made a pained expression
That when Kotori realized if she ate the "soul" she would probably kill the man
She deactivated [Hunter]
"Sorry!" She said giving an apologetic bow to the man who was unconscious.