Guoguo's golden fur coats him to look like a little mud-covered monkey, his huge ears are perked up and twitching as he stirs awake.
"Go away..." Richard is furious, this cheeky creature had spotted from just a glance that he was faking his slumber. Seeing its smug expression, Richard got even more annoyed. Such a loving moment destroyed, all the romantic atmosphere was gone.
"Guoguo...." The tiny creature murmurs, sticking out its pink little tongue and making a goofy face.
"If you don't leave, I'll smack you!" Richard waved his palm threateningly.
Guoguo leans its dirt-covered face closer, a provocative expression on its face, as though challenging him to do his worst.
Underneath the huge moon studded with craters, hung above the bamboo forest, Richard and Guoguo endured an intense staring contest. Richard knew that this little guy understood his meaning very well and kept dredging up threats one by one, uttering them in a low voice as though making blackmail demands.
Guoguo gave an eerie grin, raising a small paw.
"What are you planning now?" Richard glared, wide-eyed.
Guoguo gently poked Helen in the waist.
"Ah..." Helen cried out, clutching her waist and twisting her upper body to see Richard who was tugging at Guoguo's face.
As soon as Helen awoke, Guoguo bit into the feather dress, dragging it as it darted off, moving as fast as a rabbit rushing to be reincarnated.
"Richard!" Helen exclaimed in delight, "You're awake? When did you wake up?"
"Uh...." Richard looked at Guoguo standing smugly at the edge of the bamboo forest clearing and nearly fainted.
"What is it, my dear Richard?"
"Helen.... Helen...." Richard felt like he was on the verge of breaking down.
"Where is my feather dress...?" Helen's voice became as low as a mosquito's hum.
Richard pointed out to Helen where Guoguo had dragged the feather dress.
Guoguo, realizing that both were looking at it, became increasingly proud and started to dance and prance around.
"What is it doing?" Helen cast Richard an exasperated glance, mixed with affection.
"It's dancing." Richard said, not even having enough energy to lift his head.
"Dancing? I know that Frost Snow Picca beasts love to mimic, but are you sure it's dancing?" Helen looked at Richard, her smile somewhat teasing.
"Is the dance taught by you, Richard?" Helen giggled, pressing her hand over her mouth, "It's quite comical."
Richard pinched his nose and chuckled in embarrassment.
"I only danced once, who knew it would pick it up and..."
Richard felt like his reputation had been completely ruined by Guoguo, he even fantasized about killing it to shut it up.
"It's a bit like the Harvest Dance the witches in our place perform when they pray to the gods." Helen stood up, "I'll get your feather dress for you."
"No...no...no..." Richard hastily got up, "Don't. If you try to take the dress, it might get angry..."
"Hmm?" Helen looked at Richard, puzzled.
"You have to say 'Yalaso'. It only stops when you say that. If you don't say that, it sulks and refuses to eat." Richard explained.
Helen clapped her hands, bent down towards Guoguo, who was wiggling its belly, and uncertainly said "Ya~~la~~~so~".
"Oooh~~ Mazahi!" echoed Richard, as he yelled on the side like a booming bronze bell.
Helen looked at him with a question in her eyes, then at Guoguo. The little thing had just finished her dance with a bow and a pleasant hiyada, then ran towards Richard, jumping into his arms.
Roughly pulling on his feathered garment, Richard grumbled as he both lovingly and angrily pinched Guoguo's cheek.
"Richard, what's this thing on your body?" Helen asked while touching his neck. There was a clearly visible red beast tattoo on it, which felt ominous to her.
"It's a tattoo." Richard was also perplexed, wondering why the invisible ink of the tattoo was not fading off.
"There's something I forgot to tell you..." Helen started seriously, "In Bimon, tattoos are considered as sacred as family crests. Only warriors with military merits are allowed to have tattoos. As the Altar Sacrificial Ceremony servants, we are servants of the War God. Having tattoos without reason will earn you criticism from brave Bimon warriors, even the military will have an opinion. Richard, it's better for you to keep your tattoo covered in the future and not let people see it casually."
"Don't worry..." Richard replied, his face flushing deep red.
A somewhat awkward tension filled the air.
"Why did you just..." Helen started, intending to share what had transpired between her and Richard. After hemming and hawing for a long time, she still couldn't express it. In the end, she made a vague comment instead.
"How would I know?" Richard complained, feeling wrongly accused as if he was Yue Fei at the wind pavilion, short of just taking out his own heart to prove his innocence.
"After eating that tortoise egg, I don't know what happened. My blood felt like boiling hot water, churning so much that I thought I was going to lose my mind." Richard grumbled.
"I'm also suspicious about that sub-dragon egg," said Helen, her head bowed deep in thought."Usually, a magical beast egg of a sub-dragon should be harmless. But, I am not sure about this model's origin, so..."
"I feel a bit strange, but I can't quite put my finger on it," Richard admitted, feeling weird about himself.
"Richard, your symptoms are a lot like something that can happen among our Bimon warriors..." Helen seemed to have made up her mind, "Although I can't be sure, it really seems like..."
"What kind?" Richard asked.
"Berserk." It was as if Helen found her own words a bit silly, she let out a self-mocking chuckle: "The Bimon witch doctors can devise a potion using dragon's blood to trigger berserk. Since this model has dragon's blood, and you've eaten its egg, you might experience an incomplete form of berserk."
"Berserk? You mentioned it before, isn't it a kind of variation that happens among Bimon warriors when the War Shaman is chanting the war song?" Richard asked.
"Yes," said Helen. "Once the Altar Sacrificial Ceremony is promoted to the War Shaman, you can learn various types of war songs from your mentor. The most complicated among them is the 'Berserk War Song'. It allows Bimon warriors to instantly unleash twice their power and destructiveness. They become completely immune to magical attacks, turning into relentless killing machines. This is the most important use of a shaman to the Bimon army..."
"Continue..."
"But, the 'Berserk War Song' has obvious side effects. Some Bimon warriors with poor constitution might faint and even...die...after accepting the 'berserk' from the 'Berserk War Song'. It's a kind of war song that overdraws both physical and mental strength, so it is strictly forbidden to sing this war song unless absolutely necessary in the regulations of the church. If it were not for us being in a state of potential confrontation with humans, who boast excessive quantity of military and the overpowering strength of mages, the Great Sacrifice Team of the temple might have long since sealed off this war song."
Well, that was quite interesting to Richard.
*********
Background Setup: Bimon Witch Doctor
The witch doctors in the Bimon world have two roles. The first role is a Wizard; they excel in Prophecy Method. The so-called guidance Helen mentioned earlier, which led her to her lover named Richard is the result of a wizard's Prophecy Method. However, the Prophecy Method is often unreliable, but the simple Bimon Beastmen are not aware of this fact.
The second role of a witch doctor is a physician. They can cure some simple diseases. Since there are no priests like in a human world, the role of a witch doctor is quite critical.
Witch doctors are also skilled at extracting poisons and creating peculiar inventions. An ancient Bimon proverb says: the curiosity of a witch doctor can kill a Garfield (It means a cat here! Hehe).
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The word count is a bit low, I apologize, please cut me some slack. It was mainly to comply with the new regulation where a book will be taken off the chart if it exceeds 150,000 words. Over six days, I've posted over 90,000 words, no other novel has done this on Qidian this year.
Tomorrow, a big secret will be unveiled! The Curse of the Magical Beast!
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