Chapter 6: SSS (1)
"What you were fighting wasn't a monster… it was an exiled spirit," The boss spoke, her dark eyes reflecting the hulking wolf's face. "She's weakened… but still above A Rank Monster, so you did well surviving her assaults."
Hearing those words, Hunter was compelled to take another solid glance at the red wolf… how could this creature be even stronger?!
Her hide was as tough as obsidian…
Her speed was so crazy that she was literally teleporting in his eyes.
And she was as stubborn as him!
"Wait, her? Oh, that explains why the wolf isn't a monster. She's a woman!" Hunter mumbled carelessly, resulting in him receiving odd glances from the boss' companions.
Misunderstanding their gazes, Hunter coughed and corrected himself, "I, of course, believe you boss!"
The boss glared at him, "Call me boss once again, and I'll make you run to the Hunter First Union."
"Please, don't!" Hunter laughed as he saluted, waiting for the boss to continue her speech.
It turned out that the red wolf was an exiled spirit that the guild leader of Darkness had been hunting. That was further validated by the red wolf's glare as she eyed the smaller but stronger black-haired woman from head to toe, madly wanting to gobble her down.
Hunter inwardly said, 'I'll eat the boss, idiot.'
Which somehow had reached the red wolf's soul as she turned her red eyes to him, oddly looking at him. There was some kind of camaraderie between them, and as their goals aligned, she wouldn't mind working with Deathless to overwhelm The Boss and take a bite of her.
Unfortunately for this spirit, Hunter and The Boss had different plans.
Hunter swore to make the boss his…
And she herself casually voiced her next move, "You'll seal her inside yourself."
"Uh…" Hunter awkwardly scratched his cheek. "I don't have a sealing skill… and mana, either. I think I can't use normal skills."
That sounded like a huge problem, yet The Boss nodded and turned her eyes to her companion, who had reminded her about the yearly exam, "Charlotte. Seal Nakisha inside him."
"Huh? Just like that?" Hunter was bewildered to hear how his flaws weren't any problem to the boss and her companions.
In the same relaxed manner, Charlotte walked to Hunter and whispered, "Follow me."
Walking in her wake like a happy servant of a beautiful woman, Hunter silently looked at the red wolf whose muzzle was pinned to the ground by no one other than the boss, which allowed Charlotte to easily reach her fur.
Her slender little hand left a golden and burning mark etched on the wolf's flesh.
It looked like an Omega Letter.
"Those that don't rely on mana usually use different kinds of energy. Do you feel anything else flowing within you… or perhaps you already have a suspicion of your energy source?" Charlotte asked Hunter before giving him instructions to seal the red wolf.
Hunter nodded, "I think I use blood… but I can't be sure about it…"
"Sounds right. It fits your immortal theme…" Charlotte muttered weakly, then glanced into Hunter's eyes. "As your future senior, for I believe you will pass the yearly exam and Boss' requirements, I'll give you a piece of advice. Don't share your immortality with anyone. I'll go into details later as we set off to the Hunter First Union. For now, touch the seal mark with your hand coated in blood."
Nodding gravely to her, Hunter touched his torso, which was drenched in blood, before stretching his hand toward Charlotte's sealing mark, "Thank you for your-"
Before Hunter could finish his words, something within him stirred. He felt a rush of unknown energy going through him toward his hand, targeting the sealing technique.
What happened next shocked even The Boss herself as the golden letter broke and became replaced by the unknown grayish emblem, which leveraged Charlotte's skill and mana.
That gray emblem sucked the red wolf's hulking body into Hunter's body… then her entire presence disappeared off the forest.
A cold and chilling silence ensued at the scene.
-
The gray world that belonged to no one other than Hunter… was now invaded by someone else!
That someone turned out to be a tall, mature woman donned in natural clothes. Naked, she stood confused, with her long black and red hair caressing her back and ass. Even as she stood still, bemused and absentminded, with her red eyes slowly gaining conscience, the craziness was written all over her wild face.
"Celestia! You bitch of a whore!"
As memories of the wild had struck her, Nakisha swore at the woman that was the culprit of her fall. Before her fight with Hunter, she was in her peak form… but that black-haired woman had sealed her human form, forcing her to live in spirit form. And then, another seal scratched off her intelligence, limiting Nakisha to nothing but a feral monster that could only devour and drink blood to break those seals!
"You like playing with me this much, huh?! You set me free to devour monsters and humans… then you decided to seal me in… where the fuck am I?" Nakisha looked around, annoyed at the expanse of seemingly endless silver desert.
The memories of a silver-haired man that could cope against her wild form flashed in her mind… then bits of camaraderie as they were on the same boat confused her wild heart… at last, the wolf… cursed and spat.
"So you found another toy to play with," Nakisha then grinned as she looked at the gray world. "But this time, you took more than you can chew."
Feeling confident that the man her foe had found had the potential to turn Celestia into his bitch, the wolf sneered and relished the memories of her last fight, "We're on the same boat, mate."
And then… the silver desert shivered and rippled, revealing a bone paw. The skeleton paw scraped the grains of sand as though scooping them out, then more of its form soon loomed over the naked wolf woman.
It emerged to fight her!
And it was… the skeleton of a wolf whose form was as vast as Nakisha's.
"Good timing," Nakisha sneered. "Just as I wanted to beat the shit of someone, you emerged before me. What a good puppy you are."
The skeleton wolf growled at her, starting the fight.
Its gigantic head stretched forward to snap the bones and flesh of the intruder, yet it popped nothing.
Worse than a cockroach, Nakisha weaved around the wolf's limbs to get a solid position under his hulking frame. Her red eyes gleamed with killing intent as she did, her entire body glowing with power.
Kicking the silver sand, Nakisha shoot up at the coalescence of bones with her little hand balled, sending the entire bony form flying.
As the skeleton wolf fell onto his back, Nakisha darted across his ribs before hurling herself up, only to fall onto the skull with her legs glued to make a spear.
She tore through the yellow bones… as though they were thin branches!
"You aren't as fun as him!"
The skeleton wolf was rendered into a pile of broken bones in less than ten minutes.
Nakisha took the crown of this hill, perched like a vulgar with her back hunched and her now healed teeth munching on the bones, "Zombies are the best of the undead! Give me zombies!"
The desert didn't answer her.
Nothing rippled.
Nothing really happened… until the throne of bones flashed with bright silver light.
Nakisha quickly hopped off it and turned around, only to see the bones turning into silver sand. She had some of it in her mouth, which she angrily spat.
In the place of those bones appeared a maid gown on which Nakisha narrowed her eyes, "Ain't wearing this shit."
Those words triggered one of the hardest trails so far in the gray world, for more than ten skeletons emerged from the silver desert.
Wolf, eagles, humans… all kinds of skeletons circled around the naked wolf.
"How many of you do I have to turn into dust to finally get some flesh?"
The real feral wolf wasn't intimidated by the new challenge.
She gladly took upon it.