Meow...
Purrs echoed through the air, and the teens' faces turned completely ashen. They might have fled the restaurant out of fear for the samurai, but this group of servals had made them realize the true meaning of fear.
"Just look at those long teeth coming out of their mouths! They're so scary; they can kill me in one bite!"
"No, did you all see their claws? They're like daggers infused at the end of their fingers! Mommy, come and take me home!"
Hearing the small murmurs from the group of teens, Lucy's expression darkened.
'Seriously, we're all adults here. Why are they so pathetic?! Some of them are or will be fathers soon.'
Most of his life, Lucy had endured the Kyuketsuki's and his bullies' physical attacks. He never got the chance to train, which is why he was slightly frail. However, he had learned to endure and wait for the perfect moment to strike.
Lucy walked over to the teen complaining the most and grabbed him by the head. With a swift motion, he threw the teen at the servals before him. The servals rushed to attack, and their sharp canines dug deep into the teen's skin.
Before everyone looked away from the sight, Lucy opened his mouth, and asked with a detached voice.
"Do you know what the strongest beast is?"
No one replied to his words; they just looked at him with hatred-filled eyes. Nevertheless, Lucy didn't care about their feelings. He wanted to survive, and to do that, this group of teens had to work with him.
He answered his own question:
"The strongest beast are humans, and it will always be like that. The reason for that is simple: humans possess a profound mindset more than other creatures in this world. That mindset should always be semi-permeable, knowing what to absorb and what not to. However, you lot have a permeable mindset that prevents you from doing anything great. Now, your mindset is all full of negativity. I won't tell you to remove that negativity because, for a machine to work, it needs both negative and positive charges."
Lucy's words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, as all the teens gave him weird glances. After all, who would listen to the words of a person with no regard for other people's lives, especially the son of a criminal who slaughtered people?
The red-haired man face-palmed and moved upfront to confront the group of servals. Actions spoke louder than words, and if he needed these group to act, he had to show them that these creatures were no different from the dogs they kept at home.
His lips curled up into a smile as he watched three servals walk towards him.
'These guys are smarter than the guys behind me. They're not attacking because they're afraid of our numbers, and now that I'm going towards them, they're sending three to test the waters.'
Lucy put his admiration for the servals aside and watched as one of them rushed towards him. For a split second, his eyes rolled in fear, but the thought of why he was doing this played in his mind, and his body moved on its own.
The serval was in close range, and Lucy's hammer was useless. The only thing he had to depend on was the almighty power of his legs. With a swift kick, he sent the serval flying towards the group of teens.
They gave Lucy hate-filled glances for such a shameless act, but they soon cursed him more as he used the broad surface of his hammer to send the other two servals in their direction.
Luckily, the servals landed in the middle of the group, giving them a chance to besiege them. However, the teens were too afraid to even look the servals in the eye.
The growls coming from the servals made them feel like they were standing in front of hell's gates. Some fell to the ground, and others peed into their kimonos.
The servals weren't going to let up. One of them rushed at the only girl in the group, Tsukino. She looked like an easy target, trembling like a stalk of grass in the sea.
Seeing the wild cat lunge at her, Tsukino felt her world spin around. She wouldn't just sit there and let the serval make a meal out of her.
'Brother, I'm sorry! I made a promise I couldn't keep...'
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she blindly swung the katana in her hand. The crisp sound of the blade cutting through air echoed in her ears. Her eyes opened, only to see the serval's teeth biting onto her sword.
Anyone would tell that it would only take a few seconds for it to break, and Tsukino's grey eyes hurriedly looked at the group surrounding her, possibly asking for assistance, but all they could do was stare and watch like a bunch of zombies.
'Useless! All men are useless! I must save myself!'
Her free hand grabbed the katana from the sheath of the boy next to her, before swiftly swinging it to stab the serval's forehead.
Hot, red blood rushed over her white kimono, and for a second, she felt like throwing up. But soon, she realized that her small action had brought hope to the group. The other teens besieged the two servals left in the middle.
Tsukino turned to look in Lucy's direction, only to be greeted by a sight that made her insides loosen and vomit.
"Is he even human?" She couldn't help but mutter.
Lucy's black kimono was covered in the blood of more than ten servals. His hammer didn't need skill; all he had to do was swing it, and the hammer's mighty force and claws would take care of the rest. What made Tsukino's eyes dance in awe was that he was ignoring the serval biting onto his shin, and continued to swing his hammer to take care of the incoming servals.
"That's the right way to deal with them," Tsukino judged, before rushing over in Lucy's direction. "If he focused on the one biting him, then he would be giving the others a chance to sneak-attack him."
Although Lucy was bad news, her heart wouldn't let her watch him die. This was her first time using a sword, but Tsukino was able to swiftly cut the serval biting onto Lucy's shin, freeing him from the pain. But unlike what she expected, Lucy ignored her and continued to randomly swing his hammer to pierce the servals.
Tsukino shrugged him off and started to fight the remaining servals. Soon, the other teens joined in, making loud battle cries to give themselves motivation.
Lucy, seeing this, couldn't help but smile, as he used this chance to slip away from the group.
'In the future, I'll fight, and when they get absorbed into the fight, I'll use that chance to slip away.' Lucy commented in his mind.
He sat underneath an evergreen tree between the restaurant and where the other teens were fighting. His amber eyes finally got a chance to absorb the sight before him, and his expression crumbled.
'We're far away from any residential buildings, and considering that everything is green, that Katsura person must have used a Tama to move us to this location in such a short period.'
Lucy didn't know when the Tama was activated, but thinking of the events that had happened, he couldn't help but raise a brow in suspicion.
'Tama can do a lot of things, and considering the timing of the attack, one of those Tama Artists must be the ones who called these servals to attack us! Also, considering the servals aren't running away, even after so many of them have died, this must be a test... but what kind of test is it?'
Before Lucy could process the issue any longer, a loud growl echoed from the saw bushes ahead of the teens. The servals scattered apart like raindrops as a giant wild cat approached from a distance. Its dark hide was enough to cause everyone to shiver; worse still were the sharp fangs coming from its mouth and its bulging muscles.
"A stage 2 muscle puma." Lucy muttered to himself, his eyes fixed on the beast.