Chapter 74: Night of the hungry wolves - something's off

When Cranberry and Zombie arrived at the mansion, the defenders of the Prides' were in the middle of getting decimated by the attackers.

The master and servant nodded to each other and charged at the werewolves from the flank.

When Cranberry's bat smashed into the side of the monster that was about to devour a butler, the red-haired girl frowned.

The werewolf that got their arm broken yelped, but quickly shook off the pain and clawed at her with his healthy hand in retaliation.

She smacked it away using the counter skill and with mana swirling around her baseball bat, she delivered a devastating overhead strike.

The werewolf got pummeled into the ground but haven't died immediately.

"Wait... You're the girl...? Why...?"

Their dying cry got drowned into the sound of battle and Cranberry already moved on to another opponent.

On the other hand, when Zombie rushed at the werewolf, he kicked the monster so hard in the stomach that all of its intestines exploded out through their back.

Yet, when the blue undead spun around and used the same skill and the same amount of force on the next opponent, the struck werewolf gasped for air and got pushed back a few steps, struggling for air, but still very much alive.

"Graough? (Eh? You're strong! Are you the leader?)"

Zombie growled in shock.

"Who? Me?"

The werewolf looked at him and laughed through the pain.

"As if! I'm just a..."

*CRUNCH*

Zombie's roundhouse kick enhanced by the superbia skill connected and broke the werewolf's neck before they could finish talking.

"Graough...? (Wait a second... Was he talking to me...?)"

Only after he finished the werewolf, Zombie groaned in realization.

"Zombie! If you have trouble dealing with those mutts, try aiming at their necks..."

Another werewolf's body dropped on the ground and Cranberry stepped over it walking towards her servant.

"Oh, I see you've figured that... OUT!"

She smirked but had to dodge and countered another monster aiming at her vital spot.

The thrashed werewolf got turned into a bloody pulp, causing Cranberry to frown.

Zombie ran to her side, covering her back.

"Something's not right. Some of them are weak and some of them are strong. But only the weak ones always attack first..."

Cranberry frowned.

"Graough! (Yeah, I know what you mean!) Graough... (It's weird...)"

Zombie nodded, when...

"Even after all this time, you still show this idiotic blind devotion...! System is a mere thing to be exploited! Haven't I proven it to you before?!"

A large voice shook the battlefield.

"Father?!"

Cranberry's eyes widened.

Two more werewolves showed up, trying to use the chance.

Zombie raised and dropped his glowing leg cleaving one of them cleanly in two.

Cranberry didn't even bother to swing her bat.

She let the second werewolf come close, dodged his claws, and when he went for a bite, she simply grabbed his head and...

*crunch*

Crushed it like a watermelon.

The monster's eyes popped out as his skull broke into pieces and his brain got wrung out through its ears.

"Haa... It really is only the weak ones attacking us..."

The girl breathed out heavily, shaking off the remaining pieces of fur, blood, and gray matter from her hand, while keenly observing the rest of the battlefield.

She was of course searching for her father, honestly, she never expected him to come out as long as the situation wasn't extremely dire.

That was how her mother made him act to match her own idea of a prideful man.

Cranberry clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"But mother is already dead, so maybe..."

She muttered under her breath remembering how her father was before her mother changed him.

Cranberry always felt that it was her fault.

After all, lady Raspberry only used the skills of the avatar on her father after Cranberry's first kill party...

Because lord Blackberry wanted to use the chance and gain an advantage over the Greed family, and lady Raspberry didn't like that idea.

Although, in truth, it wasn't actually the first time lady Raspberry influenced her husband using the avatar's power - but Cranberry wasn't aware of it, and kept blaming herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud howl.

Almost every werewolf howled back immediately, some of them looked surprised and joined a bit later as if realizing that's what they were supposed to do.

Nevertheless, the monster's started backing off.

Zombie wanted to join the rest of the defenders and try to encircle the enemy, but Cranberry grabbed his left arm and shook her head.

"You rotten brain! They were winning! Why do you think they're suddenly backing off?!"

She scoffed at him and used a charge skill to pull him into a hiding spot as soon as she could.

"They are obviously planning something."

She whispered angrily, with her face against his chest and her hand on his stomach, while pressing him against the shed where the training weapons were stored.

"Gra-ough...! (A! I-I see...!)"

Zombie recovered from the surprise and nodded.

To be even more inconspicuous, he hugged his master tightly and crouched.

"...haa..."

A small satisfied sound escaped Cranberry's mouth, but Zombie didn't notice.

"...NOW!"

A roar pierced the night sky.

"G-graough...! (M-master, look!)"

He didn't notice because he was too busy watching as the pack of werewolf uses a terrifying skill and killed or trapped all of the defenders.

Cranberry flinched and glanced at them from behind Zombie.

She did that right in time to see the invisible force tear apart all of the defenders who were left alive.

"Wha...?! But that's father's skill?! What is he doing?!"

She tensed up and groaned.

Now it was only the lord Blackberry against all of the remaining werewolves.

Or was it?

Monsters' had surrounded the man but it looked like only one of them is fighting against him.

"Zombie, do you think you'll be able to grab one of those mutts and bring them here, without alarming the others?"

Cranberry asked looking up at her servant.

"Graough... (If it's one of the weak ones, I should be able to do that...) Graough? (But why?)"

He nodded and tilted his head in confusion.

"..."

Cranberry frowned and glared at him.

"Graough. (I'll bring you one.)"

Zombie sighed and stood up releasing the girl from his embrace.

...which she seemed somehow conflicted about...

His body started glowing with purple light, and in the next moment, he was already by the outer edge of the encirclement.

He grabbed the most outward werewolf and dashed back to the hiding spot.

It wasn't a perfect abduction though.

Before he managed to block the werewolf's jaws, the monster yelped in shock.

Thankfully it coincided with what was happening during the fight, so none of the other werewolves' paid attention to it.

"You've also realized that the weak ones were the ones who didn't howl back to their leader? Good job."

Cranberry smiled and patted Zombie's back while he was holding down the monster.

"Graough...? (Huh...?) Graough...? (Are they really...?) Graough... (I just picked the closest one...)"

Zombie groaned awkwardly, making Cranberry flinch.

"Haa... so, a dumb luck...?"

She sighed and shook her head.

"Now then..."

Cranberry's mouth twisted into an evil smirk and she firmly grabbed on to the struggling monster's head.

"You will answer a few of our..." 

Her eyes glimmered threateningly as her grip hardened.

But before she finished, her sentence got interrupted...

"Since you don't seem to care about your daughter that much, I've sent some of them to get rid of her before we even started!"

The roar of the leader werewolf fighting with lord Blackberry, who seemed to be losing, carried all the way over to the master-servant pair.

Which in turn caused...

"GRRRRAOOOOUUUGH?! (YOU DARE TO THREATEN MY MASTER?!)"

...Zombie to roar in blind fury.

The blue undead, glowing with not only superbia, but all the skills he could use, turned around, throwing the werewolf's body to the side, and lunched at the leader of the werewolves with so much power, that the shockwave he created destroyed the shed they were hiding behind.