Chapter 149: Chapter 149: Unknown Nuisance (2)

"Its distance from the wall increased by a little more than a meter before it appeared next to that guard's contract. I think before it 'jumps' next to its target it needs to make a short running start. If so, I can try to give a warning in time before it appears. But I won't be able to predict where exactly it'll be moving to." Serena said.That was promising. Even if they couldn't know for sure that it was appearing next to them, it was helpful to know when it'd be appearing on the battlefield again even if they weren't the immediate target.

"If it realizes that we can sense when it'd appear, it may run away again and harass the guards at the night shift. Or worse, move to another area of the wall where some of the weaker first-years are," Ranya said.

'Like moving to where Bridge is… we need to take care of this thing now so its threat isn't constantly hanging over our heads!'

"Yes. We need to make a plan that can kill it immediately for sure without any risk of it running away again…" Kain said.

"To do that," Kain continued, "we're going to need someone's contract to act as bait." Seeing the screwed-up faces of resistance Kairos, Soren, and Ranya were making, Kain immediately volunteered. "Which will be me, obviously. I am the only one that has contracts that they can afford to lose without damage to their soul."

He had 11 Vespirae Guards remaining after losing 2, and another 3 were set to hatch any day now to replenish their ranks. Therefore, losing one more, while unfortunate, would hardly cripple his strength.

"However, we need to make sure that it dies during the first attack. We can't risk it running away. Does anyone have any foolproof methods to ensure it can't run away?" Kain looked at each of them but received now response. However, he seriously doubted that it was because all of the other members of the top 5 had no such trump cards.

Especially Soren with his royal background, and Kairos who has several more filled out pages in his cursed book that he hadn't revealed the purpose of yet.

Likely they were withholding their cards to not give too much away during the re-ranking.

'Seriously?! I am willing to send one of my contracts as bait and they can't even be a little helpful? Bastards.'

"Sigh. I have a one-time use talisman that can rebound a fatal attack at the perpetrator" Serena thankfully broke the silence. "However, if it doesn't immediately die, we all need to be prepared to attack it immediately."

Everyone else nodded.

"I know that you all have your reservations about showcasing your full strength for your future competitors to see, but I hope that you will take the direness of our current situation into account and not hold back. Or at least not hold back too much. Especially since it may take more lives if we can't kill this thing now," Kain said.

Kain took the talisman, and stuck it in a hidden area underneath one of the guard's abdomen.

Kain then sent that guard at a further distance from the wall than usual to hunt orange-grade spiritual creatures.

"Don't let it sense that anything is wrong. Continue your attacks." Kain said while looking at the others who, all except Serena, had halted their attacks outside of the city walls.

The tagged guard killed several more attackers while steadily moving closer and closer in the direction that Serena had indicated that the invisible attacker was located.

"It's going to attack!" Serena called out.

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Before she was even halfway through her call, an attack was already launched at Kain's guard. Thankfully, sending it closer to its location and further from the wall made it the wild spiritual creature's next target.

The talisman activated and rebounded the attack. However, the ferocious attacks that had previously been strong enough to instantly kill many of the creatures on this battlefield only served to stun and slightly injure it.

Kain's guard, as well as Serena's contract, were the first to have their attacks reach the stunned target.

Then Kairos, thankfully choosing not to keep his hand, sent out a new skill from the Cursed Book that caused a chain to form around the creature and reduce its chances of running away. However, Kairos' Cursed Book, which is also his highest-level contract, was only orange-grade similar to Kain's Vespirae, and so the chain likely won't hold the attacker for long.

Once it was trapped, its appearance became more clear.

'It is…cute.' Kain thought.

It resembled a large silver-white cat with larger-than-average floppy ears. Occasionally its figure would become less clear as it tried to phase in and out of existence.

"It's either a space attribute or a spirit-type creature," Kain said. However, considering that Ezra did not sense any pull to it, Kain was leaning towards it being a spirit.

By this point, Soren's dragon and Ranya's butterfly were also in the vicinity and together with Kain and Serena's contracts launched attacks at the cat.

The cat went down and Kairos used the still-wrapped chain to pull it to the wall. Kain internally noted that after wrapping the chain around the target, that the Cursed Book had no other actions. Is it unable to have more than one skill activated at the same time? Or was he still holding back?

'If it's the former that'd be invaluable intel for the re-ranking…'

Unfortunately, because Kain, Serena, Soren, and Ranya's attacks landed around the same time, Kain couldn't be sure if he was responsible for the kill. He didn't receive a notification nor was it included in his mission tally. But if he didn't land the final blow, then that is to be expected.

Therefore, he couldn't be sure that the cat was actually dead, or just feigning death until it could get closer to the human beast-tamers and launch a final devastating blow.

When the body was dragged a closer distance to the wall, Kain used the mist containing Bea to infect it and see if it was alive.

However, likely because it was an undead spirit, there was no brain to infect. And therefore, no way to confirm its death.

'Well that is an unfortunate limitation of Bea that I'd never considered...'

Thankfully, Serena was instead able to confirm its death due to there no longer being a pull from her affinity.

Once the body was on top of the walls, they threw it into the city. They'll deal with dividing it up after their shift.