The presence of the surviving staff was a shackle for Yuriko that kept her from going all out. She could just as easily disregard their lives and either ignore the lionesses and leave or fight with attacks that could also destroy the environment, but she, in good conscience, couldn’t do that. Besides, while she had no proof, she had an inkling that this attack was a result of her presence. 

There was little chance to catch a breather to think, so she devoted a single strand of consciousness to think up a variety of contingencies while the rest of her mind focused on the fight. Numerous Invisible Edges, none enhanced by actual Swordlight, interfered with the lionesses’ attacks and movements. She quickly realised that the pride had shifted all of their focus on her, though a couple made feints towards the staff to check her reflexes. Yuriko countered them with Edges but didn’t react otherwise. Still, the creatures exhibited incredible cunning and whenever it looked like she was about to land a decisive blow, one of them would make motions to go towards the now hostages and forced her to alter her trajectories. 

Yuriko was annoyed, but she expected as much. She could not sense the connections between each individual lioness, but her Mien was already starting to influence them. She had it at the basic configuration: Charm, and while she saw no overt effect, she could feel her threads connecting. The nodes were weak and would certainly not allow her to sense emotion and Intent, but in the absence of any metal on them, a good way to determine location. Her perception found the felines to be a bit slippery, but not quite as bad as those with Chronian Gear. Come to think of it, Ilvara, despite having ‘Chronian eyes as well as some kind of perception booster, remained difficult to sense despite the fact that the amount of Ossifrum alloy in her body was comparatively miniscule. Was it the alloy itself that repelled Anima or the combination of infused Anima and the base material? She hadn’t spent much time considering it since Severing Shard could easily detect them compared to Anima perception. 

The way her perception slid from the lionesses was similar but not identical. Where Ossifrum repelled and created a void in her perception, the fur was… slick and resisted being held. The notion was enough to tell her that the source of the resistance was different. It was unlikely that the lionesses had any kind of ‘Chronian Gear within them, and it was likely that the source was their Alteration. 

What she felt from her threads at the moment was nothing more than direction and distance, but perhaps it would improve over the following minutes. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel that she had the luxury of waiting. While the link to Scarlett was stable, she had no idea if it would attenuate, and she didn’t want to know what would happen if it did. 

Still, the feline humanoids were annoying. Their regenerative power allowed them to fight her with impunity, though perhaps, the problem was that her Invisible Edge was too clean. Her empowered fists barely broke skin, though it probably mangled their internals. The way they healed meant that such damage was inconsequential. Did she need to use Radiance? Undoubtedly.

She had limited quantities stored, however, and the most efficient use was to create a sunshard, the miniature version of a sunblade. It had about a hundredth the amount of Radiance and Animus that a sunblade had, though the complexity to make them was the same. Thankfully, her true body was well versed with doing so, and so was her incarnation body, even if she was slightly less efficient. At the same time, the camp staffers needed to be brought away from danger otherwise, the felines would eliminate them before she could help. Her form was limited and her true body’s enlightenment distracted her incarnation body even through the partition. At the very least, she could leverage the fight to test her conjectures.

The mental gymnastics lasted all of two seconds and she materialised three sunshards even as she retreated to the staffers. She spread her Anima reach to encompass them, and deflected one of the lionesses as they attacked. She merely deflected their trajectory rather than stop them cold. 

A few seconds later, the sunshards were ready as she had them hover in front of her hands. She grinned as the lionesses recoiled, then sent them flying towards the nearest three. 

___________

“I’m not sure I should be surprised at the sudden twists of this mission, my friend,” the faceless man said to his comrade, the rather taciturn and aptly named Stalker. 

The other man’s blue eyes, or rather, the orbs that emitted blue light that also passed for his eyes, slowly blinked at the faceless man, but didn’t deign to answer. 

“Fair enough. Nothing worth pursuing is ever truly easy. However, how advanced is her Alteration that it covered several fields at once? We only knew of her vanity effect, but she also has some kind of energy projection, as well as body enhancement. She had brutish power beyond what is easily seen, and I suspect it is also linked to her vanity.” 

Stalker blinked again, slowly. 

“Yes, my loquacious friend, I love hearing myself speak, especially when I’m in this form. It is quite liberating,” He laughed, “I agree that our Alteration might seem similar, but I know I cannot handle Pride’s lionesses that easily with little consequence. My heart leapt up to my throat when she sliced the cat in half. Ah, but nothing quite beats the lionesses’ ability to regen.” the faceless man chucked. 

Stalker blinked slowly, the blue light from his eyes winked in the process. The man didn’t move from his current posture, which was half leaning on a tree, staring at the near invisible sensor that looked down from a hundred paces above. The scene of the fight was quite entertaining, not least because it was a bunch of attractive females bouncing around with their tits jiggling all over the place. Sure, the lionesses had cat heads instead of human ones, but if one discounted that, their fur clad bodies were quite attractive in an exotic way. Of course, the faceless man could get horny just from watching dogs going at it, so maybe he wasn’t the best measuring stick for attractiveness, huh? But there was no doubt about Lilibeth Lawson’s sheer sexuality practically oozing from her pores. Her knee length, pleated skirt floated up whenever she whirled and she wasn’t wearing shorts underneath. in fact, her panties were practically designed to be looked at rather than for comfort. If the angle of the sensor was any better, he would have gotten a better view. Ah, but the fleeting nature of panty shots was what made them so attractive, and he was a man of culture!

Ah, he wasn’t sure if Stalker appreciated the view, after all, the man was more machine than flesh by now. His visage looked like it came straight out of a science fiction movie, though only if he removed all pretenses. Cybernetic limbs, eyes, and half of his brain was metal controlled by electricity. And the only reason it was possible was because of the man’s Alteration. Well, either it was his power or a result of peering through dimensional walls and using the energy to empower himself. The faceless man wasn’t sure, but maybe Stalker had gone too far with his experimentation. Caruso probably helped too, and the young seeming surgeon was critical to the group’s continued function. 

Then, of course, there were the hidden strings that moved them to a hidden puppetmaster’s whims. The faceless man’s fists clenched as he momentarily lost control. The flesh of his face writhed as it tried to return to its original configuration, though perhaps his body had already forgotten what he looked like before his Alteration since the reflex wasn’t so strong. 

“Eh,” he muttered as a bright light flashed through the sensor. Lilibeth had done something. He squinted against the light but it quickly receded anyway to reveal bright yellow energy projections swirling in front of her. 

He couldn’t help but smirk. How much more useful would those things be compared to the slicing thing she could already do? 

His frown deepened when she actually flung the energy projections at three of the lionesses. Those energy projections dodged, of course, but the smaller ones turned to compensate. They were quite agile in the air, and the cats couldn’t even move more than a few inches before the pointy things caught up. The lionesses swiped at it with a claw, and if they were anything other than Lilibeth’s power, that would have been enough. Pride’s pride could slice bullets out of the air, and cut through ten inches of reinforced steel with their claws. 

The paw slapped the prickly thing, and instead of being deflected, it did the same thing as the invisible blades Lilibeth initially used and sliced into the arm. But instead of cutting, the thing burned the lionesses’ body!

No, it wasn’t just the arm either. The entire body burst into flame, then quickly turned to ashes. The faceless man frowned. The little knives emerged from the burning body and careened towards another lioness. That one tried to escape too, but was chased down and burned. The knife didn’t come out afterwards. 

Lilibeth hadn’t remained idle during that distraction. She moved towards the normies while making more of the burning knives. The lionesses rushed towards her in an attempt to overwhelm. He barely paid attention to that scuffle; his attention was focused on the pile of ashes. Pride would reconstitute his lionesses almost as soon as they were destroyed, but nothing was happening with the remains. 

Lilibeth’s construction of the blades wasn’t faster than the lionesses could close the distance. But even as they attacked or attempted to bypass the girl’s position, she either dodged their assault with inhuman grace, or slew the energy projections with her golden knives. 

“How wonderful,” the faceless man murmured as the girl practically led the felines to their demise.

Somehow, her positioning forced the lionesses to swerve around each other, and in the process, they were made more vulnerable to the girl’s attacks. The way she moved also gave the illusion that she was floating, and sometimes, an attack would seemingly hit, only for it to then be revealed as an afterimage. The dance was as mesmerising as everything else, and the faceless man bit the inside of his cheek to pull his eyes away from the scene. 

The dance was so skillful, and the golden knives so deadly that soon enough, none of the pride was left. Lilibeth looked around, nodded to the staff, and flew along the road. 

“She left them, and she can fly,” the faceless man said dryly. 

Stalker just blinked, but even his insipid reactions revealed some tension. 

“So, how can we capture her?”

Slow blink. 

“You mean, force her through hostages? Yes, she did go out of her way to defend the helpless, and coincidentally, we already have her people.” The faceless man nodded, “A pity for the good doctor.” 

Tsk.

The faceless man glanced at Stalker, and by the time he returned his gaze to the sensor, the power had already been dissolved. 

“Ah, I guess it’s time to move to the next phase, huh? Let us cheerfully welcome our new players to the game. Only the Divines know if they’ll live. Ah! But if they do, they’ll find themselves no longer powerless humans!” He chuckled while declaiming. “Hey, Stalker! Don’t just leave me here, you defective tin can!”

The faceless man ran after Stalker, who was…well, stalking away from the observation post. They were on a clearing, and the woods were filled with ominous shadows. They crossed roughly a hundred paces, and reached another clearing, though this one was not empty. A couple of long buses, broken in half, were lying on their sides. About a dozen lionesses were dragging unconscious people from the wreckage, but they were almost done. 

Another set of cats were pacing around the border, hissing in annoyance. 

“Ah, some escaped, huh?” The faceless man grunted. “Well, go get them.”

The lionesses huffed in glee, then left in pursuit.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep