Chapter 197: [Chapter - 197]
"Puny bitch!" Kraven bellowed, his voice a deafening, feline roar, "I will crack your bones, chop your limbs off and then fuck you until you bleed to death!"
"There is only one man who can touch me, you ugly beast!"
"And you pussy face kitty ain't him!" Belladonna laughed, a wild, manic sound, but her eyes held a dangerous glint in them.
"You... Bitch!" In front of her, Kraven was covered in cuts, his clothes were slashed in many places, but he was growling with his eyes locked on Belladonna as if he loved the pain.
He swung the anchor aiming to crack open Belladonna's skull in a single move, but the Bandit Queen deflected the crushing blow with a slap of her wrist, as the sheer force driving her boots two inches deep into the mud.
Kraven was just a Level 39 physical behemoth of muscle and fur compared to the Level 49 Belladonna.
She stepped inside his massive reach, her serrated blade tearing a deep, jagged gash across his tattooed, furry ribs.
Kraven roared in pain, swinging the heavy iron chain attached to the anchor, aiming to wrap it around her neck and crush her windpipe.
Belladonna merely leaned back, the rusty iron links whistling a hair's breadth past her nose.
"Too slow, little pussy," she taunted, her lips smirking in glee.
"You dare!" Two desperate Zarthians, a snarling Tiger-beastman and a lumbering Ape-beast saw an opening and charged at her blind spot.
Kraven smirked, expecting her to be overwhelmed.
But Belladonna didn't even look at them. As the Tiger-beast lunged, she pivoted on her heel, using the momentum of Kraven's returning anchor swing to duck.
The massive iron anchor smashed directly into the Tiger-beast's chest, caving it in with a sickening crunch.
Without missing a beat, Belladonna reversed her grip on her Greatsword and thrust backward, impaling the Ape-beast through the heart before casually kicking his corpse off her blade.
"Thank you for your help, little kitty," Bella grinned at Kraven, "Killing your own men for me? Are you falling for me?"
"Focus on me, bitch!" Kraven bellowed, absolutely livid that she was utilizing his own attacks and swatting his men like flies.
"I am, darling," she purred, sidestepping another earth-shattering overhand smash from Kraven.
She flicked her wrist, and her serrated blade cut open another shallow, agonizing cut across Kraven's thick thigh, "But you are just not giving me much of a workout."
As she mocked Kraven, a Fox-beastman archer fired an arrow at her from the periphery.
Belladonna snatched the projectile out of the air with her bare hand, spun, and drove the arrowhead directly into the throat of a charging Wolf-beastman that had gotten too close, dropping him instantly.
She was killing men as they were nothing more than mild inconveniences.
As he watched his men drop one by one, Kraven was losing his mind. His roars turned into frantic, desperate shrieks of rage.
He swung the anchor wildly, churning up mud and destroying the trees around him, but he was hitting nothing but air and blurs of Belladonna.
Belladonna danced around him, as she carved on his body piece by piece. She severed the tendons in his left arm, sliced the backs of his knees, and slashed the flesh of his chest.
Finally, with a frustrated, exhausted wheeze, Kraven's massive digitigrade legs gave out. The Lion-beastman crashed to his knees, his anchor slipping from his ruined, bloody paws.
He was a breathing piece of butchered meat, sweating profusely, and barely conscious, staring up at the smiling Bandit Queen.
Belladonna raised her massive serrated greatsword high above her head, ready to sever the "Exiled" commander's head from his shoulders.
"Hold on there Bella!"
The voice resonated with an absolute, undeniable authority. It was Leo.
Belladonna froze mid-swing. She wanted to finish the kill, but her absolute submission to Leo overrode everything.
She stepped back, a satisfied smile plastered on her face as she rested the heavy blade on her shoulder.
Leo stepped in and stood between Belladonna and the defeated Lion Chieftain.
He was himself covered in the blood of dozens of beastmen he had sneakily killed so far.
"He is mine," Leo said, his eyes locking onto the dying giant feline. He needed the massive EXP bounty a boss like this would drop.
Kraven looked up at the human through swollen, blood-filled eyes. Despite his broken state, the Lion-beastman managed to sneer.
"Puny weakling," Kraven rasped, "You are the new Lord? You are nothing but a coward."
"A tiny, fragile boy hiding behind a woman's skirts. You couldn't even scratch me on your own."
The disrespect hung in the air for barely a second. Belladonna's eyes darkened with absolute, homicidal fury at the insult to her Master.
Before Kraven could draw another breath to mock him, she moved. Her greatsword flashed in a brutal, blinding cross-slash.
"Aaargh!" Kraven shrieked as his right arm fell into the mud, severed clean at the elbow.
An instant later, her backswing sheared through his left knee, completely amputating his lower leg. The massive Lion-beastman collapsed onto his belly, thrashing in the dirt and screaming in fresh agony.
"Keep your filthy tongue off my Master," Belladonna snarled, raising her boot to press his bleeding, mangled shoulder into the earth.
Leo didn't banter. He didn't waste breath on a dead man.
He stepped calmly behind the writhing giant.
Gripping his broadsword with both hands, Leo angled the blade downward and drove it with all his strength directly through the centre of Kraven's back.
The sword punched through the thick spine, pierced the beastman's heart, and burst out through his chest, pinning him to the muddy ground beneath him.
Leo ripped the blade out sideways.
Kraven's massive body gave one final, violent twitch before slumping completely, hitting the mud with a heavy, lifeless thud.
[DING!]
[Hostile Killed: Chieftain Kraven (Level 39 Lion-Beastman)]
[Massive EXP Gained: 36900]
[Level Up! Host is now Level 13!]
[Level Up! Host is now Level 14!]
[Level Up! Host is now Level 15!]
[Level Up! Host is now Level 16!]
Leo let out a long, shuddering breath as the golden warmth of the level-ups washed over his exhausted muscles, instantly knitting small cuts and restoring his stamina.
He turned around. The clearing was quiet.
The twenty Blackfang riders, alongside Belladonna and Shadow, had finished the rest. The hundred-strong Zarthian raiding party had been utterly annihilated.
The ground was a carpet of mangled beastmen corpses and dead mounts. The Blackfangs had lost five men. It was a heavy toll, but an acceptable ratio against such odds.
Leo walked over to a dead Dire-wolf. He took his hunting knife and brutally carved into the beast's chest cavity, plunging his hands into the hot gore until he found what he was looking for.
He pulled out a glowing, fist-sized mana core, slick with blood.
He tossed it into his inventory. "That's one meal for Seraphine," he muttered.
"Master."
Shadow approached, bowing her head. Her daggers were dripping. "We have secured the perimeter. And we found a survivor."
Two Blackfang bandits dragged a struggling beastman forward. He was a sub-commander, a towering, fur-covered Bear-beastman identifiable by the intricate bone piercings in his rounded ears.
He was missing an arm, courtesy of Belladonna, and was bleeding heavily, but his dark eyes burned with defiant hatred.
They pushed him down, forcing him to his knees.
Leo walked over, wiping his bloody blade on a piece of cloth. He stood over the kneeling Bear-beast.
The Bear-beastman looked up and spat. A thick glob of blood and saliva hit the ground jut in front of Leo's leather boot.
"Puny Usurper," the sub-commander rasped, coughing up blood, his voice a low, rumbling growl. "You think you have won?"
"You think killing Kraven means anything? He was an exile! A piece of filth! When Warchief Vorath hears of this, he will descend upon your little stone city with five thousand true warriors! He will peel your skin and wear it as a cloak!"
Leo looked down at the bear-man. He didn't look angry. He just looked profoundly bored by the bluster.
"An exile, huh?" Leo said softly, his purple eyes glowing. "That's the story, is it? Just a rogue element."
Leo turned to Shadow, "I don't want a dying beast's monologue."
Shadow didn't hesitate. She drew one of her wicked, curved daggers and placed the hilt gently into his palm.
Leo turned back to the tied Bear-beastman. He grabbed the beast's remaining paw-like hand, pressing it flat against the rough bark of the oak tree.
"I don't care much for politics," Leo whispered.
He brought the dagger down.
Thunk.
The blade severed the Bear-beastman's pinky finger clean off, burying itself into the wood.
The giant screamed, a raw, primal roar of a wounded animal, thrashing against the ropes.
"I don't care about Warchief Vorath's little plausible deniability game," Leo continued smoothly, pulling the dagger out and lining it up again.
Thunk.
The ring finger fell into the mud. The Bear-beastman sobbed, his bravado shattering instantly into agonizing terror.
"I don't care if he calls you exiles, heroes, or dancing clowns."
Thunk.
The middle finger joined the others. The Bear-beastman was hyperventilating, his eyes rolling back in his head from the sheer shock of the casual, methodical mutilation.
Leo dropped the man's bleeding, ruined paw. He grabbed a fistful of the beast's thick fur, yanking his head to the side, exposing his rounded ear.
With one swift, brutal motion, Leo sliced the beast's left ear clean off.
The Bear-beastman shrieked, blood pouring down his thick neck, soaking his bone armour.
Leo grabbed the beast by the jaw, his fingers digging painfully into the furry cheeks, forcing him to look into Leo's glowing, inhuman eyes.
"Even if your Warlord of yours decide to fight against me."
Leo dropped the man's bleeding, ruined paw. He grabbed a fistful of the beast's thick fur, yanking his head to the side, exposing his rounded ear.
With one swift, brutal motion, Leo sliced the beast's left ear clean off.
The Bear-beastman shrieked, blood pouring down his thick neck, soaking his bone armour.
"Bring five thousand of his men to get slaughtered on my gate."
"Fodders like you won't be here to see that with your own eyes."
Before the Bear-beastman could even register the words, Leo drove Shadow's dagger directly into the beast's dark eye. The blade punched through the socket and sank deep into his brain.
The giant's body went rigid, a choked gasp escaping his lips, before he slumped forward, dead against the ropes.
[DING!]
[Hostile Killed: Zarthian Sub-Commander (Level 22 Bear-Beastman)]
[EXP Gained: 8200]
Leo pulled the dagger out, wiping the blood and brain matter on the dead beast's fur, before handing it back to Shadow.
Belladonna walked up beside Leo, resting her heavy blade on her shoulder. She looked down at the corpse.
"So much for sending a message," Belladonna noted, a dark smile on her face. "Vorath is going to wonder what happened to his vanguard."
"I know," Leo said, turning back to the carnage to harvest the rest of the beast cores. He needed to feed Seraphine. He needed to prepare.
"Let him wonder. Let him gather his five thousand men in the dark. By the time he figures out what happened and marches on my house... I'll be ready to welcome him."
Then he ordered the Blackfangs, "Load your dead brothers on the horses."
"And dig out all the monster cores."
"I need every single one of them."