“Blue-chan!” Struggling to get up, Ke’er fell to the ground with a ‘plop’ sound, throwing splashes of water into the air.
“Uuu…” From the bottom of her stockings and maid shoes to her maid mini skirt and headband above, everything was all wet, making Ke’er a bonafide drenched cat.
“Swosh… Scrape!” A series of air-whistling sounds resounded as a fang-shaped longsword nailed a tentacle rigidly onto one of the meat walls.
It struggled for a short moment before its movements stopped.
A human silhouette walked out of the darkness with their icy-hard crossed helmet glittering under the fiery light.
“M-Mr. Ji Bai!” Even though she was still in danger, that familiar metallic helmet instantly filled the extremely terrified Ke’er with a sense of security.
“Ke’er?” The helmet tilted to the side as it expressionlessly looked at the girl sprawled on the ground at a corner.
He was somewhat clueless as to why she would suddenly appear in this place.
In his understanding, no matter how unlucky someone was, it was unlikely that she’d be kidnapped twice through various factors that were beyond her control.
Slowly walking up to the unconscious Blue, he pulled out his fang-shaped longsword and cut off the tentacles binding her ankles and wrists respectively.
“She’s just my friend, Mr. Ji Bai…” Ke’er weakly warned him.
The amount of hatred Ji Bai held towards demons deeply imprinted on her mind, Ke’er was somewhat worried that he could disregard everything and violently lash out at the fairer sex.
“Mhm.” Ji Bai gave a simple nod before picking up the unconscious Blue and carrying her on his back.
“Is there anyone else?” Ji Bai swept his eyes over the surroundings.
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone left. The others have all been tossed inside that furnace…”
“…Can you still walk?” His overly calm tone sounding somewhat unempathetic, Ji Bai shot a glance at the flourishingly burning furnace before directing the gaze radiating out from his metallic helmet onto Ke’er.
“Ah, nyaa? I-… I can!” Ke’er straightened her body, her face slightly red for some unknown reason.
Even though she said that, her lower legs began to tremble and completely disregarded her commands. In the end, she lost her balance and fell to the ground in an adorable manner once more.
Ji Bai felt a headache coming onto him. If it wasn’t for the helmet he was wearing, he would have already facepalmed.
Sometimes, he couldn’t help but wonder if Ke’er was truly from a demon race, or just an ordinary and endearingly-silly little girl with a maxed out attribute in face-planting herself on the ground.
“Uuu… Unyaa~…”
“I’ll help you up. Try to walk as quickly as possible, it’s inadvisable to stay in this place for too long.”
“O-Okay…”
‘Uuu, how embarrassing…’
With a blushing-red complexion, Ke’er began to move towards the meat balls’ exit under Ji Bai’s support.
“Swoosh!” Seemingly not intending to let them out this easily, a few tentacles burrowed themselves out from the meat walls on both sides.
“Move back.” Ji Bai waved his sword with one hand.
It wasn’t too far off to claim that the longsword created from the combination of profound metal and vampire craftsmanship could cut through metals like clay.
Under the fang-shaped longsword’s strikes, the seemingly troublesome tentacles were easily chopped into several pieces as if they were just hemp ropes.
“Uuu…” Ke’er curled up into a ball at Ji Bai’s side.
A few strands of light came through; The exit was ahead of them.
Ke’er could even feel wisps of cool air hitting her face, which instantly boosted her spirit greatly.
“Bloop…” A spate of writhing occurred on the meat wall, as the soft meat at the entrance began to contract and close. In contrast, there was still some distance between where they were and the exit.
With a cat holding onto his hand and a dog on his back, Ji Bai firmly held onto his sword’s hilt. At the moment when the entrance was about to shut close, he somersaulted through the gap, leaving behind a gust of wind in his wake.
“Plop!” Three figures, one large and two small, rolled out from inside the large wart-looking meatball and wretchedly rolled several times on the ground.
“Bloop…” The entrance was completely sealed.
The small pipes that were lodged deep into the surface of the large meatball and incessantly providing energy to that ‘monster’ were absorbed into the meatball like a turtle retreating back into its shell1.
“Fuuuu…” Following this, the entire meatball dried up, as if it was a one-time use battery that had been sucked dry.
Above it, the ‘monster’ that had been fast asleep opened its bell-shaped eyes.
“Roar!!” Suddenly, a formless pressure of unknown nature rippled outwards with the ‘monster’ at its center.
Still on the ground, Ji Bai didn’t even have time to struggle before being pressed down once more.
As a mountain seemed to weigh down onto his head, a spate of asphyxiation rose up within him.
“Mr. Ji Bai… Ugh!” Ke’er’s feet turned soft, making her wobble for a moment.
As a second-tier species, the pressure she had to endure was far smaller than Ji Bai, yet it was definitely not light in the least.
“Gigigi… Refreshing, simply delightful! Hahaha!…” The ‘monster’ looked towards the sky and released a burst of hearty laughter. Just its reverberating sound alone was capable of shaking and shattering the surrounding stone walls and pipes into pieces.
“Zzzzt…” A small hole that had burst open on a drainpipe began leaking.
“Hahahaha…! So this is how the world looks like through the eyes of those higher-tier species, huh?? It is all so simple and insignificant… indeed!”
The fluctuating energy soundwaves were deafening. Ji Bai covered his head, as a burst of tinnitus accompanied by a spell of dizziness and lightheadedness hit him.
It was as if the soundwaves had turned into raw, distilled power that was seemingly pulling his soul out from his body.
“Can you be a bit softer when you speak? That way, you could prevent yourself from being a nuisance to people.”
“Mhm??” Lan Yu knitted his brows upon hearing that and shifted his gaze downwards.
Ji Bai held his heavy chest as he sat on his knees, slightly panting.
“Oh my? So, a small worm has taken advantage of the moment when this sovereign being was digesting to save two fishes that slipped through the net, huh??” A ridicule-filled tone echoed outwards.
Ji Bai gave a muffled grunt, as fresh blood leaked out from the crevices of his metallic helmet.
“Ahh, my apologies. My humble self didn’t realize that the mere vibrations of my voice could injure you. My sincerest apologies, ahahahaha…!”
Overflowing with magical power and an oppressive aura, Lan Yu’s voice entered Ji Bai’s eardrums, causing him to support his body as his vital energy and blood churned within his body.
“Kch…” Cracks appeared on his molybdenum helmet.
“S-So loud…” Ke’er covered her ears in agony.
“Oh dear. Look at your attire. You seem to be a knight, right? What a coincidence, I am one as well, you know?” Just like how a human wouldn’t rush in to kill an ant, Lan Yu didn’t seem to be in a hurry to finish Ji Bai off.
“Mhm? What did you say?” Ji Bai tilted his head to the side.
“You murdered your teacher, slaughtered innocents yet you still call yourself a knight?? No, no… If this is the caliber of knight you are, I might as well raise a dog. At least, when I toss it a piece of bone, it’d bite anyone I want and not its own master.”
“Hmph. You really have some big guts, human!” Lan Yu’s furious shout exploded in Ji Bai’s eardrums.
“Puuu… Cough, cough…” Ji Bai coughed out a large amount of blood.
“You lowly ant! Who gave you the courage to speak to this sovereign being in this manner??”
“You’re a creature that lacks self-awareness, a creature so weak that you can’t even hold a conversation with me! I could jolt you to pieces by my voice alone!”
“Cough, cough… That might not necessarily be the case.”
“You’re just an ignorant ant that’s woefully clueless of the knowledge that higher-tier species possess… This sovereign being has already transcended past the second-tier species.” Lan Yu freed up his finger and pointed it towards Ji Bai.
“Roar!” A meat wall materialized out of nowhere and instantly wrapped around Ji Bai into a meatball.
“Turn into pus, mortal.”
“Mr. Ji Bai! W-What’s happening to you?” The developments occurred so suddenly that Ke’er was rendered completely clueless as to what had exactly happened.