Ch. 137 Cath Palug

Like a soaking wet white lion, the strange cat walked with silent steps.

Pawing through the fish pile, it found something edible.

The beast was focused on eating, completely unaware that the door behind it was being slowly opened.

*Creak—*

The strange cat’s ears twitched; it heard the sound.

It turned its head without warning, happening to meet seven bright eyes.

“Now!”

Since they had been discovered, there was no more need to hide.

The startled strange cat growled and lowered its body. After Mia shouted those words, it immediately charged toward the sewer it came from.

It wanted to escape.

Mia took a step ahead, turning into starlight and instantly appearing in front of the strange cat.

The tip of her staff emitted a glow, and a cluster of suddenly appearing Glintstone Crystals sprouted from behind Mia, pressing and stacking against each other like sword blades, instantly blocking the sewer outlet.

Now, even if the strange cat got past Mia’s obstruction, it would be impossible to break through the crystal barrier in a short time.

The beast did not change its direction; even with Mia in front of it, it did not yield in the slightest.

Perhaps it knew that even if it avoided her, it wouldn’t be able to return by its original path, so it wanted to try to kill the culprit behind all this.

Since she didn’t know the beast’s specific strength, a deep blue barrier appeared in front of Mia the moment the strange cat pounced at her.

This barrier magic was a defensive spell from the same source as the seal that locked down the Academy.

The strange cat was extremely fast, reaching her in an instant, but it clearly lacked some power.

*Thud.* It crashed into the barrier.

The backward force was transmitted through the condensed magic into the staff, and the Soldier holding the staff took half a step back under the reaction force.

The strange cat’s attempt to attack Mia was thwarted, and the sudden obstacle left its head ringing. Seizing this opportunity, Mia gripped the end of her staff with both hands and swung it at the monster in front of her like a baseball bat.

She wanted to capture the beast.

If there was no strong restraint available, then the best way was to beat it into submission.

Mia struck the beast’s forehead hard with her staff, producing a crisp sound.

Resounding.

It’s a good head.

The cat demon, who was already dazed from hitting the barrier, was struck on the skull by the staff. It immediately felt the world spinning; its four legs went in different directions as it stumbled and collapsed to one side.

Kay and Artoria arrived late.

The two of them did not have Mia’s teleportation skill. By the time they drew their weapons and surrounded the area, Mia had already engaged the strange cat in battle.

“Catch it!” Mia shouted.

Kay cast aside his sword and lunged toward the strange cat.

The burly young man, about one meter ninety tall, was no weaker in build than this lion-tiger-like cat demon. He directly pinned the still-dizzy cat demon beneath him.

As pressure suddenly came down upon it, the creature, its vision still blurred, struggled and roared, trying to throw Kay off its back.

“Help!” Kay cried out loudly, gripping the flesh on its back tightly.

The beast was a feline, and with its four limbs on the ground, it found it difficult to face something clinging to its back.

Realizing it couldn’t shake Kay off by rolling, it began to jump around violently.

Clearly, its strength was far greater than that of an ordinary beast; no normal animal could maintain such agility while carrying a burden of similar size on its back.

At one moment, it hoped that the impact and friction would throw Kay off; at the next, it jumped as high as it could, trying to force Kay to let go on his own.

“Don’t come over here!” Kay, realizing the situation was spiraling out of control, immediately retracted his earlier call for help.

The strange cat dived straight into the pile of fish, taking him with it.

Stinking fish exploded everywhere. Originally, these slippery fish had only been piled up by maintaining a certain fragile balance.

But now, that balance was broken.

The fish pile, which had only occupied half the room, collapsed like an avalanche under the impact, covering the entire warehouse floor at an alarming speed.

Kay and the strange cat were buried together under the mass of fish.

“Brother Kay!”

As the slippery fish washed over her feet, Artoria struggled to stay upright. She called out worriedly toward the collapsing pile of fish.

Following that, the fish pile did not remain silent.

Once freed from Kay’s restraint, the strange cat burst out from the fish pile, sending fish flying everywhere.

The strange cat’s next target was Artoria.

“Get back!” Mia shouted.

Teleportation could not be used again in such a short amount of time.

The ground was covered in round, slippery fish, making it incredibly difficult to find footing.

Artoria’s eyes widened as she stared intently at the approaching monster.

It bared its claws at Artoria.

In that perilous moment, Artoria evaded the monster’s sharp claws and left a deep wound on its hind leg with her sword.

The monster’s blood was also red, flowing from the wound and staining its fur, which had already turned gray from filth.

The monster, writhing in pain, rolled on the ground before scrambling back up.

It had clearly been backed into a corner.

The muscles within the wound twitched, and the beast curled its leg, its purple vertical pupils glancing at the group.

With just a single glance, and without waiting for the others to react, it charged toward the closed door of the warehouse.

“Wait!” Artoria tried to intercept it, but she stepped on a fish and nearly slipped.

Thus, the feline monster crashed through the warehouse door and vanished into the dark night.

Mia was the first to give chase, but it was already too late; the cat demon had already leaped onto the rooftops.

Mia looked around the street until she heard a noise and saw the dark shadow already climbing onto a roof under the starry sky.