(Book 2) Neferpitou and the human Royal Guard

Chapter 10 Trio battle!

Day 25, at night

Cheetu and I were out patrolling the province with our en down so that any nen using mafia members would be more willing to attack us. However we were not entirely without our guard, as we had Bat secretly overlooking us with her echo location, reporting any potential enemies to Cheetu telepathically, who would then report it to me.

Speaking of Cheetu, he was constantly blabbing while we were on patrol. Honestly, I wasn't really listening to him all that much. That is, until he relayed a report from Bat. "Hey, we have enemies in your en range." He whispers to me.

 Nodding, I open my en to reveal three powerful enemies stalking us. Not giving them a chance to retreat or attack, I immediately go on the offensive as I detect them, dashing right to where they are located. As I reach them in an instant, I realize who they all are. Hound, Bull, and that frog-like Royal Guard are all present, and have attempted an ambush on us. I draw my sword and slash at the three of them, hoping to take them all out in a single shot. Unfortunately, the three of them manage to dodge my opening strike.

"Damn, thought we had you there." Hound says nonchalantly. 

I point to my ears and purposely lie in order to keep Bat's presence a secret from the three, stating falsely "You guy were too loud, I could here you stalking us."

"Clever, and annoying." Hound retorts.

I don't respond. Instead, I look to Cheetu and command "Retreat for now! I'll handle them."

Cheetu does as instructed and runs off.

"Such arrogance from the one who was nearly killed so easily just a few days ago." the frog says to me before adding "I shall enlighten you on why your confidence is unwarranted." After that taunt, he starts spewing a stream of some green liquid at me, which I evade. I look over to notice the liquid he spit out started dissolving the ground that it landed on. I don't have much time to dwell on it however, as Hound is already behind me, and he throws a powerful punch that I block with my arm, though I am slightly staggered. Before I can counter, Bull is now upon me, swinging a giant battle axe with incredible speed and strength. That said, I am able to parry each strike relatively easily with my blade. I kick him away as I notice the frog dashing toward me with what appears to be a simple wooden staff. I attempt to slash him, though he blocks it with his staff. To my surprise, it was barely scratched by my cut. While the frog and I are locked in place, the frog spews the acidic liquid from before, forcing me to dodge. Hound and Bull attempt to use this opportunity to double team me, however, they are halted by a small explosion. It is then that Cheetu returns and starts running around the battlefield, throwing Chaos Bomber spell cards at the two, catching them off guard and putting them on the defensive while I focus on the frog.

Cheetu laughs at the two, taunting them by saying "Betcha didn't expect that, idiots! You gotta be quicker than that to catch me!"

Hound and Bull start trying to chase Cheetu, but he keeps running away and throwing Chaos Bomber cards at them. Despite Cheetu's speed advantage in speed, Hound nearly catches him, but before he can, more chaos bomber cards are thrown at him from above, landing a direct hit that damages him. Bat herself has joined the battle, just as planned.

With Hound an Bull preoccupied, I lunge myself at the frog, unleashing rapid sword thrusts that he can barely dodge and deflect with his staff. He jumps back, but rather than spitting more acid like I anticipated, he spews out a purple mist around him, which I assume is meant to be a poisonous defense. Before I can make a plan, out of the mist comes a barrage of acidic bubbles approaching me at high speed. I jump around to dodge the volley, but the bubbles don't stop. Bending the air around me, I make powerful gusts of wind swirl around my blade before sending those gusts toward the mist, dispersing it and destroying the acid bubbles simultaneously. With his cover gone, the frog lunges toward me, and sends a flurry of strikes with his staff at me. I parry each strike, then sending an overhead slash which the frog blocks. With us locked in place again, the frog opens his mouth and tries to attack me using his tongue. I dodge the attack, and using my free hand, I deliver a punch to his face, sending him sliding backwards. However, after the punch, I feel a slight pain in my hand I used to punch him, and notice it is slowly turning purple. Knowing I've been poisoned, I cut off my hand to stop it from spreading further. "I'll give you one thing, you are certainly as strong as Pitou-chan was when I first fought her." I commend my opponent on his skill. "However..." I continue "I'm far stronger now than she was back then." After that declaration, the frog gets to his feet, and I blitz toward him, cutting off his head with my blade before he can react.

Sheathing my blade, I look over to see Cheetu in Hound's grasp, his hand around Cheetus's throat. Hound readies a punch to finish him of, but before he can do so, I drive my clawed hand through his back and emerging from his chest. Killing him instantly.

"Damnit damnit damnit! I almost had him there!" Cheetu complains.

"Sure you did, buddy." I respond, knowing full well he was moments away from death. Looking over to see how Bat's fight is going, I notice she did much better than Cheetu, as Bull was on his knees, his clothes tattered and axe gone.

Bat lands next to me, and she asks "Would you like the honors of finishing him off, Lord Alejandro?"

"Very well. Good work by the way." I compliment her before walking toward Bull, unsheathing my blade. He looks up at me as I approach, and closes his eyes, accepting his death. "I didn't get to know you very well, Bull, but I'd like to think we could have been friends if the circumstances were different. You seem like a nice guy. I'll try to make this quick." I tell him.

"Thank you." is all he says before I cut off his head as well.

After the deed is done, I turn to Cheetu and Bat, smiling and saying "Good work you two. Thanks to you, we were able to easily take down three of the mafia's heavy hitters."

"See? I'm pretty awesome, aren't I?" Cheetu boasts.

"I don't get why you're so proud of yourself, Cheetu. You were the only one who couldn't defeat your opponent." Bat mocks.

Cheetu growls at this remark, but doesn't manage to find a retort.

I clap my hands once to call their attention. "Alright you two, lets not fight amongst ourselves." I turn to Hound's corpse, extending my claws and decapitating his head so I can gift it to Pitou. As unsettling as it can be, it is pretty cute seeing her nibble on brains like a zombie. I then toss the headless corpse over to Bat and Cheetu, saying "Feel free to eat up, you two earned a feast after that battle."

Cheetu's eyes widen as he licks his lips, wasting little time before digging in, with Bat following suit not long after.

It was actually kinda adorable to watch them, which ended up causing me to chuckle a little bit. Though they didn't seem to notice. I guess they never feasted on a nen using human before either. I've eaten humans myself, but never a nen user. Admittedly, I'm a little curious now.

After they finished eating, licking the bones clean, we make the trek back to the castle...