Chương 34: The Hare Starts First
The movement of the sun was the main way Martial Artists like Kang Hyuk were able to tell the time.
In contrast, Sebastian's clock constantly ticked away. Showing no signs of slowing down at all.
"How long are we going to wait?" He looked at his watch and back at the figure sewing some clothes.
The experienced Martial King didn't rush the issue at hand. He merely continued to stitch heedlessly.
A needle was temporarily held between his lips while turning the dress over to get a better view.
His designs seemed to have a mix between old European and ancient Chinese dress-code norms.
A smaller dress was handed over to Sebas.
"Take this. It's my present to Lucia. She doesn't have any clothes, does she?" He spat some facts.
Although she'd managed to bring some stuff along from home, they were eye-catching and luxurious.
Perhaps too conspicuous for her circumstances.
"Then what are those?" Sebas asked. In the room Hyuk 'borrowed', fabrics were being hung out.
The man could sense the mysterious and mystical nature of the materials being used to make clothes.
They seemed to be naturally infused with energy…
"…I'm making new clothes."
"I can see that, but… Why? I mean, I can tell you're making it for those girls earlier." The Magician had already met the two 'hired prostitutes' and saw that they were okay. Willing to go with them for a price.
The tigress didn't disclose the nature of what that small 'price' entailed. Nobody was telling him that.
"I've asked about their likes and dislikes. You're not wrong they're meant to look… 'provocative', as they say here. But that's not all: These two dresses will protect them from harm." Hyuk revealed his intent.
It made the white-haired man surprised.
He thought of the incident earlier, but changed the topic to something that was less serious than it:
"So you've took up knitting? How girly…"
"It's girly?" Hyuk was genuinely surprised the man would say that. Like his tone sounded foreign.
"Even here, you see only young noblewomen take up embroidery to seem graceful. So yeah, it's girly."
"Now that's a surprise. There were many vagabonds of my own realm who took up sewing."
"They also made dresses?" Sebas tilted his head.
"Not quite. Since Martial Artists would rip their clothes in fights regularly, sewing was a basic skill."
"And if you didn't learn?"
"You'd have to expend a lot on new clothes every time you fought. Moreover, this isn't just fashion."
"Oh…" Sebas noted that the finished products had a naturally inscribed seal of protection on them.
They pulsed with the energy of Qi without any interference, but it didn't seem enough to him.
The Magician reached out and overlaid the inscribed seals with 'Spell Circles' of his own.
This naturally doubled their properties.
"…Thank you." Even though the white-haired man didn't seem to want praise, Hyuk was generous.
He scratched the back of his head while picking up the clothes, then was about to get up to gift them.
These were their 'Battle Attire', after all.
"What's wrong?" Seeing the usually free-willed narcissist was oddly quiet, Sebas bit the bullet.
There was a sense of awkwardness between them.
"Nothing."
"There has to be something. You've been avoiding my eyes since earlier. Is it about what I said?"
"…" Hyuk didn't confirm or deny that speculation.
"Don't take it too seriously. I was just feeling stressed over everything that happened lately."
"No… don't…. You told me the truth."
"I didn't take your heart into consideration."
"Stop talking like that. Look, I'm fine. Thanks for telling me before I did something I'd regret."
"..You sure?"
"No one has ever criticised me before. Maybe the bar for kindness was too low in my own realm."
"…Sorry." Sebas could only repeat that as the handsome man walked away. His back up straight.
This made the Magician feel less responsible. He felt the words spoken could've been framed better.
But there was no time to bring it up again.
They needed to get things straight before they went in. How to retrieve both Adam and Simon.
A debate had gone on earlier between the two about how they should treat the parties involved.
Although Adam was indeed a victim of the old drunkard's 'teaching methods', it was a bit vague.
The Landlord they could see fighting and losing against the 'devil' didn't seem rational anymore.
However, Hyuk insisted on not tranquillising him like an animal before they dealt with Simon.
He believed that so long as the 'chimera' of darkness wasn't attacked, it would leave them be.
Quite a bold assumption with no grounding in logical thought, but Sebas ended up giving way.
So long as the assumption rang true, there was no problem with factoring this into the overall plan.
Now, the only thing left was for them to group up.
In front of the premium item that lead to the time-separated training dimension, the Martial King and Magician awaited their partners to this 'dance with the devil'. Their ball-like battlefield was waiting.
Like a youth awaiting his date to the prom, Sebas was suited up while impatiently tapping his feet.
His head filled with the thoughts of how easily Simon had disposed of him last time they fought.
This time, he wouldn't let that happen…!
The Magician came suited with protective clothing.
It looked half like a magic user's robe, with the rest of it giving a modern militaristic vibe somehow.
Like he was in the highest echelon of guerrilla squadrons; meant to tackle dangerous opponents.
And that was exactly what he treated the 'devil' as.
Though he felt more confident now that he had time to prepare. There was also the fact that he didn't have to regulate Mana into the old fart's Life Circle anymore. It felt easier for him to breath.
The only unavoidable block was… the environment.
His magic had to be more specific after entering.
Hyuk seemed to be in a different state than him. As someone who'd always dealt with 'Martial Artists' in his world, he was more clear about the tactics he could possibly use to throw off the Demon King.
Just as they stimulated different ways their skills could be used, the two who were left had arrived.
The tigress came forward wearing a skin-tight red dress… with hanfu characteristics being added in.
The bunny girl's battle suit having shades of peach and oak into the colours being associated with her.
Their eyes turned to Sebas after they arrived.
And it was NOT because he was leading them.
"What are you looking at?" Nyaura spoke with narrowed eyes while intimidatingly walking up.
She looked straight at him without flinching.
"…I just can't get used to your ears."
"What? Never saw a girl with animal ears before?"
"Not unless it was an unethical experiment." His words struck a chord, making the tigress back off.
"You aren't entirely wrong…" Her words trailed off up until his continued stares irritated her again:
"Can you stop staring?"
"At your animal ears or human ears?"
"Both." She covered them self-consciously, but his eyes seemed to look at her with great wonder.
This kind of attention was unfamiliar to her.
In their own realm, her people were treated like freaks… Their two sets of ears telling a tale.
That they were either less, or more than human.
When the white-haired man's eyes finally reached her tail, Velma had no choice but to intervene:
"Stop it." She covered the tiger woman like a heroic figure, causing him to realise where he goofed up.
Seeing that they were uncomfortable, he pried his clingy eyes away to focus on the situation at hand.
"…Ahem. Err… So… Time to go in." Hyuk tried to recover some of his face, but that was all useless.
Sebastian wasn't painting himself sympathetically.
"Right, so what weapons do we each have?" The man tried to change the subject to something else.
Rather than answering him, they both showed their weapons. One holding a makeup set, the other having a chain wrapped around her arm along with three blades tips. They let out a frosty atmosphere.
"…I asked what 'weapons' you were bringing?" The Magician could understand Nyaura, but Velma…?
What was the point of bringing makeup?
"The box is a Mystic Tool boosted by an Imaginary Engine. It releases Hard-Light DUST in battle." The tiger woman held the furious bunny girl back while giving an explanation. This still didn't satisfy him.
"DUST…?"
"D. U. S. T… Meaning: Desolved Unified Strain Texture. It's made from 'Coloured Steel' of the Frost Heart DUST Company." This answer made his eyes light up with the curiosity of a researcher.
"Coloured Steel… Sounds familiar."
"It shouldn't. That's a unique material only found in our realm." She didn't know what he thought of.
He started to ponder about the this magical steel resource that he'd so naturally used for his tests.
From what he remembered, the MagiQi Morpher he held was made of highly-processed Black Steel.
It'd slipped his mind because unlike what Nyaura asserted… Black Steel… wasn't really that rare.
At least, he was sure they had this in his realm.
It made him want to open up the makeup box and dismantle it for the sake of studying its nature.
"Can I touch it?" Sebas sent her cutesy kitten eyes.
"If you want to die, then 'yes'~" But he fell back when Velma spoke in a terrifyingly deep voice.
It was probably best not to ask about it anymore.
However…
…he just could help it: "Then your weapon is?"
"A whip." Although she didn't go into detail, he understood enough to not need to ask for more.
Then all eyes turned to the Martial King.
What kind of weapon did he have?
Could it fly or maybe shoot layers? This was an important question. This was necessary to know.
Yup… Definitely…
"…I don't know what you're thinking, but I just have a sword." He showed off his really ordinary blade.
They looked at him suspiciously.
"Oh! Did you enhance it? Does cutting someone with it poison them or something?" Sebas jumped.
"No. It's just a normal sword."
"Then is it made of special metals never seen before?" This time, Nyuara came up with an idea.
"No. What are you guys expecting? It's the Martial Artist that makes the blade. My sword is just sturdier than others because I've constantly fed it my Qi over the years. Taking care of it from the very beginning." He spoke this like a love story.
It was kinda anticlimactic… Disappointing…
"That's it?" Seeing the way Sebastian was looking down on him, Hyuk finally felt a bit irritated by this.
He hugged the sword to his face, speaking to it:
"Don't listen to him, my most trustworthy and charming companion. This guy goes into battlefield with a stick." This accusation turned the girls attention to the iron bar being held in his holster.
"Don't call it that!"
"Sorry, I meant ritual staff. I can't believe a guy who waves his magical stick around thinks he's better-"
"It's a highly sophisticated supercomputer…!"
"Say that in a way I can understand!"
"…It's a magic stick."
"Yeah! That's what I thought, you shaman."
"What the hell is a shaman, fuck…!"
"Can you two focus?" Putting on an imperial air, the tiger woman stopped them from bickering further.
She grabbed them and pulled them into the dimensional door, and Velma kept up with her.
The scene from that orb appeared in their eyes.
The vivid stench of blood and dark energy coated the place in a much more horrible way than before.
You could practically 'smell' that time had passed from the blood that had turned to ancient dust.
They saw the fight that was still ongoing.
Velma watched the old devil intently while he was showcasing incredible forethought in his actions.
There seemed to be an artful beauty to his strikes.
One that you could only appreciate through personally getting to see with your own two eyes.
When the tigress woman entered, she felt her entire body suddenly feeling a sense of weakness.
The grudges she'd bore disconnected from her entire body, becoming inactive before vanishing.
"Uh- Uuuurgh…!" She softly agonised before falling to her knees. Unable to stand from the disconnect.
This situation was worse than they imagined.
"Are you still alright?" Before Velma could ask after catching her, Hyuk came up to grab her hand
It was only now he realised… That she wasn't a
really a 'tiger', but a 'Cat Beastkin' acting like one.
They put her down while Sebas watched Adam and Simon mindlessly clash from afar again and again.
Nyaura's presence had yet to be sensed.
The Magician fiddled with the MagiQi Morpher in his hand. His eyes glancing from time to time.
"I'm… fine… It's just hard to get used to." The tiger cat woman got to her feet and moved them away.
She had her own pride as a 'ruler'.
"Don't start pushing yourself. Stay here until your feeling good enough. If we happen to fail, I want you to take care of someone for me." Hyuk then told her about the young girl they were housing.
After hearing the details, the girl didn't comment.
She wanted to regain her strength before she started assisting them in their first plan of action.
Now, it looked like she had to wait for Phase 2.
Velma let the woman down and joined the duo to watch the shadowy figures continue their clash.
She then started to ask:
"Do you want me to check about the chimera?"
"Please…" Seeing the Martial King beg, she felt the urge to show off just what her specialisation was.
['Velveteen Rabbit' is watching your actions.]
['The Hare of Lu Bu' is watching your actions.]
A total of two Imaginary Attributes with rabbit-like modifiers made themselves known to the group.
The first one being a not-so-well-known story about a toy rabbit wanting to become real.
The second being not a rabbit, but a 'hare' that could be defined as the stallion of a great warrior.
An important animal from the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms', a story of war and heroism.
They both blended together to make her ability.
The 'Red Velveteen Hoofed Among Hare' Unique Skill was activated. She got into a running start.
When a red energy created hoofs on her ankles, a gust of air was left when she vanished into thin air.
Nobody could predict what would happen next,
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