Chapter 146

〈 Chapter 147 〉 Chapter 146 – VS CATS (2)

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My palm barely touched Peria’s shield, and aside from that, there was no major change.

No boom happened.

Peria’s shield was intact.

The Cheonma Repulsor had vanished.

To an outsider, it would have simply looked like I was placing my palm there.

I took a closer look to figure out why this was happening.

Then, in my field of vision, I saw a golden barrier enveloping Peria’s shield.

It was a different color from the white barriers shown up to now in the main tournament.

Moreover, the aura radiating from it felt distinctly different.

While I was bewildered, Peria swung the shield, attempting to strike me, and I quickly created some distance.

Seeing my bewildered expression, now colored by confusion, Peria confidently exclaimed.

“Surprised, are you? This is the Lord’s Divine Power!”

“F*ck, what is this?”

Seeing me struggling to hide my shock, Peria proclaimed as if she had already won.

“Give up! That barrier won’t break!”

“On what basis are you so sure?”

“This technique blocks magical power, you see! Though maintaining it is tough!”

“Haaaah!!! Why are you spilling all your secrets!!!”

Caressy huffed at Peria after finishing off a summoned beast.

“Ah! I’ve been baited again!”

“F*ck! You were the one prattling on about how great it is!!!!”

It seemed Jeong Ahyeon’s summoned beast was particularly annoying, adding to the exasperation on her face, and her foolish subordinates scratching at her nerves only fueled her hysteria further.

But even so, Jeong Ahyeon’s summoned beast charged forward, keeping her too busy to hit the holy knight.

On a separate note, the situation was rather precarious.

An opponent against whom the Cheonma Repulsor was completely ineffective.

In the end, it was the worst-case scenario, requiring brute force to break through.

[Can you break that shield?］

‘It seems pretty impossible with the weapons I have.’

Peria’s shield, being sturdy equipment of a holy knight, looked quite thick and robust.

It didn’t seem likely to be shattered by a standard knife strike.

“Hahaha!! The moment this appeared, the outcome was already decided!”

“If you keep pissing me off, I’ll rip out your beard first.”

“You can’t even break this, so how could you even think of doing that!”

Just then, an unexpected change happened with Peria’s shield.

­ Kwahng!!!!!!!!!!!

An object came flying in, producing a thunderous sound as it struck Peria’s shield.

The object was none other than…

“Butterfly!!!!”

“Ahhh!!! Our butterfly is finished!!!!”

It was a lion.

Its once beautiful golden fur was completely soaked in blood.

Not a single tooth or claw remained intact.

Perhaps it was too exhausted, for it didn’t even let out a groan.

Only its faint breathing showed that the lion was still alive.

From that scene, I could glean just how fierce the battle with the white bear had been.

At that moment, the white bear appeared beside me and spat out some saliva.

The white bear also looked quite worn out, breathing heavily, its eyes glazed over.

Its unconscious state had long since ended, and it was back to being a normal white bear.

However, the white bear expressed its will to continue fighting.

“Good job.”

I pulled out a cola as a reward and handed it to the white bear.

The white bear took a sip and asked if it was Coca-Cola.

“No, it’s Pepsi.”

The white bear expressed intense anger toward me.

It was a completely reasonable and justifiable concern that it shouldn’t be consuming a competitor’s product when it was supposed to be an advertisement model.

I sincerely apologized to the white bear.

“Ah, f*ck, I didn’t know. Sorry.”

The white bear warned me to be careful next time and finished off the cola.

Meanwhile, the lion that had collided with Peria’s shield slowly rose to its feet.

Muttering something, it lowered its head and lost consciousness.

“No!!! Butterfly!!!”

“This can’t be happening!!!”

Caressy and Peria wailed at the sight of the lion’s demise.

And that sorrow ignited a fire of rage within them.

“You! I will never forgive you!”

Peria glared with an intensity that completely contrasted her earlier demeanor.

Meanwhile, Caressy looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked.

“What did our butterfly say in the end?”

“Oh, that.”

I calmly recounted the lion’s last words.

“It said not to eat its special meal. It couldn’t eat and thus couldn’t win.”

“You!!! Don’t twist Butterfly’s last words!!! It wouldn’t say such things!!”

Suddenly, Peria erupted with strong anger directed at me.

At that moment, the fallen lion rose, summoning all its strength to cry out while swinging its front paw at Peria.

Peria promptly raised her shield to block the lion’s attack and retaliated by kicking the lion.

That was Peria’s ugly behavior right to the very end.

“That’s what it really said.”

“You f*cking liar!!! Why are you acting like it’s true!!!”

“Ahhh! I’m sorry!!!”

Once again, Peria was repeatedly kicked by Caressy.

Calming her raging breath, Caressy confronted Peria.

“Do not touch any more special meals! Got it?”

“You! Bring it on!!”

“Don’t beat around the bush and just answer!!!”

“You!!!”

­ Kkaang!!!!

Caressy’s manifested cat paw slapped Peria’s head.

A light metal sound resonated softly from Peria’s head.

Meanwhile, I could clearly see it.

The slight crack on Peria’s shield caused by the lion’s final attack.

I quietly shared a brief plan with Jeong Ahyeon and the white bear.

It didn’t take long to devise the strategy.

We immediately sprang into action.

As planned, Jeong Ahyeon summoned a beast to attack from behind Peria and Caressy.

“I’m still mourning here!!!”

Caressy swung her cat paw wide, obliterating most of the summoned beasts.

Then, turning her gaze toward Jeong Ahyeon, she spoke in an annoyed tone.

“You’ve been annoying since earlier!! Die first!!”

Caressy began swinging her cat paw toward Jeong Ahyeon.

Even as the remaining summoned beasts bit at Caressy, she ignored them and solely focused on attacking Jeong Ahyeon.

Caught off guard by the sudden counterattack, Jeong Ahyeon seemed overwhelmed and flustered.

Thinking it would be hard for her to dodge, I quickly removed my Defensive Coat and threw it to her.

“Jeong Ahyeon! Use this to block!”

“Thank you!!”

Just before Caressy’s strike landed, Jeong Ahyeon managed to clumsily drape the Defensive Coat over herself.

Wearing the Defensive Coat, Jeong Ahyeon blocked Caressy’s assault while continuing to summon beasts, nibbling away at Caressy.

As the back-and-forth battle continued between Caressy and Jeong Ahyeon, I charged at Peria.

Peria raised her shield and, with a voice dripping in condescension, shouted.

“Don’t you remember what I said about not breaking through?!”

“Well, we’ll see when it happens!”

I conjured a mace in each hand to smash the shield.

And just before entering Peria’s spear range, I threw the mace in my left hand toward Peria’s shield.

Peria smoothly swiped the shield to the side, dodging the mace as if she would allow no attack to reach her.

“What are you aiming for?!”

“Just what I meant.”

The mace cleaved through the air and landed exactly where I intended.

Right in front of the white bear.

Having snuck into Peria’s blind spot, the white bear caught the soaring mace and brought it down forcefully on Peria’s shield.

­ Kwahjik!!

Though the mace shattered with just one strike, a slightly larger crack formed on Peria’s shield than before.

Seeing this, the white bear got so excited that it attempted a reckless attack to deliver a finishing blow.

Peria seized the opportunity, calmly taking three steps back, then thrusting her spear at the bear.

“Hey! Get out of the way!”

“There’s the opening!”

Despite my desperate shout, the white bear became the sacrificial lamb to Peria’s spear.

But the white bear still provided me assistance until the very end.

It held tightly onto the spear that had pierced it.

Not wanting to make the white bear’s sacrifice in vain, I sped up my feet.

While Peria struggled to retrieve her spear, I had already dashed past the white bear, arriving right in front of Peria’s shield.

Seeing me, Peria panicked and shouted.

“Stop, stop!!”

“This is the job of our advertisement model!!!”

I quickly swung my mace, beginning to strike Peria’s shield.

Peria’s shield was indeed firm.

I swung with all my strength, but instead of the crack widening, my mace shattered.

Yet I couldn’t stop here.

I couldn’t miss the chance while the white bear was still holding onto the spear.

I focused magical power into both hands and repeatedly attacked the shield.

­ Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng! Kwahng!

The crack on the shield was slowly enlarging.

Thinking I couldn’t keep it up, Peria released her grip on the spear and attempted to kick it away from me.

With that kick, the spear embedded itself deeper into the white bear.

The bear collapsed, but its expression was one of great satisfaction.

Meanwhile, I tried to close the distance to Peria, but…

“Master! Be careful!”

“Hey! Don’t draw aggro, f*ck!”

Caressy’s attack suddenly turned toward me.

To avoid that attack, I had no choice but to stop in my tracks.

As I hesitated, Peria quickly managed to put enough distance between herself and me to join Caressy.

“Are you alright to move?”

“No problem.”

Caressy’s condition looked bad.

She had wounds all over from the summoned beasts, and exhaustion rested heavily on her face.

But she wasn’t giving up yet.

Caressy, radiating desire for victory, issued a command to Peria.

“I didn’t want to use this, but there’s no choice now! You have to block everything from now on!!!”

“I’ll protect it even if my body breaks!!”

The atmosphere emitted from the two changed completely.

Their solemn yet heroic appearance looked like they were preparing for a holy crusade.

It was the figure of a noble saintess and a holy knight.

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