Beastmen Alliance (3)

From the darkness, a black shadow silently climbed down a tree branch.

As the moonlight illuminated its form, distinct black stripes etched into its jet-black fur and golden eyes that shone even in the darkness were revealed.

,Nyang? I received a distress signal about a Demon King invasion, but what’s all this commotion, nyang?”

A familiar voice. A familiar verbal tic.

The moment those golden eyes found me, they widened.

“Huh? Haru-nyang!!!”

The shadow instantly closed the distance, rushing toward me.

Warak-!

A small but solid body was embraced fully in my arms.

“I found you, nyang! Really, really Haru-nyang, nyang? I finally found you, nyang!”

It was Nia.

She rubbed her face against my chest, sniffed me, and even licked my cheeks like crazy. The total collection of all affection expressions a cat shows when meeting its owner.

“I missed you, Haru-nyang! I really, really missed you, nyang!”

Seeing her burying her face in my clothes, shedding tears and snot, my hand involuntarily rose to stroke her head.

“Nia. It’s been a while.”

Goldenhorn, huddled at the edge of the cliff, was blankly watching this entire scene.

“No, wh-what is this? That guy’s the Hero?”

He muttered in confusion.

“He’s supposed to be the Hero, so why is he hanging out with the Demon King’s army!”

Nia’s ears, still in my arms, perked up.

She detached herself from me and turned to Goldenhorn with an annoyed expression.

“Shut up, nyang!”

Hwik-!

Something flew from her hand. A streak of silver light.

Peok.

With a dull thud, the dagger Nia threw lodged precisely in Goldenhorn’s forehead.

“Keuheok…”

Goldenhorn fainted with a short groan and fell backward.

Nia, having neatly wrapped up the situation, turned back to me with a beaming smile.

“So, praise me, nyang! Nia heard that Haru-nyang disappeared through a dimensional rift and worked really hard to save Haru, nyang!”

She proudly puffed out her chest and said.

“I even created an adventurer’s guild called ‘Golden Claw Squad’ with Estelle and became its leader, nyang! I made a ton of money, nyang!”

Only then did I take a closer look at Nia.

She had definitely changed. She was bigger than before, and her whole body was covered in firm, lean muscles.

Those black stripes… She really went all out with the dye job.

“How is it, nyang? Can you see how strong Nia has become, nyang?”

Nia showed off her arm muscles and boasted.

“Ah, and actually, Nia wasn’t just a cat, nyang! Nia was a tiger, nyang! I awakened the bloodline of the Black Tiger, nyang!”

“Yeah, yeah. Good job.”

I answered listlessly, patting her head. A tiger, my ass. Just a dyed cat, probably.

“Let’s go together now, nyang! Do you know how much Nia suffered trying to find Haru-nyang? Now Nia has a lot of money and a lot of subordinates, nyang! Haru-nyang just needs to come with me and pet Nia like before, nyang!”

She wrapped her arm around mine and looked up at me with expectant eyes.

After hesitating for a moment, I opened my mouth.

“I’m sorry, Nia. But I have things to do right now.”

“Nyang?”

“I can’t go with you.”

At my firm words, the smile disappeared from Nia’s face.

Her golden eyes narrowed.

“What that deer geezer said earlier, was it true, nyang? Haru-nyang, are you really working with the Demon King’s forces, nyang?”

I answered with silence.

But that seemed to be enough for Nia.

“I have a goal I want to achieve.”

“A goal? What goal could you possibly achieve with the Demon King’s forces, nyang!”

“This is the path I’ve chosen.”

No further explanation was needed.

The friendly aura emanating from Nia instantly turned into a sharp killing intent.

“Then, I’ll just have to take you by force, nyang!”

With her declaration, the air at the edge of the cliff froze.

I sighed and drew the Holy Sword ‘Dawn’.

Chwaaaaa-!

The golden blade shone dazzlingly in the moonlight.

Nia lowered her stance. From the tips of her ten fingers, sharp claws imbued with jet-black aura emerged.

“Haru-nyang is Nia’s, nyang!”

Kaang-!

Nia was the first to move. Her body rushed forward like a streak of black shadow, swinging her claws at my neck.

I raised the Holy Sword and lightly parried.

With a sharp noise of metal clashing against metal, sparks of magic erupted in the darkness.

“!”

The force transmitted through the sword was unusual.

This wasn’t the Nia from before. The amount of magic alone was on a different level.

Kakang! Kakakang!

Nia’s attacks continued relentlessly. She kicked off trees, climbed the cliff face, and cornered me with three-dimensional movements that were impossible to follow with the eye.

“I’ll show you exactly that Nia hasn’t just been playing around all this time, nyang!”

Really, did she become a tiger or something?

I chuckled and spread my left hand in the air.

“Alright. I’ll play with you a little.”

Chwaaaaaaa-!

The Demon Sword ‘Twilight’, imbued with jet-black darkness, was summoned.

The Holy Sword’s sacred golden light and the Demon Sword’s ominous jet-black light.

As the two opposing energies swirled around me, the entire forest vibrated with a fierce energy.

But even seeing my dual wielding, Nia didn’t flinch in the slightest.

Rather, a deeper, more cunning smile spread across her lips.

“Now you’re finally feeling like getting serious, nyang?”

Nia’s lips curved into an arc.

She wasn’t intimidated at all by the Holy Sword and Demon Sword. Instead, her golden eyes sparkled as if she was even more delighted.

“Good, nyang! Then Nia will show you her real skills too, nyang!”

Nia shouted triumphantly and began rummaging through her pockets, pulling out something.

“Tada~! The Seven Cat Tools, nyang!”

What she proudly displayed was a tattered blanket, a small bell, a ring, a cat paw-shaped toy, a kneading glove, a dagger that looked like a fishing rod, and a fish-shaped snack.

They all looked like junk picked up from somewhere.

“These are SSS-class relics that Nia collected while traveling through dangerous dungeons and the Seven Forbidden Zones, nyang!”

I was so dumbfounded that I let out a hollow laugh. That junk?

But it didn’t take long to realize that thought was arrogance.

“First! The Hide-and-Seek Blanket, nyang!”

Nia quickly wrapped the old blanket around her body.

Then, her figure disappeared as if melting into the air. Even her presence.

“Nia is here, nyang~ Just kidding, nyang. Actually, I’m here, nyang~”

A voice that echoed through the space.

‘That’s the Abyss Cloak!’

An SSS-class stealth artifact that perfectly hides the wearer’s appearance from all physical and magical detection.

The next moment, Nia pulled out another tool.

Ttalang, a clear bell sound rang.

“Time Bell, nyang!”

‘Acceleration Orb?!’

A crazy relic that momentarily accelerates the wearer’s time several times over.

Cold sweat ran down my spine.

An invisible enemy, attacking with accelerated time. It was the worst combination.

I tensed every nerve. The flow of air, subtle sounds, vibrations in the ground.

I had to predict her location by mobilizing all my senses.

Hwik-!

Right!

I swung the Holy Sword, cleaving through the air.

But there was nothing there.

‘No, is it the left!’

The moment I took a defensive stance again with the Demon Sword, a sharp wind brushed past my back.

Seogeok!

A burning sensation spread across my shoulder. It was shallow, but I was definitely cut.

‘Damn it, she’s fast!’

In the original game, the Acceleration Orb’s duration was only about 3 seconds.

But Nia’s movements now were much longer than that.

Nia’s voice echoed in the darkness, and eight more shadows appeared around me.

A total of nine Nias, including me, surrounded me from different directions.

“There’s a saying that cats have nine lives, nyang. So Nia also has nine, nyang!”

The nine Nias laughed simultaneously.

‘The Illusion Lord’s Division Ring…! No way. How did she get that?’

In the original, the ring’s clones were much weaker than the main body and were just illusions that repeated simple movements. If I could just find the main body…

At that moment, the nine Nias rushed in simultaneously with different attack patterns.

One dug in from below, while another attacked from above.

Front, side, rear. There were no blind spots.

These aren’t just simple illusions. They’re all moving with independent wills!

Kakang! Kang! Kaang!

I frantically swung the Holy Sword and Demon Sword, blocking the attacks pouring in from all directions.

Then, one clone seemed to disappear, only to reappear right behind me, tearing through space and swinging its claws.

“Teleporting Claw, nyang!”

“Space Ripper!”

“Fifth! Kneading Glove!”

Another clone nonchalantly received my Holy Sword’s strike with a cotton-like glove.

The moment the Holy Sword’s divine power touched the glove, it was refracted sideways and bounced off in a strange direction.

‘Black Hole Gauntlet! And it doesn’t absorb the attack, it refracts it?!’

“Sixth! Fishing Rod Dagger!”

Another Nia swung a dagger from afar. The blade stretched out like a whip, aiming for my arm.

“Last! Delicious Churu, nyang!”

The Nia who was grazed by my sword and injured popped a fish-shaped pill into her mouth. Then, her magic power, along with her wound, was instantly restored. Even the last weakness of the relics, magic power consumption, was compensated for.

‘Even an Omnipotent Elixir…!’

Abyss Cloak, Acceleration Orb, Illusion Lord’s Division Ring, Space Ripper, Black Hole Gauntlet, Shape-shifting Blade, and Omnipotent Elixir.

All SSS-class relics. Even in the game, it was hard to get just one of those top-tier artifacts, and she had seven of them.

Moreover, that wasn’t the only problem.

As powerful as they were, the artifacts had clear weaknesses and limitations. But now, for some reason, the relics’ weaknesses were being compensated for, or their strengths were being maximized.

‘Could it be… because of the Great Mutation?’

That goddamn cataclysm had even enhanced the performance of the relics.

The original knowledge was now useless.

“How is it, Haru-nyang! Nia has become stronger, right, nyang?”

The nine Nias laughed simultaneously and pressured me.

A clone accelerated by time acceleration used the stealth cloak to disappear, then reappeared with teleportation and attacked with an extending dagger.

Even if I tried to defend, the kneading glove deflected the attack.

This wasn’t a fight. It was a cat-like taunt.

Seogeok! Seogeok!

Small wounds continued to increase on my shoulders, arms, and legs.

I desperately endured, wielding the dual swords, but I was gradually being cornered.

“Keueuk…!”

In the end, I allowed a kick to the abdomen from one of the clones.

My body was pushed back, and I hit my back against the tree wall.

The nine Nias surrounded me.

In their golden eyes, playfulness and possessiveness flickered.

“Surrender, nyang. If you obediently follow Nia, I won’t hurt you, nyang.”