Chapter 351: 351 - Don"t Touch This
"What are you gonna do about it?" Lilith asked, now on her largest form. The gigantic snake, by zigzaging herself over, was able to cover his entire body, leaving only his head visible, as the flames glowed between the segments of her body.
"Not so sure, to be honest. Some of they may have already recognized me by now, especially if they see you," Noah considered many things. He himself could not yet see the blessed Bel warned about, but a think he knew for sure, they would request him to join the investigation group. After all, he and Bel ultimately killed tha A-Rank monster they were barely scratching.
Noah knew for a fact the monster was already weakened, but none of them were aware of it. Besides, even though the monster was as stong as a single A-Rank blessed, it was still on the Peak B-Rank Blessed Fortress range. They would never bring the very few A-Rank Blessed to deal with the issue now, and would only get them involved if the fortress was too difficult in the first place.
Either way, Noah had already accepted that his disguise would be torn to shreds if there was anyone in the group who knew him, and he was already pretty positive there were such people involved in the emergency response. After all, the Khan Family was heavily influential in Eyrin. The fire still burning his now almost full mana pool, Noah slowly started feeling his hands and feet again, but very slowly.
"I"m sorry, he won"t be able to talk to you guys right now! The backlash of the attack was too large," Bel told the people accompanying him, as he pleaded for them to wait, walking backwards. Noah heard this with a bit of a troubled feeling, thinking on how to deal with this.
"A MONSTER!"
"Quick!"
Suddenly, the Blessed became heavily aggravated, as a pair of imps shot out from a ball of flames right in front of Noah"s face. "Stop! They are allies!" Bel raised his hands, trying to stop them, but some of the Blessed had already cast their own blessings, needles of ice and stones flying towards the imps. The two tried blocking, but were throwun dozens of meters away, presumably dead, before vanishing into a small flame.
"Oh, well, another annoyance," Lilith rolled her eyes, feeling Noah"s discontemp, as she towered herself over, hissing loudly at the blessed, who cowered from being presented the pair of fangs almost 10 inches long and her mouth which was large enough to swallow a man whole. In that meantime, a fiery circle appeared on the ground, the very same two Imps coming out of it, since, after all, they wouldn"t really die even if killed.
"We need to slay that monster!" One of the roudier blessed stated, raising his sword, as he greeded over the material that could be harvested from such a snake monster. While none voiced their agreement, a part of blessed walked behind him, starting to move behind him as activate their blessings. It wasn"t a swift process like what happened with the imps, after all, those were not the people who attacked them automatically out of fear. Something about their way of speaking threw Noah off, and noticed it aswell, staring at them intently.
"If they attack me—" she started, clearly angry, but Noah"s voice qucikly interrupted her, as he readied himself.
"I"m on the ground, but I can still set those f.u.c.kers on fire. They sound like they will burn well," Noah"s responde caused her to loosen, lowering herself back down, still facing the blessed, but covering him completely one again. With the help of the imp, who completely ignored the quarrel, and casted [Healing Flames] as well his body began to recover at a much faster pace, and his previously unresponsive limbs were tingling from the return of the feeling, and the pressure of having a ma.s.sive snake slathered atop them.
Noah just watched idly from the ground, as Bel"s pitch and tone took a complete 180, darkening and becoming serious, as he noticed the wicked smiles on the three blessed"s faces. His childish and playful self was nowhere to be seen, a sickening bloodl.u.s.t a.s.salting the entire group of blessed. "If you touch my mother, you will never leave alive," he threatened, a threat which coming from a boy his size sounded like a child throwing a tantrum at first, but the darkness and bloodthirst in her eyes was enough to make even the seasoned blessed gulp. The raging red lighning that enveloped him during his attack against the monster started coiling from his fingers, as arrows of red lightning appeared around his open palm, as is his very fingers had turned into one such blade. The eery red light emmitted, when combined with the ravenously crimson view of his clothes and face, still dirty with blood, were enough to make the two Blessed behind cancel their blessings immediately, facing the sure backlash of the cancelation.
Cancelling your blessing once it was cast was... complicated. Some blessed could do it at will with absolutely no issue, others, however, had to deal with the incredible strain of reabsorbing both the matter and energy of the blessing itself. This was far easier for blessings related to Ligh and Fire, but those that used earth or stone as projectils suffered more so than average. The stronger the blessed, the worse it could become, although it heavily depended on the G.o.d and how they felt about people regretting their decisions. There was also the last kind that, although could stop the casting, could not revert what already happened.
"What are you gonna do? Cry by mommy"s side? Or are you a freaky monster just like the rest," the Blessed with a sword provoked him, making Bel bite his lip and ready himself, lowering his stance to lunge onto him.
"Wait! This is not the time or place to pick a fight!" Another blessed stepped in. He looked to be around 30, but his expression made Bel think he was at least somewhat experienced. "There"s no need to go attacking allies for stupid reasons. Hugh, you need to chill the h.e.l.l up man, you could get us killed for your stupidity," he turned to the man, making him click his tongue and spit on the ground, while Bel disarmed himself, taking a deep breath and sighing loudly.
"I don"t care, just do not let that happen again," he said, his eyes full of scorn as he looked at the two terrified Blessed and the idiotic one with a sword over his shoulder. Bel ran back towards Lilith, the imps and Noah, seeing her move a little. "N—Boss! Are you alright?!" he asked worriedly, making the Blessed who came to find them tense up. This little boy was, after all, the being that shattered the monster"s leg to pieces by barelling through it head-on. While the other Blessed had ultimately killed the monster, their impression of him was far lower than that of the boy. However, hearing the boy call him boss reminded them of what was happening all around them.
"About the monsters that fleed and—" the head of the blessed who came to meet them started speaking, but Bel"s hand raised, silencing him.
"Wait. We can talk about stuff that has already been dealt with after he talks to you," he turned around, making the Blessed pale.
"What does he mean "dealt with"? Could it be that they dealt with all of them before heading here? All over 30 monsters? That"s absurd," he thought, looking back to see the flabbergasted faces of most blessed, except five. Those who came from the Khan Family"s new Inner Circle Team. Out of the 15 blessed, only five had come, which made him, as one of the main blessed of the Nine Families quite angry. But they proved far more useful than any of the reinforcements from the other families. Either way, his focus was now on the two unknown blessed and the gigantic serpent that accompanied them, which the boy who was above him in individual strength called Mother. "Do those people of the Khan know this guy already?" the fleeting thought crossed his mind, not recognizing the Hannya mask since the man was still lying on the ground. But soon, the snake slid onto the ground, allowing him to see the magnificence of its pitch black scales and ma.s.sive body, and the man stood up, opening and closing his hands, as the imps stood by his sides behind, almost as if bodyguards.
"Good morning. I"m sorry for the unsightly appearance you witnessed. I grossly underestimated the backlash of stopping my fall only after ensuring the monster was killed," Noah"s voice sounded strange and confounded, all under the effect of the Hannya Mask, which kept him anonymous, even though a second layer of protection was available as his demon form, but he did not want anyone to see it yet. Some of the Blessed, though, wer extremely wary of the red and strange burn appearance of his skin and exposed muscles around the mask, which made them fear he was a pariah of sorts, or someone punished by the families.
"Oh, it"s okay, we all get injured at times. Good think to see you recovered that fast, did you use any Healing Items or artifacts?" the leader of the group of blessed asked, to which Noah responded with a shake of his head.
"Nah, I just used some healing blessing. Although mine is not best, it is on the most effective side, despite being rather slow for internal damage," he said, as ke looked at his hand, still opening and closing it, hoping for the tingling and burning sensation to go away soon.
"Did you break your hand from the attack?" the blessed asked, entertained by Noah"s reaction, one of someone who wasn"t used to being hurt.
"No, my spine." But Noah"s next words completely shattered all reason, and his funny smile collapsed into a horrified yet serious expression.