Book 5: Chapter 194: Pursuit and Flee


    <em>No, I must escape!</em>


    Ness secretly resolved. After witnessing that heart-stopping scene just now, many of his previous assumptions were overturned.


    <em>The blonde girl is very weak? She’s only physically strong but slow? Come on, how can a person who swims faster than a fish be slow?</em>


    A normal person could actually move several times faster against air resistance than water resistance. If she was this swift in water, Ness couldn’t fathom her speed onnd.


    <em>With that kind of speed and her monstrous strengthbined….</em>


    Ness shuddered.


    <em>Could she be… another monster on par with Princess Estelle and Princess Luna? Oh my god, why are there so many monsters here? Is this year’s Martial God Tournament just a showcase of monstrous creatures vying for supremacy? Then why bother allowing the mortals to participate? Why not cage these monsters and have them fight for the championship? It’s not like doing that would affect the final oue…</em>


    <em>What puzzles me the most is why that monster sides with Princess Estelle and proims herself as the princess’ckey. Wait… Proim? No, that’s not right. Something’s not right here! Something’s definitely not right!</em>


    <em>The blonde girl kept iming herself as ackey, yet Lady Erica remained silent all this while. Is there a master who indulges theirckey like this? Besides, her true identity was shrouded in mystery from the start.</em><em>Her being Princess Estelle was just a guess with no solid proof. What if she isn’t Princess Estelle? What if the blonde girl really eliminated Princess Estelle, and orchestrated everything? Then…</em>


    Ness felt a chill down his spine.


    <em>What an appetite—isn’t she afraid of choking?</em>


    “Oh dear, you don’t look too good. You must be cold. Shall I fetch some hot water for you?”


    Ness’ heart nearly stopped when he heard the voice.


    By the time he snapped back to reality, the water’s temperature had surged dramatically. A colossal fireball, resembling the sun, inexplicably appeared in theke’s depth. The surrounding water vaporized instantly, bubbling furiously toward the surface.


    <em>Magic?! She even knows how to use magic?!</em>


    If Ness could speak right now, he would have cursed aloud. She was incredibly powerful, unbelievably fast, and even wielded such powerful magic spells?! Was there no end to her perfection?


    <em>Don’t tell me she’s born into some perfect family, with idiotic rtives swimming in money, and ancestors that everyone worships—the kind that everyone would kneel and kiss their toes whenever they stepped out of their dwelling!</em>


    <em>God, please look at us, the poor kids. We are not asking for fairness, but at least let her be a human. Otherwise, even if we’re not beaten to death, we’d die of jealousy!</em>


    Submerged inke water that was about to boil him alive, Ness clenched his teeth and threw out a white paper crane. The crane seemed toe alive as soon as it left Ness’ hand, fluttering its wings and heading toward Lilith.


    Lilith watched the trembling paper crane approach, unfazed. A small smile appeared on her face as her eyes crinkled up into crescents.


    “Oh, how cute!”


    <em>BOOM!</em>


    The paper crane exploded. The explosion was not massive but sent countless ck powders billowing out, surging toward Lilith and the fireball.


    “Huh? Powder that can absorb magic?”


    The ck powder seemed highly attracted to magic. Although harmless, they seemed to possess a unique ability to absorb magic power. Intrigued, Lilith focused her attention on the ck powder.


    To her surprise, specks of ck were actually tiny ck insects!


    “Ugh, I hate insects.” Lilith snapped her fingers coldly, detonating the fireball directly. The fireball swelled, incinerating the small ck bugs.


    Ness immediately winced in pain.


    To avoid attracting attention from above, Lilith had restrained her power. The explosion, already somewhat weakened by the insects, merely rippled as a heat wave across a hundred meters.


    Nevertheless, it was enough. Riding the heat wave, Lilith closed the distance between herself and Ness.


    “What a damn monster! She’s quick enough already, yet she still used the force of the explosion to propel herself without worrying about burning her own a?s?s?!” Ness cursed inwardly.


    Despite his attempts to bolster himself mentally, panic gripped Ness. From observing the monster’s actions, he knew he had a ny percent chance of dying the moment he was caught. The remaining ten percent involved facing a brutal beating before meeting his end.


    He swiftly navigated thekebed, seeking outplex terrain to put distance between himself and Lilith. However, Lilith was not in the mood to y with him. She plowed through obstacles with brute force.


    Sand and pebbles churned, obscuring Ness’ vision, yet they did nothing to slow Lilith down. Ness was paralyzed with fear. Just as hope seemed lost, he spotted a figure hiding among water nts and reeds—it was hispanion who had dived into theke with him!


    Ness’ eyes lit up. He changed direction immediately and swam toward hispanion.


    The figure seemed to have noticed Ness too and was desperately signaling for Ness to stay away. Ness ignored the warning, swimming past and grabbing onto the nts to propel himself away at greater speed.


    Hispanion, now exposed and furious, instinctively cursed only to end up swallowing a few mouthfuls ofke water. He quickly closed his mouth and swam off in another direction begrudgingly.


    Lilith hesitated briefly, then decided to pursue the slower target.


    Ness finally breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the survival guide he had read in his childhood was right—one could indeed survive if they could outrun theirpanions when faced with a beast in the wilderness.


    “Sorry, my friend. I carry a burden tied to fifty lives. I can’t afford to die here,” Ness thought resolutely. Looking around at his unfamiliar surroundings, he realized that he had lost his bearings while fleeing.


    ording to their escape agreement, they were to continue heading south once in safety. Considering theke’s size, they’d reunite eventually as long as they continued swimming in one direction. If that didn’t work, they could always resurface to shake off the monster’s pursuit.


    However, resurfacing meant emerging into bright light that would expose himpletely.


    With his n set, Ness retrieved apass and confirmed his bearing. He swam southward, cautiously restraining his magic power while scanning vigntly to avoid encountering the monster again.


    Ness felt lucky that their encounter had been in the dim depths of theke. If that blonde monster’s senses matched her monstrous abilities, he’d truly be doomed.