Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 321: Wrong Choice...

One visage of Vloz kept close and continued to act as the leopard moments ago. Two images of the leopard dashed toward Gar and his shielding opponent. And one sped toward Liz and her tricky situation. A predicament for the female leader.

She had three options.

First, that the leopard in front of her was the true one. In that case, she should continue fighting as usual. But that would leave those under her command potentially open for an immediate loss.

Second, she could assume that Vloz was rushing to the aid of the girl most in need. But that left the invader against Gar open, who had half of the leopard clones targeting him. And should the real leopard still be in front of her, moving to aid her subordinates would potentially leave her open for an attack from Vloz, an assassination expert.

Third, the man facing the lynx had the odds in his favor with two leopards coming after him. And though it may only be a diversion, it was an effective tactic when paired with Vloz’s incredible speed, which definitely out-did anything the lead invader could do.

It was a perfect use of Vloz’s superior speed with a skill the lead invader’s informants had failed to warn her of.

Only given a split-second, the woman acted quickly without wasting time with hesitation. A small explosion of flames surrounded her entire body as she rushed toward the leopard in front of her at full speed. But she didn’t stop. The intense heat she portrayed forced the leopard to back away as she ran past him. She lunged toward the lynx instead of targeting any leopard in her vision, effectively forcing Vloz to change tactics or suffer the consequences.

.....

And the woman was proud to see her tactic work. Suddenly, three Vloz’s changed course and darted toward her. One came from behind and two from the side, all now pumping out dark essence with great fervor.

Instantly, as if she hadn’t fully leaned into her attack on the lynx, the woman threw a roundhouse kick to best counter the flanking leopards. She grinned as the first leopard from the side broke apart and faded on contact. When the second image of the leopard did the same, her smile grew. Finally, her kick met the lunging claw of the leopard at her rear. Then, her smile vanished.

The third visage of Vloz scattered like the previous two.

The woman immediately located the last leopard, who was practically on top of Liz and her mid-perennial opponent. Instantly, the female leader threw herself at the leopard but she knew she would only arrive late. “Defend yourselves!”

That mid-perennial had already put up defenses the moment he had spotted the leopard targeting him. However, this led to Liz creating some more space and Vloz baffling pretty much everyone.

The leopard had successfully reached the person most in need of help and had ample time to launch a single strike that would at least tear through the man’s armor. Yet he merely brushed behind Liz and rushed back toward his previous opponent.

Those under Vloz said nothing but the lead invader was quite vocal as her fist collided against Vloz’s claws yet again. “What are you up to?”

That attack had confirmed it was the true leopard yet nothing had changed. Despite creating a superb opening, the leopard had failed to capitalize on it, a mistake that an assassin of Vloz’s caliber would never make.

But Vloz kept quiet as the match continued as it had moments ago. Vloz evaded some strikes to then have his attack countered by the woman’s quick reflexes.

“Why waste more time? You could’ve saved her from–”

‘And you could’ve killed your informant.’

That subtle message played through the woman’s mind, catching her completely off guard. Finally, she showed a crack in her stern, confident expression.

At the same time, a dark mist hastily exploded out of Vloz’s body. It wasn’t too thick or blinding but it immediately became apparent why Vloz used the skill. The woman could roughly see Vloz’s figure separate yet again into four more figures. And this time, all four surrounded her without skipping a beat.

“That’s more like it!” All four leopards waiting a single second as the woman’s flames increased again to help ward off fakes. “Try me, kitty!”

In a staggered charge, each copy of Vloz lunged at the woman without impunity. The timing was precise and strategic, finally showing how intricately an assassin would target an opponent.

“Too predictable!”

The woman threw another roundhouse while also throwing two flaming knives out of her storage. Even with a weapon so weak, at least she could squeeze out the real leopard.

“Really?!”

As all four Vloz’s faded into the mist, the woman looked up toward the cry and threw up a raging fist. She held nothing back as she collided with the incoming leopard’s claws, which were barely coming into view from directly above her.

CRACK!

Out of nowhere, the woman felt someone break against the back of her robes. It wasn’t anything strong enough to break the robes or the armor under the robes, but the sound alone was enough to shatter the woman’s defenses.

“What–”

Suddenly, the dark mist around their duel was sucked into a raging twister, which instantly grabbed the attention of the surrounding fighters. It was small and didn’t move from side to side. However, the lead invader quickly became visible to everyone as she was trapped in the core of the compact tornado.

Not missing a beat, Vloz acted fast. While everyone was caught up in the surprise, he darted back toward the nearby Liz. But this time his fangs and claws were dripping with dark essence as he charged the perennial pressuring her. He put up his guard but as Vloz separated into six leopard clones, he had no chance of countering with only a heavy sword and shield.

Cracks appeared on the shield and the sword nearly flew out of the man’s hands. He was baffled to see that each copy of the leopard was able to attack. But he wasn’t able to defend himself from the staggered barrage of the leopard, taking a jabbing claw to the back of his neck and his lower sides at the same time.