Chapter 236: Lady Lady Ruike

The rat-person Lady Lady Ruike had truly poured far too much heart and effort into the birth of the new rat-person.

So much so that when she was attacked at this moment, she hadn't even reacted yet.

And when she saw Amel—or rather Mickey—burned to ash by the pink-purple wrathful flames.

She realized that finishing the new rat-person before her own body was destroyed by the dimensional stone was already completely hopeless.

Therefore, Lady Lady Ruike fell into a frenzy.

The beast-sickness that had lain dormant in the rat-person bloodline for over two hundred years erupted at this moment.

Crack—

The green dimensional stone shattered.

Broken pieces scattered across the ground.

Lady Lady Ruike's eyes shifted from fury to a clouded, maddened look.

Her flesh suddenly swelled, exaggerated muscles like they'd been pumped with beast-drugs, hoisting the grey robe high up.

Green fur began sprouting rapidly from her chest, the nails on both hands grew thick and sharp, then tore through flesh and blood.

A giant muscular rat-person nearly two meters tall threw back its head and howled at the sky.

"Beast-sickness?"

Rod recognized it immediately.

He had just confirmed that the mage called Mickey was thoroughly dead, and the rat-person mage before him had gone berserk.

Wait.

Wasn't it said that rat-people had very high resistance to beast-sickness?

"Tally, watch out for the beast-sickness blood."

"Got it~"

Just as he finished speaking.

In Yu Guang's peripheral vision, the towering muscular rat-person had already lunged to Rod's front.

A cold, brutal claw swept across his throat in an instant.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—

Sparks shot out.

The powerful physical defense of 【Dragon Scale Art】 instead caused her claws to crack apart.

A great spray of blood burst forth.

The corner of Rod's eye twitched; he had no desire to let this blood full of pathogens rise up.

He raised a layer of 【Lightless Shield】, then detonated it instantly.

The tremendous impact sent the rat-person flying along with a large swath of blood.

"Even though her current strength is mid-seventh-tier, she's a mage at the end of the day, and half-dead to boot—after the beast-sickness flared up she can't even use spells anymore, pure negative gains."

After all, it's called beast-sickness, so it must be a sickness.

Lady Lady Ruike slammed into the wall, rubble spraying out.

Vast amounts of blood poured off her body as if it cost nothing, and within just a second or two, it pooled on the ground into a small puddle of blackish-red blood.

"Did the blood volume increase sharply after the beast-sickness flared up?"

The beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike let out a roar, truly like a wild beast, and on all fours pounced over again at full speed.

Now this grey-robed lord, after the beast-sickness flared up, probably only had early-seventh-tier strength.

And it was purely physical—no dispelling power like the bird-person Caroline's, no rebirth-recovery ability like the demon Atu's.

This wasn't hard to deal with.

But, if someone were to slash at her face-to-face with a sword.

This blood-content like a blood-engorged tumor would probably splash beast-sickness blood all over them the next instant.

"Perfect, let me try out a new skill."

A powered-up 【Repulsion Art】 blasted the beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike away.

Rod spread both hands.

Blue ice crystals appeared beneath his feet and rapidly expanded outward.

In less than two seconds, the ice crystals spread out past seven meters, and sharp ice blades condensed on the ground one after another.

【Yulandi's Ice Blade Domain】.

"Tally, my control on this move isn't great, so just play it by ear."

"Master! I love this! Use it together with your wrathful flames on me!!!"

The succubus said excitedly.

". Shut up, what kind of moment is this?"

Rod couldn't be bothered with her.

Facing the beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike who was launching another brainless charge, he pointed with one hand.

Crack!!!

The ice crystals followed his movement, transforming on the ground into a massive spread of giant ice spikes that thundered forth like a great wave.

Boom!!!

Before the beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike could arrive, she was knocked down and pierced through by the enormous ice wave.

Before the splashing blood could even hit the ground, the spiritual sentience of the Ice Blade Domain instantly solidified it into blood-ice.

"Oh?"

Rod's intent with this move was to kill the opponent.

But he noticed that some of the ice blades had fracture marks on them.

Looking again at the beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike, a layer of spell shield like flowing water had appeared over some of her vital areas.

One of her rat eyes also lost its cloudiness, showing a sliver of clarity.

Staring at Rod.

"I-it's you, the Wind-Wall Forest's... Forest Warden... why... are you causing me trouble"

Perhaps because of the freezing cold, she regained a thread of sanity.

Rod's face was expressionless:

"You launched an attack against my forest, so I have to deal with you."

"That was... a mis-understanding, I... only... wanted to seek... a new homeland for us, for the future of the rat-folk"

She paused, then said in a heavy voice:

"There is no deep enmity between us. How about I compensate you, and we call it even"

"I refuse."

Rod smiled contemptuously. "I'm not fool enough to make a deal with a beast-plague patient who could erupt at any moment."

Those words stung Lady Lady Ruike.

Anger flashed in her eyes. Flame rose in her right hand, then transformed into a whip of blazing fire, lashing viciously toward him.

This spell was fairly covert; a single careless moment and one might have taken the hit.

But at this moment her stance was too poor, and she had no staff to assist her.

Rod dodged it with complete ease.

"A whip? I have one too."

Rod lashed out 【Painful Lash】.

Crack— a precise hit square on the opponent's face.

"Gyaaaaaaaah—"

Lady Lady Ruike let out an utterly wretched, shrill scream.

The intense pain instantly shattered her will, and the polluted blood of the beast-plague seized the upper hand once more.

Her pupils rapidly dispersed and grew cloudy, as if melting.

The scream turned into a beast's howl.

Crack—

Rather than tear the flesh from her own body, she fought desperately to break free of the ice.

Rod smiled.

"Much easier to handle this way."

He stamped his right foot. With a boom, the rocky ground instantly crumbled, and a shockwave imbued with spiritual force slammed straight into the beast-transformed Lady Lady Ruike.

It was the long-unused 【War Stomp】.

The opponent immediately fell into a stiffened state.

Seeing this, Tally at the side immediately manipulated her shadow ribbons to drag her into the fissure cracked open by 【War Stomp】.

Rod then used ice crystals to pin her firmly in place, leaving only a rat-folk head exposed.

"Any last words?"

The rat-folk head, shrieking savagely, could not possibly produce a single response bearing any trace of humanity.

"I suppose not."

He gently raised his hand.

Two slabs of spiritual ice crystal rose on either side of the head on the ground, their surfaces bristling with sharp, conical ice spikes.

"This move is called the Mousetrap."

The two ice-crystal slabs bristling with ice spikes suddenly snapped shut, clamping the rat-folk head viciously between them!

Countless ice spikes from both sides instantly pierced through the head!

The howl cut off short.

Killing her wasn't hard; the key was how to handle all that blood on her body.

Burn it?

He didn't quite dare — what if burning it turned it into something that spread through the air?

Lady Kali had used a purification spell before; better leave it to her.

Rod looked toward the giant egg-sac off to one side.

"And what is this?"

Just as he was about to step forward, the prophetic bracelet given to him by the half-deer Miss Xiao Ke snapped with a sharp crack.

The bracelet fell to the ground.

【Will of the Firmament】 immediately followed with a warning of being affected by psychic influence.

A chill ran through Rod's whole body. He instinctively scanned the room's interior — no one else.

Vaguely, he felt a gaze.

Not in the room, but in the void itself.

(End of Chapter)