Smoke filled the sky above the withered forest, the usual eerie silence was replaced with the crackling from the few trees that caught fire, while the woods were sparse with the dead trees they were still very conductive so the fire continued to spread ever so slowly

The cause of this new disaster was gazing at the middle of the crumbled mansion, his eyes were fixed at the blackened double doors of the only room left standing

'There is no way she could live right? No no to begin with even if she hid in that room and avoided the fire entirely she would still suffocate to death, especially since she would be in the center of the fire'

Yu had put a double bait especially for this expected visitor of his, he didn't need to see her to know that it was Karme who had rushed inside, he had baited her into the mansion with the backpack and then when she got close she would see her sisters dead body and rush to it, by then she would be within the circle of furniture he had made so her sight would be blocked, enough for the fire to reach its destination before she notices it and figures the situation out

Until that part everything seemed to have gone as planned, but he had no idea what happened during the fire, and seeing that she didn't barge outside as he thought she would try, nor was her body in here he was starting to think she survived

'That blue light.. it was not this strong before'

He meant the light that came from the Castle Core room, it was the only place that had endure the fire, but he didn't understand why she would go there, and not take the Core away to save herself

"Regardless the only way to know is to open the doors, but if she is indeed alive then I'm not sure if I'm her match, even if she is injured from the continues deaths of her summons. I don't have much time either to plan or lay traps as she would recover more until my traps would be meaningless"

Having thought up to this point Yu decides to have a frontal confrontation with Karme herself so he walks up to the door with light steps, the wolf follows behind him but he tells it to stop a few steps away from the door

"Karme! I know you're in there, no need to play games, I know your injured, hell you might be half dead already, so why don't you come out and talk it out with me like the nobles we are, im sure we can strike a deal one way or another "

Yu shouted at the closed doors, but was met with silence, he expected this and only wanted to lay the carrot first before swinging the stick

"Karme don't be difficult, you know your cornered so why don't you just give up. Sigh, your just like your sister, she was stubborn to the end, she could have just yielded to me and all would have gone well but she chose to try and run away, and what did she get for her efforts?..."

Before he continued his words Yu motioned to the wolf with his eyes as he positioned himself at the side of the doors, he took a deep breath to ready himself, then, with the saddest tone he could muster, he slowly continued his words

"..only a cold rotten headless corpse"

BAM

"Yu! You son of a B!tch!!"

The doors were busted open as a spotted leopard head straight toward the wolf with uncanny speed, its mouth wide open. The wolf, not one to take a beating, instantly sprinted from its crouched position as it met the leopard head on

As for Karme who had just issued an incensed scream, she actually stayed in the room, a calm look plastered on her face

Yu walked out of the side and was not surprised by the fact that she didn't fall for the bait, he didn't think for a second that a seasoned hunter like her would fall for a small provocation even though he also knew she was burning with cold rage

Karme set her eyes on Yu, looking him up and down, she seemed surprised for a second, then looked at him with suspicion

"If I didn't know that this place wouldn't let anyone but the participants in I would have thought you were a fake"

"Is this how you greet your fellow noble? Can you have more tact than that"

"Humph, I thought someone else was pulling the strings from behind to set a trap for me, but after seeing your attitude it seems I was wrong, I never thought the trash Yu would be able to pull off such a stunt"

"Oh your praise flatters me, so does that mean you're willing to yield now that you have witnessed my true power"

A mocking sneer formed on Karme's face as she looked at Yu with utter ridicule, like a king looking at a clown

"Heh, power? All you did was set an outdated trap, if it wasn't for me underestimating you to an uncanny degree I wouldn't have fallen for any of your silly traps"

"Oh is that so? Well I'm sorry to inform you that no if's exist in this world, you had fallen for the trap and your now injured, very much so, so whether or not you had the ability to defeat me before is now irrelevant, what is of importance is your decision"

"Hahahah haha, its really funny how trash like you think they have everything in the bag, injured? Cant defeat you? You have no idea how cruel reality can be"

Her condensing stare took a savage turn as her face contorted in anger, she unsheathed the blade at her hip and bended her right leg a bit

"All your tricks have no effect on me, the only mistake that you ever truly made was to harm my little sister, now I will rip you into pieces, I will show you what it really means to have POWER!"

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With a scream she bounded of the floor, making a mad sprint toward Yu who was still at the entrance, a look of horror and surprise streaked past Yu's face, he barely had the time to unsheathe his dagger before she was already within an arm's reach, her blade swing at him diagonally

"Die you mongrel!"

"Heh"

His horror stricken face was wiped away, his mouth turning into a sneer, in the face of imminent death all he could think of was how brilliant his acting skills were

Peng- Stab!

Once again the metal rebound tickled Yu's ears, like spring wind it gave him joy, to Karme though it was the screeching winter bellows, freezing her to the bone

What followed was Yu stabbing at her with a knife, her instincts kicked in when her mind was frozen, she stretched her left arm to deflect the attack off her neck and she managed to take the stab in her hand instead

But her nightmare had just begun for a looming shadow covered her vision, the large frame of the wolf entered her eyes, its wide maw coming down on her head, she had given her all in the sudden burst of speed earlier so the rebound was so hard she couldn't dodge and whatever chance she had at striking back was now gone when she used whatever moment left for her to deflect the knife, she was helpless, she didn't want to be eaten, she had so much she wanted to do, so many adventures she wanted to take her sister on she-

Crunch!

Was dead.

Bang!

A body slammed into the shield just as the wolf had bitten off Karme's head, followed by the roars and cries of the leopard, it was enraged with the despicable wolf attacking its master and pained at the same time, not just emotionally, for its soul had suffered the backlash of its master dying, unlike Contracted Souls who would suffer nothing from their master dying, Soul Beasts that are bound to the Grimoire holder are linked spiritually, thus they would suffer an injury just as the Summoner would when they got killed except this damage was larger in the short term but would heal with time unlike the Grimoire holder who would lose a page form the Grimoire permanently

The wolf spat out the head and turned to look at the leopard, it wanted nothing more than to charge out and continue the battel, every fight up until now had a quick end because of the smart master of hers but this time she had been quite at it for a while as her master baited the stupid human to the trap, she had also dragged her battle next to him so she could pounce at her when the opportune moment came, that injured human seemed pretty powerful so even though she wanted to test her new strength she decided to secure victory first

But now the leopard was at a new low and she wanted to let out her frustration from the painful rank up on it before it got snapped out of its rage and ran away, even so she didn't attack and instead looked at her dazed master, she respected him enough to ask his permission before initiating a battle

'.. That was too close'

That was the prominent thought that was on Yu's mind since Karme had died

'She was too fast, I almost summoned the shield before she came close out of sheer surprise'

That burst of speed was faster than even the wolfs top speed, and the power of that strike could have even cleaved him in half

'And that's in her injured state too, if it wasn't for the multiple burns and her soul being injured this would have been a tough battel'

Yu already knew she was a powerful foe on her own, after all she possessed a skill that made her body stronger, it's specification was unknown as skills were never revealed but hers definitely fell into the physical category

The laws of this place had restricted her power too but they had placed her at the border of bronze and silver, making her quite the power to reckon with in this Battlefield, and with the other nobles restricted to one summon she had an advantage two on one

'Its backfire on the other hand was also great, if she had come at me with a moderate speed then the backlash from the shield wouldn't be as strong and she would be able to evade the wolf entering a dogfight with it since I blockaded the doors with my shield barring the leopard outside, if she buys enough time for the shield to expire she wins, otherwise she could try and kill the wolf too which is unlikely'

That was actually Yu's plan, but he didn't think she was that powerful, so powerful she ended up killing herself, she had especially emphasized the word power when she attacked him too

"Heh heh your right, reality is indeed cruel"

"Growl"

"Hmm?"

Turning to the side Yu saw the wolf looking at him a bit impatiently it seemed like it was about to pounce any minute now

"What is it ?"

The wolf turned its head toward the leopard, Yu looked at it too and then back at the wolf, he took a few confused glances between them before giving the wolf another questioning gaze

"Growl!"

The wolf seemed like it was losing its patience more now, thankfully Yu figured out what it was trying to say so he gestured toward the leopard like it was dessert on a food table

"Rip him apart as you like"

The wolf smiled satisfyingly and then pounced toward the lollipop, err, the leopard ensuing another fight, one way more sided than the last