Low-Key Genius?

As the sun took off to the sky once again above the battlefield, it announced the beginning of the fourth day which marked the spark of new battels and the restart of olden ones.

Early in the morning, Yu woke up at the sound of galloping nearing his location, and with the intent of waking up the wolf he turns to the side but is surprised to see the wolf already awake staring at him, seemingly waiting for him to decide on the next course of action.

Smiling to himself Yu makes a hush sound toward the wolf and creeps closer to the mansion's wall behind him as he peeks through the gap that provided near nil vision.

As the galloping got closer and closer Yu got increasingly nervous thinking of how to best escape if he was found out before he could get his enemy to fall for his trap. While he was almost certain of his ability to get away, it wouldn't be without sacrifice, which he wasn't willing to make even though he won't really "lose" it.

Thankfully, he never had to, since the intruder headed straight toward the doors which were now busted open from the impact.

Next, he heard a jump followed by a few steps and an eerie short silence.

Before the silence could even begin to grow on Yu's nerves though, an incensed scream rang through the mansion, surprising the living daylights out of Yu before he saw a shadow move toward the inner parts of the mansion. And judging by the voice, it was the top expected visitor on his list, and while the situation should have been beyond hopeless the only feelings that came to Yu were satisfaction and excitement.

Thus without any further ado, he quickly ground two highly flammable stones and lit the thread, which quickly created a red streak that shot through various parts of the mansion.

Some of the threads didn't manage to burn all the way through but most of them did, resulting in repeated explosions being heard through the mansion, the explosions spread the fire through the mansion which resulted in more explosions seconds later, the flames soared even more as it covered the entire mansion burning every inch of it, all except the core room

"Sheesh kebab, this alcohol is way more flammable than I thought, whelp guess I can say goodbye to my roof as well"

Laminating at his increasing losses of luxury Yu looks at the burning mansion in relief and sadness, to him this was the first home he had after waking up in this world, it may also have been his intended coffin, but he still placed some sentimental value to it, seeing it burning down to ashes he feels a bout of loss

"Sigh, at least this will surely kill that unreasonable woman"

Yu turns to look at the wolf beside him, surprisingly seeing its eyes a little misty, but when it notices his gaze it turns to look at some of the fire that got near them and growls in irritation, then it moves away and sits further from the mansion with its back to him

'Was it the fire that hurt its eyes or was it something else? Hmm'

Yu turns back to the mansion and puts the wolf's weird behaviour aside, what was of importance now was the fate of the enemy he didn't want to face directly, enough to cause him to burn his while mansion instead

"I sure hope you kicked the bucket, well, you will even if you won't burn"

Yu smirks to himself, thinking how much of a low-key genius he was for coming up with this sure kill plan

A mansion made mostly of wood would definitely burn for more than ten minutes, enough time for the shield to run out, and since the shield can't move they would be just putting themselves in even more trouble as the fire would only intensify by that time, but this alone might not be able to kill the person, as they could summon something to shield them from the fire, enough for them last through it, so what he relied upon was instead something else, something far worse than burning to death

"Humph your either gonna be a fried chicken or a smoked one"

Yes, he relied upon the fact the fire eats up all the oxygen in the air, being in the middle of it would cause the person to suffocate to death, the only remaining option would be to charge out of the mansion which they would be hard-pressed to do with their Summon type

"That IF she figures it out before its too late, not everyone has my smarts after all"

While he knew he sounded cocky he also knew that he had the right to be, after all he killed opponents he had no chance of taking head-on, and stole two Castle Cores with extreme ease (Except the last one), others would be hard-pressed to quickly come up with such plans on the spot as death loomed over them

A shiver ran up his spine as he recalled the moment the mace almost hit him, his heart still palpitated at the mere thought of it

"I need to strengthen myself too, not just the Summons"

As he stared at the raging fire he started recalling the methods of which people use to temper themselves as a way to pass time

..a bit more than thirty minutes later the fire started going down, until eventually, only some embers remained, by that time the wolf was already beside Yu, staring at the ruins of their home, with vigilance this time

Yu turns to the wolf and nods seeing its current state, then he walks carefully into the mansion, or whatever was left of it. While he was confident in his plan he also didn't want to die by underestimating the enemy, especially if they were just doing a last-ditch effort

Once the wolf and the boy reached the middle of the mansion they saw a circular area of a different colour than the rest of the burning place, it seemed like it fared better than its neighbours, they naturally assumed that this was the area of the shield, but what puzzled Yu was the fact that there was no human body anywhere, not the one he prepared as bait, nor the one he had expected to be added to the latest visitors of his

Well, no human body, because they did see to bodies, one was a large sabre tiger looking creator and the other was of a long cheetah that was burned beyond recognition, but even after having the wolf carefully turn them over he didn't see a sign of the two bodies

"Did she charge out? No, she couldn't have, plus the space those two seem to have cleared is clearly toward the inside of the mansion"

Yu frowns to himself as he mumbles while turning his gaze toward the centre of the mansion, the only place which hadn't crumbled due to the fire, as he did he a gleam passed through his narrowing eyes once he caught a glimpse of a blue light through the cracks

****************************

The light of dawn shone on the withered forest yet again creating a peaceful yet unnerving image, but that image was shattered by the sound of wild galloping, ensued by a spotted leopard carrying its rider speedily across the land

'Another sleepless night, and just for a little superstition at that humph, never mind lil sis is worth the trouble'

The rider was precisely Cranen Karme, heading toward the mansion she had told her sister to head toward to get her first kill, while she felt it was only natural her sister had won she still wanted to check up on the situation

"There's no way that scum could have laid a finger on lil sis, but in the abysmal chance that he did.. !!"

To her that creep deserved nothing short of death, he was a useless trash that leeched off his family, now that she thought about it may be sending her sister to kill him wasn't wise after all

'Humph we'll see'

A while later, just enough for the sun to completely shine upon the battel field, Karme found herself in front of a rundown mansion, doors closed, reeking of a bad smell

She hopped off her Summon and took wide strides toward the double doors before kicking them wide open, what welcomed her in return was a strong stench of death mixed with rot, her summon started to take a few steps back in response to the nauseous stench

"God, what has that filth been doing in here"

She covered her face and took a look around. Black smudges of blood were strewn across the centre of the hall, a few pieces of broken furniture were scattered here and there, and a backpack or whatever was left of it, were the only things that were left after a seemingly gruesome battel

'Huh? Wait that.. that's Rachne's backpack, why is it..'

Karme didn't want to continue that line of thought as she already guessed that it wasn't her sister that brought it here, in fact, she also figured out the reason her sister's room was ransacked the way it was

Without a second thought she went to the backpack to examine it, she wanted to get as much information form the backpack as possible before she set out to hunt the ignorant fool

"I don't know how his power back and I don't care, I will rend his flesh apart when I find him"

She wanted to find him and ask what he did to her sister when she got here and why he ransacked the place, she didn't think Kore was harmed in any way, no she didn't want to think that it was a possibility, she tried to occupy her mind with thoughts of her ripping apart that fool instead, to have dared angered her he will pay a hefty price

But as always, reality strikes you when your most vulnerable, it would be ruthless and without mercy, and exactly what Karme felt the world had turned into when she saw what laid behind the table next to the backpack, those cloths, that cold dead body, it could only be one person, even without a head she could identify the mauled body to be her beloved sister's, she screamed at the top of her lungs, and rushed to her sister, picking her up, she didn't know what to do as panic and fear, anger and despair took a hold of her mind, this body here once represented the most important person to her, but now it was nothing a leftovers

Suddenly she heard the faint sound of sizzling, she turned her head in rage as she wanted nothing more than to rip the person responsible to shreds, but all she saw was a little bit of flame going into a barrel, more sizzling sounds made their self known before a huge multitude of blasts erupted, but given the sings she just saw Karme instantly shield herself with her grimoire and started unsummoning the slightly injured … as it had been a little late getting into her shield

The fire continued to spread as it engulfed more and more space, she wanted to rush out before it got worse but more explosions rang out as the fire spread, and with most of them being in the areas fire hadn't reached, she didn't dare take the risk, soon enough the fire had reached every corner, trapping her inside

Her anxious eyes gradually calmed down as she started assessing the situation, her earlier panic started to fade as cold rage forced her into a calm state, this was the mentality of a hunter, to have a calm mind even in the most dangerous moments

'The fire has already covered every method of retreat, the delayed explosions were meant to make me hesitate enough time for the fire to spread, and this place is the centre of the hall which means it's a good distance from the doors, and there is no way it would only last ten minutes'

Cracks could be heard above her as parts of the roof started to crumble signalling its imminent fall, after taking a look at it she turned her head to take in the surroundings once again, thoughts racing through her mind

'I will be trapped if I stay here furthermore... I'm pretty sure Il suffocate to death even if I can withstand the fire and the falling ceiling'

A toothy smile suddenly found its way to her mouth as she mumbled to herself

"What a clever rat, putting together so many tricks just to finish me off, you must have thought this through"

Her toothy grin morphed into a savage smile as her words fell

"But IM the Hunter here"

Strange syllables escaped her mouth as she summoned a large tiger, it barely fit in her shield but that wouldn't be a problem as she pushed it into the fire, the tiger had a conflicted look on its visage as anger and frustration made their self-apparent, but as it was bound to her it couldn't help but sacrifice itself knowing that they would both die anyway if it didn't do anything

Thus with an unwilling heart the tiger jumped into the fire and started to rage as it cleared a path to the centre of the mansion roaring in pain as it burned to death, halfway there the tiger's fur had already turned into charcoal, it wheezed through breaths, but as it knew this was its last moment it refused to go out without a fight, thus with a last roar it rushed forward smashing away everything in its path

Even a cornered rat might erupt with power much less a tiger thus the mighty rush seemed like it will definitely make it to the doors it hoped to open, but it seemed fate had it in for this tiger, or maybe its master, but unknowingly a part of the roof had already broken off and headed straight toward the rushing tiger, smashing him dead in his tracks, the literal dead.

"Hu! Damn only a little was left"

The backlash hit Karme but as she was a silver Rank her soul didn't suffer much damage; the soul was the only thing the battlefield couldn't restrict

But now she might have to suffer another loss as even though only a few steps were left to reach the door a new obstacle barred her path, she would either have to risk it or summon another one to open a path for her

Cracks and crackles could be heard around her as more parts of the roof started to fall spreading the fire to her new-made path, she had to make her choice with haste

"No choice"

She stringing another chain of unintelligible words, calling a slim cheetah to her side then she told it to rush out and make a way

The cheetah looked at its master silently for a few seconds before it charged out toward the fallen roof…. With Karme in tow