NOVEL NEXT Chapter 317: Beast’s companion
'Please, there is no need for violence,'
the Beast said, spreading his arms in a non-hostile way.
Unfortunately, everything that the Beast did, no matter how harmless they seemed, looked like it was a violent reaction because of his large beastly stature.
Ninth and the others stopped talking and immediately moved to their defensive positions. Ninth and the rest of the team used their LifeSkills to attack the Beast before he could get close to them.
The Sniper fired his shot, the Mage conjured an offensive spell, the Scout attacked from behind, and Ninth swung her one-handed sword toward the Beast in coordination with her team.
But in response, the Beast simply swatted their attacks with nonchalance. His thick fur allowed him to take virtually no damage from the Mage's spell and the Sniper's bullet. They tried to dig through the Beast's skin, but they ended up dissipating in the air.
The only one who was able to draw blood to the Beast was Ninth. Her sword cut through the Canzer's bear arms, creating a small cut near his wrist.
But her sword, unfortunately, didn't go far. The Beast simply swatted Ninth and her sword away with his large arm.
Ninth flew backward until her back landed on the wall, shaking the paintings above.
'I mean no harm, humans.'
Despite being attacked, the Beast showed no sign of retaliating against the humans. It insisted on peace, strangely enough. But no matter how much it tried to say something to Ninth and the others, they could not understand the Beast's strange aversion to fighting.
After all, the fact that the Beast approached them should only mean one thing: it wanted to kill them.
Ninth and the others were not wrong in attacking the Beast first. Even if they somehow understood by its actions that the Beast didn't want to attack them, Ninth would have still attacked him nonetheless.
After all, Canzers were sly creatures; she didn't know if it was simply feigning non-violence to draw them in and take them off guard.
Atlan was the only one who understood the Beast's words. Similarly, he couldn't trust the Canzer's words.
What is it trying to do?
As if it wanted to answer Atlan's inner thoughts, the Beast said,
'I want to help you, humans.'
Atlan almost reacted to the Beast's words. He simply couldn't understand why. There had to be a reason why the Beast wanted to help them.
It was unfortunate that Atlan couldn't talk to the Beast directly to ask him. Continue your journey on empire
"Carmine, care to tell us why this Canzer is acting so weird? It's not trying to kill us."
Ninth walked back near to Atlan. When she was thrown to the wall, she didn't feel the intensity and strength she expected from the Beast's arms. It was as if the Beast was trying not to hurt her, only repel her away.
This was extremely weird. After all, the Beast was famed for his strength. He shouldn't be this weak.
"...We don't know…We can see the Beast in his whole attire, so we are sure that this is not a variant of the Beast. So, this Beast should be the maniacal, monstrous Canzer that would want to kill humans the moment it sets its eyes on you."
Ninth looked at the Beast and noticed that it had been moving its mouth and gesturing for a while now. It was as if it was trying to communicate with them.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" she asked Carmine and Atlan.
"Yes. It seems that the Canzer wants to convey something to us."
Unfortunately, no matter how much the Beast used his arms to communicate with the humans, it was impossible for the two to understand each other. Both of them might be intelligent in their own right, but they had completely different cultures and ways of thinking. One thing for humans may mean another thing for Canzers.
'I understand that for all of you to trust me, I need to trust you first.'
The Beast turned around and faced the spiraling staircase leading to the second floor. It was still shrouded in darkness, but the Beast seemed to be able to see through it.
'My love, please come down.'
The Beast's gesture was universal. Ninth and the rest of the team immediately knew that the Beast was talking to someone else on the second floor!
This made the team extremely nervous. Having another unexpected Canzer appearing in this cramped room was bad news. Dealing with the Beast was already bad enough, but if it had another helper about to come about, then they would lose their advantage in numbers.
"Carmine! You didn't tell us there's another Canzer in the Beast's palace!"
"There wasn't supposed to!"
Carmine's hectic voice leaked out of the battle suit. It was clear that this was not part of the plan.
"The Beast is supposed to be alone! The Canzer was famous for his aversion to other Canzers, meaning that he would rather die than ask help from some other Canzers. This is highly unusual!"
Since the Beast wasn't supposed to have a helper, Carmine and the others couldn't prepare for its arrival. At least with other Canzers, they could prepare a plan of attack and create a construct to deal with both of them. But with the unknown helper, Carmine could do nothing else but watch.
STEP…STEP…STEP
The sound of elegant footsteps rang out from the staircase. Even though it was subtle, it took away everyone's attention.
Ninth raised her sword, preferring to act now before it could act against her.
She imbued herself with power, summoning the apparition of the swordmaiden above her body. Although this apparition was smaller than normal because of the ceiling, it was not lacking in power.
The swordmaiden reached forward and swung towards the creature going down the steps.
But just as she was about to slice down, a voice rang out from the creature.
"Please, there's no need for that."
Ninth stopped in her tracks, her jaws slacked.
Instead of seeing a monstrous Canzer going down the steps, they saw an elegant human woman smile and greet them from the stairs.