The Invincible Full-Moon System

Rawr!

Seeing a hostile creature disrupting their romance, the mutated jungle cats began swelling in size, with the male one standing in front of the female. It had a sense—of duty to protect the female, even though its senses were telling it that this black creature was dangerous.

It snarled, exposing its fangs while hunching in preparation to strike.

On the opposite side was a creature from nightmares.

Appearance-wise, it looked to be a black lioness with seething dark energy across its body.

An energy that emanated the power of death itself.

Just from being brushed by the death energy alone, the trees, plants, or flowers in the area withered at an incredibly fast rate. It took only a few seconds for them—to disintegrate into nothingness, leaving not a trace of its existence behind.

One unique feature that this black lioness has is its upper head.

A skull encased the upper half of its head, from the jawline to the crown like a second skin.

Looking at the pressured mutated jungle cats, alert and also cautious of its presence, this abomination cracked an intelligent smile, savoring the fear lingering in the air. It circled its prey, eyes as red as a pair of rubies.

Soon, it turned to face the male jungle cat, lowering its head to pounce.

But at the same time, two shadows streaked from the bushes.

Sensing incoming attacks, the black lioness turned and realized that it was being stalked.

Considering its agility and reaction time as it managed to flee from Flunra and Gistella before—it was fast enough to leap to the side when it saw Gistella in Human form, morphed her tail—and struck from over her head.

Evolving into a Werewolf Fiend Matriarch, she gained the characteristics of the Passue.

Steel armor encased her Werewolf form entirely, including her elongated tail.

Stab!

Like a scorpion, the tail struck the black lioness but it managed to dodge.

Before the tail stabbed the ground, the steel armor changed into a bronze hue naturally. Continue reading stories on empire

Its sharp tip then pierced the ground like butter.

Cracking a mocking smile at Gistella's attempt, the abomination was soon surprised when its body was fixed in place. It stared back at Gistella and found her smiling—and only then did it realize Gistella didn't miss her attack.

Upon achieving her evolution, she also gained a skill.

A skill that capitalized her fiendish power of the Undead in her bloodline called Shadow Lock.

Activating the skill, allowed Gistella to grab someone's shadow—with her limbs, including her tail, and lock it. Having their shadow locked basically immobilized them from moving and that was exactly what happened to the black lioness now.

Not being able to move even for a second in a high-rank battle such as this is lethal.

And that was not only for shows.

Bam!

Flunra, remaining in his Human form to keep his mobility, came from below and struck.

He made a savage upswing with the sole of his foot, sending the black lioness off the ground and flying into the air. Gistella let go of the shadow, allowing it to be knocked before stabbing the shadow once again, causing the black lioness to be locked again, levitating mid-air.

Showing perfect synergy, Flunra quickly sprinted in a circle with the black lioness as the axis.

As he did that, he branded ancient runes on the ground.

In only a second, he successfully created a spherical formation.

Swish!

Upon activation, the formation spat runic energy slashes akin to razor blades.

Being trapped and barraged by these slashes, the black lioness whimpered gutturally.

Glancing down at Flunra and Gistella, it now understands that it was messing—with another pair of powerful predators. But unlike the mutated jungle cats, these two were completely in another realm.

Seeing that its entire body was cut open and was on the brink of death, Gistella moved.

She pulled out her tail and leaped towards the falling black lioness.

Making a seamless stroke, she passed the black lioness's body and landed on the ground.

It was only then did the black lioness' head was severed from its body.

Gistella made the final strike and decapitated it.

Just like that, the black lioness's carcass fell to the ground with a resounding thud.

Both of them had ended the nightmare of the Elves.

"Once it was cornered, it couldn't do anything," Flunra mused. "It's only an expert in stealth"

"Nevertheless, finding it was very hard. I couldn't imagine if this was Shadow" Gistella said.

If the black lioness, one of Shadow's two minions were already this good at hiding, then she doesn't want to know, how hard finding Shadow would be. Even so, this was good, now this part of the Elven forest should be safe.

Glancing over his shoulder, Flunra squinted his eyes.

"Both of you could come out now," He said.

Upon saying that, the two Elves who were watching from the tree top came down.

Out of the two, the scared Elf was lowering his gaze much harder.

Considering that Flunra and Gistella are Werewolves of the Silverstar Pack, his words earlier about them must've reached their ears. It made the scared Elf ashamed, he did not trust the Silverstar Pack and was proven wrong in the next instant.

"Praise the Emperor for sending Lord and Lady here, the minion stood no chance"

"Y- Yes... Praise the Emperor"

Flunra waved his hand, he sensed fear from the scared Elf but he didn't mind his words.

It was the words of the people and there's no need to be offended.

"Inform the queen that the minion here is handled. Me and Lady Gistella will continue to hunt the other one, tell the villages nearby, that there's no need to be afraid again. Also—bring its head as proof"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Not wasting a single second, the Elf went over to the carcass to take the severed head.

Naturally, he stopped when at the sight of the carcass.

To think that such a powerful mutated animal was taken down without rustling the leaves in the surroundings, was a ridiculous thought, but it happened right in front of their eyes. That just shows how powerful the Silverstar Pack was.

Pivoting back toward Gistella, Flunra asked, "Can you locate the other one too?"

"I should be able to," She nodded with confidence.

Just as the two were bantering, they snapped to the side when they heard a yelp.

Both saw the Elf who was supposed to take the black lioness' head fall back to his butt, his wide eyes were looking at something within the carcass' insides. Seeing this, Gistella came to check what was going on.

Nearing the carcass, she noticed a peculiar glow coming from its insides.

"Must be its beast core! A ninth-rank realm beast core!"

"What? Really?! I never seen one before"

Realizing that it must've been a beast core, the two Elves were completely excited.

It's not that they haven't seen one but a ninth-rank realm beast core is rare.

Both of them doesn't have the power to take down a ninth-rank realm mutated animal, so it wasn't exactly normal for them to see a ninth-rank realm beast core. Had it not for this, the two probably wouldn't see one in their lives.

Similarly, Gistella was also pleasantly surprised.

Considering that this minion came from an Order Beast, the beast core it possessed must be immensely vast in energy. Death energy to be exact, and that was perfect for Gistella, "Good—the beast core is great for you, Gistella" Flunra commented.

Upon hearing this, Gistella nodded.

She knew that her black heart would definitely be glad to absorb it.

But she didn't dare to absorb it, at least not until she showed it to Rex.

"Oh, there's another one in here too," the scared Elf said, flipping the bloody severed head.

Inside it was a piece of the beast core, a small fragment of the main body.

He tilted the head and showed it to Gistella and she confirmed that it was true.

A small fragment.

Though it was quite weird seeing a piece of the beast core separated like this.

"Go and take the proof now, the queen and Hastios must've been still concerned about this"

"Y- Yes! Hey, come on, let's go back"

Just like that, the two darted away, bringing along the severed head with them.

As soon as they disappeared—into the distance, Flunra grabbed the black lioness' carcass and took a peek at the beast core, "Can a beast core be separated like that? An Awakened couldn't do anything like that to their spirit core, right?"

"Doing that would cripple an Awakened. I'm also surprised," Gistella replied.

Both of them were quite flabbergasted by this occurrence.

Even Flunra who has ample experience in the past has never seen something like this.

"Take it out, Gistella. I'm afraid with the death energy, it could only be touched by you"

"Okay, let me take it out and then we could inspect it"

"Wait, am I seeing it right?"

"Seeing what right?"

"It's pulsing, see? The beast core is pulsing"

Flunra tilted the carcass to show Gistella the beast core, and as he said, it was pulsing.

Upon seeing this, both exchanged a look.

But then, a shiver ran down their spine, their danger senses were stimulated hard suddenly.

KABOOM!!

Before both of them could react, the carcass, exploded with a powerful explosion, flattening the trees around them with a powerful blast of death energy. Naturally, the two were thrown like a ragdoll.

Countless trees were trashed because of their momentum.

None of them were expecting that the beast core would explode like this.

It was so bad that the ground shook and it could be felt all the way to the Dewmist Village.

Crash!

Gistella crashed onto a tree and stopped, she coughed a mouthful of blood, as her skin was burnt to crisps, death energy corrupting her visibly. She felt a burning sensation from below and when she looked down, she gasped.

She saw her stomach was pierced by a sharp splinter of wood.

Not one, but a lot of them with the smaller ones all the way through in her stomach.

"Eurghkk..." She moaned, trying to sit properly.

Swoosh!

Activating her moonlight energy, she burned the remnants of sharp wood inside of her and stimulated her regenerative ability. She was slowly getting better. Raising her gaze, a wave of anger traveled through her bloodstream.

"It knew that it was going to die..." Gistella mused, biting her lower lip in pain.

Just as she anticipated, the black lioness is intelligent.

Surely, because of its high intelligence, it understands the concept of spite and pity.

Realizing that it was going to die either way, the black lioness forcefully separated its beast core, wounding itself—and making its energy run havoc. Since it was bloodied from Flunra's attack, none realized what it had done.

Despite having its death certain, it wouldn't let Flunra and Gistella go unharmed.

Additionally, the small fragment must've prepared for the Elves too.

It knew the Elves were around from the start but it didn't care, and knowing that Flunra and Gistella were helping the Elves, it predicted that they would send the Elves—back to inform the others of its death.

An extremely intelligent mutated animal.

So intelligent that it was outright terrifying.

Gritting her teeth, Gistella climbed back to her feet and looked in the direction.

"Flunra..." She mused but then she realized that the head hadn't exploded. Despite the pain, she forced herself to walk. "I need to get to those two Elves—before the fragment explodes. Flunra would be fine but not them..."

Transforming into her Werewolf form to enhance her regenerative ability, Gistella began to stumble ahead, trying to reach the Elves. Both of them should've turned around, when the explosion happened, so she should be able to reach them.

But lady luck wasn't on her side.

She heard a faint clicking sound and the moment that happened.

Kaboom!