Chapter 54: Fluffy Mass of Murder
Moon, though he didn’t know if Dave could be controlled or not.
His eyes moved away again from Dave, fixed on Colten briefly. ’Maybe that greenhead knows how to control him... he’s been by his side for a while.’ Before, once again, returned to Dave.
For there was still the bright, fresh palm imprint on the pale cheek of his...
With that, he decided he would have seven subordinates instead of six and leave controlling Dave to Colten.
But he also promised himself to never entrust his back to Dave, and with that... it was settled.
"Alright, it’s subordination then of me under you or your entire group under me," Moon nodded.
Colten nodded back; now it was settled. "Thus terms as follows: if Dave loses to your very first attack of the duel, it’s your win. If he manages to block, evade, counterattack, or win by the first attack, it’s my win."
Moon, satisfied now, felt it finally was worth the efforts of playing this slick-tongued rich kid, but a more pressing matter came to their attention.
Moon raised a brow. "How do I trust you sticking to our deal?" He didn’t trust him in the slightest, not after disposing of the duo on the ground, Basil and Barrett.
"Trust is meaningless, we will find a teache—"
"OH, IT’S A CAT!" Someone screamed further behind, cutting off Colten’s explanation.
But that was not exactly the problem; it was Moon... who suddenly jumped back at the mention of the cat, looking at where the voice came from.
A noble-looking girl was running at Mishu, who happened to be passing by.
Moon, with a hit of a sense of deja vu, almost did the same, but...
But...
"Wait, don’t get closer!" he screamed at the girl under the puzzled gaze of Colten and everyone else.
But, it was already...
Too late.
With a muffled smack.
Like a broken doll, the girl went flying when Mishu, who was leisurely chilling, jumped at her face with a punching paw.
~BOOOOOM
The girl flew like a cannon bolt into one of the pillars on the other side of the road, her face and head full of blood.
Her current status was unknown.
Though, the entire sequence made everyone freeze, unsure if they should check on the girl or stay back not to get smacked as well.
The eyes of all shifted from the bleeding girl to the passing-by cat, wiggling its tail while slowly walking past their stunned faces.
No one dared to move for a whole long minute, unable to take their eyes off the marching disaster that just struck one of them without a warning.
It wasn’t only weaker ascenders or average bystanders, even Colten, Abshi, Dave and Moon didn’t breath too loud.
The duo on the ground were even trying to play dead.
But before long, Mishu had already passed by; no more victims were made that day.
All eyes returned back to the bleeding girl.
"Isn’t that Lexie?" someone spoke a name that did ring a bell for some.
"Lexie of Thorn?"
"Yes, that’s definitely her."
"Ah, the Thorn ring emblem."
"Indeed."
The girl had deep, dark black hair and grey eyes that were actually still open in her current state.
"What’s with that cat?"
"What cat? That’s Mishu, you idiots!" It was Moon who spoke this time, like a hammering bell to their heads.
"Ah!" Countless exclamations came.
"That Mishu?"
"I heard it didn’t punch an ascender for over a decade."
"Why is it staying here even?"
"I heard dad once mention a friend of his also suffered a similar fate."
Moon kept listening, but now his assumptions were real.
Fate alert saved him that time; this little fluffy mass might look cute, a cute mass of murder.
And that time on the bed, it was definitely messing with him. "Sonvabitch," he whispered low, afraid the cat might hear him, but he had to release it nonetheless.
"Is she dead?"
"She seems to be dead if you ask me."
"Oh dear, what would the Thorn clan do about this?"
"Thorn clan won’t do shit. It’s just a small clan anyway on the lower floors."
"Shush, don’t say that."
Clashing murmurs erupted, but it wasn’t longer than one more minute before Uon appeared holding something that looked like two long rods with a cloth rolled between them.
"Hey Moon." He waved at Moon, smiling with his yellow everything face.
Moon was now used to it; he waved back, "Br—Assistant Uon, good to see you."
Moon remembered that he should keep public formalities and managed to correct himself before speaking out of line.
He went closer to Uon, who placed the rods on the ground, allowing them to be apart to expose more of the cloth, and started to investigate the condition of the girl named Lexie.
Moon came closer, pointing at the rods thing, not sure what it was or what it was used for. "Erm, what’s that?" he asked in a hushed voice, looking closely at what Uon was doing.
"This is a stretcher," Uon explained, "you’ll understand soon."
Moon scratched his head; he wasn’t exactly asking for the name... He still held two grudges against Uon.
One was the time he watched him walk to Mishu without a warning, and the second was the time he used flowing light on his eyes without a warning.
He decided to ask the important question, "Will she live?" to confirm the grudge level.
Uon laughed, "Don’t worry, Mishu is heavy-handed but never kills."
Confirming the grudge level, Moon nodded, satisfied.
"How strong is he anyway, Mishu I mean?" Moon wondered; he didn’t know what standards people use for strength at all.
Uon shook his head. "Not a clue. I’ve never seen him attack anyone but these young ascenders; he usually avoids stronger ones rather than attacking them."
Moon thought it was more puzzling now... He also wanted to settle his grudge with that cat, but he wasn’t sure when he would qualify.
He wanted to ask more, but Uon was already done moving the unconscious girl to the stretcher and waved his hand; the stretcher floated with the girl secured. "Anyway, I’ll be taking her to the medical ward for now... she should be fine by tomorrow or the day after, not sure."
Moon looked back and forth between Uon, and Colten, who was still waiting. "Hey, what were you trying to say?" he shouted at Colten further away.
"I was saying, we should find a teacher to formally apply for a duel quest," Colten shouted back, not taking a step.
Moon looked at Uon, who was further away now. "Assistant Uon, where can we find Teacher Samuel now?" he shouted.
Uon, without pausing or looking back, shouted, "You’ll find him in his office."
’Office? He had an office?’ Moon was puzzled.
He’s been here for a while now and never seen anything other than the huge toilet complex, the dome where halls are, and the eatery.
He looked at Colten, now that Uon was in a hurry. "Do you know where that office is?"
Colten opened his hands, not sure. But someone else did know where it was.
"May I lead the way for you?"
