Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 2

Cultivation Techniques Vs Job Skills

With sword in hand, Wang Tian Gu walked forward. Her eyes scanning through the cave. Other than the bulky man in very tight-fitting leather sitting by the giant shadow, there are 40 people in the cavern. The women were unmoving as if they were dead. There is another figure huddled inside a cage on the far corner. However, she could not guess its gender.

“Six women and thirty-four-ish men,” she counted. “So many dangly parts. Agh, I’m going to need to wash my eyes after this.”

The men had surrounded her, weapons drawn. It seems they had a bit of training.

“So, the wannabe heroine wants a second chance to fight against the Great Gerudo!”

“Heroine? Hardly, I’m just getting rid of trash in front of me.”

“Hahaha! If you’d have just stay obedient I could’ve let you be my toy. But now you’ve made me angry!” the man removed the woman by her side and glared. “Take her down!”

“What? No banter? This world’s bandits are no fun,” she said as she walked half as step back and leaned far back, evading oncoming swords and plunging her own into an enemy’s guts.

She had no power in her core so she can only use pure Techniques. But against these rabbles it was enough.

Her sword danced, twirled and spun as she took five lives without a care. None of the bandits could hurt even a strand of her hair. Once a sword flashed, another life was taken.

Gerudo was a Hunter who fell on hard times. After being forced off the guild after a drunken fight with a noble, he took the bad path. He lived very well, owing to the luck of finding a Crimson Firesnake egg that he later managed to nurture into becoming a B-Ranked Monster. So he knew some famous Sword Styles.

The sword style she used before she was captured was the Einhart’s Loewe Style famous in the Capital. But the one she used now was very unfamiliar.

She held the sword languidly with one hand while the other carelessly placed behind her back. The complexity and exquisiteness of the moves could not be more different to the rash teenager who attacked them before.

“I haven’t used the sword for a long time. At least my basic’s still there,” she commented as he parried an attack and slid the sword into the stomach of the attacker before pulling it out and crushing the next enemy’s jaw with the pommel.

“Use your job skills!” Gerudo ordered. Agitated by the fact that his group was being manhandled by some upstart hunter.

Hearing that, they all unleashed their skills, aiming at the girl.

“Cross Slash!”

“Heavy Axe Blow!”

“Rising Slash!”

“Double Slash!”

Wang Tian Gu sensed the sudden change in power and reacted, jumping and dodging each attack. Slow, she said in her mind. a Cross Slash is two slashes in a cross pattern. Rising slash is just a swipe upward that sent the user flying high. So simplistic, so weak. Are these what counts as a technique in this world?

She decapitated the one using an axe, who was having trouble lifting the axe lodged deep into the ground. She kicked the ground and slid past the leg of the one who used Rising Slash, cutting into his femoral artery. “So weak! Even a child could have done better than this!”

“T-this is impossible! They were all at least level 20 with upgraded strength points! They shouldn’t even get hurt by someone of your level! This doesn’t make sense!!” Gerudo wanted to tear out his hair, if he had hair. Everything that happened until now felt unreal to him.

“Doesn’t it make sense if you get killed if you got your head chopped off? And what the hell is this level thing you’ve been going on about?!” The old monster leisurely replaced his sword that had begun to crumble from the fight with another one from one of dead bandits lying around him.

The last of the bandits were trembling on their knees, their courage broken. One of them suddenly moved and took one of the women and placed his sword on her neck.

The woman was so weak that she could do nothing but loll her head.

“S-stay away! Or I’ll kill her!”

It was a cowardly move. Something that she much despised. You may kill and pillage and steal, but never use a woman as a hostage. That was her rule.

When she watched the woman, she could barely discern the movement of her lips.

Kill…me…

I see. I will not throw away your sacrifice. she mouthed the words in understanding.

“Well?” she said, weighting the sword. “What are you waiting for? Kill her and let’s be done with this. Or better yet, why the hell are you not using that giant snake?!”

Gerudo flinched at this. He would have used it if he could. But the recent fights have raised the snake’s level beyond his, causing his control over it to weaken. It was already hard enough to make it not eat his followers.

The bandit holding the hostage was perturbed by the girl’s nonchalance. “Y-you’re insane! Shouldn’t a hunter care about the life of an innocent?!”

“Hmm? What does it matter to me if she died or not? I don’t know her and she doesn’t know me.”

At the edge of her vision, Wang Tian Gu saw an arm outstretched from a cage in the back. A small fire could be seen starting to form on the palm.

“Come on then, do it!” she taunted him.

“I’ll do it! I’ll really do it!”

“…Fire…ball…”

From the fingers of the figure inside the cage, a fireball was fired at the bandit, destroying his head. Using this chance, Wang Tian Gu sped forward.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Gerudo finally cracked.

“Boost Strength! Boost Speed!” With each shout, Red and Yellow Colored light sprout out from beneath the snake.

“Grant Order! FASINA! KILL HER!”

Obeying the order, the giant snake swiped its tail and smashed her towards the wall. It then landed on a bandit, splattering him into the ground.

Wang Tian Gu coughed up blood as her breath was forced out of her lung. She gazed at the snake.

The snake’s head was revealed from the shadows. It had pointed yellow scales protruding around two reptilian eyes with red scales that looked as if they were on fire. Its forked tongue lapped the scent of it prey, stalking her as a true hunter would. Its body, which could easily be 5 meters in diameter, could easily cover the whole cavern if fully unfurled.

“Hahah! This is Fasina, a Crimson Firesnake! Its poison could melt flesh and bones! A B-Ranked monster that even a group of B-Ranked hunter would have a hard fight against.”

“Those words you used. Were those…skills? Curious,” Wang Tian Gu said, slightly staggering from the shock to her innards. She was not used to such an inefficient body with no muscles. It used to be that he could pierce through a wall with his palm alone. “Shit, I missed my old body,” he mouthed the complain.

“Yes, they upped the strength and speed of Fasina by a half! Now your fancy moves can’t hurt it!”

“So what of it?” she said as a matter of factly. “I don’t know what the hell is a B-Ranked monster but the endgame is yet to come,” she pointed the sword at him. Eyes filled with determination.

“Argh! Grant Order! Kill the bitch!”

He shouted the skill once more. But this time something unexpected happened.

The snake did not obey.

Fasina shook its head, confused.

“Grant Order!!”

Once again it was unresponsive. It then raised its head high and swooped around the cave. When it stopped, it was already holding a few bodies in its mouth.

“H-help! No!!” one of the dying bandit cried out.

“Don’t eat me!!”

The pleas fell on deaf ears as Fasina swallowed them whole. With an audible gulp, they vanished into its stomach. Apparently, they were not enough for a snack as it started to leer at the cage where the fireball came from.

“W-wha-?” Gerudo could only see the rest of the bandits and the women being swallowed by Fasina helplessly. “S-shit! My taming skill did not work! Did its level grew?! What happened?”

Its forked tongue reached inside the cage a few times, tasting the thing within.

“KSSHHH!!” it jerked back as if it was disgusted by the taste. It angrily bashed its tail onto the wall, causing Gerudo to run to the side.

Fasina let out a loud hiss. Now that its attention was diverted from the cage, its eyes turned towards the two preys left.

“Hahaha! We are in a bit of a bind, aren’t we?” Wang Tian Gu said jovially at the distressed tamer.

“Don’t fuck with me!! This is your fault! If you weren’t here everything wouldn’t go to shit!”

Even with her body battered by that single tailswipe and the danger she was in, Wang Tian Gu did not worry. After all, she managed to take a peek at Fasina’s mouth, where two longs fangs were folded within.

Where there are fangs, there is venom.

And she could use some right about now.