Chapter 149: Natsuba Taiga, in Danger!
Seeing the resurrected Natsuba Rinrei, Natsuba Taiga’s beastly eyes narrowed slightly, his mind racing.
He had never heard of the Red Dragon ability having a resurrection power. This meant that the blue-green flame was most likely a trump card that the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had planted in Natsuba Rinrei.
And with Natsuba Rinrei’s previous combat power, even without the heavy blow he had inflicted on her at the beginning, the two of them were evenly matched. And with Kyōkotsu Rōichi, the scales of victory would still tip in his favor.
Thinking of this, Natsuba Taiga felt a surge of confidence.
He bared his sharp teeth and said defiantly,
“My turn?”
“What big words from a bastard like you.”
“Although I don’t know what method you used to resurrect, but I can kill you once, and I can kill you a second time!”
As he spoke, Natsuba Taiga circulated the malice within his body, mixing it with his supernatural power. Then, with a sudden jolt…
The malice spread outwards, and his muscles vibrated, enhancing his physical strength in all aspects.
In an instant, his figure flickered.
Leaving an afterimage behind, he reappeared in front of Natsuba Rinrei.
A cruel smile of a successful scheme appeared on Natsuba Taiga’s lips.
Although he looked like a brute, he was best at finding various angles for sneak attacks in battle. And now that he had mobilized his power, and Natsuba Rinrei had not…
This was clearly another sneak attack.
He raised his hands high above his head, condensed his power, and slammed them down!
This was a double force. Natsuba Taiga sought to inflict sufficient damage with his first attack, so that he could repeat the previous steps and drag the battle back into the previous rhythm.
And kill Natsuba Rinrei again.
However, this time…
When Natsuba Taiga made his second move, he found that as he attacked, Natsuba Rinrei’s originally forward-looking eyes, one cyan and one crimson, both turned upwards.
And met his pale golden, reddish beastly eyes.
In an instant, he felt a chill run down his spine.
He immediately understood that Natsuba Rinrei had reacted to this sneak attack!
And sure enough.
In an instant, Natsuba Rinrei raised her right arm. First, a faint layer of blue-green fluff appeared, and then fine crimson scales, like maggots on a bone, spread across her entire arm.
“Vwooooom—!”
In the next moment, her right arm burned with a scorching, air-twisting flame. Facing Natsuba Taiga’s attack, she met it head-on, without a trace of fear, and slammed her fist forward.
“Boom———————!”
A deafening sound echoed.
The ground where they were cracked inch by inch, and exploded. Dust spread like a mist.
And even in this low visibility…
With the power of her blue-green eyes, Natsuba Rinrei could still see clearly at this moment.
However, although she had completely activated the power of the Aosagi no Hi template, and the power in her body was constantly expanding, she was still at B-rank.
In the earlier confrontation where Natsuba Taiga’s two hands had fought her one, her right fist had still been injured, and her bones had been slightly cracked. The Aosagi no Hi was healing her internally, and it wouldn’t be long before she recovered.
However, from the fact that she had fought Natsuba Taiga’s two hands with one and had not been at a disadvantage, it was already clear that the situation was now reversed.
Before, Natsuba Taiga was a line stronger than her. Now, she was a line stronger than him.
And this was because the Aosagi no Hi’s power had reshaped her resurrection, and the unusable part was still in its expansion phase. She didn’t dare to borrow too much and cause an unknown situation.
And Natsuba Taiga, also in the midst of the spreading dust… He relied on his beastly, keen nose to sniff hard and quickly smelled Natsuba Rinrei’s location.
He regrouped and punched towards that side again.
And Natsuba Rinrei once again chose to meet him head-on. Her right fist and his right fist slammed together.
“Boom——————!”
A fierce wind howled, and a shockwave radiated outwards from the two of them, sweeping away the dust.
And Natsuba Taiga retreated three steps, while Natsuba Rinrei only retreated one.
A pure physical collision. The advantage and disadvantage were so obvious that Natsuba Taiga’s pupils constricted sharply. He didn’t understand what was going on.
The Red Dragon and the White Tiger were of the same rank. And both were focused on enhancing physical strength. Normally, he shouldn’t be weaker than her, but now he was at a disadvantage?!
But the battle was changing rapidly. While Natsuba Taiga was slightly dazed, Natsuba Rinrei continued her attack.
She took several steps forward and chased after him.
The crimson flame burning on her right fist did not dissipate. Because of the earlier clash, she chose to use her left fist, which was not yet covered in flames.
She threw an uppercut at his abdomen.
Seeing this, Natsuba Taiga also had a defensive measure. A layer of snow-white fur suddenly covered his abdomen, and black markings appeared within it, adding a layer of defense.
He prepared to block this attack.
However, halfway through Natsuba Rinrei’s uppercut, a bone-chilling, serene, blue-green flame suddenly erupted, spreading across her entire left arm.
Natsuba Taiga’s pupils immediately dilated, and he cried out in horror,
“Dual abilities?!!”
At such a close distance, Natsuba Taiga could clearly see that this was not a trick of the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain, but a second power emerging from Natsuba Rinrei’s body.
The so-called dual abilities.
He desperately twisted his body, preparing to dodge this attack.
But it was too late. He couldn’t dodge.
This punch accurately hit Natsuba Taiga’s abdomen.
“Bang!”
The sound was not deafening. To Natsuba Taiga, this weak force was like an attack from a C-rank supernatural user.
Just as he was thinking, “Dual abilities are this weak?”…
“Crack—”
A sound came not from the outside, but from the inside.
He looked at his abdomen and saw that from within the snow-white fur, a large amount of blood was gushing out.
This was not a weak attack from a C-rank supernatural user!
But this strange, serene, blue-green flame had directly bypassed his extremely strong fur defense, and like a tiger hitting a mountain, it had directly attacked his internal organs!
“Boom——————!”
While Natsuba Taiga was stunned, Natsuba Rinrei’s scorching, fiery crimson dragon fist slammed into his head again.
Instantly, Natsuba Taiga was sent flying, and he was about to crash into a wall, causing a second injury.
Kyōkotsu Rōichi, seeing this, immediately jumped up from the ground and, after continuously blocking the force of the impact, he barely managed to stabilize his body before he hit the wall, and brought Natsuba Taiga back to the ground.
And with that crimson dragon fist, Natsuba Taiga’s face was also disfigured.
But due to the White Tiger ability, his head was the hardest part of his body, so at least it didn’t cause a more serious injury.
Even so, when Natsuba Taiga landed on the ground, he immediately knelt on one knee, his right hand clutching his abdomen, his face twisted and ugly.
His voice was filled with pain and disbelief as he roared again,
“Dual ability B-rank critical point!”
“You bastard, have you been using me as a training partner all this time, to reach this level?!”
After being sneak-attacked, Natsuba Taiga had had the thought of retreating, and wanted to have Kyōkotsu Rōichi join him.
This way, even if Natsuba Rinrei’s strength was a little higher than his…
But with him as the main force and Kyōkotsu Rōichi as support, with the innate beastly cooperation of the Kyōkotsu branch, they could barely gain the upper hand.
They just needed to keep looking for opportunities.
But when he learned that the blue-green flame was not an external object, but Natsuba Rinrei’s other ability…
And that its strength had also reached the B-rank critical point, Natsuba Taiga’s mentality suddenly cracked.
In this world, dual ability users were extremely rare, but they existed.
However, the growth of a dual ability user, as time passed, the stronger ability would often fuse with the weaker one, and possess some of the weaker ability’s traits.
And a very few had always possessed two completely different abilities.
But such supernatural users were often not strong.
Because they needed to develop both abilities at the same time to increase their ability rank. And once the development went out of control, it would lead to an imbalance of abilities, which was very likely to cripple their own body.
In Natsuba Taiga’s impression, the highest rank a dual ability user had reached was mid-C-rank, and their strongest attack could barely reach B-rank.
According to this calculation, Natsuba Rinrei’s current strongest attack could probably reach the bottom of A-rank.
Thinking of this, Natsuba Taiga knew very well that even if he and Kyōkotsu Rōichi teamed up, they would likely be no match for Natsuba Rinrei.
Unless he recklessly consumed all his accumulated malice, reached the purest state of madness, and in a few minutes, every attack was a killing blow, only then would he have a chance of defeating her.
But…
If he did that, he would be in a weakened state for a whole year.
He was less than ten years away from his peak at forty. And to waste a year of his prime, was it worth it?
It was not worth it!
Natsuba Taiga quickly weighed the pros and cons.
He turned to look at Kujō Sujin, a look of unwillingness in his eyes. He gritted his teeth and said,
“Lord Kujō, join me in taking down Natsuba Rinrei.”
“Her ability is a dual ability, and both have reached the B-rank critical point. I advise you to join me and execute her on the spot. Otherwise, there will be endless trouble in the future.”
In Natsuba Taiga’s heart, Kujō Sujin’s reason for keeping Natsuba Rinrei was clearly his lecherous soul wanting her for his harem.
But seeing Natsuba Rinrei’s combat power, did he still have the guts?
However, to his surprise, Kujō Sujin pondered for a moment and still shook his head.
“No, I want to capture Natsuba Rinrei alive.”
“If you don’t agree, the previous agreement still stands. You deal with it alone, until you completely give up.”
Kujō Sujin naturally had his own concerns.
Since Natsuba Rinrei was still alive, he couldn’t give up the live sacrifice that was within his reach.
Although, when she reached the Kujō family, it wouldn’t be long before she died, but he couldn’t tell Natsuba Taiga this.
Although Natsuba Taiga’s city was not deep, he still possessed the cunning wisdom of the Natsuba lineage.
If he told him that Natsuba Rinrei would still die after he took her back, Natsuba Taiga would definitely become suspicious and wonder if he had some other purpose for her. After all, with Natsuba Rinrei’s physique, unless she was specifically killed, she couldn’t be played with to death.
Therefore, once he became suspicious, he might investigate further.
If he were to start from that aspect and search for clues in his own family’s ancient texts, he might discover the traces of Calamity and Fortune and make a connection.
At that time, Natsuba Hanae would be like a cooked duck that had flown away.
So, he could not say this.
And Natsuba Taiga’s expression was dark and uncertain. His fists were clenched.
When he reached A-rank, he would definitely take it out on this old geezer Kujō Sujin. But for now, he had no choice. The plan to kill Natsuba Rinrei on the spot had clearly failed.
He finally sighed.
“I agree.”
“I’ll help you capture Natsuba Rinrei alive. Join me.”
Hearing this, a smile as if he had expected it appeared on Kujō Sujin’s lips. Just as he was about to agree, a voice came from Kamishiro Naraku in his mind, like a devil whispering.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t agree to this request.”
“Kujō Sujin, don’t you think that a direct descendant of the Natsuba family killing each other is a very interesting scene?”
“And now, Natsuba Taiga clearly hasn’t used his full strength, and he still has a fighting chance.”
“When both of them are seriously injured, you can retrieve Natsuba Rinrei, and then the only heir to the Natsuba conglomerate, Natsuba Taiga, will need months or even years to recover, consuming his prime, becoming the weakest A-rank, or even not being able to become an A-rank…”
“This is a huge weakening of the Natsuba conglomerate, and it’s extremely beneficial to the Kujō family.”
Kujō Sujin heard Kamishiro Naraku’s words, and his wine-red eyes lit up slightly.
Kamishiro Naraku, who had been parasitizing his body for so long, had rarely helped him with such an excellent plan, and this was the only time.
However…
He didn’t know that this one excellent plan was not spoken by Kamishiro Naraku…
But no matter what, he was convinced.
Looking at Natsuba Taiga, Kujō Sujin continued to shake his head.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
The words “changed my mind” were spoken with righteous indignation.
“I won’t help you. I’ll wait until you’re done fighting, one wins one loses, or one lives one dies.”
Natsuba Taiga heard Kujō Sujin’s words, and he gritted his sharp teeth, unable to help but get angry.
“You—!”
But as he was talking…
Time was not like a commentary, it was still flowing normally.
Natsuba Rinrei’s left arm burned with a bone-chilling, serene, blue-green flame, and her right arm burned with a scorching, fiery crimson flame. She lightly stepped on the ground, and a blue-green flame erupted. She was as light and flawless as a bird, and she soared into the air.
Her figure was like an arrow released from a bow, swift and powerful, leaving a trail of afterimages as she shot towards Natsuba Taiga!
Seeing this, Natsuba Taiga didn’t say much, and quickly dodged.
However, suddenly, he found that his feet were rooted to the ground and he couldn’t move. He quickly looked down.
And saw that at some point…
A blue-green ghostly flame was burning on his feet, producing a frostbite and binding effect. His legs felt as if they were not his own.
And in the next moment, Natsuba Rinrei suddenly appeared before him, at a very close distance!
Danger!!
