Divine Beast Ascension

552 Tag-Teaming Netra [Bonus chapter]

Furious, Yeter yelled, “I don’t need any help–”

“Yeter, this is our first time working together, but I’m looking forward to working with you!” Kako firmly stated, eyeing Netra with a proud, undeterred smile.

“Huh?! But that would be unfair to Netra, and prove that I’m weaker!” Yeter retorted.

Kako didn’t back down at all. “We already know that she’s stronger than both of us. And that she’s the only perfect candidate in the prefecture. She’s already guaranteed to go to the quadrant and fight for the chance to join the thirty-two finalists.”

“But I don’t want to fight that way!” argued Yeter.

“Be honest. You claim to have fought her before. But have you ever been close to winning, even once?” asked Kako.

Yeter clammed up in an instant. “... I hope we can work well together.”

Netra genuinely laughed while seeing Yeter acting like he always did. It was refreshing for her. After sparring and training with all kinds of candidates and even visiting the Toxic-shadow Clan for a brief time, Yeter’s over-the-top candidness was always nostalgically cleansing.

She smiled and cleared her mind, preparing for battle. Though it wasn’t as serious as a battle in the Mortal Championship, Netra was determined to give the sudden dup a proper fight to honor Yeter’s genuine resolve.

.....

“Go ahead and attack first if you like,” Netra calmly stated.

Kako nodded. “In that case–”

“WAIT!” Yeter yelled with all his might.

Before Kako could use any of the essence he had started to gather, Kako looked back at Yeter. “What’s wrong?”

“You know I’ve fought her before yet you didn’t ask for any tips or advice. What’s wrong with you?” scoffed Yeter.

Shrugging slightly, Kako asked, “Is there something special about her aside from her perfect affinity?”

“DUH!!” Yeter blurted. “She can go invisible and make body doubles, which can be either invisible or not. She’s terrifying! And we’re lucky we’re not fighting to the death because that limits what battle arts she can use.”

Everyone from Sardin Region, including Ingall, was dumbfounded to hear that news. All the while, no one from Rhyner or Rot Regions batted an eye.

Kako blinked and did a double-take while looking at Netra. “You mean… that might not even be her?”

“No, that’s her. I can tell,” Yeter cockily stated.

Then Kako smiled. “Oh, you can tell when it’s her or not? What’s the secret?”

“I can tell because…” Pausing for dramatic effect, Yeter boldly laughed, “Because the fight hasn’t started yet! She’s not allowed to move from that spot until the fight’s begun! But she could disappear from that spot at any moment while leaving a body double and we’ll never know until we attack it–”

Slap…

“SERIOUSLY!” Kako grunted, casually slapping the stallion’s shoulder. “Stop acting like you know all her secrets then!”

“But I know more than everyone else. I’ve known her since before she became Dean Vloz’s private pupil.”

The moment Kako heard that statement, his entire body went stiff. “You mean… Netra is training under Dean Vloz? Dean Vloz, the master assassin?”

“Yeah.”

“Lead with that next time!” Kako roared back in Yeter’s face.

“I already told you her battle arts are limited in this fight!” Yeter reasoned. “Why else would that be if she wasn’t training to be an assassin?”

Kako groaned while replaying the more important details in his head. “So… Netra can go invisible, she can make body doubles that can also be invisible if she wishes, and she’s trained to kill or end a fight with a single blow?”

“Yup! See, I told you I know the most about her–”

Slap!

“Thank you, Yeter! Now let’s get serious and fight to win!” Kako bellowed while slapping Yeter a bit harder, making sure it could be felt through the stallion’s extra-thick hide.

Not even paying the slap any attention, Yeter nodded. “Yeah! Let’s bring her down!”

Without another word, the duo bolted toward the fox girl. Kako took out his double-side axe and challenged Netra from the front. Yeter raced around Netra to flank her. But he didn’t go directly to her back. Instead, Yeter attacked from the rear off to one side, as if trying to give Netra an opening to retreat and evade.

Whiff!

Kako’s axe cleaved Netra in half. Yet there was no blood or reaction from the fox. The image of Netra was cleanly halved before it started to fade into a grey-black mist and then into nothingness before a second could pass.

Yeter then chased the opening he had left for her, racing to find her. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!?”

Krrsh. Drip…

While Kako readied his axe and tried to search the arena with his senses, the baboon felt something effortlessly slash open his lower back. Blood splashed out as Kako spun around in a counterattack. Yet he found no one there.

“I told you, she’s invisible!” Yeter yelled while he raced back to his battle partner. “Normal senses mean nothing against her!”

“Then I’ll focus on sensing the ground through earth essence.” Kako inhaled and closed his eyes, still holding his axe at the ready.

He first felt Yeter’s hooves ready to rip through the ground. Then he found light-footed paws standing a few krin away. And then Kako felt another set of four paws running around in a different direction, the same set of paws that Yeter had likely been racing after.

“What… is this?” Kako asked, stupefied.

“I told you! She can make body doubles that can be invisible or not!” Yeter stated.

Opening her eyes, Kako spotted Netra in a completely different direction with his own eyes. “Then how come I can sense those two invisible ones and but I can’t sense the fox I can see with my eyes?”

“Because she can make illusory doubles too. And it’s hard to tell which double is real and which double isn’t,” Yeter sighed, as if irked that he needs to explain so much to a seemingly unintelligent partner. “The illusory doubles can’t hurt us or defend, like the one you attacked at first. But the body doubles can attack us and take damage, so long as we can find them and counterattack. Haven’t you ever fought an assassin before?!”

“Of course I haven’t! Most people that fight assassins don’t live to share their experiences!” Kako roared back.

“Oh yeah…” Yeter calmed down after being reminded of that fact. “Well, now you know how to fight her.”

“What do you mean? I can only sense where the doubles are. I can’t tell which one is the real her,” stated Kako.

But Yeter then said, “True. She might be somewhere else entirely.”

Blinking while taking a defensive stance, Kako asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Yeter sighed, “Netra can use what divine beasts call true invisibility. Due to her perfect affinity, unless you’re cultivation is far higher than hers, it’s really hard to find her. I still don’t know how she does it. But if Netra wanted, she wouldn’t need the body doubles or the illusory doubles to hide. She can just hide and we would never be able to sense her without being attacked if that’s what she wanted.”

“SERIOUSLY?!!” Kako blurted, declaring the frustration that everyone from Sardin Region was experiencing while learning such daring facts.

Back at the banquet balcony, Ingall Sardin left his jaw hanging open while letting his eyes dart all over the arena. “This… This is a feat capable of a mortal cultivator?”

“Oh, just wait,” Zelsh chuckled. “A truly interesting fight would be pitting Netra against Vant since they both train under Vloz.”

King Sardin ripped his gaze away from the arena and looked Zelsh in the eye. “You mean he’s also capable of true invisibility?”

Nodding, Zelsh answered, “Yup, though it is a bit different since he uses illusory essence instead of dark essence. Seeing them spar is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from a mortal.”

“... How can any mortal compete with that?” Sardin asked with a sigh, half-sarcastic and half-rhetorical.

Also on the banquet balcony, Oli was watching in earnest. Since Eeole was finally back but would only be available for a short time, Oli took advantage of his presence. ‘How is she doing that?’

‘Oh? The true invisibility? It’s a result of her essence nature combined with her battle arts and way of training,’ Eeole answered without batting an eye, acting as if it were so simple a baby could do it. ‘With the right training, she could become invisible to anyone without dark essence. And if she takes it even further, she could become invisible to those cultivators as well.’

With that explanation in mind, Oli asked, ‘Does that mean there’s a way for me to sense her while she’s invisible?’

‘Of course there is.’

‘... Then how would I go about doing that?’ Oli asked, already thinking about how Eeole would answer based on his tone alone.

‘It’s simple. You just have to sense her,’ Eeole plainly replied. ‘You’re overthinking things. So long as you can sense her, then you’ll have a chance at winning the entire Mortal Championship. If you can’t figure that out, we’ll have to adjust the plan to make up for you not winning the peak-king death essence technique.’