The Revenge of the Soul Eater

The Blue Winged Beast (Indigo Wyvern)

 

Manticores are vicious beasts with a human’s head that live in forests

With the face of an old man, they have the ability to speak the human tongue.

However, they are far from friendly.
It’ll almost always come down to a fight if you run into one.

 

Their lion’s body makes them as agile as they look, as they’re able to run through forests as if they were flatlands.
It is nearly impossible to escape a manticore’s pursuit inside of a forest.

 

Their scorpion’s tail is filled with deadly venom.
With twenty four spines growing out of it, one hit has enough destructive power to take down a large tree.
On a side note, there are also some people out there who go after those spines to make projectile weapons out of them.

 

In any case, this is one type of demonic beast that I didn’t really want to run into inside this forest.

 

「There are ten manticores in this pack.
Sheesh, what are the chances?」

 

The group of manticores that was after the winged beast appeared one after another.

 

I put the herb bag in my hands down on the ground as I sighed.

 

It’ll get in the way whether I’m going to fight or run.
I swear to myself that I’ll get it back when this is over.

 

「Hahaha!  It’s not the same as eating a winged beast but a human has their own unique flavor! It’s just your unlucky day to run into us here」

 

The manticore laughed at me.
I decided to try to see if what I read about them before in documents was true.

 

「The sun rises from the west, the river flows from east to west, and fire burns in water.
What does that mean? 」

 

「Bark all you want, your destiny has already been decided, hahaha! 」

 

The manticore did not care at all about the nonsensical things I had just said.

Just because they could speak the human language, it doesn’t mean that they want to have conversations.

They only say the things they want to say and they have no desire to interact with others.

 

Yup, it’s exactly as it was written in the documents that I’ve read.

 

「The winged beast will fall, the human will die, and our bellies will be filled.
Hahahha! Delightful, how truly delightful!」

 

「You can die in your delight then…Shinsou Reiki (Energize, soul equipment)」

 

A black blade appeared in my hand as I spoke those words.

 

The herd of manticore swayed like reeds that were getting blown by the wind.
The one that was mocking me had also stopped running its mouth.

 

It was clear that they were being cautious, but they probably thought that if they were going to be on guard anyway, it would be better to wait until I make the first move.
My soul equipment in this state was just merely a weapon to them.

 

「Devour them, Soul eater」

 

I readied my sword.

 

The manticores backed up as if they were scared of the explosion of dark light that flashed before their eyes.

I lowered my stance as I looked at them.
My blade was on the left side of my waist.
The point of my sword was pointing behind me.

My posture was similar to a draw sword stance, but it’s only similar since my sword has no sheath.

 

In that posture, I infused my kei into the blade.
The move I’m about to use is the flying slash attack, the『Gale』 that I used in the battle with the king of flies.

 

My『Gale』  was only something that I picked up after seeing it in a demonstration back on the island.

But still, I did not mind because it was strong enough, and I’m interested in what it would be like if I put all my power into it now.

 

I forget about the joy I feel from being freed from my level one curse.

I forget about the wrongful assumption that I’m only a level six.

I forget about the common sense of humans.

 

There’s no need to underestimate or overestimate myself.
I just need to focus on the “present”.

 

Increase the amount of kei.
Increase the quality.
Maximize the power.

 

The kei that was covering my blade was in a frenzy like it was roaring.
It covered the blade in a fiery spiral as if it were a small dragon.

 

The air around it creaked.
It was almost like my soul equipment was telling me to hurry and eat their souls.

 

I could instinctively feel the rise of that power.

 

The manticore who spoke out earlier then called out to its brethren,

 

「Not good.
Jump!」

 

「You’re too late!」

 

I yelled, and my black sword slashed across in a stroke 一.

 

It was from a distance where even the enemy did not think that it was going to reach.
However, the slash attack that had taken plenty of my kei nullified that distance to zero.

 

Rather than calling it a flying slash attack, it was more like a strange strike that ate away the distance.

 

No matter how agile those demonic beasts are, they could not have evaded this attack.

 

Several manticores cried out in pain and astonishment as their blood sprayed onto the ground.

 

There were five of them left, so I got just about half of the pack.
The others were either not in the slash range from the very beginning or they responded quickly to their leader’s command.

 

 

I curled my lip as I looked at the three of them that had leaped up into the air.

I fixed my sword stance by correcting the point of the sword as I aimed it at the three manticores in the air.

In the corner of my eye, I could see the shocked expression on their leader’s face.

 

「Die!!」

 

They can’t dodge attacks in the air with bodies that don’t have any wings.

 

My second strike easily pierced the three of them.

 

Normally, since a manticore’s body is made of tough muscles and has layers of fat over its outer skin, it’s not easy for blades to penetrate into their flesh.

However, the black sword cut through their bodies like tofu.

The man-eating demonic beasts’ blood sprayed out in three lines like a flower blooming.

 

Immediately after that, I giggled in my throat when I could not contain the pleasure when a tremendous amount of souls flew in me.

I knew it, I am strong.
I killed the man-eating manticores that are well feared by many in an instant.
Of course, it’s because of my soul equipment, but that’s still undeniably my strength as well.
My soul equipment is my own strength in the first place, so no one has any right to complain.

 

The theory I had before about leveling was right.
Or at the very least, this meant that my understanding of it up until now was wrong, I’m certain of that.

 

Now then, let’s keep this up and deal with the remaining two.

As I turned to look at the remaining manticores with that thought in mind–

 

「Grrrrrrgrrarrr!!」

 

I saw the winged beast crush one of the manticore’s skull with its teeth and smash the other one’s body with its tail.

 

Both of them probably died right away.

 

There isn’t a part on the winged beast’s blue scales without blood stains, and more than half of its scales were torn off, showing its red colored flesh from below.

 

It had sustained serious injuries no matter how I looked at it.
It’s most likely on the verge of death, but as expected, it was still a well-known, ferocious blue winged beast even amongst wyvern kind.

 

No matter how much damage it had taken, it still had enough power to take down one or two manticores in a blow.

 

…Now then, the question is if this winged beast will turn its mighty fangs against me.

 

I ended up helping it in the end, but I don’t think it knows that.

 

In terms of viciousness there’s no difference between the blue winged beast and the manticores.
They are both hostile to humans in the same sense.

 

It wouldn’t be strange if it came at me right now.

 

By the way, there are winged beasts out there that are tamed by humans as well.
The dragon rider corps of the Canaria kingdom here do exactly that.
They use the winged beasts they have tamed as their mounts.

 

It’s just that those winged beasts are normally hand-raised by humans from the moment they are born out of their eggs.
Wild winged beasts would only see humans as food no matter how generous you treat them, and they won’t be tamed.

 

I heard that with the blue winged beast, that point is even more true.
Within the wyvern species, the stronger one is, the higher they are placed on the hierarchy.
So matter how hard people tried to tame them, I have never heard of a successful case.

 

That blue winged beast spat out the manticore’s head after crushing its skull and stared at me.

 

Is it coming? I readied my sword as I pondered, but contrary to my expectation, it did not attack me.

It kept on staring at me with its pair of big round eyes that were cuter than I thought.
Its long snake-like pupils had my figure reflected in it.

 

 

Then, it suddenly took its eyes off me and turned to another direction.

 

I looked in that direction at about the same time.
The leader of the manticores was still alive as it stood back up at that spot..

 

Did the wyvern fail to finish it? I thought as I clicked my tongue.

 

And so, the blue winged beast started to move again.

 

It probably had a bone to pick with the manticore since it was all beaten up a little while ago when it was about to be eaten.
The winged beast’s long neck swelled up greatly as something like steam started to come out its mouth.

 

What? The blue winged beast can breathe fire?!

 

Wait a minute.
Will it be alright for it to breathe fire in a forest like this?!

 

That’s what I was wondering, but it would be troubling if I made a move here to stop it and then it turns hostile towards me.

 

Besides, I can still remember the anger, fear, and regret I felt when I was the one that was about to be eaten.
I can’t get in the way of this winged beast’s revenge.

 

As the result, the blue winged beast released its fire breath in the form of a fireball the size of a human’s head.
It fired it directly in a straight line through the air and hit the manticore that was trying to escape from here.

 

The manticore was eradicated tragically as it got engulfed in flames.

 

◆◆◆

 

After that, I explored the nearby area around the forest for a bit.

 

A herd of manticore…Moreover, I’ve never heard of a herd of ten gathering together before.

 

In the first place, It was the first time I ran into a manticore here.
They probably lived deeper in the forest normally, but then they came out in a group.

 

Were they kicked out of their previous habitat? I wondered.

 

However, I could not find any clues related to it for the next thirty minutes or so.

 

If I trace the manticores’ tracks to the deepest part of the forest I might be able to find something there, but I’m not prepared for that.
Above all, there would be no point in me catching Miroslav if I were to go off to do something like that.

 

For the time being, I’ll just remind myself to pay attention to the situation of the forest.

 

 

Then, when I walked back to where I was, I was shocked.

The blue winged beast was making painful sounds as it fell on the ground with a bang.

Just when I was wondering what’s going on since everything was fine earlier, I realized it.

The tails of the manticores have deadly venom in them.
Luckily, I was never hit by it, but it’s not hard to imagine that this winged beast was stabbed by them multiple times.

 

What to do, what to do?

 

I did fortunately gather some medicinal herbs earlier, but there aren’t any that could neutralize such strong venom of a manticore.

There are some detoxing herbs back at the nest that I prepared in case of anything happening during Miroslav’s captivity period, but there are very few of them.
Considering the huge body of this winged beast, would it be enough even if I gave everything to it?

Before that, would herbs that work on human work on winged beasts in the first place?

 

「To remove the poison…remove poison…how…Ah, that’s right! There’s that! The thing that person used to neutralize the paralyzing poison from the king of flies!」

 

The Jiraiaooks tree.
It’s not that far away from here.

 

If I run there with full power using my kei, I should be able to get back here within an hour.

 

…When I thought about it calmly again, there’s not really a reason for me to help this wyvern, if anything, I could cut it down right now and…but when I thought of those big round eyes when it was looking at me earlier, I became hesitant.

 

Well, I’ll see it as a temporary alliance for now.
If it ungratefully attacks me after its poison’s cured, then I will take its soul.

 

As I took a look at the winged beast’s long neck that lay flat on the ground in pain, I bent my knees slightly before I dashed out at full speed.