"Alright Wolfy, let's head to the half prey mantis." Clara was on a side building next to the rhino mansion, looking at the map that Shaman sent through Reia.
Wolfy nodded, a little anxious that he isn't with Shaman, but he trusted Clara which helped him calm down.
Clara quickly sent a message to Shaman on where she was going to make sure they didn't cross paths.
"Let's go." Clara, with the map in front of her, started to run along the roofs of the buildings with Wolfy beside her.
*
Approaching a mansion that was bright green, Clara saw some statues of prey mantises with a lot of vegetation around, telling her she was at the right place.
"Alright Wolfy, I will run around the outskirts of the mansion and try to find the target through a window, but if he is nowhere to be found we will go in with your [Shadow walk]."
"What do you want me to do in the meantime?" Wolfy was unsure on what he should be doing.
"Either wait for me here or try to find a safe way in." Clara did trust Wolfy's skills, but she still wanted to keep him out of danger as much as possible.
Wolfy nodded and his tail started to wag, as he was going to be relied on which was rather rare for him.
Clara found Wolfy adorable and could not resist giving him some head pats before jumping down.
"Good boy~" Clara smiled at Wolfy and jumped off the roof, landing right by the fence.
Wolfy was filled with joy and was extremely determined to do his best.
Wolfy entered [Shadow walk] and went to investigate safe ways to enter the mansion.
*
Clara ran around the mansion trying to find the target.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtUnlike Shaman, Clara was not able to spot him in any of the windows, with some being blocked by curtains.
'Looks like we have to sneak in.' Clara was at the back of the mansion, seeing if they could enter through a window.
In the back it was filled with bushes and vegetation, like a garden that has been unkempt for years, letting all the plants run wild.
'That window seems to be open, I need to get back to Wolfy so we can enter.' Clara wondered if Wolfy found another place to enter which could be safer.
However, just as Clara was about to head back to the roof there was rustling in the bush behind Clara.
"Wolfy?" Clara's first thought was Wolfy, but it was odd as usually, he would appear at your feet not nearby.
What came out of the bush was not Wolfy but a half prey mantis. The prey mantis had the same arms and head as a prey mantis with the rest of the body being human. It also wore a lab coat which indicated that it was not a bodyguard.
The prey mantis lunged at Clara with its arms, in an attempt to kill her with one swift blow.
Clara quickly went to pull out her whip blades to block the attack, but due to the speed of the half prey mantis, her forearm got slashed.
"Bitch!" Clara jumped back holding her forearm which started to bleed heavily.
"Tch, seems like I am getting rusty." The prey mantis spoke, cursing itself for not being faster.
Clara pulled out a bandage from her inventory to quickly wrap around the wound to stop the bleeding, while her demon regeneration healed it slowly.
Clara quickly pulled up the list of targets. After comparing her opponent to her target's description, she confirmed that the target had come out to fight her directly.
'I can't use my enhanced demon form yet. Last time I used it against Elysia I was out of energy after only using it for 30 seconds.' Clara thought about using it as the prey mantis seemed to be oddly stronger than the opponents she faced so far despite having a lower level.
'It might be because he is more beast than he is human, giving him an advantage.' Clara knew there were different degrees of beast people, where some would almost take their full form as a beast. Most half beasts resembled that of a human with some only having small features, these two types making up the majority of the population. It has been said that the more you resemble your animal side, the more powerful your animal traits, which is why generally half-humans are stronger than normal humans.
"Now vixen, how shall I kill you, will you become part of my experiment or would you rather I eat you instead for a nice midnight meal." The mantis was cleaning the blood off his serrated arms, getting ready to attack.
"I prefer the third option where I burn you to a crisp." Clara grabbed her blade whips, slamming them against the ground. With the added effect of Clara's purple lightning, the ground was burnt by her whips.
"Don't get cocky! Just because you can use magic doesn't mean you can't be beaten." With incredible speed, the half prey mantis dashed at Clara swinging his arms.
Clara, being more prepared this time, was able to successfully block the attack of the prey mantis. Retracting her blade back into a sword, she collided with the serrated arms of the prey mantis.
'Here I thought all the nobles would be easy to kill.' Clara was not expecting a noble to be able to fight back.
"Tch." The prey mantis clicked its tongue. Although Clara was unable to read his expression she could tell it was getting frustrated.
The prey mantis pulled back, jumping slightly back before attempting to go for another attack.
Clara however, took the opportunity to keep up the pressure and swung one of her whips at the prey mantis. Since he had not jumped far enough he was in the range of Clara's whips, which moved at high speeds thanks to the lightning infused in them.
The prey mantis attempted to block the whip with one of his serrated arms. What he did not expect was for his arm to be cut clean off while an electrical shock went through his body. Feeling his insides burn from the lightning, he screeched in pain.
"Heh." Clara found it amusing how quickly the prey mantis went down with that one attack.
'Let's try something new.' Clara had something new to try as the help of her new system allowed her to create new skills.
Clara manifested lightning in her hands and created a javelin out of it. Threads of loose lightning danced over her spear, lighting up the night and burning anything it touched.
Holding it over her shoulder, she threw the javelin towards the prey mantis that was still affected by the electrical shock.
The javelin made contact with the prey mantis's chest, creating an explosion of lightning. The prey mantis was fried to a crisp, turning his entire body ash-black and killing him.
His body fell to the ground twitching and falling apart, slowly being blown away by the wind.
"I was really worried for a moment there, but it seems like he has never been hurt in his life." Clara thought she had come up against a strong noble, but it seemed to rely too much on its speed and the strength of its bladed arms.
"Wolfy?!" Clara called out hoping that wolfy was nearby so they could move on.
After a minute Wolfy appeared out of the shadows.
"Sorry I was at the front of the mansion." Wolfy poked his head out and spotted the burnt body of a half prey mantis.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Was that our target?"
"Yep, we can move on." Clara smiled and tried to hide the wound on her arm so Wolfy wouldn't worry as it was almost healed already.
"I haven't got a message from Shaman so we can assume they are still dealing with their target, so let's go with the crocodile." Clara opened the list of targets choosing the next one to face.
"Sounds good to me." Wolfy had no issues and fully came out of [Shadow walk] waiting for Clara to move.
"Now where is h-" Just as Clara was speaking a massive explosion went off in the distance.
"Oh please don't tell me that was Elysia." Clara's thoughts went straight to Elysia as the likely reason for the explosion.
Clara was about to send a message to Shaman when one appeared in front of her.
[I know what you are thinking, so before you ask yes, it was Elysia. Let's just say she thought placing a bunch of bombs around an empty mansion was a good idea.]
Clara stared in disbelief at what she was reading.
[Since when is blowing an entire place up a good idea.] Clara quickly responded.
[Since Elysia existed, now don't worry, no one was killed, and the only body we found was that of a monkey. We hope it is the target, but you can guess why we can't tell.]
Clara's face palmed as there was no way that there weren't casualties, as they were all probably turned to dust in a matter of seconds.
Screams and yelling started to be heard throughout the city as the explosion had woken up everyone, drawing a lot of attention.
'Let's hope Freja doesn't punish us for this.' Although Freja said they could go rather wild, this kind of wild may have been out of the question.
***
"HAHAHAHAHA, THEY ACTUALLY DID IT!" Freja, who was sitting in her bed watching the girls on the screen, could not believe that Elysia blew up a mansion.
"Oh my, I wish I could keep them here forever, they are just amazing." Freja was smiling as the performance they were putting on amused Freja greatly.
"You do know we have to pay for repairs right?" Kiruya who was sitting next to Freja had a worried look thinking about the paperwork and repairs that would need to be done.
"That isn't an issue darling~ just enjoy the show and worry about it later." Freja, who had made Kiruya her personal secretary, tried to distract her from the oncoming work.
"Fine." Kiruya let out a sigh and snuggled into Freja watching the chaos alongside her.