So what sets apart an anomaly division varae from a classified division? Speaking in terms of raw strength, an anomaly division varae is not necessarily as strong as a classified division varae but a varae of anomaly division possess abilities that are unnatural to its species making it extraordinarily dangerous since slayers won't be aware of its abilities.
They were not supposed to exist but they did, however low the chances were, an anomaly of nature's creation. However, it differs if a varae of classified division transcends to anomaly division then it may be considered a threat to mankind. Red Hound is a lower division varae, the lowest in the food chain of varaes pyramid.
By chance, if nature allowed a strange set of phenomenons and events intervened by luck, randomness, opportunities, where even the weakest varae such as Red Hound were subjected to a concocted environment and it somehow managed to survive the predation then what happens? Does it evolve? Will nature allow the existing hierarchy to be disrupted? and what happens when a lower varae keeps on feeding upper hierarchical varaes?
What were the chances that, such instances, are allowed to happen? that even a varae such as Red Hound would evolve. It was even less that one in a hundred, the chances were inconsiderably low for a Red Hound to evolve even when granted all the favourable conditions, being the lowest of varaes food chain, most of the time they get devoured by upper class varaes and hence naturally they avoided competition but when that lower than one percent succeeds, the calamity that is born out of the chaos, after countless victories, devouring and stages of evolution, one that has climbed the summit of varaes, is the disaster known as Alpha Red Hound.
Alpha Red Hound was an apex predator, it feared no other varaes and it won't back down even from a stronger varae, much unlikely from a human slayer? Its jaw could tear apart iron and claws that could tear down anything possible and what other strange abilities did it possess? Red Hounds normally don't possess unique abilities, they are just strong and agile.
And there was the woman known as Blood Empress, much like Alpha Red Hound, she stood at the summit of slayers peak yet at such a young age. She has surpassed many grandmaster slayers and has even slayed few of classified division varaes but has she fought an anomaly such as Alpha Red Hound whose strength was still a mystery? 'How strong are these Grandmaster slayers?' I wondered.
Grandmaster Arilyne fearlessly stood face to face with the unwavering Alpha Red Hound, its stare sent down chills to our spine. we kept a distance and watched the contest of glaring, She said, " Activate Thunder wind, Activate Dragon's breath, Activate Might of lion. "
After casting Thunder wind, her body was emitting sparks of lightning or her body was cloaked in lightning partially, specially her feet.
She casted multiple spells at once, all of them were high level that none of us were familiar with. She then took out her sword which was all sleek black? a black steel or what rare magical mineral was it made from? I had no idea. It was a beautiful blade much like her.
"Dimensional Cleaver!!, " declared Arilyne and with one hand she swung a horizontal slash that released an arch of dark aura that cleaved everything in front of her, for at least hundred meters ahead, suddenly a piece of the forest was cleared out in an instant. We all stood in awe, such power! I developed a new fond admiration for grandmasters, especially her.
To our surprise, there was the Alpha Red Hound on its feet without even a damage, did it dodge or dimensional cleaver didn't affect it? What happened ? I had no idea nor none of us but grandmaster Arilyne was smiling, she knew what happened.
" Hoo, you resisted dimensional cleaver with your mere magical aura? No wonder you are the Alpha, " she commended it. It looked like she was having fun even in such a dangerous situation.
Then in the blink of an eye, the alpha red hound disappeared from its position or should I say leaped towards Arilyne? We couldn't track its speed, it was nothing like we have seen before. It thought it had her but as fast as alpha red hound was Blood empress was too, she was already in a different position looking at him, with thunder wind spell, she was so fast that she left a mirage of herself for a mere second that fooled alpha red hound and several exchange of blows continued for the next few minutes, none wavered in strength and speed, each strike from grandmaster Arilyne that collided with alpha red hound's claws sent out sparks of fire and clanking sounds of metal. They charged and retraced back and charged again, knowing that she wasn't not going to be defeated by mere strength, it finally used its ability and what was it? It led out such a mighty and deafening roar that it paralyzed our body, our ears were all blocked with numbness of high frequency pitch and we felt on our knees, a roar that also killed our spirit and seeped our strength to the ground. I looked up to find that Grandmaster Arilyne was also having trouble, she was covering her left ear with her left hand, however an opening was created, even for a fraction of second she was disrupted in her movement, the roar affected her concentration and was distracted. Using such a moment to advantage, the alpha red hound lunged at her although she blocked the first strike from it's claw, I knew he was held at a disadvantage, the roar definitely affected her and it was not allowing her to regain her strength. I was able to recover faster than the rest, I looked at them they were on the ground struggling to get up and they were panting and I realised that no matter how awesome your gifts and talent were, there was one thing that couldn't be replaced with just mere talents and that was experience, they hadn't overcome the fear of death, they lacked experience and courage to do so, reality was different. Earlier, when they hunted lower forms of varaes, they assumed the role of predators hence it hindered their real growth, however when you are faced a foe such as alpha red hound, everything they knew came crashing down, a true fear of death overwhelmed them and instinctively it prioritized their own survivability. Fortunately, I have faced such incidents everyday of my life in B-12 and in southern forest, I have ventured into southern forest over and again and again even after knowing I was guaranteed to die if I make a slight error in my judgement yet I came out of it again and again, similarly, I could say I'm an anomaly myself.
I had to do something, It was not that I didn't have faith in Blood Empress strength but I had to do something to help her get out of this pinch.
" Get out of here !!, " I shouted at them.
They managed to crawled back on their feet and started to walked towards the cave, Nyaka glanced at me and I nodded it would be alright, at the same time Arilyne was wrestling with the hound, the only thing keeping alpha red hound's jaws from her neck was her blade. I took my bow and loaded multiple arrows and sent the volley of arrows towards alpha red hound back, it was called multiple shots. As expected, the arrows were not strong enough to pierce its hard flesh and thick fur but it did go in through slightly and it caught my attention, it turned around and leaped towards me and I heard grandmaster arilyne murmuring at the same, " what are you doing? stay out of this," and she was getting on her feet supporting on her blade.
I also anticipated this so I was quick on my feet, taking out my dagger I threw it directing at alpha red hound's eyes, since it was still at mid air it couldn't dodge mid air so the alpha red hound turned its face away from the dagger and the dagger perforated it's lower neck where the fur was less thick. I knew it would try to misdirect the projectile since he couldn't change direction mid air, disrupted in its movement, I quickly retraced my steps and ran away from it, with the dagger still in its neck and this time, it was bleeding but not enough to kill it. As I ran away trying to circle around and get to Grandmaster Arilyne, I shot multiple arrows aimed for its eyes, it sensed the arrows and deflected them easily with its claws but for some strange reason it has stopped moving. It looked like the dagger was effective, by the time I had circled around my way to Grandmaster Arilyne, I helped her get back on her feet, " Are you all right? Grandmaster, " I asked while keeping an eye on the alpha red hound, it was making strange agitation, the blood has stopped flowing. What was he trying to do?
" It is using magical aura to heal the wound, " explained Grandmaster Arilyne.
However, she was sweating, it looked like the roar had her good yet she stood back up at her feet and said, " This time, I'm not going to disgrace myself any further, "
" I can help, " I suggested.
" No!, Stand back Lan!, " She commanded.
And without arguing any further, I quickly stepped away from her and climbed up a tree to support her in case. I still had a trick up my sleeve if everything was to go southways but I refuse to believe that a grandmaster can be knocked out so easily, so once again I wager my faith on Grandmaster Arilyne.
" You have annoyed me so much already, this time you won't get away, " she said dropping her sword off and casted a spell, " Activate Golem's essence, " and in an instant the confidence and fire in her eyes returned, her weariness disappeared completely.
" Activate Authority of Blood, " she said.
She made a small cut on her finger and from it the blood manifested out in the air it took various shapes and revolving around her, that was quite a lot of blood.
On the other scene, what I witnessed was the dagger was finally pushed out from the alpha hound's body and it was filled back by its own flesh. 'Such dangerous healing capability!' I exclaimed to myself.
Once again, they stood face to face but different this time. Letting out another roar, it charged at her swiftly, yet this time the roar had no effect on her. The alpha red hound quickly appeared behind her trying to get her off guard but the blood that was levitating around her took shapes of spikes and pierced alpha hound's body parts but none hit it's vital part, Quickly, alpha red hound retraced from her and returned to its original position. Now, it was wounded severally at once, blood dripped from almost everywhere. I wonder now this time whether it could stop all of the wounds?
" You like that?, " she taunted.
What was frightening was that her ability exceeded far my expectation, who knew she could use a unique skill, Authority of Blood. It was a unique spell said to be inherited by a certain family. The blood acted both as offense and defense, commanded by the user's will it can hardened and liquify at the same time however draining magic immensely at the same time, at best I wonder how long she can use this spell?
Alpha Red Hound wounded was now again draining it's magic energy to stop the bleeding, however, She won't give the chance to heal again once more. So with her hand, she directed a volley of blood spears to rain down at him. It jumped sideways and with it's healing disrupted, it was slower but the blood spears quickly changed shapes into smaller spikes and encircled him and Grandmaster Arilyne commanded to pierced him, attacked from all directions, it had no way of escaping. 'What a frightening ability!,' I thought. The blood spikes finally penetrated the alpha red hound all over the body, its eyes too, now it was finally brought down to its knees.
It led out a fainting growl and with strength seeping from its body, it was struggling to get up. Eyes were destroyed, there were multiple holes in his body. Grandmaster Arilyne has already won the fight, Although how powerful the alpha red hound was, in front of the Authority of Blood, it stood no chance. Grandmaster Arilyne walked towards it with the sword on her hand and for the final blow, she stabbed at its heart. It led out a final shriek of pain and succumbed to death.
It was over the battle between Blood Empress and Alpha Red Hound. At that moment I understood why they called her 'Blood Empress'. It was a befitting name and she lived upto the reputation, I was thoroughly impressed by her strength.
She dismissed her spells and she fell down on her knees, it must be so, authority of blood uses her own blood and losing so much blood would weaken her, such was the downside of using authority of blood. I quickly rushed to her and supported her, I walked her to a tree and let her rest.
" That was an awesome fight, Grandmaster Arilyne, " I said with a smile of thrill.
With her eyes looking drowsy she replied with a weak voice, " Were you not scared?, "
" I was but it turned out well, " I said and offered her water helping her to drink from my waterskin. She looked extremely drained.
After gulping down the water in a hurriedly manner, she said, " if it was not for your intervention, I would not have won this fight. "
" My bow served useless, it couldn't pierce its thick skin. " I replied.
I have my secret emergency food stored in my pouch, a piece of dried meat dipped in sugar water and honey and wrapped by a local herb. It was one of my survival kits I often used in B-12. It helped me keep alive and gave me instant energy. So I offered her the food and said, " Here eat this, Grandmaster it will help you regain some of the strength, "
Without complaints she consumed the food and commented, " It's a little bit sweet, "
" It's an energy booster, " I said. She just looked at me with her drowsy eyes and laughed as if she realised something stupid.
" What's wrong?, " I asked, confused by her sudden onset of laughter. Was her brain affected during the fight? but she suffered no damage on her head, I was certain of it.
She just continued to smile and didn't respond, we rested for another some time and regrouped with the rest at the cave, they were all clutching themselves to their chest frightened to their core. Nyaka was disturbed too but unlike the rest, she had her composure to some degree. Werem and Jeral were shivering and teeth clattering, it seemed they were traumatized however, this was necessary and they would need to overcome this fear sooner or later if they still want to become a slayer.
" It's all over people, we are safe now, " Grandmaster assured them.
And this was how the curtain was closed to the Alpha red hound. After reporting that an anomaly division varare appeared near Mt Jehhu, slayers guild will finally dispatch reinforcements to strengthen the surrounding area and sweep the vicinity of any other lurking dangers.