Chapter 1812: Chapter 1811: The Circus and the Tiger
People in the circus couldn’t see this peculiar spirit, and since Laster Edwards, being a spiritual body, wasn’t afraid of the sun, Shard led her out of the tent. With gan’s ancestor guiding them, Shard didn’t have to wander aimlessly around the camp this ti and easily found the largest tent housing the tiger.
The guard at the tent initially didn’t want to let Shard in, but Shard claid he had paid for the visit and handed over a 10-penny ticket, thus gaining the right to enter.
This circus is of dium size, so although they didn’t have a large group of animals, they had horses used for both performances and pulling carts, tigers, nurous cats and dogs used for pet shows, magician’s rabbits and parrots, and more.
Among them, the tiger was undoubtedly the most important animal in the circus, drawing guests in when animal shows were publicly perford.
And on this Thursday morning, the tiger was confined in a cage, lazily lying there as if asleep. Because Shard had paid to enter, the young beast tar apprentice playing cards with the jester didn’t stop him from approaching, but warned Shard:
"Please don’t feed it casually, and don’t reach into the cage — these two things can basically be one."
"Quite humorous."
Shard approached the cage but did not notice any abnormalities in the tiger. He glanced at Laster Edwards beside him, and the girl quickly shook her head:
"That’s not the tiger."
"Isn’t it?"
Shard hesitated slightly, looked back, noticed the two card players were engrossed in their hands, and quickly reached into the cage to touch the tiger. The touched tiger then opened its eyes, suspiciously looking at the person outside the cage, unsure of what he was here for.
[Elent reaction detected, suspected transformation spell.]
Shard understood a bit more and asked the little girl beside him:
"If it’s not a tiger, then what is it?"
Laster Edwards responded without thinking:
"Of course, it’s the beast tar, but he believes he’s a tiger now. How interesting."
Shard nodded, turned, and walked over to the card-playing duo, questioning the young beast tar apprentice:
"Where might your teacher be? I’m quite interested in discussing the care of tigers... I also have a similar creature at ho."
On the windowsill at ho, basking in the sun and watching pigeons, Mia lazily scratched her face with her paw.
"How should I know..."
The apprentice said without turning his head, but then, with a clinking sound, coins fell from Shard’s hand onto the table. The jester rapidly scooped up the two coins before him and answered first:
"Honorable guest, Mr. Tiger said he wanted to look around; it’s too stuffy in the tent. If you leave the camp and head east, there’s a river there — he should be there."
"Oh, that’s mine!"
The beast tar apprentice reached to grab the coins, and thus, the two began to playfully wrestle. They never once looked up to see who Shard actually was.
Leaving the tent hall, Shard and Laster headed east across the farmland, and within minutes, saw the river the jester had ntioned. This was a tributary of the Duin River, which ran through both shores of Green Lake city and eventually flowed into Green Lake. The beast tar with a tiger’s head and human body indeed was here, kneeling at the belly of a dead plow ox, gnawing on the corpse.
Hearing footsteps, the "beast tar" imdiately turned around, revealing to Shard a furry face with blood sars around the mouth.
Nothing needed to be said; the beast tar with the tiger’s head lunged at Shard, and at that mont, a real tiger’s shadow flashed behind it. Shard frowned slightly and stepped back, appearing behind the beast tar in the next instant. The beast tar, crashing to the ground, created a pit half a ter deep.
A manic laugh erupted from its mouth, and as it widened its mouth, dozens of semi-transparent human-headed, tiger-bodied creatures erged from within. Approximating spiritual bodies but with physical attributes. As the "beast tar" fiercely swung the whip coiled around its waist, the creatures simultaneously lunged at Shard.
"So it really was a beast tar — Heaton Seal!"
The longsword in hand pointed forward, exploding in a golden shield, knocking all charging creatures flying backwards.
With a snap, the beast tar’s whip exploded, and the creatures, with dull-colored skin, rose and slowly approached Shard again. anwhile, the beast tar flung its whip toward Shard’s head, but in mid-air, it was intercepted by the chains flying from Shard’s sleeve.
The whip and chains intertwined as Shard and the Beast Tar pulled forcefully in their respective directions. anwhile, the monsters with human heads and tiger bodies took the opportunity to lunge at him once more.
"Ha!"
Laster Edwards suddenly appeared from behind the "Beast Tar." He grasped his right wrist with his left hand, and as he swung down from above his head towards the right, a rift with the sa trajectory appeared on the body of the "Beast Tar" who was three ters away from him.
The long whip dissipated, and the tiger-headed monsters exploded into plus of smoke. With a scream, the Beast Tar’s body fell into two halves to the sides, quivering a few tis on the riverbank before falling still. The inky black blood stained the riverbank red, and the Whisper Elent gradually dissipated from the tiger’s body, signaling the end of the battle.
"A very beautiful Dinsional Slash, a great collaboration. Mr. Durut Giles would be proud of you."
Shard praised with a smile. The girl then proudly puffed up her chest and struck an arrogant pose before spitting on the tiger’s corpse, all the while uttering so rude words learned from who knows where.
As a spirit, naturally, she could not produce real saliva.
Shard approached the tiger’s corpse and placed his hand on it. With its death, the tiger’s head remained unchanged, but the human body had already been covered with tiger fur, reverting to its original form. However, this corpse definitely couldn’t be left unattended, as any corpse tainted by the Whisper Elent required strict handling, or it would surely lead to other troubles.
"So, the Relic that altered perception here at the circus is exchanging circus objects for the humans in the circus?"
"Yes, the Sage-Level Relic [Darkmoon Circus]. Fortunately, this relic is still in the stage of descent and hasn’t completely assimilated the circus. Otherwise, even if Missy herself ca, it would be hard to resolve this problem completely."
A clear female voice ca from behind, but Shard didn’t turn around. They hadn’t hidden themselves, and Shard had already noticed the arrivals of the Miss Maids just now:
"Darkmoon Circus? That na sounds nice. Is it truly a Sage-Level Relic?"
He clapped his hands and stood up from beside the corpse, then asked Tifa behind him. She nodded slightly at Shard, a smile gracing her face. Accompanying her were two other Inner Ring Miss Maids. Although none of them wore the emblematic black and white maid skirts but instead casual clothes, their posture when walking and standing unmistakably revealed the elegance of maid culture.
Laster Edwards didn’t hide from the strangers’ arrival; she floated above the tiger’s corpse. She glanced at Tifa, then looked at herself and displayed an amusingly shocked expression.
"Missy specifically sent us to handle this matter, which is very important,"
Tifa gave Shard a hug.
Her companions behind her covered their mouths, giggling and whispering, probably making jokes about the maid, the knight, and the Duchess. Laster, anwhile, covered her face with an open-fingered hand, shyly peeking.
Tifa also noticed the spirit whom she’d seen at a feast in Tobesk before, but since she and the other two girls had co incognito, they weren’t afraid of revealing their identities:
"The Sage-Level Relic [Darkmoon Circus] is event-type. Typically, it infects and assimilates moderately sized circuses or other animal performance troupes in phases. Once all mbers of the [Darkmoon Circus] fully descend and assimilate, the complete Sage-Level Relic will target the entire region for a range slaughter. Its combined strength cannot be opposed by a single Thirteen Rings."
"The circus’s descent occurs in three phases, each phase having a powerful core entity. The current state should be only the first phase."
"A core? Is it this?"
Shard glanced at the tiger’s corpse, and Tifa slightly shook her head:
"According to Missy’s provided information, this is just one of the Beast Tars in the circus, and the Darkmoon Circus has at least three such Beast Tars. The circus core refers to: The Fool-Jester, Sage-Seer, and Leader-Darkmoon Rabbit."
"Hmm...what’s the last one?"
Shard raised an eyebrow in surprise, and the black-haired girl smiled to explain:
"Not a joke, it’s a black-haired rabbit with power at least at the Thirteen Rings level. The circus is nad after it. The rabbit’s size is similar to Mia’s, but it’s far stronger than Mia. However, the Leader only descends in the final third phase. In the first two phases, it’s uncertain which of the Fool and the Seer appears. However, the core can be uprooted, and the Darkmoon Circus can be expelled."
"It’s probably not the Jester. Earlier, I inquired in the camp, and there are only two clowns in the circus. One’s performing for children, tossing balls, and the other’s in a tent playing cards with people. They’re both normal people."
Shard said, looking towards Laster’s spirit. The little girl nodded too:
"Yes, yes, the clowns are quite normal."
"Then the matter becos much simpler. When Missy dispatched us, there was initial concern that the Second Phase had already appeared. Detective, you’ve solved many problems for us."
Tifa winked at Shard, that playful deanor was one never seen when beside Miss Galina.
Reviews
All reviews (0)