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“Meow~~” The dozen or so guardcats were instantly entranced by Jeerah’s waving tail. With each sway, their eyes would slowly drift left and right in tandem with the tail; all was done under the direction of Jeerah’s control.

‘I guess her tail does resemble a cat’s toy, but can this premise be any more shaky?!’

Still, it was an undeniable fact that she had them in the palm of her hands. No…it wasn’t just her tail, her scent was a lot stronger than usual. In other words, at the same time that she began waving her tail, she activated her enthrallment, and from the looks of things, succeeded.

These paragons of reliability were probably already under her spell. Like a swarm of bees to honey, their claws shot out in unison in a bid to grab her tail. Too bad for them, Jeerah’s reaction was quicker. With a spin and a twist, she evaded their hungry claws. But the giant kitties persisted, chasing after her as she ran around the hall. With her Five-star strength, her speed definitely wasn’t slower than the cats chasing. Each time they lunged, she always managed to pull her tail away at the last minute.

I had to admit however, the fact that she was able to distract these cats was surprising, but at least it was a pleasant surprise that benefited us.

“Hey! What the heck are you worthless cats doing, attack them! It’s just a blasted tail, don’t tell me you don’t have your own!” Meisian was probably the only lucid cat right now. Unfortunately, she couldn’t leave her Elemental Segregation Platform. All she could do was smack Anmi on the head for also being enthralled by Jeerah’s tail, though that was most likely her venting her anger. And without checking to see if Anmi had awoken from the trance, she began railing. “Wake up you morons!”

That unfortunately did nothing to awaken them. The guardcats continued chasing Jeerah’s tail as if she had never yelled at them.

Her Psychic Enthrallment had bought us precious time. Time which I used to pour out souls from my Soul Ring and fed them to Sasani who gladly wolfed them down. These were the souls I had originally saved up as back up rations, but now was clearly not the time to care about such details.

Thankfully, Hellhounds had the ability to absorb souls to recover from their wounds quickly. As long as Sasani recovered, leaving shouldn’t be a problem. Assuming no other Purgatory Shadowcats popped up, of course. We also needed Sinmosa to settle that guardcat captain as soon as possible. Even if victory wasn’t possible, she had to at least shake him off.

Yet just when I thought our situation was improving, Meisian pulled out her trump card.

“Elders! Elders! Come out and help me, quick!” Her call for help almost sent me jumping out of my skin. These elders were all Six-stars and above, clearly characters we did not want to tangle with right now. However, reality didn’t proceed in the way both Meisian and I had expected. Her cries for help went unanswered, as if her Elders’ Consortium had never existed from the beginning.

“Blast it, those accursed elders…don’t tell me they are out playing cards again…”

‘Playing cards…I know cats are naturally lazy, but still… And these elders have the ability to Dreamwalk, so I’m not surprised that they managed to learn a game or two from the human realm. But is now really the time for you guys to be playing cards?! Your cat king is still directing a battle here.’

‘Forget it, I’ve already had enough experience to know that these cats are all crazy, and their inaction serves me well now.’

“ROAARR!”

In the time that Meisian tried to call for the elders, Sasani finally recovered his strength, having consumed a large amount of souls. While his clash with the three Purgatory Shadowcats had left them both injured, he at least came out on top, seeing as he was perfectly fine now. As for those three guardcat captains, they were still lying on the ground, though who could say if they were actually knocked out or just playing dead. After all, these cats could probably fool the Grim Reaper itself with their play dead skills.

Still, while Sasani was finally well enough to fight, that didn’t mean he was at peak condition either. At the very least however, he was able to help his wife fight against that guardcat captain. With their combined might, that cat was easily overwhelmed.

It was true that the Purgatory Shadowcats were faster than the Hellhounds, but in a two versus one, the fight was basically over. Especially since there was no aid forthcoming from the Elders’ Consortium. Speaking of which, were they really playing cards…

With the guardcat captain no longer a problem, I grabbed Jeerah along with the two scamps and rushed for the exit.

“Keep up, Sinmosa!”

“Got it.”

Realising that we had successfully evacuated, the Hellhound couple quickly exchanged a glance with each other, then launched a combination Raging Flame Charge at the poor guardcat captain who had nowhere to run. The guardcat captain was promptly sent flying away with a meow, after which the pair quickly followed us.

Now that Jeerah had escaped, that meant her enthrallment wore off as well. Without her spell affecting their minds, the remaining guardcats quickly regained their senses.

“Meoooww!” They immediately pounced on us the moment they realised that we were escaping.

Darkness Whip!

I gathered my mana, and with a swing of my right hand, sent forth a whip made of pure shadow cracking right in front of those rushing guardcats. With how sudden this attack came, the guardcats only had time to dodge backwards, and that slowed down their pursuit enough to buy us a few precious seconds.

“Quick!” I continued running while hugging onto Mo Na and Cinderel.

“Mama, Mo Na can help too.” Ever one with a strong need to show her abilities, she swung around my neck to face the back. Then, with eyes focused ahead and arms flailing about in casting motion, she yelled. “Vengeful Soul!”

A pair of black mists sprouted from her hands and rapidly flew towards the relentless guardcats. The spell had gone off successfully, but I was still concerned. I turned around for a moment to check on the situation, and saw a sight that left me speechless…

Upon seeing the black clouds rushing towards them, the guardcats immediately pounced on them with their claws, like how a cat would when it saw its prey. Unfortunately for them, the Vengeful Soul could fly, and with a pretty decent speed as well. Each time they almost clawed it, it would deftly fly away.

With these two clouds clearly grabbing their attention, Mo Na quickly commanded them to fly in the opposite direction from us, leading the ever-reliable guardcats back into the hall.

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.