Chapter 419 - 23: A Siege with No Casualties

Chapter 419: Chapter 23: A Siege with No Casualties

A Personal Guard came to Keze’s side to report an anomaly discovered at the border.

"What’s there to be afraid of? What kind of threat could this thing possibly be?" Keze pointed at the Slime lying motionless on the ground after swallowing a bone. He casually twisted off a piece of its gelatinous body and started tossing it in his hand like a bouncy ball.

When the Slimes were first discovered, even though he’d taken a liking to the creatures at first sight, Keze still had his soldiers test an attack on them.

These Slimes, sent as an advance party, were only level one. When attacked, their only option was to "quickly" flee. It took them several painstaking minutes to cover a hundred-odd meters before Keze’s soldiers intercepted them.

(A max-level Slime arriving near the territory can split into 4,951 level-one Slimes.)

Keze’s soldiers had easily killed the level-one Slime, and he had even killed one himself. It was incredibly easy.

So when Keze heard his Personal Guard say that many Slimes had appeared at the border, he wasn’t the least bit worried. ’So what if there are a lot of Slime Monsters? They’re the kind of thing that dies with a single squeeze.’

’Besides, what’s the harm in having more of these cute little guys around?’

"But my lord, the Slime Monsters coming from the border aren’t like this little thing!" the Personal Guard said, his voice laced with urgency. "They’re very powerful!"

"Oh? And just how powerful are they?" Trusting his Personal Guard, and now curious about these supposedly powerful Slime Monsters, Keze decided to go take a look.

...

A few minutes later, Keze arrived at the surveillance room. It housed a monitoring system that spanned his entire territory, offering views of most of its regions.

He had gone to great lengths to build this system. Because it was wired, maintenance costs were high, which was why most lords wouldn’t build one—it was far cheaper to simply hire a scout.

"My lord, come quick! These Slime Monsters look much more powerful—they’re very dangerous!!!"

As soon as Keze entered the room, the on-duty staff immediately reported to him, pulling up the surveillance footage of the Slimes.

Though Keze had spoken dismissively of the Slime Monsters, he knew there must be a reason for everyone’s tension, so he watched the footage with great care.

The Slime Monsters in the video looked almost identical to the one he’d been toying with. The only difference was that they were much, much larger.

There was a huge number of Slime Monsters in the video, creating an intimidating sight. In Keze’s eyes, however, they were just a wealth of potential pets, delivered right to his doorstep.

"Is that it?" Keze did a quick count and saw just over a thousand Slime Monsters. ’Not that many at all.’

Even if they were high-level, Keze was confident that this number of Slime Monsters posed no threat. He was actually disappointed more hadn’t shown up.

"That’s not all, my lord. The impressive part is coming up," the staff member said. After receiving a nod from Keze, he fast-forwarded the video.

On fast-forward, the sluggish army of Slime Monsters zipped across the screen. They soon moved out of frame, and the staff member only returned the footage to normal speed when a lone Slime Monster appeared.

This Slime Monster had fallen behind, slowly crawling along at the rear of the group. Suddenly, a beast resembling a small cat appeared behind it.

"A Shadow Leopard!" Keze blurted out the moment he saw the small cat. "That Slime Monster is in trouble!"

On the Titan Continent, small carnivores like this were extremely dangerous, and the Shadow Leopard was one of the deadliest.

It was only the size of a common house cat, but it could survive in the various high-gravity environments of the Titan Race. It was powerfully built, with razor-sharp claws and teeth, and moved with incredible speed.

It was named the Shadow Leopard because it moved so fast it left behind afterimages in an observer’s eyes.

It was rumored that on the Titan Clan People’s homeworld, someone had once seen a Shadow Leopard in an environment with ten times normal gravity.

That type of Shadow Leopard was smaller and even faster than the common variant. When it entered a standard three-gravity environment, it could move so fast it would vanish from sight completely, earning it the name Shadowless Leopard.

However, precisely because it was too fast for anyone to see, the Shadowless Leopard existed only in legend. With only rumored sightings and no video evidence, it was considered one of the ten great legendary creatures of the Titan Clan People.

The small cat in the video was a Double Shadow Cat, so Keze didn’t believe the Slime Monster could possibly escape its claws.

The Shadow Leopard stared at the slowly crawling Slime Monster. After observing for a moment, it decided this strange new creature was probably edible.

It launched a brazen attack. In an instant, the Shadow Leopard appeared before the Slime Monster, swiped its claws to tear off a piece of the monster’s body, and then reappeared in the distance.

Multiple afterimages appeared at once: a clear image of the Shadow Leopard at its starting point, another beside the Slime Monster, and a third at its final destination. Between these three distinct figures were several more blurry afterimages.

"Tch... a Shadow Leopard, all right! Its speed is incredible!"

Keze marveled at the three figures of the Shadow Leopard that had appeared in the video simultaneously, but the subordinates around him all had strange expressions on their faces.

The Shadow Leopard tasted the bit of the Slime Monster’s flesh on its claw. Its eyes lit up, and it charged toward the Slime again.

The Slime didn’t seem to notice that a piece of its body was missing, and it continued to crawl along sluggishly.

The next moment, the Shadow Leopard stopped dead in midair. It struggled with all its might, but suspended there, it had no leverage. No matter how strong it was, it couldn’t bring any of its power to bear.