Chapter 133: A Woman’s Venting of Resentment

"Oh, are you looking down on me just because I'm injured?"

A smirk played on Pepero’s lips, but her eyes sharpened instantly like a drawn blade. A mass of fiery red flames suddenly erupted over her legs, immediately morphing into two long tails of fire that completely encased her rounded, sturdy limbs. Simultaneously, a faint red glow began to emanate from Pepero’s arms. Although Vael could not see actual flames on her arms, he dared not lower his guard for even a fraction of a second against that dim red light. Just moments before, when he had tentatively probed that glow with his perception, he was shocked to discover that not only could his senses not get near it, but they were also thoroughly dispersed by an incredibly powerful energy radiating from the light!

*Must not be touched by that red light!* Vael thought to himself.

At that moment, Pepero seemed to sense something. Her slender, willow-like eyebrows twitched. She looked Vael over from head to toe with a look of piqued interest, then asked with a hint of curiosity, "What was that thing I just felt?"

"A psychic probe—one of the abilities a mage excels at," Vael replied honestly, having no intention of hiding it from her.

"Oh? You know, I’ve been guessing your strength level since just now. A fifth-rank mage? Sixth-rank? Or have you already reached the level of a Grand Mage? Heh, I’ve heard that a Grand Mage’s strength is equivalent to a Grand Soul Master in the Soul Master profession. And you seem even younger than me, right?"

Pepero’s tone was peculiar, making it impossible to tell if she had ulterior motives or was just asking casually. Vael simply watched her, and after she finished laughing, he spoke slowly, enunciating every word: "Tenth-rank Mage!"

"Tenth-rank... Mage?"

The smile vanished from Pepero’s face. She darkened and said coldly to Vael, "You know, that joke isn't funny at all! The strength ranking for mages isn't much different from that of Soul Masters. A tenth-rank mage is equivalent to a tenth-rank soul disciple, but your strength clearly exceeds that level!"

"Oh?" Vael chuckled at her remark. He looked at Pepero and asked, "Then what level do you think my strength is at?"

"Third-rank—no, your strength is at least that of a fifth-rank mage!"

Pepero answered quite seriously. Seeing Vael still smiling, as if what she said was incorrect, only fueled her anger. In her eyes, Vael surely possessed that level of power; otherwise, even if he were a tenth-rank mage, it would be impossible for him to kill Garrey, who was a second-rank Grand Soul Master. Since he had indeed accomplished the feat, she instinctively viewed his denial as a form of concealment or deception.

"Very well. Since you won't say, I’ll just have to test it myself!"

Pepero gritted her teeth. Before her words had even faded, she shot toward Vael like an arrow released from a bow. Her arms were tilted slightly and held across her chest, a posture suggesting she was gripping an invisible blade.

From the start, Vael had been calculating the distance between them. Based on Pepero’s speed, it would take her no more than three seconds to reach him. In that time, he could neither attack nor defend effectively enough to stop her, and given the disparity in their power levels, a head-on collision was out of the question. Thus, Vael had prepared to retreat from the very beginning.

Pepero never expected Vael to choose flight before she even made a move, and what surprised her even more was his incredible speed!

*Aren't mages supposed to have weak constitutions?* she wondered. Yet, looking at Vael, he moved as if he were flying. Within just a few strides, he had already put a significant distance between them.

*Well, this could be quite interesting!* Pepero thought, the flames in her eyes burning brighter.

With the long tails of flame coiling around her legs like soft, scarlet fur, she fixed her gaze on Vael’s path. Her slender, alluring legs bent, and a crisp cracking sound erupted from the ground beneath her. As a faint cloud of dust swirled up, the red flames on her legs kicked off the ground. In an instant, Pepero vaulted over five meters into the air, landed on the trunk of a large tree to gain leverage, and pushed off again. A single leap propelled her twenty or thirty meters forward!

On the other side, Vael was moving at high speed, and his running style looked nothing like that of a typical mage. Mages were known for their frail physiques, even weaker than ordinary people, so their running speed was usually predictable. Yet, Vael moved with the agility of a nimble beast, dashing through the dense forest without a moment’s pause. His body felt weightless, as if he were floating just above the ground. Every time his feet lightly tapped the earth, he propelled himself seven or eight meters forward. Even more bafflingly, whenever he faced an obstacle, he didn't need to dodge; no matter how fast he was moving, his body would glide past the obstructions in a bizarre, fluid motion, maintaining his breakneck pace.

As Vael scanned his surroundings with his perception, he weighed his next moves. To maintain this speed, over half of the wind-attribute mana in his sea of consciousness had already been consumed, and the rest was draining at an alarming rate. He knew that soon, his wind mana would be completely depleted, and once that happened, Pepero would catch up in no time.

*Just about there, isn't it?* Vael thought to himself. He shifted the focus of his perception, turned his body abruptly, and darted off in a different direction.

Vael wasn't running blindly. Throughout the chase, he had been monitoring the terrain, estimating the distance to Pepero, identifying advantageous locations, and calculating the time required for his next steps.

Pepero, trailing closely behind, felt a sense of oddity when Vael changed direction, but she didn't overthink it. After all, Vael had admitted he wasn't familiar with this area. In this game of tag, she held the massive advantage of knowing the terrain.

*He seems to be trying to circle around,* she thought. *But there's nothing special about the surroundings, so I can rule out him trying to use something to shake me off. He ran in a straight line from the start and only now decided to turn, which means he isn't running aimlessly; he's taking the shortest route he can find. Since he's unfamiliar with this area, sticking to a small, repetitive loop where the terrain doesn't change much is his best bet!*

Pepero chased him fiercely, her mind racing. Her analysis was spot on, but the one thing she failed to realize was that she wasn't chasing a Soul Master—she was chasing a mage!

Vael was a mage, and Pepero happened to know nothing about mages. This was precisely the source of Vael’s confidence.

Based on the reach of his perception and the depletion of his wind mana, Vael had gradually grasped the lay of the land. Pepero was still closing in; he didn't even need his perception to feel the searing heat of her flames behind him.

He tore the bandages off his staff one by one. The ice-attribute magic crystal in his sea of consciousness began to spin wildly. Threads of ice mana flowed through his body into the staff, releasing a faint, emerald-green light. Simultaneously, the top-tier water-attribute magic crystal, the size of an infant's fist and set into the near-perfect crescent moon of the staff, emitted a faint glow. Under the control of Vael’s perception, strange patterns immediately manifested on the staff.

If anyone with even a basic understanding of magic had seen this, they would have screamed in shock. Vael was performing "Void Array Drawing"—a feat impossible even for high-ranking mages!

To draw in the air, with nothing but atmosphere in between, was a baffling concept. Yet, through his high-level control techniques, experience, and the assistance of the legendary staff, Vael turned the theoretical into reality.

A small magic array, only half a meter in diameter, appeared at the tip of his staff. With a flick, Vael easily etched the array onto a tree trunk. The pale blue array flickered a few times before vanishing, leaving no visible trace.

Everything was going according to plan. Vael had already mapped the area, memorizing every advantageous spot. At every location he reached, he hid a small magic array. As his wind mana drained rapidly, he left behind a trail of arrays, completing his setup just as his wind magic was about to run dry.

*Now, the game begins.*

A smirk appeared on Vael’s lips. He brought his sprinting body to a sudden halt, took a deep breath to steady his mind, and turned around. At that moment, Pepero’s figure appeared in his line of sight.

*Finally, can't keep it up, huh? After all, he's just a mage!* Pepero thought. She kicked off a tree trunk, slamming her fiery tails against it to propel herself toward Vael like a cannonball. As she closed in, however, a strange, indescribable feeling rose in her chest.

*That guy Vael... is he actually smiling!?*

*Why? Does he know he can't escape and has given up?*

*But is that even possible?*

Pepero’s thoughts grew chaotic. Her eyes were locked onto Vael, not missing a single subtle movement. When she was just over thirty meters away, she finally saw him raise that ornate, long-handled scythe—she didn't know it was his staff, so she called it that in her mind.

*He wants to fight head-on?*

She thought he would, but to her surprise, Vael simply made a soft, casual slashing motion. What flew toward her was nothing more than a wind blade that posed no threat whatsoever.

*He must have a hidden trick!*

Thinking this, Pepero effortlessly shattered the incoming wind blade. She tapped the ground twice and leaped toward Vael at the same speed. At this distance, she could reach him in a single step!

"Come on! Let me see what you're actually planning to do!" Pepero shouted. Vael did not disappoint her. He slid his staff through the air with a gentle, graceful motion—his movements looking like a dance—but Pepero had no time to admire it. At that moment, a dense swarm of wind blades erupted from all directions!

Pepero had already experienced the power of his wind blades once. They weren't powerful, but the sheer density of the attack made her wary. In her haste, she even fumbled her dodge, and she had no choice but to channel her soul power to defend desperately.

"Nice reaction, but..."

A glint flashed in Vael’s eyes. As his staff danced again, a fiery red magic array suddenly appeared out of thin air beneath Pepero’s feet. Before she could react, the array activated. A massive, scorching pillar of fire roared upward without warning, threatening to swallow her whole. Pepero performed an unimaginable backward roll, narrowly grazing the pillar. She had avoided the attack, but the fire burned several large holes through her chest armor.

Since her armor was merely leather rather than military-grade steel, the flames exposed her smooth, wheat-colored skin beneath.

"Damn it!"

Having barely escaped the fire, Pepero became hyper-vigilant. The faint red glow on her arms perfectly encased them, rendering the countless wind blades harmless. With a flash, she tapped her toes against the ground, and the twin fire tails propelled her another dozen meters forward.

"Still trying to attack at a time like this..." Vael smiled faintly. He released one hand from the staff, keeping it moving with the other while his free hand quickly formed a series of strange seals.

With every step forward, Pepero was ambushed by a barrage of spells: ice spears, flames, flying rocks, wind blades—she began to wonder if she was fighting a whole army of mages! Even with her limited knowledge, she knew that in the mind of any normal person, it took a long time for a mage to cast a spell!

Yet, what she faced was the opposite. Every spell that came her way was so bizarre and sudden that she couldn't defend against them all. While the power of each spell was average, they all shared one trait: density!

Yes, density! They were so dense that she couldn't dodge them; she could only defend or grit her teeth and charge through the onslaught!

What frustrated Pepero even more was that these spells weren't random. They were fired from cunning angles, targeting her blind spots. This was why, despite her strength being sufficient to shrug off the individual spells, she was still driven into such a pathetic state.

*It’s all coming from that guy!*

Pepero smashed a giant boulder that suddenly dropped in front of her. Glancing at Vael, who continued his dance-like movements, a sharp light flashed in her eyes. The red glow on her arms brightened, and she kicked off the ground, accelerating despite the dense magical barrage, charging straight at him.

*At this distance, taking a hit doesn't matter. I’ll definitely catch him!*

She had prepared herself to trade blows, but she didn't realize that her very action had fallen into the trap Vael had laid.

"Illusion—Bind!"

Vael pressed his hand, which had just finished the seal, onto his staff and let out a low shout. Amidst the chaotic magical barrage, two blinding flashes of light suddenly erupted. The sudden stimulation caused Pepero to instinctively blink, and in that split second, the two beams of light tightened around her arms.

"Damn it!"

Pepero felt her hands bound and immediately realized things had gone wrong. She released the twin fire tails on her legs to their maximum capacity, hoping to break the beams, but just then, several more beams flashed, binding every joint in her body.

It was over. The dense magical barrage vanished in an instant. Vael stopped his movements and walked slowly toward Pepero.

"You think you can trap me with this?" Pepero glared at him and shifted her body, only to find that the light beams were not actually rigid; if she exerted enough force, she could break free.

"I never thought I could trap a second-rank Grand Soul Master with this alone. The goal was just to make you pause for a moment," Vael explained calmly.

"Just a moment? What can you do in a moment? Heh, I’m not being arrogant, but you’ve only restricted my movement, not sealed my abilities. If you take one more step closer, I still have ways to attack you—or even kill you!"

"I know. That’s why I’m standing here without moving a step closer, isn't it?" Vael said. He pointed to the binding beams and asked, "Do you know what the dark element represents in magic?"

A flicker of caution crossed Pepero’s eyes, but Vael didn't wait for her to answer. "Darkness is the opposite of light. It represents aging, paralysis, illusion, corrosion... and you should be able to feel it now, right? Your body is slowly becoming paralyzed, losing sensation, and your power is being devoured!"

"How is that poss..."

Pepero snorted coldly, but at that very instant, she truly felt her body becoming numb and losing sensation. A cold, bizarre energy had seeped into her soul power, gnawing away at it bit by bit!

"You bastard! You piece of trash! What did you do to me!? Let me go!" Pepero roared at Vael, acting like a frantic little leopardess. Just as she had said, Vael had bound her movements but hadn't sealed her abilities. Bizarre, blood-like flames began to rise from her body; clearly, she intended to use them to break the bindings.

Seeing this, Vael simply shook his head. He stepped forward unhurriedly and pressed his staff against Pepero’s long neck. "Stop moving. You should know how sharp this is... and I’d like to ask, what exactly are you trying to do to me? I don't think I’ve ever provoked you. Why are you targeting me?"

"Why? Heh, I just don't like the look of you. How's that for a reason?" Pepero retorted coldly. The numbness in her body grew more intense; she knew she would lose consciousness soon. Even though her limbs were completely bound, she was stubborn by nature. How could she simply accept her fate? She silently calculated the distance between herself and Vael, glanced at the staff pressed against her neck, and a smirk played on her lips.

Pepero’s answer gave Vael a headache. He frowned, his mind racing to figure out his next move. Just then, a flash of fire crossed his vision. Vael was only a mage, and his reaction was to instinctively step back—but this played right into Pepero’s trap. The staff was pulled away from her neck. A sharp glint flashed in her eyes as she lunged forward, closing the distance. Because she was suspended, her mouth happened to land right on Vael’s shoulder.

Without using any soul power, driven purely by a woman’s frustration, Pepero opened her mouth and sank her teeth into Vael’s shoulder!