X-Rank Hunter - Chapter 21: Clearing Doubts (2)
Ignoring the beast’s astonishment, Charley glared at the beast as she warned, “The barrier in this village can fend off any beasts with hostile intentions. If you were blocked by the barrier it only means that you intend to cause harm. When that time comes, don’t blame me for being impolite.”
She already knew that the beast bore no harm. But to be safe, she still beckoned for the beast to enter the village to check and satisfy his wariness.
“Fine then.”
Knowing the other party’s intention, Bantay tried to enter the invisible barrier as cold sweat was starting to appear on his forehead. His every step could make his heart beat wildly afraid that he might get blocked by the barrier.
To his relief, he passed through it!
Charley was slightly taken aback before a beautiful smile blossomed on her excited lips.
Her son finally had a tamed beast and far stronger than himself at that! How could she possibly remain nonchalant regarding this? This beast’s strength was probably about the fifth of her strength. That really was terrifying!
Well, Jim was just an F-rank and his tamed beast was actually that strong. If that was not terrifying, Charley wouldn’t agree to that.
Charley was just about to rush forward beside the beast when Jim suddenly woke up.
“Who are you?”
When Jim opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was he was standing and floating in the midair. He looked around him and saw an unfamiliar person beside him. He still felt weak and tired though.
He just faced many enemies recently and suffered countless pierces to his body so how could his mind immediately recover from those sufferings? Even though his body could recover at a fast rate, his mind needed some time!
“Master!”
Seeing that his master had woken up, Bantay immediately put him down and bowed down into him deeply.
Jim was taken aback, seeing the attitude of the person before him.
I didn’t even know you, why are you calling me master?
Are you mad? Did you recognize a wrong person?
Noticing the doubt on his master, Bantay was just about to explain everything when he recalled how powerful his master’s ability was. He then sent a telepathic message to Jim and asked, “Is your mother aware of your ability?”
Bantay doubted that his master’s mother knew about his master’s ability from the way she reacted when she learned that he was his tamed beast. Bantay believed that his master didn’t tell anyone anything regarding his ability.
And also, it seemed that his master just recently received his newfound strength since they already were facing each other for a long time now but only recently, Bantay had seen his master use an insanely strong ability.
He only knew that his master was using some kind of annoying illusions that his master always used to escape away from him. But when they fought a while ago, his master didn’t even use his illusion against them but instead, his master defeated all of his subordinates using blood and the power to absorb life.
So Bantay thought that his master probably was hiding his ability!
Jim was taken aback by the sudden question of the person before him. Not just because the other party knew about his ability but he directly sent the message through his thoughts!
How could he remain unsurprised from that?
“What ability are you talking about?” Jim replied telepathically, wary to the other party.
Jim just tried it if it would work but his thought really got transmitted to the other party. Seeing this, Jim couldn’t help but be astonished.
It is the same feeling when I am communicating with my Blood Minions! How can I do it as well to the person before me?
And it is as if there are deep connections between us.
Just what the hell is happening here!?
Jim of course knew nothing about the master-tamed beast relationship he had with the other party, but it didn’t take long for him to notice that something was amiss.
“I am talking about your ability to use blood and absorb blood from others.” Noticing yet another doubt from his master, Bantay replied patiently.
“You know about my ability? Who are you?” Jim was taken aback from the answer of the other party. He didn’t tell anyone anything regarding his ability but the person before him was actually aware of it. He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes warily against the other party.
Seeing that his master was misunderstanding something, Bantay hurriedly replied, “Master, I am the gorilla from before and I am your tamed beast. So of course I knew about your ability.”
“What!? You are my tamed beast? How is that possible? And how can you morph into a human form now?” The more Jim talked to the other party the more bewildered he became and it seemed that there were still a lot of things he needed to know.
“That’s why I am asking you if your mother knew about your ability so that I can explain everything to the both of you now,” Bantay replied.
“This…” Jim hesitated, not wanting his mother to learn about his ability for now. He knew that his ability to use blood was out of the ordinary and his mother would doubt and worry about how he got such power.
She might suspect that he was practicing some kind of demonic arts.
In the end, he warned Bantay to not mention to his mother anything about what happened before. He asked it to only tell everything to him through telepathy.
“Got it!” Bantay noted as he continued, “It’s like this…”
Bantay then immediately recounted what happened before. Starting from their fight to when Jim fought the Tree-Merger Apes to how he was beaten up to death and lost his consciousness then how he managed to survive and kill his subordinates and absorb every life around him up to how the gorilla became his tamed beast and gained great strengths.
Of course, some of the information he gave to his master, especially the fight between his master and his subordinates was given to him by his subordinates. When his minions came back to life, they all caused a commotion with each other from what they just experienced and informed him as well.
Of course, he mentioned as well about the entity or rather, the blue light that was possessing Jim after he passed out. And it was the reason why he became his tamed beast.
Learning all those things, Jim didn’t know whether he should really cry. He didn’t expect that the blue light was actually with him from the very start of their fight, ready to help him at any moment in case of necessity.
It was just that it always hid itself inside of him. The last time he saw the blue light was in his dream, explaining to him everything, warning him about the war, meeting with the other X-ranks, and giving him the egg. Then after that, the blue light didn’t appear anymore.
If he knew that the blue light was with him from the very beginning of their fight, he shouldn’t have worried when he got cornered by the Tree-Merger Apes. He even said all his last words in his heart knowing that he was about to die.
How frustrating!
But the most frustrating part was that he even lost control over himself and was only allowed to watch his own sufferings!
After Bantay finished recounting all the matters to clear the doubts of his master, an egg surfaced on his palm.
“Oh right master, do you know what is this? The blue light wanted me to deliver this egg to you.” Bantay recalled the first mission that the entity possessing Jim had entrusted to him. Knowing that it was of the utmost importance, he didn’t hesitate to give it to him.
Seeing the egg, Jim was shocked in disbelief, thinking that this egg was just a dream. But nevertheless, he accepted it and the moment he touched it, just like before, it shone a little showing its intimacy to him.
Meanwhile, Charley who was watching from the side had found her eyebrows twitching seeing those two talked with each other through telepathy and even ignored her existence as if she was just a wind.
If not for the fact that she was curious about how Jim tamed the beast in front of her, she might already smack Jim to the ground for ignoring her the moment he woke up.
I still yet to give you a good beating for not obeying my command to not go to the forest and here you are, trying to ignore me!
Are you really that confident that you won’t suffer at all from my beatings?
Just as she was about to lose her temper and was ready to beat Jim up, an egg surfaced on the palm of the tamed beast of her son. Her eyes widened in shock and her hands couldn’t stop trembling in astonishment.
Even the guard who was sitting on the ground quietly and was completely nonchalant from the very start had found his hand shaking in disbelief.
Shortly after the beast passed the egg to Jim, Charley couldn’t suppress herself any longer and asked Jim grimly, “That egg, where did you get it and how?!”