Chương 153: Hidden In The Crowd, I Feel My Blood Boiling

It was hard to put into words, but as I activated this time freeze ability, it felt almost as if I had stepped into another dimension. I felt… Floaty. It was though neither I nor anything else had any weight in stopped time. It took me a little while to get used to it–Thankfully, as long as I stayed still, the countdown would not begin, so I was able to adapt to this strange sensation whilst closely analysing the situation around me.

The herd of prey and its two shepherds had logically assumed that since their objective was merely to survive until sunrise, it was best to find a hiding spot inside one of the structures… Although the beings created by the nightmare appeared convincing as real people, they were still fake, and thus, had no reaction to the large group making their way into one of the larger architectures of the desert city.

Currently, at the current moment in stopped time, my soon-to-be victims were gathered around the wide interior of what I assumed to be a city hall of some kind. The lizard-like inhabitants were coming and going without making a sound, walking from point A to point B without stop and without aim–Well, they would be if they weren't frozen in time like the rest.

One mistake my prey had committed was that they had armed themselves, taking weapons from stalls in the city–Once again without rousing any reaction from the people–Or grabbed tools lying around. Usually, it wouldn't be a bad idea at all, but they were unfortunately bringing me weapons by doing so, which would allow me to make full use of my time freeze ability. After carefully thinking my actions through, I made my move.

I swiftly grabbed a dagger one of the fools had fastened around their waist and, without blinking, threw it right at someone else across the room before returning to my previous position with such precision that it made me wonder if I had been a statue in a past life. The dagger froze partway after escaping my grasp, but according to Nara, once time resumed, the momentum would be carried over, and the blade would continue forward–This is exactly what happened.

When the sixth second came to an end, the dagger flew straight into the jugular of an unsuspecting human. Mmh… Maybe I threw it a bit too hard… I had been hoping for the target to bleed out to death in front of everyone's eyes to really build up that pressure and horrify them, but the blade went right through the neck, and the dagger's guard slammed into the target's neck so hard that, instead of blood loss, he was instantly killed via broken neck. He didn't just fall to the ground either.

He was sent rolling a little bit due to the sheer force. It was all so sudden that the rest of the group didn't realise that he had been killed for a few moments. To them, it had just looked like one of them had suddenly stumbled and fallen over like a sack of bricks. The power boost is really incredible! It's hard to believe that I actually had such potential as a human–This was achieved after I held back.

If I had tried, I definitely could have thrown the dagger hard enough to blast part of this guy's body into mist. This was absolutely glorious. Anyway. The two felines were a bit more aware than the rest, so although they were similarly blindsided due to the time stop, they still managed to figure out the direction the dagger had come from. It was fine, I hadn't expected anything less from those two. I had covered my tracks, however.

I hadn't just reached for a dagger that had been directly within reach of my starting position. I had made good use of my now enhanced speed and agility to quickly get to a weapon a distance away from me. This resulted in a very funny scene as the dagger was quickly discovered to have come from a now-empty sheath around the waist of another prey. Alas, the two felines weren't stupid and pretty much instantly realised that the owner of the dagger was way too weak to have actually been the one responsible. …

Fortunately, the other prey were not quite as sharp. They couldn't help but grow suspicious. Even though the trial had stated directly that there was only one entity, they began doubting one another instead of just doubting the one guy the dagger belonged to. A bunch of fools, for certain. So easily affected by fear and mass hysteria. I let myself fade into the background amidst the concerned chattering. I didn't stay put, though.

I noticed that there were pretty big crates and some barrels lying around the wide hall. Some of the nightmare inhabitants would sometimes come and stare at them for a little while before going on about their paths. These containers came in handy…

Whenever I would spot an isolated target, I would quickly stop time, run up to them, break their neck, and stuff them inside a container before running back–Six seconds seemed like too little to do all of this, but it was quite surprising what could be accomplished in so little time when you actually tried to do so. … It certainly helped to be as fast and strong as I was, though–Also, I was impressively dexterous, so I committed no silly mistakes as long as I focused.

In any case, it eventually began to become noticeable when I had killed dozens of people in this way. From an outside perspective, these people had simply popped out of existence. However, with quite a few beastfolks inside the room, when they realised something was amiss, they easily smelled their way to my corpse-stash. It was quite enjoyable how terrified they were when they opened the first box…

And then, terror turned to horror as they opened more and more to find the cadavers I had–Rather brutally–Shoved inside the containers. The barrels in particular gave rise to rather off-putting scenes as the remains tended to be bent and twisted in unnatural manners. I had sort of kicked some of them into place… In my defence, I had been a little bit pressed for time. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

In any case, I had been covering my tracks rather well. One might think that my scent would be all over the victims since I carried them to their current positions, but for some reason, the canines were running in circles trying to track the killer's bodily odour, and none of them had noticed that said smell should be identical to mine.

I am uncertain whether it is because my scent didn't get on the corpses at all due to stopped time–Despite the fact that when I was carrying them, they and I should have been interacting normally–But I didn't pay much heed to it since it was to my advantage. To appear non-suspicious, I had been acting like I had taken an interest in the nightmare denizens. Well, it wasn't really acting since I was trying to figure some things out, but anyway…

I had figured that they could actually reply to stimuli and could become aware of the presence of the prey and me. Though it seemed that they were more likely to respond to me, probably because I was sort of the owner of the place. Regardless, I had managed to convince a hefty number of them to head to a separate location, deeper inside the structure and wait. I was planning on making use of my other ability eventually as well, but I need 'resources' for it.

"Listen, everyone. I am not going to lie to you, but there is a killer amongst us who can kill and move in the blink of an eye without anyone noticing a thing. However, it seems like they much prefer to target lone individuals, so form large groups, stay close to each other, hold hands and lock arms even. This should dissuade the killer from acting" Tilimia was the one to speak while Rarelian looked around the room vigilantly.

I was no fool, I could tell that Tilimia most certainty didn't believe that this would stop anything, but she lied to keep everyone calm, and also because she knew that grouping up would make things more difficult for the killer–Me–As it would prevent me from picking people whose disappearance would go unnoticed, and if they held onto one another… Then I couldn't even move the bodies efficiently. She was hoping that I would reveal myself because of this. What a sly kitty…

As for Rarelian, he wasn't just observing the room, he was observing the people as well–Though he did so very subtly, from one killer to another, it was easy for me to understand his intent. He believed that the killer wasn't just hiding and running in to score a kill. He believed that the killer was truly someone visible inside the great hall. He would be correct, though I had no clue why he would be so certain about this… Did Miss Tigress run one of her divination thingies without me noticing?

She did go out of my line of sight a few times… If so, why did she fail to detect me as the killer? I am right here, and I currently don't have access to the stealth of my 'Plush Form'. Strange, strange, strange… Or maybe not. I had always had a certain… Edge for getting away with murder. The thrill of the hunt was intoxicating. Watching them all scramble in fear. Feeling the tension rise. The way my prey approached me, thinking I was just one of them… It made me feel some type of way…

A way I wouldn't describe aloud. However, armed with powerful abilities and the knightly physique that the future had promised me–I couldn't help but feel another kind of thrill boiling within. I knew very well that I couldn't allow this thrill to take control, at least not unless I had no other choice… For it was the desire for combat that was whispering in my ears. … I dearly wanted to test my strength against those two felines. It was purely an instinctual urge, which was why I kept it suppressed.

Right now, the best course of action was to remain an uncaught killer. Still, it couldn't be overstated how little I would mind if the situation turned into a fight. Are you alright? I have never seen you so excited about fighting before… All is well, Darling. Being in my human form with the proper strength of a knight is just a dream come true, you know? The mere implication that I always had the talent to achieve something like this makes me all giddy like a little girl…

I have the knightly form, but it isn't the same me who once aspired to become a knight. This… This is the first me. The human me. The same one who was once younger and imagined herself as a renowned knightess. If only that damned instructor hadn't pushed me away for a bogus reason… I would have made my parents proud, Nara. I would have been strong enough to… … Forget it, seems like Tilimia is making a divination out in the open. She's trying to bait me to attack, isn't she? Don't you worry, my cuddly tigress.

I will attack, just not in the way that you expect. On top of directing the mindless inhabitants to a room, I had also been paying close attention to my surroundings. Right now, the fading light of the setting sun was gone. The night outside was only illuminated by a soft moonlight, but the inside of this hall? It was lit up by mana crystals. I hadn't paid it much attention, but it was actually quite rare for the trials to form such things.

They usually preferred to use those lightning-based lighting sources and other kinds of machinery instead. In any case, whether it was one or the other did not change much for me here. With one instance of time stop, I silently barricaded the front entrance. With the second instance of time stop, I gathered projectiles, hiding them nearby. With the third instance of time stop, I threw these projectiles, shattering the crystals once time resumed…

Darkness fell within the hall, and people panicked and shouted as I used one last instance of time stop to quietly slip away to the room where the soulless denizens had been gathered. I quickly killed them with precise strikes, and they quickly turned into monsters. The creatures did not seem very keen on taking precise orders. They rushed out of the room directly toward the participants of the trial, as though they innately knew where to find them.

Chaos descended upon the herd as monsters rushed at them before they could make their way to hallways and rooms where crystals still lit up the area. Rarelian and Tilimia seemed to be able to handle themselves even without sight, but I wasn't going after them just yet. The chaos had begun, and I was intent on feeding it, so I made my way outside. I was going to lock them all inside the city hall by surrounding the entire place with monsters.

I should be able to thin them out, and with the disorder, I might just be able to score a lucky strike on one of the main threats to my success. Aah… How unfortunate that I can't keep these abilities for the real world…