Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 3 - Chapter 20 - The Strongest Human (Patreon)

                                                     Scarlet

After the carriage lands, we all get out and begin walking through the plaza towards a large street. One split in two by a river of blood, with an occasional bridge over it.

When I look around, I find that every last person here is not only female, as I already saw from above, but they’re also Guardians of varying levels. Not to mention varying ages, with some being just between sixteen to eighteen years old, and some being in their twenties.

Although the higher Class Guardians are harder to tell the age of strictly due to their aging being either reverted or slowed, making it impossible to know just how old they are.

Then there’s the one person I can sense looking at us but can’t actually see. Nor can I find them with my mana senses.

Class Vs maybe? Or just higher Class stealth focused Guardians?

Either way, everyone is looking at us. And most of them seem either excited or just a little curious.

What surprises me though is that they seem to be ignoring White.

Wait.

I glance at White before noticing a very faint white glow from her.

Damnit, she’s hiding her presence from them, isn’t she?!

Tar starts laughing in my head from his place in the collar of my jacket. But I ignore him as I focus on Valkyrie, finding her looking at White with a frown, only to shake her head. She then turns to look at the people watching, which is growing in number by the second, and says, “Let us welcome our guest as a member of our family!”

I blink at that before glancing at the people who immediately start cheering.

Family? What?

And then they all begin swarming me.

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I let out a sigh of relief a couple hours later after we get situated in a training hall, all the members of the Garden finally giving me space. Because apparently everyone in the Garden, whether they’re an intern or not, is ‘family’. Something I don’t exactly get but won’t contradict either.

Fortunately they all realized rather quickly that I don’t like physical contact. Right from the first moment one of them touched me and I flinched. They all just seemed to stay at least a foot or two away from me after that point, so I’m thankful for that. But they just kept talking and talking and talking, each and every one of them along with a few I hadn’t noticed before welcoming me rather warmly.

Too warmly for comfort, if I’m being honest.

I’m not used to that.

“They seem like a nice bunch,” Tar says, and I can’t help but agree. Even if their friendliness makes me a touch uncomfortable.

Now is where the exciting part begins though. After the whole meet and greet where they shoved a couple hundred names in one ear and out the other since there’s no way I’m remembering them, we all went straight to the training hall for the duel.

I can’t help but smile as I lean forward in my chair at the side of the hall, watching as White and Valkyrie slowly approach each other. The half itself is rather enormous, with a much more medieval setting to it than anything I’ve ever seen in a city. But it’s also rather plain and in a simple dome shape, with some sort of barrier between us spectators and the fighters.

Oh, and it’s in a magical reality. Not in the real world.

Or rather, it is in the real world, but this is just a copy of that real world one. Because they apparently like to just straight up copy their training hall for duels so that they don’t have to frequently repair the hall when the duels get dangerous for the building.

Looking around the training hall itself at the various people here watching, I find several familiar faces from TV. Seven of which are Class V, showcasing just how powerful this Association is. Since most Associations either don’t have any Class Vs or they only have a couple.

And what’s most surprising about the Garden of Blood, is that aside from Valkyrie, there’s only two other blood magic users in the entire Association. Neither of which are Class V.

So the whole blood motif for the Association is entirely due to the Garden’s appearance and their leader.

My thoughts are interrupted when the Valkyrie finally speaks, her voice echoing throughout the entire magical reality, “Now let us see the true power of one of the Knights of Humanity! And let me prove my power to her in a fight to the death!” Her eyes narrow and she pops her neck. “Do not hold back on me!”

White raises a brow at that, not saying a word despite the obvious aggressiveness of her opponent.

Without any hesitation, the Bloody Valkyrie – like her name would suggest – transforms her entire body into blood, leaving her figure amorphous for a moment before it turns into what looks to be a Valkyrie from old world Norse mythology. A mythology that I find rather interesting.

Even her armor changes slightly to match, not that it wasn’t already similar to a Valkyrie’s armor. Although black and red in color.

Meanwhile White just stands there with her hands in her pockets, seemingly not caring much about the battle. She even yawns once, which very much seems to piss off Valkyrie as she immediately forms a large spear of blood in her left hand along with a sword in her right before suddenly breaking the sound barrier and quite literally vanishing from where she was, only for our sight of the inside of the barrier to suddenly slow down to a pace where we can actually see. Because if it wasn’t, then they’d be moving faster than I’d be able to see at all.

All of the members of the Garden immediately start cheering for their leader, but they all go silent just as quickly when White just yawns again before pulling one of her hands out of her pocket and coating it in a milky white energy and swiping it in front of her, apparently hitting both of the Valkyrie’s weapons and erasing them from existence back to back. The Bloody Valkyrie then continues flying towards White, her eyes widening in shock for a moment only for her to narrow them again and quickly pull her fist back to punch White.

White shakes her head with a slightly disappointed look, following which her eyes flash with a bright white light, illuminating the entire hall and blinding everyone. And by the time the light fades, the Bloody Valkyrie is already gone, briefly respawning in a daze at the starting location of the training hall, opposite White.

No one says anything. No one even makes a sound.

Instead everyone just stares. Stares at the woman clad in a white shirt with a black jacket and black pants, her right hand already returning to her pocket as if that battle wasn’t worth her time.

I feel more than a little fear at that demonstration, but the stronger emotion I feel right now… is respect.

Respect for the strong. For her power.

Along with a driving urge to get that powerful one day myself. Because my pride demands it of me.

I demand it of myself.

White turns and looks at me with a light smile; one that grows a little bit when she sees the awe and determination on my face.

The strongest human in existence.

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