Just a second ago, my brain could only generate thoughts about killing.

But the instant I poured power into my claws, my mind cleared up.

…

Poured…

Oh…

Name: Nina

Level: 15

Strength: 29/32

Endurance: 32/33

Speed: 43/45

Magic: 1/26

Equipment:

Kat underwear

Kat dress

Kat ear headband

Kat gloves

Kat slippers

Enchanted handbag

Skills:

Cat soul+ (On)

9 lives

Special:

Blessing of the Kat

I get it now…

Panther soul…

Does it cloud my mind?

Is it something like a forbidden technique that trades reason for power?

…

I… should refrain from using that.

Unless I get into a pinch.

Luckily for me, it automatically turned off when I ran out of magic.

I don’t want to think what would have happened if I kept going…

Anyway…

I have a situation to deal with right now.

There’s a horde of black wolves staring me down, as well as their master, Cana.

And next to her is the girl who I believed to be my teammate, Ignis.

But from what they said, it’s quite obvious she planned to betray me…

Ugh…

“Let’s run for now…”

Cana grabbed her hand and dragged her over to a wolf to ride on.

But…

“No! Don’t touch me!”

Her hand got slapped away.

Ignis’ expression shows a mixture of anger and fear.

“Wha…?”

Hmm, what is this?

Infighting?

That’s unexpected…

“Wh-what are you talking about?! We need to run away before she-”

“No! I’m done! I’m done with that guy! I won’t return anymore!”

Huh…

‘That guy’ means…

The wannabe harem king, right?

Wait a second…

“Wh- what do you mean?!”

Cana is in full panic mode.

I bet she expected this even less than me.

Hmm…

If I recall correctly, ‘that guy’ can use charm…

And I’m pretty sure that would mean absolute obedience.

So…

What’s happening?

Is she resisting it?

Was it dispelled?

Or am I wrong about the charm?

Ignis glanced at me fearfully before looking back at Cana.

I can’t tell what’s going on in her head.

But, she probably feels cornered.

…

Just a moment ago, I verbally abused the heck out of her…

I don’t think she sees me as an ally anymore.

A stalemate.

Ignis, surrounded by the wolves and confronted by Cana, can’t make any moves.

And Cana still seems taken aback by that rejection.

This is such an awkward situation…

What should I do…?

As we all stood there, staring at each other without saying anything, my ears picked up some sounds behind me.

Not wanting to turn my back to the wolf horde, I perked up my ears and carefully listened.

In a second, I managed to figure out what the sound was.

“Meow!”

It was meowing…

…

What?

Is there a cat around here?

It’s approaching rather quickly…

And there are some deeper growls mixed into it.

What is that…?

…

Well, since it’s meowing, I’m sure it’s not my enemy.

I hope…

Come on, blessing!

Do your thing!

A moment later, the stalemate came to an end.

Something jumped out from behind me and landed about a meter to my right.

All eyes directed their focus at the new visitor.

A cheetah…?

With a black cat strapped to its-

Wait, isn’t that Kuro?!

What’s going on?!

“Meow!”

“Meow.”

After their exchange, the cheetah unrolled its… tail… wrapped around Kuro and its own torso back… and let Kuro free.

He then jumped in front of me and hissed at the wolf army.

“W-what are you doing here?!”

I then glanced at the cheetah with unnaturally long tail.

“And who is that?!”

I didn’t know you had a personal taxi!

“Meeerow!”

Agh!

Where is the cat speech skill when I need it?!

After his confident meow, he turned to the wolf army and jumped straight up.

He swung his paws and something flew out of them.

For a second, I thought he shot out his claws, but that wasn’t the case.

He threw multitude of knives at the wolf horde, hitting everyone in the front line.

Wh-?!

What is this?!

Are you a ninja cat?!

Where were you hiding these knives?!

“T-tapi!”

Panicking at the sudden turn of events, Cana summoned her white double-tailed wolf pup.

“Tapi, Put her to sleep!”

And directed the summoned familiar at Ignis, making her to back away.

“No! Get away!”

The wolf pup waved its tails and released some sparkling dust toward Ignis.

She tried to take another step back, but her path got blocked by one of the black wolves.

As the dust enveloped her, Ignis lost her strength and collapsed.

She’s planning on putting Ignis to sleep and running away with her!

As if I would let that happen!

Kuro jumped up again and shot threw another dagger volley at the horde.

I moved right under him to make him land on my head before charging ahead with him.

Cana just about finished mounting one of her wolves and putting the unconscious Ignis on it when she noticed us.

“Tapi, return! Run, nightmare!”

They sprinted off while the rest of the horde swarmed me.

Grh!

There are too many!

I keep clawing at them, but they just keep coming!

Even with Kuro lending his hand… paw, I can’t get through them!

But I can’t let them escape!

Dammit!

How can she summon so many anyway!

That feels too unreal!

…

Wait a second…

Did she call that black wolf ‘nightmare’?

She mentioned that name back when she healed me.

And I’m pretty sure…

She mentioned something about illusions!

Right!

It feels unreal?

That’s because it isn’t real!

Even if it feels like it, they are all just illusions!

The only real one must be the wolf she is riding!

With this realization, I steeled myself and stopped counter attacking these illusions.

I simply put my arms in front of me and ran through them.

Since I didn’t attempt to dodge anything, I got scratched and bitten all over.

And it hurt…

But I noticed the pain quickly faded.

Much quicker than it would if it was my regeneration fixing me up.

This can work!

Even I realize it’s just some cheap trick, there is nothing to fear!

…

I just need to ignore Kuro’s frantic meowing and clawing into my hair.

Yup, it’s gonna be alright.

No need to worry.

We got through the avalanche of fake black fur in no time.

Back on track.

I can see Cana riding away.

But that sort of speed can hardly match me!

I’ll catch up in a few seconds!

You can’t get awa-

Bam.

A huge sword stabbed itself right in front of the escaping wolf and its rider.

“Gyaaah?!”

The wolf ran right into the blade’s side, crashing into it and throwing its passengers overboard.

When that happened, I could only stop and stare in disbelief.

…

Kuro?

What the heck?

This goes way beyond a simple ‘ninja’!

I can accept hiding small knives in your fur pockets…

But this sword is bigger than even you!

“N-Nightmare! Are you okay?!”

Cana got up.

But Ignis is still out cold.

I hope that fall didn’t break anything for her…

She was already injured enough…

“Whoo-uhoof!”

The black wolf was about to bark when another sword stuck his side.

Wait, no!

That’s the same sword as before!

At some point, it disappeared and then Kuro shot it out again!

What is this?!

Some spiritual sword summon technique?!

…

Cana has quite the despairing expression on her face.

Now, she’s cornered.

Well, let’s start with the questioning.

“So-”

“Fenrir!”

Oh, come on!

Out of a dark mist emerged the dark blue wolf and lunged right at me.

But I’m not someone to fall for the same trick twice.

I put all of my strength into my feet and jumped sideways, narrowly dodging his tackle.

But even as I landed up against a tree, the beast had already prepared for another charge.

I tried to quickly stabilize my footing and dodge again.

However…

Before I could do that, I saw a black ball of fur fall from my head.

Sooner than I got the chance to yell out, I heard an impact.

In front of us, a giant shield appeared and blocked Fenrir’s tackle.

“Wha-”

The shield disappeared right after and a volley of daggers appeared in its stead.

The daggers bounced off of Fenrir’s fur, but the beast still backed up and made sure to avoid daggers aiming for his face.

When he got far enough, the volley stopped and the two animals stared each other down.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed Cana, who has collapsed right next to Ignis.

…

Kuro?!

What the hell?!

What kind of monster are you?!