Gaya's instincts told her the beastman in front of her shouldn't be underestimated. Hence, she transformed into her true form which enhances her power by multiple folds.
Any weak-minded person would have been scared to death if they had seen Gaya's true form. She was terrifying with her shining dark purple scales, the two long fangs, the blood-red eyes with pitch-black vertical pupils. Except Jacobe wasn't a weak minded person at all. In his life of hunting criminals and wrongdoers, he dealt with countless terrifying people who were more terrifying than her. Apprehending a criminal didn't completely depend on the cultivation stage. If it did, he wouldn't have been able to catch criminals more powerful than him.
Hunting was an art and he loved to hunt the predators. Hunting a more powerful prey was always more stimulating. Evey hunt required Jacobe to be prepared to the maximum. He was taught not to underestimate the prey because even the weakest prey would become powerful when it was pushed into a corner. He was provided with tools and accessories to hunt even the stronger prey.
In addition to tools and accessories, Jacobe had the knowledge of every strength and weakness of all races including Nagas. For instance, Nagas were extremely dangerous in close combat, they would spray their poison to surround themselves. If the foe was trapped within the poisonous cloud, the foe would rapidly lose strength which would lead to the ultimate death.
"Poison Cloud!" Gaya hissed as the thick jade green poison gas shot out of her mouth. The poisonous cloud surrounded the area within a couple of seconds. However, Jacobe didn't even budge. Gaya noticed a translucent mask on his face which covered his nose and ears completely.
Gaya hissed before slithering aside while carefully watching Jacobe. Her vertical pupils were locked on Jacobe.
Whoosh!
Jacobe suddenly swung the chain in his hand at her. The chain flew towards her making a sharp ear piercing sound. She quickly dodged the chain as the chain hit the tree behind her. The poor tree exploded into countless wooden splinters.
Both of them were stunned. Gaya was surprised by the speed of the chain while Jacobe was surprised by the speed of her reflex.
"Poison Flame" Gaya dashed at him, breathing dark-green flame. The stream of green flame burnt everything it touched to ashes. Jacobe ran as fast as he could from the fire. He wasn't afraid of using the trees to climb and leap to another tree like a monkey.
Gaya's aim was perfect yet Jacobe was able to avoid getting roasted by the flame because of his agility, extreme training, as well as the innate ability he had as a big cat. As a beastman who belonged to the tiger family, he inherited all the abilities of a cat.
The green flame torched every single tree that it touched. Soon, a 5 meter radius forest was burned to ashes. Considering there was no canopy above them, the moonlight lightened up the place as though it was a giant chandelier in the sky.
"(Cough) (cough)" Gaya's green flame finally stopped coming out of her mouth. The next moment, she coughed a couple of times.
Whoosh!
Jacobe immediately swung his chain at Gaya yet again. In a split second, she tilted her head sideways to evade the chain. She was quick enough to avoid the chain but the chain managed to graze her neck. Her purple scales were scorched by the chain. The scorched scales became darkish black losing their purple shine. Moreover, she felt excruciating pain.
Bang!
The chain grew longer in size in the mid-air and hit the tree behind her. Just like before, the tree exploded into countless pieces. As they were battling, Vedora peeked through the satchel to see what was happening outside.
"Look a giant cat" Ayag whispered,
"Shhh" Cain shushed her immediately,
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The two of them continued to battle as the sound of explosions reverberated the forest. Gaya spitballs of poison at Jacobe while he kept swinging his chain. Both of them were at a stalemate.
"Fuck, we have to help her" AYag tried to move but only to be stopped by Cain,
"No, that beastman has no advantage over her yet. If we reveal ourselves, he would capture us and use us as hostages"
Although Cain's words made sense, Ayag couldn't stay still and watch Gaya fight alone. She gritted her teeth, feeling a surge of power building within her.
"Don't do anything stupid Ayag" Cain's voice became cold and serious,
"Ayag, he's right, he always is," Sarba said before quickly turning his gaze towards Cain.
"Do you have any idea to help her?"
"Your poison reserves will soon be empty, Princess" Jacobe exclaimed. He sounded like he was amused. The smugness on his face indicated that he enjoys the thrill of hunting.
"Shit" Gaya cursed. Jacobe saw she finally stopped breathing flames. He jumped down from the tree with a smirk on his face. He could see her breathing heavily as the shininess on her scales dimmed down which meant she only had a little bit of arch energy left in her body.
As he was walking towards Gaya, she slithered backward. Her vertical pupils became round.
"Fuck this, im gonna help her" Ayag tried to jump out. But Cain and Sarba stopped her from moving. She bit Sarba on the neck in anger. Cain quickly head-butted Ayag with enough force to make her let go of Sarba's neck.
"It's over Princess. You put up a good fight, not impressive but meh" Jacobe grinned for the first time since he came. Gaya looked tired. She saw him coming towards her with his chain swinging in his hand,
Rather than throwing the chain at Gaya, he kept walking towards her. Since she was weak and exhausted, he thought he could simply apprehend her without wasting the charge in the chain. After tying a person using the chain, it required one month of charging before it could be used again. Jacobe didn't think it was unnecessary to use the chain on Gaya and wait a month. He could use this month of time to hunt another one, the big one; Lucifer.
As Ayag struggled to jump out of the satchel, Jacobe almost reached Gaya. He stood a few meters away from her with a smirk on his face,
"IGNITIA!" Suddenly Gaya shouted, firing an emerald green lightning bolt at Jacobe.
Bang!
The bolt of lightning was way faster than Jacobe's reflexes. The lightning bolt sent Jacobe flying for several meters before he hit the tree and fell down. His chest armor had a hole in it as he felt excruciating pain. He looked down to see the fur on the palace where the lightning bolt hit and got charcoaled. The smell of burned hair slowly permeated the air.
"Whoa! That's Ghost's spell. When did she learn that?" Sarba was surprised.
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
"IGNITIA!"
On the other side, Gaya kept firing bolts of lightning one after another at Jacobe. Several bolts hit him precisely. If it wasn't for his strong physics and the armor, he would have been dead by now. He kept running chaotically. The shininess on her scales came back. He couldn't help cursing at himself when he saw the shininess on her scales return. Obviously, she used some kind of technique to pretend she was exhausted and fooled him.
"I never wanted to do this, you pushed me!" Jacobe growled while running.
"Shit shit shit" Cain suddenly began to curse. The other two heads were confused, they had no idea what made Cain upset. As far as they could tell, Gaya was kicking Jacobe's butt.
However soon they realized what made Cain upset when they saw Jacobe running towards them. They quickly put their heads back into the satchel.
"Fuck!" Gaya realized what was his plan but it was too late for her to stop him. With a final leap, Jacobe landed near the satchel.
Just as she was about to dash towards him, he grabbed the satchel. Jacobe saw the look in her eyes, she was worried sick. His guess was right. When he was watching her fight the reapers, she kept touching the satchel with one hand. Then they started the battle, she didn't throw away the satchel but gently placed it on the ground.
He noticed how she cared for the satchel. Evidently, he came to the concussion that she has something she cares about within the satchel.
"What do you have in here?" In his hand, the satchel seemed so little. Gaya's heart was pounding against her chest as he grabbed the satchel.
"A pet it seems" Jacobe felt something inside squirm against his hold. He was curious to see what was inside but first, he wanted to apprehend Gaya before opening the satchel. After all, he didn't want another surprise from her.
"Transform and kneel!" Jacobe's thunderous roar echoed through the forest. She hesitated as he started to squeeze the satchel with his big hands.
"No!" Gaya quickly transformed herself back to her human form. She was shivering in anger yet compared to the life of Vedora, her anger seemed worthless.
"Tiger Punch!"
He cast a spell that formed an ethereal fist of a striped tiger behind Gaya. The very next moment, the fist hit her in the back with enough force that stomped her to the ground.
"Ah"
She growled as blood started to drip down from her mouth. He then flicked his wrist. The ethereal fist moved according to the flick of his wrist. It grabbed Gaya before picking her from the ground. Her eyes were blood red in anger, her entire body was shivering. But she controlled herself for the sake of Vedora.
After making her kneel, Jacobe let out an arrogant grin. The chain once again materialized in his hand,
"Game over Snake" As he said, he swung the chain at her. She closed her eyes instinctively. She expected to feel something but nothing happened. The chain never touched her. She opened her eyes to see the chain remain still as though it was stopped by something in the mid-air. She looked up to see a hand holding the chain,
The anger in her eyes immediately disappeared as her eyes began to water up. Her lips curved upwards, finally, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her heart pounded against her chest, this time, it was because of joy,
"Ghost"