Chapter 407: Iori Yagami, Hates Violence
For the blood collection of these specific targets, Cheng did not necessarily have to act personally. As long as the conditions were suitable, the help of the Cat Kingdom, which originally required activation in the Type-Moon world, could also be implemented here in advance.
Nero Cat was purely in a situation of being indebted, and he also had a certain appreciation for Cheng Tian, so he directly undertook Cheng Tian's extra small task—
—namely, to attack Iori Yagami, who was wandering near the arena, and obtain his blood.
Actually, Iori Yagami was originally an officially invited seeded player, but at the end of the last King of Fighters '96, Iori Yagami, whose Orochi bloodline had run wild, directly killed his two teammates, Mai Shiranui and Vice, two of the Eight Orochi Generals. He was therefore deemed a dangerous individual and directly removed from the seeded team invitation.
However, there's a rather counter-intuitive aspect: in the game, he often gives a strong impression of "violence" and, due to the appearance of "Riot of the Blood" Iori Yagami, a mid-boss and selectable character in The King of Fighters '97, he is perceived by most players as a battle-loving madman. But contrary to this perception... Iori Yagami utterly detests violence.
With both parents alive, a younger sister, living alone, making music, and feeding stray cats, if it weren't for the Yata bloodline and Orochi blood within him, he would likely have maintained the image of a literary youth until the very end.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans.
The physiological instincts passed down through his bloodline made it impossible for him to resist the siphon effect brought about by the concentration of Orochi bloodline holders.
On the other hand, Iori Yagami still couldn't abandon his obsession with having a decisive battle against Kyo Kusanagi.
However, he wasn't particularly fond of the preliminary rounds organized by the host, and even if he were to fight, it had to be against Kyo Kusanagi in his prime; otherwise, it would be meaningless.
At the same time, Iori Yagami was also a person who hated trouble, so he chose to snatch the invitation letter three hours before the countdown ended, planning to defeat Kyo Kusanagi in public during the main competition... As for the time before that, he merely intended to listen to music, practice bass, and pass the time.
However, not long ago, he saw that among the sixteen seeded teams, the original American team had its invitation letter directly snatched by a preliminary team, and this team was none other than the "Hell Band," with whom he had many ideological conflicts in the field of music creation!
Watching them through the TV screen, Iori Yagami instinctively felt something awkward, but he dismissed it as mere professional rivalry and didn't think too deeply about it. However, their appearance did pique Iori Yagami's curiosity, so he left the underground bar where he practiced instruments, wanting to see these colleagues with his own eyes.
And then he was caught red-handed by Nero Cat, who had released a large number of "Poison-Winged Wasps" to search the entire area.
As for Princess Cat, who chose to directly attack Kyo Kusanagi, she was purely attracted by Cheng Tian's "Three Sacred Treasures" description, which was at the "Amway" level. Especially the phrase "no one has ever seen the true form of the Three Sacred Treasures" precisely hit Princess Cat's soft spot, so she went.
Of course, since their objectives were not the same, Princess Cat obviously would not collect blood for Cheng Tian, so this task fell into Irene's hands.
The invitation letter has now been returned to Cheng Tian, which means the pressure of being robbed is entirely on Cheng Tian. Others can act freely with peace of mind.
And Cheng Tian, who was originally supposed to be the weakest link in the fighting team, successfully intimidated many people after demonstrating his Stand World and summonable vehicle smashing abilities. Coupled with the existence of this inscrutable laboratory, many players also became wary and dared not act rashly.
This, in turn, gave Cheng Tian a long period of free time, so much so that his live broadcast channel had already started temporarily airing cartoons... The three channels with the highest official viewership ratings were—
The "Female Fighters Team Channel," which simultaneously gathered the Fatal Fury Team, the Art of Fighting Team, and the Female Fighters Team, with fragments of preliminary contestants' and female fighters' clothing flying everywhere, causing extreme chaos in the scene.
The "Psycho Soldier Team Channel," where enraged fans violently attacked the preliminary team, who, unwilling to show weakness, directly retaliated, and the world's number one idol was trying to appease the fans regarding the incident.
And the "Neon Team Channel," which, as the reigning champion from the previous year, also featured a funny cat that had previously attracted everyone's attention.
This led to more and more teams seeking traffic choosing to head towards the locations of popular channels.
This caused the sudden clash of purple flames and black sludge in the alley, which no one noticed for a time.
Iori Yagami's strength was indeed top-tier among the King of Fighters martial artists of this era, but his combat experience was more derived from fighting against people. When facing Nero Cat, whose fighting style was almost like that of a summoner, he inevitably fell into a passive state.
"Hiss~~~"
The pain in the back of his neck made Iori instinctively gasp for air, and the purple flames in his palm struck back—
Hundred Shiki Oniyaki!
Purple flames traced a spiraling upward arc around his body, instantly burning several giant Poison-Winged Wasps, each the size of an adult's forearm.
But this was not the Poison-Winged Wasp that had already taken advantage of the chaos to suck a large amount of Iori's blood. The abdomen of this giant mosquito, which had completed the sufficient blood intake and storage, was bulging and showed a strange purplish-red color.
But even though the task was completed, Nero Cat said "Oh?" with a surprised expression on his face.
Because he could feel that the blood stored in the mosquito's abdomen contained a violent power that he currently couldn't easily utilize, and it was continuously emitting high heat, causing continuous burning damage to the mosquito... But this couldn't stump him.
With a thought, more black sludge flowed out from under Nero Cat's feet and quickly merged with the blood-sucking mosquito by climbing walls, jumping in place, and other methods.
As if the molding process of kneading clay was shortened by dozens or hundreds of times, the originally giant blood-sucking mosquito instantly transformed into a black pterodactyl unit, retaining the mosquito's proboscis and blood-storage abdomen.
Nero Cat usually referred to such chimera forms, which integrated different biological traits, as "Fantasy Species."
The Blood-Sucking Pterodactyl spread its wings and flew straight towards the Hammond Research Institute!
This overly explicit blood collection behavior finally aroused Iori Yagami's ferocity and unpleasant memories.
"Meow meow?"
Looking at the high-bright magatama-shaped light on the opponent's chest, Nero Cat suddenly recalled the information about the Three Sacred Treasures that Cheng Tian had popularized to them.
This guy, he seemed to be a rare time-element skill holder, right?
As a purple flame with unusual energy fluctuations erupted in the alley, the Hell Band, Leona of the Ikari Warriors Team, Ryuji Yamazaki hidden somewhere in the area, Kyo Kusanagi in battle, Chizuru Kagura also in battle, Cheng who had just left the vicinity of the laboratory, a young woman dressed as a maid standing silently behind someone, and a host of other beings with special sensory abilities, all almost simultaneously looked towards the direction where the purple flame erupted.