Part 2: What is a Were-hyena?

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However, what were the Rabid Hyena Bandits exactly? Were they men turned into beasts or beasts turned into men? The nature of hyena men was not a well understood phenomenon in the Zika world as there were many explanations for their existence. Some would say that hyena men or were-hyenas were hyenas disguising themselves as humans while others said they were human-born. According to what Kia knew, some were-hyenas were capable of transforming at night through special spells, the use of a magic stick, or the sprinkling of ash. However, in other cases the smell of raw human flesh or blood could trigger their transformation.

When Kia saw their transformations, she immediately started thinking about their origins. After all, when it came to battling creatures of the night, a deep understanding of their origins was necessary in order to grasp their weaknesses. Without that, it would be difficult to craft an optimal battle plan due to the many strange powers of such mystical creatures.

So what were hyena men?

“These evil fellows transformed even without any external assistance?” This was the most shocking thing to Kia as cases of such creatures transforming without some type of magical assistance were very rare. In her head, she ran through all the information she knew about hyena men and were-hyenas.

[In the beliefs of the Warana people of Northern Toro, the Bouda was a term used simultaneously for those who had the “Evil Eye” as well as were-hyenas. The Bouda curse was said to be a punishment from god in the earliest days of man. However, with the passage of time, these cursed people managed to harness some of the power of this curse. As a result, they could wield the power of the evil eye to transform into were-hyenas at will. This particular belief about were-hyenas was born as a cautionary tale towards those who disrupted the laws of nature and did not respect the power of god.]

[Isitwalangcengce – this was a creature from across the sea to the southern regions of the Blue Continent west of the Sword Scar Continent (Toro is located in the Sword Scar Continent). This creature had the body of a hyena with a basket attached to its head. This vicious man-eater would stuff its victim whole into its basket-like head then spit them out after eating only the brain.]

However, from what Kia knew, such a creature could not be found on this continent. Not only was it vicious but it could overcome the strongest and bravest of men.

‘If it was something like that, I could only run.’ Kia’s thoughts were in line with the mainstream thought. Only absolute experts would be a match for such an abomination.

Apart from evil creatures transforming into humans, Kia had also heard stories of men transforming into hyena-men through strange rituals and powers. There were many secret societies and cults in this world that the sought to evoke the dirty, nasty, tricky, greedy, and fear-inducing nature of the hyena.

[The Koriko Mask – Secret societies such as the Fisi cult of the Aba people and the Fallen Heaven Geld cult used the Koriko mask in their transformative rituals to “become hyenas.”]

However, while these cults used the helmet mask to become hyenas, the goal was to urge people to avoid the negative traits and habits that humans associated with the creature. Naturally, this counterproductive way of doing things led to a negative reputation for these cults. The average human could barely differentiate between the intended lesson and the hyena-like appearance.

For this reason, Kia deduced that these creatures were less likely to be human sorcerers in hyena skin. The other option between man and beast were actually creatures that existed in the crossroads between human and mythical creatures such as the Kishi.

[Kishi – This was demonic creature with two-faces: a human face at the front and a vicious hyena head at the back of the head.]

‘These guys cannot be Kishi. If they were they would not be so ugly.’ Kia’ thoughts on the topic were not just nonsense. Kishi were known to have an extremely attractive human male's face while the ugly and vicious hyena face was at the back of the head. By maintaining long hair and wearing head gear, the hyena face could be easily hidden. Further, the Kishi used their handsome appearances to charm and attract young women, who they would later devour with their hyena face. In this aspect, they were very similar to the two-faced branch of the Amanani. With the rough pre-transformation appearances of the 4 hyena brothers standing in front of Kia, she would not believe they were Kishi even if her head was bashed. ‘In fact if someone were to be a Kishi, it would be that boy we met earlier. He even has the word in his name as if he was announcing it to the world. Plus that demonic aura…’ (Referring to Almasi Kishirani – Chapter 87 & 88/68 & 69)

In the end Kia could only use the hyena men’s method of transformation to categorize this particular group.

‘The 4 are capable of transforming at will so they should be the more dangerous kind. I should at least expect some type of special secondary ability.’ Although it was just a guess, Kia’s thoughts were right on the money.

Part 3: Hanging Maiden

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The Rabid Hyena Bandits’ ‘jobs’ usually involved kidnapping girls and women for the figure only known as ‘Q’. Not only were these bandits gluttonous man-eaters, they were also lustful creatures. The reason they were hired for this particular job was that even under the normalization formation, transformed beasts like them still had advantages over humans. However, it was usually impossible for evil creatures like this to bypass Milele’s security at the town’s different entrances. It was unknown how they had gotten past the gates.

“Meat human meat, shall you be my dinner little lady?”

“No no no, she is mine, MINE!” Roooar!

‘With their transformation, these fellows seem to have partially lost their minds!’ Kia’s thoughts were interrupted when the little brother, the brown hyena man, made a move.

The moment this creature moved, the ground below his feet exploded from the pressure. With a swipe of its claw, it looked as if Kia’s head would be torn off by the sheer strength and pressure. A shocking shockwave of tearing wind blasted out from the claws and tore apart 5 deep claw marks on the ground behind Kia. However, Kia was uninjured and the only thing that changed was her fighting stance. At some moment, she had pulled out a weapon that seemed like an ordinary metal ball.

“Huh!”

In the next moment a red line formed on the brown hyena, Kipi’s shoulder. Although Kia had dodged his blow, he did not think that he would be injured instead. Not even a second passed before his arm was suddenly blasted off by the pure pressure of his own blood. It had been cut clean off! It was a shocking sight to everyone on the scene.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!” Kipi could not stop his screams as blood continuously jetted out of his shoulder wound like a pressurized water hose.

“Aaah, little brother! How dare you hurt our cute innocent little brother!” Seeing their younger brother’s perilous situation, how could the older siblings tolerate it? They immediately leaped towards Kia with a threatening momentum.

‘Cute? Innocent? Are these guys serious?!’

“Lights off.” With a silent declaration, maybe a command, everything plunged into darkness as all the green lanterns in the park suddenly turned off.

However, with the vision of these mystical creatures, the hyena men could still somewhat see in this world of pitch black darkness. Although they could not understand what tricks the girl was pulling, all they had to do was to destroy the enemy in front of them. There was no use for complex thoughts for instinctual creatures like them. However, this type of thinking almost cost them the life of one of their brothers.

As Blue Moon Kaka was closest to Kia, his attack reached her first. Expectedly, this did nothing as Kia easily jumped over his arm performing a front flip over the charging hyena man. However, she had left him a ‘gift’ that almost took off his head if the 5th man, the bowman, had not interfered. With the pull of his bow, the giant bowman shot a massive javelin-sized arrow at Blue Moon Kaka almost making everyone think he had turned against them. However, the arrow passed slightly by the side of the hyena bandit’s neck and actually managed to strike something that none of the Rabid Hyena Bandits had sensed. It was actually a thin wire, thinner than even a hair’s width.

Kia’s weapon was called the [Hanging Maiden – Smash and Server] and it actually consisted of a heavy metallic ball that weighed over 50 tons attached to an extremely thin wire so thin that it was virtually invisible. This wire was the most lethal part of the weapon as it could slice through almost anything.

Due to the bowman’s interference, Blue Moon Kaka managed to survive a decapitation. Currently, if not for his fur, one could have seen nervous sweat trickling down his hyena face. ‘I almost got beheaded by a little girl!’

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the remaining uninjured hyena men all picked up their weapons. Each of them used gigantic heavy weapons, a heavy war hammer, two giant heavy swords, and a spiked mace. Additionally, each of the weapons was a Silver Grade weapon matching the middle levels of the mortal body forging realm or the Intermediate Warrior stage.