"Oh?"
Jaguar Man, who had been about to deliver the decisive blow to Anna, suddenly twitched both ears and, once again defying gravity, halted her attack.
However, it was already too late to stop now.
A flash of light tore through the air with a sharp whoosh and struck Jaguar Man squarely with pinpoint accuracy.
Bang!
With an explosive sound, Jaguar Man was blasted away by the flash, crashing into the ground nearby and kicking up a cloud of dust and a shower of rubble.
"This is…"
Lying on the ground, Anna froze for a moment before instinctively turning toward the source of the flash.
There, a figure had appeared at some point, riding aboard the Maanna.
"Barely made it in time?"
Still holding her shooting stance, Ishtar extended her hand, her face showing a relieved expression.
At the same time, several other figures swept in from the direction of the South Gate, landing beside Anna.
"Are you alright, Miss Anna?"
Mash, holding the Round Table Shield, quickly helped Anna up.
"Seems like quite a troublesome enemy."
Ryougi Shiki gave a brief glance in their direction, dagger in hand, eyes fixed ahead.
"You…"
Anna finally came back to her senses, seeming to realize something. She relaxed her expression slightly and looked toward Merlin.
"Are you alright?"
The black-haired youth in the jet-black coat helped Merlin, who was kneeling on one knee, and asked.
"I'm fine, thanks to you all arriving in time."
Merlin also let out a sigh of relief.
Rozen and the others had arrived just in time to save Anna.
Boom!
At that moment, the dust cloud in front of them suddenly dispersed with a deafening roar.
Jaguar Man leapt out from within, appearing before everyone's eyes.
"Looks like the number of live sacrifices just went up! More prey too! But wasn't that attack a bit too harsh? Meow, you've singed this beautiful fur all over!"
Jaguar Man hopped in place, shouting angrily like a child throwing a tantrum.
Seeing this, Rozen's group couldn't help but be taken aback.
"A tiger?"
Ryougi Shiki raised her brows.
"It's a tiger, right?"
Mash also looked stunned.
"It's a tiger."
Ishtar blinked as she spoke.
"A tiger Servant?"
Even Rozen's eyes widened slightly.
If they were reacting like this, then needless to say, Chaldea's staff were even more flustered.
"It's a tiger, right?"
"Is it a tiger?"
"It's a tiger!"
Olga Marie, Da Vinci, and Roman all blurted out at once.
"I'm not a tiger! I'm Jaguar Man!"
The self-proclaimed Jaguar Man immediately became furious.
Sensing the divine aura radiating from her, Rozen's eyes glinted.
At this time, Anna and Merlin finally spoke.
"Be careful—don't be fooled by her appearance."
Anna quickly warned.
"Despite how she looks, she's a genuine, orthodox deity."
Merlin hurriedly added a caution.
"A deity?"
Mash, Ryougi Shiki, and even the goddess Ishtar herself voiced their skepticism.
Only Rozen kept his gaze fixed on her.
"The South American Jaguar God… is it?"
Rozen murmured this, his eyes changing as he looked at the self-proclaimed Jaguar Man.
Her origin was already clear to him.
It was said that among the ancient gods of Central and South America, there was such a deity.
In those lands, the jaguar symbolized "battle" and "death."
Thus, the Jaguar God was revered throughout various eras of South American civilization, often manifesting in the mortal world as a supernatural guardian spirit.
When possessing a human, such a person would gain supernatural strength and become one of the most feral of warriors.
Although in the divine hierarchy she was considered a lower-ranking god with no particularly notable authorities, her divinity and ferocity were not low at all. If placed among Heroic Spirits, she would easily rank as a top-tier Servant.
This Servant before them, who called herself Jaguar Man, was without a doubt the ancient Jaguar God of Central and South America.
However…
"Never thought you'd become a Servant under Quetzalcoatl. Aren't you afraid of angering your own chief god?"
Rozen said this outright.
And he had reason to.
In Aztec mythology, there were two supreme gods: one wholly good, one wholly evil.
These two beings, representing the pinnacle of good and evil, were in constant conflict, shaping the course of the myths.
The god of good was Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the embodiment of the Morning Star, also known in Mayan tradition as Kukulkan, bearer of many benevolent legends—none other than Quetzalcoatl herself.
The god of evil was Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of darkness, also called Disquetlipoca, a war-loving and bloodthirsty deity.
Jaguar Man belonged to Tezcatlipoca's faction and delighted in devouring the hearts of live sacrifices.
Yet here she was now, working with Quetzalcoatl, her chief god's mortal enemy. No wonder Rozen found it strange.
But upon hearing Rozen bring this up, Jaguar Man drooped her head, her eyes brimming with tears.
"I didn't want this either! It was my one miraculous summoning! Meow was so excited to finally be officially employed! I just wanted a place that could guarantee three meals a day with good benefits!"
Jaguar Man wailed, her eyes wet.
"But after manifesting in this era, forget having a Master or an employer—Meow ended up as a stray jaguar on the streets! Every day I could only gnaw on tree sap, hunt beasts, and play hide-and-seek with humans! My fur's losing its shine, my fangs and claws are only good for digging dirt now! I may not be a goddess, but I am a proper deity—why's the treatment so bad?"
When she got to the painful part, she even wiped away her tears.
"With no other choice, poor Jaguar Man could only stick with Kukul and try to scrounge some leftovers. But Kukul doesn't let me eat live sacrifices! Isn't that just heartbreaking?!"
In other words, after manifesting in the world with nowhere else to go, she had no choice but to follow Quetzalcoatl and work for her.
Her chaotic rambling might fool someone slow-witted into thinking nothing of it.
But one thing was clear.
"In short… she's a strong opponent you can't judge by appearances, right?"
Ryougi Shiki summed it up in one line.
"That's exactly it," Merlin confirmed.
"In that case, this'll be easy." Shiki reversed her grip on her dagger and asked, "Shall I attack, Master?"
At her words, Rozen glanced at the battered Anna without hesitation.
"Do it, Shiki."
The corners of Shiki's mouth curled upward.
In her eyes, the ice-blue Mystic Eyes revealed a spiral of colors.
The next instant, Shiki kicked off the ground and darted toward Jaguar Man.
"Uwoah!"
Jaguar Man let out a strange cry and hurriedly raised her club to counter.