Surrounded by Five Beast Lords novel Chapter 65

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Chapter 65 Swift Taunts

Dora set down her knife and fork and rapped her knuckles against the table, her expression turning serious. “All right, enough fun. Let’s talk business

“Today’s a face-off match, which means the rules are more flexible and we’re more likely to run straight into other teams.

“We need to fight together, cover for each other’s weaknesses, and play to our strengths, so let’s take a minute right now to figure out our game plan for today.”

A smile of quiet confidence curved across her lips.

The hotel lobby was already buzzing with noise that morning as teams gathered one after another, preparing to head to the competition grounds.

The air was thick with that particular brand of tension and restlessness that always seemed to settle in just before a fight. The moment Dora and her group came down the stairs, they found themselves face to face with Cassian’s team, who had just stepped out of the elevator on the opposite side of the lobby.

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The scar on Cassian’s face was still clearly visible under the hotel’s bright lights.

He had changed into a brand new fire-red combat suit, clearly hoping to reclaim some of the swagger he had lost the day before.

But when he saw how energized and steady Dora and her people looked, a flash of barely concealed envy and unease flickered across his eyes.

‘How could they be in such good shape?’ he wondered bitterly. ‘Had they all leveled up?

‘No, that’s impossible. Our team is ranked first, and we have only received a handful of crystal cores. We had absorbed them yesterday, and not a single person on my team had advanced a level. There’s no way Dora’s group has made any progress.’

What really stoked his anger, though, was the man beside Dora, whose presence now felt even more unfathomably powerful.

His brother looked annoyingly radiant, and even that cat, which had grown noticeably larger and was now watching everything with an unmistakable look of haughty disdain.

“Oh, would you look at that,” Cassian announced, pitching his voice loud enough to carry across the lobby and draw every ear in the vicinity.

“If it isn’t Dora, the foster daughter I threw out, the one the Southwell family kicked to the curb.

“And there’s my pathetic excuse for a brother, the little white dog. What, you think throwing on some halfway decent battle gear makes you look strong?

“Here’s a news flash. Put a suit on a mutt, and he’s still not a prince. Trash is trash.”

ig on with their own

In the old days, his childhood friends and teammates would have been right there backing him up. piling nasty little jabs.

Today, however, not a single person behind Cassian made a sound.

Their silence only made his blood boil hotter, but the words had already left his mouth, so he had no choice but to barred ahead.

Around them, the other teams and even the hotel staff slowed down just a beat too long and tilted their heads just a bit too obviously, settling in for the show.

Dora had every intention of ignoring him and simply walking past with her people, but Cassian kept running his mouth, and the moment the word “trash” left his lips, aimed straight at Elmer, all the warmth drained from her eyes.

her heel, and faced him directly. There was no anger on her expression, only the faintest most

ing at the corner of her mouth.

perfectly clear and steady but carrying a bite that sliced right through the noise of the lobby.

yapping like a stray dog, why don’t you go find a mirror and take a long, hard look at yourself? forgot. You probably can’t stand to look at yourself anymore, can you?”

scar on his face and lingered there just long enough to make him squirm.

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Chapter 65 Swift Teunts

“That scaf of yours looks pretty fresh. Did you get it as a little souvenir? Something to remind you to conserve your strength when the moment really counts?”

Somewhere in the crowd, someone let out a laugh they clearly hadn’t meant to, then clamped a hand over their mouth a second too late.

Cassian’s face turned a deep, mottled red, the scar across his cheek twisting grotesquely. “You!”

But Dora had no intention of letting him get a word in. Her voice stayed cool and measured, yet every syllable landed like a well-aimed dart.

“You’re a peacock, a cheap phoenix knock-off at best. What, you’ve cosplayed as a real phoenix for so long you actually started believing your own act?”

She jabbed a thumb at her own chest. “My beast mates? Every single one of them is top-tier.”

Right on cue, Clive, Elmer, and Lioren each stepped forward in perfect unison, pòsitioning themselves around Dora like a living shield.

The sheer force of their presence was impossible to ignore, and with Clive and Elmer’s striking looks drawing appreciative murmurs from the crowd, they made an undeniable statement.

“As if I’d lose any sleep over a scar-faced peacock calling off an engagement

She let her gaze drift across Cassian’s visibly deflated team, noting how they all seemed to shrink under her glance. That first place’ you barely scraped together yesterday looked like it cost you, didn’t it?”

Her eyes lingered on each of his teammates as they conspicuously looked away, and she raised her voice just enough to carry through the lobby.

“Oh, and I heard the Shawn family dropped a small fortune on a healing-type supernatural ability user to patch everyone up afterward. Really going all out with the spending, aren’t we?

She let the implication settle for a beat before adding, with deliberate nonchalance, “Funny, we didn’t need that.

“If your family’s throwing that kind of money around, just imagine the look on your faces if we take first place today instead of you. You’d be absolutely livid, wouldn’t you?

“Actually, no. You’d still be winning either way.

“I almost forgot. Elmer is still technically a Shawn, isn’t he?”

She pressed a hand to her mouth in mock surprise. “Oh, silly me. Your family disowned Elmer, didn’t you?

“So if our team takes first place, well, that wouldn’t have anything to do with you at all, would it?”

Cassian was shaking with rage, his finger stabbing the air in Dora’s direction. “Dora, don’t push your luck!”

“Me? Pushing my luck?” Dora cut him off, her gaze turning razor-sharp in an instant. She stepped forward, and even though she stood shorter than Cassian, the weight of her presence made him seem to shrink.

“Let me give you some advice, Cassian. Keep your mouth in check.

“My teammates? They’re the kind of people you trust to watch your back. The kind who would never throw you under the

bus.

“Unlike you, the one who shoves his own people into the line of fire the moment things get ugly.

“By the way, that little package your mom rushed over in the middle of the night? I’m starting to think it wasn’t combat gear she sent. I think it was a new face, because clearly, you needed a thicker one.

“With skin that thick, I doubt even an alien beast could take a bite out of you.”

The words came out fast and clean, a relentless string of mockery that cut Cassian down without a single vulgar syllable yet managed to tear apart everything from his fighting ability to his character to his basic human decency.

When she finally stopped, Cassian’s face had turned an ugly shade, his chest heaving as his pointed finger trembled uncontrollably, but he couldn’t force a single word of response past his lips.

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