As I wore an annoyed expression, we moved into the open. And there the warrior group was, standing in our way, lining up as if to block our path. Their leader was standing in the middle, casually laying his sword on his shoulder. I noticed the blade of his sword was faintly glittering. His blade was the same as ours. He grinned as he scrutinized us.

  “So… where do you guys think you’re going?” the leader asked.

  I patted Hartwin’s back, he was the most reliable in speaking with people. Taneva would just go straight to provoking them. Velar would do fine a bit, but he lacked that eloquence. Hartwin was the one I trusted the most when talking to people, basically. Hoping he’d get us out of here safely. But the possibility of that was extremely low.

  These people didn’t look like the peaceful bunch. I know the look of bad guys when I see one.

  After the pat, Hartwin slowly stepped forward with a friendly smile. “Greetings! We were just passing by when we encountered you fighting that mighty beast!”

  “Are you now?” He puckered his lips. “You’re armed, and ready to fight from the looks of it.”

  Hartwin wryly smiled. “Well, this place is filled with monsters. You’d never know when one would pop up.”

  “Huh. Of course. There is a lot of prey here.”

  “Prey? I see, you must hunt monsters frequently.”

  “Heh! Of course!” He grinned and lifted his chest high, proud of it. “Nothing is more satisfying than defeating beasts thinking they’re superior.”

  Hartwin lightly clapped. “Amazing. You must be quite mighty yourself to be able to beat such a magnificent monster over there.”

  “Of course, that thing is nothing to stress over.”

  “We are quite thankful for that. If not for you, we might have needed to fight off that beast.” He pointed his hands towards the dead giant monster. “And I assure you, it would be incredibly difficult for us.”

  Not really. We could have taken that thing pretty easily if we took it seriously. No need to tie it down or some other shit. But this was just Hartwin trying to feed their ego.

  “Really? Guess so, you’re too few.”

  “Hehehe.”

  “Where are you guys heading, anyway?”

  “Well, to the capital city.”

  “Ah, to Hokugo city, huh? Pretty long way to go still.”

  “Indeed. So if you would please let us just pass? We’d be grateful.”

  “Oi, don’t you know about us?!” one henchman shouted out of the blue in a hostile tone. “You think you can just go ahead without paying proper respect?!”

  Damn, what did he mean by proper respect?

  “I’m afraid we are not locals of this island. So we do not understand what you mean.” Hartwin awkwardly chuckled.

  “We’re the Ironspire clan! We’ve hunted countless deadly beasts! We’re among the strongest clan out there! All led by our Lord Kugo!” He dramatically held out his hand towards their leader.

  “I-I see. And you want us to pay proper respects…?”

  “Yes,” said the leader. “As you said, we saved your lives by killing this beast. I expect payment for our efforts.”

  Shit. This guy is more egotistical than I thought.

  What a prick, too. They were just hunting for sports, and now they demand payment? Ridiculous. Fucking extortion, I say!

  “That… will be difficult.”

  “Difficult you say.” His eyes then scanned towards us. “There are other ways to pay.” He chuckled viciously. “Pretty fine girls you have there. Wouldn’t mind having some time with them.”

  “Kekeke. That little girl is kinda cute too, boss!” He pointed his sword towards Nira. “She’d be fun.”

  “Will be a bit of a challenge with the small size, but I’m sure I can manage.” Their leader lowered his sword with a grin.

  Nira, on the other hand, just tilted her head, clueless. She was still too innocent for that kind of talk, despite having witnessed some fucked up shit right in front of her.

  At any rate, this is going nowhere.

  Hearing their words, I could sense my crew was getting pissed off. I mean, even Nira’s previous captor never attempted to touch her like that — except for the tortures, which was all that Nira mentioned.

  “Other one’s covered, but a pussy is a pussy!” Their leader raised and pointed his sword towards us. “Hand over your girls, and we can settle this peacefully.”

  I let out a sigh. No other way to go about this. Still, we couldn’t pretty well take these people lightly. Unlike monsters, people actually think and could have teamwork. But, not like I was not used to that. I looked around until my eyes landed on the couple of guys still standing at the edge of the small cliff.

  “Enough of this,” I whispered. “I’ll shoot the guys at the cliff. The rest of you… kill them all.”

  I gathered magic into my hand, and swiftly, before anyone could realize it, I thrust my hand towards the pair at the cliff. A bolt of fire shot out from my palm, piercing through the air, leaving a trail of wind and fire in its wake. A giant explosion of scorching flame burst out as it crashed against the rock. The two didn’t even have a chance to evade, nor scream. They were burned to smithereens in an instant.

  Still, that firebolt was bigger and stronger than I intended. The bolt was so powerful that it melted the edge of the cliff. My mana output had changed. As much as I liked becoming powerful, I didn’t think this was a good thing at the moment. The more power I grew, the more my body may struggle.

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  “What the?!” Their leader was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect that, huh?

  Immediately, my crew engaged the enemy.

  Hartwin headed straight for a lone opponent. He should be able to handle one opponent.

  Taneva advanced towards an enemy while grinning, pulling out a jade spear from thin air. He swung down his spear, and his opponent frantically held out his sword to block it.

  “W-Where did that come from?!”

  Taneva chuckled in a sinister tone. “This is your unlucky day. Shouldn’t have provoked us.”

  “You think you scare me?!”

  “You should.” Taneva drew back his spear and swiftly thrust it directly into his opponent’s sword, breaking it into pieces.

  “W-What?!”

  And Taneva pushed his spear into the man’s throat, the latter’s expression froze as he grasped the spear before he completely perished.

  Meanwhile, Nira was facing quite a creepy guy.

  “Kekekeke. Seriously gonna fight me, little girl? Better get out of the way before I do something…” He smirked, looking down at Nira with a strange stare.

  “I will kill you today.”

  “Hah? What a joke. Don’t worry, little girl, I won't hurt you much.”

  Before he could move, Nira turned into a fog halfway and charged towards her opponent. She swung down her morphed hand, but the man blocked her claws with his sword. He stared at her hands with narrowed eyes.

  “What is this? You’re not human?” He grinned. “Hahahaha! Now I can't wait to slice you apart!”

  They exchanged attacks. However, Nira’s opponent was just more skilled in battle. He stepped back and swung in the air, sending multiple magical slashes. Nira pressed on while evading those attacks, but a couple hit her. Blood spurted out of her body. She couldn’t keep up. Thankfully, wounds were not an issue to her at all.

  She kept her distance and observed her enemy. A moment later, after making up her mind, she charged towards him again.

  “Hahaha! Useless!” He sent multiple slashes at her.

  But this time, Nira was prepared. She kept on moving forward, evading all three slashes. She must have remembered the pattern of attacks from her first encounter.

  “Brat!” When she got close, the man frantically swung another magical slash.

  Nira intercepted it with her claw. It damaged her hand, but it still prevented the attack from hitting her body directly. She swung her claws down, and the man raised his sword to block. Sparks flew as her claws met the blade. Immediately, she used her other claw to pierce the man’s forearm — with the light armor on it, she had to be more forceful.

  “Agh!”

  The arm was the nearest, reaching out for the body could lead the enemy to leaping back. And injuring the arm would surely impact the man’s fighting potency. With the man bleeding from the arm, he quickly stepped back. As Nira stepped forward to attack, the man held out his hand and conjured a barrier, blocking the claws.

  Nira instantly turned into a fog and swiftly flew above the man. Before he could respond, a clawed hand emerged from the fog and grasped his head, the claws digging into his skin. Nira turned human as she pushed the man down onto the ground.

  “Damn you!” The man held out his sword and stabbed it into the little girl laying on top of him.

  The blade pierced through Nira’s chest from the back. However, such a thing was completely tolerable for her. She opened her mouth, her teeth turning into a monster’s, and she bit into his neck. Blood started spurting out, splashing to the ground.

  “W-What are you! Get off me!”

  She clenched her jaw and slowly bit more of his neck while drinking in the blood.

  Velar, meanwhile, was fighting the enemy leader. Their greatswords clashed, bursting with magic.

  “Oh? You guys have expensive weapons, impressive.”

  Velar remained silent and continued his attacks.

  “Not the talkative type, eh? How boring.” He took a step back while swinging his sword upwards, shooting a magical slash.

  Velar adeptly used his blade to block the slash. However, at the same time, the clan leader stepped forward to thrust his greatsword. My knight conjured a barrier to block it.

  “Oh? You’re good. Say, what about you just join me, eh? Leave these guys behind.”

  Velar frowned. “No.”

  “I can give you riches, women!”

  “No.” Velar swung his sword wide, unleashing a wide and powerful wave of magic.

  The clan leader cast a barrier, and he gritted his teeth as both magic clashed, blowing off air and dust. It took a moment before the magical slash dissipated.

  The clan leader groaned in irritation. “What a shame.”

  As all of that happened, I pulled out a medium dagger in each hand. I should take care of the rest and prevent others from intervening. Especially those two that were moving to help their boss.

  Pouring physical enhancement in my body, I launched myself forward, directly towards an enemy. Frantically responding upon my sudden arrival, he held out his sword to block my dagger. At the same time, I slashed his bottom wrist between the gaps of his armor. Hitting a vein, a good amount of blood started gushing out.

  Another one attempted to attack me from the flank, and I evaded his spear. Amidst my momentum, I threw a dagger and hit his arm close to the shoulder. I triggered my magic, and magical slashes exploded around it.

  “Aaagh!” he screamed in pain as his arm fell to the ground.

  These people were easier to deal with than monsters. The other enemy I faced charged at me, holding his sword with one hand, and sent multiple slashes, but I dodged all of them before swiftly coming up to him. I thrust my dagger, and he conjured a barrier, blocking my attack.

  The both of us glared at each other. I pushed my blade further in, imbuing it with mana. His barrier started to crack, and his eyes widened in surprise. He quickly backed away, but I stomped my feet, and ice crawled from beneath me towards the man, rising and wrapping around his feet.

  He tried shifting his legs, but he couldn’t. “Dammit!”

  I attacked, he blocked with his weapon. But where would he go? And block me with one hand? Nah, his resistance was futile. I swiftly used my other dagger and slashed at his neck. He started choking, holding a hand on his bleeding neck.

  I stared at him.

  Don’t be brutal. Don’t be brutal. No need to be brutal. With a blade, I shall kill with swift and grace.

  I took a deep breath. Indeed, I shouldn’t lose myself again.

  This one was going to die, so I headed straight to the other one that had one arm remaining. He groaned in pain as he forced himself to stand up.

  “D-Don’t t-think I’m done j-just yet!”

  He attacked me a few times, but I blocked and dodged them before I had him within my reach. I thrust my blade into his throat. He froze in place before I pulled my blade and watched him drop to the ground. It was then I noticed the one I slashed in the neck was still sitting upward.

  Ah, I forgot, people in this world are harder to kill with just that sometimes.

  I threw my stringed dagger and pierced his heart. Afterward, I drew it back by the string. Looking around, I realized that Taneva had already killed the rest. All that remained was the leader.

  The enemy leader stepped back, looking around and realizing that his allies were all dead.

  “What the hell are you people? Those were my finest fighters.”

  Hartwin chuckled. “You guys are plenty strong, but you’re just unlucky.”

  “Unlucky?”

  “We’re not just a group of normal travelers, you know.”

  The clan leader gritted his teeth and held his sword tightly. “Fuck. I’ll remember you.”

  We were about to kill him, but then it came…

  “Tik, tik, tik…”

  I paused in place, as did everyone. That sound… was strange.

  “Tik, tik, tik.”

  I looked around, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I could hear that sound in both ears, and the distance, it was hard to say. It seemed both far and close at the same time.

  “Tik, tik, tik.”

  But I recalled something I heard from one of the warriors of this land.

  “W-What the fuck?” our enemy muttered.

  I turned towards the clan leader only to see him lowering his sword, his brow was beaded with sweat, more than before. And his eyes were shaking as he looked around with a terrified expression.

  “W-What the hell is it doing here?” he muttered with a shaking breath.

  “Tik, tik, tik.”

  I gripped my daggers and glanced at Velar. He seemed to recall the same thing. I was about to check the perimeter when suddenly, Taneva shouted in a panicked voice.

  “ESTELIA!”

  I sensed something coming at me, and I attempted to dodge. But, I was a bit too late. I glanced at the wound forming on my upper right chest. There were gray fingers digging into it. I was in disbelief.

  I’m hit…?

  Me?