It was quite the sight that Zena soon laid her eyes upon, one that would no doubt cause nausea or even vomiting to those on the squeamish side. Fire explosions thundered further in the distance, creating momentary bright flashes as they did so, accompanied by shor screams of death and wails of pain, as well as panicked screams all around. And then there were the beastmen, running away with all they had from the aforementioned explosions- their skin and fur half burned from sheer proximity to the explosions even if their lives had not been ultimately consumed just yet. The damage had been done however, for those that got to advance further towards the camp were all wounded to a certain extent, cutting down their ability to fight.

  Immediately, Zena's right hand reached towards her quiver, grabbing hold of one arrow even as her right hand rose up, putting her body in the correct stance for shooting. She took a deep breath as she notched the arrow, drawing back her bowstring and aimed for the closer beastman to her own position, taking into account both his speed and direction. Then, she released the string, launching the arrow through the air with a silent whistle and moments later it burrowed into her chosen targets chest, breaking the momentum of said beastman as it slowed down, his head looking down at own chest, now impaled quite deeply with an arrow. Then, he took a weak step forward, as if his brain was still telling him to run further, only for the body to give out as he collapsed to his knees and then fell face first to the ground, his body unmoving and dead.

  Zena felt a slight surge of pleasure at that, her mind registering the result of her actions. She had killed one of the accursed beastmen raiders. Better still, there were others to shoot and kill. And so, she did not spend too much time basking in the joy she felt just now, reaching for yet another arrow, then drawing her bowstring yet again as she notched the second arrow and aimed for yet another half singed beastman, repeating the previous aiming sequence and then releasing the arrow.

  Yet again she struck true, felling another beastman and yet again feeling another small surge of both adrenaline and joy. Then she reached for the next arrow, repeating the same process, and then the next arrow, and the next, and the next. What did surprise Zena however, was the seeming indifference said beastmen shoved towards her as they ran, apparently deeming her of less importance than just running away, even at the expense of however many of their fellow beastmen she would kill.

  Not that much later, she finally realised why that was the case. Within her line of sight emerged a small group of almost unharmed beastmen, with barely a sign of burns on them, moving with greater speed than the rest as well. Deeming them a real threat, Zena quickly notched another arrow, aimed it and then released it towards the leading beastman of the group, only for the arrow to be blocked by the same beastman's shield, shattering on impact without slowing him down at all. She had drawn their attention however, and was already notching another arrow to send after the last one, only to quickly realize that this particular group changed direction straight towards her.

  Zena could swear she felt a chill run down her spine as she felt several gazes lock onto her position, seemingly filled with more than just bloodlust. No, with her good eyesight, she could swore she saw something more there. A lust for an entirely different sort of release, and that, that had sent a much greater chill down her spine as the mere thought of such an outcome evoked fear in her as well. She had been reaching for another arrow as that all happened, realizing both the latter truth and the fact she would not just die in a fight should she be taken down,. No, her face would be much worse if those beastmen reached her, so she abandoned her previous action to turn and run away, only for another low whistle to cut through the air and the leading beastman with the shield to explode in crimson fire at it consumed everything in his immediate surroundings.

  'Saved again.' the realization quickly settled down in her mind as she stood still, her eyes half glazed for a short moment, only to be forced back by a quiet, but confident voice that seemed to aimed at her and her alone.

  "If you are here, might as well make yourself useful. Keep taking out the stragglers that get past the main battlefield."

  "Yes sir." she recognized the voice from before and instinctively blurted out as though replying to yet another one of her father's old orders when he was training her. She could not help but blush a little at the blunder. It did not, however, interfere with her compliance as her body seemed to act on an instinct ingrained in her bones, following the motions and drawing yet another arrow, then turning as her eyes searched for a target and then releasing the bowstring, landing herself yet another kill. She might be just a clean-up squad member, all alone that she was, but she would do her task as ordered, especially so when she did not have to worry about being swarmed.

  Case in point proven as yet another arrow whistled from afar, resulting in yet another beastmen group, revealed to her just a blink ago, being engulfed in a fiery red and savage explosion, reaping their lives and leaving behind a rather noticeable crater, further dissuading the remaining beastmen from heading in the same direction. This in turn allowed Zena to focus more on her own archery and elimination of the still incoming beastmen, slowly but surely dwindling her supplies of arrows. Thankfully, there were more than a few beastmen who still had their own quiver on their persons, allowing Zena to dart back and forth from her current position and resupply herself. This in turn allowed her to continue her own archery 'practice'.

  About thirty or so minutes later, Zena stopped seeing new beastmen emerging from further ahead. Her arm was aching by now, complaining about the amount of arrows she had shot without getting any rest. She believed she might as well have killed three to four dozens of beastmen all on her own. What she both wanted to know and dreaded the answer to at the same time was just how many beastmen had her cloaked savior killed? Clearly it should be dozens more, perhaps even hundreds. Those explosive arrows were just that devastating and frightening.

  "No more hostiles incoming." the voice of the stranger drifted over to her "You can go back to where-ever. Got some cleanup to do."

  Then, she noticed the cloaked man once more, his body descending from the skies and landing close to the largest piles of bodies around, his cloaked form seeming almost divine- like a messenger of death. A pair of ethereal, energy-like wings undulated behind his form, giving the cloaked figure both a mysterious and menacing air all on its own. Zena looked at the cloaked figure for but a short moment, stunned in both wonder and reverence until the aching of her body, slightly muted as it was, brought her out of her trance. Her mind warned that a rest was much needed, so she fought back with all she had, slowly turning around and slogging back towards the camp she believed a number of people were waiting for her return, awaiting their groups leader.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  It took a considerably longer time for Zena to return, though she did get there in the end, and as expected, she found a much larger group of people waiting for her at the designated place. Tired as she was, she also noticed that most other groups had already departed, leaving only hers and another one remaining. Worse yet, she could immediately tell that the guy in charge was quite dangerous and greedy individual. The man was sitting up front of his own group, with several other more scrawny guys standing close by and another few dozen people at the very least. She could also sense the larger man's gaze wandering across her awaiting group.

  "Where were you?" Aki asked timidly once Zena was close by, her gaze worried as she looked Zena over, seemingly searching for wounds and the like.

  "The raiders who caught us is no more. Where ever they headed to, was more than they could handle. The last remnants of their warriors were fleeing like mad, and the man who freed us intercepted them, culling most with such ease I shudder just from remembering it."

  "I helped a bit as well." She then added, patting the half empty quiver by her side. "Tell me about them." Zena then turned her head towards the rest of the group, rubbing her temple as she rested her eyes for a moment, perking up her ears to whatever Aki had to say.

  It was more or less as expected, with most of the people either being young boys,under fourteen, middle aged women with not all that appealing, though mostly bland faces and young girls under age of ten. She also understood well enough the reasoning behind others rejecting these groups, revolted as she was. The boys were too young to contribute meaningfully, and would soon enough be more competition for the women. The middle aged women left were thes left as last choices, disregarded with numerous better options available. And the little girls were yet another expenditure of energy with no real benefits attached to them. They could not yet do much to carry their own weight in a migrating new and extremely small tribe, nor could they be used to serve in other ways. Creeps that went for that sort of thing were dealt with in a quick and quite the brutal way in every tribe that roamed the outer steppe.

  Still, tired as Zena was, she noticed several beauties, dirty as they were, among her new group- most likely daughters of previous chiefs or skilled hunters or warriors, smarter than most of their kind. They too likely noticed the same danger Zena had and chose to stay away, joining up with Zena's group once they heard who would be in charge.

  "We can't stay here for long." Zena spoke once silence took over after Aki had finished speaking. "The bodies of the beastmen will draw in wild animals and monsters, and we do not have the numbers or might to safely deal with them. Nor do I believe we have much time before another raiding party comes through this region. No, we must depart as soon as possible. Still, we will wait for the cloaked man to return before we do so."

  Zena then gave several orders to her group, with Aki serving as the coordinator. She might be shy and all, but as the only one Zena trusted right now and a healer at that, she was the best choice for the job. Several of the middle aged women headed over to the beastmen corpses, stripping them of any weapons lying around. For whatever reason, the rest of the groups had not bothered to loot them, collecting all that could still be used. The rest had make do with the weapons within the supply wagons.

  "Wake me when the cloaked man returns. I was drained taking out those damn beastmen and need a quick rest. If he is a no show, give me an hour or so, and have someone keep an eye on the movements of that other group." Zena gave another task, receiving several little girl 'guards' for herself in the end. Now they just had to wait for the cloaked man's return. He had ordered supplies to be split, so he would no doubt come after them, right?

  Jack had to admit, there was something special about a heavily scorched battlefield that he found endearing. Was it the sight of numerous enemies dead- burned, blasted apart, or maimed any other way, or was it the smell of singed hair- or fur in this particular case- and overcooked meat? Regardless, his inner god of destruction was overjoyed at the sight. There was no creation in a complete- if seriously flawed- world, so it had to be destroyed first to be remade into something new.

  The second part, what came after destruction, Jack could properly appreciate now, unlike the first time he had walked his path to divinity. Destruction was the natural end of all things, so it was just so easy to find joy in immersing oneself in it, bringing the end to everything in your path, since almost everything and anything that did block your path desired nothing more than to end you in turn. Now however, he found just as much joy, if a little foreign for now, in creating things, allowing him to embrace his chosen path so much easier. And, once back with the kids, he planned to return to his role as the crafter/half lazy guildmaster he had played before. This role of his right now could easily be classified as an early vacation of sorts.

  The less fun, but still necessary part- namely collecting as much matter as was possible- did not bring nearly as much joy to Jack as either destroying or creating, but as a man with a well developed grinder mindset, it was not all that hard to get his mind on the task. Nor did he have to strip the place spotless in his effort to gather more matter. He did spend an hour or so regardless on the venture, dispersing the larger part of of those slain here.

  Once done, he gazed at his work with a slight smile on his face, took another deep breath of the air that smelled of burnt flesh, leather and fur, flapped his wings once and rose into the air, turning towards the supply camp where he knew some extra supplies awaited him. And unlike before, now he could fly there in a relaxed manner, enjoying the sight of his actions from a birds view.

  'Odd.' Jack noted the two groups still lingering around, half expecting them to leave well before he returned. Sure, he was well aware they had stayed where they did, but had kept that particular matter on the backburner, not the least bit concerned about the matter while he enjoyed ending things and beastmen. In the end, it did not matter all that much to him. he would collect his supplies and then return to the Cradle, overseeing the development of the rebel army to the stage where he could leave them to their own devices.

  'Right, gotta solve Nivi's damned family thing before I head out for the Deadlands as well.' Jack remembered and made a note to get to that particular matter sooner rather than later. "Should I use the rebel force once they are trained for that? It could serve as their own combat test as well. Two birds with one stone and all that." he murmured as he began his descent, landing with grace and skill this time.

  His second arrival did draw the attention of both remaining groups, with one- coming from Zena's group- more curious and cautious, while the other brimmed with near unrestrained greed and scheming. Jack had no desire, or patience to deal with the latter so he did not mind making quite the brutal example of things, but that would require a fool to approach and act as a fool should.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 37

  Class- Awakened twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(Ex)

  Stats unassigned: +14

  Attributes:

  Strength- 34 (14+7+13(gear))

  Vitality- 28 (12+8+8(gear))

  Dexterity- 29 (15+6+8(gear))

  Intelligence-20(15+ 5(gear)

  Spirit- Spirit- 30 (20+10)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX), Origin of matter(EX), Unbound by laws of the lessers(EX), The end made manifest(EX). Destroyers presence(unique legendary).

  Spells- none.

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo. Monster debugger.The actor. Executioner. Survivor. Pioneer, Record breaker.The new champion supreme. Slavemaster, Eldritch garbage disposal(legendary).

  Gear: Two handed sword(t3)+ 5 str +5 vit: Armor 3str +3 vit +3 dex; Ring 1 - spatial storage, ring 2 +5int, ring 3 +5 str; amulet +5 dex.