Just as the out-of-control Ffolk warrior broke through the encirclement and was about to charge into the most densely populated part of the city-state, every Ffolk present, including the High Priestess, faced a looming enemy, their hearts unbearably heavy.
For similar incidents had happened more than once in Moonshadow Island's history, and every time, even when the victim was put down at once, the losses had been devastating.
For Cowell as it stood—and even for the Kendick Dynasty at war—an error like this at such a critical juncture could very well prove fatal.
Yet no one could have expected that this crisis would arrive so abruptly—and end just as unexpectedly.
The warning bells from the temple had only just begun to ring. A group of temple druids had only just transformed into all manner of beasts and surged out like animals unleashed from a zoo. The alerted citizens were still working themselves into panic and despair, preparing to flee—
When they witnessed Li Wei and Garvin, master and servant, deliver an opening kill brimming with violent aesthetics.
They saw the "source of disaster" collapse on the spot, utterly motionless.
It had all happened so fast. Before Cowell's potential crisis could even begin to brew, it was strangled in the cradle, leaving the atmosphere at the scene somewhat awkward. Fortunately, the rain kept falling.
As one of the parties involved, Li Wei looked at the Ffolk warrior lying limp and unmoving in Garvin's hands, then at his own hands, which suddenly had nowhere to go. He felt a little embarrassed.
He swore to Ao that he really hadn't done it on purpose.
He'd simply gotten used to slapping.
During the years just after he adopted Aili, whenever she failed to restrain her destructive, ruinous little demon nature and began darting around