"Clip-clop, clip-clop-clop~"
Corpses littered the ground, each one pierced by a silver-white crossbow bolt.
A light, carefree hum drifted through the air, utterly at odds with the bloody scene.
Accompanied by her cheerful humming, an orange-haired girl carrying a silver-white crossbow skipped and twirled along, carefully picking her way through the corpses.
The girl wore a white skirt that fell above her knees, fluttering whenever she spun. Below it, her slender, fair legs were clad in black knee-high boots. The little boots should have been neat and spotless, but their owner kept stepping on the corpses, and now they were smeared with blood.
Every now and then, she raised her crossbow and put another bolt into an enemy still struggling on the ground, then skipped off to somewhere else.
At last, not a single corpse on the ground was moving. The girl turned to look at them, still humming her cheerful tune. Her delicate little face had features arranged just right. She pursed her lips and leisurely blew out a breath, then strained to roll her eyes upward, trying to catch a glimpse of the bangs dangling over her forehead.
"Uh..."
The girl was just about to turn when a faint groan came from the ground nearby.
She turned and looked down toward the sound. A tender little face, smeared with blood, poked out from among the corpses. The child strained to lift his head and look at her, eyes blazing with fury.
The girl crouched down, gazing at the face so close to hers with curiosity and delight. Then she called out loudly:
"Master, Master, come see what I found! A cute little boy!"
Hearing her call, a middle-aged man in brown clothes and a black cloak emerged from the room, wiping blood from his hands with a handkerchief.
He looked at his apprentice, crouched there without a care in the world as she examined an enemy who could still fight back, and furrowed his unusually thick brows. His voice held a note of exasperation.
"How many times have I told you? After a fight, make sure every enemy is no longer able to fight back before you approach them. Why are you still so careless?"
"Aw." The girl pouted at her master. "Aaaah, Master, please stop. My head's about to explode. He's just a cute little boy. There's no way he'd attack me, right, little guy?"
As she spoke, the girl lowered her head and carefully poked the boy's smooth cheek with a finger, a lovestruck grin on her face.
"Ptooey!"
Before she could finish, the girl was promptly proven wrong. Pinned beneath the corpses and barely able to move, the boy struggled to spit at her, his voice full of anger and hatred.
"Devil."
The girl froze, her finger trembling slightly.
"You..."
Her face twisted with anger. She sprang to her feet, raised her crossbow, and unleashed a furious barrage at the boy's head.
"Aaaah, I'm so mad! You actually spat on me! I'm furious!"
"Thwip, thwip..."
A rapid series of weapons piercing flesh rang out. The boy's once-pretty face was riddled with bolts in an instant, reduced to a bloody mess that was barely recognizable as human.
Still seeming unsatisfied, the girl raised her foot and viciously kicked the little boy's ruined head with her bloodstained boot.
The middle-aged man showed no reaction to the girl's brutality. With an indifferent expression, he tossed the blood-soaked white handkerchief onto the ground and headed outside.
"That's enough, Anxia. Stop playing around and hurry up. We need to get to Nork Town. Someone there is paying a fortune for us to kill a man. Once we finish the job, we can buy some equipment and things."
"Oh, right!"
As she answered her master, the girl gave the boy's corpse a few more kicks, still looking annoyed, then hurried after him.
"Aaaah, Master, my little white skirt's got blood on it!!!"
"I told you not to wear it. You wouldn't listen. Who else are you going to blame for getting it dirty?"
"Maaaster~"
"I'm not washing it for you."
"Master, Master, Master, Master~"
"..."
"Don't let it happen again."
"Hehe, I knew you were the best, Master."
In the setting sun, the shadows of master and apprentice stretched longer and longer, then vanished into the enormous setting sun...
Nork Town had fallen into an eerie calm. But beneath that calm, everyone could sense the town humming like a War Machine, running at full throttle. Many newcomers, their bodies practically radiating bloodlust, slipped in under cover of night.
Hals, shut away in the basement and focused entirely on his cultivation, knew nothing about it. He had reached the bottleneck. Yes, over the past year or so, Hals had often fallen into that state of gluttony, and the countless souls he devoured had become nourishment for his cultivation. His already rapid progress had accelerated to an even greater pace. In just over a year, he had reached Level 90. All that remained was to comprehend his martial soul and obtain a new Soul Ring.
In the basement.
An eerie silence. The basement should have been dark and lightless, but now it glowed with a pale green light. At its center stood Hals, clad in a robe and shrouded in green flames.
Fire was wild and untamed, but these green flames were different. They slowly contracted and expanded with Hals's breathing.
At some point, a Lantern glowing with a soft green light had appeared at Hals's waist. It, too, was wrapped in flames.
As Hals's breathing grew more and more labored, the flames began to shudder violently. At last...
"Boom!"
A muffled sound reverberated on the level of the soul. The flames contracted sharply, becoming a streak of fire that Hals inhaled into his belly.
"Ughhhhhh~"
Hals's body went rigid. He threw back his head and groaned in pain as the scorching flames gradually spread through his body, searing him from within. The intense pain constantly assailed his soul, making his consciousness grow hazy.
In his daze, Hals felt as though he had returned to those days when his "father" had tormented him in every way.
"Father... let me go..."
The Greenwood encampment.
The members of the Greenwood all knew perfectly well that their chief was planning a battle against that "brute." They had silently agreed not to spread the news, a secret that was practically common knowledge already, and were doing everything they could to keep information about the brute under wraps. But today, two strange guests had arrived at the Greenwood encampment...
"You must be Dagov, correct? It's an honor to have invited you and your esteemed apprentice here today. We still need to wait for the right moment, so if you and your apprentice would like to look around, I can have someone show you..." The Greenwood Chief smiled at Dagov and at Anxia, who was looking around curiously beside him.
"No need." Dagov's expression was cold and indifferent. Before the Greenwood Chief could finish, Dagov cut him off, then said impatiently, "We'll handle things ourselves. Just call us when it's time to kill."
Interrupted mid-sentence, the Greenwood Chief paused, then continued smiling. "Of course, of course. As you wish."
"Mm."
Dagov nodded and turned to leave.
"Anxia, let's go."
"Oh, sure, Master." Anxia, who had still been looking around, hurried after him and leaned toward Dagov. She seemed to be saying something.
Watching the master-and-apprentice pair leave, the Greenwood Chief's lips curled into an inscrutable smile.
"Heh."
Before you continue