Drake was leaning against a pole, standing slightly behind the rest. He had a deep frown clouding his face as he looked at the unconscious amazon and Aiden's latest protegé, Galina who was trying her best to stabilize her.

He felt horrible, he couldn't help but feel responsible for everything that happened. With the absence of Aiden, he should be the one to look over and protect their people, yet not even a day had passed and one of their own was sprawled on the ground, and still in a critical state.

'How pathetic am I? How will I explain this to him?!' He cried inwardly as he looked at the scene in front of him.

'I should have protected them, this should have never happened…'

His gaze slowly wandered away from the group and rested on the chained-up creature at the side. He ignored the howling idiot on the ground beside him, his silvery gaze was fixed on the ugly head of the hideous monster.

His face slowly contorted, he channeled all the anger he felt towards the creature. He was the one that caused this disaster! This hateful thing, whatever it truly was, should be held responsible!

His sword-wielding right hand was already caressing the tip of his gemmed, treasured sword, he could feel the same emotion coming from Mort as he kept caressing the gemstoned hilt.

'This beast… no. This THING needs to die for what it has done…' His inner darkness surfaced, the only thought that lingered in front of him was to execute this creature to abolish the sins it had so brazenly committed.

Drake grabbed the hilt of his weapon, and with a slow, but steady pace, he began walking towards the chained-up creature. His face contorted into a nasty-looking grin, it wasn't any mystery of what it was about to do.

"Brother, no!" Suddenly a familiar voice entered his ears, shaking his clouded mind. Drake halted his steps for a moment, though he retained his gaze over the creature just a few steps away from him. His right hand was tightly gripping the sheathed blade, ready to strike and send the creature to whatever afterlife it believed in.

Yet Drake didn't move, he felt the soft tug, the gentle pull of her sister. He could feel the concern and worry in her voice as she reached out for him.

"Brother, no… I understand what you feel… How you feel you need to do something, how you think are responsible. Even still… Don't kill it. We need to understand what it actually is, where it came from, and most importantly, how many of them are out there." Scarlet tried to argue, bringing up a convincing argument hoping to calm his brother.

Unfortunately, her words, didn't seem to reach the boy, as though he hesitated for a brief moment, in the end, he shrugged his shoulders to pull it away from the girl and resumed his steps the next moment.

In the next moment, as he reached a striking distance, Drake stopped right in front of the snarling, fearless-looking creature.

Despite feeling the overflowing hatred coming from the silver-haired bareskin, regardless of the thick killing intent he radiated, the creature looked at him with a disdainful sneer still dominating its ugly face.

Though it couldn't understand the strange language they were using, it could read and understand a lot from the body language, the minuscule reactions, twitches of its captors. It understood, that they wanted to study its clearly much better body, and learn from what it actually was. From the look of the elder of this pathetic bunch of weaklings, it was clear that they wanted to make contact, it was clear that it held more value alive.

Thus, it felt that there was no reason to be wary of this enraged little calf, the elders, or as it turned out, the wiser females of the group wouldn't let it do as it wanted.

Its bead-like eyes honed in on the red-haired fragile-looking being, it tried to study it with heightened scrutiny. Was it a witch, a shaman, or something of an elevated position in their hierarchy?

The creature wasn't certain, but from her actions, it seemed that she was important to the others in some manner.

Still, it seemed the silver-haired calf, the male youngster was in for some punishment, as despite its superior's order, it still didn't give up on his idea and resumed his course of action.

Regardless, the creature was still fearless in front of this mad, crazed little youngster. He looked up to him with the same disdainful, arrogant sneer that it gave to all these other primitive outsiders. The look on its face was as if it was saying 'Come one, do it if you dare!' to the mad prince.

Seeing that disgusting look, the wide taunting smirk plastered all over the creature's face, Drake was shivering with anger. Instead of a quick, lightning-fast flash, he decided to punish this sinner of a monster more and slowly unsheathed his sword. Raising it above his head, he looked down at the monster, his arm was quivering with trepidation of the imminent attack.

There was a faint trace of reason, a barely audible whisper at the back of Drake's mind, trying to reach out to him, convince him that whatever he was about to do, may not be what he should be doing.

However, in the next instant, the bloody, battered body of Naybeah resurfaced and the weak voice of reason was quickly subdued.

Unfazed by what was happening around him, Drake fiercely roared as he struck down with all his might. His aim wasn't simply to behead the foul beast, but it was a diagonal-angled swipe, hoping to slice at least two of his four arms and the attached shoulder along with it.

*CLINK!*

Just before his attack could connect, a simple-looking blade appeared in its path, blocking and absorbing the blow. The clashing of two swords generated a loud sonic shock wave, sending an invisible current of air to traverse to the campsite and alert everyone present.

The sudden interruption caused Drake to startle with shock, allowing the cloud of darkness, the hazy fog to release its grip and disperse in the next instant.

As if awoken from an alcohol-induced dream, Drake's look turned groggy and confused. With a visible effort, he turned his head to the side, from whence the blade came abruptly and without warning.

"Boy, I know you are mad, but we need this creature alive." Captain Don sighed, as he pulled his short sword back and stepped forward, in between the beast and the silver-haired youth. Noticing the snickering look on the beast, he added with a matching disdainful snort, looking directly into the creature's eyes and freezing its victorious celebration almost instantly.

"…We need it alive. At least until we get what we need. Then you can have it, I promise."

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading (although I wholeheartedly thank you if you are reading and enjoying the story through Webnovel), you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

For you, sailors of the seventh sea (non-WN readers), be a bro/gal and throw me a cup of joe, show your appreciation!

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