It did not take long for the bandits to start dropping like flies. Even though they were in groups of two or more, they were never able to see how Kyle got to them! Some would have holes in their chests while others were killed by having their throats crushed.

A few of the smarter men saw the squad leader retreating and decided to follow him. If a master ranked warrior was scared, who were they to try and fight such a scary opponent! The squad leader was utterly afraid now. He couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of their footsteps. Yet, every time he looked back, he could spot men dropping down lifelessly.

“Ah!! Leader! Hel……gahh!!”

“No!! SAVE ME!!!!”

“YOU IDIOTS!! SPREAD OUT!!”

The squad leader yelled out as he ran towards the camp as quick as he could. The other bandits trailed behind him with desperation, breaking through all kinds of limits.

A faint chuckling could be heard over all the yelling and screaming despite the sound not being very loud. It rang out in the hearts of everyone still alive, resembling the cry of a cruel demon, causing them to run even faster.

It was apparent that they were all trying to return to their camp. There was strength in numbers and they fooled themselves into thinking that they’d be safe once they were surrounded by hundreds of their companions.

The journey that barely took them an hour to travel earlier even at slow speeds now felt like it was excruciatingly long! The squad leader dared not look back as he made a beeline for the camp.

“Help!! HELP!!!!”

As soon as he spotted the fires of the camp, he yelled out, crying for help. This alerted the bandits inside the camp. The patrol members stood at the entrance of the gates, holding torches.

“Who goes there!!”

“It’s me! Quick, wake the rest of the men!! We have enemies!!”

This rather stunned the patrol members. The squad leader ran inside the camp and closed the gates with haste. He was not able to hear any sound of the men that was running behind him earlier. Assuming for the worst, he turned back to order the patrolling bandits once more. What he saw after he turned around scared the life out of him.

The patrol members were no longer standing. The demon of his nightmares now standing only two meters away. The patrol members lay at his feet, their necks twisted or crushed. He had no clue as to how the man managed to kill four men in mere seconds now how the closed gate and the high walls traversed so easily. He did not have the luxury to ponder such useless thoughts.

This was the first time the master ranked warrior had a clear look at the hunter that exterminated his entire squad. The man looked rather ordinary. Plain clothes, no aura of a powerhouse. Clearly out of place with the corpses that littered the ground. There was not a speck of blood anywhere on his body.

Still, the warrior cannot help but tremble as he stepped back and leaned against the gate. A few bandits had woken up from the commotion. The spectacle they saw at the gate caused them to freeze up. A few seconds later, a quick minded man run off to ring the bell, alerting the entire camp.

Kyle did not take further action and waited for all the bandits to gather. The squad leader was still standing there, with his back against the gate. Even though Kyle was not looking at him, he felt as if he has been locked on by an ancient beast.

It did not take long for the camp to bustle to life. Hundreds of bandits, some holding torches came out of their wooden huts. There was five men leading the entire pack, the centre position taken by a large cruel looking man.

“What’s happened here?!” The Bloody Butcher’s expression contorted after spotting the corpses near the gate. He looked over to see one of his master ranked warriors that he’d subdued, shaking in his boots in front of an ordinary looking man.

This scene puzzled him, as it did for most of the other bandits on the scene. This was too bizarre! The butcher’s gaze settled on the intruder of the camp. Kyle seemed perfectly harmless to him. However, such thoughts did not stay long in his mind after witnessing the next scene.

Kyle crossed the short distance to the leader of the squad that had come to raid his camp. Not a single bandit could tell how Kyle had moved. Kyle’s hand approached the man’s throat, seemingly at a slow speed.

From the Butcher’s perspective, it was laughable. Such an act was suicide against a master ranked warrior! However, the warrior was not able to avoid Kyle’s simple grasp. A loud snap resounded over the darkness as the man went limp in Kyle’s hand. Dropping the lifeless body with a soft thud, Kyle turned to face the crowd.

“Well then, I thank you all for gathering here. Makes it a lot easier for me.”

Kyle’s grin was akin to that of a devil. This seemingly harmless man killed a master ranked warrior without breaking a sweat! A lot of the weak-minded men started trembling. Even though their numbers were far greater, some would inevitably die if they were to clash. None of them wanted to be those unlucky souls.

“I don’t know who you are and why you’ve intruded here, but you will pay for that!!! Men, kill him!!”

No one moved from the order. Even the master ranked warriors seemed hesitant. The Butcher glared at the men around him. He was very much upset but he could not punish the men. He was trying to gauge Kyle’s strength by sending in a flock of sheep before a wolf!

“Hahaha. I’ve taken a bit too long, let’s get this over with.” Kyle’s mutter was only heard by the ones standing at the front. Their confusion soon replaced by fear from the scene before them.

Short spears of mana starting materialising above Kyle’s head. If one were to count, they’d be able to tell that there was one spear for one bandit present on the scene!

Screams filled the air and bandits started to run off left and right, while others were rooted to the ground due to fear. Kyle ignored the fleeing men and merely waved his hands forward. As if they were fired off a large ballista, the spears of mana shot towards their targets at a speed barely traceable by eye.

Every bolt of mana seems to follow their target as they curved towards the running men. There were no screams as the spear of mana would burn up their bodies upon contact. The mana transformed into flames, leaving no traces of its terror. The five master ranked warriors were no better as they were to the very first few to die seeing that they were the closest to Kyle. In mere seconds, the entire bandit camp was enveloped by silence. All inhabitants having vanished under Kyle’s doing, only torches littered the ground as small light sources.

The squad leader’s corpse had also been disposed by one of the mana spears. Kyle looked at the scene with a deadpan gaze. Afterwards he turned back and promptly vanished from the scene.

After he arrived back at the campsite, rain started to fall. The soft sound of raindrops impacting the ground soothing the bloodthirst that had built up in Kyle’s heart. Kyle sighed softly, thinking back on his actions. There certainly was no need to kill all those men. They were not good men but it was not his place to judge.

Kyle laughed a little, looking up at the rain. None of the raindrops approached his body and merely avoided him as if it was natural to do so.

“Well, what’s done is done. It’s not like I haven’t done it before.”

Giving himself an excuse, he plopped down on the wet log near Vanessa and Kaylee’s tent. Kyle took out a bottle of wine from his storage ring. The rain continued to fall around the lone hunter, drinking away his past in the darkness of the night.

***

“Wahh!! It’s so big!! Daddy look! That’s a really big wall!”

Kaylee jumped up and down on his lap as soon as the little girl saw the large wall that acted as a barrier to the ‘human realm’ from the invasion of the monsters.

The thirty-meter-tall structure ran from the east to west, seemingly endless it stood valiantly among the featureless plains.

“Yes yes, little girl, sit down. I’ll take you to the top of it later tonight.”

Alex and Amelia who heard this wanted to retort as the wall was a restricted zone for civilians but the two ultimately shut their mouths.

“Yay! It’s a promise!” Kaylee grabbed Kyle’s pinky finger and intertwined it with her own, satisfied from the act.

A cluster of buildings could be seen at the bottom of the wall. There was no logic and pattern to the location of the buildings, causing the streets through them to be chaotic and confusing. The city was enveloped in a light and cheerful atmosphere despite the war against the monsters just beyond the wall.