The situation seemed quite dire at the moment. Huxley getting kidnapped, Edrick getting injured, Titus suffering from some wounds during his reckless charge.

Something doesn't add up.

"Why were most of these monsters on fire? And who are those hunters I just killed?"

Rivals, that's the obvious answer. Titus mentioned something about a woman called Pearl and Leon looked at the only one who could speak right now.

"Cenric, what's happening?" Leon asked.

As the middle-aged man kicked a goblin in the chest and struck it down with a javelin, he panted quite heavily and glanced backward towards his brother Edrick and then to Titus who was stabilizing Edrick's wounds. As he struggled to swallow his saliva amidst the dryness of his mouth, Leon's question popped up in his mind and he lagged as he turned to reply.

"Someone had problems with Huxley… no, with all of us." He said.

"Where did they take him?" Leon asked.

"I don't know! The Goblins… other monsters as well kept flooding us from that direction." Cenric picked his javelin back and kept on guard for another monster that may come out whether it is by the strange fire that pushed them towards the team or by the stench of blood from other monsters, "Also, those people are bad news. They won't leave us be now that we killed two of theirs."

"I killed two of theirs." Leon said, "Listen up, we need to move Edrick from here and retreat. You know the way back to the camp, right?"

"Yes."

"You two carry him on his shield, I will cover your retreat." Leon said.

"But…"

"You're tired, Titus is injured. We need to get to Vadim. No questions asked. Once the team is in safety, we will go back for Huxley with support." Leon decided.

His leadership skills were nothing to laugh at and he was able to make those decisions quite easily. An evacuation is important when a team can proceed then the extraction operation shall follow swiftly.

"We can't move recklessly." Titus spoke as he broke the arrow piercing Edrick's lung and drenched the wound with medicine, "Thank the Light Edrick passed out but he might be bleeding from inside. Moving his is a bad option."

"Then you fucking not tell anyone of what I am about to do."

Leon pushed Titus away from Edrick and took out a Healing Potion from his bag.

"This won't work unless we take out the arrow. Also, the potion is ineffective on inner organs that can't hold liquids." Cenric said while trying to hold Leon back.

"I am aware." Leon spoke, "But Magic can still stabilize him."

"Magic?"

Leon ignored the concerned pleas and focused on pouring a few drops of the potion carefully while pressing with his hand around the wound.

*Screech*

At the same time, a Goblin ran off the bushes with a burnt head looking around frantically to see corpses of his own kind and a few humans in the vicinity. Between the horror that was chasing him and the less threatening humans ahead, the Goblin made a run for it through the humans which were on his way swinging its crude axe at Leon.

"Get rid of it."

As Leon shouted, both Titus and Cenric pushed forwards and held off the monster to finally send its head flying. This worked in Leon's favor as he focused his [Light Magic - Heal] and cast it while the two men were busy.

"Perfect."

The spell was cast, the potion was applied, the inner bleeding seemed to be halted and the wound won't get infected. Sadly, Leon can't pull out the arrowhead else he may risk Edrick bleeding to death or for his blood entering his lung.

What is left is a surgeon's assistance and there are a few of them back in the camp.

"I'm done. Take him away." Leon kept Edrick in a stable state as both Titus and Cenric came and carried him on the shield.

The three then started retreating as Leon was walking behind them facing the place they escaped from with a bow and an arrow aimed at whatever moves.

*Swoosh*

He let loose of the first arrow… then the second… and the third. His aim wasn't ideal but out of the three shots, he got two instant kills on goblins while the third required him to switch to a spear and rush it down.

And amidst this mess, the system decided to make things easier.

"If it's good then yes." Leon spoke.

"What?" (Titus)

"Never mind." (Leon)

"I don't really need them anyway." Leon shooed away the system screens with a bothered expression as they were blocking his sight.

Still, a Crosshair? Really? Why need a skill then?

*Swoosh* *Swoosh*

Yet the skill proved him wrong in an instant. The first swoosh he heard came from the nearby pushes as goblin threw a javelin at Leon while the next was the one Leon reacted with. The goblin was hit exactly between his eyes.

And that's just a level 1 skill.

Leon, who dodged the javelin thanks to a sixth sense that grew on him just a second ago made him look between the javelin, the arrow he shot, and the bow he's holding.

"Bows might be deadlier than guns after all…" He said giving the matter a thought before shrugging his shoulders, "Who am I kidding?"

Just like that, Leon's interest in archery grew up a few notches even though he still complained from his sore shoulder after shooting.

"We are on safe grounds now." Titus shouted, "A company ahead."

At that moment, the team finally met a Mercenary patrol that was securing the outer area of the forest. As soon as that happened, the two companies immediately reacted to one another seeing that there's an injured colleague.

"Medic! Get to him right away." The other team's leader called for his team's medic to approach and start the first aid treatment.

As soon as the medic started working, he was soon baffled as the wound was mostly taken care of. The only thing he needed to do is to make sure the arrowhead didn't go deeper and thus he started working on it.

"We're done." He called.

"That fast?" Titus asked.

"He already has some magic cast on him. Let's get moving." The medic replied impatiently which left both Titus and Cenric looking at each other.

Leon mentioned magic just before they go and as he took care of securing Edrick but… what kind of magic would assist the first aid operation this quickly? Water Magic can do that but this requires opening the wounds and doing a surgery process. The other magic that can do miracles like this is simply unthinkable to think that a Mercenary has it.

The thought came to their minds just an instant but they brushed it off almost immediately. Only a holy man can utilize this sort of miracle. Still, they both turned towards Leon who is behind them… who should have been behind them… who was not there at the moment.

"Leo!"

"Hey, where's Leo? Our archer?"

Cenric called and Titus asked the people assisting them.

"What archer?" And that was the reply they got.

***

Leon didn't like this one bit.

"Why the fuck should I act like a fucking hero?"

Saving lives with magic that may draw attention to him? Yes, that angered him just a little bit but he considered those men to be comrades even if it has just been for a little bit.

But this wasn't the reason he's bothered. What made him truly annoyed at himself is the fact that as soon as Titus and Cenric found a company, he turned around and started running the other way.

His objective is Huxley, the member that got kidnapped.

His psyche wasn't in its best condition at the moment. He had a thousand voices screaming in his head and some sort of anger driving him.

Treachery, a concept he hated so much so that he would set fire to whoever committed it in front of him.

Ambushing the group he's a part of (even though temporarily) and burning the forest and the monsters to drive them towards the company was an action that can only be done by the lowest of the low.

*Screech* *Slash* *Scream*

And this dark emotion kept rising once again from within… driving him… possessing him… making him act nothing like his own self.

"FUCK!"

And the only thing he could do is to bang his head against a tree.

The bitterness inside him never died even though he died once already. The fact that he was stabbed in the back by a friend in his past life, the fact that Leon was being manipulated, the fact that he saw a friend die when she returned to him. It all invaded his mind at the same time giving him this feeling of absolute self-loathing that he didn't understand.

He still realized that if he can't get rid of those emotions, they will consume him and cloud his judgment later on.

It sucks when one realizes that he's a danger to himself and he can't just do anything about it. The corpses of goblins around him indicate how much he's not willing to back off now.

"Let's get this over with?"

He shook off those dark emotions just barely and looked around for traces. He's now back at the area where Huxley was ambushed and kidnapped and there's nothing to follow at all.

Leon wasn't a tracker but he could still investigate and come up with conclusions. This process of thinking made him calm down his other emotions and focus on searching. Little by little, he found burn marks on some trees as well as a trail of broken branches.

Still, he couldn't get anywhere in this thick forest.

As he was distressed over what to do, a small breeze of wind passed by through the trees carrying some leaves with it naturally and gracefully. Leon would have paid it no need if not for the fact that he senses a minuscule bit of Mana as thin as a spider thread in that breeze.

The breeze died down not too far from him as it met another one making a small cyclone of soft gentle air carrying many dried leaves with it that slowly descended with the wind.

Leon narrowed his eyes. This was exactly the same technique he used once in the city to threaten Devon. He made a few leaves pass by the necks of the junior knights who followed Devon to threaten him.

He looked around left and right.

"Vadim?" He called.

Surely if this was someone trying to guide him, it would be Vadim. But it didn't feel like a loud and brash Dwarf.

"Hmmm."

Leon surely questioned this mark but he was in a hurry to get to Huxley before something bad happened. If there was a clue, he would surely go after it

Carefully, he blew away the leaves using his own Air Magic and where they gathered, a crude knife appeared on the ground.

That was Huxley's cooking knife. It left a trail on the ground as if it was used to make a line… a line that barely appeared as if someone was being dragged and struggled to make the line on the dirt.

"I see."

Huxley somehow managed to leave a trail.

This way.

***

*Slap*

"Man… this feels satisfying!"

"F… Fuck you!"

"Nope, we're already past that."

*Slap*

Huxley was in bad shape as well. Getting beaten by that girl was humiliating and all but his mind was worrying over his comrades right now. He kept looking towards the forest as if wanting to make a run for it but his hands were tied in both manners of speech.

"You're still thinking those old men will come for you?" Pearl laughed, "They're probably dead."

*Spit*

Huxley took the chance to spit at Pearl's face who squatted down vulgarly to his level but she was fast to react. The only thing he got out of that was a punch on his face.

"You never break down, don't you, Hux?" She laughed, "You just keep looking at me like this, you son of a bitch."

It may have seemed that this is some sort of competition between two Mercenary Companies that went wrong but between those two, it was personal and based on a history of hatred.

"You'll always remain what you are, Pearl." Huxley said.

*Slap*

"With you around, that may have been possible." She said after she slapped him again but this time, she slowly made a satisfied face, "But I'm moving up the world, baby. I am moving up so high you and your virgin boys' gang or whatever won't even dare to dream."

"Yeah?" Huxley laughed, "You were always a bitch last time I checked… wait!" Huxley paused with a sucked face then looked down and up at Pearl, "You managed to get even more bitchy? Congratul… ARGH!"

One of the men standing around him started kicking him in his side.

"Fufufu!" Pearl laughed with a scornful expression before looking at her pitiful friend.

She wasn't just another typical evil woman or whatever. Pearl was originally Huxley's lover… and his mistake as well.

Their story starts in the village they grew up in far in the countryside. Huxley was a boy with a decent skill at fighting and she had an inborn aptitude for combat but she never discovered it until pretty much later. As she was originally an orphan, she worked in prostitution when she had an appealing enough body. Huxley was her client and friend whom she used a lot.

Once Pearl discovered she could develop fighting skills, she immediately asked to become a Mercenary and used Huxley as her point A to get to point B. She convinced him that she's in love with him and together they moved to the city where they can register. Pearl changed her name (from a different name to Pearl) and started fucking up the ranks with senior Mercenaries leaving Huxley in the dust.

He struggled a bit to get by but she made it clear at some point that she wanted nothing to do with him when he discovered that she was cheating on him. Huxley tried to make trouble for her as he was just angry but she trapped him with some of her associates and almost got rid of him to cover up her dark past.

Unfortunately for her, Titus and his two mates saved Huxley and added him to their ranks. From that moment, Titus and his team became enemies with Pearl who claimed that they took a member of her company who stole a precious Mana stone that she found. As she managed to twist some facts, Titus had good connections as well but he fell short to how much a pussy can accomplish. In the end, Titus managed to get Huxley out safe with the name "Sons of Virgins" being branded on his team as a losing bet against Pearl.

And that's why Pearl and Huxley were exchanging those looks of hatred right at the moment. Huxley who was being betrayed by this kind of whore and Pearl who desperately wanted to bury the past she hates more than anything else.

"You think you will get out of this unscathed?" Huxley shouted at her, "Everyone will know that you are behind this."

"Hmph!" Pearl snorted with a smile, "I don't care about them anymore. I told you once, I am moving up in the world."

"Yeah?"

"Don't believe me? Strange! You witnessed what I can accomplish so far, why can't you believe that as long as there are men who are higher in ranks, a woman can just keep climbing."

"So… *cough* you sucked someone's dick?" Huxley asked.

"That would be an underestimation." She said.

"I am not interested in the details." He made a disgusted face.

"Let's just say, I found someone who reached all the right spots." She said while touching up her body.

"You said the same about that Hall employee, turned out he had a micropenis." Huxley laughed before getting kicked in the guts once again.

"Motherfucker!" She snorted, "The way his sword filled my throat was… what is the word?..."

As she was about to speak the word, a menacing sound made the world almost feel unreal around her.

*Swoosh* *Brrrrrrrrrrnnn!"

An arrow rested in the eye socket of the man who was behind Huxley penetrating the skull and pushing the body to a tree resting with its full force in its truck as the arrow shaft kept vibrating.

*Swoosh*

"TAKE COVER!"

*Swoosh*

Almost immediately, two Crossbow Bolts flew in straight yet trajectories claiming two lives as they landed.

Three members of Pearl's team lay on the ground in less than a moment without a breath. She seized the moment to take cover behind a tree trunk and check out on the last member of her team that also did the same.

"What is that? Who dares?" She shouted as she managed to get her shield and spear close to her.

"These are not goblins." Her team member whispered, "It's probably those motherfuckers!"

"Fuck!"

Instantly, Pearl looked around for a way out of this mess and fixed her eyes on Huxley who was tied down not too far from her. On the other hand, Huxley realized that she was going to take him as a hostage.

"Titus! Get her! She's over there!" Huxley tried to shout but Pearl was fast enough to use [Combat Magic - Leap] and cover up the distance between her and Huxley in an unexpected trajectory to confuse the shooter and managed to cover her body with her shield and press her spear against Huxley's throat.

"Motherfuckers! Come out!"

She was in a total cover behind her shield and reflexively reacted to every leaf moving around with her eyes. Seeing her in this state of focus, Huxley felt like he can no longer escape this.

"Fuck off!" He used his lower half and tried to push her off balance to open her for the shooter but she was in total control and descended on his torso with her knees with a [Combat Magic - Power Attack].

"Argh!"

"I said come out! You won't get him in one piece I swear." She roared, "Titus! How's your buddy Edrick? Dead, I reckon. Come out and face me, you coward."

She didn't seem to be worried regarding her combat skills or blocking an arrow she can see. If it is her, she's one of the best mercenaries in Karanberg's branch.

"COME OUT!"

And as she shouted that, something out of her expectations happened.

Her last follower which was still hiding started to fly all of a sudden, his legs were frantically swinging in the air as if he was trying to get back to the ground but he flew across the clearing she stood in and kept rising until he reached a certain height before completely settling above.

All Pearl and Huxley could see was the man just being hung to death without a sound before his body getting lowered slowly with a rope around his neck and his eyes staring out with a shock.

*Gulp*

Pearl understood that this is nothing natural. The archer just now and this ambush… she didn't feel anything or anyone moving around which means that she is dealing with someone far too dangerous.

Her back is exposed! That idea came to her mind almost at the same time as an attack came from behind. She quickly jumped off Huxley and a spear came out of a nearby bush where she was standing.

If she moved half a second later, she would have been a goner.

"You fuck…"

*Screech* *Creek*

As she was about to throw insults, a strange sound came from beside her and with the edge of her sight, she saw a large tree trunk falling at her.

Before being inflated, she used [Combat Magic - Rush] and retreated by a hair's width.

This was unmistakably Earth Magic and it was used to uproot a nearby tree.

A sinister move.

But that was far from the end. She felt a presence coming from her side and as she reacted with a dodge, a strong blast of wind sent the shield off her hand as a young mercenary, wearing a light full and a steel closed helm, suddenly swung his sword at her.

She chose to strike with her spear and fall backward instead of meeting the cunning opponent, but her spear fell short and the blade cut its shaft.

"I know you." Leon, who walked slowly towards the retreating girl, spoke with his sword swinging at her leg cutting behind her knees.

Pearl fell on the ground with a scream and unsheathed her sword while pushing the ground with the other leg and aiming the sword towards Leon.

"You! You freak! Back off!"

"Hmmm." Leon narrowed his eyes, "You said you were moving up in the world, huh? I saw you with that blonde idiot from the noble academy the other day. Did you think that fucker is your ticket up the world?"

"You know nothing! Fuck you!" She shouted, screamed, struggled, and sweat from the burning pain coming from her torn knee.

"Yeah… sorry, with that dumb fucker spreading his seed left and right, I don't think the royal family would tolerate a bitch like you with their seed up her pussy."

Leon said so and amidst confusion, he struck away her sword to fall off her hand.

"Shit!" She panicked and put all her effort to jump back up on one leg then started making a run for it.

Still, Leon recovered a javelin from his storage and threw it towards her other knee making her howl from pain but ended up muffling it as she fell on her face. He then turned to Huxley who was struggling.

"The other guys are alive." He said.

"Th… thank the light… and thank you, Leo."

Leon then picked up the sword she had which was a nice short gladius and walked over to Pearl who was still trying to escape only to end up resting her back on a tree as she gave up.

"Last words?" He asked.

"Spare… spare me! I… I was just… looking after myself."

"How classy!"

She looked tired but in a split of a second, she took out the javelin that penetrated her leg and stabbed at Leon.

"Fuck…"

But he was faster and stabbed at her with her sword while avoiding his javelin. The blade went through her skull all the way inside the tree.

"Wait…" Huxley spoke but it was too late.

"Mercy doesn't fit these situations, Huxley." Leon spoke.

"I just…" Huxley looked at the ground with a broken expression, "I just wanted to ask why. Why did she have to go this far and kill Edrick? Why did she…"

Leon walked to him, cut his ties, and helped him up.

"Edrick is alive." He said.

The word caused Huxley's face to brighten up as he nodded and felt better about it. He accepted Leon's help and walked by leaning on him.

As they passed by Pearl's corpse, they stopped and took a look at her. Huxley then narrowed his eyes and gazed at Leon.

"What?" Leon asked, "She's the one who said she likes big swords filling her throat."

Strange enough, the sword rested all the way through Pearl's mouth and throat in the tree. A nightmare to see when a certain prince discovers the corpse.