“WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

When I’d first heard this sound, I’d just assumed that it’d come out of an ogre’s mouth. But, there was no ogre in sight as the piercing yell caused my ears to ring. However, I finally received confirmation of a thought that had been in the back of my mind for a few years now. After all, what better to fend off monsters than another monster?

“No, he isn’t a monster.”

Despite the lightning arcing across his body, Geisai’s legs were still bound, and he was as naked as the day he was born atop the fallen tree, yet the men didn’t move. The last thing any of them wanted to do was draw the ire of monster they’d brought into their camp. He had all eyes on him, everyone waiting for him to do something before making their next move.

However, it wasn’t him that shattered the frozen moment.

In the space between one breath and the next, one of the injury men leaped to their feet only to fall face down into the fire.

“Wahahaaaaaa!!!!!!! It burns, its burns!!”

“Haaaaaaaahhh!!!”

“Kill that thing already! Hurry!”

Everything exploded into action following the man’s scream. Geisai let out an animalistic cry and broke free of his bounds with a single jerk. Meanwhile, the rest of the men scrambled to reach their weapons or merely flee, it was hard to tell from here, and I couldn’t afford to stay here and find out.

I started climbing down the tree trunk as fast as I could, ignoring the cutting bark against my palms along the way. Time was the least plentiful resource I had at my disposal, and I couldn’t afford to worry about minor issues right now. I could still hear the screams and shouts from here.

“No No No!!”

“Caleb!!”

“Azathan help us.”

As soon as my feet hit the ground, I dashed off in the direction of the camp, the shouts of terror and pain guiding my way. Once I reached the bush in front of the clearing, what greeted me was a hellish landscape.

Blood soaked into the ground around the camp, broken pieces of armor and weapons were scattered all over the place, and the stench of death clung to the area. The remnants of the campfire were slowly burning the upper body of some unknown man, The man with fresh burns on his face wasn’t far away from him, his body now contorted into a ragged form with hard angles sticking out where they shouldn’t. The brutality of this battle was well above anything I’ve ever come across.

In the center of the camp, Geisai stood over the man with the leg cast, with his fingers digging into the man’s lower back. His eyes were almost wholly reded over, and blind fury had twisted his face into a vicious scowl. Without a moment of hesitation, Geisai lifted the man over his head and tore him in half with ease.

Blood and viscera rained down on Geisai head while the bisected corpse fell to the ground. But, Geisai merely wiped the blood out of his eyes before his body began jerking about, his eyes seeking out the next prey. The upper body had landed a few feet in front of me, allowing me to see the look of sheer terror frozen on the man’s face. It took everything I had to hold down my meal as the stench of it all was more potent than any animal or goblin corpse.

In the corner of my eye, I caught sight of an archer aiming his bow at the back of Geisai’s head. In between, one breathe and the next, I unsheathed my daggers and sent them flying straight at him before he could let a single arrow fly. While one of the knives bounced off the bow, the other one managed to slice into the man’s cheek.

“Ughh!!”

That pained yell proved to be the man undoing. When Geisai heard it, the man immediately became the focus of Geisai’s undivided attention. With a single leap, Geisai erased the distance between them, grabbed hold of the man’s right arm and tore it off.

“Gyuaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!”

The man fell to his knees in agony, the blood flowing from his shoulder like a mighty river as his body rapidly began to turn pale. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for the man his pain was intense, yet short-lived. Geisai grabbed hold of the man’s neck and, with one yank, pulled the man’s head and spine out. He casually tossed man’s head aside and resumed his search.

“Hey, you bastard! Over here!”

Following the shout to its origins reveal three men standing at the edge of the camp with their weapons raised.

“You think I’m gonna let you get away with this! You killed my friends, and you think I’m gonn₋”

“YOUUU!!!”

The man in front of the trio didn’t finish his rant before Geisai cut him off and began charging at them. While the man in front stayed rooted where he was, the other stepped forward on his sides, with what appeared to raised nets in their left hand.

I see.

The one in the center was the bait to lure Geisai in range, and once caught, they would gang up on him. A rather crude, but effective means of putting an end to Geisai’s rampage…

If he were an animal, that is. Loud noises and posturing were nothing but a minor distraction for a person dead sit on a cross of action.

Geisai paid the shouting and baiting remarks of the central man no made heed; his undivided attention was on the man to his right. The same man that had previously slapped him in the face earlier. Seeming to realize the fault with their plan, the central man attempted to intercept Geisai, but that achieved nothing.

When the central man was in striking distance, Geisai delivered a powerful forearm strike to his ribs. No matter what happens after this, the sound of multiple bones simultaneously shattering was something I would never forget. The man had been sent flying, and there was any sign of him ever standing again after he landed a few feet away.

However, Geisai didn’t even glance in the man’s general direction as he chased after the now fleeing man. He was dead set on catching that man, and it was clear what his intentions were once he got ahold of him. Despite the man having a head start on Geisai, the distance between then had vanished before the man could get more than a few feet away from the camp. His fate was sealed the moment Geisai pinned him to a tree with a shoulder tackle.

“AAUUHHA GYAAAAAAN!”

The frightened scream returned my attention to the last man standing. He was running in the opposite direction of Geisai as fast as he legs could take him. However, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Even if he managed to get away, he had nothing but the clothes on his back and was heading straight into the monster-infested forest. It’d be a miracle if he were still alive by tomorrow night.

But… We need one of them alive for a bit longer.

“Haah… Eiemene ym nwod ekirts dna worra yht emoceb, retaw gniwolf fo stirips.”

The leaf cuffs on my jacket suddenly lit up before a conical mass of water rapidly formed in my hand before it flew through the man’s left leg like it was parchment.

“Huh?”

“Gyuaaa!!” The man tumbled to the ground with a thud, but he desperately crawled in his continued attempt to flee.

That shouldn’t have happened; my magic couldn’t have the power to do something like that. At best, that spell should have only left a shallow cut along his thigh. It was just meant to, should’ve only been capable, of slowing him down a bit. There he was crawling along the ground like a worm after a rainstorm.

I stared down the cuffs for a moment, but the light they’d produced had already disappeared.

“Another thing to look into later. For now…”

I picked up a palm-sized stone and slowly approached the fleeing man, grabbing a piece of cloth before I reached the duel crimson and clear trails he left in his wake. With a steady hand, I raised the stone on brought it down on his head, halting his movements in the process. Then I did it a second time for good measure and processed to tie a tourniquet above his leg wound. With that settled, I propped the man upon a tree before following after Geisai.

“AH HAH HYAHAH! AHHHH!!”

I heard him before I saw him. He held a body up at eye level as he continued to punch away at its head, the speed of those punches increasing with each grunt.

“Geisai.”

Teeth, blood, and scraps of literally beginning to fly off after a certain point.

“Geisai!!!”

A large chunk of a man’s lower jaw landed at my feet.

“GEISAI!!!!!!!!!!!”

My shout finally managed to reach him. Geisai went rigid as he dropped the body and slowly turned around. Blood and dirt were caked into his hair and seemed to be in a daze, his mouth opening, and closing as if he couldn’t formulate words. While the reds of his eyes were shrinking, merely glancing at his eyes was enough to send a chill down my spine.

“It’s okay, Geisai. I’m here. It’s over now.” I held my arms open and spoke to him in a calming tone.

Geisai vanished from my view for a brief moment before appearing right in front of me. He fell to his knees and began hugging my waist, the blood on his face running as tears started to stream down his face.

“Aiyanna, you’re safe. You’re safe.”

There was nothing I could say in response to that. I could only kneel down and do my best to comfort Geisai while he cried for the first time in several years.

However, doing so gave me a clear view of his handiwork. There was a fist-sized hole in the body’s chest, one of the hands were missing a few fingers and was only a good yank away from falling off. And the head… there wasn’t one anymore. All that remained of it was a diminished stump attached to the neck. Unlike the others, this had been a drawn-out process that Geisai would’ve extended beyond this if it were possible.

As night finally overtook the remnants of the day, I knelt there comforting my brother in the aftermath of his slaughter.