Damn, it’s cold. I want something hot.

We ate breakfast at around seven o’clock. The inn had its own food service, so we decided to eat there. Overall, it was good and worth the price.

After we prepared ourselves and our equipments, we headed out to the guild. There were monster posters on the billboard yesterday, so we might look into that but I hoped they would choose other menial tasks, I wasn't really in the mood for fighting monsters in such a cold day.

We were walking in a street. The locals had also worn their winter clothes. You could clearly see the difference between a plebian and rich people. The poor and slaves were wearing minimal clothes. You couldn’t even say they were winter clothes as it just consisted of two layers of shirt and tunic, pants and ragged gloves to save them from the bitter cold. Actually, what they wore didn’t differ much from what they were wearing during hot seasons. Truly, winter was a life-and-death situation for them.

The rich, or at least those people who could afford to pay a little for their winter clothes, had wool and cloth over their bodies. One that I saw was he was wearing a hat made out of the skin of animals, a thick and furry coat, pants and gloves.

As usual, Takana and Fuyuki were arguing with each other. to be honest, it was getting kind of embarrassing but since the people of Prosk were also shouting as to attract buyers and visitors, I decided not to pay it much attention.

Kihana was, as usual, trying to stop the two. She brought her books about medicine with her so she could read while we would take a break during our hunt.

Merry carried two swords. One was the sword she used to defeat Bladetree and the other one was the Bladetree’s weapon. The curved longsword. We’d been pretty much busy lately, so we didn’t have any time to take it to a blacksmith. After our hunting, we would directly go there.

Chance went and feed Sray while Risa was still accompanying us. I told her to stay put but she said she would not come hunting with us, only until we accept the job. I knew for sure that she didn’t make any puppy eyes nor was she begging but in my eyes, she was doing that. I caved in.

As the cold winds breezed to everyone and although the sun was doing its best to keep us warm, it wasn’t enough.

I didn’t notice anything out of the weird. It was just like any other day, after all.

Except, it wasn’t.

Suddenly, we heard screaming. It wasn’t the screams of sellers trying to attract buyers nor was it the screams of cart pullers as they screamed to their horses and Norjis. No. It was a sound I knew but one that I’d heard directly before. It was a sound that could make me shiver. One that could make me saw horrifying things.

“Monsters! Run for your lives!”

“What the hell are they doing here!?”

“Where are the guards!?”

Literally out of nowhere, a huge surge of people came running at our direction. As the roads were big enough for them to pass through, we just went to the sides as they frantically run for their lives, their faces had shown that they indeed saw something terrifying.

“What was that all about?” Takana said. Takana’s voice overlapped with the sound of the bell. It was loud, so it was probably a warning bell.

“T-They said monsters…did monsters breach the town…?” Kihana said.

“Really?” Fuyuki wasn’t buying it. “That’s the first time I heard monsters attacking towns. Weren’t this place “a barren wasteland” for monsters?”

She was right. The employee did say that.

“What do you guys want to do? Should we check it out?”

“Why are you asking us?” Takana furrowed his brows. “You’re the leader.”

Which option should I choose here? If we went there, without knowing what would come our way, I could potentially put my party in harm’s way. That’s not good especially since Risa’s here.

“I’ll go ahead and scout things out. Just wait for me here.” As I was about to ready to leave, Merry strongly hold my shirt.

“Wait a minute,” her tone was clearly angry. I turned around and I was right, she was angry. “You’re going alone again?”

“I-Is there a problem with that?”

“Yes. It’s too dangerous.”

“But I’ve been doing this before…” her hand was still strongly gripping my clothes. she wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. But…why now? I was always the one doing scouting before. Why would Merry stop me now? Even at the forest, she didn’t stop me.

“It’s different this time. If a monster can just attack a human town then it’s either they’re many of them or they are strong.” Merry said.

“S-She’s probably right, Terrin…” Kihana said. This time, she was holding her book more firmly. I could see in her face that she was worried, too. Fuyuki was having problems whether to let me go or not and Takana was being Takana.

“Well, if you guys say so…”

“You humans are babying him too much,” Risa declared. Though, what she said was loud and clear, nobody paid any attention at the remarks of the little child.

They probably do…

“Help!”

Not far from where we are, we heard a scream. At the direction where the scream came from, a rising smoke could be clearly seen.

We have to check that out. I looked towards the faces of my party and they were thinking the same.

Together, we went to the scene of the crime. At the end of the street, there was a right turn. And by scene of the crime, it was a literal one.

What the hell…is that?

Once a street full of bustling and probably respectable vendors that were once talking, laughing, and living, there was now a sickening scent of burnt woods and bodies. The smell alone could make you close your nose and eyes as the smell got worse.

The paths that were occasionally littered with mud were now stained by a vivid crimson liquid that secreted out of a body. A human body, to be precise.

Amidst the surreal chaos and death, a human stood, carrying a person on his shoulder. I said human not because I saw him as a ‘human’ but because he looked like one. Clearly, he wasn’t a normal human. He was very far from that.

The human devoid of life. He didn’t have any hair. He didn’t have any flesh at all. Well, apart from the rotting parts of his faces. Curiously, it had armor and a helmet.

What the hell is that? As I questioned who or what that was, it noticed us. It nonchalantly tossed the person he was carrying and proceeded to aim the sword he had towards us.

“It’s an,,,undead,” Fuyuki worryingly said. I looked at the rest of my party and based on the expression on their faces, this was going to be a hard battle.

If I recall correctly, they once faced off against an undead. They couldn’t beat it and I’d probably know the reason soon enough.

“It’s an undead knight, to be precise.” Risa corrected. I looked at her and saw that she was…happy. The little child had a huge smile on her face and glimmering eyes like when she would talk about her sister. It was as if the very scene and smell of death was her sunshine against a cold, cloudy morning.

Without any warning, the undead knight dashed forward, his sword aiming for me.

He’s fast. I can’t dodge this one.

“You idiot!” Takana shouted as he pushed me out of the way and used his shield to block the thrust. Takana’s shield was made of metal. It wasn’t made with the best but it the shield had proven useful so far. But it seemed it couldn’t handle the thrust of the undead knight as I heard a crackling sound the moment the sword touched the shield.

“Get back!” I shouted at my party as the rear was too close at the enemy.

He’s strong. Can we beat this one? Before that, I should get Risa to safety first.

“Takana, can you still fight?”

“Dumbass,” he looked at me and smile. “Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m the great Takana!”

Well, at least he’s in high spirits.

“I’ll take Risa in a safe place, you guys hold him off.”

“Yeah, get that nuisance out of here.” My party agreed.

“Risa’s not a nuisance!" That's not the point.

“I’ll be back.” as soon as we left, the undead knight attacked again.

They’ll be fine. It's just one enemy. What destruction could it possibly do?

*

After about five minutes of running, Terrin found a human house. It was crude and bland, just like every other houses and establishment in this repugnant town. Gosh, Shakna hated it here.

Before Terrin found the house, he knocked in every house he saw. No one answered and they even tried to hurt him as they didn’t want to be put in danger. Such was the nature of humans. Three thousand years had passed but they were still the same. Always had been the epitome of evil. Calling them a race would be too merciful. They should be called an animal. Yup, that barely sufficed.

The people inside the house agreed to take care of Shakna. “Don’t go anywhere, Risa. I’ll be back.” His back didn’t even turned once as he left in a sprint. Shakna was going to tell him something important but since he left in such a hurry, it was his fault.

Honestly, how can he just trust strangers? And humans, for that matter. Disgusting.

“It wasn’t nice to see you, at all. Have a bad day.” I unlocked the door and went outside. The outside of the house wasn’t destroyed yet. Hopefully, it would be. The scream of that woman from earlier was nothing short of wonders for my ears.

I wish I could hear that again. Seeing humans suffer is what life should be all about.

“Where are you going!?” with whom Shakna presumed was the father of the household, he ran and tried to stop me but he got scared as soon as he was about to unknowingly placed himself outside the door.

Do you really think a door would protect you? Pathetic.

Since the man decided to abandon what he had been asked to do, I was able to easily go to the place where they were fighting. Shakna remembered which way Terrin took, so it wasn’t that hard. I was a witch, and a wise one, thank you very much.

There they are.

Shakna still couldn’t believe the settings in front of my eyes. The smell of burning human bodies and destroyed possessions reminded me of my time when Shakna and Onee-chan would torture humans just for fun. Ahhh, good times.

As expected, they should be struggling. Can’t let Terrin die, though, otherwise Shakna would be dying too. Meh, Shakna’s going to watch them suffer for a little longer. Especially that Takana. It would be extremely lovely if he would lose a limb or two. He’s been calling Shakna a kid a lot lately, so that should be his forgiveness for his foolish remarks.

“Graaaaaa!” The undead knight, which was, by the way, Shakna’s favorite amongst them, aimed for Takana. Takana’s shield already had a cracked from the earlier attack and Shakna didn’t know if it would hold out again. Hopefully not.

The undead knight jumped high, leaving a footprint on the stone road. He was going to brought down his sword on Takana but instead of blocking it, he used his stupid brain and dodge it. Didn’t know he had one. Takana’s position before turned into rubble, showing how powerful the attack was.

Merry then swiftly entered the battle. Shakna liked Merry. At least half-half, just like how she was and she reminded me of Onee-chan. She was going to thrust her sword at the chest of the undead knight but it easily backed away. Merry gave chase and each attack was a flurry of speed but the undead knight wasn’t just going to let itself became a heap of rotting flesh as he easily blocked each one of them.

“Sal, Femel, Mo, rak! Ice Shard!” from afar, Fuyuki casted a spell. It was three ice shards. She was on the left side of the undead knight while Merry was on its right side, so she would have no problem launching her shards at their enemy.

“I did it!” Fuyuki shouted in glee. The undead knight pushed Merry backward as it turned around to deal with the three sharp ice shards in its body. But sadly, it only cut two of them as the other one hit him on the leg, severely severing it from his body as its thick and crimson blood slowly fell on the road.

The undead knight quickly picked up his severed leg and stepped back. Their moment of victory was as quickly cut off like the undead knight’s leg as he placed his leg back and it rejuvenated itself. This was why undead were tough opponents. It’s not because of their strength nor speed but because they could heal themselves and not feel any pain in the process.

They grimaced as they saw the undead knight healed itself.

“Oh, yeah!” Takana shouted. “I remembered this disgusting piece of meat can heal itself.”

“Do you guys remember how to defeat it?” Terrin exclaimed. He should have waited for Shakna before he left. It was not Shakna’s problem, at least, for now.

“We didn’t really defeat, remember?” Fuyuki said. “We gave up before we even fought them.”

“Sorry…I can’t recall either…” as a priest, she was behind all the times. Though Shakna called her pathetic before, she was using her head right.

“Hyaaaa!” With absurd speed, the undead knight went in. He slashed Merry aside but she was able to block it, though she got thrown away by the immense strength.

Next was Takana, he tried to probably use a skill as he shouted “Bash!” but he was met with a charge, causing Takana to be forcefully move out of the way.

Terrin was behind Takana and Merry. He was observing the undead knight this whole time. Though the road was wide enough for two carts to pass through, it was barely enough for him to move through.

Terrin was on the way of the undead knight but was met with same fate as two, he was pushed aside. Three of the vanguard were pushed aside but not because that was intentional. No. It was because the undead knight was targeting someone.

“Fuyuki, he’s coming for you!”

Yes, he was coming for that cat-loving clingy woman. She was dead, for sure. Finally, she would shut up. Meh, Shakna would just console Terrin if he cried. In terms of manipulating humans, they were like kasaks. Bottom of the chain.

As Fuyuki was about to meet her creator, it all happened quickly but not enough for Shakna not to realize what was happening.

Fuyuki, to Shakna’s delight and dismay, got impaled on her left shoulder. She screamed agonizingly as blood dripped down from her shoulder. That familiar painful screaming from humans evoked feelings I hadn’t felt for a long time. It felt great! The rest of the party watched in shocked partly because she got impaled but also because of that. That was why I was dismayed.

A spear came down. It would be more precise to call it a glowing spear. And it came down on the body of the undead knight. Accurately, on its neck. It momentarily stopped on its tracks and just like a wind blowing at a dust, it vanished. That was why if it weren’t for that man, Fuyuki’s heart would have hole in it. A literal one.

What the heck! That was the good part! Shakna’s so angry!

‘Fuyuki!” the shy girl shouted. “May Shaina's sacred mercies envelop you…Heal!” after she healed her, she embraced her while crying. The wound instantly healed while the rest of the party looked at her with regrets in their eyes.

That’s to be expected. The weak doesn’t last long.

“You kids all right?” the man asked. He was robust. Clearly, he was a man not to be trifled with. “Sorry, I was a tad bit late.”

What should I do? Should I just get out and make Shakna’s self known? Yeah, Shakna will do that. Coming up with an excuse is exhausting.

“No, it was thanks to you she’s alive. Thank you very much.” Terrin even bowed. Wow, he was that grateful, huh?

Since he was that grateful, Shakna decided to show Shakna’s gratitude to his marvelous actions.

“Risa, what are you doing?”

As they all saw, I kicked the man. This was frustrating. If I only I was a bit taller, I would have punched him instead…

“Sorry about that. She might have mistaken you for the enemy.”

“You’re wrong about that. He is the enemy.”

The man laughed. “I’m Captain Kris Ledlan, stationed at the Prosk Castle. The bell hadn’t been used for a long time, so our response was delayed. Oh, but don’t worry, the other soldiers had killed the enemy already.”

“Thank God for that…”

“But why did they attack?” Fuyuki said. She was already standing on her feet. A priest’s healing was no joke.

“Currently, we have no idea. There had been sightings of monsters increasing but that’s just pure speculation. Anyway, since you people can fight, we’d appreciate it if you lend us a hand when we need it.”

“We’ll try…”

“That’s good enough for me,” the soldier left.

If they want to survive in this world, they have to get stronger. Right now, they’re just food. Meh, it’s not like Shakna has to worry about them. Shakna will just worry about Terrin. That’s right. Only Terrin.