Searching through my spoils, there's nothing of any real value. What wastrels they are. Though, I do pocket quite a handful of copper and even some silver coins. Sixty nine of them in fact.

Nice.

I also found some dried meat, but I sure as hell ain't eating that crap. I'm not sure who's jizz is slobbered over it, so I ain't even gonna touch it.

Speaking of jizz, I turn over to some motionless bodies. With all the lacerations and bruising, not to mention subsequent infections, I would usually assume that these people were dead, but… wait, are they dead? I mean, looking at their eyes, I only see a cold, dead demeanour. And you can tell a lot from just the eyes.

Even if they aren't human… They're also midgets. What a sad existence these guys are.

Prodding one, she seems to still be breathing. Surprising. It looks like today, I'll have to open my mind a little.

"Wanna die?" I ask one of them.

It garners no response, not that I expected any.

So I'll take their silence as a yes.

After gathering the same response from all six of them, I quickly and painlessly end them.

I've seen people struggle to commit a mercy killing, though I've done this numerous times in the past. Perhaps that was the reason the other guards stayed away from me.

They were most obviously jealous of my superior capabilities when compared to themselves. Mhm, that was the case, wasn't it, Lily?

I gain a kaw of approval. Heh, I always suspected of such.

I leave the cave, and fast forward a couple days and voila!

I'm finally out of that monster infested crack zone of a forest.

Nothing much else happened in the forest beside me just trekking through woodlands. Making sure to stay on the edge of the forest, I limit any encounter to simply wild beasts, serving as a good source of food. Sleeping was a pain and I kind of just wanted to enter some kind of society and take a proper nap.

Exiting the woodlands, now I'm in an ever expanding plain… Grass as far as I can see. Lovely.

Please end me.

Looking at the long journey ahead of me, I see something off in the distance. Seems to be a fight of some sort.

But I just cannot be asked to help. I mean, I might help if they were closer, but at that distance? Not happening.

I walk in a direction opposite to the conflict.

Sleeping under the stars and munching on a rabbit's leg, Lily stays up for first watch, whilst I sleep. It was a rotation roster that we devised when we camped in the forest. Despite her looks, Lily is quite the clever bird.

I'm not sure what specific breed of bird she is, but I assume she's an offshoot of a night crow. A rather peculiar bird if I dare say. Her white feathers a stark contrast to the usual black and she was a magic beast as well. Capable of harnessing the essence of the moon.

A very peculiar bird indeed.

I gaze at the scattered stars in the sky, the focal points of the Astra Kingdom.

I'm not sure where to go, but I'll probably flee the country. Though, I don't have map. Not that I know how to read a map… But that's beside the point, I'll just keep travelling until stuff happens, then we'll see.

"Kakaw!"

"Shut up,"

Lemme sleep! I know it ain't my shift yet!

*Growl!*

What? Are you growling at me now, eh?

*GRRR!* *Ruff Ruff!*

Waking up, I'm thoroughly vexed as I scan my surroundings.

And sacred stars mate. Of course a pack of black hounds had to come annoy me. Not to mention, these black hounds look bigger than usual.

Looking around me, there were, one… two… four of them, not counting the cubs and juveniles in the back. There were at least three of those.

What's with this bad luck streak? Who cursed me?

Lily! Why didn't you warn me earlier?! My silent glare meets Lily's betrayed look. Why are you loooking betrayed? I trusted you, y'know? If anything I should be the one giving that look!

*Awoo!*

The call of the alpha brings me back to reality, as they simultaneously lunge at me from all angles.

Ducking under one, I grapple it from beneath and pin it to the ground, concurrently stabbing it.

Quickly leaving a mangled corpse on the ground, demoralising the other hounds from approaching!

Or that was what should have happened. Instead, the blade just made a couple small knicks on its mangled fur. The hound even manages to counter, swiping my arm and drawing blood.

However, some timely essence blades do a decent job of scoring some blood. Allowing me the room to back off.

Sacred stars! What kind of hound is this!?

They most certainly aren't normal, as any normal beast would've died long after attacks like those.

Not to mention that these beasts smell like rot and dirt. Hounds weren't this disgusting last I checked.

Once again, the hounds drew near fares bared in a low growl, trying to surround me again.

"Gods damn it," that was when I realised something different about these hounds, their mangled fur as well as their blood red eyes, and the faint signs of decay and rot around their body. All of these pointed to a different beast as these peculiarities most certainly do not exist on normal hounds.

It was a barghest.

I had truly underestimated his enemy this time, to think I would get pincered by barghests! And a pack of them at that!

Barghests, unlike common black hounds which can be found in virtually any plains area, are much more dangerous. Although they looked extremely similar, they were leagues apart in strength. To make a basic comparison, a singular healthy barghest could take on twenty black hounds and still come out victorious, but that isn't to say that it would survive its wounds either. Although barghests were extremely strong, they were not of a magical nature and their wounds did not heal easily and were incredibly susceptible to infection, often being their cause of death.

This could be seen in the barghests around me, who had various patches of rot and decay on their bodies and did not seem to be in a healthy state, as compared to the juveniles and cubs that stayed in the back. They were pristine, most likely from being kept out of battle due to their inability to properly heal from fights.

This may be a hard fight, but it could also be real easy if a certain bird could aim properly.

I mean come on! Don't waste your essence just barraging them!

They have weak points all over their festered wounds!

Think Lily THINK!

If you aim there, then they die and we go back to sleep!

Sigh, she doesn't do that. But hey, at least she's buying time and taking their attention. This allows me to accurately aim and plink an arrow right through the chest of one of them. The bolt goes deep through it's decayed wound.

It falls to the ground lifeless.

I look at my quiver, only five bolts left huh?

Seeing their kin drop dead, the other two Barghests become enraged. The alpha still distracted by a constant slew of essence blades.

I hold a tight defence, slashing them as soon as they draw near. However, they ignore such negligible attacks and ram themselves at me. Kicking one of them in the snout I wrestle the other, driving away its foul maw which bites and snaps at me. It's strong, but I sneak my machete around its neck and reopening old wounds.

It flails madly, shredding my cloak forcing me to take distance, but I'm sure it'll die now, it's wounds are severe, and it's blood loss seems immense.

Tss, I suck in a breath of cold air. I really exerted my arm doing that.

The other bargest, seeing the sight of its dead kin and another on its last breaths pushed it over the top. It bursts into a frenzied rage. It howled into the sky and abandoned all posturing, going absolutely berserk.

It charges straight at me, ready to rip me to shreds! But it was reckless, allowing an iron bolt to embed itself in its cranium.

Hm, that should be all, right? Just gotta snipe that alpha then I can take a good nights rest.

Good job me!

*Grrr*

I hear a growling behind me. Didn't I just kill the other two?

Facing the sounds, I see three barghests all posturing in a low stance, ready to pounce on me.

Did they multiply? No wait, these guys are much smaller than the others.

It was the cubs left behind. They had come to start another fight.

Because, of course they would. Anything to make life miserable.