The answers came to them as blows were exchanged.

That demon boar had to be an alpha. A boss. It happened often among monsters, where one of them would rise above the rest, refining its Essence a bit more because of some change in its habitat.

But that…

That was ridiculous.

Such were Alice’s thoughts, as her eyes darted through the fight in front of her.

Alary stood at the ready, reacting fast to the mole of muscle charging at her. Her sword flourished and her figure leaped over its massive body, releasing slicing gales which easily found their mark, and as she maintained balance while in the air, she also made sure to land within the beast’s vision, keepìng its attention focused on her. Luckily for them, the cave wasn’t big enough for the beast to gain the devastating momentum it reached when it first appeared, yet each time it thrashed about, it felt like the whole mountain was going to come down crashing on their heads.

It’s strength was uncanny but it was also so massive it left almost no room for the rest of demon boars to get in, granting Gallathorn enough of a leeway to get rid of the ones who dared to cross, the smell of burnt flesh permeating the air.

Using The Fire-Shaper as a spear felt like cutting paper. And Alary keeping the beast occupied allowed him to be close to the cave’s entrance, where the remaining rocks created a natural obstacle for the demon boars attempting to rush in.

“Aly… what in the hell…?” Alice muttered as she enveloped the creature with her seventh sense. “That’s a 4th order beast!”

No wonder Alary had so many injuries. A 4th order beast was equivalent to a peak Tempered Essence realm adventurer, and given her exhaustion after using so much mana to escape, plus her incapability to use her greatest advantage inside the narrow corridor, it was no wonder she had lost consciousness by the end.

“It is!” She managed to reply, dodging another blow and making distance. “But not only that!”

A squeal, a quake, and the beast turned around, its tusks crushing rock as if butter, spreading stones and dust in its wake. Anger and bloodlust made it crush another demon boar to death against the wall. One of many, Alary thought; she had caught similar sights in her efforts to dodge the beast and kill it during their fight inside the corridor.

A demon boar who didn’t care about its species… How was that possible?

They were supposed to behave for their kind, not against it.

Alice's seventh sense ran through the creature once again, and this time, it found something strange. Around one of the beast’s tusks, there was an unusual cloth tied up. She called it a cloth in her head for how it behaved, yet it possessed Essence and was made of a material that could hardly be called cloth.

It could hardly be called anything at all, really, for it was made of shadows, much like the attribute of its Essence.

A few steps coming from behind pulled her out of her thoughts then. “Miss Dothein… Harold can’t fight. One of his arms is broken. “

Garry still held his hammer, yet despite his usual stoicism, one could hear his voice being permeated by worry.

Alice winced at this. She had already suspected it, yet she still held some hopes. Having an injured person with them would make their escape much harder. Given how the situation had developed, they had no choice but to defeat their foe and made their way outside, as they didn’t know if there were more beasts like the one in front of them.

But now, they were short one man…

“Who says I can’t fight?!” Harold shouted, his arm a mess of tied up cloth, using parts of his broken shield as a splint. His healthy hand held his mace, and his courage. “I may not be able to help the Squad leader, but I can get rid of the smaller rats!”

Alice nodded, aware their situation called for desperate measures, and also knowing the pain he must be enduring was horrible. “I’ll have to trouble you then, Sir Ferrou.”

Harold nodded back, and disappeared through the dust with Garry following suit. A 4th Order beast was quite above their ability, even if they had been at their peak performance, which left Alice and Alary as the only ones who could deal with it.

Another quake. This time the creature’s anger flared up, and it decided to send a storm of stones towards Alary, burying its tusk in the hard rock with the ease of one who dives in the river. To this, she summoned the wind once again, deviating everything in front of her with a gust, yet it wasn’t enough, and some makeshift projectiles hit her thighs and shoulder, forcing her back.

Time which the beast used to charge.

“Erinyes!” A female voice shouted, and soon the whole cave was illuminated by a second source, much like the staff Gallathorn wielded.

Flame roared in the form of a fire serpent whose jaw and fangs went straight for the throat of the beast, yet before such a threat, the giant demon boar halted its advance and hurled itself against the snake.

The aftermath, much to Alice’s shock, was its massive body going through her spell as if the mighty serpent had been but smoke. And as its charge didn’t stop with her summon’s disappearance, she realized too late she hadn’t sought refuge inside the temple’s barrier.

“Oh no, you won’t!” Alary surged from the side, fast as an arrow, stabbing her sword on the beast’s sides.

The beast squealed, whirled about, then heaved and purposely threw itself against the ground, on the side Alary was. She managed to pull out her sword just in time before the cave shook again due to the strength and weight with which the beast slammed itself.

One would think that with such size, the creature would be sluggish, yet they had but one breath of rest before it stood on its hooves once again, the red glow of its eyes fixed on the swordswoman. All the while, Alary’s figure heaved from exhaustion, and many new injuries were flaring all around her body despite the rush of battle she was currently experiencing.

The health potion had given her a second wind, but her and her sword’s mana were almost gone, and without her wind, she was but a piece of dead flesh before her enemy’s great range.

From there on, the situation would only worsen.

And to add insult to injury, Alice’s seventh sense found another reason for despair.

Monsters and adventurers were quite different, yet they had one thing in common: they increased their strength by refining the Essence of their fallen foes. Such process was usually lengthy, and required the beast to be safe to devour their prey, but what Alice was seeing through her seventh sense defied explanation.

The demon boar was refining the Essence of its killed kin as it fought against Alary. What’s more, it seemed to be about to reach the 5th order.

“And not only that!” Her friend had managed to say before, and now it finally made sense in her mind.

Everything suddenly fit together, and explained how it was possible for Alary to be having such a hard time against that beast. A major realm was a huge difference, much more between the Tempered Essence realm and the Manifested Essence realm, yet if the latter is at its weakest, and the former is at its strongest…

Alary fought inside a corridor, exhausted, unable to dodge its charge, unable to dodge the attacks of the demon boars on the way…

And most of those beasts had been killed by her foe, a foe capable of refining their Essence at the same time it was fighting…

Alice couldn't help but wonder how her friend was still alive.

She couldn’t help but wonder how they were going to get out alive.

“Thanks!” The man said, then pulled the sword out of the old man’s chest, provoking a surge of blood to spill. “Well, my clothes are already stained.”

“Old man Ji?!”

“Father?!”

“Old man Ji has been killed!”

“Demon boars? Again?”

“Is the barrier still up?”

Rei couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed.

“Little Ri, go look for Mira. Now!” Uncle Jeff shouted, pushing her behind him.

She nodded, her mental strength not broken yet, and turned around. Through her mind, the corpses of his friends, eaten, decaying, flashed across her mind, reminding her that she had already seen her fair amount of blood. Her steps guided her towards her aunt’s house, where they had some leaves grandma Mira had planted.

She should be there.

But she never reached the door. She didn’t even get the chance to get out of sight: an arrow came flying and dug itself right in front of her.

“No running away! Or else, we’ll kill him.” She heard someone yell, making her face in the direction the voice came from.

Uncle Jeff was surrounded by three figures, while the fourth held a bow… and was the one who spoke just now. A woman, black hair, red uniform.

Red uniform? She repeated in her head, yet found no guild in her memories which used such vestments.

“Good girl.”

“Oh, look at her. She looks like a fairy.”

“I call first.”

“Oh, c’mon. The last one was yours.”

“Cause I called first.”

“Stop talking about Little Ri like that!” Jeff flared with rage, his Essence pulsing, preparing. “Come at me if you’ve got guts!”

“Teppei, can we kill him already?”

“Not yet, unless you don’t really want the girl? Also, Focard, you called first last time. So you’ll go after Briss. She is still too far away anyway, so better to start the job and as you do it, make your way towards her. She won’t run, it doesn’t seem like she can abandon this old man here.”

The one called Briss threw his arms in the air, his blond hair reflecting the sunlight. Teppei, on the other hand, smiled sarcastically, and decided to play with his black ponytail as he stared at Jeff before asking, “How many villagers are here?”

“Like I’ll answer!” Jeff spat, keeping tabs on the men around him. The three of them seemed to be in their thirties, and through his seventh sense he realized they were in the Tempered Essence realm. Briss and Focard, in the first stage, while Teppei seemed to be in the second.

He wasn’t able to reach the woman with the bow, yet he suspected she was also in the Tempered Essence realm.

What was a squad of unknown adventurers doing in Gale, killing wantomly?

Guilds harassing villagers in another’s territory wasn’t anything new. During his youth he had seen it many times, actions made to test the waters, so to speak, and to know if a guild was still strong enough to defend its borders.

But to spill blood like that?

That would only call for war.

“Oh, you’ll answer alright.” Teppei said, simply, and with a light sidestep, entered Rei’s view. “Hey, girl! Come here before I sever the neck of this old man!”

“Don’t, Little Ri!” Jeff shouted. Two young Tempered Essence realm adventures, he might have lasted a bit, but against someone a minor realm higher than him…

Yet even then, he couldn’t let them get their hands on Rei.

“Shut him up.” Teppei ordered, and with a wave of his hand, an arrow flew right past his head.

Jeff had no time to see it, much less react to it in any way. The projectile found its mark, and dug itself deep into his left shoulder, throwing him off balance, forcing him to meet the ground.

“Uncle Jeff!”

“Let me tell you something, old man.” Teppei crouched right beside him, his eyes looking at the hesitant girl. “We have orders to kill everyone in this village… but we don’t usually kill women who satisfy us. Tell her to come peacefully, and we’ll spare her life.”

“Orders?” Jeff brought a hand to his injury, cursing himself for being so careless. “Whose?”

“I’ve said my piece. Now it’s your choice.” He then stood up, then glanced at his subordinates and nodded in their direction.

They unsheathed their swords then, and turned towards the onlookers, villagers whose Essence refinement barely reached the Nascent Essence second stage.

Of course, they knew that. Thought Jeff, connecting dots. If they had orders, they were chosen for a reason.

And someone else also thought the same. That someone moved out of sight, not alerting the bow user.

“W-what are they doing?!”

“Fast, run! To the other side!”

“F-Father?”

“Dear, we must run! Your father is dead!”

The villagers began to spread, some of them with their kids in their arms, yet blood was soon spilled, blood belonging to the son of old man Ji, who had been too dumbfounded to move in time. Focard and Briss advanced with the ease of professionalism and enjoyment, their Essence refinement level high enough to catch up to them in just a few breaths, their slices deadly enough to almost call it a cull.

A woman, crying for help, not beautiful enough to catch their attention.

A begging old man, his head severed.

A man wielding a broom, fierce in the face of death, yet not strong enough to avert it.

Focard caught a woman whose figure he found alluring, and pulled at her clothes forcefully, tearing them apart. The woman tried to resist, to cover her swaying breast, but his hand was quicker, and grasped it with no care for pain, molding it out of shape. He seemed pleased, for he nodded to himself as his fingers played.

“Stop!” Shouted Rei then, which made Teppei raise his hand. The signal halted the other’s steps. “I’ll comply… but let the others go!”

Forcard let go of the woman with disappointment, but as soon as Rei entered his vision, it was replaced by a smile. He saw her take some hesitant steps, which only made his desire further flare up. “Fuck it, Briss. I called F-”

He never got the chance to finish the sentence, as his jaw was dislocated by a fist, knocking him off balance. The attacking figure then turned around and kicked his torso, causing a crack to come out from his chest, launching him against the ground, where he bounced a few times before landing in a mess of arms, legs and blood.

Teppei looked at the figure, revealing a slight surprise on his face. “So it seems there is someone in this dot in the map that actually knows how to fight.”