Gara staggered. She was trapped in a world of darkness, which echoed with hellish screams.

I’m alive. Blind, her ears buzzing, the war-leader clung to that thought, holding onto it with religious zeal.

As her vision cleared and wails of the damned faded, thuds of heavy objects against frozen ground entered Gara’s ear.

Her eyes regained focus, revealing a snowfield littered with thousands of her brave companions. Dead? Are all my followers dead?

The corpses’ hair turned white, their faces twisted into horrified grimaces, their eyes glazed in their final terror.

“Aaah!” an enraged shout echoed behind Gara.

Who’s that? She spun. “Hina?”

Gara’s honor guard still lived. Their hands trembled, and they had dropped their weapons. Milo sobbed on her knees, her hair whiter than snow, but even the weakest of Gara’s lieutenants had survived that fiendish scream.

Gara sucked in an icy breath. Her head spun. The horror of her reality unhinged her to the point she failed to realize she had a living enemy. An enemy which claimed four thousand lives with a shout. She turned, jerking her head to face the ominous giant.

He hadn’t moved. Standing at ease, he tilted his head, his inquisitive gaze fixed on her.

Gara’s skin crawled from being examined with the fascination of a child who discovered a novel bug.

Demon! Monster! She thought while the hulk stared at her. Then another realization dawned on her. We will die.

“Run!” Gara screamed, her voice quivering. “Run! I will block him! Warn the matriarch! Tell her a demon is coming!”

She hollered a frantic warning, yet the hulk didn’t move a muscle. Is he mocking us? Is he enjoying himself? Earthmother, he is no man; what creature did we run into?

While erratic thoughts assailed Gara’s mind, Hina moved. She was Gara’s strongest, most trusted friend and lieutenant. In response to her movement, the fiend’s muscles coiled, ready to dash at Hina.

No! Gara sent a surge of Qi into her legs and hurtled. She gripped her heavy ax in her right, while summoning three throwing knives to her left. It’s too fast.

Gara ran in desperation. Her blades flew to block the giant’s path, but her effort proved futile. The creature seemed omniscient. It didn’t glance at her daggers as it slapped them away with a casual swing of its rusty sword.

“Hina!” Gara despaired, watching the monster leave hazy afterimages, swooping to devour her blood-sister.

Hina turned and stared at the hulk bounding towards her. She grit her teeth and raised her saber to block, showing the bearing of a true warrior. Meanwhile, the demon maintained the disinterested expression as he chopped down with its sword. The antique blade lit yellow just before landing. It severed steel like butter, then cleaved through Hina’s head and torso.

Blood sprayed, yet the jet which should’ve soaked the monster disappeared into thin air. Gara gaped in terror as Hina’s two halves landed with wet thuds. A blink later, a fist-sized orb of blood appeared and fell onto the snow with a sickening splash.

Gara’s guts churned from the sound. She wanted to hurl, but this was no time for weakness. I will die a war-leader! Not an infirm, cowering man!

Despite faltering and stumbling while she ran after the giant, Gara regained her balance. However, she and Hina were the only ones who moved. Her other lieutenants stood petrified.

“Flee, you fools!” she shouted, jolting Wana and Cali, but Milo remained frozen. She kept her life by a thread and was in no condition to sprint.

The monster rushed Wana. Gara followed its lead, then changed direction mid-step, running to protect Cali. Sorry Wana. I can’t reach you in time.

As Gara silently apologized, the hulk swung its butcher’s blade at her lieutenant’s neck.

“Fo—” Wana tried to shout and strike the giant with her ax, but the aberration caught its shaft. It severed Wana’s head, then snatched the ax out of her twitching hand.

I can’t casually grab Wana’s ax mid-swing. Gods, what is that thing? Gara reached Cali and ran next to her. It’s faster than me, but if it attacks Cali, I can protect her.

Gara erronously thought. When she heard the demon approach, she prepared to pivot and block its attack, but the fiend never attacked. The air screamed and then Cali’s blood splashed Gara’s face.

The war-leader watched Wana’s ax, covered in gore, fly and fall into the snow far ahead.

“Aaaah!” Gara bellowed while braking. They are all dead.

She glanced at Milo and saw her struggling to stand. If I die, you’re dead. But if I take him down with me, you can warn the tribe that monsters more terrifying than Greater Fiends exist.

Gara didn’t delude herself, believing she would survive this encounter. She was dead. She only wanted to eliminate this threat for the sake of her tribe and pass away, knowing her surviving friends and family were safe.

Twenty meters away, the demon stopped. It examined Gara with interest, infuriating her even more.

We’re not toys! She grit her teeth and circulated Qi.

“Sabertooth’s Pounce!” Gara shouted, lunging towards the giant with supernatural speed.

Before she took her second step, the fiend charged to meet her. She screamed, swinging her heavy ax with both hands, while the monster slashed with its sword single-handedly.

The bang deafened Gara. Her hands went numb and her lungs shook, suffocating her. She tasted blood, then realized she was flying.

The war-leader slammed into the frozen ground like a meteor, spraying ice. Her arms throbbed, her innards quaked, and her vision swam. She weighed over a hundred and thirty kilos, yet the fiend sent her flying like a child.

What the hells? She kipped up, crunching ice beneath her feet. Ten meters away, the fiend stood, still gazing at her.

Gara hissed. In the corner of her eye, she noticed a deep notch on her ax.

He can crush me with brute strength. In that case… “Mountain Burial!” Gara howled, charging the fiend.

Her Qi blazed madly, connecting her body with the frozen earth. Her trembling arms steadied, her roiling blood calmed, and her muscles and organs stopped hurting. It was a stopgap measure, but good enough.

The giant slashed towards her, and hatred flooded Gara’s mind. It lasted an instant, but that revulsion was the most intense emotion of her life.

She regained clarity and saw her ax locked with the demon’s sword. Thankfully, the earthen light reinforced it.

That was a strike? This fiend cultivates? “Sweeping Dragon Tail?” she shouted, shocked, still considering the implications of that technique.

“Could you at least not yell the names of my maneuvers?” The fiend muttered and Gara shuddered.

I must kill it. She gripped her ax with her right, while moving a katar from her Ring of Holding into her left hand.

“Death In The Dark!” Gara punched towards the demon’s throat, but the creature moved with impossible speed.

Its hand blurred before clasping Gara’s wrist so tight her bones creaked.

It dodged and grabbed me and has the spare strength to lock blades with me?

“Are you interested in being my subordinate?” the demon mocked Gara.

It’s deceiving me. “Dragon’s Bite,” she shouted, biting at the giant’s neck.

The Qi deficiency hit like a hammer. Then she realized the punch to the guts wasn’t her dwindling Qi, but the demon. It smashed its knee into her abdomen and sent her staggering back.

Gara missed and howled in indignation. Subconsciously, she wished to live. She didn’t want to use her ultimate technique, but she had no choice. She could only use the Blood Saturating warriors’ final trump. For the tribe!

With a thought, she started a firestorm in her body. Her blood blazed and her muscles withered, unleashing all the Qi they stored over the years since she had entered the Blood Saturating realm.

The fiend retreated, showing some reaction for the first time, but Gara wouldn’t let him. She sent a surge of Qi into her legs. Tearing muscles and ligaments, she pounced.

No time for a strike. Instead, Gara cleaved at the fiend’s head without technique. A tsunami of Qi flooded her ax. The weapon flaked, disintegrating from the surging power.

The fiend was fast. Gara was faster. The monster tilted its head and stabbed at her neck with its sword, but Gara didn’t care. The fiend had to die.

Her hatred erupted, and Gara blacked out once more. By the time she regained her senses, she sat on the frozen ground. The fiend before her had suffered a mortal wound. Her crumbling ax protruded from its torso while its blood sprayed into the sky.

Gara then realized a crimson fountain gushed from her neck. She moved to staunch the bleeding.

At least I killed it before I died! The tribe will remain safe. Gara smiled, covering her throat with her hand, as if that would buy her time. Hopefully, I’ll see it die.

Then, her smile froze. I lost too much blood. I’m seeing things.

The fiend ripped her ruined ax from its chest. A red geyser erupted with more blood than humans had, while the monster’s bones cracked and popped, setting into place.

Gara’s eyes dilated with terror as the monster’s flesh and skin wriggled like clumps of worms. The wound rapidly healed, while blood slowed to a trickle before drying up.

The monster rose.

“That hurt. You know—” it spewed a jet of blood, then wiped its soiled face. “I think this is the closest I’ve been to death. There was this guy who blew my liver to bits, but you still win. Ripping my heart out of place and snapping my spine in three hurt more. Fortunately, even a severed head functions for several seconds…”

Gara shuddered, unable to make sense of those words. Liver blown to bits, torn heart, snapped spine, severed head… Greater Fiends can survive that? No. I killed a Greater Fiend before. This is something more terrifying. What kind of creature did we run into? Is this the king of Fiends?

That was Gara’s last thought before Book pierced her brain.