A pained scream reached their ears.
Kneeling, the black knight with the ominous sword held the body of a young church maid in his arms. Around him, the missing group of adventurers.
The girl had died from a blow to the head, her blood soaking her clothes and staining her skin.
In the group bearing the insignia of the Church of Fersian, all were dead, with caved-in skulls or torn skin from bites.
And at his feet, the group leader Sojep lay, staring in horror at what was before him.
"What—what have you done?"
Deep in the forest, a battle was taking place.
Cling Clang
"Hyaaa!" With a powerful strike, Cuar sent the wanderer flying. Only to be immediately thrown against a tree himself.
Strong.
But the problem wasn't just their strength.
They were fast too.
Dodging another's weapon, Cuar grabbed him by the belt and used him as a shield against an incoming wanderer. The axe sliced through its arm, embedding itself deep in its chest.
"Ho HAAA!"
Without hesitation, Cuar grabbed the open shoulder and tore the arm off, freeing the axe. The wanderer tried to retrieve it, but Cuar grabbed its wrist and yanked, breaking it and then seizing its neck.
As soon as he finished off those two, he went for more, but they had already come for him.
A child wanderer approached from the left side, hidden by a tree, and stabbed a knife into Cuar's thigh, sending a jolt of pain through the entire area.
He knocked the wanderer down with a blow. He wanted to finish it off, but another was already charging at him with two blades the size of his head.
Elsewhere, Fredar was engaged in a desperate fight. He wasn't a frontline fighter, which made him a weak target for the wanderers.
But he refused to be intimidated.
The issue was that Fredar wasn't used to fighting creatures that didn't die from bleeding. His knives and blades were ineffective.
"These damn things."
His blades cut through one's joints, but it was useless. They swung their weapons like ropes and charged head-first at him.
Fredar had reached Ruby Rank more due to years of experience than raw power. For him, advancing beyond Ruby was nothing short of a miracle.
Once someone reached Diamond Rank, they were considered a legend among adventurers. But he had never left Fersian. The Adventurer's Guild had classified him as Ruby Rank more as a honorary badge for his 30+ years of service.
But he wasn't going to be brought down by some corpses of the past.
"Come on, I've got enough years and experience to share with all of you!" he shouted with conviction.
As for Vashina—
"Tsk, what the hell are you?"
She had taken down three easily, thinking her plan had worked.
If not for what stood before her.
The scarred wanderer stared at her expressionlessly, but Vashina could feel it was mocking her.
Her comrades were dying—four had been killed, and the rest had surrounded her, leaving her at a seven-to-one disadvantage.
Sigh
What came next wouldn't be easy. But if the ones who escaped made it out alive, reinforcements wouldn't take long. And Vashina hoped they would send a force strong enough to end this once and for all.
After all, the wanderers had become more of an enforced responsibility than a mission.
Not that Vashina underestimated the other missions—but ever since the wanderers arrived, group deployment had become mandatory twice a week.
She hated losing the freedom she had gained since her father died.
More than anything…
Focus on the battle.
Vashina drove her weapon through a wanderer's neck. She struck the spinning head with her palm, throwing off another so she could dodge a third's attack.
Using the back of her weapon, she hooked onto a wanderer twice her size and weight to launch herself out of a pincer attack's reach.
She couldn't let her guard down—two more were behind her, including the scarred one.
She ducked under the first attack, but the second landed a knee to her face, slamming her to the ground.
She rolled and sprang back up, just in time to avoid a foot that nearly crushed her skull.
Spit
The knee left a mark on her face, and now one of her red-stained teeth was missing a fang.
"Haha, maybe it's because I'm new to this whole Saint thing, but your punches still feel like boulders."
Vashina was strong—possibly the strongest in this forest. But even she couldn't handle twelve arms with just two.
Wait, the solution to that is simple.
She gripped her weapon tightly and pointed it forward.
"If two hands can't handle twelve, then I'll just cut them off! HAHAHA!"
Despite her disheveled appearance, even if all 21 wanderers charged her at once, she would still win. After all, a Saint wasn't someone who could be taken down by mere creatures.
Sure, she'd come out more dead than alive—but she would win.
Fall.
The sky began to weep, and the drizzle soon turned to a downpour.
Thunder.
In a brief flash of light, Vashina's eyes began to glow, and her hair seemed to come alive. Her body emitted a red steam that evaporated the raindrops on contact.
Darkness deepened, and everyone began to lose sight of their enemies.
Fredar and Cuar began to move, vanishing from the wanderers' sight, and the wanderers lost track of them.
The undead could still sense the living—but perception was never as fast as vision.
Thunder.
In each flash, both sides could be seen exchanging blows, only to vanish again into the night.
As for Vashina, she was just getting warmed up. Despite the darkness, she never stopped emitting a faint glow that revealed her position.
Even with her location exposed, none of the wanderers rushed in.