On the other side, Shalin heard the explosion and turned sharply. A bad feeling rose in her heart. She was about to head back to check on Dante.
But as she turned, she heard the sound of air being cut. She instantly drew her side sword and slashed behind her. A reflexive blind strike met with a ding.
‘A hidden weapon… troublesome… it’s a trap…’
Turning, she saw no one, but three arrows flew from a tree. However, their speed was too slow in Shalin’s eyes. At least the archer wasn’t using assassin-style arrowheads—this was an amateur killer.
Shalin flicked her wrist, and three daggers flew out. The daggers and arrows collided and deflected. The arrows stuck into the ground, while a small knife embedded itself in the archer’s forehead.
The archer fell, bleeding profusely, and left this world.
Shalin pulled out her dagger and saw a crouching demihuman emerge from behind a tree. He pulled down his hood, revealing a pair of wolf ears. His eyes were fierce, but he only clicked his tongue very lightly.
Wolf Half-beast: “…Tsk. Xiaofeng, you need to practice your archery properly after this mission.”
‘A second mercenary…’
Without hesitation, he grabbed a pair of swords and charged forward.
He was fast.
But no matter how fast, he couldn’t match Shalin’s reaction.
She observed his attacking posture, his grip strength and center of gravity. She determined he was a brute—his weight was all on his left hand, making his wide-open style easy to handle.
The wolfman’s sword came down, but Shalin quickly stepped back, forcing him to lift his right foot and change from a slash to a thrust. The moment the blade extended, Shalin drew a dagger and parried.
Clang!
The wolf half-beast was thrown off balance by the force. He then stabilized and launched a series of attacks.
‘What’s with this human woman?! She hasn’t even chanted or cast a spell, but she can predict my moves…!’
Shalin didn’t give him time to think. She drew another throwing knife from her sleeve and tossed it. The knife had a diamond-shaped engraving.
He instinctively dodged, but from the corner of his eye he saw the knife sticking into a tree trunk. He glanced at the dagger, but in that brief distraction, a hand grabbed his throat and slammed him into a tree.
Clouds drifted slowly across the sky, and moonlight shone upon the earth. The wolf half-beast saw in horror an almost invisible thread attached to the end of the dagger.
That thread held powerful mana… The woman in front of him had used it to close the distance rapidly.
Shalin quickly pulled out the longsword stuck in the ground and thrust it at the wolf half-beast. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, he was killed.
Shalin looked up. Four more wolf half-beasts appeared not far away. One held a shield, one a spear, one a longsword, and the smallest one at the back held a staff—clearly a mage.
“Hmph?” Shalin said coldly, facing the four demihumans.
She stomped her foot and lunged forward first.
But just as her sword was about to pierce the mage’s throat, the shield-bearing wolf half-beast roared and charged in front. His shield was enchanted with wind magic, which forcefully intercepted her attack.
Sparks flew along the shield’s edge. The wind magic’s circuit absorbed the damage and rebounded, pushing Shalin back.
The two behind the shield—the spearman and the swordsman—moved out, flanking her left and right, trying to pressure her through positioning. They seemed to treat Shalin as just a fast assassin.
But in that moment, Shalin did something beyond their expectations. She stepped forward, used the wind magic left on the shield to spring off, and performed a backflip. In midair, she spun, flicked a dagger into a tree trunk, and infused the thread with mana, which quickly coiled several times around a sturdy branch. Using that, she swung herself up into the tree.
She crouched low, then threw daggers to the left and right, fixing them on the trees on both sides. Then she launched herself like a slingshot.
The shield-wielding wolf half-beast yelled for the mage to retreat while moving forward himself, trying to cut off her next dive.
But Shalin, in midair, suddenly tightened the thread, retrieved the right dagger, allowing her to swerve around the shieldbearer. Then she threw the right dagger again to fix it, retrieved the left dagger, and veered to the opposite side.
In that instant, the shield-bearing wolf half-beast froze.
“Xiao An…! Run!!!”
But the moment he finished speaking, Xiao An’s throat was already pierced by the dagger in Shalin’s left hand.
Blood sprayed.
Xiao An, eyes wide with terror, died without even chanting a spell.
The longsword-wielding wolf half-beast roared and charged first. The spearman flanked from an angle, trying to pin Shalin to the ground.
“Bastard…!!!!!!”
Shalin watched him come, grabbed Xiao An’s corpse without hesitation, and threw it like a shield.
The longsword-wielder hesitated for a second, trying to catch Xiao An, but in the next moment, Shalin thrust her blade out from behind the corpse—one sword was the enemy’s own, the other her own. Two cold glints pierced out simultaneously. The first thrust struck the longsword-wielder’s forehead; the second entered his chest obliquely, pinning him to the ground.
The spearman’s pupils contracted violently. He swung his spear wildly out of fear, with no technique at all.
Shalin sidestepped right and dodged easily. She then grabbed the spear shaft with her bare hand, planted her feet, and yanked hard, throwing his center of gravity off. As the wolf half-beast struggled to regain his balance, Shalin drove her knee into his chest.
He spat blood. His ribs shattered, fragments piercing his lungs. He couldn’t even speak, then collapsed.
She then stomped down hard on both his elbows. Bones cracked. The demihuman’s spear fell from his grip. She picked it up and mercilessly smashed it down on his head.
Thud.
Blood splattered, staining the grass red.
The last demihuman turned and ran, even discarding his shield.
Shalin stood up, took out a handkerchief, wiped the blood from her face and hands, and tossed it over the face of the dead spearman.
She heard a low explosion in the distance. She whirled around and saw flames rising on the far horizon.
Her expression changed. She leaped into a tree to observe.
She saw the border town on fire, with demihumans and mages wreaking havoc.
She frowned, landed, and ran back toward where she had separated from Dante, her face filled with concern.
On the other side, the old man moved through an alley, pulling out a crystal ball.
“I’ve already stalled the guard captain. What about you?”
From the other end of the crystal projection came a wolf half-beast’s voice. Judging by his tone, his build was massive, probably over 2 meters tall.
“Four dead, but we bought some time,” the wolf half-beast said in a low voice.
“Good… Keep stalling. Most of the magic array is already complete,” the old man said.
“Do we really have to do this?”
“Of course. Otherwise, the Merchant Guild won’t have any legitimacy to take over the town.”
“…Fine, but five of my kin are already dead.” The wolf half-beast’s tone was clearly displeased.
“Don’t worry about it. Weren’t you a twelve-man squad?”
“We’re not expendables!”
“You’ll be compensated extra. That’s it.” The old man closed the crystal ball impatiently and landed softly. With him were an earth mage and a fire mage.
The old man looked at the fortress wall and tapped it with his hand. “Right here… blow it open.”
The earth mage spoke reluctantly, “Hope the higher-ups won’t blame us.” He pulled a magic bomb from his backpack and blasted a hole in the wall.
The old man entered the castle. With his eagle beak staff, he gently pushed open a door.
The room inside the fortress was solemn. He walked expertly toward the storage room, as if he had been there several times before.
He scanned the bookshelves, row by row, and pointed to an indentation on the third row, second shelf.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he pierced the indentation with his eagle beak staff.
The surroundings began to tremble. The floor at the center of the storage room slowly sank.
A passage appeared.
The three began descending the passage.
“Sir, what is this?” the fire mage asked, peeking curiously.
“You don’t need to know,” the old man said, unwilling to share more.
As they went deeper, the stench of decay grew stronger, persisting until they reached a heavy iron door.
The old man pushed the heavy door open.
The two mages covered their noses, horrified by the sight in the underground chamber.
The chamber held thousands of rotting sacrificial offerings and an enormous mass of maggots.
In the midst of that rotting flesh stood a huge stone platform.
The old man illuminated the area with light magic and murmured to himself: “Eight years ago, the animals already lost their natural mana.
The game the Earl hunts is nothing but tribute.”
The earth mage gagged. “Ugh… this smell is disgusting.”
The old man said nothing. He walked up to the stone platform and looked at the deep green liquid in a stone basin.
“This is… the natural essence.”
“He made money off this. The annual Hunting Festival is just a front.”
The old man then used his staff to push aside some animal carcasses.
The fire mage saw that beneath the animals were human remains. His stomach churned even more. “How repulsive…”
The old man sneered, “Repulsive? This is what the revered Lord Earl does—quietly disposing of every corpse.
Making this essence, then selling it at a high price to nobles to sustain his territory.
Otherwise, do you think a mere border Earl could attract so many court mages?”
“That story is a lie, rewritten by that damned Earl.”
“Take the essence. Then eliminate everyone.”