Barghests are naturally tremendously strong, however, that is only true if they aren't weighed down by dozens of infections. In fact, these infections not only weigh down Barghests but even become great weaknesses for them as seen in the fight beforehand.

Although these new challengers were merely young, they were untouched and had no weaknesses to exploit, unlike the adults who were rife with past wounds. They were smaller than adult black hounds, though not by much.

Sizing them up, I could see that not all of them were in perfect fighting shape.

Despite winning the previous encounter, I was fatigued and my arm was still oozing out blood. With this new batch of challengers, it would be a slaughter…

For the mutts, that is!

Heh, if you think you can defeat me just cause I'm bleedin' a bit then you're dead wrong!

Again, I hold a defensive stance as I wait for them to make the first move. But let it be known! I ain't gonna budge an inch for damned mongrels!

However, I hear a sharp howl from behind me. It seemed the alpha managed to disentangle himself from the essence barrage.

Okay, this may be a bit harder if they're coming from both sides.

I may have to budge an inch. How about a couple kilometres on top of that?

As I silently curse Lily and await the punishment I'm about to receive they do something rather surprising.

They flee.

And now that I'm thinking about it, why wouldn't they flee? I was clearly going to beat them up, so they clearly had no other choice.

Indeed, diseased mutts would be rather intimidated by my majestic form.

The alpha seemed to convince the whelps to give up on vengeance and leave with their tails tucked between their legs.

Ha! That's what you get, stupid dogs!

Though I guess they weren't that stupid if they could still make such a rational decision…

I watch and make sure that the barghests actually leave and aren't just waiting for me to lower my guard. And when I confirm that they've left, I bandage up my left arm.

Although I overexerted my arm, the wounding itself isn't that bad, so after cleaning it, I use a bit of cloth from my cloak to bandage it.

Laying back down on the grass which I made my bed I go to sleep. "And yes Lily, you're still on shift,"

"Kawwww…"

And the next day, I'm up and walking again, repeating this repetitious cycle.

"Kakaw!"

"Shut up, please just be quiet," It looks like my blood loss has finally shown its effects. My lightheadedness magnifies every noise, racket and rustle to a mind mushing degree.

So as I painfully wandered through the vast grassy plains, a certain krow refused to bask in the quiet rustling of the plains. Lily would usually just sit on my shoulder or hide in my cloak. Though now she circled around me before breaking away from my current path direction.

What an annoying bird. Though, it's not like I was going anywhere specific…

Following Lily, I slowly trekked into some highlands which extended from this never ending view. Looking at the white bird she puffed her chest out as she kawed proudly, she leads me to a vantage point. From it, I see that on a low area next to a river, was a small village. The awareness and intelligence this bird displayed was rather frightening.

How did you know I was looking for a village? I eye Lily for a bit before turning back to the village.

"Hmm, could there be a festival?" I say flatly. Looking down, I could see huge puffs of smoke billowing out of the village, not to mention a high chorus of screams and shouts. Déjà vu much? Nah, surely not.

…

Surely yes. Shoving down my previous thoughts, I'm thinking of how disabled I had to be to not catch the drift of the situation despite having previous experience, and all the clues waved in front of me.

Arriving very late at the crime scene as all good law enforcers do, I was not surprised to find it razed to the ground. There were burnt, charred corpses littered about, and stray limbs slapped across the rubble. Very déjà vu.

Though this time, not everyone was dead. Some horsemen loitered around this village as if patrolling the area. They wore grey tunics embroidered with a coat of arms of some sort. However, it can easily be seen that the Astra Kingdom insignia was taken as the base, using that logic, these horsemen were under the employ of some noble in the Kingdom. Considering that this village was just razed, it must mean that they were here to investigate, similar to what happened at my old village. What a quick response! These guys are good.

"Hey! There's a survivor!"

Looks like they found a survivor.

"It's a little girl,"

Oh, poor girl, she must've been quite tough to survive this ordeal.

The horsemen push some debris off of her as she struggled to escape. What a lucky girl, though maybe not so lucky considering her village was burnt to a crisp.

But the horsemen, strangely enough, put up distance with the girl and discuss with themselves, before one of them separates from the others. He urges his horse, moving in a slow trot toward the little girl.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry about this," With a dark expression, it seemed like he was the horseman elected to speak to the girl, though he uttered quite a weird phrase.

There was no need to be sorry that they couldn't be in time to save the village or something, that's simply asking the impossible, at least they tried. Though, it wasn't as though I didn't see his mentality as it was one many fellow guardsmen adopted as well. It was just that I thought that kind of thinking was self deriding and irrational.

Riding up to the girl, with a cavalry spear in hand. He pulled back the spear, before apologising once more…

I don't think that's how you help someone…

No, wait, that most certainly isn't how you help someone —I think— ! What are these scum doing?!

Having a belated realisation, I stammered in an attempt to stop the horseman, despite knowing my efforts were ill fated, destined to be in vain.