“Don’t you get it?” The grin on his face widens as his voice resounds with a tone of mockery. “You’ve been sold.”

Azalea looks at the piece of paper one more time. She inspects it and notices that there is something written at the back. It is written in a crayon colored part which makes it difficult to spot. She stares at it for a brief moment and now she understands her situation fully.

The message reads, “I’m sorry.”

“I see… so that’s how it is.” She says softly.

“If you just give up now, we’ll save ourselves a lot of time and unnecessary pain!” Someone raises their voice.

“How do they fucking say this again?”

“You’re surrounded!” They laugh.

The leader fires his gun up in the sky once. He turns his men’s attention back to him. “Let’s not make this difficult for the both of us.”

“She probably haven’t planned this from the start. I even avoided giving my name…” Azalea reasons with herself while ignoring the mercenaries that has surrounded her. “When did it change? This morning? That’s the only time I have no idea what exactly she’s doing… Right… While she was selling my stuff and taking the funds she hid somewhere… maybe she saw my poster posted somewhere. Of course, she can’t catch me on her own, so she looked for people who can… and then… to lure me out, in exchange of a deal.”

“Shit, man! She’s just standing there.”

“Li’l bitch’s not going to fight? Ha, ha! She fucking knows she can’t win against us!”

“Or she’s just too fucking shocked after knowing that she got fucking sold!”

They keep chattering and laughing but they are still on guard and are prepared to attack any time they are given the order. There are around thirty people surrounding her. All of them must have high level combat mastery. The group is a mix of reveils and ubliss, though there seems to be more reveils. These opponents are quite overwhelming for a single young demon hunter, not to mention all of them are well equipped with weapons and light armor. It is like they are hunting a high ranked demon.

“Should I just kill them all?” The thought slips into her mind. “No, no, no… I should chose something… more morally acceptable.”

They have started to come closer to her.

The place is an open area close to the main highway. They are a kilometer away from the last house in Wave 3 and a few kilometers more ahead is the residential area of Wave 4. This is the road where passenger vehicles, trucks, and other large automobiles pass to get in and out of Arbhur City. It is not weird for someone fleeing to choose this place to hitch a ride away. However that is not what this mob have in mind when they choose here to lure her out. This open area only suggests that she has nowhere to hide.

They have encircled her. After taking a glimpse of their formation, she notices that they are not randomly posted around her. The three men farthest out of the encirclement are ubliss that are equipped with high-tech riffles. They are aiming at her legs. They will surely shoot her if she makes a wrong move. The closest to her are wielding swords and knives. In between the outer and inner layers are carrying handguns while some are holding spears.

Azalea raises both of her hands.

“She’s surrendering?”

“I’m done playing hide and seek with you.” Her tone is cold and sharp. Her eyes looks dead and her face is expressionless. She has dropped her pretentious mask. “Fine. I’ll play your game… You better not regret this later.”

The orb and jewels in her spear-like staff starts glowing. It floats close behind her following her movements. The Telete Staff’s main function is to regulate her mana so she will have better control on her spells.

“What the shit is she talking about?”

First she casts a low-tier magic barrier around her to block the bullets that are fired at her as soon as her stance shifted. She then powers up her legs to be able to jump higher before activating a large area smoke bomb that she casted on the ground where she used to stand. The smoke almost filled the whole encirclement until a mage from their ranks casts wind magic to blow it away.

“I guess that trick wouldn’t work a second time.” She mumbles.

They fire at her while she is descending mid-air. She used wind magic to repel herself away from the aimed point of their shots. The she lands a distance away from the encirclement. She is no longer surrounded but she also have not gone far enough from the mob to ensure a smooth escape. As soon as her feet touch the ground, the spearmen are already in position to attack. One of them throws his spear which she blocks by creating a floating ice sword. The powerful twang from the collision of the spear’s blade and the hard sharp ice reverberates as small icy shards fly. Amidst that, another man equipped with a spear attacks from behind aiming to cut her legs. Before he can complete his swing, another ice sword forms and with one slash cut off his arms. Blood splatters as his arms that is still holding the spear falls down the ground.

“AAAAARRRRGGGH-!!!” He falls kneeling in pain and shock.

His comrades are stunned but only for a split second. The next man runs straight ready to strike with his sword. Azalea stomps and a magic circle glows. Before the swordsman can get close to her, the ground in front of him formed a giant knuckle and knocks him back flying with an upper cut.

More men are coming to strike, one from the side with a magic-imbued spear while the other plunges from above. Azalea blocks the spear from the side with one ice sword while the other ice sword accelerates rapidly piercing through the abdomen of the enemy from above. His blood drips seeping into the ground as soon as he falls curling up in pain.

“It’s fine! We’ll heal later!”

The spear user jumps back then a rain of bullets follows. Azalea claps her hands and then multiple magic circles forms around her. The bullets looked like they went to pass through the magic circles but in fact they have disappeared. She claps again and the magic circles’ glow flickers once before spitting the bullets back out away from her. The bullets violently storm outwards randomly hitting the mobs. Some are able to block and dodge while the majority got hit though most of them are mild bruises.

While the grunts of those who got hit is still resounding one after another, a man throws his knives at Azalea. At the same time two more lunges from behind. She uses the ice swords to block the knives while blocking the other two men with earth pillars.

“How the fuck is she maintaining multiple spells at the same time?”

“Boss! Didn’t they say that she’s a weak-ass healer?”

“Fucking bastards!” He looks at his men as most of them already got injured. “I would have asked for bigger compensation if I knew we’ll end up in this shithole.”

“Those fuckers! Her fighting skills are no joke!”

When someone tried to blindside her, Azalea countered with wind cutter slicing off their feet. Another man falls and the land that serves as their arena is splattered with more hues of red.

“Don’t attack like fucking drunks!” The leader shouts.

Azalea has activated Pulse at its max output and highest sensitivity. She can feel their movements clearly which allows her to read all of their attack patterns in advance. With this she can prepare her next moves by basing her counters and attacks with Pulse’s readings. Currently her concentration is at its peak. Her eyes seems to be looking far away as her mind is foreseeing a few seconds into the future. She moves in trance, as precisely as possible.

“Ice swords.” The leader observes. “She maintains that spell as they get repaired every time they crack. To move and control those swords, she must be using another spell. This kid is maintaining at least two active spells at the same time. No, I shouldn’t have referred to her as a mere child. We are fighting a monster.”

Azalea has sensed the hesitation in their movements. “It’s time for a more aggressive offense.”

A group runs upfront towards her while gunmen from behind covers them. Azalea casts earth spikes on their path. The spikes pierced through their soles and into the flesh of their feet, breaking their bones.

While they scream in agony, Azalea casts speed up on herself to swiftly dash towards the gunmen. When they open-fired at her, it is already too late as she has moved from her previous spot. As soon as she gets close enough to them, she cuts their arms with her ice swords. This time, she creates a third sword that blocked the ki-imbued bullet of the leader. It is then followed up by fireballs from different directions. She spreads her arms while turning around manipulating the fireballs collecting them all into one. She compresses it while dodging attacks and controlling the ice swords to counter, slicing everyone who comes within range.

The large fireball has become smaller and smaller until it is completely gone. At the same time, the mob that was composed of around thirty people have all fallen but one. He fires his gun with ki-imbued bullets, each one is blocked by the ice-swords. In a desperate attempt, he keeps firing until he spent all of his bullets. By then, Azalea is standing in front of him. Even though he is the larger adult, the air she radiates makes him feel smaller.

Azalea stands intimidatingly in front of the mercenaries’ leader. Her eyes are cold and lifeless. It is very different from the shiny crystalline purple eyes she used to show. They are the same eyes, but the impression that they carry are the exact opposite. Now, all he can see in those eyes is the dark purple of an endless abyss.

“Have you ever watched the people you care about die in front of you… and all you can do is stare at them helplessly?” Azalea asks softly.

“W-what?”

She casually passes by his side. “I’m giving you a chance... to have a taste of true despair.”

Azalea walks pass him and then disappears. She casts concealing magic, a low-tier spell under illusion magic, on herself so that they cannot know which direction she goes.

The leader looks at his men, groaning in pain while the others had completely fainted. He is the only one left uninjured. Their few mages that may be able to heal them seems to be in so much pain that they cannot cast any spells. So, should he leave and look for a healer? But while he is away, some of his men might die due to too much blood loss.

“Blood?...” He mumbles while looking at the blood that has splattered on the ground. “They look weird. The blood… splattered in clean lines and curves…” He stares at the blood, following the shape as it forms a familiar image. “It’s… a m-magic circle..?”

He looks down at his feet and notices that he is outside. He falls into confusion, wondering if it is another trap. He walks a little outside, not understanding what it really means.

“Have a taste of true despair…”

He recalls her final words before she disappears. When he is about to step inside, the circle suddenly glows. The light it emits is so strong that it is blinding, but before he closes his eyes, he saw multiple other magic circles form on top of each other.

“W-wha-what now?...”

He opens his eyes that is once again adjusting to the natural lighting. His sight slowly returns and the first thing he notices is the darker red of the smudged magic circle. His conscious men are looking at their re-attached limbs as if it was never sliced off. Everyone has been completely healed.

“Boss?..”

“I-I’m… I’m alive…”

“A large area-of-effect time-activated healing magic…” The leader mumbles after realizing what just happened. “It’s an elite-tier healing spell… used flawlessly by a teen… What the hell were we fighting?”

“M-my hands! My hands are back!” Someone cries.

“B-boss?... What happened? I thought I died… It hurt a lot...”

He stares in disbelief at his confused men. “Can someone really be so merciless and benevolent at the same time?..”

“Hey! You there!” A man with brown hair and unkempt beard who is wearing a light armor approaches them.

Their gazes turn towards the source of the voice. They are still wary of their surroundings because of the battle that just ended. The man gives the air of a veteran hunter in his forties. He looks around and then notices the remnants of the dried blood on the ground. He kneels down observing a part of the now smudged magic circle.

“I saw a strong bright light coming from this area and decided to check it out.” The unknown man continuous. He looks around mumbling. “It seems that I just missed the front row seat to watch an epic battle here. To control the splattering blood of the enemies and draw a magic circle… She’s truly amazing… but at the same time… Damn, she beat them up so bad and then healed them afterwards. She made them believe that they’ll either die here or be crippled for the rest of their life. Even the leader watched helplessly… Was this act a form of kindness?.. Or was she actually being sadistic?.. What a waste of mana.”

“Who the fuck are you?” The leader frowns. “Are you after the bounty too?”

“Bounty?” He repeats while thinking deeply. “I see… So that’s how it is.”

“Forget it… it’s not worth it. This many of us cannot do it. What more can a single person like you do?”

“Well, I’m definitely nothing like you. I’m a demon hunter, you can call me Fred. So, where did she go?”

∞×∞

Third day of Sat’xahr, 4043 AOT

Wave 2, Arbhur City Zone-0, Aesbyl Region

In one night that seems so silent a huge explosion has woken up the residents of this lawless land. A laboratory and a plantation are being engulfed by flames. The fire alarms are ringing loudly from the main building. The laboratory’s building have smaller fires that are easier to extinguish but the warehouse and the plantation of Lumerus entus is completely covered in flames.

People are running out of the buildings. They are mostly taken over by fear and confusion. Some are helplessly sitting on the ground while watching everything burn down. A person is calling the fire department while another is contacting the police station. Another man is hysterically shouting at the security officers of the lab. He is wearing a white suit that has been smeared with dirt by the dark smoke. His black hair that was neatly combed back is now a little messy. He removes his fogged glasses to wipe them while scolding another person beside him.

“Have you found it yet?!” He yells angrily. “Which bastard have the guts to screw me over like this?! Hurry and check the security records!”

“Mister Shilan we’ve found it… just one person.”

“Just one person?! And you all can’t even stop that motherfucker?!!”

“The person is a young mage… We have identified her…”

“It’s a fucking kid?!” He pinches his nose bridge in frustration and anger. “What the actual fuck! You are all fucking useless! Who that fuck is that bitch?!”

“S-she’s…”

“WHO?!!”

“Azalea Blakewood. A demon hunter that was hired to slay a demon… Later on, your younger brother ordered to find her and bring her to him. He currently is giving monetary reward to whoever can give information or capture her alive.”

“That idiot dickhead! How much?”

“W-what?”

“How much reward is he giving?!”

“One million rimas, sir.”

He clicks his tongue. “Make it five. I don’t care, dead or alive.”