"Wait! Don't kill me!" Frothing at the mouth in rage, the Lamia kept flailing around trying to free herself from the holy chains.
"Shut up," Creating a sharp lance from darkness, Haruki pressed it against the lamia's neck with a pair of two shadow hands. "Say another word, and you'd be our dinner for the night."
Grimacing at the last part, everyone from his party wished that it wouldn't come down to it. Sitting in silence around the flame for a while, they all collected their thoughts while the lamia finally calmed down because of the threat to her life.
"Master…How about we just let her go?" Now that things have escalated too much, Riley tried just somehow to send off the lamia to safety.
"Did you forget that she was injured? Someone's trying to hunt her, and we've already crossed the line by bringing her here," reminding her of the injuries, Haruki glared deep into Riley's eyes. "And if that person takes us for her companion won't last for a second more."
'I would've never helped her, but seeing that lamia like that triggered my instinct to help others.' Cursed by his past personality that stood up for justice and the weak, Haruki himself felt drawn to give in to the voice in his head and turn into the monster that he was meant to be.
"But master, we can just have Moriyana erase her memories and-"
"Memory-altering magic among other similar ilks of the same does not work on lamias," Moriyana interjected before Riley could finish her statement.
"It's settled then," getting up on his feet, Haruki got ready to get rid of the bound lamia.
"Wait! I can offer you something! Just spare me!" Still squirming on the ground, the lamia begged to be let go.
The desperation in her voice continued to grow, and while Haruki spent a few seconds contemplating whether to indulge her offer which could very much be a lie, a bundle of spying eyes peered right at them through the woods right next to them.
At the nick of time right as Haruki was about to bring the sword down at the lamia's throat, a spear came flying towards him, but before it could hit him at all, Riley swept it off the air. Despite the commotion around her, her instincts were still up high, and so looking into the direction the spear had come from, she noticed numerous red glowing eyes peering right at them.
"We have company," she muttered, and the others turned to follow her gaze.
"Ughh…" Letting out an exalted sigh, Haruki cracked his head left and right. "Stretch your limbs people, go ahead and massacre these idiots."
The casual tone of his voice was somewhat alarming to the others, but since they were now allowed to let out a week's worth of frustration they all pushed it to the side and turned into their demonic selves. With wings sprouted wide, everyone except Fay propelled themselves towards the glaring red eyes.
Like bats, they descended down on their prey with their claws ready to tear off the heads of the monsters lurking around them. The very first thing they all noticed upon making contact with the enemy was their ratty faces with a pointy noses that stretched outward. Without a word shared between them, they all knew exactly what they were dealing with.
'Mongoose men!' The sworn enemies of lamias, and the most probable reason for the wounds on the woman's body.
Given the surprised change in their appearance as well as the use of wings, the monsters were astounded by the sudden assault. Before they could retaliate, Haruki and his party were tearing through their skins with their razor-sharp claws alone. One after the other their heads fell to the ground, and the entire area was pooled with warm blood and steam rising up from the ground.
"Auhhssss!" They hissed and groaned as the demons tore into them like paper.
Unleashing the built-up fury and lust for torture, they let some of them crawl away to a small distance with their limbs torn off, but as they got slightly further, that's when the demons crushed their hopes of escaping alive from the torture.
Bathed in blood and guts, they'd all surrendered to their instinct, and for once it felt great since killing the mongoose men didn't make them suffer any guilt.
'I can get used to this.' Thought Haruki, drenched in blood from head to toe.
"Are you guys done?" Breaking the moment, Fay's voice came calling for them all.
"I hate these guys!" Still clawing away at the corpses, Alice seemed more excited than anyone else to be hunting down the mongoose men.
'Sometimes, I forget she's even there. Always hiding behind her mother, yet when she comes out it's either to fight for her mother or to protect the rest of the group when most needed.' With hopes of not neglecting any of them in the future, Haruki returned to camp with blood dribbling down his body.
The very sight of them all covered in guts made Fay's eyes widen in shock. Instantly pointing towards the river, she urged them all to wash it all off. Even more disturbed by the sight was the lamia laying on the ground. Expecting them to kill her as well, she began to race her mind to try and figure out how to get out of this situation.
"Hey…" Called Fay, lingering right over the Lamia.
"W-What?" Shaken by the whole thing, she peered up at the woman holding a little girl in her arms.
"What were you going to offer?" As a connoisseur of antics, Fay wanted to know exactly what kind of rare item she could potentially get for her collection by helping the bound lamia.
"It-It's a poison vial! I have it back in our village!" She told Fay, but seeing her face contort into disappointment, the lamia decided to elaborate on the item's abilities. "Just listen to me, okay? It can kill anyone no matter who they are, even that dragon slayer can't go unscratched!"
The very mention of the dragon slayer got Fay's attention.
"So it can kill him?" She asked.
"Uh…Okay maybe not, but it can definitely cripple him for the rest of his life!" Intrigued by this vial of poison, Fay smiled at the lamia.
"If there's nothing there, then you'd meet a fate worse than those monsters that they just killed," with that warning, she walked away and sat back into the chair, waiting for the others to return from the bath.
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