Chapter 384: A Human Monster
"Are you not going to see what is going to happen to those creatures?" the sorcerer asked.
Ena''s expression hardened as she met his gaze. "Is there a need for me to witness the devastation that they will create?" she retorted.
In her mind, the creatures were mere pawns in arger game, tools to be used and discarded in pursuit of her ultimate goals.
The man''s silence conveyed his understanding.
"Very well... shall we leave now?" he asked.
..
A few tens of kilometers away from them.
"For the umpteenth time, I think we are lost," the womanined, her frustration evident in her voice. She nced at the man, who appeared surprisingly calm as he rotated the cooking meat over the fire. "Don''t you agree?"
L sighed. "Yes, I believe we are lost too," he admitted.
"So what do we do now?"
"I''m not entirely sure," L responded. "You''ve been adamant about avoiding towns, so we haven''t been able to ask for directions."
"Shouldn''t we at least try to navigate using the map?"
L''s expression darkened at the mention of the map. "Ah, the map that you identally destroyed," he said, his frustration seeping through. "You really are something. Do you want me to look into the remnant of the map that you destroyed in your sleep?"
"I didn''t mean to do that. I have a habit of sleepwalking," she defended herself.
"You almost killed me when you were sleeping." It had been days since they started this journey and L soon regretteding with the woman. This strange sorceress had a strange habit of sleepwalking.
Sadly, it did not end there.
Her peculiar sleepwalking episodes were apanied by unpredictable disys of power as if she was engaged in a battle with unseen foes.
During their first night together, L genuinely believed she was trying to harm him and use his already weak strength to defend himself. It wasn''t until he noticed her closed eyes and heard her snoring that he realized it was all happening in her sleep.
It seemed that his luck had run out.
After being betrayed by those he once trusted, he found himself entangled with a woman whose peculiarities were beyond hisprehension.
Why?
He always thought he was a good man well not exactly good decent. Yes, he always thought he was decent. He could not exactly remember offending the Goddess!
So, why was he punished like that?
As if to add to his mounting troubles, a monstrous creature emerged from the shadows, interrupting their conversation. L''s eyes widened in rm, realizing they were now faced with a more immediate threat.
The woman, on the other hand, remained calm. She blinked and stared at the creature as if she had not realized that they were in front of grave danger.
"Get up, " L hissed.
"But that is not a beast," the woman said while staring at the creature''s grotesque form that loomed before them. Its snarling jaws and razor-sharp ws bared in a menacing disy.
L frowned in irritation.
It seemed that his string of unfortunate circumstances was far from over. First, he had been betrayed by those he once trusted, and now he found himself entangled with a woman whose peculiarities seemed to defy exnation.
Why had fate chosen this path for him? What had he done to deserve such trials and tribtions?
However, driven by a potent mixture of irritation and survival instincts, L''s immediate reaction was to conjure arge ball of fire, which he hurled toward the menacing creature.
"What are you doing!?" the woman eximed, her voice filled with rm. "You''re going to kill him!"
"Him?" L hissed in frustration, his temper ring. "That is a beast! Why are you calling it him!?" Just what is this woman''s problem!??
L was already at his wit''s end!
Their argument, however, was interrupted when the creature lunged forward with a guttural roar, its massive ws swiping through the air. L swiftly sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the vicious strike. With a quick motion, he thrust his palm forward, releasing a torrent of scorching mes toward the beast.
The fiery onught engulfed the creature, causing it to bellow in pain. However, L soon realized that his mes were merely charring the creature''s outeryer, barely scratching its formidable resilience. It seemed impervious to his fire attacks.
As frustration gnawed at him, L''s attention shifted momentarily to the woman who had apanied him. She had watched the battle unfold without intervening, her eyes keenly observing the creature''s movements.
Suddenly, a flicker of realization crossed her face.
"That is no longer human," the woman said before she drew a ck sword made of her ck mist. She narrowed her eyes then with an expert swing, she lunged towards the beast, her strikes precise and deadly.
The woman''s sword cut through the air with otherworldly grace, meeting the creature''s onught head-on. Each strike delivered by the ck sword was imbued with a dark energy that sapped the creature''s strength. It groaned in agony as the woman''s relentless assault took its toll.
L''s initial surprise at the woman''s sudden intervention soon turned into admiration.
He had never seen her fight like this before, but he could not deny the fact that she was indeed a skilled sorceress and a swordmaster.
He smiled.
mes erupted once again from his outstretched hands, this time with increased intensity and precision. He directed the searing mes toward the weakened creature, strategically aiming for its vulnerable spots.
Thebination of L''s scorching fire and the woman''s relentless swordy proved to be the creature''s undoing. With a final, desperate howl, it copsed to the ground, its monstrous form disintegrating into ash and dissipating into the wind.
"That- " L did not know what to say. The creature simply turned into ash. Even beasts from the North leave a corpse! This one, however, was different.
"It was in pain," the woman said, her usually childlike way of talking was no longer there. She stared at the creature, her expression morose. "That was no beast. It was a human who had no choice but to be a monster."
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