The Raid in Northern Kisan

Deep in the night, only the sounds of owls could be heard. The wolves seemed finally quiet from where the adventurers set beds. And perhaps the rest of the wild hunters were just too unlucky that these humans could finally take their rests.

Following the same route he went through, Glin made his way back to where Gayne's party camped. But before he climbed up the tree, he went to the water stream down the slope to wash out the splashes of blood on his hands.

It smelled like fish and disgusting. Although, Glin was already used to seeing and smelling blood. It only made him laugh at himself, recalling how he was scared and nervous at the first time he brutally killed a living body with his sword. Back then, he was like shit scared by lifeless blood. But a lot has changed since then, blood is only blood.

The strong preys on the weak. Demon beasts are strong, he is weak. To survive in this world, he must become cruel and be even more monster than monsters. Back then, two months of surviving in Silent Valley erased all his hesitations to kill anything that threatens his life. At such young age, he already gained experience in killing and hunting demon beasts…

Glin took the wet black purse hanged next to his leather bag. Blood has made it wet as it contained all the Demon Beast Crystals he collected from ten corpses of Night Wolves. He had about twenty of such stone inside, each at least half the size of his fist: He could have collected more but unfortunately, he didn't want to take too much so he only targeted the parts where he could get the bigger Beast Crystals.

Without delay, he dropped the purse onto the shallow water. The Beast Crystals knocked on the river stones, creating ripples that dispersed the moon's reflection on the water surface. Glin hurriedly washed the black purse entirely along with the Beast Crystals inside.

Glin took one of the cleaned Demon Beast Crystals. It appeared just like an ordinary mineral with rough surface and without fine cleavages. 'Can this thing really strengthen me? How am I supposed to eat this?'

Glin shortly shook his head. 'Let's do it later.'

…

"Glin?" Ron asked on a very low voice almost like whisper. He has just woken up to switch up with Glin but soon found out the latter was missing.

"Glin?" He searched for the youth as he carefully get out of the hanging bed. Standing on the big tree branch, he glanced above but saw no one, then deep down to the base of the large tree. Glin was nowhere around. 'Where did that kid go? Is he not even a bit scared wandering around the forest at times like this?'

Ron couldn't help but wonder where Glin went to. Also, a bit worried, but recalling how the latter was an extraordinary talent made him stop: With rough estimates, he thought Glin might even have greater survivability than their entire party.

'What am I thinking?' Ron hurriedly shook his head and whispered, "I better find him. He shouldn't be far from here, I think."

When he reached the ground, he immediately began looking for possible directions where Glin might have went through. But unfortunately, there were at least five passages going deeper into the dark woods. He did not know where to go for searching. Besides, it is dangerous and he could not trust the tranquility of the woods.

Suddenly, crackling sounds of leaves and branches was heard from his left direction. It was only that he couldn't see anything but tall shrubs. The sound went closer and closer until the bushes on his sight were already shaking. Witnessing it, his entire body tensed and unconsciously took half a step backwards.

When Ron sensed that something was about to come out from the shrubs, he hurriedly aimed his hand towards it, trying to cast a magic spell. The glowing orange octagrams and symbols were drawn out from thin air, one after another, from the center of the magic circle and outward. But before it even finished, Ron was suddenly startled and the entire magic circle broke.

"Glin! Huuu… You gave me a fright!"

Ron calmed himself quickly, starting with a deep breath. "Where the hell have you gone to?"

"I went down to the water stream. Why? Did something bad happened?"

"Seriously? Ugh… Don't mind. No, no, nothing bad happened," sighed Ron, "I'll be switching up with you."

"Okay," nodded Glin and walked past Ron.

"Wait what's that on your hand?" asked Ron. It was the black purse he saw Glin was holding.

"Some eye-catching rocks I picked from under the water stream," smiled Glin before he effortlessly climbed up the tree to sit on his hanging bed.

'Seriously? Picking up river stones at times like this? He's not scared at all,' Ron laughed inwardly with disbelief. Of course, he didn't believe Glin went to pick up rocks from the river. He was certain it was only an excuse but he didn't pursue on the topic.

...

Northern part of Kisan Mountain Range…

"Liodas, how is the raid going?" asked a tall man sitting in front of a bonfire.

Thought this time of the night was not the best time to gather around, it was necessary for these people. No one dared complain in the mission, especially with a leader revered by many people.

"City lord, everything is according to plan. The Night Wolves in the nearby areas have been eliminated completely. I suggest we rest for now and continue the raid tomorrow morning. Besides, our people are currently disadvantaged against the enemies," replied Liodas, the Lord of Targkaeris Household.

"Lord Liodas is right. Also, our scouts reported that the Alpha Night Wolf has stopped moving as well as its Mutant Generals," added Lord Wendelein of Aurgeis.

"Are there any casualties?"

"27 people were injured with 4 in dire conditions, and 3 died in the raid. It's still an acceptable result," Liodas answered.

"We could have avoided the deaths of those three if we knew were the wolves were most concentrated," sighed the City Lord and declared, "we will honor their sacrifices."

"A hero's weakness is his inability to save all of those endangered," Lord Liodas said as if telling his friend not to blame himself. What has happened was not his mistake.

"Tomorrow, I will be at the front."

"But City Lord, you can still trust us with that job."

Hearing the City Lord's decision, everyone voiced their objections. However, the City Lord only shook his head and insisted.

"We will eliminate the Alpha and the Mutant Generals tomorrow. We will not bother too much on eliminating every single one of them. Otherwise, it will only result in more casualties among our people."

Finally, everyone has respected the City Lord's decision. From this moment, the number of hours left on the life of the supergiant Night Wolf known at an 'Alpha-class' could already be counted with a few people's fingers. Though an Alpha-class demon beast is undoubtedly very strong and terrifying, it could easily be handled when several 'Grandmaster-level' mages work together.