บท 5: Maniac
Talon, wielding the borrowed sword, made his way toward the nearest battle, where a hunter was in dire straits against stone-gray-colored wolves.
The hunter, already wounded from a previous encounter, fought desperately as more of the gray wolves began to swarm in on him.
Damien, nonchalantly leaning on the side of the carriage, offered a chilling remark, "Oh, those are Stone Ridge Wolves. I'd be careful in your stead. They are resilient and can crush stone with their bites. Just a moment ago, I saw one of the hunters get mutilated by one."
This made Talon's blood run cold, and this is exactly why ultimately decided to help the Hunter.
Without a second thought, he began to rush towards him, one of the wolves was ready to bite the Hunter's arm cleanly right off his hand, but before the beast could do that, Talon struck it with his sword.
His hand went numb from striking the beast.
'Tsk, Stone Ridge Wolves are a fitting name for them, just like hitting stone' Talon captured the wolf's full attention as it growled menacingly, its eyes filled with malice.
The beast circled Talon slowly, prompting him to grip his sword even more tightly.
I need to find a weak spot, there has to be one.' Talon's mind raced, urgency pushing him to devise a strategy swiftly.
As the wolf closed in, Talon couldn't resist stealing a glance at Damien, hoping for assistance.
'You've got to be kidding me…' Talon looked at Damien and found him still leaning on the carriage, casually chewing on an apple.
Before Talon could say anything to Damien, the wolf lunged at him with a deep madness in its eyes. Talon hastily dodged the incoming attack, narrowly avoiding slipping on his legs.
But the wolf was relentless, offering Talon no breathing room. Attack after attack, it initially aimed for Talon's legs.
Yet, as Talon deftly dodged each bite, the wolf grew increasingly aggressive, now targeting his throat.
'Just tire it out, once the opportunity presents itself, I'll butcher this bastard." Talon devised his plan quickly.
He saw the wolf slow down, so he readied himself for a sudden strike to finish the beast once and for all.
Talon tensed his calf muscles and jumped at the beast before the beast could react. With everything on the line, the boy struck at the neck of the beast, instantly beheading it.
Talon felt indescribable joy thanks to his triumph. He glanced at Damien, awaiting his reaction.
However, Damien, with the same nonchalant expression, pointed behind Talon.
Before he even turned to look, a bone-chilling scream pierced the air as the hunter he tried to save was torn apart by four Stone Ridge wolves.
Witnessing the horrifying scene unfold behind him instantly made his joy vanish.
The wolves, deprived of their target, turned their attention to the next available prey, him.
Talon gripped his blood-stained sword even tighter and clenched his other fist.
His vision slowly started to falter as a red mist oozed out of him, almost shrouding his vision. Yet, he swiped away the mist and rushed at the wolves.
The four wolves jumped away from the fallen corpse of the hunter, his blood painting their fur red.
As Talon rushed at them, they attacked from four different directions, planning to do the same thing to him as they did to the hunter.
Damien observed the boy from the carriage, almost unaware that Thorn had gotten out of the carriage, and now stood beside him, watching her companion with a painful look in her eyes.
As one of the wolves lunged at him, preparing to bite, Talon instantly stabbed his sword right into the beast's mouth, killing it in the process.
The other three, seemingly mad with grief after witnessing their companion murdered by Talon, rushed at the boy without any semblance of reason. Their eyes reflected primal fury.
Talon gazed at the beasts and gradually succumbed to the same madness, the mist enveloped his body, yet this time, he paid it no mind. He simply withdrew the sword from the wolf's throat.
"Have you ever seen him like this before?" Damien furrowed his brows as he observed Talon, then turned to Thorn, who stood right beside him.
"Only once..." Thorn's voice trailed off, her hesitation evident. Shifting the topic, she asked, "Shouldn't we help him?"
Damien, his brows furrowed deeper as he observed Talon, responded, "No, we definitely shouldn't. In this state, he probably can't tell a friend from a foe."
"Come at me with everything you've got!" roared Talon as he rushed towards the three wolves. The wolves reciprocated, colliding with him in a chaotic clash.
Talon's eyes widened as he saw the other Green-rated monsters switch targets after hearing his shout.
The hunters left behind decided to assist their comrades in fighting the Blue and Yellow-rated monsters, leaving Talon to fend for himself against a horde of Green-rated monsters.
However, as the mist, shrouded his mind even more, he couldn't care less about the horde as he faced them head-on.
As the mist grew in size around him, so did his physical capabilities, while he lost himself in the madness.
The horde surged against him, an overwhelming mass that left no space for evasion. Yet, he did not attempt to dodge, instead, he plunged into the heart of the chaos, relentlessly slashing and stabbing.
The previous backlash he received after fighting Zachary was nowhere near a problem for him, his body regenerated at an alarming rate.
One of the attributes of a gifted, a reason they were hated… feared.
"Haha, come at me more, you bastards!" roared Talon to the horde. He continued to cut them down one by one, while his psychotic laughter echoed across the battlefield.
To the shock of Damian, Talon did not back down, he killed monster after monster while wearing the expression of a maniac.
"He wasn't kidding when she said that the boy is extremely dangerous…" Damien muttered in shock, his words unheard by Thorn, as both of them continued to observe Talon as he slaughtered more and more Green-rated beasts.
After about ten minutes of constant slaughter, the horde was mostly slaughtered, leaving only one remaining, a blue-rated beast that had gotten mixed into the horde.
The beast looked like a rotting stag with ebony antlers, enveloped in red miasma similar to the red mist that shrouded Talon.
As the two locked glances, they rushed each other, the stag trying to skewer Talon with its antlers. Upon collision, Talon was sent flying and crashed into a tree.
As the mist slowly shrank in size, Damien could see that Talon's body was bruised and battered, yet he was still smiling.
For a moment, Damien even considered stopping the fight, but he was instructed to observe the boy in action.
Under normal circumstances, Damien would never agree to this madness, but the more he saw, the more convinced he became that the boy was truly monstrous.
Damien ate his apple almost 10 minutes ago, but he still held the apple core in his hands. Suddenly he had an idea.
He threw the apple core at the stag, diverting its attention from the boy.
The stag, now focused on Damien, prepared to charge, but Talon surged forward with staggering speed. In a swift motion, he severed one of its antlers, grabbed it, and plunged it deep into the stag, delivering a fatal blow.
As the stag collapsed on the ground, Talon remained standing, gazing at his defeated foe.
Then a hideous laughter, full of mockery escaped his mouth, before inevitably he too, collapsed on the ground.
As Talon fell to the ground, the mist gradually faded to nothing.
The other fights were beginning to conclude as the hunters triumphed over the beasts, and the battlefield descended into silence.
Damien tried to read Thorn's expression, but she just walked to her companion and gently picked him up, taking him back to the carriage.
"Well, I guess the only remaining thing is to get to the capital." Said Damien.
After collecting everything from the monsters and burying their companions, the convoy continued their journey towards the hunters' headquarters.
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