The beast tribe's village was completely ablaze, but thankfully Shirou arrived quickly enough to prevent the fire from spreading to the center.
Even so, the entire beast tribe was in complete chaos.
The beast people were running everywhere, screaming or yelling as they fled the fire and the attackers who had come under the cover of night.
Some beast tribe warriors tried to fight back, but because the beast tribe is naturally afraid of fire, they could barely use one-tenth of their strength in this environment.
Under the cover of darkness and flames, the smugglers swarmed in to grab the beast tribe children, intending to take them away as slaves.
The beast tribe parents were furious but helpless. Some beast tribe mothers tried to save their children, only to be mercilessly hacked to death by the smugglers.
The main reason the beast tribe's resistance was so weak was the fire.
The flames obscured vision, burned the beastmen warriors' fur, and created thick smoke.
For the beast tribe, a natural advantage lies in their extremely strong senses, with sight and hearing far surpassing ordinary humans, allowing them to move freely even at night.
But the smoke made their eyes and noses lose their sensitivity. The smugglers, on the other hand, were unaffected by the environment because they had cloths covering their mouths and noses, easily pushing the beast tribe warriors to the brink of despair.
At this time, using strong water magic might be enough to put out the fire directly.
But Shirou couldn't use magic of that level.
So he could only rely on his own power to kill people with his bare hands.
Normally, this would be very difficult. Even with Sword God Style, killing enemies in such a complex environment would come at a great cost.
Most importantly, it would take a lot of time. Even if he managed to kill all the enemies, the beast tribe's settlement would pay a heavy price.
Therefore, the key was speed!
Would the smugglers slaughter the beast tribe faster, or would Shirou kill the smugglers faster?
Everything depended on this.
Luckily, Shirou never cared about killing. He didn't mind getting his hands dirty with blood, and he had the means to kill enemies very quickly.
"Gustav, where's the highest point here?"
While the beast tribe's warrior chief Gustav was worried but unable to act immediately because of the fire, Shirou asked him.
Although Gustav didn't understand, he instinctively pointed to the highest point of the tribe.
"The altar over there is the highest point in our tribe."
"Okay."
After getting the information, Shirou didn't think any more. He poured magic power and fighting spirit into his feet and jumped to the top of the beast tribe's settlement in one breath, following the complex path.
After finding a good spot, Shirou completely removed the restraint of his eye patch, fully releasing his Clairvoyance ability.
In an instant, everything in the beast tribe's settlement was presented before his eyes.
Burning buildings, crying children, desperate beast tribe warriors, and fanatical, excited human smugglers.
No building, no obstacle could hide from Clairvoyance's gaze.
At this moment, Shirou clearly saw everything, saw the myriad aspects of the world.
He completely lost any pity or hesitation, his heart as sharp as steel.
"Trace, On."
Shirou took out the emerald bow that Laws had given him and created arrows out of thin air, then drew the bow and notched the arrow at lightning speed!
"Snap!"
As the bowstring vibrated.
Shirou suddenly shot out a large number of arrows, incredibly fast. Most importantly, every arrow he shot hit its target with perfect accuracy.
That was the enemy's heart!
"Thwack!"
The beast people were shocked.
They had been filled with unwillingness and pain, bearing extreme hatred for the hateful human smugglers before them, but there was nothing they could do.
But suddenly.
The night sky was as if red shooting stars were falling.
People looked up at the sky and saw countless specks of light appearing from the direction of the altar, and all the shooting stars hit the evil smugglers at extremely high speed.
As the shooting stars streaked across the sky.
At first, people didn't know what was happening.
But after the first round of shooting stars fell, a large number of smugglers stopped moving. Whether they were fighting beast tribe warriors, dragging beast tribe children to take them away as loot, or arrogantly watching their victory while gleefully setting fires…
Wherever the arrow rain landed, an arrow would appear in the heart of every smuggler with perfect accuracy, piercing it without mercy.
"What happened?!"
For a time, both the human smugglers and the beast tribe warriors were stunned, their faces showing expressions of disbelief.
Before they could react, the second round of arrow rain erupted again at lightning speed.
"Thwack!"
"Thwack!" "Thwack!"
The red shooting stars were like the reaper's lament.
The moment they saw this round of arrow rain erupt, the smugglers abandoned all thought and ran away with all their might.
But they quickly realized in despair that no matter where they ran, no matter which seemingly safe corner they went to, the red arrows were like the reaper's scythe, mercilessly reaping their lives.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
"Who is it? Who's doing this?!"
"Over there, that guy's over there, let's get him together!!"
After a brief moment of despair, the smugglers finally understood the situation and realized that Shirou was sniping everyone from above.
So, despite being afraid of Shirou's terrifying ability, the smugglers rushed toward him like madmen in order to survive.
And this was exactly what Shirou wanted.
"Coming right up."
One, two, three…
Watching the smugglers rushing towards him like madmen, Shirou wasn't afraid at all. Instead, he became even more excited, because after he attracted the enemies' attention, the beast people would have more chances to escape.
"Snap!"
"Snap!" "Snap!"
At the same time, Shirou was still shooting arrows at extremely high speed.
His shooting speed didn't decrease at all, and even seemed to be getting faster.
The smugglers had been very arrogant, thinking that they could easily take him down with their numbers.
But they soon realized that Shirou's arrows were as if they had eyes. No matter how they dodged, or even tried to defend with shields, they couldn't avoid them.
Shirou's archery had already reached a superhuman level. It couldn't be avoided by dodging or blocking.
Servant Emiya's archery could easily kill fast-moving Servants from thousands of meters away.
No matter how hard these ordinary smugglers tried, there was no way they could avoid Shirou's sniper shots from the shadows.
Soon, Shirou killed all the smugglers that could be seen.
He thought it was completely over, but he always felt a sense of unease.
He quickly realized the source of his unease—
He hadn't found Gilles.
As the planner of this scheme, was it possible that he hadn't participated in the attack?
Was that possible?
In the moment Shirou hesitated, his Mind's Eye suddenly produced a strong warning.
"Snap!"
With no time to react, Shirou could only follow his instincts and dodge backward.
As a result, a dagger stabbed from the shadows barely grazed his skin, almost piercing his chest or even his heart directly.
Clairvoyance hadn't detected it?
Shirou was shocked. He had just activated Clairvoyance and should have been able to see everything within his vision, including things hidden by obstacles.
Therefore, he never expected that someone could get so close to him, even injuring him.
This was an unbelievable situation for Shirou.
While he was surprised, the Assassin in the shadows was also quite surprised. And because his identity had been exposed, he simply walked out of the shadows.
It was Gilles.
"Do you have eyes behind your head? You could dodge that?"
"Gilles, it really is you."
"Hehe, so you already know the truth, Shirou. You're pretty smart."
"..."
Gilles didn't care about Shirou's gaze. He held a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and a black cloak was thrown open on his body.
Shirou realized that the other party had completely concealed his movements with that black cloak, at least visually blending completely into the environment.
Because it was something that couldn't be seen even when looking directly at it, Shirou couldn't detect it even with Clairvoyance.
This was one of the few drawbacks of Clairvoyance.
For a time, Shirou became extremely wary of Gilles, realizing that the man before him might not just be an ordinary smuggler.
After all, how could an ordinary smuggler have such unique stealth skills, and even dare to appear in front of him so openly.
Gilles knew that he had the strength of a Sword Saint.
While Shirou hesitated, Gilles smiled and said, "I really didn't expect that you're not only a Sword Saint, but you also have such a strange archery skill, able to kill people accurately even at night. You're almost too strong to be human. But, I'm not very afraid of you. Do you know why?"
"..."
"Hehe, what a cold attitude. Fine, I'll announce my name. I'm North Saint, [Cleansing Expert] Gilles. I'm quite famous in the Milis continent, you know."
As he spoke, Gilles revealed a fierce aura.
That was undoubtedly the pressure of a North God Style Saint level.
But Shirou still didn't care. It wasn't as if he hadn't fought against North Saints before. He didn't think the other party could be a match for a Sword Saint.
However, Shirou quickly realized where Gilles' confidence came from.
Because a feeling of indescribable numbness suddenly came from the wound where Gilles had grazed him. He almost lost his strength and fell to the ground.
The other party's dagger was poisoned!
---
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