The Fifth Day of the Mission.
Soooooosh….
Blood sprayed everywhere as Desper sliced the neck of the last monster. Around him, there were about thirty corpses of the same monsters that looked like wolves, but with three eyes. They were just B-Rank, so he didn't have a hard time killing them; one slash of his swords was enough. Near him, Eland had killed ten M-6 monsters of the same type; they were just bigger in size.
Desper wouldn't go with the teams to any Spatial Cracks, but he still should kill any weak monsters attacking the Beacon.
After collecting their cores, they walked back to the Beacon, leaving the burning corpses behind.
Desper held one of the cores and tried hard to absorb the Essence within it, but he failed and gave up. He would have to wait and return to the sect to exchange them for Red Essence Stones that he could absorb.
His expression darkened when he glanced at Bron, who was sitting alone, staring into the distance.
"Is he going to be okay?" he asked Eland.
"You don't need to blame yourself. You just tried to help him," Eland said as he noticed the guilty look on his face. "If you hadn't talked with him, I would have been the one, and it would have ended the same."
He added, "Everyone has the right to dream, but Bron has to face reality, or in the end, he will kill himself for no reason. He can just marry another woman and have more children. Time can heal anything."
Desper sighed deeply. He still felt a little guilty, but Eland was right.
VOOOOOOOOOOOT….
Drum…. Drum… Drum..
VOOOOOOOOOOT….
Drum… Drum… Drum
As they were talking, a loud horn accompanied by the beating of drums echoed.
Desper's eyes widened. He hadn't heard it before, but he was still able to recogniz it.
'Distress Signal!'
A village was under monster attack!
The team members rushed to their horses. Desper joined them as well as it wasn't a Spatial Crack.
They quickly directed their horses to the southeast, following Eland's lead. When there was a Spatial Crack, they would make the horses run fast, but when there was a Distress Signal…
"Line up!!" Eland screamed.
Behind Eland, everyone rode their horses into a straight line. Desper was a bit slower, but he managed to join them.
After seeing that the line had been formed, Eland placed the Detection Desk over the Azure Horse's body.
Saaaaaaaaaah…
The horse neighed loudly. Its eyes glowed with blue light, and its body released a strange azure smoke. When the Crimson Horses behind sniffed that smoke, their eyes started to glow with the same blue light.
Knowing what was going to happen next, Desper tightened his grip on the bridle and squeezed his legs against the saddle.
All the horses neighed at the same time, and suddenly…
Sooooosh…
They shot forward like a bolt of lightning. In an instant, their speed multiplied tenfold, blurring the world around them. Desper's face twisted as the air hit him hard. The Crimson Horses were already very fast on their own, but with that boost, he couldn't even hear the sound of their hooves.
When there was a Distress Signal, every second mattered.
Desper had to keep his eyes squeezed shut for three minutes, before Eland took the Detection Desk off the horse's body. The smoke stopped coming out, and the horses' speed decreased.
With the wind no longer whipping against his face, Desper could open his eyes and saw that they were at the outskirts of a village. From there, he could hear many screams and cries.
He didn't notice his face twisting with anger, or his teeth piercing his lip until it bled.
He remembered his village.
"150 B-Rank and 60 M-7 Near-Sighted Stalkers!" Eland yelled, snapped him awake.
After that, Eland pointed in multiple directions. "Taros, go there! Silas, there! Zen… Bron… Arkan…"
He looked at Desper and said, "Stay here."
Eland didn't wait for him to respond and rushed into the village.
Desper watched as Eland disappeared between the buildings. He exhaled a deep breath and got off his horse.
Tightening his grip on his swords, he charged into the village.
His expression was cold, and his eyes were piercing. The screams and smell brought him back to his village three months ago. Back then, he was very weak and couldn't protect anyone, not even the ones he loved. But now, he had the strength.
He couldn't stand by while people were dying, not when he had the power to help. Eland and the others didn't know about his true strength. None of these monsters posed a threat to him, since he could easily activate his bloodline to boost his cultivation to the Eighth Stage.
He ran through the streets and between the houses but didn't encounter any monsters. Since Eland hadn't sent anyone here, that meant there were few or none. Until…
Grrrrr..
At the end of a street, Desper finally saw one. It was walking on two legs and was the same height as him. The monster's body was covered in long black hair. Its head resembled that of a dog, but with very small eyes and two pairs of long, wide ears. Each of its hands had three long, sharp claws ready to tear its prey apart.
The monster's ears turned toward him, but it didn't move, as if waiting for something.
'Near-Sighted Stalker.' Desper recalled the name Eland had shouted.
It was looking toward him but hadn't attacked. He guessed the monster had weak vision and strong hearing just as its name implied.
Thin green veins surfaced in his eyes, creeping toward the pupils. Desper took a deep breath and launched himself at the monster. He didn't know whether it was B-Rank or M-7, so he used all his strength.
The monster heard his steps and lunged at him, but it was much slower in comparison.
Holding his swords, Desper crossed his arms as if hugging himself.
Soooooosh…
His swords struck, cleaving the monster into three pieces, confirming its B-Rank.
"Too weak," he murmured, staring at his blood-stained hands. "Or am I too strong?"
He looked around and saw three other stalkers, identical to the one he had just killed. Drawn by the noise, they were already sprinting toward him.
Desper charged at them and swept both swords, killing two instantly. He was about to finish the last one, but—
"Heeeelp!"
A nearby woman's scream drew his attention. He immediately ignored the last monster and rushed toward the sound.
Following the desperate cry, He arrived at a house with a big hole in the wall and didn't hesitate before rushing in.
Inside, he saw a woman lying on the ground, holding a chair and using it to fend off a monster. Her ripped clothes revealed numerous scratches.
B-Rank monsters were generally weak enough that a normal person without cultivation could fight them.
Desper dashed forward and impaled the monster's head, then turned and swung his other sword, slicing the neck of the stalker that had chase him from the street.
"Th… thank y—"
The woman tried to thank him, but Desper had already disappeared.
He rushed toward a different house when he heard monsters' growls from inside. Unlike the previous one, its wall wasn't broken.
Desper didn't waste time searching for an entrance and smashed the wall with his fist.
His eyes widened, and he dashed forward, thrusting his sword into the chest of a stalker and throwing it aside.
On the ground lay two stalker corpses he obviously wasn't the one who had killed them.
"P…l…ea…ha… n…e—"
Next to the bodies was a man holding a sword, covered in his own blood. His body was full of gashes, with a fatal cut across his neck rapidly draining his life away.
The poor man had been fighting the three stalkers at the same time before Desper arrived, and had even killed two of them. But in the end, he was just a normal man with no cultivation.
"Honey!"
From a corner of the room, a woman ran toward him and embraced the dying man. Clearly, he had been protecting her.
"Kho…ld…om…"
He spat unintelligible words before falling silent forever.
Desper's face twisted with grief and anger. He wished he could give the man some Healing Pills. Unfortunately, they were not only useless but also deadly for people with no Origin.
He couldn't do anything but leave the crying widow and rush to another place.
'Pull yourself together, Desper,' he muttered to himself.
He couldn't save everyone, but he would save as many as he could.
That was what he believed.
But he was about to learn just how hard reality could hit.