Chapter 20 - Hunting

Orario had been in constant chaos since Apollo's party since everyone was looking forward to seeing a War Game, although most of them held little fate that the kid from the Hestia Familia would survive for long, it was still a War Game.

Meanwhile, in the Loki Familia's home, Finn looked at Ais and said, "Don't do anything stupid that might seem as if you're helping the Hestia Familia"

"No, that's fine" Loki walked in and said which made Ais' eyes shine. However, Loki continued by stretching out her hand with a letter, "The kid didn't want any help in the first place, you can go help him if you want but I doubt he will let you"

Ais looked at the letter with a complicated gaze before sighing, was this his way of saying 'I appreciate it but let me deal with it myself'?

"Then I will watch with you" Ais said as she looked at Loki who just shrugged and let Ais do what she wanted.

***

Inside a huge hall, many Gods and Goddesses that were accompanied by their respective Familia Members watched the big screen made out of Hermes' powers with mixed expressions, meanwhile, Hermes was cursing the combi of Hestia and Loki nagging him to allow Familia Members in here....

"Goddess, will Laurens really be alright?" Bell asked with a worried expression.

"He will be fine" Hestia said with a forced smile while clenching her dress.

As the sun went down and it started to get dark, torches were lit around a castle in the wilderness that was bustling with activity on the screen.

Hermes stood up with an anticipating smile and announced, "Lets the War Game... BEGIN!"

***

The Apollo Familia were clearly overconfident as some of them just sat back and relaxed while some made some minor defenses to keep themselves busy.

There were some night watchers, but none of them expected something to happen the first day anyway, since the kid had basically no chance anyway, they were just walking around for a bit while yawning and not even looking at the outside.

"I'm so bored...." A short girl said as she stood on her post, this was such a waste of time.... But since it was a War Game anyway, she should at least show she was useful.

The girl yawned as she closed her eyes and teared up from the yawn, as she opened her eyes again and tried looking at her chest where her handkerchief is, she noticed a knife going through her chest....

"H...how-?" The girl muttered as she looked at the black clothed figure with a sword strapped to his waist behind her.

The knife was mercilessly pulled out and the figure dropped a liquid on top of the corpse that stopped it from bleeding.

Seeing that no blood was shed, the man put her in a sleeping position the wall so that the cut in her clothes wouldn't be seen.

The figure disappeared as footsteps appeared in the area, two men walked past the body and looked at her as one of them said, "Lisha, wake up. You have to go to the armory"

The other man stopped his friend as he said, "Just let her sleep, there's nothing going to happen anyway.

"True, I guess she can just take a nap for our Dungeon dive after the War Game" The other man complied as he they both started walking other directions to their respective post.

"Ugh... I want to take a nap aswell" The man said with a bored expression before his eyes suddenly jumped open and a hand appeared in front of his mouth to avoid him making a sound as a cold voice sounded from behind,

"Then take one"

This continued until 34 people of the 177 were killed and someone finally noticed something strange and rang the bell for an alarm.

"What happened?!"

"Why is the Alarm Bell going off?!"

"Where is he?"

Confused voices sounded through the camp as they all gathered at the inner field of the castle, a small stage stood in the center as some people were dragging bodies over to the stage where a young man with brown hair and bluish gray eyes in an Apollo Familia's outfit stood with veins appearing on his forehead stood.

"USELESS! ONE LEVEL 1 KID KILLED 34 PEOPLE WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING! RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE!" Clio roared while all the Familia Members looked down in shape, behind Clio stood two women, Cassandra and Daphne.

Clio turned towards Cassandra and asked with a cold gaze, "Can you cure it?". Cassandra inspected the corpse with a bitter expression and shook her head before saying, "Their hearts are pierced, even an Elixer wouldn't be able to save them"

"FUCK!" Clio roared and yelled, "From now on, everyone is on duty! Don't leave your post for a second!"

After giving the commands, Clio walked back into the castle with the 5 people that were serving as his aides in this War Game.

The Familia Members obediently went to their post and pushed their senses to the limit to avoid being the next casualty.

Meanwhile, Laurens had already left the castle and was lying inside a ditch outside of the castle as he closed the ditch with some makeshift camouflage, the Apollo Familia couldn't reach here anyway, and their Familia wasn't allowed to leave the castle.

Naturally, if he didn't kill the General in a 3-day period, it would be his loss.

Inside the huge hall, the spectators were amazed yet perplexed by Laurens' movement.

"Why is he hiding?" Loki asked Hestia, Demeter and Mischa who also didn't get what he was trying but Ais started explaining,

"If we push our senses to the limit, we will not exhaust physical stamina but mental stamina, people that are not mages have a worse mental stamina than others. However, even they can do it for a few hours before they will get a headache and feel like they are getting sick"

Loki looked at Ais who just gave a lot of information without anyone asking her in shock, she couldn't get used to a talking Ais so fast....

Still, as she thought about it, what Ais said would not only be a genius' strategy but also inhumane, he was mentally torturing them to the point of breaking their mind with anxiety and the fear of death and let them self-destruct before actually ending them.

"Ais....how do you even know this?" Demeter asked as she put a finger on her plump lips.

"Laurens told me" Ais said straightforwardly which made Hestia pout since he didn't tell her.

After a few hours, Laurens' eyes opened as he disappears once more into the night.

It had been 4 hours and it was around 3 A.M right now, since it was summer it would only be dark for another 3 hours or so and he had to set the rest of his plan in motion.

***

"Do you think he is somewhere inside instead?" A short man said as he rubbed his eyes.

"He shouldn't be, he would've definitely been caught if he was" Another man said as they met each other on the castle walls.

"I will-…." Before the man could say something, his eyes blurred, and the world spun as he suddenly fell on his head, his eyes sprung open in horror as he looked forward and he tried to talk but no words came out,

'My body?....'

The man and his friend both were easily disposed of and Laurens put the bloodied bodies in place before diving back into the shadows.

It took 10 minutes before the bodies were found by a group of 8 people and Laurens put his senses to their maximum ability and inspected everyone's expressions from afar.

"T...They were instantly killed...."

"Should we tell Clio?"

"Are you an idiot? Clio isn't allowed to strike first! Only if he enters the Castle can the General, Clio, move"

Laurens had a cold expression as he slowly neared the group, as the group was busy trying to come to a good measurement to take, Laurens dashed out of the shadows.

"But still everyone will die at this ra-!"

Everyone looked at the man, who seemed their leader as his words were suddenly cut off by a sword that went from his right shoulder to his left waist and sliced him into two.

Laurens plan was simple, fear.

Make them forget he was a Level 1 and give them an image of him that he was a demon instead.

"L...leader!"

"Sander! NOO!"

Three people of the group hastily readied their weapons while four were sent into a state of shock, Laurens didn't hesitate for a second before cutting another woman that readied her bow at him into pieces.

The other two who readied their weapons were trembling in fear while one person of the group passed out in fear.

Laurens didn't stand idle for a second before killing the rest of the group without much of a challenge.

"This should be enough for today, tomorrow will be the end of it" Laurens said with an emotionless gaze as he looked at the unconscious person.

'This is why hunting is a mind game' Laurens thought as he jumped down the castle wall towards the wilderness,

'The more emotionless and ruthless person wins'