29 | PK?

Keen wakes up Vi as planned. By this time, the two villagers have changed to their snow gear.

He has made crutches for both of them as an aid to their upcoming endeavor.

As agreed, Keen and Vi are to protect the villagers while they in turn give the directions to the shortcut in leaving the snowy valley.

Since there are only two seats in front of the carriage, the red-clad and the man with an amputated leg decide to take the coachman seats while the two ladies stay inside.

Within fifteen minutes, the guild master can already see the end of the valley up ahead.

"Please don't forget our request," the man reminds the red-clad.

Keen nods silently.

After exiting the valley, he takes the villagers to the nearest market where they try to apply for new jobs.

"Are you sure you don't have plans of getting out of Esprit?" Keen asks the two again.

The lady shakes her head but offers a warm smile. "We don't know what you are talking about, Sir. However, being with my husband is all I can ever ask for."

"Thank you for saving us back there, dear Traveling Adventurers. How can we ever pay you back?" The man struggles walking with his crutch.

Vi gives them a worried look. The sides of their eyes are beginning to have red stains. "Are you gonna be okay?"

The man smiles and pulls his wife close. "What are you saying? Of course! We'll start anew in this village. Then we'll have a cheerful family with lots of children."

Vi tries to say something, but the guild master stops her short. He doesn't say anything, but she knows exactly what he wants to say.

She shifts her gaze to the couple and offers them a cheerful farewell. "We hope to see you soon."

The couple gives them a pair of contented smiles.

Vi bites her lip after turning away from them while a hand grips her chest.

Contrary to the out-of-place weather system in the valley, the village has a fair and warm one. The horses pulling the carriage are also back to their energetic selves.

When the duo is about to leave the place, the air stream begins to feel hotter. When the carriage stops, Vi peeks from the sliding door behind the coachman seat and sees the group they have been trying to avoid.

The berserker's guild.

"I have been waiting for you, demon." The guild master in reddish brown armor pulls out her sword from its scabbard.

The archer and trap-setter are beside her. Meanwhile, Heavy Armor and White Cloak are behind.

"Give us the woman! You…vile creature," White Cloak casts <Eminence> on the berserker guild master.

"My subordinate has nothing to do with you," Keen answers coldly.

The berserker guild master readies for a battle stance. "Tch. Don't lie to my face. Those ogres were your true subordinates, right?"

"What are you saying? We—" Vi reveals herself.

Keen looks at the group without saying a word. He just stares blankly with the darkness under his cloak.

"She's already under his spell. Let's get rid of him fast!" David draws white-gold arrows with his Spirit Bow.

Esme sprints to Keen's direction with rapid but heavy steps. The ground shatters while her feet make contact. "I'll separate the girl from him. Get her to safety!"

Archer and Goggles nod in unison. Heavy Armor takes out his Pin Shield to protect White Cloak.

The berserker does a quick succession of ten sword thrusts, but the red-clad evades all of it.

Vi maneuvers the horses to make a turn with the carriage. "What are you doing? You'll end up being rogues!"

Goggles is instantly in front of her, smiling with bloodlust. His hands reach out to try and grab her.

Her eyes widen in fear and shock. No matter what happens, she has decided not to let him touch her.

Sensing that, Keen goes to her direction and completely ignores the berserker. Without hesitation, he conjures <Blood String> to pierce the wrist of Goggles.

Instead of shrieking in pain, the trap-setter licks a tongue between his lips.

"Get your hands off her," Keen stares down at the trap-setter with eyes glowing bright red.

Three arrows shoot towards him in very quick succession. Despite being faster than the speed of sound, Reaper's guild master easily evades all three with a quicker but simpler motion.

David gasps. "He evaded my <Purification Arrow> so casually?"

Esme changes her direction and jumps to slash the arm of the red-clad, but he blocks it effortlessly with one hand using a red katana.

"I think I told you to keep your hands off her," he turns his head to her direction and shows even more bloodlust to the other guild master.

Her hands tremble violently as sweat accumulates on her cheeks. To recover her composure, she bites her lower lip until it bleeds. Afterward, she jumps back to take a long and deep breath.

She casts <Clutch> and <Fury>, then asks White Cloak for additional buffs. "Helen, I need <Holy Protection> and <Eminence>. Also some speed boosts."

Keen kicks Goggles to the nearest tree. The guy's armor-lacking body shoots to a fifty meter distance in a single second. At the same instant, the red-clad is behind the white cloaked priestess. With a quick motion of his hand, he renders the girl unconscious.

Heavy Armor didn't even have time to react until the girl he is protecting finally makes a soft thud against the ground. His eyes dart behind. "What happened?"

Esme grunts angrily as she notices Keen in front of her. Seeing that Vi and her other teammates are on a safe distance from the two of them, she uses <Savant> and quickly releases the vertical strike to his direction.

Her attack shatters the ground and creates a deep crevice. A large cloud of dust fills the area. As it settles down, she realizes that the red-clad is nowhere in the strike zone.

"Where is he?" She looks around impatiently while preparing for another combination attack. However, with Helen unconscious, her attack would be less effective to the enemy and more risky for her body.

She glances at the carriage and sees that Vi is still attending to it calmly.

"Should you be looking away from your enemy right now?" Keen's cold voice appears right beside her.

Two persistent System notifications bug him.

[ Mission: Drink Blood ]

[ Accept? YES | NO ]

[ Mission: Find the Hidden Temple ]

[ Accept? YES | NO ]

Finally, he determines the course of action to take.

Meanwhile, Vi tries to be calm in the middle of the commotion. The guild master has taken the trap-setter and White Cloak, who were so eager to get her, out of commission for the moment.

Keen can handle the archer and Heavy Armor with ease, but the problem lies with incapacitating the berserker guild master. She has fast reflexes and combat abilities, almost on par with Sir Albert. Reaper's guild master may need to be a little more serious to take her down.

But Vi is worried whether he will be using that scary skill that consumed the warmongering ogre commander with a full health bar like it was nothing.

"We'll be branded as rogues if he kills even one of the other guild's members. That will make our journey so much more difficult than necessary," she readies her bone lance from her quiver.

She looks at the broken tree where Goggles was kicked and notices the guy is not there. Her eyes shift on all sides while sharpening her senses. With that much killing intent, she will surely recognize his presence.

Lava suddenly surrounds the carriage, followed by a quick rainfall in the same area. The water instantly evaporates, making a mist of steam. Afterward, Allan appears before her with an assassin's blade in both hands.

She takes out her bone lance in both hands. The other members of the group are insisting that she be taken away from Keen. However, this guy is obviously trying to get rid of her instead.

"Hey," is the only word the red-clad says as his hand pierces through Allan's chest. His eyes are glowing bright red and emanating an overwhelming bloodlust that engulfs the prey in helplessness in an infinite darkness.

Outside the mist, Heavy Armor and Archer are skewered by at least twenty bone lances each and their berserker guild leader is far away from her arms and legs.

◎◎◎

Vi keeps on glancing while Keen minds the horses.

"What did you do to them?" She finally asks.

He laughs proudly without looking at her. "I showed them the future."

"The future?" She leans closer.

He takes out their precious map and points at the next destination. He then removes his hood over his head and smiles like a kid. "There's a hot spring over here. Want to take a look?"

◎◎◎

Esme gasps for air, panicking to hold her throat with her two hands.

Two hands.

She springs to her feet in confusion. "I have my feet, too."

"That guy showed us the future," Howl walks beside her. He has an equally anxious air about him, but is more relaxed than her. "In my line of work in the real world as a firefighter, I have once experienced something like that."

"A vision of your own death?" David struggles to even stand.

The shield guardian nods. "A short moment further into the future, should you pursue what you want to do."

Helen embraces the cloak closer to her body. "You mean all of us would have surely died if we pursued that red-clad monster? How about that girl under his enchantment?"

Esme looks at her sword lying on the ground. "It may have been a complete misunderstanding on our part. The two of them did have a guild emblem with them. What I don't understand is why all of us were acting that way towards those two."

"I find it odd too. We were so desperate to take the girl and kill that man." Heavy Armor shifts his gaze to their member that has been silent all this while. "Maybe he has something to say about it."

Allan is staring blankly in the sky with eyes that have seen the worst terror in his lifetime. The ability of speech has left him. The gray collar on his neck is starting to crack.