Chapter two

Mirefield, one and a half hours to nightfall.

Mirefield is bustling with activity. Vendors call out their prices, the sound of hammers striking hot iron add to the choir of voices and bodies filling the market district. I walk unhurriedly, sparing a peak or a glance at anything mildly interesting. After a few minutes of walking around, I find myself in the front of a rather primitive looking store, a sign naming the store as "Frank's Meats and Versions". "Jackpot" I murmur as I enter the hut, the sound of a wind chime notifying my entry. 'Bells, Windchimes, and shit like that are really in style nowadays huh? I should get something for Aramid when I come back here' I ponder as various meats and spices fill my nostrils and arguing invading my ears. I look at the counter to see a girl in expensive-looking mage robes probably around my age trying and failing to haggle with the beefy owner of this store.

"5 slivers." says the owner, who I presume is Frank. The girl goes on her toes and to looks at Frank eye to eye, "2 slivers" she declares confidently with a smirk as she slaps two slivers on the table.

Frank just shakes his head and replies "5 slivers or get out", causing the girl's confident smirk to fall straight on its ass. I tune out the following rebuttal as I put some spices and jerky in a conveniently placed wooden basket. I walk towards Frank, grateful that the mage girl left and put the spices on the counter, and look him in the eye. "One week in the wild, any suggestions?" I ask him, in reply he goes under the counter and pulls out a sack of various jerkies, meats, and even basic materials for a fire. It's apparent Frank's not a talker and that makes two of us as I put the spices in the sack and pull out my money pouch.

"One gold and 5 slivers." He says gruffly, his eyes sparking no room for haggling after that girl's shitshow. I rummage and pull out a gold coin and 10 slivers on the table. He takes the gold coin and five slivers and I push the other five towards him. He gives a nod of appreciation which I return in kind as he grabs the other 5 coins and I put the sack in my backpack, not even feeling the extra weight. I leave the store and start walking towards the city walls. Shopping only took roughly 10 minutes and it'll take me around 20 minutes to reach the city walls, and I have no issue spending an hour reviewing my notes.

After a block or two of walking, I come across a squabble between some adventurer and his... Female companion of some sort. I walked into the middle of it and disdain filled my being to the very core seeing most onlookers non verbally saying "can't be helped" or licking their lips to enjoy this twisted form of entertainment. I tally a headcount of 10 spectators as I enter earshot.

"Get away from me!" The woman is no older than 18 shrieks as she tries to run from the adventurer who grabs her arm in retaliation and pulls her into a forceful embrace, his words and intentions clear as day.

"Listen here bitch, I'm a B rank adventurer, you think you can walk around in that kind of clothing and not garner my attention? Just take a page from these people watching you, and just let it happen, I'll promise I'll be gentle."

My disdain turns into anger as I speed walk towards him, not even 5 steps away now.

His hand snakes down towards her chastity.

A feeling I spend some much time and pain keeping locked away pounds against its cage.

I feel it corrupting my anger into something..malignant.

I take my tomahawk out of its belt loop and roll it around my wrist. The pounding in my head turns into giggling as a smile only suited for the sinister of the sinners spreads across my lips. I raise my tomahawk and

SLASH

There goes his leg! His feelings of lust disappear in an instant as immeasurable pain replaces it as the adventurer falls to the floor, screaming in suffering. He turns around to face me and I can already tell some bullshit is about to sprout from his lips. "Your voice is grating, shut it."

--Adventurer(Sam)'s POV--

My hand snakes down towards her chastity as she struggles in my grasp, turning me on even more. I grin even more as I find her underwear, but before I get a handful of it, burning pain suddenly comes from my leg as I scream in agony and fall to the floor, the whore falling with me and scrambles to get away from my grasp. I turn around to face the attacker dumb enough to attack me. Before I can even speak my assaulter, a kid no older than 14 opens his mouth. "Your voice is grating, shut it." This dumb fucking brat, I can let out my emotions beating his ass in then. I'm about to reply when my whole body freezes in fear. I almost choke on my saliva as the strongest bloodlust I ever felt attacks me. I feel piss pouring into my pants but that's the least of my worries as I stare in terror at the kid. Everyone else in a 10-meter radius falls to their knees, their body no longer capable of following their command as their fight or flight screams at them to no avail, they are at this kid's mercy now, just as I am. Demonic looking mouths housing razor-sharp teeth spout from his trench coat with blood-red eyes to boot. Slimy, disgusting long tongues follow from their mouths as their eyes lock onto mine. The monstrosity's mouths sync with his." You see, right now I'm going to hurt you, very very much. And you all" his head to stare at the onlookers who were staring, doing nothing. The abominations that make up his coat locking eyes with every onlooker."There are ten of you, and for some bullshit, dumbass reason decided to watch while this girl was about to be molested. And I don't care why, because of you ten disgusting disgraces of people, this fuck is going to suffer for 10 minutes, and they will be the final and worst, most painful suffering minutes of his life, and all of you are to blame." The atrocities of flesh that make up his coat start giggling maniacally as his head turns and meets mine, I try to beg for mercy, to offer money, fortune, women, anything to save me! But my mouth doesn't-no won't open as I sit there in terror, begging to be able to scream, fight back, or run away as the pain in my leg continues to hit me in waves.

All of this is happening. Ruak has so much bloodlust that he's subconsciously calling demons of rage, pain, and epicaricacy who using the hallucinations of those present as a medium to appear in the real world. A very small minority knows this besides other people who manage to harbor bloodlust to that extent.

--end of POV--

Blood drips from my tomahawk," WHY DONT WE GIVE IT A TASTE?" screams the void in my mind as the tomahawk rises to my mouth. I flick the blood off the blade, forcing self-restraint as I put the tomahawk in its belt loop, we promised to make him suffer Afterall, blades would make it too quick, too clean. I walk towards him until I'm towering over him as I lift my foot and

CRUNCH

The sound of bones breaking echoed through the quiet plaza as the adventurer, who goes by Sam I find out later as I loot his broken and breathing body's too scared to even scream, which ruins the fun.

"Scream." I say as I subconsciously lower my bloodlust enough for his vocal cords to function, his scream deafening the onlookers stuck in terror, forced to curse their cowardness for not trying to help the would have molested girl. He can't move anything as his eyes are locked on the bone protruding from his leg. I walk closer and lower the bloodlust just enough to let him talk as I grab his head by a fistful of hair. "10 spectators, 10 minutes." I grin as I pull my hand back "Please, mercy I was just messing aroun-" His pitiful excuses are cut off as my fist connects with his face as it snaps violently. My grin widens as I grab his head again as I get ready for another punch, time is something to savor after all…

Three minutes in and he's still begging for mercy, I reply with "Were you going to spare that girl mercy?"

No reply.

Five minutes in and he's begging for his mother to save him.

Eight minutes in and I force him to repeat "I will never use my adventuring status like this again" after every punch.

By ten minutes his face is so fucked up he can't even speak correctly, his attempts at "I will never use my adventuring status like this again" come out as gurgles of spit and blood. Satisfied with my punching bag I take some samples of his blood and turn off my bloodlust, locking the void back in its cage. I turn to the onlookers still frozen in terror and their shit and piss. "Nothing ever happened right? Ah, I hope this was a learning experience for you as much as it was for old Sam here" I nudge his broken and battered but surprisingly conscious body. They all nod in unison and run as fast as their pitiful legs can carry them. I turn and find myself staring at the girl Sam preyed on. "Oh, you're still here?" I greet her bluntly. "T-Thank you for saving me, may I know your name s-s-sir?" For an 18-year-old she acts no more than 10, but after what she witnessed I'm surprised by her having the breasts to stay be here. "You can call me R, now run along and know there are better ways of stealing or earning money" I reply as I toss her Sam's pouch, noticing that was her aim all along. She nods and scurries off, probably buying food and water for her sick mother or something along those lines.

Even though I have no regrets for what I did to Sam, this distraction now forces me to speedwalk towards the city walls as I notice my white trench coat having a red makeover. I smile in glee as I walk with a little more prep in my step.