Chapter 18 - True Hunt

[ NARRATE POV ]

There were exactly 3 adults that were staring down at a young boy who's age range from 5 to 7 having an oversize fur coat covering his entire body with long golden hair tied in a ponytail and deep blue eyes staring back at them. They looked at each other upon finding the young boy alone in the woods. Their intentions were clear with plastered faces. 

For them this was the perfect opportunity to kidnap and sell for a fair price or even use for entertainment to satiate their lust. They believe that the child got lost and wouldn't post any problem for them. This was of course a mistake that they would soon come to regret. 

"Hey kid, are you lost? Do you want to come with us??"

They were smiling creepily trying to get the child to follow them and have their fun. It already made them aroused just thinking about his cry for mercy. One of them appeared to be busily men that had muscular frames and presents that could easily squashed the head of the child and started to walk closer to him while the young boy kept silent looking back and forth at them. 

All of them were confident since all were at the Advance level of North God style and together could even survive a fight against a Saint Rank if they worked together. They watched the child keep silent thinking that he was frightened and tried to persuade him even more.

"Come on now, I'm here to help you little boy. Tell me what's your name so we can be friends?"

The young boy still remained silent until it seemed to change expressions that terrified every single one of them. His eyes that were just stoic children suddenly turn into an indescribable sight that seems to cause their body to quiver in fear. It did not belong to a child, instead was akin to a monster soaked in blood. Their instinct kicks in and back off taking their sword out of their scabbard while the boy just stared at them without doing anything.

"Boss, something wrong with that child I could feel it."

"You think I didn't notice!? Screw this, let's just take the boy!"

They tried to move yet realize that their body refused to move locking into place and even how hard they tried their body wouldn't budge. Every time they tried to gain control of their body something prevented it. 

"Whaat!? The hell!!?"

"I-I can't move!!? How is this happening!?"

"Dammit!! Try harder!!"

"You three are really careless and you Baldy, you've been talking too much and didn't even notice it. Though, I can't blame you since I tried my best to be subtle but to think that it would actually work on humans? At first I'm not sure but I guess this saves me a lot of trouble."

The group heard a child's voice turning their attention to their supposed victim speaking in a tone that didn't match his age. His tone was like that of an old man having discovered something new and stared at each of them examining something. He moved closer to their leader before floating in the air surprising them and stared lifelessly at him. 

His neck tighten and chest pounding realizing the child was not human instead a demon in disguise. He desperately tried to move and escape but to no avail and only met with his finger suddenly moving then bent in an abnormal way and snapping it in the process. 

"Gaaah-hmbb!"

"Shhhhh you are going to disturb the animals. Now listen carefully you have two choices and nothing more. If you tried to refuse then death would be the last thing you'll desire. Understand?"

At this moment they all knew that before them was not a child not a demon but much worse. The living embodiment of the reaper that reap the soul for the sinner.

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[ Reinhard POV ]

I was looking for the opportunity to go look for some bandits to gather some materials and resources along with testing my powers. To my surprise and delight a group of 3 appeared as I was about to look for them. That made me extremely excited but quickly calmed myself down and carefully observed their strength. First impressed they could easily be around at the intermediate or even advanced level of any from the 3 sword style. However, seeing that they were bandits then it would be ideal that they're style would be the North God Style since it focuses on adaptability and environment as well as the most dishonorable way in combat. 

They don't have the best skill in fighting and normally would do everything to gain the upper hand like throwing first in their opponent's eyes or even use hostages for their gain. Their voices were muffled by my deep thoughts but I could guess they were thinking of kidnapping me. I would have let take me to their hideout if it was simple kidnappings but seeing that they were planning to r*pe me then it's best to just kill them. 

Even so, I wanted to capture them alive and undamaged since they would be ideal lab rats for certain experiments that I'm not able to do on animals. I'm planning on making a puppet persona that I will use to assassinate and infiltrate people to make them take the blame. 

They seemed to monologue which was convenient since it means that they are distracted and best to test my [ Puppeteer ] on a live human by slowly guiding my Mana into their nervous system that was shockingly easy that saved a lot of trouble. It appears that they were immature in the Mana sense and hadn't noticed the change. 

I narrowed my gaze into them that instantly made their guard up, tensing their muscles allowing me to completely take control of their body. One of them tried to resist but I merely added more Mana into their system. Sure it is difficult to control but I'll manage and I could always just knock them out if I want. As a reminder, I snapped his fingers to show that I'm not someone who shows mercy to my enemy and target. He started to scream in agony but I quickly shut him up and once that's done went to business. 

"Now answer all my questions. If you refuse then I'll break every single bone of your body until nothing remains. Understand? Brink twice if yes."

They seem to quite a coward and quickly blink rapidly that makes things easier. There are a few things that I needed to know first before I could start planning on what I should do. I losen

"Now, I'll loosen up the restraint to let you talk and if any of you try to scream for help then…."

I simply made their muscle cramp that let them feel an agonizing pain as their muscles were at the verge of being torn to pieces. They were twitching for the pain with their eyes begging it to stop and ended their suffering for the timing being as I created something to sit on staring at their expression seeing as if I was a demon. 

"First question, Who are you and what is your group doing in this place?"

"W-We…are just passing by and-Gaaaah!!"

Another finger was broken since I can tell that he's trying to hide the truth. This was not the first time I had to interrogate someone for information and certainly won't be the last. He gritted his teeth in pain looking at me with hatred in his eyes while I remained unfazed by it. 

"I can tell if you're telling the truth or not and the next words will decide how many fingers that could remain."

"F-Fine, we're a group of mercenaries called Iron Hand and our leader was tasked to scout the place before the attack."

Mercenary huh? People would be confused about what's the difference between a mercenary and an adventurer but to simply put, mercenaries are a group of people who would do any job as long as the payment satisfies them. As for bandits, they normally are less organized and just steal from people or pillage villages. 

"Who is your leader and how strong is he?"

"O-Our doesn't tell his name but goes by the Slaughter North Saint having the skills of a North Saint."

My face curls upward into a smile with excitement whelming up inside me since I am eager to share my sword style with someone who has the North Saint Rank. My style is a mixture of 3 styles that primarily focus on reaching 3 techniques at the highest level. 

The three were surprised to see me smiling after hearing the rank of their leader which made them confused since normally anyone who would fight at the saint rank would make them rethink fighting said person since they would have numerous battle experience to refine their skill and technique. 

I couldn't fight my father to the death and he only had advanced rank in all of the styles which is why I could test my true potential but now the opportunity opened up. 

"Is that so? Then tell me how many you are and How strong each of them is."

"I-I…I-I'm not sure but I believe we are at least 55 including us with 10 having intermediate rank in sword god style, 5 intermediate rank magician, 10 intermediate and 5 advance in north god style and 14 intermediate in Water God Style. Our leader is the only one who is at Saint rank and there isn't a single that are advance"

"W-Why are you tel-bleh."

"Bang."

I pointed my fingers playfully at the one speaking and ruptured his heart within an instant after letting a hold of his nervous system limply fall into the ground with a thump causing them to be terrified how easily one of them were killed. 

"That is certainly useful information. Now then have you been tasked in targeting our village or is it pure coincidence?"

"We're not sure and our leader would be the one who knows about it. He's the only one who meddles in our job." 

I suspect that someone wants my family dead and the only one would be people against the Greyrat but I am unsure if that's the case and could be just pure coincidences. Taking a moment to process the information before looking at them once more.

"Can you tell me where your hideout is located?"

"I-It's…straight I've been there. Right where we came from."

I nodded since this is the thing I needed to begin my true hunt giving them a smile of satisfaction that seemed to give them a sign of relief but.

"Okay, I think I've also got enough questions. You deserve….to die."

In that moment their faces turned into despair when I took a stance twisting my body before reinforcing myself with Touki, increasing my strength and vanishing from my spot and appearing behind them as their heads were decapitated within an instant like how the Iron lizard I've killed. They died without feeling any pain as payment for telling me an answer that satisfied me.  

I flick my sword to remove the blood that shows my skill still needs improvement. I believe a sword should cut without drawing any blood into the blade like how [ Shundō ] doesn't create any sound nor dust when used. 

Turning back quickly took the corpse into my Empyrea to be used as a lab rat and even though I was planning on taking them alive but knowing their more for to spare then I'll just kill them for mercy. I looked into the sky and saw that I still have a few hours until I head back home. 

I removed any aroma from my body that could be detected before using [ stealth ] to find where they are located. I turned my direction to where their hideout supposedly was located and used [ Shundō ] to head there with excitement filling my heart.