*Snap

Humans are useless creatures.

At least according to Astra, they are.

Her reasoning? 

Well, they don't give much EP.

So, yeah they are pretty useless to her. That's why she doesn't usually attack humans in general. However, some time ago a bunch of humans came and made a fuss over her master's place. 

So, she did the most sensible thing a person would do. 

Kill them.

It was unfortunate as she had to abandon her hunting to take care of the humans.

However, she got a very lucrative deal with a human. 

Thousands of lives for one life.

No matter how she looked at it, it was a profit.

And now she was floating in the sky and looking down on the army of humans that was camping in the 'No Man's Land'. A rare sense of delight could be seen on her face.

She was delighted to see the appearance of not just one but two armies. 

They were two large armies containing around nine thousand humans each. 

This was enough to double the amount of EP she expected she would make. 

"Then I guess it's time to start the harvest. Don't let any of these things get out." She said as the black tree trunk in the surroundings flinched a little.

_

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Aron is a soldier in the "Clay Knights" knight order of the Lance kingdom.

A new recruit to be exact. His performance thus far is mediocre. So, he is kind of worried about what will happen to his job.

As of now, he can only follow his superior and fetch water from the nearby river. He is currently in the "No Mans Land". A notorious land is known for its inability to grow vegetation. In a war where they have a huge number of soldiers, There have to be teams that must hunt monsters and gather drinking water. There are also specialized teams to prevent food poisoning and such. These teams in war are called the utility soldiers.

Aron was in such a team.

"Sigh, why the Utility Division? They have to do the most work." he sighed.

Currently, he was retrieving water from the river. The carriage containing the water tank was right behind him. He and his fellow soldiers were filling it up little by little.

"The commander this time is a little too harsh, don't you think." One of his friends said.

"Yeah, our luck is really bad. He is a commander as well as a noble. It's not like any of us could do anything if he mistreated us."

"Forget it let's not talk about that."

"Hey, guys. Do you think that will be enough?" One of Arons's friends said when he saw he saw the water tank nearly full.

"Let's just fill it a little more. We don't want the commander to lash on us for this."

So, they took some more time to fill the tank a little more. When the tank was almost filled they took some rest, then they departed. 

Some troops were meant to be stationed near the river so the ones transporting the Wanter tanker were only three people. 

"Hey, don't you think it's a little too foggy?" Aron asked when he noticed the fog getting thicker and thicker.

*Silence…

"Oi, why aren't you answering?" Aron looked towards his friend when he got no answers.

But when he turned to his friend beside him, no one was there.

"What the…" 

Aron panicked a little. He was about to inform the carriage driver of the missing soldier. But when he looked to the front there was no carriage either.

"What!"

He suddenly realized he was alone. A bead of sweat dropped from his forehead. 

'What is happening? I could swear the carriage was here a moment ago.'

He quickly took out his lance from his back and got into a fighting position. 

"Grans? Taylor? Where are you guys?!?" he shouted at the top of his lungs. 

But there was no answer. 

So, he hesitantly took steps forward. While his vigilant eyes scouts the surrounding thoroughly. 

"Damn, this fog." He complained. The fog was getting too thick for him to see anything. He could barely see a meter in front of him.

So, he tried to move in the direction of the camp.

The forest was eerily silent. He could probably hear his own heartbeat.

*hick *hick *hick

Aron suddenly heard a cry coming from his front. 

"Who's there!" He shouted. 

*hick *hick *hick

The cry continued. It was a meek cry and the voice seemed to belong to a child. 

"Answer me! Who's there?!?" Aron, with a bit of fear charged in the direction of the sound.

But soon he found a child near a tree trunk crying. 

*hick *hick "Uncle, are you here to save me?" 

Aron, seeing the child calmed down a little. 'So, it was just a lost kid.'

He breathed in relief. 

"Hey, kid are you lost?" He asked the child while putting down his spear.

The child looked at him and nodded timidly.

"Sigh, come with me. I will ask someone to send you back to the nearest village. From there they can contact your parents." Aron reassured the kid. And thus Aron walked towards the camp while holding the child's hands. 

_

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In the vicinity of the "No Man's Land" Aron was standing behind a carriage. He Was not moving. If someone looked at him closely, they would be able to notice his dull eyes. As if he was in a trance. 

"So, Where are you from kid?" he asked while standing there. 

Even though no one answered him he chucked a bit and said, "That's quite far from here, don't you think?" 

But this time no one answered either. 

However, he continued his conversation with this imaginary person while standing there. 

At this moment a few roots and branches of the nearby tree started to approach him. And slowly the tree and roots revealed their spiral eyes and mouth and started to slowly devour Aron bit by bit.

It was not just Aron. His comrade by his side was also in a trance. Similarly to Aron, he was muttering something.

"Hehe, miss. We shouldn't do something like this in the woods." He said while drool fell from his mouth.

Similar occurrences were happening all over the camp and other posts as well.

Most of the people were just being silently eaten away by the trees and roots.

However, some survived. 

Astra was at this moment facing the ones that survived the mist. The said people were riding their pegasus horses in the sky, which protected them from the trees below.

"Bitch, this is your doing. Isn't it." the man who looked like the captain of the team shouted angrily. 

Astra just looked at them in silence. 

"You….!" Seeing Astra's nonchalant behavior he became angry.

"Attack this witch." The man said and the men behind him charged towards Astra with their Pegasus horse. 

"Sigh, I don't have time for this," Astra muttered. She decided to end this quickly. After all,

 she had another horde of humans to hunt as well.

She raised her hand towards the oncoming bunch of humans. The humans, seeing this raised their speed to stop Astra from what she was trying to do.

*Snap

Astra Snapped her finger.

Instantly everything went silent. The humans that were shouting and speeding towards Astra suddenly went down and fell to the ground. All dead. Their horses are dead as well. 

They couldn't even know what killed them.

Astra looking down on the humans nodded her head in satisfaction. 

"Looks like everything's clear here." She muttered.

After some more observation, she disappeared from the air. 

She had a lot of work to do today.