The quest for water[3]

Slash!

Swinging his ninjato Klautz beheaded a gnoll.

That was the last of them.

A river of blood was flowing from where he stands.

His shirt was torn to shred and similarly smeared with blood.

The group had encountered a pack of gnolls and went on a killing spree.

A group of 50 gnolls!

They seemed to have come out of their nest to look for prey.

Yet to their misfortune they met Klautz and his group.

Klautz was used to these situations and mindless Gnolls were considered small fry against his technique.

However, everyone else was having a hard time even Steve who particularly had his stats closest to Klautz.

Being a crudely made team they lacked any form of coordination. Not to mention that two of the five were basically useless. Selena Welch and Reena's brother.

They bumped against each other while fighting while monsters surrounded them leading to restricted movement.

Selena and the other fella sustained quite a bit of injury. They had the gut instinct that they aren't going to survive for long.

At the moment they needed a leader. A leader that would help them coordinate.

However, Klautz wasn't interested in playing leader. And because of his presence, no one dared to.

Indeed being a Shinobi, the greatest one at that he was a competent fellow, however never in his life had he worked with others.

A Shinobi will always work alone, getting their missions to their climax alone. Team-based missions were rare. Every client wants to involve as few people as possible for fear that one might reveal what's not be revealed upon subjected to torture.

He was a greenhorn in leadership. He had never trusted others.

Once his frequent client had sent him on a suicide mission without notifying him about the finer details. Ever since then he had never trusted others, not even his clients.

"Let's go"

"Are you sure?" Steve said.

Klautz stabbed daggers at Steve by just his gaze.

"Calm down pal, look around you everyone seems to be panting for breath, I myself have no problem to continue per se but they won't hold out much longer"

Klautz swept his gaze around.

*Pant* *pant*

Even Bill was on his knees.

"The stench of gnoll's blood will attract its predators. If you want to be eaten by them then very well, continue with your foolishness. We would be lucky if a Zonataur doesn't appear"

Zonataur, a land-type wyvern the greatest predator in the forest.

With his stats, there is no way he could defeat that monster. He couldn't even make up for it with his proficiency.

If push comes to shove he would just have to use these people as a meat shield and make a run for it.

He wasn't some cruel villain but he has to survive in this world... survive and kill all the shinobis or else his second chance would have no meaning. That's why he won't hesitate to sacrifice them should the situation call for it.

The other didn't take Klautz warning lightly so they dragged themselves away from the battle scene as fast as possible. They reached a relatively safer place or at least that was what Klautz judgment told.

In this wilderness, dangers lurk everywhere and no place was safe. Only the term 'relatively' was what these explorers could grip onto.

They rested in the shade of the tree as they caught their breath. Klautz climbed that very tree to scout the surroundings.

There were many monsters in the wilderness that were proficient in camouflage, but in front of a master Shinobi eyes, even those were useless. The only thing Klautz was lacking in was the strength to fight these monsters.

In face of Raw Power, techniques are mostly useless. That is unless one uses underhanded tricks which were Klautz's specialty.

But in face of a horde of monsters all attacking at the same time these tricks are useless. After all how many of them will he assassinate? How many of them can he kill without getting detected? He presumes not many.

Their numbers are too huge for any of that. Not to mention that not every monster's weak areas are similar to that of humans.

Klautz specialized in killing humans not monsters.

He was a shinobi at heart.

Except for the fact that this time he was his own client. He wasn't going to work for anyone.

Their break didn't last for more than 5 minutes cause a few gnolls approached them.

Klautz jumped from the tree branch and swiftly slew them with his ninjato.

A few of them weren't a big deal for him.

<You who have slaughtered the Gnolls>

<Satan is pleased with your actions>

<Slaughter the Gnoll tribe that reside in eastern cave>

<Reward upon completion: Unknown(Determined by progress)>

<The more Gnolls you slay the better reward>

Seeing the message that popped up in front of him. Klautz lips arched into an evil smile.

--

Selena's PoV

We were resting after a heated battle. But alas just after 5 minutes another group of Gnolls attacked us.

Swoosh!

Klautz flew past us and engaged in the battle. However, the Gnolls decided to target the weaker ones first and charged towards us.

Although Klautz was slaying them non-stop but some of them ran past his reach. There were just too many of them!

She was somehow hiding behind others, however, it wasn't late until two gnolls surrounded her.

She musted up her courage and stabbed her rapier into one. The Gnoll died. However, to her dismay, her rapier got stuck into its bone. She tried to her utmost strength to pull it out but to no avail.

Another Gnoll pushed her down. She screamed at the top of her voice.

"Shiny save me!"

But no one came. Drool poured down from the Gnolls mouth, its mouth wide open, it wanted to eat Selena alive.

She closes her eyes in anticipation of her death. However, to her good fortune, Bill reached out just at the right time to kill the last Gnoll.

"Hic"

"Selena are you okay?" said Bill.

The sweet voice crept in her years telling her that she was alive. She opened her eyes and took Bill's hands to get up.

Her eyes darted looking for someone.

There she found him looking at the distance with an expressionless face.

'I was going to die there! You should have saved me if you like me!'

She ran towards him.

--

[Author: Guys please support me with your stones!]