True Confrontation

"Hahahaha!"

The scar-faced leader burst out laughing despite the pain coming from his scar intensifying, seemingly uncaring about the deaths of his subordinates.

"I must say, I have really underestimated how nasty your tricks are. Even though they look like this now, these guys are actually quite up in the ranks of our branch guild, but you managed to reduce them to corpses in so little time. However…"

'A psychopath…?'

While Leo was readying himself for the upcoming predicament, he was surprised by scarface's change of tone. Despite being exposed to this horrifying incident, the man quickly recovered and even felt more nonchalant than before. It looked like the pressure broke him in the wrong way.

As the cause of these deaths, Leo understood that he wasn't normal either as he barely felt anything. However, it wasn't hard for him to understand how skewed the mindset of the Fanged Wolves' team leader was, especially considering they went as far as to kidnap harmless children as a side job...

"...Now that you have run out of tricks, do you want to beg for mercy? Who knows, I might even spare you if you do."

The scar-faced leader amusingly suggested, thanks to the unusual behavior of the resolute boy as well as the mental pressure he underwent, he had already considered this boy and his original target as one. At this point, even the constant pain was starting to fade away against the ecstasy he felt as he imagined that haughty kid begging for his life.

"No? Alright, it won't be late for you to do so after being caught."

Seeing that the boy remained silent, the scar-faced leader shrugged as he gestured for the men to move on.

"Leave it to me!"

Unlike his 'past' colleagues, the man whose turn had come was full of smiles for having barely survived this ordeal. He proudly went ahead with the intent to quickly end this hellish night.

Taking brave large steps towards the shack, the man didn't even need to test for traps as the traps in the specific path his predecessors had stepped through were already triggered. All he needed to do was catch the kid to be able to leave with his head intact!

'Here it comes.'

However, unlike what the man expected, Leo didn't cower in place, flashing out of his spot as adrenaline flowed through his body.

Even with all his preparations, Leo already knew that he wouldn't be able to finish off the Fanged Wolves' team without making a move himself, but that didn't mean that he planned to abandon his 'field'.

"You rat!"

Having already stopped over the last corpse blocking his way, the man screamed at the boy that would have fallen in his clutches soon enough. It wasn't that he didn't want to do some extra work, but…

'This was supposed to be my chance to survive!'

While it made sense for a scared kid to run, the infuriating boy didn't run into the shack like a good chicken, instead, he ran into his circle of traps!

Feeling the horror creeping back to him, the man couldn't help but look back at the terrified faces of his dead colleagues, contemplating if he should just walk back.

However, as he was greeted by the boss's glare when he looked back, the man quickly abandoned his thoughts as he in turn glared at the kid moving through the dark.

'Perhaps…'

Unknowing if he had suddenly grown too smart, the man took slow steps as he observed the kid who was fearlessly through the deadly traps, quickly coming to an understanding.

'I'm a genius!'

Although they had already considered the area to be a pit from hell, the man believed that they had simply been deceived by the boy. After all, wasn't he able to safely run through the area?

As long as he followed the path the boy took, he was bound to catch him eventually while still being in one piece!

"You are done!"

Hastening his steps, the man confidently followed the boy around, his confidence increasing as he successfully avoided falling into any of the traps. Moreover…

'Got you!'

As if he had already realized that man had almost caught up to him after picking up the pace, the body had already stopped running. The confident man believed that he had already succumbed to his fate.

"Alright, be obedi-"

Believing that the kid planned to surrender to him, the man reached his hand to his inner pocket to grab some robes...

Swoosh!

However, contrary to his expectations, the boy's livid expression didn't betray any hint of surrender as he quickly drew the now recognizable sword from his back and slashed at the man.

"This crazy…"

Hurriedly drawing his own sword, the man successfully blocked the attack that didn't seem to hold much power, but his expression had completely changed as he looked at the boy's sword.

The sword's craftsmanship appeared impressive, but that wasn't what drew his attention, it was rather the mixed green and purple liquid that decorated its blade…

Recognizing the liquid thanks to the corpses he just walked over, the man's hand that was holding the sword slightly trembled in response.

'Now!'

Taking this as a chance, Leo withdrew his blade and directly stabbed in the direction of the man's belly instead of slashing this time.

"Eeek!"

Despite losing focus out of fear, the man that was still one of the cream of the crop in the Fanged Wolves' branch guild used his quick reflexes to dodge the attack since his hand was still shivering in fear due to the liquid that oozed onto his blade. Unfortunately…

Click.

After successfully causing the man to move, Leo had already dashed away. Only distinguishing the result from the sound that quickly reached his ear.

Thud.

Not even managing to scream to announce his death, the man's almost headless corpse fell to the ground thanks to the mini-arrow shower blowing his head away.

'Fifth kill...'

Sweat crawled down Leo's face as he glanced at the remaining three men, adrenaline still being pumped out. Despite his preparation, he simply couldn't stay calm when it came to true confrontation.