房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

The boy and the monster continued to lie down for some more time while the mysterious footsteps were getting closer and closer.

Four... no, five people.

They all were incredibly stealthy, but Zoemi\'s hearing augmented with the law of Sagitarrius revealed that they were all heavily equipped.

Too heavy for it to be normal for travelers or even a standing army.

Those people must have had a purpose and not a peaceful one at that.

Although that last part was rather Zoemi\'s intuition speaking than anything else.

Once the mysterious five entered the perimeter of the abandoned camp, they briefly stopped as if confirming each other\'s position in relevance to the sleeping boy and wolf duo.

"Run."

"...!"

Zoemi mouthed while pressing on Cat\'s neck and the wolf instantly stood up and ran away, leaving the site and the stunned group.

"What the hell...?!"

"Shut up, the armored wolf is a second-priority target."

One of the unknown people gasped but was immediately shushed by his comrade.

Their interaction told Zoemi everything he needed to hear.

Not even the most naive part of the black-haired boy\'s brain believed that the mysterious group sneaking around had good intentions, but now he had solid proof for that.

"Activate your spells and prepare, let\'s get this over with."

The same person who scolded his comrade earlier ordered, and Zoemi could hear the rustling of people unsheathing and gripping their weapons.

The black-haired boy didn\'t move around, only his eyes shifted in the direction of the voices – the darkness over in that direction brightened up with brown, blue, and green lights of enchantments.

|Magicians, but no light or fire ones... they are not afraid to make noise as long as there are no flashes that would really alarm the local population.|

Zoemi thought and his upper lip twitched in a tic of a hungry beast exposing the sharp fangs.

The boy\'s hands and feet were now securely on the ground, the claws on both fingers and toes were digging into the soil for the maxim grip and his muscles were twitching in anticipation of the extreme strain.

"..."

*rustle*

"...!"

No one from the group gave a verbal command, but Zoemi picked up on the rustle that he instantly recognized as one person motioning with his head, and he took it as a signal!

*WHOOOOSH*

"Wha...?!"

For a second the group of people who thought themselves to be the hunters was frozen in place as their supposedly sleeping target disappeared from their sight...

*KHHHHHH*

"GHAAAAAAARGHHH...!"

"?!?!"

While their brains were trying to comprehend what was happening, the ear-piercing shrill of the metal being ripped apart followed by the blood-curdling scream of one amongst their group confused them even more.

*SPLASH* *thump*

As some hot sticky liquid gushed at the four, their fifth companion fell silent and dropped to his knees before keeling over, not to move ever again.

"FUCK, IS THE ICE MAGICIAN WITH HIM AFTER ALL...?! NO! IT MUST BE THE ARMORED WOLF! GET INTO A DEFENSIVE POSSI...!"

The man who must have been the leader was the first one to take action – he shouted and backed off, but the words got stuck in his throat.

He only caught a glimpse of it, scraps of the figure that suddenly just appeared in front of him.

The glowing eyes full of hate, the beastly fangs bared in a monstrous smile plastered on the human face, a raised fist that was only an inch away from his armor-clad abdomen...

*WHAM*

The deafening sound of crushed metal filled the man\'s ears and the figure suddenly got really far away.

But it wasn\'t like it was the one to move – after all, the man could clearly see his lower half gushing out blood firmly standing in the same position.

"...h-huh...?"

*SLAM* *splash*

It took the man a moment to comprehend what was going on, but just as he did, his back hit the tree. The force of the impact pushed out the air from his lungs alongside the intestines that poured onto the ground creating a gory sight.

While the light was disappearing from his glossy eyes, the reflection in them showed the near-instantaneous death of the remaining three people, all of which ended up mauled into pieces without a chance to retaliate.

The group of five hunters ended up as something far less than prey – cannon fodder was a much more fitting description.

"Hmph."

The black-haired boy scoffed, kicking the head of one of the attackers to the side while wiping his bloody hands against his clothes.

"They mentioned dad, I think. Could it be that Victureo family has not given up on getting back at me for the incident two years ago...?"

Zoemi thought out loud, tilting his head while his wolf cautiously returned to the site, sniffing around and listening in for more enemies.

"If so, they are acting in a rather confusing way... Grazio, for once, appeared to warm up to me, I\'m sure of it... If someone were to inform their family about me, wouldn\'t that rather be Ehmi...? Her treacherous tendencies might stay the same. And while Grazio might have not told about me to his parents, he would definitely talk a lot with his beloved older sister... On the other hand, literally, no one, including Grazio even asked for the reason they are leaving me behind.... not to mention, wouldn\'t all of it be impossible without the participation of the Perserios family? Tsk. Talk about an annoying turn of events..."

The black-haired boy tilted his head before clicking his tongue while his expression darkened as countless scenarios rushed through his head.

"Cat. Come, we need to check out some things."

"Graugh!"

Zoemi straightened his back and called out to which his wolf responded with a decisive bark before both of them disappeared between the trees.

------

The group of knight training participants arrived at the highlanders tribes village and the instructors leading them informed them about the place being their destination where they would meet up with the group of knights that left the Perserios territory before them.

Said things did happen, although...