The party was walking leisurely, unaffected by the biting wind and snowfall.
To their left, the number of trees was high, making for a good obstacle to vision.
Izaak and Roderic moved at full speed through the woods with their weapons and skills ready to unleash.
When they were halfway, they saw an arrow streaking above them, going straight for Almond.
‘Wait, isn’t this a bit soon?’ Roderic thought, feeling that Jayson shot that arrow early.
They were looking at Almond as they continued, something shocking happened in front of their eyes.
They saw Almond turning towards the arrow while his hand moved in a way their eyes couldn’t even follow.
They only saw a clashing spark as his sword struck the arrow, deflecting it as it exploded a meter above him.
Getting covered in smoke, Almond felt his ears ringing as he was injured, but not much, his vitality dropping by only 11% as he bled from his ears.
But the effects of the arrow still affected him as the concussion from the blast made his vision shaky with a headache.
‘Those damn rats!’ Almond stabilized himself.
Meanwhile, Alfred and Lily reacted instantaneously as they spotted Izaak and Roderic before they could launch their attacks at Almond.
‘What the fuck! He released that arrow fucking early, we ain’t even in the attack range yet, dumbass Jayson!’ Izaak cursed, but there was no going back.
Meanwhile, Jayson’s lips trembled, “Brother John, you told me to release the arrow, but wasn’t that a bit too early?”
“Arghhhh!!”
Jayson suddenly heard a scream from behind and saw John’s mace stuck inside Loke’s chest at his heart.
“Yeah, it was early, not that it would make a difference,” John said, his eyes flickering with magic as he looked at the Izaak and Roderic. “Those two idiots are not a match against them anyway.”
Jayson felt his heart turning cold, his eyes trembling.
He suddenly aimed his bow at John but only saw John’s body covered in a bronze glow before crashing onto him, feeling his entire body in shambles before he puked blood.
“You pieces of trash, I only agreed to your plan because I knew what you planned to do if I disagreed, and I also wanted to make sure you assholes died here,” John spat on Jayson before crushing his head with his glowing foot as he used Physical Enchant.
*Splat*
John looked at Izaak and Roderic but saw that they couldn’t even hold a candle against their opponents.
Roderic immediately lost his head a few seconds into the battle as Lily beheaded from behind while Alfred simply overpowered Izaak, unarming him by cutting his arm from his elbow and then cutting him into two with the flame-coated scimitar.
Almond had already injected himself with a Spirit Syringe and walked towards Lily and Alfred.
“These fuckers really courted death,” Natalia made a disgusted face as she looked at the dead bodies.
Almond captured their spirits and looked ahead.
“There’s more,” Lily said. “The one who shot the arrow.”
“Let’s go,” Almond used Physical Enchant and made a dash towards them at full speed, but it wasn’t long before he saw a man standing with both of his hands raised high.
Lily raised her eyebrows in surprise as she saw two dead people nearby, “Did you kill them?”
“Yeah,” John nodded, his hands still high.
Natalia, Alfred, and Chimera also arrived there, staying behind Almond and Lily to be on the lookout.
Almond captured the two more human spirits.
“Weren’t you this group’s Knight?” Almond asked, confused.
“I was here as an observer since they joined my guild,” John nodded, “But they turned out to be pieces of trash. They had assaulted two girls in their previous run here and sexually tortured them for two days. Little assholes wanted to do that again and even told me about it.”
Lily and Almond understood the gist.
“So you pretended to agree with them,” Lily’s eyes flashed.
“These bastards were going to kill me if I didn’t agree,” John coldly smiled. “But these cocky little idiots forgot that I’ve been an Adventurer for five years.”
“Well, thanks, I guess?” Almond said. “You can put down your hands now.”
“John Alacaster. I live in Desmod City and am vice president of the Death Angel Guild,” John said as he put his hands down and smiled. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, promising adventurers.”
“I’ll get going now. Come find me if you want some help in Desmod City.”
John left without waiting, dashing away with silent steps on the snow.
“Hehe, serves these assholes right,” Natalia sneered. “They got what they deserved.”
“And I got some human spirits,” Almond’s eyes glinted as he looked at the dead bodies. “I’ll make good use of them.”
The party continued moving towards their destination and encountered two more monster groups.
Almond refilled his Spirit Syringe stock during the battle.
Ten minutes later, they finally arrived at the edge, overlooking a vast and exotic territory ahead.
“Fallen Monastery Town is ten kilometers away, below that patch of dark clouds,” Almond said as he looked at dark clouds far away. “I’ll go there to hunt after finishing here.”
“That aside, this is damn scary,” Natalia said as she looked at the steep cliff, quickly moving back after taking a look.
“Fortunately, the ground here is solid since the snow isn’t gathering here much,” Lily said as she looked around the ground before turning to the edge. “Which one of those three ledges are we looking to land on?”
“The middle one to our right. This won’t be hard with Viperfiend’s help,” Almond smiled. “Let’s go.”
“Let me go first,” Lily said as she crisscrossed her daggers. “I can also stab the daggers into the ice and get hold.”
“Alright.”
“Be careful,” Natalia bit her lips. “Don’t fall to death, or I won’t have a chance to drink Mama Lily’s milk.”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“Get ready,” Almond said before he commanded Viperfiend.
Shortly, Lily’s waist was wrapped by the Viperfiend’s arm.
Afterward, she jumped off the cliff without hesitation, nearly causing Natalia’s heart to leap, “Gosh, this girl is too much.”
Lily maneuvered in the air as she turned around and swung towards the wall with momentum, stabbing the daggers into the wall as she stopped and started moving towards the ledger.
Almond chuckled and commanded Viperfiend to do the same to him before he also jumped off.
“I think I’m good here, and anyway, you two and Alfred can kill the boss yourselves!” Natalia shouted while standing at the edge.
But suddenly, her feet slipped and she fell forward as her horrified scream rang out.
Fortunately, Viperfiend had enough intelligence to react to save an ally as his third arm stretched and quickly wrapped around Natalia’s waist.
She crashed into the wall before as her tears and snot ran out.
“Fuck my life!”
Almond and Lily were already at the ledger as they successfully landed and saw Natalia dangling with tearful eyes and frozen snot as biting winds struck her, causing their lips to twitch as they held back laughter.
“Well, you’re already here, so you might as well join us,” Almond said with a laugh before he commanded his summon. “Vipefiend, move her to our side a bit. And don’t stand at the edge, or you might slip too.”
“Come baby, Mama will lend you a hand,” Lily chuckled as she stretched her hand.