Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Flames, scattering ash, the stench of blood, and screams.

Filog narrowed his sole remaining eye as he looked over the battlefield, a scene so familiar it felt like his hometown.

It was not as though the conscience he had left behind in his mother’s womb had suddenly resurrected itself.

‘To lose two men in a place like this… stupid bastards.’

Considering that barely fifteen or sixteen men had slaughtered an enemy nearly ten times their size, two casualties should be considered remarkably low, but thinking of the fact that they were no ordinary bandit band made it pathetic.

As he clicked his tongue, the second-in-command assisting him spoke up.

“Captain.”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t we give them a bit of breathing room this time? Everyone might not show it, but there’s a lot of discontent.”

Originally, mercenary warfare was far removed from one-sided massacres like this.

Raiding a village was ultimately meant to secure supplies and funds while satisfying primal desires.

However, in this fight, there was no room to resolve either.

“I told you. If it gets out that we were the ones who attacked this place, it’s hanging without exception. Inspect their belongings when we finish, and if anyone brought something out, make them discard it.”

“……Understood.”

“Tell them that once we return, rewards will be handed out for whatever they couldn’t indulge in here, so endure it.”

What Filog’s employer requested was to wipe out a few villages in the northeastern part of the kingdom without leaving a single trace.

It was a demand utterly impossible for ordinary mercenaries, that is, thugs who hated farming and picked up a weapon to head to the capital.

If enough numbers gathered to bring down a village of this size, merely moving around would spread rumors far and wide, and at worst, they might even be repelled by the self-defense militia.

What was needed at such times were real veterans like Filog and his subordinates, who had learned martial skills and military discipline along with their first steps in a mercenary village.

In truth, he did not know exactly why the job had to be handled in this manner either.

Negotiating directly with the employer was the village chief’s role, while he was merely a captain executing orders.

If he had to guess, it was probably something like driving a wedge between high-ranking individuals.

Lost in thought for only a moment, Filog spotted someone bursting out of a barn in the center of the village.

A boy with shaggy black hair, a small build, and wearing shabby, heavily patched clothes.

Holding a single short scimitar, the boy glanced around swiftly before sprinting toward a direction where no encircling mercenaries stood.

However, the spot they had left unblocked was naturally blocked by terrain.

“What?”

The mercenaries widened their eyes in shock as the boy leaped over a wall over two meters high in a single bound.

No matter how light children were compared to adults, was that not a movement impossible unless one was a trained acrobat?

Of course, that did not mean the boy could escape alive.

Multiple archers had already been deployed on the outskirts of the village to shoot down such fugitives.

Yet as if mocking such expectations, the boy deflected an arrow flying toward him with a mere glance and a swing of his blade.

As if proving it was no fluke, he did it three times while running toward the direction from which the arrows had flown.

Not long after the boy disappeared into the forest, a series of screams, presumably belonging to the archers, echoed out.

“What crazy……”

“What the hell is that kid!?”

“Did I just see things?”

Seeing a mere country boy pull off a technique that not only skilled mercenaries but even decent knights wouldn’t dare attempt, the mercenaries were all dumbfounded without exception.

Filog, who was the first among them to regain his senses, shouted sharply.

“Why are you standing around like idiots? Pursue him right now! Check if the bowmen are alive! The rest of us will follow after finishing up here!”

“Understood!”

A few mercenaries wearing relatively light gear hurriedly ran off in pursuit of the boy.

*

“Haah, haah.”

Somewhere in the dark forest, Shan stopped in his tracks and caught his breath only after running until the village was no longer visible.

Although he had never felt any issue controlling his body before, extreme excitement and fear made his heart pound as if it would burst out of his mouth right now.

‘I succeeded……’

The moment arrows flew from the outskirts of the village, Shan felt a sensation as though time had come to a stop.

In that sluggish world, the only thing moving rapidly was the arrow flying toward him.

Deflecting each one with his sword, which felt heavy as if underwater, was even easier than he had expected.

Deflecting the last one that flew in from less than ten paces away was a bit close, though.

After reaching them, disposing of the three archers hiding in the forest was simpler than his first kill.

Having lost their will to fight at the mysterious entity approaching while deflecting arrows, the archers all turned back to flee, and Shan bit into the napes of the fleeing enemies one by one, just as felines usually did.

Sitting on a stump that made a decent chair, Shan massaged his trembling legs to relax them.

The bastards had surely said not to leave a single villager alive, so they would not want any survivors.

Of course, simply fleeing like this would be enough to survive, but Shan decided to fight them.

It was not for any sentimental reason like avenging the villagers.

Having lived his entire life as prey, the boy found this situation (becoming a predator for the first time, targeting prey, and tearing flesh with fangs and claws he never even knew he possessed) immensely enjoyable.

‘When are they coming?’

Fleeing into the forest instead of confronting them right away was because he had judged it dangerous to attack on the spot.

No matter how clumsily those fools moved, the enemy numbered over fifteen while he was alone.

But here, the story was different.

The dense willow forest where even moonlight could not deeply penetrate, the very place that gave this village the name Willow Village.

If he fought fifteen blind men relying on clumsy torches here, he was confident he could win one-sidedly.

For these cursed eyes of his could see through even pitch-black darkness as clearly as broad daylight.

After completing a few light preparations, how many minutes did he sit quietly waiting?

Along with a commotion, light was seen approaching from a distance.

“Ugh, why are there so many tree roots……”

“Quiet. In a forest like this, voices travel far.”

The number of bandits who arrived was roughly sixteen or seventeen.

Seeing that it took some time, it seemed everyone who was in the village had come out.

Well, having seen three archers fall helplessly, they could not fail to realize that his combat ability was higher than expected, and that he excelled at night attacks.

Quietly watching them in the darkness, Shan nocked an arrow onto his bowstring as the enemy drew within range.

‘Let’s see.’

He had never properly learned how to shoot a bow.

A skill that could provide a proper living was property itself, so it was not something to be passed down to a lowly Altoan slave.

However, merely mimicking the movements of the archers he had seen earlier made it not difficult to become a passable bowman.

While techniques like accurately predicting and hitting a fast-moving object were still difficult, hitting targets walking so slowly required only a few practice shots while waiting.

Spread both legs slightly to establish balance, straighten the waist, extend the left arm holding the bow stave straight out, load weight onto the right arm, pull back hard, and…

Thwack! With the twang of the bowstring, the launched arrow struck the chest of a bandit standing at the front holding a torch.

“Ack!”

“It’s an arrow!”

“That bastard is shooting the stuff he stole from us!”

While the terrified bandits pulled out their shields, Shan shot arrows in quick succession from those he had stuck into the ground beforehand.

Two shots, three shots, four shots.

Two of them struck shields, and one landed dead in a knee.

‘It’s not as good as I thought.’

Perhaps because it was much larger than the village hunter’s bow he had seen in the past, his forearm and fingers stung every time he shot.

Though the arrows flew that much faster and stronger, however.

Thinking that if he shot any more, he wouldn’t even have the strength left to swing a sword, Shan threw the bow aside and faced the charging bandits.

“You cursed Altoan brat……”

“I’ll kill you!”

It was a situation where giants a head or two taller than him came rushing with weapons… a scenario where an ordinary person wouldn’t find it strange if their legs gave out and they wet themselves on the spot.

But Shan glared with wide eyes, analyzing the enemy’s speed and formation.

And…

‘Now.’

Crash! With a single kick, a large tree beside him tilted and collapsed, crushing the charging bandits.

It was a kind of primitive trap made earlier when he had spare time by chopping halfway through the base of the trunk.

Thanks to that, the sword he had taken from the first enemy he killed broke, but since he had the daggers the archers possessed, weapons were plentiful.

If he truly ran short, he could simply kill those bastards and take theirs.

“Ugh!”

“Th-Lift this off me!”

“Damn it…”

The formation naturally collapsed.

Shan drove a dagger into the neck of an enemy beyond the branches and left of the fallen tree he pierced through.

Seeing their comrade collapse without even being able to scream, the bandits hurriedly shouted.

“Over there! Beyond the branches!”

“I can’t see well, shine a torch over here!”

Naturally, there was no reason to fight them in a well-lit place.

In any case, those wielding spears, two-handed axes, or swords and shields could not carry torches as well, so the torches they possessed numbered three or four at most.

Moving along the flickering shadows of the torches, Shan slashed enemies with his dagger and threw a hatchet from a dead enemy’s waist to lodge it into another’s chest.

The fact that both of his hands performed different actions simultaneously without the slightest faltering was as if two people were controlling a single body at once.

At this, the mercenaries also moved quickly to surround him and attempted to thrust with spears.

Just as if they were hunting a large wild beast rather than a human.

However, Shan immediately climbed a nearby tree and leaped between trees several times, easily escaping the encirclement.

Not only was he skin and bones by nature, but thanks to a body weight lighter than others even for the same build, his movements were truly like those of a monkey.

“No.”

“What kind of bullshit……”

The bandits wore bewildered expressions, literally looking like dogs that had chased a monkey.

Leaping down from the tree, Shan hid in the darkness and smirked as he watched them.

The sensation of slicing flesh and crushing bone with a blade, the chill of metal brushing past his face, the eyes looking in his direction filled not with contempt for once, but with horror.

He had never imagined that exerting violence to his heart’s content as a strong person would be this exhilarating.

He felt he finally understood why the villagers had been so eager to torment him.

After that, it was a repetition of a similar process.

Ambushing, being surrounded, breaking through by climbing or kicking over nearby trees.

In the process of such battles, Shan learned truly many things.

That thrusting a torch right in front of one’s eyes temporarily darkened night vision further, turning a person virtually blind.

That moving in sync with the moment the enemy blinked left them completely unable to perceive his movements.

That when the enemy’s balance was broken after swinging a weapon with full force, a light kick was enough to knock them down.

Even down to the fact that when stabbing a bladed weapon into a torso, laying the blade horizontally to avoid ribs was best.

Having only slaughtered dead animals before, the boy who had no choice but to target only the neck transformed in a brief span into a seasoned killer capable of targeting all manner of human vital spots.

By the time over ten men had died, the surviving bandits lost their will to fight, wailing as they began to flee.

“S-Spare me……”

“Run! That guy is a demon! He’s not human!”

“Anyone who flees faces execution according to discipline! Attack! He’s just a single brat!”

The one-eyed captain roared at the top of his lungs and even cut down one fleeing man himself, but that could not halt the desertion.

In the pitch darkness where one couldn’t see an inch ahead without a torch, terror of the monster slaughtering them one by one while flashing green lights tore out even the discipline rooted deep in their bones.

Realizing he was finally left alone, the captain met the gaze stealthily approaching him and asked.

“You, what the hell kind of bastard are you……?”

“Shan.”

At the sudden question, Shan answered like that after hesitating for a moment.

Introducing himself as a humble Altoan slave of Willow Village was far from pleasing, and he did not know how else to define himself.

Whether that simple answer was far from satisfying, the bandit captain distorted his face, let out a shout, and charged at him.

With movements far faster and more disciplined compared to the bandit he had killed first.

Yet as far as Shan could see, he was merely another one among the flailing people who wasn’t much different.

He was even worse off in that he lacked one eye, leaving his field of vision half that of others.

When Shan lowered his body in sync with the moment the captain blinked, the captain assumed Shan had moved to his blind spot (the left side where he wore an eyepatch) and swung his sword.

However, the spear thrust in from the right, piercing through leather armor, digging between ribs, and tearing apart viscera.

“Ghk, ack.”

Looking down quietly at the one-eyed bandit who spewed blood from his mouth and died, Shan tossed the spear aside and picked up the sword the man had been holding.

The hilt finished in pigskin or cowhide was sized just enough for an adult’s single hand.

The blade was slightly longer than an arm and deeply hollowed down the center.

Blood and grease were smeared on it as if it had cut several people, yet the fact that it was neither bent nor nicked seemed to make it far better than the other bandits’ weapons.

Unlike the items he had hastily picked up to fight right away, this was truly the first possession he had earned since he was born.

“Heh.”

Letting out a chuckle in satisfaction, Shan’s legs gave out and he collapsed onto the ground.

It was the result of a body that had moved beyond its limits due to sheer excitement finally declaring it could work no more.