Chaos Era, Year 1818.
On the city walls.
"Moke! Did you see that? Holy crap, I just shot five monsters with a single arrow!" Liyana pointed ahead, shouting excitedly.
Moke stared at the endless tide of beasts outside the walls, lost in thought.
"Quit bragging! I could toss a rock and bounce it off a few monster heads to hit even more!" Moke grumbled.
"Ha, I think I’m pretty amazing… Maybe I’ll brag about this to the juniors someday!" Liyana chirped, brimming with enthusiasm.
"Get some urgency, you idiot! If the beast tide breaches Bayn City’s walls, who knows how many casualties there’ll be!" Moke’s hand hovered over the dagger at his waist, ready to strike.
Liyana pursed her lips, then nudged Moke to look aside.
Aina stood atop the wall, already gathering mana.
Moke fell silent. Having witnessed Aina’s terrifying magic before, even this fearsome beast tide seemed to lose its menace.
But suddenly, Aina lowered her raised staff, frowned slightly, and dispersed the half-formed spell.
"ROAR—"
With an earth-shaking bellow, Vic, the lion-headed captain of the Savage Fang, leaped from the towering wall, cratering the ground beneath him.
Then, laughing wildly, Vic charged headlong into the horde.
"Brothers, follow me!"
Beastkin warriors poured off the walls like dumplings into boiling water, leaving the defending soldiers gaping in awe.
Aina had held back her magic for their sake.
"Annoying," Aina muttered in displeasure. If she’d acted, things would’ve been far simpler.
If she’d vaporized those nuisances along with the beasts… Xia Lun would surely scold her—maybe even kick her out of the party. So, she couldn’t do it.
Besides, beastkin were considered part of the demon races. As the Demon King… they were her subjects too.
"Let me have the spotlight this time," Xia Lun said, patting Aina’s shoulder with a grin.
SMACK!
Aina swatted his hand away like an irritated cat.
Hmm… Shoulders were still too intimate, huh?
"Sorry, I’ll be more careful next time." Xia Lun chuckled, unfazed.
Though they were a couple, Aina still reacted defensively whenever he touched unfamiliar parts of her body.
Those areas can wait for another time.
"It’s fine." Aina’s face remained icy as ever. After a pause, she added, "I’ll cover you."
Was that concern? Xia Lun grinned like an idiot.
Xia Lun vaulted off the wall, with Musen following close behind.
"I can handle this much," Musen said, flashing a grin. "And the wounded on the battlefield need healing more."
Xia Lun didn’t stop him. He sensed it too—while the beast tide was vast, there were no real threats within it. Musen could easily protect himself.
Ahead, the beastkin warriors had transformed into meat grinders, carving through the horde in a storm of blood and gore.
Vic moved with extraordinary skill. As captain of the Savage Fang, his strength bordered on surpassing high-tier warriors, reaching a higher realm.
Each swing of his massive, door-sized sword cleared a wide swath around him, leaving only dismembered monster parts in its wake.
Not to be outdone, Xia Lun unsheathed his sword and plunged into the horde like a meteor. His blade danced, shredding everything nearby.
"Sir Xia Lun." Vic’s blood-spattered mane framed his fierce grin. "I’d heard tales of your prowess in the taverns. You live up to the hype."
Vic’s greatsword gathered power before unleashing a crescent of invisible energy, slicing through a hundred-meter stretch of beasts as if cleaving the battlefield itself.
The Savage Fang roared in exhilaration.
"That’s our captain!"
"Absolute monster!"
Vic grinned, then shot Xia Lun a challenging glance.
Xia Lun accepted without hesitation.
He crouched slightly—then vanished, reappearing a hundred meters away in the blink of an eye.
SWISH—
Every beast along his path was reduced to minced meat, the stench of blood so thick even the beastkin covered their noses.
"Captain Vic… seems you’re falling short."
"Getting shown up, eh?"
The Savage Fang howled with laughter, ribbing their captain mercilessly.
A massive fireball exploded amid the nearby beasts, sending a wave of heat rolling outward.
Aina stood impassively atop the wall, conjuring fireball after fireball and hurling them into the fray.
Hmm… Xia Lun noticed her spells consistently landed near him. She must’ve caught onto his little competition with Vic and was nudging him to wrap it up.
Taking a deep breath, Xia Lun flashed deeper into the horde.
Finally, the surviving monsters’ survival instincts kicked in, and they began retreating en masse.
The beastkin warriors cheerfully scavenged the battlefield, while the wounded gathered around Musen for healing.
Moke and Liyana descended from the walls. Aina, however, wrinkled her nose at the battlefield stench and disdained the loot, heading straight back to the inn.
Most monsters were low-tier, but even copper coins added up when there were piles of them.
High-tier monsters couldn’t reproduce in such numbers anyway.
These were mostly wind wolves, firebirds, and the like—their magic cores barely the size of rice grains, capable of basic elemental attacks that gave novice adventurers trouble.
Shila flickered across the battlefield, swiftly harvesting cores from the corpses.
"Shila… take these." Moke handed her a hefty pouch of cores.
"No, Moke, these are yours. I can’t—"
"Just take them. You need them more. Besides, most of these were killed by your Savage Fang comrades."
"Th… thank you." The little rabbit accepted the pouch, then stood on tiptoe to plant a soft kiss on Moke’s cheek.
His ears turned visibly red.
"Wooow~" Liyana, ever sharp-eyed, drew out the sound teasingly.
Moke rolled his eyes. He knew Liyana had noticed his thing with Shila—no point hiding it now.
"Ignore her…"
He turned back to Shila, only to find the bashful rabbit had already scampered off.