A group of Black-dressed men was standing above the walls of the city while looking at the destruction caused by the monsters.
None of them seemed to care about the human lives slaughtered by the monsters. Quite the opposite, some of them seemed delighted by this destruction.
"… This is art." One of them sighed. "I wonder how long we will have to wait before seeing something like this again."
"Stop spacing out." A black-dressed man arrived carrying an unconscious girl on his shoulder and scolded them. "Don't you know the importance of this mission? If something happens, the master will kill us."
"Come on, leader. We already finished everything the master asked for. Can't we relax a bit now?"
"Our mission ends only when we report to the master. Until then, we can't relax. You never know what can happen during a mission!"
The scolded black-dressed man snorted. He mumbled some curses under his breath before raising his hands. "I understand, I understand. Geez, so strict."
The leader frowned and shook his head. "How is the other girl? Did you get her?"
The black-dressed man shrugged and pointed to a corner where another girl lay unconscious.
The young blonde girl was uninjured, but her face carried an expression of fear, and her cheeks had marks of dried tears.
It was Erika, the city lord's daughter.
"It was not hard. The men guarding her were too weak." One of the black-dressed men said.
"Good." The leader nodded. "I have already got the other girl. Take the creature and get ready to leave."
"Yeah, yeah. So boring."
A black-dressed man put Erika on his shoulder while another walked towards a cage nearby.
Inside the cage, a horrendous black creature screeched. The creature had several appendages twisting violently, and a mouth-like thing filled with serrated teeth that clattered ominously.
"Keeeesh!"
"Calm down, little thing. Nobody will hurt you here." The black-dressed man laughed. "To think this little thing caused all this disaster."
"Be careful. The master will kill us if something happens to it."
"Come on, what can happ–"
*Screeeeeeeech!!!*
"Hey, calm down!"
"What happened!?" The leader asked in a panic.
"I don't know! It started to scream suddenly! What the hell?"
*Screeeechh!!!*
The leader frowned. But suddenly, his expression changed.
"Dammit! Shut it up! Hurry up!"
"Huh?"
"It's calling the monsters here!"
The black-dressed man's face changed. He hurriedly cast a barrier to block the cries of the monster, but it was already too late.
Suddenly, four powerful auras rushed towards the city walls.
An eagle, a wolf, a panther, and a serpent. Four powerful A-Rank monsters surrounded the group.
"Dammit! I thought it would not attack us!" A black-dressed man said.
"… It wants to escape!" Another black-dressed man cursed.
The black thing in the cage twisted and thrashed violently. It continued screeching as though it wanted to call more monsters. Fortunately, the barrier blocked its streams, and no more monsters rushed towards the black-dressed men.
"Leader, what now?"
The leader sighed. It walked towards the cage and stared at the black things with ice-cold eyes.
"Stop it. Now."
"Screeeech!"
"Last warning, monster. I know you can understand me. Stop it, or I will. And you will not like it."
The black mass-like thing stopped moving. It moved its appendages in the direction of the leader as though it wanted to say something.
Then, it started to crackle.
"Keh… Kehkehkeh… DiEdIeDiEDie… YoU WIlL dIE…"
"Stupid thing." With a snort, the leader took a magic stone from his pocket. Looking towards the monsters around them, he infused mana into the stone.
"Do you think we were not expecting your little tricks?"
Then–
*Fuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiii!*
A soft whistle sounded.
At the next instant, the monsters let out bloodcurdling cries of pain resounded and started to thrash around.
But the monsters were not the only ones that suffered. The thing trapped in the cage's screams were just as bloodcurdling and terrifying.
Soon, a terrifying scene happened. The four thrashing monsters started to bleed from their pores. Black blood dyed the city walls while the monsters were turned into lumps of flesh.
"Your kind is very dangerous, little creature. How can we not prepare countermeasures in case you try to escape? This spell resonates with the blood of your kind, making it rot.
"Perhaps, you can endure this process. But what about the monsters that have a part of you inside?"
The monster thrashed and screamed in pain. It only stopped moving when the leader stopped supplying mana to the stone.
By then, the four A-Rank monsters plus all the monsters in one kilometer around the black-dressed men had turned into black goo.
The leader looked at the creature in the cage indifferently. "In the end, you are nothing more than a monster." He then walked forward while hurrying his men. "Let's go, we are already late."
The black-dressed men nodded.
But at that moment–
"Careful!"
The leader's face changed. He hurriedly jumped aside while warning his subordinates.
The black-dressed men moved without hesitation. Each one jumped away from their positions in an attempt to escape the unknown danger.
A good choice.
The next instant–
*BOOOM!!!*
A bluish ray of energy impacted the city walls.
Then, four people riding a wolf appeared in front of the black-dressed men.
"Good, we are not too late yet."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels