"Who's there?!"
Not yet so close, someone appeared from behind the bushes. Leon's arrow had hit him in the chest, it had been pulled out and fresh blood was gushing from it. Before he could say anything, he just ran away.
Shan chased after him, but was stopped by Leon. From his posture and face, Leon was sure it was an ordinary citizen. The question was, how did that person get there and spy on them?
"He may be a commoner, but I'm sure he belongs to Rhys' ranks as well. Otherwise, why would he be here." Shan explained.
"What if it turns out that he's been here for a long time stalking us?" Gretta asked.
"No, he just arrived. I can feel that he's been here for a while." Leon picked up the arrow that the man had carelessly thrown away. He cleaned it and returned it to Gretta.
"I think there's something to add to your arrow," Leon said as he returned the arrow to Gretta.
"Leon!" shouted Shan as he saw something shoot through the air towards Leon. Fortunately Leon dodged quickly, so he wasn't hit by the spear.
"Long time no see, Leon." Mat appeared with his men.
As expected, the man was Rhys and Mat's spy. And now, the troops had arrived at the place.
"Hello little girl, how are you?" greeted Mat. Gretta retreated slowly behind Leon. The sense of trauma after Mat visited her was still lingering in Gretta's memory.
"What do you think Orlin? Did this place help you realize who you are?"
Gretta gasped.
"I even deliberately killed your parents in front of your eyes, but you still haven't changed. Do I have to finish off this idol of yours as well?" Mat laughed mockingly at Leon's glance.
Gretta gripped the bow tightly in her hand, she hated Mat's words. It was as if he was playing with someone's life for his own pleasure.
"Not now." Leon grasped Gretta's hand not to do whatever was in his head right now.
A bit of information began to emerge, Gretta really was a werewolf judging from Mat's words. But, as for Gretta's relationship with Rhys and the kingdom of Orlin, no one knew.
If it was just an ordinary werewolf, Gretta could continue her life in Vercorin without any interference from anyone. Such a thing was not unusual between humans and werewolves.
"Ah, this is Luke's house isn't it? Since i'm was young until now, this is the first time I've come across this house." Mat looked at the old house.
Leon knew that Luke was also a target of Orlin society because it was not right to bring a mortal to Orlin. Luke even married her in the city.
From the time the old house was built until Luke decided to leave it, no one knew of its existence. The house, which was deliberately built for his wife, was given a barrier by Luke to keep it out of reach of other werewolves. Moreover, the location of the house was either still part of Orlin or not.
"Hm, your men were smart enough to find this place," Leon said. "But your bad habits don't seem to have changed, Mat. They seem to be getting worse."
Shan looked around at all the people Mat had brought, none of whom had been hit by Gretta's archery before.
"How could you do that to a commoner, Mat?!" said Shan with emotion.
"I paid for it, used it, and now its usefulness has expired. What's the point of keeping it alive?" Mat said casually as if he had done nothing wrong.
Killing the person he thought would be his burden, was truly Mat's style. Very selfish and heartless.
Shan really couldn't stand everything Mat did. Ever since Shan joined him, things that were out of his mind just happened.
Shan drew his spear, challenging first. The fight between the two camps began. In terms of numbers it was a draw, they were three against Mat and his two men.
Leon pulled Gretta back, and was about to go forward himself. This should not be what they did, if it was like this, the risk for Gretta would be great.
"Gretta, go back to the house and lock all the doors. Go to the basement."
Gretta obeyed Leon, she ran as Leon held Mat and Shan held the other two.
"You want to know who that girl is so badly, why don't you hand her over and we'll see together who she really is?"
Leon ignored Mat's words. He stared flatly at the man with their distance quite close.
Gretta had already reached the underground room, all the doors were successfully locked. But, instead of calming down, she was now pacing back and forth in her room, her mind unsettled considering Mat was outside. She still remembered very well how the spear had pierced Leon's chest back in the Rhone valley. What if that happened again?
The fact that Gretta couldn't hear anything from inside made her even more frustrated.
"Shan, behind you!" shouted Leon seeing Shan who was too focused on the opponent in front of her to notice the attack from behind.
Because of Shan's attention, another punch from Mat managed to hit Leon. The man fell down for a moment and then stood back up to face Mat. Occasionally he kept glancing at Shan worriedly,
To which Shan quickly realized and dodged. He was already exhausted enough to face two people at once, but there was no other choice. Facing those two people still felt lighter than facing Mat alone.
"It's pretty great that you lasted this long, Shan." One of his opponents spoke. "You could have lived more peacefully by being on Mat's side, instead of betraying him."
As if to say, "cut the crap." Shan went back to attacking his two opponents. The two men didn't seem that serious about facing Shan, but still ganged up on Shan until he gave up on his own.
Shan was carried far enough out of Leon's reach, moving continuously in his fight that he didn't realize one of his opponents had left their fight. He went over to Leon and Mat.
"Damn it!" cursed Shan running towards Leon, but failed because he was stopped by the person who was facing him. His body was pulled so hard that it bounced far away.
"Better not interfere, let the three of them play," he said approaching Shan.
"You guys are like dirty wolves!" Shan stood back up and faced his opponent.
Leon, on the other hand, was still facing Mat. No one came to disturb them, because the man who left Shan earlier didn't go to gang up on Leon.
Gretta couldn't just stay down there, she had to go up and find out the situation outside as well as help them. If Gretta was indeed a werewolf, that meant she could also face those people.
However, as soon as Gretta went up, in front of the door she was already being waited for by a man who was a subordinate of Mat. The man smiled as he saw Gretta standing before him.
He approached her and grabbed her hand, but she fought back and rebelled. In her hand was a dagger that she had deliberately brought from below. With her rebellion, she dispatched the man with the dagger. It hit the man's arm but had no major effect on him.
"It seems your sword is not long enough, you should use something longer like a spear to kill me," the man said as he continued to approach.
Feeling increasingly cornered against the wall behind her, Gretta drew her bow and shot at the man from five meters away. It managed to hit him in the chest, but was just pulled away. Just like the dagger earlier, it had little effect on a werewolf of Mat's class.
Annoyed, Gretta threw her bow in any direction. She ran as fast as she could crashing her body into the man. They fell down at the same time as Gretta pressed her body against his, Gretta quickly rose above the man's body and began to attack him with brutal punches.
Slightly dizzy, the man lost his focus, and at that moment Gretta scrambled to her feet and was about to leave. However, her legs were held up by the man.
"Let go of me, disgusting wolf!" said Gretta as she kicked the man in the face. But the man was stronger than her, and he gripped Gretta's leg with his claws until she winced.
The scratches all over Gretta's body were getting more and more because of her resistance. On her legs, hands, and face. She still didn't give up until the man wrapped her tightly, binding her hands and feet that kept moving.
With one-on-one resistance, Leon as well as Shan managed to subdue their opponents. Mat received wounds on several parts of his body, as did the other man. They were panting against each other.
Just then Shan remembered the man who left their fight earlier, he didn't see that man facing Leon. Instantly he looked up at the house that was already wide open.
"Looks like we'll be parting ways for a while longer, I got what I wanted," Mat said glancing at the window of the house where his men were with Gretta.