"You remember me, right?" The dark clothed figure chuckled as he stepped forward.
However, his chuckle didn't seem to come from happiness, and instead came from anger and humiliation.
'Does it mean that not only did he sense me back then, but also managed to remember me…?' He thought, feeling humiliated from the fact.
Jin remained alert as he took a step back with Tanya behind him.
"Who are you? Why are you so interested in us?" He asked while looking for ways to escape.
"Hmmm…" The dark clothed figure tapped his chin with his index finger, looking as if he was thinking about something.
The siblings wore expressions of fear as they stared at the figure in front of them.
After a short while, the figure spoke, "I was thinking of finishing my mission quickly but… you've just made me angry…"
'Mission?' Jin silently took note of the figure's words mentally, guessing that it might reveal some information within.
"As such, I've decided to play with the two of you first… to pay back the humiliation from that day!" The figure suddenly lunged towards them as he unsheathed his longsword.
"Ahh!" Tanya screamed in shock.
However, she couldn't move her body as she was frozen in fear.
'Why is this happening? Who is he…' Tanya thought with teary eyes.
Jin, on the other hand, seemed to have expected it as he pushed Tanya backwards with his body, picking up the dagger embedded on the ground as he did so.
'He seemed to be physically stronger than me, but he isn't using aura at all. Is he underestimating me? Well even then, I can't directly block the blow. So I'll just redirect the direction of the sword…'
Jin's thinking speed was like lightning as he rapidly thought of his next course of action in less than a millisecond before executing it in the next instant with the godly control he had with his body.
Then—
Clang!
The dark clothed figure widened his eyes as he saw Jin successfully parrying his sword with the knife he had thrown earlier.
Afterwards, Jin grabbed Tanya and ran.
"Hahaha! Run for as long as you can!! You can't escape me!!!" The dark clothed figure became even more enraged as he shouted loudly.
"H-Hic— B-Brother, who is he? What does he want from us?" Tanya stuttered as she prevented herself from crying.
She knew that crying wouldn't help and might even hinder her brother.
Jin kept looking forward as they ran, "I don't know who he is. I just know that he's a bad guy who wants to harm us."
Tanya bit her lips and stayed silent.
Jin glanced at her and said, "Listen sister. We're going to go to the backyard, okay? Remember the sword we used for training? We're going to use them."
"B-But can w-we win?" asked Tanya as she steeled herself.
Jin glanced at her again and smiled, "Of course!"
'I hope so…' He added in his heart.
As the two of them ran, Jin shared his plan with Tanya.
* * *
Bang!
The door to the backyard flew as the dark clothed figure emerged from it.
He then looked at the boy holding a training sword with one hand and a dagger in the other.
The boy's white hair swayed along the cool breeze of the wind as his golden eyes shone with determination.
"Pffft! Haha– HAHAHA!" The dark clothed figure laughed crazily.
"A training sword? Hahaha! What are you going to do with that? You're even dual wielding! Hahaha! Are you trying to look cool!?" The figure kept laughing.
The figure also noticed Tanya's absence as he held his stomach while laughing mockingly, "Just so you know, I could still sense your sister."
He looked in a certain direction where a couple of bushes were located and said, "Hey, I know you're there! Watch as I kill your brother!"
Tanya, who was hiding behind the bushes, covered her mouth with her hand at the figure's words.
Remembering what her brother said earlier, Tanya gritted her teeth.
She chose to trust her brother with her life.
"Hey, what are you yapping about?"
The dark clothed figure stopped laughing as he couldn't believe what he heard.
Jin smirked mockingly and said, "Are you that proud of scaring kids? I feel bad for you. This must be the only way for you to feel good about yourself, right?"
"Brat, you really have a way with words, huh?" The figure clutched his longsword tightly.
"Very well, you must be confident since you got lucky when you parried me earlier, huh? I'll wipe that annoying smirk off your face!" The figure said as he quickly lunged at Jin.
* * *
At the Stygian Forest…
Leo reached the frontlines after running at full speed for a minute or so.
Roar—
While covering his ears, he looked up and saw a giant monkey standing upright more than 5 meters tall.
"Leo! Over here!"
Leo heard Oswin's call and hurriedly went over to him.
"Are you okay?" He asked in concern when he saw Oswin sitting with his body covered in blood.
Oswin chuckled and said, "Do I look okay? Haha! Well I'm fine, but that thing's a problem. We've been taking turns fighting it for a while now but it's too resilient."
"That's a Forest Baboon, right?" Leo said as he looked at the demon beast that the castellan was currently fighting alongside the other warriors.
Oswin nodded, "Yes, it's a Magic Beast General that could control plants. Now that it's corrupted with demon energy, it's even more powerful than before…"
"How powerful?"
"Almost a Grand Demon Beast…"
"Shit…" Leo cursed under his breath.
He then asked, "How can I help?"
Oswin pointed at the Forest Baboon that was agilely dodging the attacks of the warriors and mages.
It even climbed up some trees and swung among them, making it difficult to hit.
"We need to impede its movement in order to make an opening for the castellan to kill it in one shot."
Leo kept silent for a while as he continued observing the Forest Baboon.
Then after a few minutes, he said, "I've got an idea…"
Oswin chuckled and said, "As expected of the most experienced hunter in the fortress!"