Night's eyes widened after words were reflected in his retina, but reading it was impossible. The wind brushed harder on his skin, and loud shrieks echoed in the silent park. The imps charged toward the group, eyes gleaming with the enthusiast to spill blood on the ground and bring death around.
The head officer grabbed Night's shirt's back collar and pulled him to the back as the other two officers shielded his view of the battlefield with their massive bodies. Night groaned from the force of being pulled. His collar tightened and choked him, but it didn't last long before it was his behind and waist that hurt.
Night glared at the head officer. However, his eyes couldn't find him. Night stood up, massaging his waist as fast as he could before briskly walking to the side of the officer. He made such an obvious decision as he didn't want to force himself between two bodies that could squash him like a sandwich.
The ground Night stood at kept getting illuminated by light as if metals were clashing against each other. However, the ones that were clashing were Liam's bare fists and the imps' sharp claws. Night's widened eyes stayed on Liam's. Mesmerized by the fight that could make an ordinary human shiver and soil themselves.
'How...'
Night studied Liam's method of circulating his inner mana. Although Legions couldn't exactly see how other Legions manipulated their inner mana, they could still see the general way of its flow. But they could never know the main components of it.
'How could he move his inner mana with such force?'
At this moment, during his fight with the imps, Liam circulated his mana with so much force that Night thought it would burst out of his body but still managed to not do so.
Night flinched after a whisper echoed in his mind yet again. His vision flew toward the location of the shadow. The black smoke in the shape of a human's shadow started to evaporate and disappear into the atmosphere.
"Black hounds."
Night whispered enough for the person beside him to hear.
"What are you—"
The officer glaring at Night had his eyes widened as realization hit him. The black hounds were nowhere to be seen.
"Head officer, the black hounds are gone!"
The officer shouted and caught not only the person the message was for but also Liam. Bursting an imp from the last two using one punch, Liam turned his gaze to where Night and the others stood.
His eyes searched for Night and found him effortlessly. An expression of relief brushed his eyes for a moment before it was gone. The remaining imp has advanced its way to Liam while being aggressive. Imps were not relatively intelligent Chaos creatures, but they could still fight with Legions without blindly charging.
However, the remaining imp agitated for being the only one left among its comrades attacked more aggressively than before. Its aim might be to take Liam's life before it dies in Liam's hands.
Unfortunately, Liam was much stronger. He evaded the imp's attack and caught its head with one hand. Glaring at the Chaos creature, Liam didn't even need to circulate his mana to squash the imp's head like a mashed potato.
On the other hand, Night, who had been watching the battlefield with astute vision, could only think of one thing.
'About time to show themselves.'
Night was right. As soon as the last imp fell to the ground, lifeless and headless, something shot from the darkness. With one swift movement, the officer standing beside Night had his head bitten off by a black hound.
'Huu.'
Night sighed a sigh of relief in his mind.
'That head would have been mine if I didn't dodge.'
Seconds earlier, Night had expected that the black hounds were about to attack as the imps had been defeated. Although the imps and black hounds were both Chaos creatures, that did not mean that they trusted each other enough to work together. Even the beings of the Abyss were ruled by overpowering strength.
Having the advantage of being awakened, Night ensured that he had kept a close eye on his surroundings. With not only his five senses to help him with that but also his mana perception.
Chaos creatures, much like Legions, were able to use mana, but the only difference was that their inner mana was contaminated by an unknown substance that could only be found in the Abyss.
A terrifying scream came out of the mouth of the officer standing beside the headless corpse. Night's widened eyes shot up to the officer and frowned.
"This crazy—"
Night was about to say something, but he got cut off when someone shot past him from behind. It was the only Legion in the group.
Liam dashed towards the officer and covered his mouth. Gone was the gentle appearance and voice of the popular Legion and the only thing left was a stoic man.
"Shut your mouth if you don't want to attract any more monsters."
Although Night could not see Liam's face and his intense eyes, which were directed at the officer, he knew that Liam was more serious than when he had fought against the imps. It was because of the leaking condensed inner mana in Liam's body that made the surrounding atmosphere feel colder.
The officer nodded his head, he could not answer Liam as he had gripped his face to cover his mouth. Night took a deep breath and tried to take a step toward Liam to stop him from losing his cool. However, he couldn't do so after the black smoke appeared in his peripheral vision.
The shadow whispered once more. Night snapped his head toward the shadow, but something made him take a step back instead.
His mana perception had detected a presence from his left, and unlike the mana of an Awakened, the one that he saw was mixed with black color. It was a hound ready to jump at him at any time.
And that time was the instant when Night had his side completely open to his predator.
With the swooshing of the wind that was the only thing left by his predator's tracks, Night watched as the black hound bared its teeth at him. Liam had noticed the movement, but he was too late to jump in between Night and the black hound.
"No!!!"
Liam dashed toward Night.
However, Night stood still as if he couldn't hear anything. His ears were ringing and time seemed to slow down in his eyes. The shadow dissipated and appeared in front of him before turning into a formless black smoke and engulfing the black hound, which was inches away from gnawing Night's body.
The shadow abandoned its human form to save Night. The black smoke the shadow turned into dissipated along with the black hound. Night, who was the closest to the scene felt the hot smoke from the dissipation.
It was as if the black hound had been burned to death that even its ashes had turned into nothingness. No, it was as if its ashes dissipated along with the black smoke.
"What,"
Liam, who was watching as it happened stood still as if his feet had rooted deep underground.
"Just happened?"
Night looked at Liam, eyes still opened wide. It became proof that Night had also no idea of what just occurred.
'Did that shadow just save me?'
Night's lips were agape as his confused mind tried to assimilate what happened. However, he aggressively shook his head after realizing that the battle was not yet over.
"There are still more."
Night stated facing Liam with his stoic expression back on his face. Meanwhile, Liam's sharp eyes returned.
The fight had been easier with less bother and even more so now that Liam felt relieved to know that Night wouldn't die so easily as he initially thought.
And as Liam pounded on the last black hound burying it three feet underground, Night had already recollected himself from the confusion the shadow's action caused him.
'That thing just saved me.'
The number of times Night had repeated that in his mind became uncountable, but as he said it again and again he could feel his mind become clearer and clearer.
He didn't forget about the last thing it whispered before it appeared in thin air to save him. Night recalled how the shadow whispered that it must protect, and was followed by the word child.
'Does the thing it had to protect is the child? But the child of who?'
Night pressed his temples as he felt a headache coming to him.
Liam saw Night's small gesture and approached him with a worried frown displayed on his handsome face.
"What's wrong?"
Liam stopped in his tracks and pretended to look away to mask his revealed concern.
"Nothing's wrong."
Night answered. He made it so that their conversation wouldn't lengthen before he gets out of breath from either cursing him or trying to stop himself from doing so.
Night didn't want to converse with another person while his mind was a mess as it would create an even bigger mess if he obtained any information which needed time to be processed. He wasn't dumb and at the same time, Night wasn't the kind of person who arrogantly accepts any critical information like a know-it-all.
"It's getting late. We should find a decent place to camp for the night."
Liam suggested as his eyes scanned the surroundings. One of them may have influenced them to be so lucky because not too far from where they stood, there was a spot covered with large rocks forming a deformed circle. However, one thing's for certain, whoever might that lucky person be, it wasn't Night.
Because two hours later, Night finally had the chance to read the message that popped up during the fight. And his interpretation was not quite good.