"How did you find this place?" A masked man asked in fear, jumping backwards away from Tye.
Tye shrugged and replied
"Your laughter. You're too noisy."
The man was baffled. Moments ago, Tye chased after him into deeper depths of the cave.
And seeing he lost Tye, he busted into laughter.
But due to he was more familiar with the place than Tye—and the place had little to know no light—Tye shouldn't have found him easily.
"No matter!" The man yelled as he sent sand towards Tye's face.
Tye ducked while covering his face with his hand.
And he saw the man running away with the mad woman he was trying to save.
As for the mad woman, as much as she looked deranged, she looked sad and helpless.
And that woman was Tye's best way of knowing what happened to this village.
Cause for some reason, she had memory, even though she'd consumed the fruit.
Which most consumers of the fruit don't have.
Meaning that if he loses hey, he won't be able to know enough about this village.
Even though he's learnt a little from other people he met in a cave earlier, having more info would be great.
And having her is better than nothing.
Especially when—according to her—she was married to someone that could withstand the fruit's side effects.
As dust settled, Tye sent rocks under the man's feet.
The man dodged them and turned with an evil rage on his face
"Curses! What do you even want?!"
Tye yelled in response
"What are YOU doing here? What happened to this village?
What do you want with that woman?!"
"None of your business!"
The man started searching for a weapon behind his back and brought out a long and sharp whip.
Just when he was about raising his hand from what he grabbed, a sword flew through his hand—leaving a large wound.
"Aahh!!"
He screamed as he clenched his hand, trying to stop blood from pouring out.
Turning his attention back to Tye, he grimaced as he saw Tye walking slowly towards him.
Tye began
"You don't have to die here. Corporate, and you might live."
The man felt a stab to his pride at the words of Tye.
Tye stopped in his tracks as he saw the man quickly send a grape fruit into his mouth.
And Tye knew—even in the dim lit cave—what that fruit was.
It was the fruit from Blood Forest.
Tye clenched his fists and went into a fighting stance as he noticed the man was no longer feeling pain from the wound.
A side effect of the fruit.
The man now rushed towards Tye at great speed and Tye managed to dodge as the man swung his hands at him.
But the man grabbed Tye at a speed Tye couldn't keep up with and carried him into the air.
Throwing him down, Tye landed hard on the ground.
Before Tye could get up, the man kicked him over and over again sending him backwards with every kick.
The thought of dying here and losing would mean that he'd never get to help the Medical Camp in Kiltar just like he promised himself.
Dying and losing here would mean that he'd never get to seize back power from his uncle whom wrongfully took the throne.
Awash with pain all over his body, the man still kicked Tye without emotion but joy.
"Don't mind your business? You die!"
As Tye would try and get up, he would kick him to the down.
Due to the man was mad, he didn't even know when he did this half a dozen times already.
But something about Tye angered the man.
It was the fact that Tye stopped groaning and moping in inspite of the pain.
But he was smiling instead.
The man started kicking Tye harder and further away.
He began to laugh and say
"Ha ha! You see? Don't your business—"
Before he could finsh his sentence, he noticed that his leg had been slashed open.
Then he noticed that Tye had sprang to his feet, with a blade in hand.
The man was now more less worried about his leg, and more worried about Tye.
Unknown to the man, all this while Tye knew that every time he was kicked he was being kicked in the direction he threw his sword.
Tye was glaring at him and said with a malevolent grin
"I figured I couldn't run away. So I let you get me to where I wanted."
The man erupted in rage and rushed towards Tye with the intention to kill.
Tye got on one knee and while ducking the man's attack, his blade held on a horizontal angle sliced off the man's legs.
"Aaaaahhhh!"
He screamed as his face landed hard on the ground, breaking his nose and teeth.
Barely able to sit up, he saw that his legs where not part of his body anymore.
Even though he could barely feel the loss of his legs, it hurt mentally that his legs were gone.
Trying to recover from the loss, Tye's foot sent his face downwards and slammed his head to the ground.
"Aargh!" The man groaned in pain.
Tye saw the man in pain and was baffled
"Does it hurt?! Yikes! I thought there'd be no more pain."
The man clutched his head and was rolling on the floor.
Tye squatted and asked
"Will you talk? Are you really just mad?"
"Greed..."
Tye peered closer as he heard some ineloquent words from him.
The man continued
"Greed! We were tricked!"
Tye furrowed his eyebrows
"Who tricked who?"
The man continued, gritting his teeth in pain
"A Kiltarn idiot tricked this village!"
At his words, Tye stopped and remembered men he met in another cave in the village whom made mention of a Kiltarn man.
He was a businessman that offered the people of this village a fruit when the village had become arid from a famine.
And after everyone went crazy from consuming the fruit, they went mad. But before they could prosecute the man, he vanished.
"Go on!" Tye said in eagerness.
The man continued
"I...I knew the man!"
Tye was sent aback at his words.
"How? I don't get it."
"It was greed! That man was a loan shark! Offering us fruit that he won't eat himself!"
Tye's blood was running cold as he listened to the man.
Cause for some reason, this man too wasn't completely insane.
But could still recall his memories after eating the fruit.
***
Yiss brought out a rag from her bag and was wiping blood off Lina's face and back.
Lina couldn't do it herself, cause her hands were shaking without control.
Cause she killed assassins that wanted to kill her, Kti and Yiss.
As a result, she was shocked that she had some amount of combat experience she thought she didn't have.
While Yiss was helping her clean off the blood, Yiss was frozen as she saw that Lina's shoulders began to shake.
Yiss then began to hear short and sad gasping from Lina as she began to cry.
Her crying travelled through Kti's ears and echoed loudly into his heart.
Cause he didn't really have much sympathy towards Yiss and Lina, he couldn't help but pity Lina.
The feeling made him grimace and to roll his eyes away from her.
"Won't you do something?!" Yiss's voice reached Kti's ears as he screamed in an angered and high pitched voice.
Her sudden confidence made Kti to flinch.
He gulped and stomped towards them.
"Hey, is she broken?" Kti remarked.
Yiss only glared at him without responding.
"Darn Yama! You just left!" He thought to himself.
He quickly squatted and rolled his eyes over Lina
"You kill people, and now you cry? That's hypocrisy!"
"Y-you're right!" She managed to say while stammering and breathing intensely.
Kti stood up and put his arms akimbo.
He sighed as looking around the trees and rocks, the shadows that cast on him felt heavy.
Cause now, him and his party were being followed.
And his underling, Lina, showed such high fighting prowess that seemed to come out of nowhere.