The scene while disturbing didn’t surprise me any. Monsters killing people was a tale as old as the world itself after all. What did cause a flicker of surprise to pass through me however was the lack of child corpses, or rather complete ones. The few bits that were the right size to belong to a child had marks on them that suggested the previous owners had been eaten. It was not hard to understand what was going on here and feel my blood pressure rise as a result.-

This thing had a fucking taste for children in particular. This meant it wasn’t some dumb beast acting purely on instinct but rather ACTIVELY sought out people to inflict as much suffering as possible. I waved my hand and flames lashed out rolling over the village fully erasing all the corpses while leaving the buildings unharmed. Once done I shot forward into a sprint following the trail of the beast now more eager than ever to bring it death. Along this trail I found another four villages that had been struck by the beast with a solid straight line between all of them.-

‘This thing can somehow detect settlements.’ I thought gravely at the fourth village.

I originally thought it a strange coincidence for the first three villages but after reaching the fourth I could no longer consider it coincidence at all. This was VERY bad fucking news not only because it meant the death tally was absolutely higher than anyone could have expected but because villages didn’t just show up in any old place. There were conditions that people specifically looked for when settling a new area in this world and with each village the beast hit those locations became tainted and unlivable.-

It was literally removing livable territory from mortal hands bit by bit. Unlike on Earth the people of this world tended not to destroy the land for their own benefit so the environment was healthy and good. The monster ruined everything by merely existing and I imagined that if given enough time it might lead to total global uninhabitability. The longer the thing was around to more damage it did on an ecological scale. Soon enough I reached the sight of the battle between the Kali familia and the beast. There were no bodies but the ground had dried blood aplenty and plenty of signs of magic and ranged attacks. Broken arrows left behind and scorched marks across the ground.-

I scoffed at the signs though as there was nothing that said anyone level five or higher had been here. It made sense I suppose as the Kali familia only had two level sixes in the form of the captains and maybe a handful of level fours. Impressive for a familia outside Orario but pitiful in the face of a monster at this level. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the attacks barely even inconvenienced the beast before it retaliated.-

I know that would be how I would feel in it’s place after all. A level four mages magic might sting a bit if it hit me but unless it was similar to my flames or a curse I could more or less shrug it off. As for physical attacks that’s even less damaging with my endurance stat being what it is. Add on my ability to simply repair any damage done at nearly no cost at such small scales and I could easily curb stomp the Kali familia with pure physical force. –

Ironically the Knuckelavee had a similar style of combat to myself as it had it’s toxin for area damage and physical means of attacking otherwise. I wasn’t sure about it’s regeneration but it wouldn’t surprise me if it had that too. Moving on from the battle site and the trail began to freshen as I got closer to the beasts current location. Lingering toxins that tried to harm me only to be taken and bottled up harmlessly instead. As I thought however the poison was corrosive and actively ate at whatever it touched. Patting myself on the back for my precautions aside I turned my attention to something else.-

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t notice you did you?” I asked out loud before launching myself fully towards a dead tree to my left.

From behind the tree a figure tried to escape but there was no way that was going to work with my speed. I easily closed the distance and closed my hand around the neck of a woman in dark armor with a evil looking familia emblem stamped into the shoulder. The emblem consisted of a mask above several skulls surrounded by a horned circle, the Kali familia emblem.-

“Release me!” the woman screeched angrily as she thrashed around in a vain attempt to escape.

“So you can report my presence to your familia? No, I don’t think I will. Instead I think i’ll leave you nice and trapped to slowly die. Can’t give you a quick death unfortunately, sucks to be you I guess.” I said casually as I worked my technique.

Her body shifted like water as her arms and legs fused to her torso and her teeth and lips melded together. I naturally removed her vocal cords as well before walking over to the dead tree and pressing her form against it. The wood parted around her like water until she was fully enclosed within the trees dead wood. –

Suffocation will finish the job and i’ll be totally unaffected by it since I wasn’t the one to snuff out her life as far as my skill was concerned. Obviously I would be the reason she died but my skill only cared if I personally ended the “innocent” souls life, not if I put them in a position that would prove fatal after the fact. A loophole that I had no problem at all abusing maliciously.-

That problem solved for now I continued my journey approaching the beast. To my surprise the thing not only seemed to pause on it’s way to the next village or town but even seemed to wait in a small valley between two hills for my arrival. That was where I found it soon enough, just standing patiently within a small fog cloud of dark green toxins looking right at me with those two empty glowing eyeholes in it’s skull-like face.

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