-A few minutes ago-

"Haa…h(huán)aa…h(huán)aa…h(huán)aa"

Within the fog of dust, Motavu lay with his back to the ground unmoving.

His heaving chest was the only thing that signified that he was still alive, and even that was gradually slowing down.

His body was riddled with numerous cuts and stab wounds. His blood - which had been tainted green - flowed out of his wounds incessantly, bathing his surroundings in the green glow of his poisonous blood.

His body was stained with blood, and Ilyon\'s sword, along with his torn hand, was standing upright with its edge still embedded in his chest.

Motavu saw no reason to remove it. No, rather, he didn\'t have the strength to do so.

Motavu - who had already resigned himself to his fate - had a grin on his face as he thought…

\'It\'s done! Hahaha! I did it! That b*stard would always have something to remember me by\'

Motavu then paused, before his thoughts continued…

\'So…I guess this is it\'

Although he had mentally prepared himself, visualizing and experiencing were completely different things.

At the edge of death, Motavu couldn\'t help but feel overwhelmed as he reminisced about his life.

\'I wonder what look the old man will have when he hears of this…pity I won\'t be there to see it\'

His thoughts wandered off to the guild master who brought him into the guild. He had last seen him in the morning when he was assigned his current mission.

Then…

\'Oh yeah, those pikes are still out there…fighting…\'

He thought about the guild members who were still fighting till this moment.

And though they weren\'t best buds. They definitely had each other\'s backs.

Thinking about this, a tear escaped Motavu\'s eye.

\'I lived a good life…Yeah…I guess…I did\'

This was the last thought Motavu had before his gaze turned blank, and like so…Motavu passed away.

Where his cocky grin had resided, a melancholic smile now replaced it.

Motavu had stayed true to his words…h(huán)e had died, maybe not in peace, but without regrets.

____________________

*Shua*clang*shin*Bam*Bum*

The sound of swords clashing and cutting along with the sounds of halberds smashing rang out.

The battle was as chaotic as it could get.

The snakes were moving unhindered - but as Fredrick observed, their frenziness was gradually fading off  - and causing massive damage to everything within the fog.

Using their tongues to sense heat, the fog was never a problem for them.

Instead, it became a problem for the humans who couldn\'t see them.

The snakes attacked them from different angles and in any direction.

A few died, most of which were mercenaries.

The guild members were able to do far better than them as they used their keen senses, vision or instincts, to keep away from death\'s door, but they sustained different levels of injuries nonetheless.

In the midst of all this, a wind mage unleashed a strong gust of wind in a large area, blowing away about a quarter of the fog.

________________________

-A few minutes earlier-

Fredrick had just sucked the dead body of the large snake into his space ring when he felt subtle vibrations in the ground.

So subtle that even he wouldn\'t have noticed if his Earth sense wasn\'t active.

\'Something\'s coming\'

He quickly summarized that something was heading in their direction.

\'And they\'re not alone\'

Whatever was coming brought its friends along.

It raised a surprising question…

\'But what are they?\'

The forest was a region exclusive to snakes.

And snakes did not stomp with their feet, because they had none.

The thought of another A-rank monster? Non-existent. It was downright next to impossible for two A-ranks to appear in one day.

That left only one possibility.

\'I guess it\'s about time they came\'

The adventurers from the missionary outpost were now heading towards them.

Reasoning from another angle, it should have been obvious.

The snakes that were swarming the missionary outpost had turned towards the mountain, giving those at the missionary a lot of respite.

In fact, Fredrick was wondering why they hadn\'t arrived earlier.

That didn\'t matter at the moment.

After taking the snake\'s body and all its scales, Fredrick rapidly moved back into the mountain through the way he came.

Another variable had appeared, so Fredrick had to act fast.

The moment Fredrick arrived in the mountain, he saw Ilyon using the only arm he had left to scourge out the mana crystals embedded in the walls.

"Huh?!"

Ilyon instinctively flinched when he saw Fredrick, especially because he was currently at his weakest state.

Fredrick gave him only a glance before he turned to leave, but not without giving out a few words of advice.

"You should get out of here while you still can, because I wonder how you\'ll explain your missing arm to your friends when they get here"

Without giving Ilyon a chance to reply, Fredrick ran off, leaving Ilyon to begin pondering on his words.

Which was exactly what he did…

\'Friends…what friends?\'

Ilyon didn\'t understand what he meant, but with the context of his earlier words, it meant somebody was coming.

\'No, he said friends. But then, how many are there?\'

Again, Ilyon found himself lacking information, but Fredrick\'s words gave an inkling of what could happen.

\'How do I explain everything?\'

How was he going to explain that he had killed Motavu? What would he say? Would they even believe him?

What if they didn\'t and tried to kill him?

In his weakened state, there was no way he would survive.

And also…

\'This thing on my body, I have to get rid of it\'

Ilyon wasn\'t sure at first, but he gradually affirmed that something had stuck onto him.

It wasn\'t stuck on his body, but rather, within him. Maybe even his soul, Ilyon theorized, but he didn\'t know exactly what it was nor what it did.

Anyways, it was giving him a sense of foreboding.

\'I have to get rid of it as fast as possible\'

So he made the removal of whatever it was his first priority.

Ilyon didn\'t think about his subordinates still fighting outside the mountain, or what his actions would do to the guild he worked for.

After all, he had to save himself before anything else.

His perfect plan was now in ruins, and he had even lost an arm.

Meeting enemies in such a state would no doubt be the end of him.

And Ilyon was not about to die for anyone other than himself.

With that thought, he looked in the direction Fredrick had gone and briefly entertained the idea of following, but threw it out of his mind in the next instant.

Ilyon knew the man could have easily killed him, yet he didn\'t and talked about…worshiping demons and something about a spawn, was it?

From that alone, Ilyon concluded the man was anything but ordinary, and also…h(huán)e couldn\'t be sure that the man wasn\'t insane.

That said, he couldn\'t afford to turn a deaf ear to a warning that could very well be true, especially when the man didn\'t really need to.

There was no need to test fate in such a situation.

For the man to be moving hurriedly, then whoever was coming was nearby.

Which meant that there was no time to waste.

With haste, Ilyon scourged up as many mana crystals as he could and stored them in Rowan\'s ring, before heading out into the fog and running left in a straight line.