Victor Smith listened to the soldier’s question before slowly turning his gaze toward the retreating beast horde. His brows furrowed slightly as he watched countless monsters flee across the plains without any intention of looking back.
Their formation had completely collapsed. Their alpha was dead. Whatever courage had driven them to assault the fortress had disappeared the moment Kael crushed the giant ape beneath his fists.
After a brief silence, Victor slowly shook his head.
"No."
His voice carried the same authority as before, calm yet unquestionable.
"Let them run."
"The remaining beasts no longer pose a threat. Their morale has completely broken. Chasing terrified prey across the plains would only exhaust our forces for little gain."
The soldiers exchanged glances before nodding in agreement. None of them questioned the order. They were already drained to the limit. Many were wounded, while others had exhausted nearly all of their mana. Pursuing the scattered remnants of the horde simply wasn’t worth the risk.
Victor shifted his attention toward the fortress.
"Get the medics to the wounded immediately. Prioritize the critically injured. Have the recovery teams begin securing the battlefield and..."
His voice gradually slowed.
"..."
No.
He didn’t stop because he was thinking.
He stopped because the person he had intended to speak about was no longer there.
Victor’s eyes instinctively swept across the battlefield.
The colossal corpse of the giant ape still lay where it had fallen. Mountains of beast corpses stretched across the plains. Craters scarred the earth as far as the eye could see, while countless pools of blood painted the battlefield in shades of crimson.
Yet...
The young man standing atop that mountain of corpses only moments ago had vanished without anyone noticing.
Victor blinked.
"Gone..."
A complicated expression surfaced on his face.
The battlefield was empty.
Only carnage remained.
Just the sheer amount of the destruction alone was enough to make even seasoned hunters feel uncomfortable.
One could already imagine the nightmare awaiting the recovery crews.
Cleaning this battlefield would likely take weeks.
Perhaps even longer.
And even after every corpse was removed and every crater filled, the overwhelming stench of blood and death would linger for months.
Strangely enough...
That wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
Victor looked toward the endless forest beyond the walls.
The scent of death left behind by such overwhelming slaughter would spread for miles. Monsters possessed instincts far sharper than humans. The overwhelming aura of death saturating the battlefield would make countless wandering beasts instinctively avoid this region.
At least for a while...
The fortress would enjoy an unusual period of peace.
Meanwhile, the person responsible for everything had already slipped back into the crowd as though nothing had happened.
The atmosphere inside the fortress had completely changed.
Only minutes ago, despair had filled every street.
Now...
Cheers erupted one after another.
Hunters embraced one another.
Some laughed so hard tears rolled down their faces.
Others simply collapsed onto the ground, thanking every deity they believed in for allowing them to survive.
The beast horde had been defeated.
The giant ape was dead.
The remaining monsters had fled.
Against every expectation...
They had lived.
Kael quietly walked through the celebrating crowd without drawing any attention to himself.
He didn’t find the emotional outburst strange.
On the contrary...
He understood it perfectly.
Most of these people had already accepted death the moment the alarm sounded. They had watched that endless tide of monsters approach the fortress and believed today would be the last day of their lives.
When someone prepared themselves to die only to discover they would continue living...
Relief naturally followed.
And sometimes relief came in the form of tears.
Kael paid little attention to the celebrations.
Instead, he closed his eyes briefly.
Deep within his mind, he felt the faint connection linking him to the two Nether Sentinels hidden inside Lyra’s shadow. The bond immediately revealed her exact location.
Without hesitation, he changed direction and began making his way through the crowd.
It didn’t take long before he spotted her.
Lyra was still standing together with Jonathan’s team. Everyone wore relieved expressions after surviving the ordeal, though Kael quickly noticed one familiar face missing.
Ezra.
He wasn’t surprised.
With Ezra’s healing abilities, she was undoubtedly assisting the medical teams treating the wounded hunters and soldiers.
Kael continued walking toward the group.
The moment Lyra saw him, her eyes immediately brightened.
"Kael!"
Her voice instantly drew everyone’s attention.
The rest of the group turned around almost simultaneously before smiles appeared across several of their faces.
"There you are," Stanley laughed as he waved. "Lyra here has been worried sick about you. Looks like you got swallowed up by the crowd."
None of them realised how wrong that assumption was.
Unlike everyone else...
Lyra knew exactly where Kael had gone.
She had watched him leap onto the fortress wall.
She had watched him throw himself alone into the incoming beast horde.
And later...
She had watched him confront that monstrous ape whose very footsteps shook the entire battlefield.
Every second after that had felt like torture.
Even though she couldn’t clearly see everything happening in the distance, every explosion, every tremor, every roar from the giant ape had made her heart skip a beat.
She had been terrified.
The others knew nothing about any of that.
When Kael disappeared earlier, they simply assumed he had become separated from them amidst the chaos. Considering the number of hunters rushing toward the walls at the time, it wasn’t an unreasonable conclusion.
Kael looked toward Lyra.
A trace of guilt flashed through his eyes.
Thinking back, he really had left without saying anything.
Lyra had no idea how powerful he truly was.
From her perspective...
He had practically thrown himself into certain death.
A small apologetic smile appeared on his face.
"My bad."
Before either of them could continue, Betty suddenly folded her arms while looking Kael up and down.
"Damn."
"Were you fighting on the front lines or something?"
"You’re completely drenched in blood."
Only then did everyone else begin paying closer attention.
Although Kael had already activated the Spectre X Nano Armor to conceal most of his body beneath sleek black armour, he hadn’t bothered cleaning himself first.
His hair remained soaked with drying blood.
Several crimson streaks stained his face.
More importantly...
Hunters possessed senses far sharper than ordinary humans.
Even without seeing the blood, they could clearly smell it.
The thick scent of beast blood practically surrounded him.
Kael scratched the back of his head before giving a casual shrug.
"Well..."
"I guess you could say I was on the front line."
Technically...
That wasn’t even a lie.
He had been on the very front line.
About three kilometres ahead of everyone else.
Stanley’s eyes suddenly widened with excitement.
"Seriously?"
"Then you must’ve seen that S-rank hero!"
"I was stuck way back here, so I couldn’t get a proper look. What was he like?"
Kael blinked once.
Then another slow smile spread across his face.
"I was kind of busy."
"Didn’t really get the chance to watch."
He paused for just a moment before nodding thoughtfully.
"But..."
"I’ll admit he was pretty awesome."
"In fact..."
"He might just be the most awesome person alive."
A thoroughly satisfied, completely shameless smile spread across his own face.
Beside him...
Lyra’s entire body visibly trembled.
A powerful wave of second-hand embarrassment washed over her as she slowly covered her face with one hand.
She suddenly had the overwhelming urge to pretend she didn’t know who he was.