ROARRRRR!!
The Mandrake screeched in raw pain as it felt the dragonfire tear through its body, and it quickly released the lizardman as it turned and tried to run back into the forest, but its path was blocked by Evon the Demon! She had a grin on her face as she held her spear over her shoulder calmly, and she slowly walked towards the Mandrake like a predator who knew they didn’t need to fear anything from their prey. The Mandrake screeched at her, but Evon’s smile only grew as she brought her spear forward and dashed towards the monster!
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Evon completed more than a hundred slashes before the Mandrake could even launch a single attack, and by the time she was done, not even a second had passed! Evon put her spear back over her shoulder, and she watched with a grin as the Mandrake simply fell apart into a million pieces!
The men who had been fighting the Mandrake earlier could only watch on in awe at how easily that beast was killed by Evon and the dragon! They all knew that in just a few more seconds they would’ve died to that beast, so seeing this woman kill it like it wasn’t even worth her time shocked them to their core! The sound of footsteps came from the side of the forest, and the men turned and stared in confusion as they saw a man walking towards them.
Jason walked out like someone who didn’t have a care in the world, and since Gina was still resting peacefully on his shoulder, they made a very odd sight in the middle of such a dangerous forest. Jason eyed the men calmly before he finally asked.
"Are you all okay?"
Jason’s voice finally managed to snap the men into focus, and they began to get up slowly as they nodded to Jason! The men saw Evon coming up from behind Jason and bowing to him before she vanished into some sort of shadow beneath her, and the men immediately knew that Jason was the one they really had to look out for here! If someone as powerful as Evon was bowing to Jason, then they could only imagine how powerful Jason was!
The lizardman who had almost been dragged in by the Mandrake dusted himself off and finally came forward calmly.
"Hello, my name is Refat and I’m the leader of this small group. We were just planning to pass through the forest to reach our destination, but we somehow stumbled on the territory of the Mandrake. If not for you, then we would’ve all died, so you have my thanks."
Jason hummed calmly and said that it was fine. He was also just passing through, so it must’ve been fate that brought them both here at the same time. Jason’s gaze trailed towards the carriage that had fallen at the side, and his eyes narrowed as he felt something inside there. The lizardman quickly spoke up and pulled Jason’s attention back to him.
"Y-Yes, I’m sure it’s just fate. Well, we’re on our way to transport some goods, so I’m sure you’ll understand if we can’t say our thanks properly. We’re really grateful."
The lizardman raised his hand and told the other men to prepare to move out, but Jason raised his hand and commanded everybody to pause when he heard a strange rattle coming from the carriage on the floor. Jason turned towards the carriage and began to walk forward slowly, but his path was blocked by the large tigerman who spoke in a gruff voice.
"Please try to respect other people’s privacy."
Doon!
A surge of mana suddenly burst out from Jason, and every single person in that clearing felt fear shoot through them! Their bodies locked up from the intensity of the mana that they could feel, and none even dared to look Jason in the eyes as he continued to walk forward. Jason made his way to the carriage, and he crouched behind it before slowly raising the flap that covered what was inside. Jason’s eyes widened in shock as he locked eyes with a woman and a child who had been bound with chains and gagged! The woman and child had been stored with many other people inside a large cage, and the woman was looking up at Jason with tears in her eyes as she hit her shoulder against the cage to try to call his attention! Her eyes were begging Jason for help, and Jason immediately felt a surge of anger in his heart when he saw the injuries on the woman and child! Jason had to release a breath to calm himself before he spoke to the mercenaries behind him.
"I’m only going to ask you this once, and your answer is going to determine whether you live or die. What is the meaning of this?"
The lizardman who was leading the mercenaries felt even more fear in his heart when he heard the cold tone Jason was using, and the man’s hand tightened around his sword as he spoke.
"You-You don’t have any right to ask us –"
"Kill him."
The men behind Jason all felt their eyes widen in shock as an assassin in black rose from the shadows behind the lizardman and used a sharp dagger to slice his throat open!
SLASH!!
The leader’s hand went up to his throat as he stumbled forward in shock! A thick blue liquid ran down from the wound like a river before he finally fell to the ground and died.
[Remote Resurrection] has been activated!
Doon!
A surge of mana shot through the air, and the lizardman’s soul rose from his body like a phantom! The rest of the mercenaries could only watch in utter disbelief as their leader returned to the land of the living! What in the world was going on here!? What sort of monster did they just run into!?
The lizardman came forward and took a knee behind Jason, and Jason quickly ran through the memories in the man’s head. It didn’t even take thirty seconds before Jason got all the information that he needed from the lizardman, and Jason clicked his tongue in irritation as he realised that these men weren’t mercenaries at all. They were slave traders and assassins, and the people in this cage were innocent villagers and travellers that they kidnapped and planned to sell to the slave market in a parallel world known as Grinan. Jason finally stood up, and he easily destroyed the large carriage with only a flick of his finger so that the cage was the only thing left behind. There were ten people inside the cage, and they were all species from different worlds. The mother and child that Jason had seen before had long reptilian tails behind them, and Jason noticed that their eyes were yellow and slitted like lizards. There was an old man with large horns on his head and some young boys with blue skin and long, thin tails, but the one that stood out the most to Jason was a woman sitting at the back of the cage. The woman had dark skin, short black hair, and yellow exotic eyes. And she wore a strange military outfit that made her look like she was part of some army. And behind the woman was a young boy.
’This mana...’
Jason felt a frown growing on his face when he felt the mana coming from behind the woman. The mana wasn’t something impressive, and Jason knew that it wouldn’t even be strong enough to register as a B-Rank on Earth, but what had drawn Jason’s attention wasn’t the strength of the mana; instead, it was the Mana Essence he could feel. What the hell was this?