Desperation

He took a stance and charged, he was facing an actual warrior, different from the ones before that were similar to thugs.

'With how he threw the great sword so easily and lifting another large weapon, he must be strong and skilled in wielding it, I have to be careful.'

After swinging Hilda a few times, he planed to follow his attack with using his knives, some rocks to get some distance, and hiding behind trees to act as shields while getting then use hit and run tactics.

"Haaaa!!!" Since he had no time to prepare for traps, he can only use delay tactics until Dusk returned, he can't block such attacks or he will suffer, so he will have to parry most of them or dodge.

He had to leave him no room to counter attack until then.

"Humph, so obvious!" Side stepping, he swung side-ward aiming for his approaching neck.

When the ax was swung, Stigma intercepted the slash and parried, however it caused his arm to go numb, Wade then stepped in and kneed Stigma to his chest, to make sure the puppy was safe he braced the impact and covered his chest with his free hand.

The impact however, had him flew a few meters upwards.

The pain was unbearable that he had trouble breathing, but he somehow protected the puppy, but since his arm took the impact it had his arm broken.

Before Stigma had time to recover, his throat was grabbed and received a headbutt, causing him slight vertigo, then he got thrown against a tree.

Before he can make a stance, Wade used a shoulder tackle which pinned him to the tree.

"AHHH!" The momentum of the tackle had such an force, that he felt some of his bones got broken, that he can barely breath.

After hearing the scream Wade stepped back, but instead of a gleeful expression he had a face of disappointment.

"Pity, guess I expected too much from you. Thought you were promising, but you obvious lack experience in a head on fight. Are you even the one who killed those two."

After hearing his comment, he must have assumed that Stigma was capable in dealing stronger foes.

"Those two before, were weak in my standards. But you appear to be an Early stage Zero Tier, so you must have used a surprise attack as a plan, and covered it up that a beast did it."

Struggling to lift his head, he saw Wade stare at him, it sounded as though he was being praised or insulted.

But that didn't matter to him, he was trying to remember if he left any lose ends.

Before he left, he had tampered with the area and made sure that there were no signs that a human was the perpetrator, ordering Dusk to do some slashes on the ground and their bodies even leaving some form of foot print.

To make it more realistic, he ordered Dusk to attack both of them in a few places on the body, as if they were ripped by sharp claws and mauled to death by a beast.

"What...are...you..." Due to the shoulder tackle, some of his broken ribs were broken, so he had trouble speaking as well.

But to be sure about the situation he had to deny anything, he had to say it as though he was a third person.

Wade rolled his eyes, then he explained.

"Although looking at the situation from a hunters, mercenaries or cultivators perspective they will think the same thing, that those two had offended an unknown monster fought back leaving behind a scene of carnage of their deaths."

Swinging his ax on the ground, he grabbed a bottle of alcohol from somewhere with his left hand and ripped the seal with his mouth and drank, then leaned on the ax's handle continuing on his explanation, ignoring Stigma's mystified look.

"After a few hours or so, someone discovered the scene, their mauled bodies were found, then decided to grab all their valuables. Making it as though a third party came after the said beast left."

The story didn't have any loophole so far, if he was just here to get the medallion and kill him, he wouldn't have to go so far as to tell him about this .

Taking a full swig, he emptied the small bottle and threw it away.

"There were three evidence that showed it was you."

Lifting his free hand, he slowly curled up three finger after each explanation.

"First, you never expected that the whole area would be examined more than ten kilometers away including the valley, I found a hole that was camouflages not far from their camp, there were obvious signs of a struggle when it was brought back, through careful examinations, on the body of the fat one's I discovered his injuries were spikes made from a tree bark."

"Couldn't...been his."

Taking another bottle, he tore the seal and took a sip and smiled but it made his skin crawl.

"There was a digging tool but it was buried deep in the cave, so why go through the trouble of hiding the shovel after it's use, they could have just left it near the entrance."

'Shit, there was another one hidden, guess I should have broken the one I had.'

He can't complain about his mistake now, all he can do is deny the logic and twist the facts a little, but before he can say anything another response was followed.

"Second, I saw signs of blood all over the ground, that means there was a fight that broke out. I know for a fact the beast was strong enough to tear of the other one's legs off from a swipe, but the problem was not that."

He paused to have a drink, then spat on the ground.

"When you get to my line of work, you would pick a habit on breaking down on how a fight broke out, but this time it was strange."

"There were some blood stain's that showed he was attacked from behind. I also found out the projectiles were not made by a spear but from a small rock, so it proved that a third party and not a beast was involved."

"The spears covered in blood were left behind and made it look like the injuries were due to it, then used in the fight between these two first, then the beast followed in the assault."

"I suspect that the scene was done by a beast and you were the instigator, and the evidence that clarifies my findings, is because of your careless."

Taking a huge gulps of the bottle, he gave a meaningful grin like he found his greatest discovery by piecing together all the clues.

"You didn't know about their background, so it left a huge loophole in your little scenario. I don't know what beast you used cause I found numerous footprints that looked like wolves, so I'm still skeptical if you did own one."

'That's because I didn't use one.'

He planed to go back and use some blood of the wolves, but with the time limit of the slave market, he put it on hold and just tampered it.

Dusk was a familiar with a strange body structure, unlike a normal body where it had a natural shape liquids, Dusk was similar to air so it also had no actual weight, which includes no sound can be made when he moves.

If there was not enough material, then Dusk would break apart, like a wall of sand collided by an object.

When needed his body would harden, an example would be when he is holding an object, his entire arm is not solidified but only the hand, so when it attacks it's claws harden.

Since his body is entirely hollow some parts like the legs will fill out the hollow parts, if needed it can even float without it's legs, but Stigma was still not aware of it as he relied on him being an actual being.

After hearing his entire explanation, Stigma had time to recover his breathing, but he had an idea so he continued with questions that have been bugging him.

"Can you tell me somethings."

"Depends on the question."

"How did you summon those weapons? How did you find me? And how are you sure I did it?"

"Straight to the point huh? Alright the first and second have the same the answer, by using a space enchanted tool."

Showing his hand with the bottle, a ring with some carvings was shown.

"This here is capable in storing objects, just need to image the object stored in and it will appear and vise versa."

He showed an example by making the bottle disappear, and summoned the small orb from before.

"While this thing shows me where its other half is, the light represents the medallion's position, problem is, it can't tell the distance."

Grinning from the last words he grabbed the ax in the ground and pointed it towards Stigma's chest.

At the sack of gold coins and precious stones hidden.

"And I am sure it was you, since I was searching for a medallion that receives messages."

Wade jumped back afterwards readying an overhead swing to cleave him in half, with a glee like expression.

"Shame I wanted to kill you after having a good time."

The consecutive strike from before still had his body in pain so he was barely standing, all his fight up until know were used with surprised attacks from a distance, assistance from his familiars, and had long delays of caution, so his experience in close combat was minimal.

Even when he had that fight with the leader wolf, it did not leave him that much damage. And he didn't want the puppy get killed by him.

"Alright! You can have it! Just don't kill me!"

He was about to give up, but then he felt Dusk's presents nearby at a fast pace, so he ordered him about his plan an gambled.

"...Alright don't move, if you do, then I'll beat you to death!"

He slowly moved closer and reached out his hand to his chest were to bag was hidden. But before he can grab it something caused him some pain.

"Ahh! What the hell!"

When he showed his hand an animal showed up biting his hang, before Wade can retaliate, the puppy did a move out of desperation.

Streams of lighting were emitting on its body, because of the unexpected attack Wade was panicking and tried to throw him away, but was useless.

Before it was wounded, so he used some of the Pure energy to heal him with the intentions to let it escape if things went south with his plan.

"Little bastard! I'll kill you...what the...I can't move properly."

'The paralysis skill must have activated!'

Before he can do anything, he heard a defining roar coming closer.

"This roar is, shit!"

Wade's fear was sounded, because what was coming was Stigma's plan

***

Wade, an Early Stage 2nd Tier Cultivator afflicted to the Naga Clan, known for his epithet "The Great Fang" named after due to his favorite use of large weapons despite his stature.

He was once a mercenary who had no great ambitions in his life, an honest living was all that he ever wanted to accomplish with his former comrade Harrison.

However, due to the greed of their employer, a cruel fate had befallen them and were sold as slaves.

Like gladiators, they were constantly used as entertainment of violence as a sport, they had to fend for their lives fighting beast with crude weapons or face them bare handed, another was to have consecutive matches of five opponents at the same time.

Everyday of constant danger had pushed them at the edge of life and death, making them realize that their lives were in the hands of others and if they cannot entertain they become food to the beast if they lose value.

Their lives would end just from such a person's whim caused them terror, the never ending hardship they had to face had them experience, desperation.

After gaining back their freedom, they both had the same idea, but their approaches were completely different.

Wade went on to his path of vengeance to those who wronged him through brute force, while Harrison went on to gain favors of those in position to dominate anyone.

He first hunted his former leader and slaughtered his entire corp, compared to all his years killing beast stronger than him, killing a group who relies on numbers are nothing.

All the fortune accumulated by his traitorous leader was now Wade's, his life was constantly tortured by him until he was finally sold as a labor slave, those merchant who saw him as a form of entertainment became a his form of lapdogs following his bidding.

Wade had used whatever means to survive, using people as tools, deceiving and taking advantage of them, treating them nothing more but a source to vent his past frustration.

Right now, he was facing a monster he had fought before, a predator tiger.

"Shit! You brat! You set me up!"

Originally, Stigma's plan was to get away from the Beast, but because of Wade, he had to take advantage of the said obstacle.

When one plays an online game, there are players called trolls that uses cowardly tactics that had annoyed him in his former life, since he was always targeted by them for being a noob in the game.

What Stigma was using was called a monster train, it works is when players would engage on a monster then run and find others players then take advantage to PK them when they are weaken.

It was a pathetic tactic, but effective for payback. Stigma was reluctant in using it, but with Wade being more of a challenge than he can handle he used the it anyway.

"Dusk!" Out of nowhere, his familiar suddenly appeared then swallowed him and Hilda whole, and vanished, only to appear next to Wade slamming his foot on his groin and grabbing the puppy.

Because of the unexpected attack, he was glaring at Stigma with bloodshot eye as he disappeared.

Out of desperation, he swung his ax towards the incoming tiger, which only angered him more.

"4th Tier huh! When I deal with him, your next you brat!"

He clashed with the beast what followed was a thunderous impact that echoed through out the forest.