Discovery (1) - The Mission
Youth, Knowledge, Wealth, Fame and Power.
Each of these are a category too men and women's desires that vary to one another.
Yet to those who are desperate or had dark intentions.
A single minded determination will always appear as committing the most heinous of crimes, such as genocide, would be considered a small price to reach their end goals.
As far as Cheng Xuan's knew, there were a number stories through the myths and legends of demons that often shape shift and trick humans, then amuse themselves by temping their basic desires.
Stories of those of low status such as peasants often get fooled by Demons, that shape shift into appealing or weak creatures, then take elation when the human suffer through curses or devour them as a sustenance.
Some stories even told of Emperors, who turned into tyrants and destroyed their own empires from being corrupted by a Demon's lies that feed their egos or doubts to justify their actions.
There were also some legends of Demons of Higher Birth, who often gave difficult or impossible task, then reward humans who amused them.
But those who survived are often met with a horrible encounter, as it signified a heavy price had to be paid from their selfish desire.
And right now, the Demon Imp who is of the same race that had given such tempting choices .....was currently in a large gray forest in its ogre form, and had thrown Stigma's body like a rag doll.
*Rahhhhhh!!!* - Demon
*Crash!!!!*
" Gah!!! Gah!!! Gah!!! Ha ha ha..." - Stigma
'You little bastard, if I hadn't used Zen energy to cover my back, you would have almost broken my ribs!!!!!!'
After Stigma was thrown to the ground, he started cursing then coughed to gasp for air. After forcing himself to stand back up against the tree, Stigma was met with a body blow which caused him to regurgitate in pain.
*Crack!!!!**Ugh!!* *COUGH!**COUGH!**COUGH!*
Even with the sound of his bones breaking, Stigma clenched his teeth to forced himself to stand as he refused to fall down, gaining the Demon's attention.
"My, my, to have endured from almost being beaten for an hour straight is quite an accomplishment. But I have my own reason's for getting serious, so do forgive me, Sir!!!!!"
Even with his blurry vision and broken bones, Stigma did not falter and rolled away to dodge an incoming stomp that broke the tree behind him in half.
With a small dust cloud forming from the kick, the Demon looked around to find that Stigma had disappeared and erased his presence.
'He started acting like a beast, instead of a human.....oh well, learning the mentality of a beast is a sign of progress as well. But Sir has really grown, in just six hours he started to learn how to change tactics mid battle...'
The Demon could only grinned from the sudden change of Stigma movement and destroyed the nearest trees at random, sending a clear message that a decent recovery was impossible in this situation.
With his geographical advantage slowly disappearing, Stigma was forced to flee, but not without a plan.
When a part of the dust cloud shifted, the Demon noticed the sudden change then smiled as it ran toward the direction at an alarming pace.
Aiming to cut off Stigma's supposed route of escape at the end.
'You will not escape!!'
When the Demon left the area, the fallen tree from before started to move and revealed Stigma from behind and stared at the Demon's direction with an exhausted expression.
'Managed...*heavy breathing*.....somehow...'
With large dust cloud acting as a cover, Stigma had thrown a large rock infused with his Zen energy and was able to fool the Demon by chasing it in the opposite direction.
'It was a gamble in how it would react but....'
Stigma leaned his body forward against the fallen tree and steadied his breathing as he circled his remaining Zen energy to his body.
Normally Stigma would use his skill 'Essence Reader' to see how much he needed to recover, but he roughly estimated that he needed about 100 Zen too recover per broken bone and 50 Zen to heal any bruising on the skin.
The time it took for Stigma needed to heal was five minutes at least, but with the accumulating damage and the indomitable Demon in pursuit, he had to use them sparingly and could heal only his legs to move.
'*Heavy Breathing*....A number of my ribs are broken from that punch, yet I can still feel my legs and arms which is good, but I need to slow down my breading to recover properly. Or else I might fail this trial!!!'
...
To summarize his present situation, Stigma was currently facing the trial of one of his choices - the Gift of Youth.
Before leaving his hiding spot and limping away, Stigma recalled the events from earlier and laughed at the irony of his limit.
When the Demon gave such choices, Stigma's first thought that there was a trick behind each offer, as his interaction with the Demon was proof of it.
With such tempting offers in front of him, Stigma did not hesitate and decided to pick all of the Gifts as it will benefit him. He assumed the Demon did not inform him that he could pick one, so he choose them all out of greed.
But that was never the Demon's intention as it did not warn him about the trial that each one had, yet Stigma did not regret his decision when it was revealed, as it was related for him to get stronger.
What Stigma was currently facing, was the ten hour trial of the Gift of Youth - Perseverance.
The summary of the trial was for him to endure a ten hours survival match with the Demon in ogre form and push his physical limit to that of a demon, excluding using his Zen energy for recovery and cultivation techniques.
Stigma was not allowed to use his other skills during the trial and were sealed.
So far Stigma can cultivate and try to recover his reserves, but with the Demon in pursuit, he could not properly circulate the surrounding energy to refuel.
But as long as Stigma managed to survive for ten hours straight without fainting from exhaustion or get killed by the Demon, then he passes the trial and unlocks the ability to the Demon Soul.
It did not matter what Stigma did, be it forcefully subduing, tricking or running away from the Demon, he was free to do anything until the time limit was reached.
But with the Demon at its peak of strength and knowledge on the land, Stigma had no choice but to constantly retreat and wait out the time.
There was no penalty of failing the trial that affected him permanently as it can be repeated again, but the next attempt would have Stigma go over twenty hours over his head, and the time will increase by another ten hours if he were to fail another time.
And will continue to rise from each failure.
Yet each time he fails, the reward will increase accordingly to the risk, but at Stigma's current level along and the unknown danger of the Demon.
Stigma could not rely on such chances with high risk.
'Especially when I have to venture through this unknown world....I managed to survive with whatever trick I have in mind, as well as avoid facing the Demon, who might get stronger from each attempt."
When the first trial started, Stigma had confidence at the early stage. But as time passed by, his physical limit started to appear along with his reserves diminishing from the lack of recovery.
His two Cultivation techniques were versatile, but that was under the assumption that Stigma could use Soul Eater to continuously replenish his reserves each time he used them in a short amount of time.
And with the pursuit of the Demon, Stigma had to give up on using his techniques unless needed.
Even with his physical abilities, Stigma had manage to allude the Demon Ogre by dodging and making quick maneuver at close range for more than six hours.
But after the next threes hours, Stigma movements started to slow down and realized his mistake for wasting too much stamina from struggling with the Demon when it forced him into a corner.
With Stigma's lack of experience, the Demon exploited the weakness easily from using the forest of trees as a maze trap and captured him in an unfamiliar environment.
To add insult to injury, the Demon started to lecture Stigma on how to use th environment to his advantage, which greatly annoyed him.
When they were in the room from before, the Demon used a straightforward pattern of movement and charged at Stigma like a mad bull with ferocity, which was advantageous for him in delaying the Demon.
Yet when he was forced in the forest, the Demon had started to use guerrilla tactics and used surprised attacks on Stigma for roughly an hour.
Which led Stigma to being constantly harassed by the Demon, further exhausting him in a faster rate.
Stigma also noticed the Demon started to increase the degree of its speed and attack pattern when the approaching time limit was drawing near.
Stigma had already been informed that the time in the trial was tied to the Demon's transformation as it had a glowing hourglass floating near its head.
So wasting much time is not only dangerous to him but to the Demon as well.
'Now then....time to go...but I still have a trump card, which is to the fire energy!'
Fire energy, in other words the pure form of fire.
During Stigma's free time in the inner world, he had constantly experimented on how to form the elemental energies like what he did to the Grudge soul, unfortunately, he was met with an unexpected accident that forced him to remain training in the inner world for safety reasons.
There were two reasons why Stigma only trained in the inner world, rather than continue his training in the real world:
First, the inner world can contain all the energy leaking from Stigma's amateur control, which meant Stigma would not lose any energy from dispersing in the air.
Second, Stigma could heal himself when he received injury with the Demon's support and the presence of the spring.
In fact, Stigma had received a grievous injury not long ago when he made the mistake of releasing his control to soon from the fully formed fire sphere, which exploded at point blank to his face.
Although he survived from having his arms blown off, Stigma's injuries would be similar to having third degree burns on his entire arm to his face, and took hours to completely heal him.
With the Demon Imp support and the healing spring, Stigma managed to survive and had to limit his elemental control training in small amounts, until he found another solution to fully form elements without risk in the real world.
Stigma could not use the elemental energy.
Stigma also avoided using the other elements as he lacked insights, at the same time, the Demon would not provide him clues and had to research on his own.
So far, using 20% of the fire energy was enough to burn Stigma's skin a little, and increasing it would be no different than burning his entire hand.
And at one hundred percent was enough to form an explosion.
But Stigma did not want to gamble with using all the fire energy all at once without risking his life.
'But I can only rely on this gamble still for now.....shit...'
Though his diversion plan was simple and effective, Stigma hoped it was enough for him to catch his breath for even a few seconds until the Demon realized the ruse, but he could not rely on the plan to last long and started moving with haste to prepare his next plan.
*Heavy Breathing x 5*
Stigma needed five more minutes to catch his breath, but with the reminder of the danger known as the Demon Imp/Ogre, he had to physically push himself until it was over while carefully concentrating on his little trap.
Fire energy [80/ 330]
'Almost there!' With the elemental energy forming in his hand, Stigma was scared of the result but was ready for encountering the Demon.
"Time!"
*Bing!*
[3 minutes remaining until trial is over....]
'Looks like.....*breathing heavily*....I'm almost there. I really need to start exercising regularly when I return to the real world.....ha ha ha, so much trouble, but too late to regret from not crossing the river. But I still have to endure four more of these trials, you have got to be kidding me!!!!!'
When Stigma was about to make the screen in front of him disappear, a ferocious howl came from behind and shocked him to the core.
What followed was a ground trembling charge with a tremor like laughter.
Causing Stigma to lose concentration on the energy and started leaking in his hand, forcing him to make another one.
"HA HA HA HA HA! Clever trick Dear Sir, to think you would use a rock infused with Zen to fool me!!! Splendid! Splendid! Splendid!!!!"
Without even turning his head, Stigma made a dash towards the nearest tree for a cover while the Demon Imp/Ogre was in hot pursuit.
But with the accumulated damage of the body and his trap being prepared, Stigma had to slow down on one of his turns yet the Demon spared no time when it saw the opening.
When Stigma turned his head, he saw that both of the Demon's hands were positioned to the ground, making the appearance of a large black bull in ready and charged at whatever was in front with a shoulder tackle.
*Crash!* *Crash!* *Crash!* *Crash!*
'Shit!!!'
Stigma could not dodge in time as the Demon landed on his back, causing both of them to collide from the momentum and crash into five of the surrounding trees.
When the Demon got up, it shook its head and grabbed one of Stigma's legs, then threw his body against a boulder.
With Stigma gasping for air, the Demon merely laughed when Stigma stood up and continued the abuse on his body.
But even with each swing, Stigma was slowly learning how to dodge some of the attacks with minimal body movement, and shift his body against the approaching fist and kicks.
With his limited escape route, Stigma had to either find an opening to escape or used his trap to force the Demon to be stunned enough for the timer to reach the end.
But unknown to Stigma, there was a reason for the Demon pushing him to the limit.
'Having a strong and courage soul makes no different, if the person in a strong body cannot learn how to cope from danger. Then he is not different than a paper tiger[1] to an actual tiger. Learn with your soul on how to fight back, Dear Sir!!!!!!'
The Demon did not want Stigma to die out of carelessness or arrogance of the fake fangs, so in it's own way, the Demon had set up the trials to teach Stigma on how to survive through each gift he chose.
A monster like strength, an abundant reserves of Zen, an unlimited potential of skills and knowledge. Stigma knew too well that he was weak by true experts standards and was conscious of his lack of backbone.
And despite being thrown onto the trees and crashing towards the rocks ground repeatedly to cause him to cough blood, Stigma showed the Demon that his eyes were not dead and did not pass out as he covered his head and neck for the incoming strikes he could not escape.
'Gotta keep.....calm. And kill the Demon!!!!!'
Even with an incoming knee strike came into his face and ribs, or when his body was being used as a club and slammed into the nearest surface or when incoming shoulder tackle cause him to fly in midair.
With his future survival at stake, along with the time drawing near and from what he endured, Stigma could not afford to have all his efforts go to waste.
[2 minutes and 50 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
'Almost there!!!I can't give up!!!!'
As Stigma endured the worst beating of his life, he clenched his teeth as he waited for a chance with the still present timer counting down. But he with one trick left in his sleeve, Stigma proceeded to recklessly accumulate the fire energy and aura to his hands and face.
[2 minutes and 46 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH!
'Endure...'
[2 minutes and 45 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH!
'Endure...!'
[2 minutes and 44 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH!
'Endure...!!'
[2 minutes and 42 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH! BASH!
'Endure...!!!!!!'
[2 minutes and 37 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
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Even with the endless like beating, Stigma did not break concentration and prepared for any opening the Demon would make.
As the Black Imp/Ogre continued to abuse Stigma's body, the grin like poker face it had slowly changed and did not miss from seeing the young boy performing such a dangerous gamble.
[17 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
Rather from the amusement of seeing the white haired boy's body being mangled, it found Stigma's ability to endure the pain and tenacity to be admirable.
[15 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
Even with the endless beating, the Demon did not enjoy what it was doing and wanted it's contractor to learn from the experience, and feared that Stigma had caved into despair like he did in the previous life.
[13 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
Yet this time, Stigma endured with confidence and excitement in his eyes from seeing the approaching countdown, he continued to guard his head and stood his ground against the tree with eyes burning with life.
When the Demon became aware of Stigma attempt o accumulate a dangerous amount of energy.
It own thought was that it could kill both of them if used correctly.
[11 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
Even from the danger, the Demon could only reveal a genuine smile, as it towered over Stigma, the only thing it could do .....was answer the challenge head on.
Even with the approaching time limit and danger, the Demon stopped it's assault and started focusing an enormous energy in its arm and readied its fist.....to kill Stigma.
With Stigma showing such resolve from the countdown in front of his face, all the Demon could do was play his part.....and force his master to enter oblivion.
[9 seconds remaining until trial is over....]
"RAHHH!!!!!!!!!"
With seconds remaining, the Demon howled and could only give his Master...a beautiful end.
The air around them started to weigh on Stigma, but when Stigma saw the readied attack, he finally revealed his hidden trick and faced it onto the Demon's face.
Releasing the largest fireball at close range with all the fire energy used, in other words a suicide attack.
[330/330] Fire energy!
"Eat this!!!!!!" With Stigma pouring all his Fire energy, he was going to experiencing the full force of a Heat Wave ten times as worst than before.
"Rahhhhh!!!!!!" Unfortunately, when the Demon saw that Stigma took opening to attack its face, the Demon did not dodge and took it head on.
Which greatly shocked Stigma, but had firmly believed that even the Demon would not survive this unharmed.
*Bang!!!!!*
*Boom!!!*
*Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*
When the Demon's fist collided with the Fire bomb, the sound barrier behind it broke and Stigma had turned blind from the fire and deaf from the explosion.
*Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick*
To the Demon seconds had passed, yet to Stigma it felt like hours and waited....for his end.
*Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick*
With each passing second, Stigma's breathing became harsh and a huge weight was on his back was felt. Yet at the same time, Stigma felt relief that he was able to endure the hardship through his effort.
'Even if I fail this time, I'm glad.....'
With his last thoughts emerging, Stigma started to close his eyes.
*Bi- *
.....
.....
.....
From an unknown amount of time Stigma was in a daze, but after a while his hearing returned along with his vision, and soon noticed the supposed attack did not appear and he was still alive.
With the weight of fear gone, Stigma sighed a breath of relief and stared at the air out of reflex.
*Bing!*
[Time limit has been reached!]
[Congratulation host, after enduring a series of hardships, you have passed the trial of the Eternal Youth - Perseverance. You have earned the respect of the Demon Imp and gained greater affinity to it]
[Gaining respect of the Demon earned some of its Demonic knowledge.]
[The Demon's Heart has gained a new ability and shall permanently increase all stats by +100.]
[Recalculating stats...]
*Bing!*
[Name: Stigma Falsus
Age: 10
Rank: Unique (I)(Early stage)
-- / 10000 ( -- means it is currently being used.)
Strength: 250 + 100
Agility: 270 + 100
Vitality: 350 + 100
Zen Reserves: -- / 1700
Skills:
Essence Reader(IV) 55%
Poltergeist (III) (1) 75%
Soul Eater (IV) 50%
Taboo(III) 45%
Demon's Soul 6%
.....
]
[Demon Soul
- A part of the newborn demon's life force, produces a presence that draws hostility towards surrounding beast with light affinity.
- A soul with partial knowledge of the Demon's wisdom, any form of experiment shall reveal a new path to evolution via 'Essence Reader'.
- Host body will gain the ability to produce curses; Current range, within arm length.
Unlocked abilities:
*Youth*
+100 stat increase. Increases as the Demon Soul Grows stronger.
*Knowledge*
Locked
*Wealth*
Locked
*Fame*
Locked
*Power*
Locked
]
...
.....
....
'For the love of.....All that fucking torture, for a measly one percent for a skill I don't even know.....Hahaha'
Stigma gave a weakly laughter and was about to pass out when he heard a voice congratulating him, which sounded like it came from a distance.
"Congratulation Dear Sir..."
...
....
It took five hours for Stigma to wake up and found himself in a familiar spring with a large tree in the background, but from the side he saw the Demon in Imp form sitting on top of a rock watching over him with its usual grin.
"How are you dear Sir, are you fine now?" Unfortunately Stigma was not amused from the greeting figure and grabbed the nearest rock then threw it.
"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!! YOU SURE TOOK YOUR SWEET TIME IN BEATING ME!!!!!" When it dodged the surprise attack, Stigma jumped from the pond and came after the Demon who dodged his second surprise attack.
With the trial over, Stigma was free to do what he wanted, such as strangling the Demon Imp who was performing the beating.
Fortunately, Stigma recovered his reserves and body, but that did not mean he had recovered from the ten hour exhaustion he accumulated so he could only go for only an hour.
The Demon was aware of Stigma's ire, so it tried to calm him from time to time as it was being chased.
"Now, now, Dear Sir. In my philosophy of learning: 'The best way to development a mind and body is to push oneself to the limit and experience the failures and pain, then learn at one's own pace once the limit is realized.' You survived an impossible like challenge so I recommend you to..."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT,YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!!"
The Demon Imp then dodged an incoming tackle and made Stigma fall face first on the ground, but the white haired boy sat back up, and increased his relentless drive with hate to beat the demon Imp once he caught him.
The Demon Imp however did not run as it stood still and waited for Stigma to catch his breath, as if it had no worry with all the time in the world.
"Now then, has Sir finally came down? I have my reason's for pushing you to the absolute limit. So please understand my intentions as it is my mission."
"Yeah....*breathing heavily*.....I bet you enjoyed my little struggle, during your 'mission' then.....*breathing heavily*....."
"Now that is a misunderstand, please refrain from baseless assumptions, such as my amusement from seeing Dear Sir's difficulty but from your later growth. Also, please refrain from the constant use of such poor vocabulary, it will become a habit in the future. If nothing is done, Sir will..."
"Screw you!!!! Your mission was...!!!!"
@^@$^$% )@Y)!#%@^)%#U)%#&(#!??!?!?! < - just a bunch of random cursing followed with a bunch of death threats
When two hours had passed, Stigma finally calmed down from all his venting and cursing from the last ten hour struggle, but he still had to go through four more of such torture so he held his temper.
When he finally calmed down, the Demon stepped closer to Stigma, then announced something he could not refute.
"So Dear Sir....how does it feel to have experience multiple actual life and death match with me...not easy is it....if it were in the real world would you survived."
"..."
Stigma could not respond from that statement as it was the truth.
Everything Stigma experienced until now, was not even close to what he experienced to the Demon's battle.
The Golden mask Cultivator was strong, but that was in the level he was holding back, and Wade was toying with him.
All things considered, Stigma had never been in an actual position where his life was on the line.
"Difficult....thank you for making me experiencing it." Although Stigma was reluctance, he did not lift his head and bowed to show his gratitude, and the Demon stepped forward then patted the white haired boy's head like a father would do to a son.
"It was by your own effort, Sir has worked hard...."
With the Demon Imp patting his head, Stigma could only choke and felt something he hadn't felt in a long time - satisfaction from his struggles.
With the six year memory in his previous life reemerging, Stigma felt glad that he could have a second chance to at least fulfill a goal and have someone who can feel proud of him from succeeding - even if it was a mischievous demon.
....
"Now then Dear Sir, are you going to continue with the remaining trials? You don't have to force yourself, take you time and learn each of them from another time."
".....Do I have enough time to complete them all in one go? And I still have a bunch of questions and insight..."
The Demon looked up the sky for a moment and replied with a smile.
"Enough to spare a few lessons Dear Sir....Oh, and by the way, are you still interest with my previous deal."
"...I'll think about it.."
***
While Stigma was cultivating in his inner world with the Demon. About two hours had passed in real time.
During that time Stigma's associates in question, were moving in the shadows.
Of the three assassins, Hans was hidden and watched over Stigma's current position from a distance.
While his sister Veil was watching over their leader, who had a bad gambling addiction.
Though uninformed, Stigma could tell that their leader was a very fickle minded person in things that interest her like a child.
Which meant that she was prone to changing her ideas multiple times, so wondered how Veil and Hans were able to handle her.
Stigma was eventually told that her being called Leader was a consensus with her teammates, as she kept changing her code name.
When Stigma met the Leader, she called herself Princess, but before that was Butterfly Lady, next was Red Tail, Bloody Mary, Little Fury, Jinx, Queen, Pretty Diva, Crystal, etc. In short she had too many identities that she was considered a nobody with no solid background.
But was fully capable in handling group of 100 men alone without much effort.
When Stigma had heard such code names, he believed the leader was lost as she had no actual identity, which was revealed to be the truth.
From what Hans told him hours ago, the leader had a complicated past.
But through such trials, she met Han and Veil along with their sister masters whom she loved as her own relatives.
Veil became her best friend, while Han became the lackey/donkey/punching bag, and with Stigma added she gained another younger brother.
With her being surrounded with loyal friends and a master who thought of her as a daughter, she had found a place to call home. So they could never abandon her, nor will she abandon Stigma who trusted them.
But with her growing up in an environment full of gamblers, the siblings took turns in watching over their leader with her gambling addiction so Stigma might have his turn in the near future.
Fortunate or not, as long Veil as was with the leader, winning would be easy most of the time. But that was when Veil was 'lending' her assistance before the leader's breaking point was reach.
In other words, Veil was helping the Leader via cheating.
But during their time, they were performing their original purpose in the market.
Which was to spy on the Naga clan's party, in other words, they are to observe Jaculas's movements via request of Harrison.
***
With Stigma supposed guarding of Emily and the three assassins performing their mission, Felix made preparations and left to perform what Emily requested and split his team to perform an investigation on the designated areas given to him by Lara.
"Lord Felix, what are we looking for exactly?"
"A trail of any kind, as long as it shows that there was a group residing in the woods, we are to investigate before dark and return."
"Lord Felix, from what I can see, we are being led farther away from the market into an unfamiliar route. I suggest we mark one of the trees for now and start again after we make camp."
"Not only that, the pathway on the ground does not show any form of being harmed, yet the trees from above show that they had been used as foot hold for a while. So either someone has already used this route and never told the market or the one's we are looking for are professionals."
"....It would be possible, proceed with caution, we may already be near the camp. So be aware of any traps."
"Understood!"
"Understood!"
"Understood!"
Before he left, Emily did not give any specific on the number of teams needed or what to find, so Felix formed two groups with him and three other members.
While the rest are to assist with the guards in anyway before Stigma heals them and increase their activities.
The reason for the small group was simple, the lesser the people, the faster they can move and will greatly lessens the risk of being discovered.
Not only from the enemy hidden in the forest, but from the Naga clan.
It had been two hours since Felix searched the woods and found the trail he was looking for. Unfortunately, the entire scene could only be described as 'Depraved' and 'Cruel'.
[1] Paper Tiger - refers to a person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual