Circumstances

The warrior was surprised, but nodded soon after.

Lorn focused on his spirit and started creating a fog. He made sure none of it appeared near the hunters, controlling it to float at twice everyone's height. A brief silence ensued on the battlefield as everyone saw a giant fog covering the birds above.

"Sybil!" Lorn shouted and used Spirit Absorbing Fog and induced anger on all the birds.

With that, they didn't think to fly up, and instead dove down. Lorn shot at the birds, which were about to land on the hunters, and saw Sybil doing the same. They didn't have to shoot too much.

Most landed on the ogres, as the battlefield was full of them. Although the birds and the ogres seemed to be cooperating, it wasn't like they were on friendly terms. They just had common prey that they both coveted.

As soon as a possessed eagle fell on an ogre, they both attacked each other, some even getting tangled together.

The hunters didn't lose this opportunity to kill the opponents that were annoying them since the battle started. Even if it put them in a slightly disadvantageous situation, they made sure to kill the birds that came inside their striking distance.

The ogres tried their best to strike the enemies that were preoccupied by the birds, but it wasn't like the hunters were helpless. Most used their more consuming skills to get out of the difficult situation.

After dealing with the birds, the hunters started focusing on the ogres. The fight was much easier this time since they didn't need to worry about being attacked from above.

Lorn thanked the warrior who covered for him and continued his own fight.

The battlefield was chaotic. Shouts from Diamonds would occasionally enter his ears. Formation changes, requests for taunts, some Invoker shouting out her magic, words of encouragement, and finally, a victory cry.

Lorn had thoughts of observing the battlefield and learning about the skills and specialties of the other Hunters, but in the end, he didn't even know how many people were fighting on his side.

Groggily, he made his way to Sybil and Adrian, who were talking to Diamonds. Lorn curiously gazed at his emotions and found something pretty. Like the armor and magic he used, Hegel's heart was pure white. The head was a mix of a few colors, all of them bright and colorful.

Seeing such colors, Lorn immediately felt trustful of the man. The skill didn't allow him to read others' thoughts, but if Lorn became good at interpreting Whispers and Visions, the effect wouldn't be so different from telepathy.

"Lorn!" Sybil said. "Meet Mr. Hegel. He's the leader of the mercenaries we hired for today."

"I've seen you fighting out there, boy! It's a feast for the eyes! Gives me some hope for the younglings' futures, ha-ha-ha!"

Hegel took off his helmet revealing himself as a fifty something man with a magnificent white mustache. Seeing the man's age, Lorn felt even more impressed with the man's brilliantly colored emotions.

"We've been fighting for some time when coming here…" Lorn replied. "But we've never experienced a fight as large as this. Thank you for coming to save our asses."

"Don't fret it, boy. We had just come from a large battle a week ago. Usually, one-day-long missions like this are rare, so we thought we could casually help out. Who knew we'd actually struggle like this? Those damn birds were really pissing me off, dodging all our shots, but never coming near enough for our swords. Thanks to you, the battle got ten times easier, ha-ha-ha!"

"But why are there so many monsters here?" Lorn asked.

"It seems they were attracted to the lingering smell of your souls," Sybil said. "We thought you'd be fine since you were gone, but apparently the monsters can tell where you'll be appearing when you come to the One World. And you know how crazy they act when they see an Undying."

"Imagine my shock seeing an army of ogres loitering around," Hegel said. "We all had to fight to where the ogres were most concentrated, but thankfully, you two came out at exactly the promised time."

"We wouldn't know what to do if we appeared in that place with just the two of us," Lorn chuckled.

"Ah, I think you wouldn't be too helpless. With how strong your sword swipes were, I almost find it hard to believe you're a D-rank Manipulator."

'He's suspicious…'

Lorn smiled. "It was an arduous process, but I managed to level up my Strengthening quite a lot before I ranked up. Thankfully, it paid me back big time."

"Indeed. Diligence and perseverance never fail you."

Despite his words, Hegel still seemed unconvinced.

Thankfully, the female Invoker came next to Hegel.

"We've finished the after-battle arrangements."

"How many souls were there?"

"134 ogres and 40 possessed eagles."

"Good, give each member 10 ogre souls each, and distribute the rest in accordance to contribution. Gather the legs and arms from the ogre's bodies, the rest can be collected by scavengers."

"Yes, sir."

The woman then went to the middle of the battlefield and chanted.

" 'Wayward Souls Gather Before Me!' "

All the floating souls in the surrounding were pulled to where she stood. The hired Hunters gathered round to absorb the souls one by one. Including Hegel and the woman, there were 11 Hunters on their team.

Lorn wondered where their share of the spoils was, but Sybil whispered that this was part of their payment to the mercenaries. Lorn nodded in understanding.

The Hunters then started to cut the ogres' legs and arms. They were well-versed in the act with how effortlessly they used the curved butcher knives to sever the legs and arms. They cut around the area where the joints met and, after digging a bit with a smaller knife with a slimmer edge, they would pull the limb out.

At the end of their efforts, the legs would be thrown into a foul-smelling carriage, the bulb-like tip of the femur protruding from the meat; and the arms would be collected in a large bag.

Lorn felt sick throughout the whole process, but for some reason he couldn't look away. Yara, too, looked at the process with hazy eyes.

After the job was finished, the group headed towards Vexis.

Last time, they were unable to reach the capital before the deadline, so Lorn and Yara had to log out some distance away from the city. The plan was to have Sybil and the rest come back later on and pick them up, maybe hire some help if there were monsters.

But after two days, they heard reports of unnaturally large monsters gathering half a day away from the capital. Danton went to check and realized that was where Lorn and Yara disappeared.

They talked to the Manipulator's Guild in Vexis and asked for help. They received some money and ended up hiring Hegel's mercenary band.

On the way, Lorn also revealed what he heard from Elan.

Sybil was serious, but she knew that someone else finding out about Spirit Bonds wasn't impossible. But she was curious about why Elan revealed the information to Lorn. Wasn't it better to keep the secret and gather power without the other Undying knowing?

Lorn had to explain his history with Elan, and how the loan shark's mind worked. Sybil found it difficult to understand at first, but hearing a few examples from Lorn, she got the gist of it.

"We'll discuss this with the Guildmaster in Vexis," she sighed.

Lorn nodded, and the group continued their journey.