As the day gradually shifted into the late noon, the heart of Sephrodia Valley descended deeper into mayhem and pandemonium, especially the districts of the common folks as the city guards were delegated to protect the noble districts.

The city became worse than it would be if it came under siege. The city was not under siege. It was worse. The enemies were not outside the walls. They were already within and when they attacked, the guards and soldiers were not able to respond adequately. As such, they were ordered to forsake the common districts and focus on protecting the nobles’ domains.

The common folks also realised this and they all quickly ran for the noble district but as could be expected, they were not allowed entry. At this point, large crowds had formed outside the gates that lead into the noble districts. The common folks clamoured and begged desperately to be let in but their pleas fell on deaf ears. The guarding soldiers only looked on with impassive gazes, some even sneered at the pitiful common folks as if flaunting their good fortune of being on the safe side of the gate.

When the common folks began to take drastic measures such as using force to get through, the soldiers retaliated in kind, shooting down anyone who dared to raise their weapons. When the soldiers threatened to have the peasants pelted with attack spells, the peasants scattered and retreated from the gates after a mage gave a demonstration.

Left with no other choices, the common folks could only run back the way they came, hoping they would stumble upon a spot where they would be safe from the Demoids and the opportunistic ruffians or their assailant had already moved on to other areas.

However, their hopes were shattered when their path of retreat was cut off by a swarm of lesser Demoids known as Dregs. These Dregs were basically very much like Ghouls but they were of Demonic origins. They were only a quarter of a threat a Demoid was but what made them dangerous were their numbers and the fact they were devoid of fear and the ability to feel pain.

With no particular direction, the common folks ran wherever they could, as long as they were running away from the Dregs. Some were unfortunate as they ran into Demoids and ruffians in their attempt of losing the Dreg’s pursuit. Some tripped in their haste and they ended up getting trampled to death by the others who were all frantically running away.

It was a total disaster but all hope wasn’t lost. There was the adventurer’s guild. That was the next place the people thought about running towards. The only reason the adventurer’s guild wasn’t their first choice was because that area was one of the spots where the Demoids began emerging from. There was nowhere else they could go, so they all ran for the place where the chaos started and spread from.

A father and a daughter were running in the direction of the adventurer’s guild but they were two districts away from the guild and the path was beset by the presence of Demoids and thugs. Currently, there was a small group of Dregs chasing the father-daughter pair down with a Demoid leading the pursuit. There was originally a large distance between the father-daughter pair and the Demoids but in no time at all, the gap was now only a quarter of what it had been only a few minutes ago.

But before the gap could turn non-existent and spelt the end for the father-daughter pair, an imposing figure with a pair of horns dropped right in between the father-daughter pair and the Dregs and Demoid. The large figure was a woman with little to no clothing covering her torso except for the armoured brassiere she wore. She wielded a large cleaver-sword that was laced with cinders.

“Keep running, don’t stop,” Amyra said to the father-daughter pair as she brandished her blade against the Dregs and the Demoid.

The father thanked Amyra profusely with his daughter in his arms before running off into the distance without looking back.

The Dregs and the Demoid came to a stop in their pursuit at their appearance of Amyra. There was no light of rationality and reasoning in the eyes of the Demoid but there was still its sense of self-preservation. It could sense Amyra was strong, enough to be a threat to them. But the same couldn’t be said for the Dregs. They only stopped because the Demoid did. Unlike the Demoid, the Dregs felt no fear towards Amyra and they began to charge at her.

Amyra frowned in disgust at the Dregs and swung her sword, unleashing a wave of fire that swept over the Dregs, instantly turning them all into ashes. The fire wave continued in its surge, moving towards the Demoid. With a roar, the Demoid quelled and dispersed the fire wave with ease but as the flames faded, it found Amyra’s blade swerving towards its neck.

The Demoid dodged low and spun, slamming its lizard-like tail into Amyra. The Augur caught the Demoid’s tail with her free hand, bared, and swung the Demoid around before throwing it into a nearby debris pile. Without waiting for it to recover, Amyra threw firebolts at the debris pile but the Demoid sprang away before the flames could engulf it.

The Demodi hissed, dropped onto fours, and crawled towards Amyra in rapid haste. She threw Aura Shot at the Demoid but it swiftly avoided the projectiles all the while crawling towards her at an unfathomable speed. Once it was close enough, the Demoid lunged at Amyra but a simple kick from the Augur sent it tumbling and sprawling backwards.

The Demoid flipped back to its feet but Amyra was already upon it. It tried to run but its tail was caught by Amyra. The Augur dragged the Demoid close before pinning it down on the ground with her foot on its thigh. Amyra then stabbed her sword into the Demoid’s chest and burned it from the inside out, reducing the Demoid into ashes in just seconds.

Just after that, she raised her head from the charred carcass of the Demoid and saw a swarm of Dregs down the streets, terrorising another group of survivors. Seeing this, Amyra couldn’t help but sigh. “There better be a good reward after this.” Saying so, Amyra ran towards the Dreg swarm.

****

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the common folks were running for the woods. Not because the woods were safe or anything but because there was simply nowhere else for them to run to. A family of four was currently treading close to the borders of the small woods in the city with a swarm of Dregs on their tail. They had been running for their lives since the chaos began and they had repeatedly escaped the clutches of evil.

However, as fate would have it, they were once again hunted by Demoids, albeit a lesser variant, the Dregs. Since the Dregs were slower than Demoids, the family was able to shake off the Dregs’ pursuit but they were immediately chased by another group of Dregs. The family arrived before the woods which they had blindly run into. Their hopes were ignited when they saw how barren the woods were. Many had run for the woods but only a few had managed to reach it, which was why the woods looked barren.

As if dissatisfied by the family’s tenacity and fortune, fate spat on them. A ruffian appeared out of nowhere and took the young girl of the family hostage. Holding a knife to the young girl’s throat, the thug began demanding the family to hand over their provisions and money.

The father did not hesitate in surrendering their food supplies and their gold to the thug as the Dregs were gaining on them from afar. Though the father had told the thug of this, the ruffian only laughed and scoffed at them, stating that he could easily outrun those Dregs as he was not burdened by family.

Despite getting what he wanted, the thug still refused to let the young girl or told the family he would be taking the girl with him. Before the father could express his wrath in a shout, an arrow pierced through the thug’s head from behind. The father immediately rushed towards the now-deceased thug, pushing him away, and took his daughter into his protective embrace.

“Are you alright?” asked an Elf as she trod up to the family.

“An E-Elf…” the father gasped upon noticing the identity of his daughter’s saviour. “T-thank you so much, Lady Fae.”

“Save your gratitude for later, human. For now, get into the woods and just keep following the blue flowers with red thorns.”

The father nodded. “Follow the blue flowers with red thorns, understand, but… until when or where?”

The Elf smiled wryly at them. “You’ll know. Now, move.”

The father said no more and took his family with him as they rushed into the woods, not before they gathered their food supplies and gold back.

“Is there no end to them?” the Elf grumbled as she turned her gaze and saw the small group of Dregs coming her way.

“The criminals comprise around one-fifth of the city’s population and that’s just the known criminals,” explained a black-haired female Wolf-kin who appeared from an alley and joined the Elf by her side.

The Elf raised an eyebrow at the Wolf-kin’s presence. “What of the Demoid you were fighting, Siv?”

“Dead,” answered the Wolf-kin as she flicked the blood-soaked blades of her swords clean.

“Are you sure? You know, Demons can be very tenacious in the most peculiar ways.”

“Yes, I’m aware, Nivia. Mistress and Master had taught me enough about it but these are just Demoids, not Demons.”

“Yes, they’re just Demoids but these Demoids are a tad different than usual.”

“As I have said, I’m aware, Nivia. The Demoid is dead, truly. Unless it comes back as an Undead, then that would be a different story.”

“Will it?”

“I wouldn’t know. Even if it will, we have more pressing matters at hand.”

Nivia sighed and stared at the fast-approaching Dregs. “I suppose you’re right.” She nocked two arrows to her bow and took aim. She cast a Wind Magic spell on her arrows and released them from the string. The arrows flew true but not straight. The arrows veered around in the air, guided by the winds, as they plunged into the approaching crowd of Dregs, piercing through eight heads of the Dregs before losing the arrows ran dry of magic.

The carcasses of the dead Dregs tripped over the others, drastically slowing the Dreg’s approach as they tumbled to the ground one after another. Nivia did not give the Dregs any respite and continued releasing her spell-infused arrows at the Dregs.

While Nivia was dealing with the Dregs, Siv was handling a more immediate and “closer” matter. With her heightened sense of hearing, she skillfully sniffed out the remaining thugs in hiding who were the companions of the thug who tried to rob the family from before.

SIv dashed toward a crumbled building where only the first storey remained without a roof. “Come out,” she said.

But there was no response from within the open building.

“I can smell your stench from a mile away. The stench of the innocent’s blood dyed on the filthy unwashed skin of scoundrels such as you three.”

After spitting such an insult, only then did three thugs emerge from the building, each holding a rusty and mangled tool as a weapon. The three thugs walked towards Siv slowly with their glares trained on her.

“What do you want, beast?” asked the thug in the middle with a scowl of disgust.

“Retribution,” Siv answered and went to work, shocking the three thugs with her speed.

The thugs could barely raise their weapons in response as Siv made her move. Two of them immediately had their throats sliced with the last one barely guarding Siv’s lethal slash aimed at his neck. The thug pushed back with a roar but Siv used his momentum against the thug and let him fall to the ground as she spun out of the way.

Before the thug could get back up, Siv plunged her sword through the thug’s head without any hesitation.

“And that’s thirteenth,” Siv muttered as she pulled her sword out and flicked the blood off her blade.

“You’re finished?” Nivia asked as she came over to Siv.

The Wolf-kin nodded.

“Good. Let’s keep moving. There’s a lot of people that need saving.”

“And killing,” Siv added grimly, staring at the bodies of the fallen thugs she felled.