In the early morning of the next day, Claudia just got up from the bed and rubbed her sleepy eyes. After the "confrontation" between her and Aurora last night, her mind had relaxed a lot, and she had a really good sleep. She might have also had a good dream, but she couldn't recall it no matter how hard she tried. 'Well, it's not that important, I think?' 

She walked lazily toward the window and opened it, taking a deep breath of fresh air while stretching her body under the morning sunlight.

"Huh? Captain?"

Catching a glimpse of a figure below, she looked over and saw Aurora standing in the courtyard while swinging the crimson sword in her hand. At every swing, the fire whirling around the sword would extend its tongue, sending a surging wave of scorching heat into the surrounding.

Swoosh—

A fiery sword energy swept across, cutting off the grass leaves in the courtyard one by one, and the grass leaves flying in the air turned into ashes, scattering about as the wind blew over.

"I feel that my body is much more sensitive than before. What is my race exactly..."

Aurora muttered as she retracted her sword and looked fixedly at the trace of destruction she made within a few meters around her.

"Captain! You're so early today!"

Claudia waved at her and shouted after seeing Aurora retract her sword.

"Good morning, Claudia." Aurora followed the sound and found Claudia waving at her from the window, and she nodded slightly and greeted her. 'She already back to her usual self, I think. That's great.'

"Good morning Captain~"

After the two greeted each other, Claudia retreated into the room and prepared to change clothes to prepare breakfast. At this time, Aurora wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked towards the door, waiting for Tix's reply.

No matter whether they were willing to help today or not, it would not change Aurora's desire to reduce the strength of the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group, especially after the siege and ambush that night. Her idea of completely destroying those bastards was getting stronger and stronger.

Not only for herself, but also for the development of the Glory Mercenary Group, the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group must be destroyed. She absolutely couldn't allow her future direction to be affected by these rotten bastards.

'If you want to make a move, you must do it in one swoop!'

After about twenty minutes, Tix finally appeared at the door.

"Sorry to make you wait, Lady Aurora." As soon as Tix arrived at the door, he found that Aurora was already standing at the door waiting for him, so he couldn't help but quicken his pace and come to her.

"No, Mr. Tix must have good news for coming here in such a hurry."

Tix nodded. "To be honest, I was also very surprised this time. Our leader actually agreed to encircle and suppress the Raging Tempest mercenary group together, and even sent many powerful brothers to help, and everyone has already secretly left the city in batches."

"It was a great help, and I will definitely visit Captain Moon Wolf some other day." Aurora thanked him.

Now, with the help of the Moon Wolf Mercenary Group, she became more confident in getting rid of Jeffrey and the bunches from the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group.

"According to what our people have found out, this time Olsen led a total of 15 elites to the forest on the south side, and then we dispatched 10 elite mercenaries to participate. There are too many people missing, and it is easy to be discovered." Tix shared the information he knew with Aurora, "Looking at the time, they are about to leave soon."

"I see, I guess Mr. Tix might not have the time to have a breakfast before rushing off here? Come and enjoy breakfast with us before we start, maybe we can see a good show." Aurora patted him on the shoulder and smiled broadly.

"Then I won't be polite."

*

While Aurora and the others were enjoying breakfast, Olsen carefully put on the leather armor and checked the materials he was carrying before walking out of the base. Outside, fourteen well-equipped mercenaries were already gathered, waiting for his arrival.

Their team was made up of a standard raiding party composition. There were Rangers who were responsible for long-distance assault and scouting, and Fighters and Swordsmen who were responsible as the main damage dealer and tanker.

The only profession missing from this formation was Priests. Considering their notorious reputation, it wasn't strange that no priests would willingly join their ranks. So, they could only use novices, who were tasked with carrying various recovery items, as a substitute for a healer.

"It's almost time, let's go!" As Olsen ordered, everyone marched towards the south side of the town in a fierce momentum.

Wherever they passed, the passers-by hurriedly moved to the side, giving away a path for them to advance unhindered, afraid that they might accidentally annoy these ruthless thugs, inviting calamity to themselves.

Olsen, as the leader of the expedition, raised his head proudly with a smug smile on his face.

*

Fweeet—

When Tix was still chatting with Aurora after having breakfast, a sharp whistle suddenly interrupted their time. Tix was the first to react, and he abruptly stood up from his chair.

"Lady Aurora, they are leaving."

"Hmm, then it's time for us to act."

Aurora clapped her hands, and Caila, Claudia, and Flamme walked out of the back room already fully equipped, ready to move upon Aurora's order.

"Well, let's go!" Aurora shouted, smiling evilly as she gazed toward the southern forest. "Let's begin the round of destruction."

*

After leaving the city gate for nearly half a day, Olsen and his party finally reached the skirt of the forest. He lifted his hand up and clenched his hands suddenly, and the surrounding mercenaries quickly settled down their luggage and sat down to recover their strength. Some started a fire and prepared their lunch.

After a simple meal, Olsen and his group continued to march towards the forest, unaware of a pair of eyes in the forest staring at them coldly.

"Listen you bunch! Although this is just a scouting mission, no one can take it lightly! Don't let your guard down!"

After a few simple briefings from Olsen, the mercenaries tightened the grip on their weapons and slowly advanced into the forest.

Although the southern forest didn't have the insidious reputation of the Twilight Forest, Olsen and his team still traversed through the forest with high vigilance, and the rangers on the perimeter kept looking around, watching out for potential threats and monsters' ambushes.

Ten minutes after entering the forest, the forest shade above their heads became much denser, blocking most of the sunlight from getting through into the forest and making the forest interior feel dark and gloomy.

The mercenaries were treading the forest path very carefully, keeping a close distance between them as they move forward, clearing the bushes and branches around them.

"Hiss… hiss…"

A hissing sound startled one of the mercenaries on the side, and he subconsciously turned his head toward the source of the sound. A black snake hanging from a tree branch glared at him with its slit eyes from less than a few centimeters away from his face.

"Ah!"

The mercenary's complexion turned pale instantly, and he hurriedly drew his sword, slashing at the snake in panic.

The snake shrank back almost simultaneously, as if it had already predicted the man's reaction.

The sword ended up slashing through the air.

"Hiss~"

Seizing the gap between the attacks, the snake sprung forward, leaping at his throat in a single movement, catching the man off guard.

Just when the mercenary thought he was about to be bitten by the snake, a strong arm passed along his cheek and grabbed the black snake with a sudden grip, pinching the snack into a bloody smudge.

"You fool! Be careful! If you don't pay attention, no one will collect your corpse for you!"

Olsen scowled at the pale mercenary while wiping off the remaining meat paste in his hand on the man's clothes, turned around, and walked forward.

"Be smart, everyone! There are still many things inhabiting this forest!"

He swung his axe about, clearing away the bushes and small trees in front of him and continuing to move deeper into the forest.

The deeper he ventured into the forest, the stronger the uneasiness in his heart grew.

He didn't sense anything unusual, but he couldn't shake the ominous feeling in her heart as if there were a pair of invisible, dark hands pulling the string behind the scene.

This kind of inexplicable feeling made him very annoyed and irritable. It was like something very wrong was going to happen.

"Um?"

While Olsen was busy trying to find the source of his uneasiness, far in the back, one of the mercenaries suddenly stood still without everyone noticing.

His eyes lost their luster and turned blank, as if he had lost his soul. In the next second, an eerie smile appeared on his face as he thrust his sword forward, stabbing his comrade right in the throat from behind.

"Arrghh!!"

An unintelligible shriek instantly caught everyone's attention.

Their expression fell as they turned around and watched one of their companions convulsing violently on the ground, blood gushing from his mouth, and a hole in his throat.

Without warning, their team had lost one of its members.

"Bastard! What're you doing?! Are you crazy?!?"

The surrounding mercenaries looked at the scene in disbelief and started screaming and shouting at the mercenary.

However, even though he personally killed his own companion, the man didn't seem to think what he did was wrong, showing no sign of guilt or remorse as if what he killed was just a small bug.

In the next second, he suddenly laughed maniacally and raised his sword again, ready to start another round of slaughter.

"Everyone be careful!"

Olsen pounced on him like a leaping leopard, knocking the sword in his hand away and trying to grab his shoulder to hold him down.

But the latter seemed even more slippery than an eel, easily escaping from Olsen's clutch and biting his arms with his sharp teeth instead.

"You bitch!"

Olsen roared furiously as the excruciating pain assaulted his senses, his bulky arm flailing about, trying to shake the man off with all his strength.

The man didn't go down without resistance, tearing a small part of Olsen's flesh as he was flung away by him.

After breaking free, Olsen's eyes turned gloomy. He clenched his fists and punched the man a few times in the face, then grabbed him by the collar, threw him to the ground, and pressed his knee heavily on his back before the mercenary could do anything to fight back.

"Graah graah graaaaah!"

Having his movement sealed, the mercenary could only struggle about while screaming out inhumane roars.

Watching this, all the people present flinched, the hands holding weapon trembling, feeling goosebumps all over their body.

"Team... Team Leader! Look over here!" At this moment, a mercenary pointed at the restrained mercenary's calf and shouted.

Olsen looked in the direction he pointed and found two bleeding holes on his exposed skin. But the color wasn't red, but black!

"He was bitten by a snake!" The image of a black snake flashed in Olson's mind.

"Be careful, everyone! This forest is inhabited by venomous snakes that cause hallucinations after biting people!"

Olson chopped the back of the mercenary's head with the back of his hand, causing the mercenary's eyes to roll back, and he passed out.

At this time, the mercenary carrying the medicine hurried up and took out a bottle of medicine powder with a pungent smell and poured it on the wound bitten by the black snake.

Olsen reached out and took a bottle of light green powder from his bag and poured it on the bloody wound. He frowned tightly and gritted his teeth, tearing off a piece of clothing and wrapping up the wound.

"Keep going!" Olson walked forward again after treating the wound. His eyes constantly swept the vicinity, always paying attention to whether there were black snakes hidden above his head and beside him.

"Crack! Crack!"

These mercenaries moved forward slowly, cutting off the branches in front of them with their weapons. After raising their vigilance, they also found many black snakes hidden in the treetops or in the weeds, and immediately killed them.

"Wait! Something is wrong!"

When Olsen advanced a distance of nearly a hundred meters again, the anxiety in his heart became more and more intense, and he stretched out his hand to make a stop gesture.

The surrounding forest seemed to be extremely quiet, as if everything had been put to stop; the gloomy atmosphere in the forest was growing thicker and thicker.

The uneasiness in Olsen's heart reached its peak.

"It's so quiet..."

Quiet?

"!!!"

"Everyone, prepare for battle!"