Watching the Royal Guard pursue Shino, Alpha realized immediately—these people had been eyeing the billion Zeny from the start.
Although she had noticed them earlier, she hadn’t assumed the worst; she simply thought they were passing through.
“Let’s move.
After them!” At Alpha’s command, she, Beta, and Delta gave chase.
Gamma stayed behind to drive the carriage; with a billion Zeny being quite a large physical sum, they would ultimately need the transport.
Outside the city, Shino didn’t move at full speed.
He maintained a precise distance from the Royal Guard—far enough that they couldn’t catch him, but close enough to make them feel like he was just within their reach.
If Shino truly wanted to, these people wouldn’t even be able to touch the hem of his cloak.
The pursuit led them deep into a dense forest.
There, Shino stopped running and tossed the massive sack of a billion Zeny to the side.
“Kid, you’re pretty fast, but I guess you can’t run anymore with all that weight, huh?” “Surrender quietly, or we’ll hack you into a thousand pieces!” The magic swordsmen quickly surrounded Shino.
Just as Shino was about to act, he sensed Alpha and the others arriving.
“Kill them.
Leave no survivors,” Shino ordered coldly.
“Still bluffing?
Let me tell you, we are the Royal Guard—the elite of the magic swordsmen!
It doesn’t matter who comes to help you!” The moment the words left his mouth, a hand pierced straight through the speaker’s heart.
It was Delta.
Only Delta killed with such visceral, bloody efficiency.
Having spent her life hunting in the wild, she was a master of erasing her presence; she had approached so silently that the Captain of the Royal Guard died without even realizing he was under attack.
“Captain!” “Don’t panic!
There are only a few of them.
Reinforcements will be here soon!” the Vice-Captain shouted.
Beta and Alpha joined the fray, launching their assault on the Guard.
Shino stepped back and did not participate.
To Alpha and the others, the Royal Guard represented a formidable opponent—the perfect whetstone to sharpen their skills.
The Royal Guard consisted of fifty highly capable men.
Aside from those killed in the initial shock, the rest were not easily dispatched once they regained their guard.
Delta fought like a berserker, her savage style terrifying many of the knights.
A few, fearing for their lives, decided to tuck tail and run.
“I only joined the Guard for a paycheck, not to die for it.
The Captain is already dead—I’m out of here!” one knight muttered to himself as he bolted.
Suddenly, he slammed into an invisible barrier.
“What is this?” He felt a surge of killing intent and tried to turn around, but before he could move, his vision began to spin.
The last thing he saw was his own headless body collapsing to the ground.
*Too fast…* The other deserters met the same fate.
Not a single person was permitted to leave the forest.
The battle dragged on, becoming a grueling war of attrition.
Beta was the first to get injured.
Shino watched her closely; the moment she reached her limit, he would intervene.
“Brothers!
If we don’t kill them and take the gold, we’re dead anyway!
Focus!
There are only three of them!
Target the white-haired elf first—she’s starting to flag!” The Vice-Captain had correctly identified Beta as the weakest link in their formation.
Originally, ten men were engaging her, but upon hearing the order, more shifted their focus to swarm her.
Beta parried and retreated, but the sheer numbers were becoming overwhelming.
Fighting multiple opponents simultaneously is exponentially difficult; the fact that she had held out this long at her age was already a miracle.
Seeing that Beta truly couldn’t hold on, Shino vanished and reappeared instantly at her side.
With a single, blinding flash of his blade, all fourteen men surrounding Beta were cut down in an instant.
“Lord Phantom!” Beta knew Shino was strong, but she hadn’t realized the gap was this astronomical.
These were the Royal Guard, yet he had erased over a dozen of them in a heartbeat.
“Beta, step back.
Leave the rest to Alpha and Delta.” A blue-violet mana glowed in Shino’s hand.
Beta’s wounds closed instantly, and her mana was fully replenished.
Alpha, meanwhile, was holding her own against nearly twenty men.
Despite the odds, her movements remained steady and composed.
She didn’t look like someone being swarmed; she looked like someone conducting an orchestra, occasionally “removing” a musician who played a sour note.
Delta’s side of the forest was pure chaos.
She zipped around like a leopard, launching sudden, lethal strikes from impossible angles.
The knights could barely defend themselves, remaining entirely on the defensive against her raw, predatory instincts.
“Is the elf not dead yet?!
Hurry up and help us!” the Vice-Captain screamed.
He was currently facing Alpha.
He didn’t dare look away from her, so he could only bellow into the air.
Most of the knights were focused on Alpha, yet she had already piled seven or eight bodies at her feet.
The Vice-Captain was exerting everything just to stay alive as her primary target, while the others provided support.
This only served to delay the inevitable.
The Vice-Captain knew that without outside interference, they were all going to die.
Alpha showed no signs of fatigue; her mana pool seemed bottomless, and she looked almost bored.
Alpha didn’t worry about Beta; she knew as long as Shino was there, Beta was safe.
She fought methodically, wanting to show Shino her most refined side rather than getting messy or injured.
However, as the knights began to run low on mana, Alpha decided to end it.
Her attacks became sharper and more aggressive.
The Vice-Captain’s body was covered in gashes, and the support knights were being picked off one by one whenever they blinked.
“Don’t panic!
She’s the only threat left, and she’s almost spent!
Just a little more—” Because he got distracted by his own shouting, he left a microscopic opening.
Alpha seized it instantly, her blade ending the Vice-Captain’s life.
With their leader gone, the remaining knights lost their will to fight.
“The Vice-Captain is dead!” Panic spread like wildfire.
As the knights broke formation to flee, the battle turned into a one-sided slaughter.
Even Beta, now fully recovered, joined the hunt.
Just then, Gamma arrived with the carriage.
“That woman is with them!
Capture her and use her as a hostage!” the last five survivors shouted, seeing Gamma.
Seeing them charge, Gamma activated her Slime Bodysuit, formed her blade, and rushed forward.
The five men faltered, seeing her confidence.
*Does this one have the same monstrous strength as the others?!* Gamma charged too fast and lost her balance, but just as she was about to fall, her invisible mana hands propped her up.
The knights saw this as an opening and lunged.
*THUD!* All five slammed into an invisible wall.
Shino’s barrier, meant to prevent escape, now acted as a shield that kept them from even touching Gamma.
Gamma stood up and looked at the five men pressed against the barrier like insects.
They were completely at her mercy.
With her mana hands stabilizing her, she gathered her power and delivered a single, focused strike that executed all five of them at once.
Shino’s barrier only blocked those without slime mana, allowing Gamma’s blade to pass through and finish the job.
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