Chapter 508 The Scouting Party

Zieg frowned.

He lifted his head

and scanned the unnaturally silent jungle around him.

Then he spoke in a low voice:

“If you want to stay alive, this caution is non-negotiable. You’re all elite Imperial Knights, but against real Demons, even a hundred of you aren’t enough. Understand?”

“Understood, Captain.”

Carter quickly refastened his loosened uniform.

Zieg nodded slightly, then gave the order:

“Everyone, maintain complete silence from this moment on. Move out—hasten back to camp.”

“Yes!”

The men replied in a single low chorus,

and fell into an orderly, faster march.

Even as they wove quickly through the dense undergrowth, the sound of their bodies brushing against branches was as faint as the wind.

They traveled like this for a time—

until Zieg, at the very front, froze abruptly.

He made a sharp gesture to the rear with lightning speed, then dropped to the ground, flat against the dirt.

The scouts behind him saw the motion, their pupils constricting in alarm. They sank to the ground silently, matching his posture, their breathing lowered to the merest whisper.

Minutes passed.

Faint voices drifted toward them from ahead.

“......Why the hell do I have to do this crap?”

A burly, towering Demon grumbled, his face twisted with resentment.

Boom——!

In a fit of frustration, he lashed out with a fist, shattering a massive tree trunk.

Creak—snap!

The tree let out a shrill groan through the forest

and crashed straight into a river.

The current was blocked, spilling slowly onto the bank to form a shallow pool before swirling back into the stream.

Bang!

The Demon slammed another palm into the splintered stump, flattening it, then sat astride it with his legs spread wide.

He continued to snarl his grievances:

“They’re just a bunch of savages! Why can’t we just charge in and kill them all? Why the hell am I stuck doing scouting?”

Bafon, complaints like that are fine with me—but don’t be stupid enough to spout them in front of the higher-ups. They’ll tear you to shreds.”

Not far away, a lean, willowy Demon spoke, leaning lazily against a tree trunk with his back to the brute.

“Hmph! As if I need you to tell me that! What pisses me off is that those lowly Fiends get to run amok and kill whenever they want! Dammit, I wanna kill something—”

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“Use your brain.”

The slender Demon tapped his own temple.

“Do you think mindless Fiends could pull off a job that needs actual wit?”

“Besides...... isn’t this better anyway? Lord Jaca’s gone to clean up the rats in the rear lines, so even if we stayed at camp, we wouldn’t be fighting the savages’ Allied Forces anytime soon. Better to be out here than sucking up to the big shots back at the encampment.”

“At the end of the day, it’s just a surveillance job~.”

“We call the shots on how we do it. Just head back and report nothing out of the ordinary, and that’s it.”

“Hmm......”

Bafon stroked his chin, mulling it over.

“I guess that’s got some sense to it.”

“Ugh, wonder how long it’ll take Lord Jaca to wipe out those rats. I’m dying to cut loose and kill.”

“Hehe, this is Lord Jaca we’re talking about. A few measly savages—they don’t stand a chance~.”

“Though...... if you really can’t hold back......”

The slender Demon raised his right hand, flicking a thumb toward a spot deep in the jungle.

“There’s a few rats over there—”

Zieg’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. A wave of ice-cold dread washed over him in an instant.

His throat moved of its own accord, and he roared a single word at the top of his lungs:

“RUN——!!!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh......

Every member of the scouting party

sprang into action without a moment’s hesitation, scattering in all directions, fleeing at their maximum speed.

“Run~?”

The slender Demon—Dunan—curved his lips into a malicious smirk.

Crackle. Crackle......

His long, spindly fingers twisted and contorted, morphing into razor-sharp blades, then he clasped them together in front of his chest.

“Do you really think you can get away~?”

BOOM——!!!

A flash of searing cold light cut through the air.

In the blink of an eye,

an entire swathe of the jungle was sliced clean through at the trunk, trees falling like dominoes.

“Arrgh!”

“Gasp!”

“......”

Several fleeing figures were cut down in an instant, their bodies severed alongside the trees.

Through the sudden, clear line of sight left by the fallen foliage,

Zieg risked a single glance back.

He saw it clearly—the Demon who had unleashed the slaughter had eyes cold and unfeeling,

as if he had merely stepped on a few ants by accident.

“Oh my...... a few rats got away? What a nuisance~. I was planning to cut all of you to pieces, too——”

RUMBLE!!!

The deafening crash of hundreds of trees hitting the ground finally erupted, a split second too late.

Dunan——!!!”

Bafon’s roar of fury split the air.

“What the hell are you doing!!!?”

“They’re my prey——!!!”

“Ahaha~.”

Dunan’s hands shifted back to their normal form,

and he held them up in a mock surrender.

“Alright, alright~. I won’t lift a finger again, happy?”

“Hmph! Touch my prey again, and I’ll smash your skull in.”

“Scary~.”

Dunan shrugged, sauntering back to his tree and leaning against it lazily, folding his arms across his chest.

“Hurry up and finish them off. Don’t let the rats escape.”

Bafon glared at him, hard. When he saw Dunan had no intention of interfering further, he tore his gaze away to the devastated jungle.

“Huff——!”

Ragged, angry breaths billowed from his nostrils,

his blood-red eyes blazing with a feral, bloodthirsty light.

He licked his lips in a vicious grin:

“Don’t you worry~.”

“I’ll crush them one by one. Not a single one will get away~!”

“So then~. Who should I start with?”

Whoosh——!

A figure burst from the fallen underbrush, sprinting for the denser jungle further ahead.

“Hohoho. Full of spunk, I see! Decision made——”

“You’re first!”

BOOM!

A deafening detonation thundered behind the scout, closing in at an impossible speed.

The man, mere steps from the safety of the thick trees, glanced back on instinct—and the last thing he saw was a massive fist blotting out his entire field of vision.

“Ah——!!!”

A scream of terror tore from his throat, cut short almost immediately.

CRUNCH!

In the next instant,

his body was slammed violently into the earth, the ground cracking beneath the impact.

“Huff~! Too slow! Too damn slow, slow, slow!”

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

Bafon seized the man’s body in one hand, swinging him like a tattered ragdoll, slamming him into the ground over and over again.

The brutal assault only stopped when the man fell completely limp, no longer moving at all.

“Huff! Huff!”

Ragged gasps panted down at the broken, mangled body before him.

“Heheh...... such a lovely scream. Beg for mercy one more time for me.”

“......”

“What’s this? Already dead?”

“How boring.”

SLAP!

He tossed the lifeless corpse aside in disgust, like a piece of trash.

Bafon’s gaze roamed the jungle, locking onto a new target in an instant.

A maniacal, delighted grin spread across his face once more.

“Next——”

“You’re up!”

......

“Ah!”

“Ah......!”

Screams of agony echoed endlessly from behind them.

“Captain Zieg! Henrik and the others—they’re gone, they’re all......”

Carter’s voice was raw with grief and rage, his chest heaving with an unbearable fury he could barely contain.

“Don’t stop——!”

Zieg shouted, his voice hoarse.

“Someone has to survive to carry this message back! We have no choice!”

Carter’s breath caught in his throat, a knot of agony and frustration choking him.

After a long, terrible moment, he roared with every ounce of strength left in him:

“YES——!!!”

“Survive~?”

A mocking voice drifted from behind them, cold and taunting.

“How exactly do you plan to do that~?”