Blood Assimilation

Brawler Randy realized the cruelty of the demons from listening to Liena speak with a visible change in her emotion. He wondered if she had seen such a scene many times, causing her to become affected emotionally when she talked about it. After listening to her talk as they walked to their destination, he suddenly interrupted her when he thought of something.

"Can they be saved if they've been planted with this Demon Seed?" Brawler Randy asked, even though he had an inkling of the answer to his own question.

"Impossible." As expected, Liena became agitated, stopping in her tracks, turning her body to face him. She coldly added: "Once you're affected by the Demon Seed, the only outcome is the death of the host to prevent the death of many innocent lives. Do you think I'll be on this mission if they could still be saved?"

"How are you so certain? Can't they be saved by extracting the Demon Seed? Is it from experience or just your speculation?" Brawler Randy tentatively asked her, not expecting her to answer, but unexpectedly, he saw Liena's face flash with anger and sadness before responding.

"Speculation? I have seen with my own eyes how my... someone had transformed and taken the lives of their own loved ones and the members of their village. Do you think I'll be on this mission if extracting the Demon Seed was possible?

After studying the corpse, it was discovered that killing the Demon Seed would also kill the host, as their lifeline was inexplicably linked." Liena explained, taking a deep breath to calm her emotions at the end of the explanation, realizing that she was losing control of herself.

Realizing that his questions were riling her up for some reason, Brawler Randy decided to not pursue any further. The two of them silently made their way to a village in the distance.

Not long after, they entered the village. However, the village was scarce and quiet with only a few people walking on the street. It was daytime, so it was strange for there to be fewer villagers walking about on the street. Furthermore, no one came to welcome them, even though they entered the village through their makeshift gate made from utilizing the logs from the nearby trees.

Liena, without bothering to talk to the villagers, began to look around the place, seemingly searching for the target of her mission.

"What are you doing?" Brawler Randy couldn't completely understand her actions of merely staring at every house they passed by without uttering any words or approaching them to confirm the location of her target.

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"I'm looking for my target." Liena tersely replied.

"I can kind of tell from your actions, though I can't comprehend your methods…" Brawler Randy shook his head helplessly and added: "Why are you not asking anyone in the village? Wouldn't it be faster that way instead of blindly looking around like that?"

"I know what I'm doing." After uttering these words, she walked away from Brawler Randy, deciding to speed up her search and locate her target as soon as possible before another tragedy ensued.

Earlier, Brawler Randy heard from Liena that the location of her target was estimated to be near the village they had arrived in, but the precise location couldn't be discerned. Asking how she got that information, Liena opened her mouth but didn't respond to his question, prompting Brawler Randy to not pry too much into her business.

While Liena was busy searching for her target, Brawler Randy approached an old lady who was trying to scurry to her house when she saw them approaching her.

"Hello there. Can I bother you for a minute?" Brawler Randy said, startling the old lady, whose hand was placed on the doorknob, about to enter her house.

"W-What do you want?" The old lady looked left and right as she stammered. Her reaction made Brawler Randy furrow his brow slightly, but he quickly displayed a smile and politely said: "Nothing. I just want to ask why there's barely anyone on the street. We just arrived in this village. We were on a mission, but we wanted to take a break here for a few days if possible."

"Y-You can't." The old lady stammered again, but her reply came almost instantly.

Perplexed by her quick reply and suspicious behavior, Brawler Randy asked: "Why?"

Seeing his genuinely perplexed expression, the old lady collected herself and said: "Young man, it's not that our village lacked hospitality. It's just that lately, some monster has been striking the village, killing many people in its wake. The last time that monster struck, it escaped in confusion, so not many people died."

"Is that so? Was it a magical beast or...?" Brawler Randy ventured to confirm whether or not the monster mentioned by the old lady was their target.

As expected, the old lady shook her head. She leaned in closer, then looked around to confirm that no one was listening to their conversation before uttering in a whisper.

"That thing wasn't a magical beast. I don't know what it was either..." She spoke slowly before sighing and adding: "That day, I don't know if I was lucky or not. You see, I was nearly killed by that monster, but at the last minute, it stopped. At that moment, I managed to glimpse its appearance. It looked like a human but had eyes like that of a demon.

Also, before that monster left, I heard it muttering something in human language, saying: 'This can't be happening. I only wanted to protect them.' Then, as if in despair, that thing let out a piercing shrill before running away in the direction of the nearby forest where our local wild beasts lived."

Before Brawler Randy could ask any further questions, the old lady had taken advantage of his contemplative state after hearing her recount to enter her house and lock the door, leaving him standing all alone in front of her house.

While he was initially stunned and taken aback by her actions, he didn't dwell on the quirkiness of the old lady and turned around to leave, only to notice Liena coming toward him.

"Did you find them?" He asked when Liena stood before him. He thought Liena would attempt to leave him behind, but she defied his assumption and came back.

Liena replied: "No. We're leaving."

Bewildered, Brawler asked: "Where are we going? Weren't we here to find your target? Why are we suddenly leaving?"

"I already know where they might be, and they are definitely not in this village." Liena replied and began to walk away, prompting Brawler Randy to follow behind her.

Following the clues discovered, Brawler Randy, led by Liena, traced the location of their target to a hut in the forest that housed wild beasts. When they arrived at the hut, they saw a man holding a wild beast that looked like a giant rabbit, seemingly coming home from a hunt. When he saw them approaching his hut, he dropped the rabbit, about to run.

At this juncture...

Shockingly, Liena changed her tone and cold demeanor, displaying an amiable smile as she addressed the man.

"Hello there, mister. There's no need to be afraid. We're just hunters looking for a temporary space to rest, and we happened to notice your hut in the forest."