25 Desperation (1/2)
He took a stance and charged, he was facing an actual warrior, different from the ones before that were similar to thugs.
'With how he threw the great sword so easily and lifting another large weapon, he must be strong and skilled in wielding it, I have to be careful.'
After swinging Hilda a few times, he planed to follow his attack with using his knives, some rocks to get some distance, and hiding behind trees to act as shields while getting then use hit and run tactics.
”Haaaa!!!” Since he had no time to prepare for traps, he can only use delay tactics until Dusk returned, he can't block such attacks or he will suffer, so he will have to parry most of them or dodge.
He had to leave him no room to counter attack until then.
”Humph, so obvious!” Side stepping, he swung side-ward aiming for his approaching neck.
When the ax was swung, Stigma intercepted the slash and parried, however it caused his arm to go numb, Wade then stepped in and kneed Stigma to his chest, to make sure the puppy was safe he braced the impact and covered his chest with his free hand.
The impact however, had him flew a few meters upwards.
The pain was unbearable that he had trouble breathing, but he somehow protected the puppy, but since his arm took the impact it had his arm broken.
Before Stigma had time to recover, his throat was grabbed and received a headbutt, causing him slight vertigo, then he got thrown against a tree.
Before he can make a stance, Wade used a shoulder tackle which pinned him to the tree.
”AHHH!” The momentum of the tackle had such an force, that he felt some of his bones got broken, that he can barely breath.
After hearing the scream Wade stepped back, but instead of a gleeful expression he had a face of disappointment.
”Pity, guess I expected too much from you. Thought you were promising, but you obvious lack experience in a head on fight. Are you even the one who killed those two.”
After hearing his comment, he must have assumed that Stigma was capable in dealing stronger foes.
”Those two before, were weak in my standards. But you appear to be an Early stage Zero Tier, so you must have used a surprise attack as a plan, and covered it up that a beast did it.”
Struggling to lift his head, he saw Wade stare at him, it sounded as though he was being praised or insulted.
But that didn't matter to him, he was trying to remember if he left any lose ends.
Before he left, he had tampered with the area and made sure that there were no signs that a human was the perpetrator, ordering Dusk to do some slashes on the ground and their bodies even leaving some form of foot print.
To make it more realistic, he ordered Dusk to attack both of them in a few places on the body, as if they were ripped by sharp claws and mauled to death by a beast.
”What...are...you...” Due to the shoulder tackle, some of his broken ribs were broken, so he had trouble speaking as well.
But to be sure about the situation he had to deny anything, he had to say it as though he was a third person.
Wade rolled his eyes, then he explained.
”Although looking at the situation from a hunters, mercenaries or cultivators perspective they will think the same thing, that those two had offended an unknown monster fought back leaving behind a scene of carnage of their deaths.”
Swinging his ax on the ground, he grabbed a bottle of alcohol from somewhere with his left hand and ripped the seal with his mouth and drank, then leaned on the ax's handle continuing on his explanation, ignoring Stigma's mystified look.
”After a few hours or so, someone discovered the scene, their mauled bodies were found, then decided to grab all their valuables. Making it as though a third party came after the said beast left.”
The story didn't have any loophole so far, if he was just here to get the medallion and kill him, he wouldn't have to go so far as to tell him about this .
Taking a full swig, he emptied the small bottle and threw it away.
”There were three evidence that showed it was you.”
Lifting his free hand, he slowly curled up three finger after each explanation.
”First, you never expected that the whole area would be examined more than ten kilometers away including the valley, I found a hole that was camouflages not far from their camp, there were obvious signs of a struggle when it was brought back, through careful examinations, on the body of the fat one's I discovered his injuries were spikes made from a tree bark.”
”Couldn't...been his.”
Taking another bottle, he tore the seal and took a sip and smiled but it made his skin crawl.
”There was a digging tool but it was buried deep in the cave, so why go through the trouble of hiding the shovel after it's use, they could have just left it near the entrance.”
'Shit, there was another one hidden, guess I should have broken the one I had.'
He can't complain about his mistake now, all he can do is deny the logic and twist the facts a little, but before he can say anything another response was followed.
”Second, I saw signs of blood all over the ground, that means there was a fight that broke out. I know for a fact the beast was strong enough to tear of the other one's legs off from a swipe, but the problem was not that.”
He paused to have a drink, then spat on the ground.
”When you get to my line of work, you would pick a habit on breaking down on how a fight broke out, but this time it was strange.”
”There were some blood stain's that showed he was attacked from behind. I also found out the projectiles were not made by a spear but from a small rock, so it proved that a third party and not a beast was involved.”
”The spears covered in blood were left behind and made it look like the injuries were due to it, then used in the fight between these two first, then the beast followed in the assault.”
”I suspect that the scene was done by a beast and you were the instigator, and the evidence that clarifies my findings, is because of your careless.”
Taking a huge gulps of the bottle, he gave a meaningful grin like he found his greatest discovery by piecing together all the clues.
”You didn't know about their background, so it left a huge loophole in your little scenario. I don't know whatbeast you used cause I found numerous footprints that looked like wolves, so I'm still skeptical if you did own one.”
'That's because I didn't use one.'
He planed to go back and use some blood of the wolves, but with the time limit of the slave market, he put it on hold and just tampered it.
Dusk was a familiar with a strange body structure, unlike a normal body where it had a natural shape liquids, Dusk was similar to air so it also had no actual weight, which includes no sound can be made when he moves.
If there was not enough material, then Dusk would break apart, like a wall of sand collided by an object.
When needed his body would harden, an example would be when he is holding an object, his entire arm is not solidified but only the hand, so when it attacks it's claws harden.
Since his body is entirely hollow some parts like the legs will fill out the hollow parts, if needed it can even float without it's legs, but Stigma was still not aware of it as he relied on him being an actual being.
After hearing his entire explanation, Stigma had time to recover his breathing, but he had an idea so he continued with questions that have been bugging him.