"Whee-ooh~! Your skills remained.”

As Bloody whistled and clapped, Mac smiled and nocked an arrow on his bow.

"Of course, despite how I look, I’m called the best archer in our village. My view isn’t obstructed, and it's only a distance of about 2 kilometers, so it’s not that hard.”

Bloody smirked as Mac acted smug.

"That's funny, I wonder who taught you to shoot the bow.”

"Yes, yes, it was my elder brother, Bloody, the has-been who gave up on the bow for more than a decade. Ouch!"

As Mac acted up, Bloody smacked him.

"I’m not a has-been. And from what I can see, you still have a ways to go. Oh, he’s coming this way." Mac laughed playful at Capricorn running this way, emitting large amounts of killing intent

"Wow, I can feel the killing intent from all the way here? Don't you think it feels like we've just met our archenemy or something?" Mac said.

Bloody pulled out his sword leisurely. "It's nothing much. I killed his younger brother."

"Oh, is that so?" Bloody casually remarked.

Mac also nodded just as casually. "By the way, did you give him a funeral?"

"Of course. Arcanta wanted to put his head on a pike as an example for others, but I forced him to let me give a proper burial."

Unlike the older brother, the younger brother was pleasant and fun to fight. If it weren't for the older brother, the younger brother could have easily lived, but Bloody felt sorry that he chose to die to save his stupid older brother.

"Does that older brother know that?" Mac asked.

Bloody shrugged lightly. "He probably doesn’t know?”

"No, don't you have to tell him that?" Mac looked at him dumbfounded.

Bloody grumbled that it couldn't be helped.

"Arcanta put someone else’s head on a pike instead of his younger brother's, but he got fooled by it and came charging in, then got angry that he got fooled by it and didn’t listen to me. What could I do?"

Bloody added while surrounding his sword in a strong aura. "And he's gonna die by my hands anyway."

Seeing Bloody smile, Mac sighed.

"Yep, please just do as you will.”

Mac shot an arrow at the sprinting Capricorn’s forehead. The latter struck the arrow with his sword covered in a strong aura.

"Then I'll take the fallen old man over there to Little Miss.” He put the bow over his shoulder and said he would take Marsen to Leisha.

Bloody nodded. "Yeah, it’ll be a pain in the neck if that old man dies. Well, he is such a strong guy that I don't think he'll die even if we leave him alone.”

"Hahaha, is that so?"

Mac laughed, but Bloody meant it. He wondered if such a monster like Marsen would die from just a hole in his stomach and shoulder. Bloody was sure that Marsen probably could have run away even if Mac hadn't interfered with Capricorn with an arrow.

"Hurry and come back."

"It’s a little bothersome, do I have to come back? Or, why don't you hand the man in the mask over to me? It's been a while since I've had a good fight.” Mac gazed at Capricorn.

Bloody simply waved his hand like swatting away a fly. "Shoo! Shoo! Don’t try to take my prey."

"Tch, so petty,” Mac grumbled and diverted from Capricorn's direction.

Capricorn ignored Mac as if he could only see Bloody and ran straight for him.

"BLOODY!!"

"Come!"

Bloody launched an aura blade at Capricorn running at him. The latter jumped over the aura blade and hit him with all his might. 

Kang!

Bloody used his sword to block and applied force to his feet to diffuse the impact.

Cra-cra-crack!

Consequently, the shock was delivered to the building where he was stepping on with his feet, causing cracks and its collapse.

When the four-story building collapsed, Bloody and Capricorn stepped on the debris of the falling building and swung swords at each other.

Kang!

As Capricorn quickly went after Bloody's neck, Bloody struck away Capricorn's sword and aimed a kick at his chest. Capricorn blocked Bloody's kick with his left hand without a sword and kicked a fragment of the building to increase the distance from Bloody. Then he blew dozens of sword auras at Bloody.

"Ootcha!"

Bloody smiled joyfully and jumped high on the falling debris of the building, avoiding the sword auras. Then, he launched a huge strong aura aiming for Capricorn. Rather than responding to the strong aura, the other flew to the side to avoid it.

Kwang!

When Bloody's strong aura hit the ground, a huge dust cloud rose. After the building completely collapsed, Bloody, who had leaped high, landed into the dust cloud. With no visibility at all, Bloody quickly turned around and swung his sword.

Kang!

As the sound of swords hitting and a spark splashed, Capricorn clicked his tongue.

"Tch, you've got good instincts!"

Bloody smiled cheekily and said, "Ahahaha! My good instincts are a tribe trait like how the Hunter Tribe has a good sense of smell!"

It was thanks to his sense of smell that Capricorn was able to attack Bloody accurately even in the dust cloud with no visibility.

Their swords clashed several times, but others could only see bluish light from sword auras clashing from the outside due to the thick dust cloud. Bloody produced a sword wind and blew away the distracting dust. Suddenly, when visibility returned, Capricorn attacked more fiercely.

When Capricorn stabbed at Bloody's chin, he moved back to dodge, then stepped on Capricorn's foot and threw a knee kick.

"Keuk!"

Capricorn, whose foot had been stepped on and could not avoid it, had no choice but to block it with his left hand. Feeling the strain on his left wrist against the strong power unique to the Crow Tribe, he directly brought down the sword that was aiming for Bloody’s jaw.

Bloody quickly stepped back and avoided the sword. Then he launched a strong aura straight away.

Without a chance to dodge, Capricorn wrapped his sword that was swung downwards in a strong aura and struck upwards against the strong aura flying towards him.

Kaang-!

As one strong aura and another strong aura collided, it created intense sparks. Perhaps because it was done in haste, Capricorn’s sword could not withstand Bloody’s strong aura, breaking in half.

"Just obediently surrender. If you surrender now, I'll consider your younger brother and let you keep your life. Well, although you'll rot in prison for the rest of your life."

"You bastard!"

At Bloody's provocation, Capricorn threw the broken sword to the ground in frustration. Then he took off and threw his mask.

"I can never forgive someone like you-!”

At the same time that Capricorn shouted full of hatred, his body writhed and thick fur grew from all over his body.

Bloody rolled up his sleeves and quickly grabbed the unsealing magic tool from his pocket and released his seal.

When Capricorn’s appearance turned into a wolf with a completely golden-green mane, he released an aura at a completely different level from before.

"Krrrrrrr-!"

Bloody, who had been unsealed, felt refreshed with the activation of his martial arts for the first time in a long while.

"All right, now we can really fight!"

The half wild-eyed Capricorn growled and revealed his bloody claws on both limbs.

"I will honor your brother's soul, a great warrior of the Green Mane Tribe, with your blood!"[1]

"Ahahaha! Try it if you can! I'll see how much you've improved!"

The two rushed towards each other.

-o-

Mac smacked his lips when he saw the building, which had been perfectly fine before, collapse.

"That looks like fun. Tch, petty elder brother. I want to fight, too."

Mac grumbled as he approached Marsen, who was sitting leaning against the collapsing building.

As Mac approached, Marsen grabbed his sword.

"Whoa, I'm not an enemy. Well, I do want to fight with Old Man-nim, but I don't have a hobby of fighting with injured people.”

Marsen laid down his sword when he saw Mac joke and raised his hands while smiling.

"Are you a Crow?"

"Oh? How did you know?”

"I can sniff the scent of martial arts from you," Marsen said.

Mac sniffed the smell from his body. "Is it possible to even distinguish that? Wow, you totally have a dog’s nose.” He was amazed

Marsen laughed bitterly. "You don't smell it with your sense of smell. It's something you know with your heart. Cough!" He vomited blood

Mac approached him and laid him on the ground. "Well, let's first do some first aid.” He took herbs and bandages out of his pocket.

"Haha, the first aid of the Crows is credible. When the magicians, Wayne and Arpen, were not around, I got a lot of treatment from Galak."

"Ahaha, I can't believe Old Man-nim who’s so self-centered treated others." Mac smiled and undressed the other to see the injured area.

"Right, I always had to spar with him as the price for treatment when he was done. Even though I was a patient. Ugh, there’s nothing, cough! He won’t do."

"Hahaha, that does sound like Galak Old Man-nim. Oh, don't keep talking. If you keep talking about the past, it’ll seem like your life is flashing by before your eyes," he said mischievously.

Marsen smirked. As Mac was trying to stop the bleeding from the wounds with herbs, a small glass bottle rolled down from Marsen’s clothes.

"Huh? Where did you get this?"

The bottle that Mac picked up was a healing potion that Den had given Marsen. "Someone I know gave it to me to use. Why?"

"Well, I think that someone is someone I know too.”

As Mac shook the glass bottle, Marsen looked at him curiously.

"I’m sure you know the person. He's from the same town."

"Ahahaha! That's right. We know each other well.”

Mac nodded with a smile. Then he pulled out the cork from the glass bottle.

"It hurts like crazy when you use this potion, but it works crazy well.”

"Wait! There's someone who needs that potion."

Mac was confused when Marsen raised his hand and refused.

"Is that person seriously injured?"

"No, I don't know about that, but he could be hurt." Marsen’s tone was serious.

Mac nodded solemnly. "I see. All right. Then I won't use it."

After saying so, when Marsen felt reassured, Mac poured the potion on his wounds.

"Arghhhhhh!!” Marsen screamed at the pain from the wound.

"Iya! So loud!" Mac clapped with a joyful face.

"Keuk! It hurts, you punk! What did you do?! You said you weren't going to use it!” He protested.

Mac smiled playfully and shrugged. "I didn't say who I wouldn't use it on. And who else would I use it for if not the man with a hole in his belly?"

"Keuuuuu!" Marsen struggled with the pain of his wounds recovering quickly.

"But why is someone like you from the Fairy Tribe delegation fighting so brilliantly in the middle of the capital?” asked Mac.

Marsen touched his pierced shoulder and stomach and raised himself. The holes in the stomach and shoulders had already healed.

"There’s no time to explain. If you're going to follow me, come, if not, then don't."

Mac smiled cheerfully as he saw Marsen leading the way. "Iya, it looks like fun, so of course I'll have to follow."

Mac followed the man to where Palamut was being held.

-o-

After joining up with Tristan and Caradoc, I looked at the temple that Palamut was being held in.

"He's been held there?" I asked.

The two confirmed at the same time. 

"Yes, that is correct."

"Yep, that’s right."

At my urgings, the Fairy knights and the Black Water Buffalo Knights should be scattering and searching around here. My plan was to deal with the kidnappers inside first, leave only Palamut, then encourage the rescue team to find the Khan.

"There was nothing strange, was there?”

Caradoc answered my question. 

"There was not."

"All right, Caradoc, keep a lookout from nearby, and Tristan, go to Marsen just in case. There was fierce fighting until just now, but since it’s quiet now, the victor must have been determined."

Both of them nodded at the same time.

“I receive your orders.” 

“Then, I'll be back.”

Tristan headed to where Marsen was and I pulled a white half-mask from my pocket space for the first time in a while.

"It’s time for Lupin to make an appearance!"