"Following your orders, we sent more than a dozen scout teams out over the past half hour. They swept everything within fifty kilometers of camp."
Dax paused. Something about the result was bothering him.
"And?"
Joren lifted an eyebrow.
"It was too clean."
Dax drew a breath before continuing.
"Forget high rank Voidbeasts. Even the low rank ones that normally crawl over every street disappeared all at once."
"It felt like every living thing in the area had received the same order to retreat."
"Or like something terrified them into running."
Alar cut in from the side.
"What else could it be? The Frontier Marshal split that Ironspike Dragon in half with one strike. Of course those beasts pissed themselves and fled."
"They finally realized Antares Command is serious this time. Why would any of them dare show their faces?"
The admiration on Alar’s face bordered on worship. He looked ready to carve the image of Joren killing the beast onto his own forehead.
Joren narrowed his eyes.
He did not believe some vague aura of supremacy had frightened every Voidbeast within fifty kilometers into hiding.
Beasts were fiercely territorial.
A retreat this large and this orderly meant only one thing.
Someone had arranged it.
Or rather, some beasts had.
"Clearing the field?"
Joren looked toward the deepest part of the Fallen Zone, where the darkness seemed almost solid.
It felt as though several enormous pairs of eyes were watching him from dozens of kilometers away.
So the big ones were making room for him.
"Interesting."
A smile appeared on his face.
"Pass down the order."
"The entire force advances."
At five in the morning, a convoy rolled along a highway in the core of the Fallen Zone with all the restraint of an invading army that had forgotten fear existed.
Broken asphalt cracked beneath the wheels as they headed toward an abandoned television tower that had once been one of the city’s landmarks.
"Screech!"
A bloated mutated Carrion Hound covered in pustules pushed half its head out from beneath a sewer cover. It had barely caught the scent of living flesh when a cold gleam crossed the night.
There was no warning.
No sound.
Its head burst into a cloud of blood.
Joren sat on the hood of the lead vehicle without even lifting his eyes. One finger curled slightly, and the bloodstained throwing knife traced a graceful arc through the air before slipping back into his sleeve.
[Ding! Early stage Rank One mutated Carrion Hound killed. Bloodstars obtained: 20.]
Joren clicked his tongue.
Not much.
Still, enough small gains would eventually become something worthwhile.
"So this is the core region?"
Disappointment filled his voice.
They had advanced nearly thirty kilometers and still had not encountered anything resembling resistance.
The few Voidbeasts foolish enough to appear were mostly Rank One or Rank Two trash, strays that had wandered into the wrong place and died the moment they showed themselves.
Including that dog, the entire journey had earned him fewer than three thousand Bloodstars.
"Something is wrong."
Kyo’s low voice came from behind him.
The strongest man in Norcrest sat cross legged on the roof of the armored vehicle, arms folded across his chest. His coat snapped in the wind.
He studied the silent ruins, fingers brushing absently over the stubble on his chin.
"It is far too quiet."
"By all reason, the three beast kings should have noticed us the moment we entered this region."
"Voidbeasts guard their territory obsessively. They would never tolerate intruders sleeping beside them."
"Even if they fear me too much to appear themselves, they should have driven their packs into suicidal attacks to drain our ammunition and wear us down."
Kyo’s voice grew heavier.
"But now..."
"It is as though every last one of them died."
"They have even opened a road for us."
He turned toward Joren.
"What do you think, kid?"
Joren flicked ash from his cigarette, amusement tugging at his mouth.
What was there to think about?
Those creatures might be beasts, but once they reached Rank Five, their intelligence was no worse than a human’s.
If anything, they were more cunning and far more suspicious.
Kyo looked ready to uncover some vast conspiracy at any moment, but Joren already understood the problem.
Put yourself in the beast kings’ place.
A human army barged into your home in the middle of the night, making enough noise to wake the dead.
A young man led them.
And behind that young man sat Kyo.
With a formation like that, only an idiot would not suspect a trap.
It was practically baiting them into an arrest.
Joren cleared his throat.
"Senior Kyo, this is actually easy to explain."
"Oh?"
Kyo raised an eyebrow.
"Go on."
"The three beast kings are intelligent."
Joren’s face became perfectly serious.
"They are simply afraid of you."
Kyo paused.
Joren pressed on before he could respond.
"Think about who you are."
"You are the Sirius Bureau of Norcrest, a peerless Half Step Rank Six expert."
"The moment you sit on top of this vehicle, that natural presence of a supreme warrior, that invincible pressure forged through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, spreads for hundreds of miles."
"You could make those Voidbeasts piss themselves from the other side of the horizon."
His arms moved as he spoke, his voice rising with every sentence.
"Before your divine might, what are a few beast kings?"
"Nothing but chickens and stray dogs."
"They sensed your presence and understood that showing themselves tonight would cost them their heads."
The praise came with flawless rhythm and apparent sincerity.
By the end, even Joren almost believed it.
Kyo stared at him.
He had heard plenty of flattery in his life.
This was different.
The angle was shameless, the wording strangely fresh, and somehow there was not a single obvious flaw to attack.
The tension gradually left Kyo’s brow.
His back straightened without conscious thought, and a restrained smile appeared on his face.
"Cough... There is no need to exaggerate."
He waved one hand, doing his best to sound indifferent. The pleasure at the corners of his eyes refused to cooperate.
"I may have earned a small reputation, but I have not reached the point where a glance can frighten beast kings away."
"Still..."
His tone shifted.
"If those three animals truly dare come here, I would not mind loosening their bones before leaving Norcrest."
Now that was confidence.
The bearing of a true expert.
Joren watched Kyo settle fully into the role and held back a laugh.
Then he sighed.
Kyo was enjoying himself too much to ignore it.
"What is that for? You have been killing everything in sight all night."
Joren answered with the solemn concern of a man carrying the fate of the city on his shoulders.
"Your overwhelming presence is a blessing, Senior."
"But for me, it creates a problem."
"As long as you remain here, every Voidbeast runs away."
Kyo considered it.
The kid had mobilized an enormous force tonight, only for all the prey to disappear because of him.
That was rather awkward.
"Then what do you suggest?"
The sharpness returned to Joren’s eyes.
He looked directly at Kyo and spoke each word clearly.
"If those three are frightened birds, then we need to hide the bow."
"For the safety of Norcrest, and so we can lure those cancers out and destroy them together..."
Joren suddenly clasped his fists and bowed.
"Senior, please return home!"