Retzen looked in utter confusion at the cooked fish on skewers she was given to distribute among her peers. "What even is happening?" She whispered more for herself than anyone else.

Her growling gut made her frustration intensify as she passed the skewers to the others while she kept one as she began biting down on the flesh of the cooked creature.

"R-retzen. What are we going to do?" One of the Hay-yen asked hushed as he held one of the skewers, his form clearly showing his nervousness.

"What do you mean, Puk? We'll kill it." She said plainly.

"B-but... can we even? There's twelve of us and it isn't afraid. No running. No screaming. Nothing. This daeman just said t-that he wants us to eat so we can fight it properly. It doesn't even look concerned. Can we beat it? It is vile, violent and shameless. Look how lecherous it is!" Another voice whispered as it betrayed its nervousness.

In the background the daeman could be seen cooking more fish with Vodra and Nushii. His hands touching and groping all over as he kept shoving his face into the two's ears.

"It even knows how sensitive our ears are. Devourer only knows what its done to them." Another whispered flustered.

Retzen listened to the concerns of those around her as more and more doubt grew in her gut.

Meanwhile Michael had been whispering to Nushii and Vodra as they were cooking.

"Oh... so that is what you were doing. Huh. It really confused me." Nushii said in a low tone.

"Took you long enough to catch on." Vodra grunted annoyed.

"I am really walking on thin ice here. If I can't scare the shit out of them we're in trouble. I got some of Woh's poison on me and I can maybe attempt to cast a speeding spell that if I don't use too long it won't hurt me, but even then... my body is a damn mess and I don't think I'll be able to do much. Man... this looks so ugly I'm surprised you two didn't turn on me and tried to help them." The young human groaned while gutting a different fish.

"Now that is stupid. As if I'd betray the place that has been taking care of me better than my own kin did all my life as a pup." Vodra said shaking her head.

"Yeah. Plus if not for you, we'd not be able to listen to music." Nushii added as she huffed agreeing. She then took a moment to think, which left Vodra and Michael speechless as they waited for their companion's expression to clear up. "So... we're just looking to scare them enough to where they won't want to fight? I think i can help with that."

"You've got something in mind?" Michael said curious at what Nushii could cook up, she hasn't seen her to be the type adept at deceit.

The usually air head Hay-yen let out a loud cackle and out of nowhere she gave the side of Michael's neck and face a big ol' lick. Afterwards she wrapped her long arms around his right one. "Mi- ahster. Could you possibly leave Retzen to live? She's my cousin and it would make me feel less lonely. You don't have to kill ALL of them, right?" She said cheerfully while pushing her snout against his neck.

Taking just a moment to recover from the sudden gesture the young man looked back and made eye contact with Retzen. "Leave one alive?" He said indignant before looking at Nushii and then after a moment longer he sighed. "Fine. I can't say no to one of my two favourite snuggle pups. But we can't risk her doing something bad so i'll have to break plenty a bone so she can't move for a while. It falls on you to take care of her." He replied as casually as a parent would when asked if they could get a pet.

Retzen nearly choked on her fish as she heard the answer, the sheer casual tone used to say something so horrific like it was nothing. The Hay-yen paused for a moment, but realizing the others had stopped to stare at her reaction made her bite her tongue. 'They're already having doubts about this fight, it is only one of it. We are certain to win this.'

'Yeah~... How bad could the casualties be? This is the last of our Cackle. So what if we are reduced to even less? At least we'll have killed the beast. It would be worth the sacrifice.' A second thought popped into her mind, one that nearly sounded like a taunt from that monstrosity, but certainly it was her own as she thought it.

Retzen found herself staring at it and it got a glimpse of its eye once more, brown and black like a pit in the middle of a muddy field, ready to swallow you up. This type of pit is the kind where the hungriest of beasts would dwell, those that would tear you apart until not even scraps would remain. As her fur stood on the end of her skin, her body flinched when the daeman got up.

"It seems you are done, good. I am presuming you are ready then?" The young man said as he took his waterskin and drank from it.

'It will slaughter until it is content, taking a life is nothing more than a distraction to it.' Retzen's thoughts began whispering to her, as her fur just stood on a razor's edge. She stumbled to her feet while feeling her heart thudding against her ribcage harsher. "Yes daeman. W-we should be ready to butcher you and claim back your thralls."

"Perfect. You better warm up. I'll be takin' my poison until you're done." He said as he picked up his backpack up and pulled out a tiny vial out of it.

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At the mention of poison the ambushers clammored to their feet, some still finishing up their meal now spitting it out. "Agh-hah! You poisoned the food?! You lyin-" Before one of the Hay-yen that nearly choked on her final piece of meat finished yelling, Michael let out a giggle loud enough to take her back.

"Hahah! Hmm~ No no. Apologies. The poison is for me. You see I like to drink before a fight, but your alcohool is so... dull, here. I found myself enjoying sips of Death Lover's poison." The young man then uncorked the bottle with a pop and took the shot of diluted poison as if it was a shot of tequila, even taking a moment to lick the vial's lip and make a spectacle of it.

Retzen's rationality screamed for it all being a ruse for the sake of intimidation, until the daeman began slowly turning pinker, his eyes having strands of crimson appear on the whites of it. This internal voice that couldn't accept what was happening as being reality, got quiet the moment the creature's nose leaked heavily with blood.

Michael huffed out the blood from his bursted nose capilaries and he then took a deep breath followed by a sigh of outmost satisfaction. "Let us start the fun! HAHAHA!" He yelled out with wide open arms. Still, his mind was racing with worry as he only had one shot at this. 'Better make it count. Either I'm dead or I get back alive to hear the others complaing that I'm not taking it easier.'

The Hay-yen began unsheating weapons but by this point most of them had unsteady hands and nervous figures, Retzen's own instincts screamed desperate for her to flee from this abominable freak of creation. By the time most of them got their bearings, they could hear a chanting.

Nushii and Vodra also stood up surprised at the chanting as they'd never seen the human do magic to ease his life nor did he seem to them as someone who could use it.

"Wind of winter, release your frozen hate. Let your typhoons howl and chase. Let us quickly reach our fate. Tundra Hunt!" There was a moment where nothing happened and Michael's heart nearly stopped dead until the grass around his bare feet began wilting and turning to ash. These ashes then began being picked up by an intense wind surrounding him. A toothy grin showed on his face as he looked at the uncertain Hay-yen before him. 'This is gonna be so much worse without dirt armor.' He sighed mentally as he then rushed off at his attackers.

"Weapons ready!" Retzen yelled as she looked at the charging daeman, the command being followed by the others as fast as possible.

As the monster charged at them with a speed higher than theirs, the ones at the front of the unco-ordinated formation threw daggers in his path. The flying pieces of metal had found no target as the bloody speeding daeman made a sudden turn and charged around their whole formation until he reached the back of it, where a few of them had readied bows and arrows instead.

Michael would get flashes in his mind of the undead behemoth as he flanked the group, his legs shooting sharp pains up his spine despite the numbing of the poison. These pains were so bad they might have as well been the pain he felt back when his legs where broken by the oozing puppet, just now surfacing to remind him of that crippling experience.

'Gotta fill them with that same dread. Punching won't do.' He thought as he began charging straight for one of the archers. As he got closer and closer, close enough to see the Hay-yen woman fumble to take a dagger out, the young man leaned down and forward as if ready to impact a fist into her, only for him to pass right by her, a hand reaching back and holding onto a fist full of the archer's nape fur.

Michael continued his dash while dragging behind him the Hay-yen woman onto the grass, rock and dirt, putting all his strength simply onto holding on and running. He began zig-zagging around the clearing as to avoid the projectiles shot at him. As he kept moving he could hear tortuted yelps of pain from his victim way louder than the cackles and barks of the others chasing after him as they attempted to land a hit.

The whole chase then ceased at the edge of the clearing where he held his hostage up inbetween himself and the group of eleven following, Nushii and Vodra in tow of them.

"Hah... NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A BATTLEFIELD! This can be declared a proper fight." He yelled up as his eyes looked at his victim's back with a grimacing yet satisfied nod. The Hay-yen in question hiccuped in pain her words coming out incoherent and as if she was in shock.

"Hah... T-this is no fight! You running coward bastard! Stop hiding behind a hostage and face us head on." She screamed out as a fraction of her courage had returned, emboldened by the lack of direct casualties.

"It indeed wasn't. I had to prepare the field first didn't I?" He exclaimed back as he then slammed his victim face first into a tree. Exposing her back to the others. Her middle and lower back as well as a bit of the area above the base of the tail had been torn baren of the previous clothing and armor. In fact those areas had been shaved brutally of any fur and even top layers of skin, leaving behind torn flesh mixed with grass, mud and rocks, bleeding and bare.

Retzen and her followers paused for a moment in horror, a moment long enough for Michael to give the wounded Hay-yen a slap on her skinned back and laugh as the action ripped a desperate howl of pain from her. "Looking behind you. It is not a battle field where the blood lingers on the soil to feed the ground? Mayhaps it is not enough? Another one or two would suffice to make it proper?" He asked as he licked the blood on his palm while awaiting an answer.

Some of the Hay-yen peeked behind them only to let out terrified shrieks upon seeing the main zig-zagging line of blood along the ground and the surrounding grass covered in a light morning dew of crimson. It looked akin to a morbid grain field, plowed and watered, ready for a harvest of gore to be planted.

"I-i can't do this! I give up! P-please spare me!" A voice sounded out crying and whining. This initial cry of fear was echoed by several others and as the cries multiplied so did the amount of people dropping their blades.

Part through this symphony of terror, Retzen looked back only for her too to see the field laid as if for her kin's corpses to be cultivated upon it. Her weapons slid from her hands before she knew it, her digits grasping at handles that weren't there anymore.

As the words of surrender were forming in her mind and her voice was about to utter them she felt a hand grasping her wrist and voice most kind rang out questioning. "Hey. What are you doing? Are you alright?"

As she turned her head she now saw the daeman holding her wrist lightly and looking at her puzzled. "H-huh?" She questioned back with her voice dying in her throat as her heart beat got louder than any other sound.

Michael picked up her short sword and put it back inbetween her digits, closing them around the handle tightly. He then looked back at her with his eyes like deep muddy pits of doom and he said sweetly. "Tell them to fight until the bitter end, yeah?"

That was the last thing Retzen saw before her legs gave under her due to the sheer shock of the endevour, a void of black unconciousness hitting her mind as her body crumpled fainting.