“Fucking hell, it feels like we’ve already searched this whole damn place. Are we even sure that that whore’s grave is marked? We should just come back in the morning.”

“Oh, and do you want to be the one to explain why we don’t have any results to Sir Gauteron?”

“Fuck you, I’m just saying.”

“Well say less. You know we don’t have much of a—.”

The words of the two men came to a grinding halt as they laid eyes on a silhouette flickering in the night. They could barely make him out even though he was just five or so meters ahead. If it wasn’t because the moon was full and one of them was holding up a lantern, they might have needed to travel another meter or two before realizing that something was wrong.

Leonidas stood facing the two of them, both his hands wrapped around his rusted butter knife and his mother’s grave right to his back.

He had refused to allow them the opportunity to desecrate his mother’s corpse. But, by the time he managed to drag his body to the cliff’s edge and back, they were already upon him. At this point, he had no choice but to face them both.

“Hohoho, well look what we have here.”

“I didn’t think that Sir Gauteron would actually be right. This little son of a whore actually was here. If he had any smarts, he would have just let it be and run away from town.”

The two men weren’t actually dressed much better than Leonidas, it could just be said that their clothing was much newer and cleaner. Still, it was the same rough linen pants and shirt.

Unlike, Leonidas, though, neither of them had a rope around their waists. As for why that was, Leonidas was sure that those with the most active imaginations could understand considering their line of work.

Neither of the two was very tall in stature. In fact, both of them were shorter than Leonidas. The difference was that both of them were well-fed and healthy.

This point wouldn’t be enough to shake Leonidas if it wasn’t for the pair of iron shovels the both of them were wielding. Those two things alone were more of a danger to Leonidas than any physical fitness these two might have.

Leonidas didn’t say a word as the two approached closer, his grip on his rusted butter knife only growing firmer.

When the two were about three meters away, they seemed to finally notice the ‘weapon’ in his hand. After a stunned moment, they erupted into a fit of laughter.

“I’m dying, Bennett, look at this shit. You can’t even use that knife to cut cold butter, what do you plan on doing with it, exactly?”

The two keeled over, not taking Leonidas seriously in the slightest. They seemed to be trying to do their best just to remain upright.

Leonidas’ grip tightened.

His instincts were screaming at him. He knew that this was the best time to attack, but he didn’t dare to move from his position. It wasn’t out of fear but rather because he knew his own weaknesses well. He was simply too slow.

Even to a well-trained fighter, three meters wasn’t a small distance. It would take at least two steps. In that time, there was plenty of opportunity to react.

If even a skilled fighter had to be wary of such an odd distance – not too far and not too close – Leonidas was in an even worse position. If he tried to cross this distance, he would need at least four steps. By then, he’d be dealing with an assault of iron shovels.

The two men, one Bennett and the other Lacroix, wiped their tears away, looking up.

“Tsk, tsk. I think he’s scared Lacroix. Such a good chance and he didn’t even make a move.”

“I don’t know what you expected from the son of a whore. Did you think he was an actual threat?”

The two sneered, taking a step forward.

“Be obedient, little boy,” Lacroix spoke with disdain.

He let his iron shovel drag along the ground. A clear metallic hum sounded as it clanged against the burnt remains of the trees.

Leonidas didn’t move a single inch.

Lacroix looked back. “What do you think, Bennett? Is he too frozen in fear?”

Lacroix didn’t even wait for Bennett to answer before he suddenly snapped his head back and swung his shovel at Leonidas’ head with all the strength he could muster.

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Televising his movements? Giving a warning? Giving Leonidas time to prepare?

These two had seen too much of the world. They knew that a cornered beast was the most dangerous. Even against such a weak, pathetic excuse for a man, they had no intention of not taking every advantage that they could get.

As expected, Leonidas didn’t have a single chance to react. The shovel smashed against the side of his face, distorting his countenance and bursting his cheek and temple into a rain of blood.

However, Leonidas didn’t feel this immediately.

First it was just a searing heat. Then came the ringing in his ears, instantly deafening him on one side. Only then did the burst of pain and hot blood come.

Leonidas stumbled, his knees growing weak. He felt his brain reverberating through his skull, throwing his senses into disarray.

“Fuck, this little bastard has a thick skull.”

“Haha! You didn’t know? I heard his whore mother made sweet love to a Lower Ogre.”

“No way? Fuck! No wonder! I guess you’d need a cock that big to get her to feel something.”

The two burst into another fit of laughter.

Leonidas was completely disoriented. His steps stumbled, his body falling to a single knee completely out of his control.

“Let’s end this bullshit, I still haven’t eaten dinner. My warm bed is still waiting for me.”

Bennett tossed the lantern to Lacroix and took a step forward, raising his own shovel high up with two hands.

“Make sure not to kill him. I’m sure Sir Gauteron would love a taste before doing him in.”

Bennett snickered. “Not a problem. With his thick skull, he can take a bash or two.”

With another step forward, Bennett entered range, swinging down with far more force than Lacroix had managed to produce in surprise just moments ago.

His aim? The top of Leonidas’ head.

It was exactly at that moment that Bennett felt something trip his feet up. As he fell forward, his gaze subconsciously shifted downward to find that Leonidas’ tail had snaked around from his back to land in the way of his foot’s landing spot.

Bennett fell forward, his shovel still swinging down. But, in a reflexive movement to catch himself, it veered off course, smashing into Leonidas’ shoulder.

Lacroix didn’t have time to react once Bennett slipped forward. Before he could even register what was happening, Bennett was falling face-first toward Leonidas.

But, it was exactly at that point that Leonidas fell to the side. Not trusting his body to move, he simply threw himself, mustering up whatever coordination he had to frantically push himself out of the way.

At the same time, Leonidas tail pushed upward against Bennett’s shin, forcing him to stay off balance.

Bennett reached out with his hands in an attempt to hold himself up, but in a state of absolute panic, he hit nothing but air. His eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization. There was a long and narrow six-foot-deep hole behind Leonidas.

“Ah!” Bennett slipped and fell into the hole, rolling over Leonidas’ body.

But, that was when a shout that was little more than surprised turned into one of horrible, blood-curdling pain.

‘Yes!’ Leonidas roared in his mind.

In his time crunch, he had only managed to pull out three narrow tree trunks to plant at the bottom of the hole. Thanks to his long tail, he didn’t need to climb down personally to succeed.

However, three was nowhere near enough to guarantee impaling Bennett. Leonidas could only hope and pray that things worked out. And, luckily, due to the long and narrow nature of a grave, perfectly suited for the size of one petite woman, Bennett wasn’t lucky enough to miss them.

It could be said that Leonidas had lucked out greatly. The only shame was that Bennett had fallen along with his shovel, leaving Leonidas with no other weapons to take advantage of.

Still, Leonidas tightly clung to his rusted butterknife, never having let go of it from the very beginning.

The screams of Bennett echoed through the night as Lacroix’s eyes widened. What just happened? How had the situation suddenly changed?

Lacroix raised the lantern Bennett had tossed to him up high. Only then did he realize that the little bastard had actually not been moving so that he could hide the gravesite behind him.

“… You little son of a bitch…”

Hearing Bennett’s wails, Lacroix was certain that it wasn’t just a simple fall. If Bennett was unlucky enough, a six-foot fall would at most cause a small fracture, it definitely wasn’t anything to be screaming like this about.

Thinking to this point, Lacroix was already certain that Bennett had been impaled by something. And, judging by the sound of it, it definitely wasn’t a clean pierce.

Lacroix understood Leonidas’ situation better than almost anyone else. There was no way this bastard could afford a sharp weapon, even affording a shovel was definitely beyond him. That meant that the only thing he could have used was…

Lacroix shivered, his jaw clenching. Bennett had actually been impaled by one of these burnt tree trunks. Lacroix couldn’t even imagine the pain he was in right now. He could forget about climbing out of that hole on his own.

With slow movements, his eyes never leaving the struggling-to-stand Leonidas, Lacroix set the lantern down, a sneer slowly etching itself across his face.

Now that he knew what happened, was there even a need to still be afraid?

Lacroix dashed forward, raising his arms up to take a swing at Leonidas. However, he soon found a familiar, thick and long red tail in his path.

Lacroix couldn’t help but frown. He didn’t feel comfortable stepping anywhere near that tail. It made him feel as though he was entering Leonidas’ domain. He had simply never seen a Half-Beast tail long enough to wrap around from the back to the front like this and still lay so comfortably on the floor.

However, just because Lacroix was hesitant to move forward, didn’t mean that Leonidas also was.

Even though his movements were slow and sluggish, there was only a single step that separated the two men to begin with. Even for Leonidas, this distance was all too short.

As though he was using his tail as bait, Leonidas swept it forward like a barrier while simultaneously lunging at Lacroix with his rusted butterknife.

“Dammit.”

Lacroix was just a butler. Though his fighting skills were barely passable as he had once been trained as a squire, he had never been close to becoming a Knight, Paladin, and definitely not even in the stratosphere of an Apostle.

In the end, he could only fall backward as he swung his shovel toward Leonidas’ head. But, what Lacroix had never expected was for Leonidas to have no intention of dodging in the first place.

Leonidas’ head was spinning, his vision and hearing distorting. He could barely make out the shadow of Lacroix’s figure to begin with, but now it was even more difficult. Something like tactics or dodging wasn’t even on his mind. He only had a single, burning desire. A will that scorched his blood and made his heart thump.

He had to survive.