Duncan exited the bed chambers of his Lord and walked down the hallway. He arrived at the staircase that led to the main door. The staircase was a beautiful area. When guests would enter through the front door, they would be welcomed by portraits and sculptures that hung across the walls and corners. Thanks to the money he received from his employers, Barco used half of it decorating his mansion.

The sculptures were beautifully crafted and thoughtfully placed. A chandelier hung from the open space down the stairs filled with sparkling jewels. The staircase itself was a two-way case. One on the right and one on the left.

Underneath the staircase was a door that led to the ballroom. This was where Barco would invite his fellow Barons that were near his territory.

The moment Duncan looked over the once beautiful stairway of the Barco mansion, gore was smeared all over the floor. Even though the carpet was a searing red, blood stains were still visible. The walls held blood stamps of hands that seemed to have been dragged across them.

Some of the blood smears were as if an artist had randomly thrown paint, trying to find inspiration. Below the staircase, lifeless bodies laid there, dismembered. Some had no heads while some were blown in half. One particular body hung on the chandelier as blood dripped down to the floor.

One word could describe this scene, harrowing. It was as if a mindless beast with no shred of empathy nor emotion had attacked the area. But no, all of this massacre had been done by a human.

There, amidst the pile of corpses stood a man. This man had one of the soldiers in his hand, squeezing the life out of him. The soldier squirmed and wiggled as he tried to remove the mountain’s hand from his neck. But the hand did not budge. In fact, it tightened even more as his neck snapped like a twig from a long dead tree.

“It seems another sheep has come out to play with the Big Bad Wolf.”

Duncan wasn’t startled by those words. Instead, he walked down the staircase calmly as he drew his sword.

“You are trespassing in a noble’s house. As by law, I’m allowed to execute you on the spot. State your name intruder.”

“Oh, how knight-y of you. But sadly, I haven’t come here for you. I do want to thank you though.” Said Dread as the corpse in his hands thuds the ground.

“Thank me? For what?”

“For becoming my plaything, of course. It seems like you’ll at least be able to last 20 seconds against me. Hence, I’m thanking you.”

Duncan paid those words no mind as he gripped his sword with both of his hands. He had met a ton of people like Dread. People who saw themselves as strong and were arrogant. Duncan wasn’t like that. Although he had grown strong over the years, he hadn’t bragged about it to others and instead focused on accomplishing his duties.

To him, Dread was just like all those who hadn’t become fully aware of just how vast the world was.

Mana radiated from his sword. A grin shot up on Dread’s face.

“Oh. I stand corrected. Make it 30 seconds.”

Not taking this insult anymore, Duncan charged at him. He swung his sword towards Dread, who easily dodged it. Dread smirked as he delivered a punch to the open Duncan. He dodged it by duking. Twisting his body as he was crouching down, he thrusts his sword at Dread’s face.

He dodges it by jumping out of the way gaining some distance. Duncan smiled in satisfaction.

“Is dodging the only thing you can do?” scoffed Duncan.

Veins popped on Dreads forehead. His eyes turned red. Enraged, he charged at Duncan like a deranged beast paying no heed to defence whatsoever. This was what Duncan was waiting for. He stirred out of the way as Dread trailed past him, followed by a gust of wind. He swung his sword down at Dread’s defenceless neck with all his strength. This was checkmate.

“Sike.”

Those words entered Duncan’s ears as his sword made contact with Dread’s neck. A sound of shattering glass echoed through the space as bits and pieces of Duncan’s sword went flying. A look of disbelief, shock and confusion shot up his face.

After all, his sword was imbued with mana. How the hell did it break? He wasn’t given time to fully contemplate what was going on. The enormous hand of Dread grasped Duncan’s wrist.

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“Did you really believe that I was going all out?” said Dread as a red aura emanated from his body.

He clenched his hand, snapping Duncan’s wrist.

“Aaaaarrgh.”

A scream of agonizing pain shot up the entire mansion. Dread grabbed the other wrist, crushing it too.

“Aaaaaarh.”

Duncan screamed out again. At that moment, he knew he had made a mistake because the person in front of him wasn’t human. No, he was a monster in human flesh who enjoyed the suffering of others. Duncan never stood a chance against him in the first place.

“Like I said. 30 seconds. Goodbye little sheep.” With a sinister grin on his face, Dread pulled his arms, ripping them off his body. Blood gushed out as screams of horror spread across the halls of the mansion.

Two titanic hands loomed over Duncan’s face as they slammed at him, crashing his entire face into paste. Blood sprayed onto Dread’s face, arms and body.

Dread stood there on the mountain of corpses before making his way up the stairs.

Outside the mansion, Zeke and the others stood there as corpses of soldiers surrounded them.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have given him this much freedom.” Said Zeke.

“You think.” Said Maeve.

“This guy really is like a child throwing a tantrum. I hope he doesn’t kill the Lord because that’ll give me a lot of work.”

Dread is one of the rare people who are able to use bloodlust to increase their strength just like one would with mana. But that’s not all, since he is also a mana user, he is able to combine them both. Doing that increases his strength to unimaginable heights.

For a person who is not a Barbarian, he is pretty good at it.

“It seems that there are rats spying on us. What should I do with them?” asked Maeve as she grabbed one of her pistons on the side of her waist.

“Leave them be. I want them to go report to their boss.”

“I see.”

The two shadows that have been spying on them disappeared from the roofs as the ran like crazy across the streets of Waham.

***

As Naomi was busy sitting in her newly built inn, she couldn’t do anything but think.

That bastard, kid. He’s basically driven almost half of the gang against me. They stopped notifying me on major decisions and they don’t even call me when they have meetings. Naomi slammed her fist on the counter. After everything I did for them. For this gang. Now they think they are all grown up. Stinking punks. Even Jasper is with them now. He keeps telling me that he hasn’t chosen a side yet but to me, it’s plain obvious.

The door of the inn was opened abruptly by a pair. They looked petrified. There was only Naomi in the inn. The other members that were loyal to her were all over the city, hidden in Naomi’s secret bases. Some were even to other cities, spreading their sphere of influence and info gathering. Irene was one of those people.

The pair were panting heavily. They seemed like they had just witnessed a horror show.

“What’s up with you too?” asked Naomi as she lifted her brow.

“B-boss. Something bad is going. People have just entered the city. They’ve massacred a lot of the soldiers and are now at the Lord’s mansion.”

A look of shock spread out of Naomi’s face. She calmed herself as she poured the pair something to wet their throats.

“Now, tell me the whole story.”

The pair started talking. They explained to Naomi about how the guards were murdered at gate. It turned out that it was the pair’s turn to watch the gate in the shadows. This was how Naomi always knew who entered the city. The pair also mentioned about how they followed the blood thirsty man and the wagon that was following behind him.

They witnessed the man as he massacred the guards in the mansion, sparing no one. Even when they ran away, even when they begged, he just smiled as he tore their bodies in half like a blood thirsty beast. After a few minutes, Naomi asked them.

“What was this man like? How was his built?”

“H-he was big. And intimidating. A word I can use to describe him is ‘monster’. A beast in human flesh.”

Sweat dripped down Naomi’s face as her heart pounded through her chest.

It’s not possible.

Naomi remembered some information she had gotten her hands on three months ago from her many contacts outside Waham. This information mentioned about a city that was two weeks away from the city of Waham by horse back. This was the city of Volis. The city of Volis was owned by a Baron just like the city of Waham.

The gang rate in the city of Volis was far worse than that of Waham. The information mentioned that one night, a massacre happened. A massacre so big and brutal that it left all its citizens shocked. The soldiers were all killed including the Lord of Volis.

Not only that, but the gangs that were around ten were reduced to only two. All the other eight gangs were destroyed and the surviving people of those gangs were absorbed by the two remaining gangs. The information didn’t mention anything about why the other two gangs remained standing but it did mention something shocking.

It was stated that a single individual was responsible for all those deaths. The man-beast, the wolf in human flesh, the monster, Dread the Berserker.

Why is that monster here?

Naomi knew exactly who Dread was. Despair sank in her heart as she started sweating a great deal.

“Are you alright, boss?”

“Tell everyone to pack everything up and meet at our ‘evacuation point’.”

“W-what do you mean boss?”

“NOW! We need to get out of Waham as quickly as possible.”

The pair were stunned. This was their first-time seeing Naomi scared. No, petrified. They both jumped from their sits and bolted. One of them stopped and turned to face Naomi.

“What about Raizer and the others?”

“I’ll go get them. You guys focus on spreading my order to every secret base that has our members. Go.”

Both exited as they sprinted through the streets.

What the fuck is he here for? Wait a minute.

As Naomi was deep in her thoughts, an image of Pops entered her mind.

Don’t tell me. Was he the one Pops was talking about? Then that means he is also the one who provided the East Alley Gang the weapons and later on, the North and South Alley Gang. Fuck. If its him then doesn’t this mean we messed with ‘that’ organisation.

After confirming what was really going on, she bolted out of the inn towards the main base of the West Alley Gang.