While the men were busy playing cards and talking in the cabin, a sound distracted one of them.

A rushed knock on the door, one that couldn’t have been heard if he was anywhere farther from it.

“For Aurora's mercy, don’t tell me Marcus forgot to take his torch with him.”

"Marcus did y-"

Opening the door, the person in front of him was not who he expected to be.

Before him was a short human girl with voluminous red hair, her alluring flagrance permeating in the room.

“Are you just going to stand there staring? A wonderful lady such as myself does not belong in the rain.”

Unable to speak, the man quickly gave the woman a path into the cabin.

“Of course, please come in.”

An indecent smile played across her face as she stepped inside the hut.

"What’s your name?"

With a bell-like voice, she replied. "You may address me as Lucretia Umbra."

“Lady Lucretia huh? Your types are rarely seen outside the Royal Capital. ”

Lucretia wore exquisite clothing that matched the dark color of her eyes. Her dress was backless and decorated by various emeralds fastened to her skirt. The jewels enriching Lucretia’s figure were all of such fine craftsmanship that anyone there could tell they were incredibly expensive at a glance.

“My types…? Oh yes, you assume correctly. I wouldn’t be here if the matter wasn’t of utmost urgency. This leads me to my question… ”

“Hey, ye lads hear this girl? She got a question for us. ”

In a matter of seconds, all the men who were talking to each other now looked at Lucretia. Her whitish breasts stood out in that black dress as if it were almost transparent.

And gazes were what these men had the most. Bound on the edge with the Melkor Theocracy for more than three months, these men were all a long way from home. A girl of that caliber knocking on their door at this time of night was undoubtedly a gift from the gods.

In a voice so low that no man could hear it, Lucretia was counting.

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen." Looking away through the window, she concluded.

Sixteen.

“Who is the most distinguished man among you? I’d like to speak to him. ”

Crossing his arms, the soldier looked suspiciously at how to answer the beautiful noblewoman intelligently. Although his mind was still recovering from the beauty in front of him, he couldn't think of anything to say other than the purest truth.

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"I guess that would be Commander Hubert, he’s the highest-ranking soldier in our Company, all in all still a Disciple of Ignis."

Noticing that all the guards turned their eyes scanning the room for a specific presence nowhere to be found, she judged that she had all the information she needed. In other words, every man inside the cabin was of no use to her.

"Where is your commander then?"

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him since noon,” Shrugging the doubt to the other men around him. "Anyone here knows?"

A brief silence was followed by the sounds of rain in the background, a reminder of the harsh weather that was only supposed to get worse tonight.

"I think he went off with Marcus." Another one added.

Nodding, Lucretia thanked the men and turned toward the exit.

However, the moment she decided to leave the room, the man stepped in front of the door.

“The weather is really bad outside, perhaps you should wait for the rain to ease a little.”

“Besides, a beautiful woman such as yourself shouldn’t be walking by yourself at this time in the night, who knows what type of people you can find out there?”

Where previously there was a man in front of the door, there were now two. The impression that Lucretia had was that the cabin had suddenly shrunk. She was not seeing things, the men who were across the room playing cards were now approaching, forming a circle around her.

“You are very pretty,” One of them said. "Fancy some wine?"

“I'm okay, thanks. I appreciate all of you gathering here for me, but I can handle myself just fine. ”

A few of the men exchanged gazes amongst each other and nodded.

“Heh. I don’t think you understand what’s going on here lady.”

Suddenly, she was surrounded by men who were twice her size. A fragile girl would have no chance of resisting the advances of robust men with a forcefully attitude.

“Don’t worry, if you don’t wiggle around and let us have our way you won’t get hurt. I promise not to leave any scars on you.”

A guard who happened to be standing in front of Lucretia reached out an arm for her bulky chest. Then — it fell to the ground.

"Please don’t touch me with your filthy hands."

He gaped at his arm, now missing everything past his wrist, and let out a late scream.

"Ahhh! M-my hand!”

“I decided to give you boys the benefit of the doubt. I thought I was getting a warm welcome from you all, unfortunately, I was mistaken.” Lucretia said quietly.

“For five hundred years you have been like this, and for five hundred years you have let me down. When will men learn how to treat a woman properly?”

"My haaaand!" Blood stained the floor as the man kept yelling in pain.

“You are a soldier, you are expected to be expendable, and yet you act surprised when death comes for you. That is truly disgraceful!”

As Lucretia nonchalantly waved her hand forward, the man’s head thudded to the ground.

“Well, this is a bore. I think I had enough fun playing with these, they failed my test yet again… Tsk. Tsk.”

Placing a hand between her breasts, she pulled out a fan and started fanning herself as if the other thirteen men in the room were not a threat.

"Ulrik, you can take it from here while I go and have a chat with their commander."

The soldiers had not noticed but Lucretia had already entered the cabin with her partner. However, as there was no soldier capable of tapping the elemental and detecting a shadow-affinity user hidden from the untrained eye—It seemed to them that the red-haired girl was talking to herself.

From behind two of them, a bipedal figure eleven feet tall—and its intent on killing materialized. Acting without warning and with only his giant claw-like fists — he punched soldiers who were swimming in fear. Their helmets were crushed in contact with the sudden shock, their skulls were broken and their fragile bodies flew across the room like helpless animals.

Human arms and legs were being torn off as if they were made from paper. Heads were being gripped between two hands and burst like pomegranates. Heavy armor that was supposed to give protection were doing nothing but slowing down their escape from that hellish cabin.

The sound of men screaming for their lives was being drowned out by the rain until there was nothing left to be heard.