Leone thought to herself, "Where is he?" as she didn't sense Bane's presence behind her.

Upon spotting the enemies, she swiftly took a side route to reach the infiltrators. However, as she arrived below the cliff, she realised that Bane was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, good for me. It seems like I'll enjoy the hunt alone more," she thought to herself.

Unbeknownst to her, Bane had already arrived near the infiltrators.

When Leone reached the near infiltrators, she saw a masked person in front of her, his hands ripping out the vocal cord of one of the dozen infiltrators, while defending himself from the other assassins using his gauntlet.

Despite the dense bushes and rocks, she could discern that the masked person had already taken down four people, as she spotted their lifeless bodies lying on the ground.

Leone didn't hesitate to act as she swiftly engaged with the group attacking Bane. She punched a brown-skinned man's face, sending him hurtling backward. Without pause, she followed up with a kick to another assailant's gut, causing him to choke.

"How did you get here so fast?" Leone asked Bane, not minding the two attackers coming at her. She expertly avoided their attacks and promptly neutralized them by striking their groin, resulting in instant incapacitation.

"Jumped off the cliff and at the last moment dug my hands on the rocky surface near the end of it to halt my fall," Bane explained as he swiftly dispatched his opponent by stabbing him near the temple, ending his life instantly.

"You madman-. Oh wait, I can also use a similar tactic next time since I have these sharp claws," Leone remarked as she ducked to avoid a large sword aimed at her head. With a powerful jump, she landed on her opponent's shoulders and twisted his head, ending the large man's life.

"Hey, why have the people you killed earlier swelled up?" she asked curiously.

Bane explained, "It's the effect of poison I used on these people." However, he didn't elaborate on the specific types of poisons he employed.

Jörmungandr's ability allowed Bane to collect and utilise poisons from various danger beasts,he can collect a limited number of different types of poisions at a time, which he can even change later, with each having its unique effects. Some poisons had acidic properties, while others targeted specific diseases, as seen in how Bane saved Tatsumi's friend.

Despite its advantages, this ability had drawbacks. Jörmungandr utilised Bane's blood as a medium to produce poisons, meaning he couldn't generate an infinite amount of poison due to this limitation.

After surveying the corpses, Bane deduced, "These individuals are likely mercenaries from a southeastern tribe, hired by the imperial army to locate Night Raid's base." He observed their animal hide clothes, white turbans, distinct curved blades, and brown skin.

Leone nodded her head as she reassured, "They are skilled in fighting and infiltration, managing to bypass our traps without detection. However, Lubbock should have already detected them, and the entire Night Raid team is likely hunting them as we speak."

BOOMM!!

As an ear-deafening sound resounded, both Bane and Leone turned towards the source in the forest where the birds were fleeing.

"What was that?" Bane asked, his muscles tensing up while thinking about the power behind the sound.

"You don't have to worry, it should be Mine using her pumpkin, and with her all the Night Raid members should also be there," Leone said with a smirk, giving Bane a knowing look.

After answering Bane, Leone ran deeper into the forest to hunt more intruders, leaving Bane alone without even saying where she was going.

Bane didn't mind her as he spotted three attackers fleeing and rushed towards them, instantly killing one by ripping apart his heart. The man's scream died down quickly as he fell into death's embrace.

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The two remaining attackers, armed with a spear and a sword, stopped running and turned around as they realised the masked person wouldn't let them escape.

They readied themselves, preparing for a head-on fight with the masked individual.

As the clash intensified, Bane found himself facing two skilled assassins simultaneously. Their coordinated attacks left him little room to manoeuvre.

Amidst the chaos of the intense battle, he skillfully defended against the curved sword of one attacker while simultaneously blocking spear thrusts from another. While Bane sensed a presence behind him, he couldn't retaliate because of the ongoing frontal assault.

The experienced assassin seized the opportunity, grabbing Bane's head from behind and swiftly slicing his neck with a poisoned dagger.

Dark red blood gushed from Bane's neck as he fell face-first to the ground, motionless, signalling his tragic demise in the midst of battle.

The man with the sword, heavily breathing from their previous clash, remarked, "Hah, are all these Night Raid members monsters like this fellow?"

Beside him, the man wielding the spear regretfully added, "this Night Raid member alone has killed dozens of our tribe members. It's a shame, if he was alive I would have thoroughly tortured him"

Meanwhile, the curly black-haired woman with the dagger, her weapon dripping with blood, interjected sternly, "You two, stop your nonsense. We need to leave this place immediately.

If we don't hurry, we'll end up like the others from our tribe. Our priority is to inform the imperial army about the location of this base and collect our payment."

The two male Tribesmen in front of her nodded their heads after the woman reminded them of the current danger and just as they turned their body in order to flee, they heard a sound from the back.

The sight before them sent a chill down their spines. Their female tribe member stood with a dagger protruding from her chest, her face contorted in agony. Behind her, a masked figure stood, holding the dagger upright.

"How are you still alive?" the swordsman stammered in shock.

When both of the men saw that their female team member was unable to scream, they understood that she had been paralyzed by poison.

But what was even more surprising was that the masked person had no visible wound on his neck, as if it had never been cut by a dagger.

The man with the spear remained composed as he had already seen various kinds of people.

So the man demanded, "Let her go, you coward! If you're a true warrior, face us both head-on." He strained to discern any expression from the masked figure but was unable to due to the mask.

Without a word, Bane hurled the injured woman into the air, aiming her towards the two men, before charging towards them himself.

The two men didn't have time to react as their vision was blocked by their fallen tribeswoman. However, they both felt a sudden, sharp pain in their chests.

After the woman collapsed to the ground, the two men could finally see metallic hands protruding from their chests, the source of their pain.

"You have forfeited the right to say anything about honor as a warrior, after you failed to kill me despite your advantage in numbers and even the failed attempt to end my life from behind," Bane said. These were the final words the spear wielder heard before his life ended, along with the sword wielder.

As the paralyzed woman saw both of her companions die in front of her eyes, she was unable to move, so she weakly pleaded for her life, "Please... don't... kill... me... I... was... doing... this... for... my... clan?" as she said tears were coming out from her black eyes.

Bane remained silent as he approached the fallen woman squatting beside her. As he looked at her face, he retracted the bloody dagger with a swift motion from her chest, causing her to cough up blood, some of which splashed onto his demon mask.

"AHHHHH!!!!"

The woman's scream echoed through the area as she struggled to endure the pain, her teeth clenched tightly in an attempt to suppress her screams.

However, upon seeing the unwavering masked figure before her, she realized that there would be no mercy.

To her, Bane, with his black demon mask, appeared as the very embodiment of death, which had no mercy in it. Despite this realization, she was a warrior of her tribe through and through. So she laughed defiantly, cursing him.

"You... bastard!!... You... will... as well... die... a gruesome... death... because... of... the... poison... that... was... coated... on... the... dagger," she managed to utter, summoning the last shreds of her strength.

Bane went silent for a few seconds before responding, "You don't have to worry about me. As poisons have no effect on me, especially this weak poison that you have extracted from an iguana danger beast."

After saying so, Bane observed the despair in the woman's eyes. And Without uttering a single word, he slowly slashed her neck with the sharp edge of the same bloody dagger that the woman had used to cut his neck.

Despite wearing gauntlets that dulled his sense of touch, he could still feel the sensation of cutting flesh. As his deep blue eyes met the woman's black eyes, he observed the spark of life slowly fading away.

Blood gushed out from the woman's throat, and within moments, her life came to an end.

Once the woman died, Bane stood up and threw the bloody dagger on the ground beside the dead woman's lifeless body.

After a few moments of silence, he raised both of his gauntlets in front of his aquamarine eyes, observing them stained with deep, dark red blood from the people he had just killed.

As Bane muttered, "Deactivate it, Jörmungandr," his gauntlets dissipated before him. Now, his eyes focused on his two smooth, white hands, clean and free from blood. However, despite their cleanliness, he still saw the deep, dark red colors imprinted on them.

"It doesn't matter," Bane muttered. "What I have started, I will see through to the end." With those words, he began to walk slowly toward the Night Raid members.