“One, two, three, four… repeat after me. One, two, three, four…”

“One, two, three, four…”

“That’s right.”

Blake, the young man with the power of the Strength Particle, nodded in approval as he watched Dauma repetitively thrust his sword with increasing precision. Much to his satisfaction, the fruits of his teaching were currently being paid off in front of him.

After the Apocalypse Cleaners had gained its fourth member, there were a few new changes that the group had to adjust to.

For instance, the ground they could cover in a day was significantly less than before. While Blake could undoubtedly keep up with the others at a sufficient pace, he had adamantly refused to increase his strength output such that he could match their speed.

“I am not gonna push myself for this. Anyway, it’s not like we’re in a rush, right?”

Additionally, considering the fact that he also needed sustenance and rest in order to continue, they were forced to stop every night, spending even more time stuck in one location before they could keep going the next day.

However, despite all the delays, no one in the group particularly minded it, as he would often take the rest time to help them with something else: Training.

As he had clearly pointed out when he was first invited to join the group, he was definitely more skilled in combat than any of them, owing to his nature as a former experimental soldier trained to kill from a young age.

Whether it was in hand-to-hand combat or weapons proficiency, the other three knew that he was probably the best person that they could consult and train with, especially since he had beaten them before.

And so, for almost every night, the group dedicated a few hours to train themselves in combat and other skills, with him closely supervising their progress and critiquing any mistakes made.

“Come on, come on! You lot all have great potential, so you must make full use of it! There’s no room for fucking hesitation or slacking off! You got that?”

During those sessions, it was noted that he would essentially become a whole different person, putting on a fierce and demanding front in contrast to his usual bored and slightly sadistic personality.

“Devil, put in more hard work! Don’t you dare stop!”

In particular, he liked to single out Dauma and focus on his training the most, critically analyzing his posture, fighting style and movements at every turn, and consistently commenting on them more than Anten and Yuu.

“This is for your own good! You must make sure you can deal with any threat, including me! Understand?”

“Yes.”

“It’s ‘Yes, Master Blake’! Got it?”

“Yes, Master Blake!!”

Again, none of them complained about the harshness. Rather, training with him was not tiring since all of them still had freakish strength and stamina, and the only problem they could possibly face was following his orders to the dot, which they still did without question.

In the blink of an eye, five days had already passed since he had joined them, and they were already making significant progress in their fighting prowess. At the same time, they were also slowly but surely making their way to the next Particle location, so they were good on all fronts of their missions.

However, something was beginning to change on their journey. As they kept going, the weather had started to take a turn for the worse. During the day, they could feel a gradual shift in the air temperature as the sun became less harsh, and the weak winds grew stronger and chillier, unrelenting in their change.

The Deep Freeze. That was the term coined by Kara to describe the upcoming weather shift.

“Do you guys know what winter was?” she had explained to them, “it’s that, but the ground is covered in much more snow, the temperature is recorded as low as the ones at night even during the day, and there are horrifying and terrible storms. It’s like that for a few weeks, so I suggest you guys finish what you can and hole up during that period, because even if you can endure it, I don’t suppose anyone else can or wants to do the same, ue he he.”

Hence, as the group continued to trek through the changing climate, they were forced to adapt to it. They took fewer rest breaks, always maintained a fire with help from Dauma and, despite the multiple objections, gave all their shawls to Blake for protection, all in order to reach their next destination in time.

Currently, having braved the growing elements for the day, they had ended up taking shelter in a desolate convenience store situated in a relatively remote area, where they remained for the time being.

“I think we can wrap up for now. There’s something I need to do.”

Much to their surprise, Blake had ended their training session earlier than before while there was still light outside, and he seemed to be preoccupied with something else, so Anten immediately inquired.

“What’s wrong, Mister… I mean, Master Blake?”

“You can call me Mister outside training, angel,” Blake remarked as he combed through his bag, which he had placed beside some empty shelves, “and it’s no big deal, I just need to do something by tonight.”

“What… kind of thing?”

Very quickly, her eyes narrowed, and she stared at him suspiciously, with Dauma joining in soon after as well, creating an overall tense atmosphere.

“… ugh, it’s food, alright? I need food.”

Being cornered by their strong gazes, he quickly clarified his true intention, and the mood settled back to normal once again.

“Don’t you have rations?” Anten continued to probe.

“I do… but they’re only for emergencies,” he explained to the two, “when I have the time, I always try to find more food that I can keep. And by food, I mean meat.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a small crossbow, several arrows, and a hunting knife from his bag, which surprised the angel.

“How big is that bag?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he replied before standing up with his items in hand, “now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go hunting.”

“Hunting? For what?”

“I saw some beast tracks before we came here, so some are probably nearby. I’m pretty sure I can catch them if I’m lucky enough.”

“Hold on,” Anten stopped him right as he took a step towards the store entrance, “are you telling us that you’re going to leave… to hunt some beasts?”

“Yeah.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“And… you’re going to do this alone?”

“That’s the idea, yes.”

“I don’t think I’m comfortable with that idea, you know.”

He rolled his eye in response.

“Come on, angel. It’s not like I’m taking this opportunity to desert you guys. Don’t you remember? I’ll only leave if I don’t believe you can keep to your promise, and that hasn’t happened yet, so relax.”

“… in that case, I’m coming too.”

“Eh?”

“Hey, that’s a good idea! Mister Blake, take him along with you!”

“Uh…”

This time, Blake was the one who was surprised as Dauma stepped forward and declared his participation in the hunt, his own personal hunt. As they made eye contact with each other, he could feel his control being wrested away from him just like that, based entirely on the whims of a devil and an angel.

“… I guess it’ll be good then,” he begrudgingly agreed to the proposition after a short moment of silence, “maybe then I can actually see your skills get put to good use.”

“Sounds good.”

“Do you boys need anything else for the hunt?”

“Nah, we’re good. It won’t take long anyway.”

Rejecting Anten’s offer, Blake nodded to Dauma and motioned for him to walk out first before following behind him, and the two of them quickly exited the convenience store.

“Be safe!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he waved her off again as they walked out into the wasteland, where the sun was already beginning to dip into the horizon.

**********************

Much like what Anten had said, the two of them had to be quick indeed, or else once night fell, both of them knew that it would bring about a whole lot more problems than any of them wanted to face.

OUTPUT: 30%

Due to that reason, Blake had turned his power output up as soon as they left, and before Dauma could ask where they were headed to, he had already begun running off in a particular direction, forcing him to catch up.

When Blake finally stopped, the store was just a mere pinprick in the distance. Halting his speed as well, Dauma watched as he crouched down in the sand and lightly touched its surface, where a faint imprint was visible and miraculously not swept away by the wind yet.

“Hmm…”

The imprints, which were about twice the size of a human hand, stretched in a wavy line into the distance away from them with a fairly regular repetition. True to Blake’s word, they did look like tracks that were left by none other than a beast itself.

Carefully looking at the prints and analyzing the size and shape of them, Blake seemed to reach a conclusion as he stood back up, raising the crossbow up to his waist as he did so.

“What is it?”

“Based on the number of toes… I would say it’s a wolf beast,” he declared confidently as he began to walk in the direction of where the tracks were headed towards.

“A wolf beast?”

“You’ve probably seen it before. Wide mouth, six limbs, sores on its body and very big. That’s most likely what it is.”

“Oh.”

As soon as he heard the description, Dauma remembered it very clearly. The memory of bloody bodies, of burning flesh, of the troubled thoughts that he had about himself when he faced it for the first time.

“Devil… are you coming or what?”

“Huh? Ah, yes,” he quickly responded to Blake before walking over to him, although he still could not keep the gruesome images out of his head as the two of them began closely following the tracks.

OUTPUT: 0%

As they continued walking, Blake’s dark aura slowly faded away, and he moved at a much slower pace than before, even going below his normal speed as his eyes continued tracking the wolf beast’s imprints.

“Keep your head low,” he advised Dauma as he crouched down again, making soft and silent steps in the sand as he continued his advance, “we don’t want to miss or disturb it. There might be a pack around.”

“Oh—”

“And keep your voice down as well. They can hear you if you get too close.”

“I see,” Dauma whispered back, and Blake gave a thumbs up in response.

With the warnings in mind, they moved in sync, landing their feet as quietly as possible and not saying a single word throughout the rest of their tracking.

However, as they continued, they could also see that the sun was already halfway down, bathing them in harsh golden light, so their movements had to become more nimble and much quicker while still maintaining their quietness.

“… stop.”

Eventually, Blake stopped again, promptly signaling for Dauma to do so as well.

“Over here.”

The two of them had reached an area filled with large rocks that overlooked a stone cave, and before Dauma could respond, Blake had gestured towards one of the rocks and promptly moved behind it, carefully positioning himself such that he was facing in the direction of the cave entrance.

As soon as Dauma moved to a spot beside him, he peeked his head out and looked at the cave, carefully observing and waiting.

“Ho ho,” Blake chuckled softly as the both of them watched the actions that were unfolding around the vicinity of the cave.

Firstly, there were three wolf beasts present, with two of them excitedly running around in circles, relentlessly chasing each other, and constantly making shrill noises with their mouths. On the other hand, the last one was listlessly lying down in the sand, seemingly unwilling to move unlike the others.

Secondly, the one lying down was much larger in terms of body size, while the other two running excitedly around were smaller and leaner. After some quick deduction, it was not hard to guess what the three beasts’ relationship with each other was from those two observations.

“How should I approach this, I wonder…” Blake retreated back behind the rock as he mumbled, lightly tapping the wooden handle of his crossbow as he pondered to himself.

“I could go in…”

“No,” he whispered back to Dauma, “I’m not keen on you burning the meat. Just… hang back for now. I’ll go in.”

“Fine. Are you good—"

“Here I go.”

After watching them for a few more moments, he wetted and raised his finger to test for wind, before proceeding to move stealthily against its direction, leaving the safety of the rock behind as he silently approached the wolf beast pack.

As he got ever closer, he went down to the ground even further, going prone before crawling in the sand. His combat knife had been sheathed in his thigh holster, and now he had taken the spare crossbow arrows that he was holding in his hand and put them in his mouth, such that he could use both hands to carry the bulky crossbow.

It was all going exceedingly well. Just for insurance, Dauma was fully prepared to prepare his weapon and charge out, but it was looking to be unnecessary as he watched him get in range of the big wolf beast.

“…”

Blake slowly inhaled as he stopped on top of a small mound and pulled the string of the crossbow with the bolt already loaded, making sure the clicks that indicated it was ready to be fired was quiet enough for the beast not to notice.

He bit his lip as a bead of sweat slowly rolled down his face, and very carefully, he positioned it directly towards his target.

There was only one place he could aim the bolt towards that would kill the beast quickly and efficiently, and not create any strong resistance: Inside the mouth. Based on what he observed, he knew there was a very high chance his target would open it, which was when he could do the deed.

“Mmm…”

Holding in his breath tightly, he moved the bow to his one good eye and waited patiently for the moment to appear.

And then, it came. As the big wolf beast lifted its head up and yawned, exposing its gaping mouth, he released the bolt.

There were no complications at all. It simply flew through the air before cleanly piercing through its mouth and coming out from the back of its head. As the beast fell over choking and convulsing on the ground, the smaller ones cried in shock and fear before fleeing into the cave, leaving it to die alone.

“Oogh.”

Letting out a satisfied but tense groan as he finally exhaled, Blake stood up before calling out to Dauma.

“Oi, devil! Give me a hand with this!”

“Yeah, alright.”

It seemed as though the hard part was over as the two of them rushed over to the dying beast. It was still struggling, fighting against all the odds to survive, but they all knew that its end was inevitable.

“Mmgh… I guess I better finish it off.”

“WARGH!”

But the beast was not quite done yet. As Blake pulled his knife out and aimed it towards its head, it desperately lunged towards his arm before biting down hard on it, trapping his hand and the knife in its jaws before finally collapsing, pulling him down to the ground as well.

“Ow! Fuck!”

OUTPUT: 10%

He immediately increased his power output to prevent any major damage, but the last-ditch attack had still caused him a lot of pain as he worked to open the beast’s mouth.

“Do you…”

“I’m fine!” he yelled back to Dauma as he used his foot to pry its jaws open, swiftly releasing his arm from the teeth, “it’s dead, anyway. It can’t do any more harm.”

“If you say so.”

“Fucking hell though, that bitch!”

Holding his slightly bloody and bitten arm in his other hand, he angrily cursed before he took a deep breath and attempted to calm down, trying his best to ignore the stinging pain from his arm.

“Just… help me bring it back to the store. I’ll skin it there,” he ordered before he walked away, looking up at the darkening sky, screwing his eye shut and sucking in his lips.

“I got it,” he heard Dauma say behind him after a few seconds.

“Good. Now let’s hurry before the other one shows up.”

“The other one?”

“The Alpha!!!” he impatiently shouted out loud, letting go of all his pent-up rage at the current moment at once, “I killed the mother, so we need to scram NOW!”

“Okay, okay! Let’s—”

“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

As soon as he heard the howl, Blake’s eye instantly snapped open, and he grimaced.

“Oh, fuck me.”

The noise seemed to be coming from the direction of the cave, and as the two of them slowly turned around, they could see something coming out of the darkness.

It was not just one, it was five big wolf beasts, with the other two small ones they had seen earlier hiding behind them and whimpering in fear.

“GRRRRRR…”

The one in the center of the new group was the largest out of any of the other ones accompanying it. Marred with multiple faded scars in addition to its pulsating sores to emphasize its fighting experience, it growled menacingly in a deep and gruff tone, prompting the others to follow suit.

“… great.”

It was clear to the both of them who was the Alpha in this situation, and Blake sighed frustratedly as he pinched his forehead.

“Absolutely… fucking… great.”