Some time in the afternoon, after one of the soldiers met Tenur, they were standing on the boundary separating the forest and town. Some of them, referred by the commander as 'Hounds', had already gone on ahead, tracking the sombies and keeping an eye on them. Men from the Recon team were already dispatched, so it wasn't long before the Hounds came back.

The soldiers composing the Disposers and Burners stood on guard. They weren't talking and the tension was high, even the pedestrians who stumbled near them sensed the atmosphere and quickly ran away.

The key difference between soldiers from team Disposers and team Burners were their weapons. Disposers held container-like objects that were the size of the owner's torso while the Burners held flamethrowers powered by mana. Currently, the weapons were no different from clubs with triggers. It would take some time to cast fire magic and activate the weapon, but once casted, they would last for the entire battle as long as the elite soldiers had enough mana.

With that said, the tension from the air was a result from the occasional screams reverberating from inside the forest. Although mana was everywhere, it was slightly denser within the forest and the mana was diffusing out. Invisible to untrained mages, but noticeable by the elites. Once the last of the teams were here and the commander was sure the Hounds weren't coming back, he led his men and marched into the forest.

The air was humid and the forest was hot, though the Sebastian's soldiers were unfazed. They were trained to withstand the hottest temperatures and coupled with their regular training involving fire, this much heat was nothing to them. Animal sounds were abundant too, but only near the boundary. As they got deeper, the forest gradually got quieter and quieter until there was only the sound of their footsteps.

The commander ordered the troops to stop. They were told to stand on guard and create a a two layer perimeter around him as he thought of the situation he and his men were currently in. Strange, he mused. The eerie silence permeating the forest after they stopped moving caused his alarms to go off. From his experience, whenever absolute silence permeated the air, there would definitely be a storm coming.

He looked around, sniffed the air, touched the soil and processed all the information his senses gathered. From the smell of the air, he could deduce blood was spilled, but the smell of iron was faint. That meant the creatures were either far from him, or they did not make their prey bleed.

"There're traces of unique mana and magic in the air, commander,"  a man equipped with medium armor spoke to the commander. He had a clean shaven face and neat hair. "The density seems to peak out around this area."

The commander's eyes suddenly widened. "Is that... a Hound?" True to his words, a man wearing black suit fell from the trees. He fell onto the ground right beside the commander, but the soldiers were unfazed. They knew their commander was more than capable in dealing with any of them.

"Mark."

"On it," the man with medium armor, Mark, crouched just beside the Hound who fell unconscious. On closer examination, there were bite marks all over the Hound's body, some still bleeding.

"He seems heavily injured," Mark touched the Hound's chest. "His breathing is shallow but... His mana."

"What about it?" Commander raised an eyebrow.

"It's tainted by the same unique element as the trace mana in the air. In other words,-"

"Mana infection. What's the element and what's the cause?"

"It's probably due to the creatures we're sent to exterminate. As for the element... Even I do not know. It is beyond our studies."

"Hmm..." The commander rubbed his chin as he thought. There was a high probability the Hound's attacker were the creatures. In other words, the creatures could potentially be manabeasts. Yet in all his 40 years of experience, he had never seen manabeasts that left human jaw-sized bite marks. Most manabeasts were larger than humans even if they were former humans and would suck their prey dry, so it wasn't possible for those who were drained to escape. Even if the Hound was able to escape being feasted on halfway, the lasting damage dealt to his affinities would immobilize him for a period of time, to which the predator would do the finishing blow.

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While the commander was trying to understand his enemy, the unconscious Hound's body twitched, startling Mark who was closely examining his wounds that were suddeny closing up. Mark had yelled out in panic, drawing the guarding soldiers' attention. It was only when the commander ordered them to surround the Hound that the soldiers saw the Hound's body twitching again, this time with veins popping out. Two Burners and Disposers had pointed their weapons at the Hound after surrounding him.

The Hound stood up, prompting the Disposers to slam their weapons into his head repeatedly and crushing his skull while the two Burners were casting their magic. Before the magic could finish, though, the Hound with his smashed head had been beaten until it fell to the ground, twitching and flinching uncontrollably even after the Disposers stopped. It took a while before the body stopped twitching and white blood started flowing out. The Burners stopped casting since the Hound appeared more or less dead.

"Head towards where the Hound came from!" The commander ordered. He was done trying to piece everything together and needed more information.

The troops marched towards their east, the side where the Hound had come from. They maintained their formation and it wasn't long before they heard the growls of animals, or creatures.

"On guard! Kill on sight!" He was no longer patient enough.

"No, stop! We need it alive for research!" Mark shouted.

"Hounds died, ok? It's no longer possible to capture them alive and take them back," the commander growled in a low voice, causing Mark to flinch visibly. The soldiers were listening, predicting where their enemies would pounce from.

"At least-"

Mark wasn't able to finish since he saw a creature jump out from its hiding spot. It looked human, but with the whites of its eyes showing and blood vessels swelling. As if on cue, all the other creatures pounced as well, each different in the sense of the deterioration of their physical bodies but with enough parts to tell they were human.

Disposers were smashing skulls here and there while the Burners casted their magic. It wasn't long before the Burners had their flamethrowers sweeping the front lines, the Disposers guarding their blindspots. Miraculously, most creatures could still move and attack despite being burned, causing the Disposers to accelerate their work of smashing skulls.

It wasn't long before the battle ended with charred remains and smashed skulls littering everywhere. Based on usual procedures, the Disposers would open their containers and place the remains of their enemies inside, before incinerating them with mana flames. Though, that wasn't what happened.

The soldiers stood on guard, but they were gradually shrinking the perimeter to put the charred remains in front of them. They kept burning the charred remains even though the battle ended. Mark wasn't sure why, but he understood once one of the charred remains that got blew over to his feet poured out the unique mana.

"Fuc-" He jumped back, but the ash leapt at him, landing on his clothing before being assimilated. He choked as he struggled to stand. He felt weird, and his dick was itching. He was horny, enough to immobilize him and make him bang the ground with his groin.

The commander looked at Mark, who was gradually going insane. He started smashing his head not long after, but fell unconscious later. Deciding Mark was a goner, the commander drew his rune-carved sword and stabbed Mark's back, infusing mana to cause smoke to flow out from the wound. There was no blood since the fire had sealed and burned Mark's heart, sealing the wound when the commander sheathed his sword. "I'm sorry..."

There was a scream, and the commander looked towards the source. He was surprised when he saw men from the Recon team and other Hounds attacking his men, leaping like wolves preying on a rabbit. The Burner, coupled with several Disposers, were handling it well, but it wasn't long before the charred remains started regenerating themselves and started attacking them again.

Realising he stepped into a fight with an impossible victory, the commander ordered his soldiers to cover his escape. It would've sounded like a dick move if it wasn't because the commander was the fastest one in the team and the only hope for informing the lord of what's happening.

As he ran farther and farther from the battle site, he eventually put enough distance between him and the site to no longer worry about the enemies there from catching him. He could see light too, signifying he was almost at the boundary. With renewed vigor, he ran again, but tripped on a branch, sending himself flying and landing face first.

He tried to quickly stand up, but the moment he was able to put his legs beneath him, something heavy dropped down from above, squishing him below. He turned around in dread when he saw an actual manabeast, different from the creatures that he battled on top of him.

"Aghh!!" His scream was followed by the chewing of the manabeast. Unaware something, or someone else was there, the manabeast left with its food and headed for what looked to be more delicious mana.