Sixteen days into the Hunt. Isabella had already reached her destination days ago.

At the Northernmost part of the Hellish Depths, which also happened to be the Northernmost border of the Fleeting lands lied a ruin made from small yellow pebbles. There were a few giant trees nearby; each of them were reached about a hundred feet in height.

She stepped into the dome-like ruin arranged with pebbles. She could clearly see what was inside as sunlight radiated through the hundreds, if not thousands of the holes between the pebbles. On the floor, a huge circle was drawn- a magic circle. She smiled as she opened her map.

She was right where it was absolute forbidden to go, the red legend on the map- the teleportation circle to the Empire!

She again stepped out of the dome. The last few days, she did not do anything but go in and out of the relic. She was coming bored.

“Maybe I should wander around a bit…” She muttered to herself. “After all, none can’t teleport away before the eclipse.”

Just before she could take a step to wander around the area, her ears suddenly peaked. She had the ‘resistance’ from the <Ghost> essence. It allowed her to detect even ghosts; how could physical objects like humans escape her senses?

She quickly rushed towards a tall tree which was just twelve meters West of the dome. She climbed on top of it, positioned herself with her bow, took an arrow from her quiver and nocked it to her bow.

Soon, a young man came to her view. He was dragging his own feet through the dusty ground while carrying a body on his shoulders. Both were clad in orange and red.

But she did not make any move. ‘They’ were not the only ones she sensed. A few minutes later, another ‘duo’ entered the scene. A handsome youth carried a mutilated corpse on his arms.

Minutes later another ‘couple’ came in. All of them sat beside the dome, even the ones living had their eyes betraying lifelessness.

She smirked. They were her young master’s prey.

She waited for two more hours. ‘Lifeless’ Institute kept coming in. Most of them had corpses on their shoulders or arm.

She waited for another thirty minutes. Once she was sure that no more were coming, she got ready to hunt.

*Whoosh.*

A gaping hole suddenly formed on one of the male student’s chest, blood spurted out.

Before the others could react, *Whoosh* another student was impaled with a dark arrow.

“Enemy attack!” Everyone jumped from their position and took battle positions. But alas, they were tired both physically and mentally. Many barely had stabilised their bodies while a few’s legs were still shaking.

*Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh*

But how could anyone dodge the arrows of a level 4 assassin?

In moments, everyone slumped to the ground with bloody holes on their chest.

Isabella took a deep breath before jumping down from the tall tree. After scanning through everyone, making sure that everyone’s dead. She approached of her the corpses and took out its nameplate. One by one, she harvested nameplate from everyone else.

Suddenly, she peaked her ears and looked towards a certain direction. An Institute student was running away at full speed. Isabella looked around again, scanning through the bodies, and clicked her tongue.

She ran towards that running student. How could he run away from a level 4 ‘wind’ circler? An augmenter at that. In no time, a big hole formed on his chest as the <Lethality> induced arrow pierced through his body.

Isabella lowered her bow a hundred meters away. For the past six months, she practiced marksmanship. Though she was already an adept due to her hunting background, her skills were far from enough to impress her young master. But fortunately for her, her young master made the perfect practice routine for her and helped her learn some extraordinary skills.

She looked back to where the dome was and shook her head.

‘I need some help.’ She thought as she headed South.

A day later, Isabella was back to the scene. Following beside her was a timid looking girl- a student wearing light blue outfit from the Blue Oasis School.

She was just the one Isabella was looking for.

“See all those corpses over there?” Isabella pointed at all the corpses lying on the dusty ground.

“Ye… yes.” The presence of so many corpses of elite Institute students scared the soul out of the poor girl.

“Get rid of them. Not a single drop of blood should remain- understood?” Isabella looked at her with nonchalance.

The girl could only gulp and nod like a pecking chicken in return.

She went towards on of the corpses and reached out her hands. A yellow magic circle appeared out of thin air as it began to rotate slowly. The ground beneath the bloody corpse softened as the corpse ‘melded’ into it. After the body completely ‘drowned’ into the soft ground, it turned hard again- just like before. Not a single drop of blood remained on the ground.

“Good. Now, take care of the rest.” Isabella’s face twitched for a bit but it soon returned to normal. She got up on her outpost- the tall and thick tree again.

The light blue outfitted girl went with her own work. In less than an hour, the ground was completely clear- devoid of any evidence that a massacre happened here.

“You are an earth caster.” A ghastly feminine voice whispered in the girl’s ear, making her jump in panic. “Conceal yourself somewhere. If I lose my prey because of you, you will be the one replacing them.”

She understood who it was. She looked at the top of the giant tree and nodded aggressively before making the ground beneath her soft and burying herself down. A few unnoticeable small pores appeared on the surface of the yellow ground.

“Ah!” Isabella whispered out a shout as she grimaced. One of her hands subconsciously touched her lower abdomen.

Three more days passed. Ten days remained until the end of the Hunt.

Isabella ‘hunted’ two Institute students those days.

“Aaaah.” Isabella grasped her lower abdomen in pain; a tear almost escaped her eye. She bit her bottom lip hard.

‘When will this be over? I can’t disappoint young master.’

Suddenly, she looked towards the South. Four young students were approaching, two males and two females. A long haired young man and a pink haired young woman were in the lead while the other two followed.

“Wait!” The long haired archer, Sven abruptly stopped as he raised one of his hands. “Something’s not right; proceed with caution.”

The three others nodded as they began to circulate magical energy inside their body.

Both Sven and Cynthia travelled from way down South all the way up to the North. They were bound to take a long break somewhere during the journey to recover. The physical and mental exhaust they faced were way above what everyone else faced, among the ones alive of course.

On their way, they met the other two in their party. Because of their low level- 2, they were not invited to be a part of the ‘Grand plan’. As they had yet to face anything dangerous, their potion stocks were full. The couple took all of the healing potions and recovered- only physically of course.

After they reached their full power, they had only one goal in mind. And that was to ESCAPE- to leave this hellhole. They vowed to stay away from that monster till the end of their life. Revenge? Heh. The word alone made them laugh. ‘He’ was an 18 year old tier 5- something unprecedented in the history of Ervilia barring some irregularities. Who would want to piss him off?

Now, they had almost reached their goal, the dome- through which they could finally reach home, and get away from that demon. It was already in their sight- about a hundred meters away from them.

*Whoosh*

Sven suddenly jumped to his right. An arrow passed through the abdomen of the young man behind him. If Sven had not jumped, his heart would have been in the arrow’s trajectory.

“Fuck!” He brandished his own bow as he took out an arrow from his quiver and mocked it to his bow.

Cynthia and the other girl also took battle positions as two circles formed before them.

*Whoosh*