Azadin had his back to the entrance, skillfully avoiding being completely surrounded. Though the enemy had him encircled on three sides, his escape route was still secure. Sensing the wererats' hesitation, Azadin sneered.
"In this situation, the superior should set an example, Kurven. You go first."
"Kh…!"
Kurven hesitated to approach. The arm and ankle he had broken when Azadin threw him had not fully healed, even with a wererat's regenerative ability.
In truth, he was only still alive because he held a superior position among the wererats. Had he been an ordinary wererat, he would have died instantly from Azadin's Azure Lone Pine.
"Kiiik!"
One of the wererats, unable to bear the tension, pushed a nearby comrade toward Azadin. His sword flashed, slicing through yet another wererat's neck.
However, with this attack, the sword in Azadin's hand snapped. Though the inner wrought iron core had not completely broken, the blade was now bent at a 90-degree angle.
"Alright! Now's our chance!"
"Kyaak!"
Seizing the opening, another wererat lunged at Azadin. Sacrificing a comrade to create an opportunity for attack—such ruthless choices! The wererats took pride in their cunning, something humans could never hope to imitate.
But wisdom only counted if it led to success—otherwise, it was nothing but disgraceful folly. Azadin aimed for the lunging wererat's throat and struck with a spear hand attack.
— Thud!
Azadin's spear hand instantly snapped the opponent's cervical spine. As the wererat's body stiffened from the sudden loss of consciousness, Azadin caught it and used it as a shield against the other wererats' attacks.
"Guh…."
"Kurk!"
"This is absurd! We are the hunters! With Mezeri's blessing, we should be the ones pillaging…!"
"Ridiculous."
Azadin, seeing their disbelief at the failure of their attack, sent a sharp kick into a wererat's torso. The tip of his boot sank into its liver as if being sucked in.
The wererat was lifted off the ground and staggered two steps backward before blood spurted from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
"Gaaahhh!"
The wererat screamed in agony at the devastating liver strike. Ironically, their regenerative ability only prolonged their suffering.
Their regeneration wasn't strong enough to restore major organs like the liver without any damage. Instead, it only kept them alive long enough to suffer even more.
Despite surrounding him, the wererats were stunned by Azadin's ability to take them down one by one with his sheer reaction speed.
He was on another level. Just because they had surrounded him on three sides didn't mean they had the advantage. If anything, they were simply being dismantled by Azadin.
'What the hell is this guy?'
'Is he really the one Kurven kept talking about?'
Kurven had always blamed the Herald Clan for forcing him into Mezeri's service.
The most incompetent member of the clan had been chosen as a Herald simply due to elder politics. Meanwhile, someone like Kurven, who had diligently worked within the Korasar Peddlers' Guild, had been overlooked. The system was clearly broken.
He had always complained like that. But seeing Azadin's true skill, it was clear there was no comparison between him and Kurven.
Seizing the moment of confusion, Azadin grabbed the staff that had fallen to the floor and retreated toward the building's exit.
"No, stop him! Go after him!"
Realizing what Azadin was planning, Kurven panicked and shouted orders to his subordinates. But they hesitated.
"That's outside."
"If we go out, the other humans will…."
They had already transformed into wererats. Running out into the streets in broad daylight would guarantee witnesses. Thus, they hesitated, inadvertently allowing Azadin to escape. That was their mistake.
Once outside, Azadin immediately unfastened the Moon Horn Bow from his waist, secured it between his legs, and strung it with a war bowstring. Then, he picked up a handful of stones from the riverbank and began firing them.
— Swiish!
A stone shot through the air with terrifying speed, striking a wererat just past the building's entrance.
"Kraaagh!"
"You bastard!"
The intervals between the flying stones were unnaturally short. Anyone watching might have mistaken it for a massive army launching a continuous barrage of projectiles.
***
Azadin stood outside the door, rapidly picking up stones and firing them with the war bow.
Yet, despite the irregular shape of the stones, every single one flew straight through the doorway and struck the wererats inside.
"Get away from the entrance! Dammit, that bastard…!"
As Kurven panicked, Azadin reached inside his clothes and pulled out the arrows he had hidden. Then, he snapped off their arrowheads and nocked them onto the bowstring.
Kurven hadn't expected this.
'What the hell is he planning now?'
Then, Azadin performed not the Dual Immortal Bow technique but Triple Immortal Bow. Three arrows, stripped of their tips, skimmed across the building's wooden eaves and landed in succession.
And then…
The eaves began to burn. The friction from the arrow shafts repeatedly striking the same point had generated enough heat to ignite a flame.
Even in dry conditions, even for a Herald Clan warrior who had mastered the Dual Immortal Bow, this kind of ignition was impossible unless he could strike the exact same spot over and over.
If the arrows hit too directly, the fire wouldn't ignite. The trick was to maximize friction while still landing a precise shot.
Could a human even do such a thing?
As the fire began to spread through the wooden building, panic set in. The recent drought only made the flames grow faster.
"Hey! Are you doing this knowing there are other humans inside?!"
Kurven, unable to hold back any longer, shouted at him. Azadin, hearing the words, simply shrugged.
"Oh, really? My bad. Put out the fire then. I won't interfere."
"Kh…!"
"Or just stay inside and get roasted like rats. I saw some refugees grilling rats outside, by the way. Funny thing, they were talking about you guys. Something about Mezeri's blessing making you the hunters? That's rich, coming from a bunch of rodents. If you were weretigers or werewolves, maybe I'd get it. But this? You're pathetic."
"…N-no!"
"You think we chose to be wererats?! We wanted to be weretigers too—"
"Hey, shut up!"
As one of the wererats inadvertently questioned Mezeri's blessing, the others flinched.
Regardless, the fire spreading through the dry wooden building was now a serious problem.
"Damn it! You really won't attack if we put it out, right?"
Kurven ordered his subordinates to put out the fire. The parched wooden eaves had caught fire instantly, and embers were continuously falling inside, spreading the flames further. However, once the wererats committed themselves to extinguishing it, the task was not too difficult.
They managed to contain the fire by tearing away and discarding the burning eaves.
"Phew, it's out."
"But… where did that bastard go?"
If Azadin had attacked while they were fighting the fire, they would have been helpless. But he had truly refrained from interfering during the firefighting.
That was good… but now he was nowhere to be seen.
"W-wait, could it be?"
"Did he already slip inside?"
The wererats, flustered, turned toward the entrance to check.
"Hm. So, the fire's out now, huh? Shall we start again?"
Azadin murmured, standing behind them before they even noticed.
"Ugh!"
"This bastard…?"
In Azadin's hand was the head of a halberd. He had separated the pike portion from its shaft and was gripping it like a tonfa.
"Hup!"
As he swung it, a wererat's jaw shattered.
The wererats extended their claws to slash at him. Even a mere scratch from those vicious claws was enough to tear through human flesh, spreading venom and infection that would inevitably lead to death. If one was unlucky, they might even be afflicted with Mezeri's Blessing and turn into a wererat themselves.
But as Azadin swung the halberd's head, fingers were severed clean off.
"Kieeek!"
A wererat disguised as a holy knight drew his sword and charged at Azadin. But Azadin effortlessly parried the blade with the halberd head, slid past it, and closed the distance with a powerful kick. Once again, it was a liver strike.
"Guh!"
As the wererat staggered, Azadin snatched his sword and swung it at the others.
Limbs flew, necks were severed—a scene of absolute carnage unfolded.
'T-too strong! What is this? Is this really Azadin? He's not just some 108th Herald!'
This was by no means the skill of a low-ranking Herald. Judging by sheer combat prowess, he was on par with the highest-ranked Heralds. Kurven trembled as he watched Azadin cut down the wererats like autumn leaves in the wind.
"Kh… w-wait! Azadin!"
"What? Want to leave some last words?"
"I-I'll run away! Let me go!"
"And why would I do that? You should know that once you become a follower of the Kurt Divine Clan, there's no reason for me to let you live."
"Ugh… but, we grew up together, didn't we?"
Azadin let out a short laugh.
'Is this bastard insane? Talking about childhood bonds now?'
But Kurven seemed to misinterpret Azadin's reaction.
"We ate from the same pot back in our hometown! We trained together! We're from the same village—we're childhood friends, aren't we?"
"And you don't remember how you bullied me?"
"T-that was just kids playing around! And you know how it was! Everyone picked on you, and if I didn't join in, I'd have been bullied too! I had no choice—I had to survive! You have to understand that!"
"So, in order to survive, you just so happened to become a wererat?"
"It was the regional head! That bastard sent me to investigate the disappearances, and I got ambushed by wererats. That's how I ended up like this! It's not like I wanted to become one! So let me go! Please?"
"Hah."
Azadin was baffled by Kurven's self-centered nonsense. He had always been an annoying bastard, but it seemed turning into a wererat had made him even more self-absorbed.
'Maybe after transforming into a wererat, their intelligence actually decreases compared to when they were human?'
Azadin nodded.
"Fine. Run."
"O-oh, really? Thanks, man. Heh."
"But before that, give me some information. Is Baroness Nord inside? She was abducted yesterday."
"Oh, that noblewoman? Yeah, she's here."
"What do you intend to do with her?"
"We know that there's a Copy of the Book of the Divine King somewhere nearby… but it hasn't manifested yet. That thing's a grimoire, so it has its own defensive mechanisms. We can't just take it. But they say if we torment and torture people, it'll appear, so we were in the middle of that process. We needed nobles anyway. Humans with Yaegas Clan blood make excellent sacrifices."
As expected, the King's Grimoire responds to human longing and desperation.
"That's high-level information. Only the elite mages of the Kurt Divine Clan would know about this. Alright, I'm leaving now."
Kurven, slowly stepping backward, suddenly turned and bolted away.