Shinobi From Hell

It was a bag full of dull gray horns dyed in clotting black blood and yet it was quite ironic for they seemed to shimmer brighter than gold.

"But how?" 

Shizu couldn't help but ask. 

Her gaze traveled to the load of sacs which seemed to carry the same things as these. 

Even if they consider their whole day's worth of produce it wouldn't even account for a half of it. No, it would rather be minuscule.

How could he get hold of so much in a day?

Even if one were to hunt these dreadtaurs from beforehand and keep them hidden to pick them up later. Such a trick won't even work. Cause the areas carrying the dreadtaurs are sealed off before the event. Not to mention that the horns still had some fresh crimson blood in it and the smell of it also seemed to be too fresh to be kept for days.

Klautz shook his head.

"You don't need to know. All you need to do is to protect them, for I am leaving to get more."

Shizu had yet to figure out how Klautz got so many of them in such a short amount of time.

And Klautz wasn't planning to make it clear either. If Klautz screws up, Shizu would be the first one to be affected badly but Klautz couldn't care less.

After all, he was working for himself not for her. All he knew was that they stood no chance without them.

'I can't let go of this opportunity after coming so far. Let those to be damned be damned.'

Klautz was willing to take calculated risks if that was what would help him to excel. Needless to say Shizu might get too scared to approve of it in case she knew the knitty gritty. As such there was no need for Klautz to turn her into an ally unlike Evelyn. As long as they were in a professional relationship things would work out well if Klautz doesn't get caught.

***

"Why does reality have to be so cruel…" Klautz muttered to himself.

Things were going pretty smoothly so far. The worst possibility of Klautz getting caught didn't seem to be coming in the foreseeable future. Rather something much more absurd had occurred.

Rather they were already on their 6th hunt. But regrettably the Xia group that they were targeting this time around was already bankrupt.

'Their stores are completely empty.'

Klautz had only thought of it as a possibility that someone else might just go ahead and imitate them. 

But how could he believe that such an absurd theory would actually present itself as a reality. As Klautz scouted the group from afar it was made clear as a day that they had nothing on their store.

One must know that stealing wasn't as easy as it seemed to be for the two. For an average second to do something like this with their strength being equivalent to the defending party it was already absurd. Not to mention that none of them were trained in these arts in the first place. They were prideful young masters of their guilds. What was the need for them to steal?

And yet the unthinkable had actually happened.

"Who could have robbed them?" Klautz couldn't help but think as he felt that he was missing something important..

But a secondary thought caused him to squint his eyes in suspicion.

'No, there is something wrong. They are too laid back.'

Klautz perfectly remembered the pained faces of those that he had robbed. Upon realizing that all of the hard work that they put into was no longer valid they couldn't help but shed their tears of sorrow.

But Xia group had none of those faces to boot. In fact their commander, Xia Xiuying seemed to be the most aloof and unconcerned. It was understandable that being strong as she was she felt no threat in these lands quite in contrast to her soldiers. But shouldn't she at least be a little more distraught after being robbed?

'It doesn't seem like they were robbed. And yet they have no store on them either. What the fuck is going on?'

One must note that Klautz had been spying on these groups for quite a few days now before the D day. He not only knew of their layout but he also knew about most of their plans. And now with such an unusual occurrence Klautz couldn't help but be on his guard.

There could be, however, lots of unknown elements leading to this.

'Someone might have informed them that the others are being stolen from and they might have taken some measures? That's entirely possible but they don't seem to be the least bit worried?'

"Hmm"

'Then some kind of artifact perhaps? No, these punks are too weak to wield them…'

***

"Klautz are you there?" Evelyn shook her fingers in front of his face but there was no reaction.

Klautz had no reply. He was lost in thought, seemingly staring at the ground below. It had been a minute or so that Klautz had crouched down on the floor and started playing with sticks and branches marking the ground with it making weird and unnoticeable shapes.

But for Evelyn it felt like hours had passed, for Klautz refused to talk to her and with his thinned out presence it felt as if she was the only one lost in a forest of ferocious man hunting beasts. She couldn't help but feel uneasy. Klautz sudden halt in motion got her even more worried. 

After all, in a world haunted by beasts and spirits, she wasn't really sure what she was to expect.

Even after missing out on the Xia group, they had targeted four more groups yet two of them were in the same state as the Xia group. And before Evelyn knew it, it came to this point…

***

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