Crazy Master

Lucien, who had trouble sleeping, was drifting between sleep and wakefulness when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He nearly screamed, but Simone covered his mouth with her hands to silence him.

Seeing it was her, Lucien relaxed. But realizing her hands were still on his mouth, he started licking one of her fingers…

Simone recoiled immediately, disgusted, staring at him with contempt. She insulted him multiple times in her head.

— "It's your turn to keep watch," she said, walking away.

Lucien stared at her, incredulous.

— "She usually likes that… Maybe I should try something else," he muttered.

Not far away, Tony had witnessed everything without intervening. To him, it was in moments of extreme fatigue or life-threatening danger that people revealed their true selves.

And Lucien, though sometimes amusing, had just crossed a line. Tony thought that kind of behavior was how abusers were born—if he wasn't one already.

Now sitting in Simone's place, Lucien wasn't watching the surroundings. He was watching her.

— "Hey there," a voice suddenly whispered beside him.

Lucien jumped and immediately grabbed his spear, thinking an intruder had approached silently. He was ready to strike, but was slammed to the ground.

— "What the hell are you doing? I don't know if that was meant to be a joke, but it's not funny, Tony," he growled as he recognized his face.

— "Just trying to relax you… and remind you to do your job. And your job is not to stare at Simone all night, you perv," Tony replied with a smirk.

— "Anyway, see you later," he added as he walked away.

— "Where are you going? We're in the middle of a forest. You think you can find your way back?" asked Lucien, skeptical.

— "Don't worry about me, perv," Tony called out, disappearing into the darkness.

Lucien, now alone, was about to turn back to look at Simone. But Tony's word—perv—kept echoing in his mind.

— "He'll see… I'll watch the surroundings like never before. Then we'll see who the real perv is," he muttered, determined.

In the forest, Tony was moving slowly. The starlight was his only ally. He channeled his ather into his eyes to improve his night vision.

As he expected, looking behind him, he spotted a woman's figure cloaked in ather.

— "Not very classy to follow someone, don't you think, Dina?"

She froze.

— "How can you see me?"

— "I should be asking you that. I'm the one being followed at night, in a forest, no less. Real classy," Tony said sarcastically.

Caught off guard, Dina replied:

— "If you must know… I have the Darkness Card. I can see in the dark, create large shadow circles where I can disappear and reappear from any point within them."

— "I see… So during our little fight, when you vanished, you were actually under my feet. And you can even shoot your bullets straight from the shadows. Pretty clever," Tony noted, recalling their encounter.

Dina smiled. She liked having her intelligence recognized.

— "Anyway… if you're going to tag along, you might as well walk beside me, not behind me like an assassin."

She moved up next to him.

— "Where exactly are you going?" she asked.

— "On the trail earlier, I noticed something about the corpses… They all had bite marks. And judging by the size, they were human bites."

— "So you're looking for the culprits? You want to avenge them?" Dina asked, surprised.

— "No… I don't know what kind of do-gooder you think I am, but you're wrong. The bites were made after death. So tell me… what kind of people bite corpses to the bone, cut off limbs, and take them away?"

— "A… cannibal? But how could one cannibal kill so many people?"

— "Exactly. I'm not looking for a cannibal, but a whole cult of them."

Dina struggled to imagine multiple cannibals coexisting without eating each other.

— "Let's say you're right… How do you plan to find them?"

— "Even in hard times, there are always people who waste food. And food attracts worms… I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been following worms crawling in the same direction. And soon, we should smell something foul," Tony said, touching his nose.

— "Maybe, but if—…"

Tony covered her mouth and signaled for silence. He moved ahead quickly. Dina followed in silence.

Five minutes later, a putrid, almost toxic stench filled their nostrils. Dina collapsed, choking.

Tony also buckled under the smell.

— "Open… your circle of darkness… and… get us inside…"

A black circle formed beneath them and swallowed them whole.

They caught their breath in the shadows, panting.

— "Didn't expect the stench to hit that hard… That means they've been doing this for a long time. For the smell to get this toxic…" Tony murmured, still on his knees.

— "We need to warn the others… tell them it's dangerous," said Dina, still on the ground, eyes reddened.

— "No need. They're about to be attacked," Tony replied matter-of-factly.

— "What are you talking about? Who's going to attack them?"

— "The cannibals. I had a theory: that they could detect human scent. The current smell confirms they've lived in it for a while. You really think people who live in this stench would have trouble smelling someone like Lucien or Hikiri from a few meters away?"

— "Then what do we do?"

— "First, I warned Hikiri. Let's hope he's not asleep. Then, us… I don't know if they have a camp or a village, but either way, we're going to destroy it."

— "You get it now: our scent is our worst enemy. So as soon as we get out, we smear ourselves in mud."

— "And the smell? If we collapse during a fight, we're dead," said Dina, worried.

Tony thought for a moment.

— "… I know what we'll do. But you're going to have to learn fast," he finally said, a spark of excitement in his eyes.