"Please, master," Vella said, her eyes searching his expression carefully while keeping her grip tight around his wrist, "you need to calm down, you have already won. This is not like you at all, it’s just the residual mana twisting your thoughts."
For a few seconds, the alleyway went completely quiet while he just stared at her silently, the dark, hazy crimson in his eyes flickering for a brief mont.
His tense shoulders slowly dropped an inch as her words washed over him, making it look like he was actually processing what she was saying while the unhinged grin finally lted off his blood-spattered face.
It looked like she had gotten through to him, but out of nowhere, he ripped his wrist out of her grip, violently swinging his arm backward.
The back of his fist slamd directly into her face, sending her flying backward before she crashed heavily into the opposite wall.
"Fuck off," he muttered, his voice completely hollow while the crimson hue fully swallowed his vision again.
She crumpled to the ground, violently coughing up a mouthful of blood while clutching her ribs, looking up at him in sheer disbelief as she was completely stunned that he had actually struck her.
[ CringeSlayer91 ] Did he just hit his spirit?!
[ NewViewer_02 ] What is happening to him, he is completely out of his mind right now!
[ DarkBlade ] Soone needs to stop him!
[ ShadowMage44 ] He is going to kill them all!
[ IronFist ] Stop him! Stop him! Stop him!
[ ashley (Mod) has temporarily disabled chat for all viewers. ]
The frantic scrolling of the chat instantly froze, Ashley watching just like everyone else and horrified by what was happening on the screen, but letting the viewers spam the chat in a panic was not going to fix anything.
He was completely gone, swallowed whole by the Beast King’s leftover corruption, aning typing words at him was not going to pull him back.
He didn’t even notice the chat freezing, turning his attention back to the man pinned under his boot while raising his blood-soaked fist high into the air before driving it straight down into the assassin’s face.
A loud, explosive bang cracked through the alleyway as his knuckles connected, the impact creating a shockwave that shattered the ground beneath them.
The deafening noise alone was enough to imdiately alert every single royal guard and city patrol within a five-block radius, practically guaranteeing that people would be arriving at the scene soon.
But he didn’t care, just keeping swinging again, and again, and again.
He brutally beat the two assassins, leaving their faces completely unrecognizable under the onslaught as he was lost in the sickening rhythm of the violence, the dark thrill in his chest overwhelming every logical thought he had left.
He finally pulled his fist back one last ti, channeling whatever tiny sliver of mana he had left into his knuckles to deliver a fatal, skull-crushing blow, but before his fist could drop, two shadows suddenly fell from the rooftops above.
A heavy weight slamd directly into his back, tackling him away from the bloody assassins while driving him face-first onto the ground.
Before he could even attempt to struggle, a pair of strong hands grabbed his arms and violently pinned them behind his back, the imnse pressure forcing his cheek painfully against the ground.
"Do not move!" a familiar, commanding voice shouted.
He gritted his teeth, thrashing wildly against the hold, but the weight pinning him down was simply too heavy for his exhausted, mana-drained body to throw off.
Vella slowly pushed herself up from the ground, wiping the blood from her chin as she stared at the two figures holding him down.
"Juna?" She coughed, her eyes wide with shock as she looked at Juna pinning his arms while Loccy pressed her entire body weight against his legs to keep him from kicking, "how did you know to co here?"
Juna kept her grip locked tight on his wrists, her ears pinned flat against her head while she looked over her shoulder at Vella.
"A strange, glowing light thing suddenly appeared in front of us," she explained, her chest heaving while she struggled to hold him down, "it had so kind of writing on it we didn’t know what it was, but it told us Hajin was in critical danger and showed us exactly where to go."
Vella had absolutely no idea what Juna was talking about, but before she could even ask for clarification, the distant sound of shouting and running echoed from the main street.
"We can figure that out later," Juna said, her ears twitching nervously while she glanced toward the end of the alleyway, "we need to get him out of here right now before people see us standing over two half-dead bodies."
Vella nodded, pushing through the pain in her ribs as she hurried over to where he was still thrashing against the ground.
She knelt beside him, placing her palm directly against the back of his head before a soft, golden light flared from her fingertips.
He imdiately stopped struggling, his tense muscles completely relaxing while his eyes rolled back, slipping into unconsciousness almost instantly.
Juna blinked, loosening her grip slightly as she stared at the now-limp boy beneath her.
"You can just do that?" She asked, looking up at Vella in complete disbelief.
"Only when his ntal fortitude is completely shattered," Vella muttered, standing back up and wiping a stray speck of dirt from her cheek, "now hurry up and grab him, we do not have much ti."
Juna quickly hauled his limp body over her shoulder, not even struggling with the weight thanks to her own enhanced strength, while Loccy simply followed right beside her.
They launched themselves up the side of the nearest building, effortlessly clearing the rooftop just as the first group of royal guards turned the corner into the alleyway.
Down on the ground, the woman lay completely paralyzed in a pool of her own blood.
Her vision was rapidly fading to black, her shattered ribs making every shallow breath feel like pure agony. But as she stared up at the empty rooftop where the boy had just vanished, her terrified, failing mind could only process a single thought.
’Monster.’
By the ti the first guard actually stepped into the alleyway, the three girls were already long gone.
The room at the inn was completely silent except for the soft rustle of sheets as Juna gently laid him down on the mattress.
She stepped back, her ears pinned flat against her head while she watched Loccy hurriedly pull the quilt up to his chest. He looked terrible, his face pale and his clothes soaked in blood that belonged entirely to the people he had just beaten unrecognizable in the alleyway.
Vella stood near the edge of the bed, her eyes focused on his peaceful, unconscious face while a soft golden light radiated from her palms.
She slowly lowered her hands, casting a glowing bubble of healing mana that settled over his entire body. It humd quietly in the air, slowly working to push the last remnants of the Beast King’s corruption out of his exhausted system.
"What just happened back there?" Juna finally asked, her voice dropping to a near whisper as if she was afraid of waking him up.
She crossed her arms, her tail swishing nervously behind her while she looked over at Vella
"He was losing control," Vella answered softly, not taking her eyes off him while the healing bubble pulsed with a steady rhythm, "the residual aura from the beast king was corrupting his mind. He was completely running on empty, making it incredibly easy for the dark mana to twist his emotions."
Loccy sat on the edge of the mattress near his feet, her ears drooping sadly while she reached out to gently hold the edge of his quilt.
None of them had ever seen him like that before. He was always so calculated, always so tired and annoyed, but never unhinged. Seeing him smile while he broke soone’s bones had been terrifying.
"Is he going to be okay?" Juna asked, her chest tightening while she stared down at him.
"Physically, yes," Vella said, her hair shifting slightly as she finally looked up at them, "but we will not know how much the corruption affected his mind until he wakes up."
The room fell completely silent again.
Juna pulled up a chair and sat down next to Loccy, keeping her eyes locked firmly on his resting face. Vella remained standing near his head, her hands folded neatly in front of her while the healing bubble cast a soft glow across the room.
They did not say another word, simply watching him sleep with deeply worried looks while they waited for the morning to co.
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