Rya's eyes widened, she was a mage class hunter and one of the things that she was most confident and proud of was her detection skill as a mage. The moment she entered the gate, she had cast a detection spell around a 100m radius of her, no monster should have been able to pass her.
Whitman was impressive, no doubt, but she felt very angry and disappointed at herself, an S-rank mage that couldn't detect an incoming attack even though it was right in front of her.
'If the chairman didn't push me, I would have lost my head.' Her eyes shook.
"Ahh... I was guessing something was wrong. Did the gate change? We didn't meet any monster that was capable of using a spear the last time, right Eric?" Whitman nonchalantly asked the dark boy beside him.
But he didn't hear any response. He turned his head to look and there Eric was standing and trembling at the sight behind them.
Whitman was in the front, so there was no way he would have known—he slowly turned his eyes to the back to look at what was wrong.
His eyes trembled in the same manner as Eric, even Rya couldn't help but gasp for breath as she saw what had happened.
"H-h-how?" Whitman's voice shuddered.
His entire party had been murdered, their blood and torn bodies splattered on the floor creating an obscure work of art, amidst this scenery was a man adorned with a worn-out kimono loosely sitting on his body with one arm falling down his slender shoulders and the spear that had just flown past them in his hands.
The man opened his mouth slowly exuding steam and showing his razored teeth. His pupils were very tiny and unfocused, almost could be lost in his white sclera.
"Jake!!" Rya screamed as she glanced at the brunette boy from earlier gasping for breath, he was holding his throat and choking as blood splurted out of his throat like a waterfall.
Whitman held back from being reckless but kept his gaze fixated on the being standing before him.
'I was very sure. Only the spear flew past me. How did he get here? I didn't even notice him at all, how did he even get enough time to kill all of them? And he didn't make a sound...'
Whitman stood guarded, even though he appeared to be freely standing, he showed no opening and was instinctively ready to make a run for it depending on the being's next move.
He tried to find an answer to this unknown phenomenon, his mind raced through a thousand hypotheses but none of them made sense, apart from dark elves and orcs, there were no other known humanoid gates. What bothered him the most was the fact that this guy was not here the first time he came to this gate.
To be exact, this temple was not here, although it looked like the same forest, a lot has changed, starting with the clear blue sky that sat up there, it was night when Whitman came to the gate.
All these factors he decided not to show because he didn't want to instill fear in the heart of his hunters.
"Who are you?" Whitman asked, carefully asserting the man with his gaze.
The man tilted his head left and then right, he seemed utterly confused but one thing was clear in the way he looked at them;
They were very much unwanted in this area. However, with how the man was not saying anything Whitman made a speculation that perhaps this was a being that was not capable of communication. After all, they were in a gate and an S rank one as at that.
Whitman clenched his fist, "Back off," he said to both of them as he went into a tai chi stance: Wu Chi, his feet, parallel and shoulder-width apart, his knees slightly bent and his body very relaxed.
"Find my master, I will take care of things here."
"B-b-but Chairman?"
"Eric, take Rya and leave. Remember, you are very important to me. I know your capabilities and I want you to protect Rya with all you've got. Until you find master and do what we discussed..." n0veluSB.c0m
Eric frowned, trying to hold back the tears that filled his eyes. Rya exchanged glances between Whitman and the dark boy, not understanding a thing they seem to be talking about. But at the very least she could tell that Chairman Alec was trying to be some sort of sacrificial lamb to get them to safety.
Eric grabbed her hand and darted into the forest.
The man turned his face to their direction and raised his spear, as he flung his hand back to throw it‐ Whitman whooshed to his front and delved a hole into his body.
No, he thought he did, he felt the impact but the man was standing away from him, he had jumped away milliseconds before Whitman's palm strike touched him–it was by a hair's breadth but it seemed to have been done calmly.
Whitman frowned as he observed the man from afar as he opened his mouth again to exude steam. The man was standing like he was hunchbacked all the while before but this time he suddenly stood upright and adjusted his kimono, making it sit well on his shoulder.
Whooom! Whooom!! Whoom!!
The air became tense as the man whirled his spear, demonstrating mastery of his weapon. With each rotation, his spear was becoming more and more of a blur, he exuded an aura that was frightening and indicated to Whitman that he was well-versed in combat.
Whitman realized he needed to be cautious since underestimating this opponent may be dangerous. Not to say, this was not the monster he met that gave him a serious injury. Although this one didn't seem as frightening as that one to him. He still needed to be careful. He was becoming unsure of how things would go with variables that he didn't expect.
He shook his head, getting rid of the jumbles of thoughts in his head, and kept only one.
'No matter what happens in this forest. Li Mingwu must die.'
