Esdeath and Maruti's journey to the kingdom of awakeneds was smooth, taking three days in total. Since the back side of the kingdom of Anastasia bordered its territory with the kingdom of awakeneds, and they were currently at the back edge of the Anastasia kingdom (the Vanara-occupied part of Anastasia), they didn't have to go to the government teleportation facility.
Of course, it would have saved them time, but only if it was before. Now, after Anastasia was divided into two parts, they would have to go through some procedures, and that would definitely take more time than just using carriages.
[For better understanding, Whole anastasia and kingdom of church are side by side but one upon another, Like canada and USA or USA and maxico and their both front sides shares territory with demon realme. While kingdom of dwarfs shares border with backside of chuch kingdom and kingdom of awakeneds shares it's lower borders with back side of anastasia.
As for kingdom of deserts, It is at the very far back, sharing it's territory with only kingdom of awakeneds. Meanwhile any spares territory between these kingdoms are just inhabitant great forests, Rivers or big deserts full of monsters that's all]
Their carriage stopped whenever it was time to eat. Especially at night, they would make a small campfire and cook some food to eat fresh. Since most of the path was aligned with forest routes, sometimes Maruti even caught animals and cooked them herself.
At this point, the carriage driver and two assigned guards were feeling grateful that they didn't even have to do much. They were completely different from those arrogant and good-for-nothing nobles they were used to serving.
Maruti and Esdeath were capable and didn't demand much, making their job easy and pleasant.
Just like this, days passed. They were already on almost the last part of their journey, passing through another forest on their way. The trees were tall and thick, their leaves forming a dense canopy that blocked out most of the sunlight, making the forest floor dark and cool.
"Burp!... Who knew that wild chickens would taste so great," Maruti said, rubbing her belly with a satisfied expression, a lazy smile on her face.
Just a few minutes ago, a horde of wild chicken monsters attacked the carriage. Of course, there were two soldiers present to handle the situation, but Maruti went out and fried some of them alive with a burst of fire from her hands. Seeing this, the rest of the horde ran away immediately, while she ate the ones who weren't so lucky.
"I'm having back pain though," Esdeath replies, shifting a little in her seat. She was getting really bored by sitting in the same place for hours, and her body was stiff from the long journey.
At that moment, they both sensed something amiss and went on high alert. The air grew heavy, and the sounds of the forest went silent. They both looked at each other in the eyes and immediately realized that something was wrong.
"Another horde?" Maruti says, her playful mood gone, replaced by a serious, focused expression.
"Seems like it, but a much bigger one," Esdeath replies, her voice cold and steady.
At that moment, the carriage also stops abruptly. One of the guards pulls back the front curtain and peeks inside, his face pale and his eyes wide with fear. "My lady, it seems we got some trouble," he says, his voice trembling slightly.
Both Esdeath and Maruti peeked outside from the window of the carriage, their expressions calm and calculating. The two guards, went outside to face the threat.
Hundreds of werewolves, wild boars, and a few lightning werewolves had gathered around the carriage, their glowing eyes fixed on the vehicle. They were completely still, not attacking at all, just watching and waiting.
Because this was not a wild horde, but a horde controlled by someone else.
At the very front, there were two horses. One had a woman sitting on it. She had long, flowing blue hair and cold, gray eyes, and a nasty-looking cut mark on her face just below her lips, which twisted into a cruel smirk.
While on the other horse was a man with messy hair, like it was constantly struck by lightning, and a normal, unkempt beard. He looked rough and dangerous.
However, they both were not alone. There was one person at the very back, sitting on the back of a massive lightning werewolf that was three times the size of a normal werewolf.
He had a soft, yellow, and surprisingly young face, looking to be around his early thirties, with plain eyes but a smug, arrogant face.
"You bastards know it is my territory, yet you still trespass with your flashy carriages!" he shouted, his voice booming across the clearing. But because of the distance, his voice became normal by the time it traveled to them.
"Please rest assured, we'll handle the situation," the guards said, their voices steady as they turned back to look at the person at the very back.
"Who are you? Why are you trying to rob us? Can't you see the royal symbol on the carriage? You are messing with the wrong faction," one of the guard shouted, his voice filled with authority.
Seeing his reply, the female one's eyes immediately widened with a mix of surprise and amusement. "So you are saying, you don't know the great plunderer Gaza and me, his subordinate Zilia," she says, her voice dripping with scorn, "and," she points at the other man on the horse, "Rex?"
"Gaza? So you are Gaza?" The guards immediately take out their swords, their faces pale.
They certainly knew about Gaza. He was the serial killer and plunderer getting quite famous these days. Plundering carriages inside the forests and killing anyone inside or taking women and selling them as slaves, not even fearing to kill nobles.
"Now that's the real reaction," Zilia sneers, her smirk widening.
"Listen you two, I'm in a great mood today, so hand over the golds and everything valuable and get lost with your carriage," Gaza shouts again, stating his demands, his voice full of lazy confidence.
"Gaza? Dang, we used his name and now we ended up bumping into him," Maruti sighs, remembering how she used his name while trying to waste Lortell's time at that night, so that she could free Esdeath. It felt like a weird twist of fate.
"But why is he so far away? Is he a coward?" Maruti asks, her curiosity piqued.
Esdeath shakes her head. "He is a rank B slave path awakened. All the werewolves and wild boars are his slave army. But these types of awakeneds are at a great disadvantage in direct fights. Their main strength is to slowly drag the fight and kill with overwhelming numbers," Esdeath explained, her voice calm and analytical.
"People usually use assassins to deal with these types of opponents," she added calmly, her eyes never leaving Gaza.
"Hmph, only weak ones use such tricks," Maruti replies, a confident smirk on her face. She opened the carriage door and got out, stretching her arms as if she was just bored.
"Hey you, coward boy! If you have guts, then come here and fight!" she shouted out loudly, her voice echoing through the silent forest.
Esdeath couldn't help but slap her forehead in disappointment. Maruti's recklessness was going to get them into a bigger mess. She had no choice but to get out of the carriage as well, her movements graceful and deadly.
"My ladies, there was no need for you to come out," the guards immediately felt pressured. Once Gaza would see them, his intentions would surely change.
And the same thing happened what they feared. Gaza, Zilia, and Rex, all three of them, saw both Maruti and Esdeath. Their eyes widened, and greedy smiles spread across their faces.
"Noble women? They'll surely be of quite a high price," Rex said, already seeing piles of gold in his mind, his eyes gleaming with lust and greed.
"Good... good! Two noble women. Today is my lucky day," Gaza chuckles. His eyes roamed over Esdeath and Maruti, making it clear what he was thinking.
"Rex, Zilia, kill these two guards and bring those two women to me," he ordered lightly, as if he was just asking them to fetch a drink.
The two guards were already on their battle stances, their swords held high and their bodies tense.
They weren't weak; they both were assigned by main knight faction that served nobles after all, and they had their competencies. But the main problem for their pressure was Gaza, of course.
He was a rank B awakened, and while it did seem not a lot, since Esdeath and Maruti had fought even greater danger up until now, it was only because they were special in their own way.
But for these two guards, fighting a Rank B was surely going to be a tough challenge, especially while trying to protect Esdeath and Maruti.
"My lady, just be at the back. We can still handle it, or if not, then we will buy enough time till you can run from here safely," the second guard said, his voice steady, but his eyes showed his fear.
"You are worrying too much—" Maruti was about to interrupt, but at that moment, Esdeath slowly turned around and—
DASH!...
She ran with her expressionless face, without looking back, her movements a blur of speed.
"Huh? What happened to you?" Even Maruti was shocked by Esdeath's reaction. She had never seen Esdeath run away from a fight like that.
"Gonna finish this quickly," Esdeath replies without looking back, she just kept running, her form getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
Zilia and Rex, who were casually riding down from their horses, and Gaza, who was sitting at the back of a lightning werewolf, all saw Esdeath running away so cowardly, leaving her comrades behind without even glancing back.
"Pftt... Hahahaha... Look at her running," Rex couldn't hold his laughter at all, his face turning red from the effort.
"Hahha... let her run, the werewolves are gonna sniff her out anyway, that'll be more interesting to see," Zilia says, still laughing, her cruel eyes enjoying the show.
They lightly approached the two guards with full confidence, their steps slow and lazy. The carriage driver had already ran inside the carriage, expecting the worst.
"Rex, you go capture this noblewoman, I'll handle these two," Zilia says, locking her eyes on the two guards, a hungry look on her face.
"John, you ready?" the first guard says, his voice tight with tension.
The second guard, John, nods. "Yes."
They both were ready to battle Zilia. Meanwhile, Zilia opened her palm, and blue lightning started cracking in it, a big, terrifying smirk on her face.
At the same time, Rex approached Maruti, his tongue out with lust, his eyes full of dirty thoughts.
"Come here, babe~" he says, fire cracking at his feet.
"Fire charge!" he whispers, and a blast happens beneath his feet, launching him towards Maruti with great speed, leaving a trail of smoke behind him.
FLIP!...
"Huh?" Rex feels like something has just changed. His vision was upside down all of a sudden, and the world was spinning.
"REXXXXX!" Zilia shouts in despair the moment she looks at him, her laughter turning into a scream of horror.
His head has been blown away, completely severed from his neck. It flew through the air in a graceful arc before landing with a sickening thud on the ground. Blood oozed out from his neck like a fountain, staining the dirt red.
"Oops, I was only aiming to break his teeth. Turns out he's way too weak," Maruti sighs in disappointment, shaking the blood off her hand as if it was just dirt. She looked bored, as if she had just swatted a fly.
"Y-you BITCH!" Zilia shouts out loud, her face contorted with rage and grief. She forgot about the two guards and directly ran towards Maruti, her blue lightning flaring dangerously.
BAM!...
Maruti gives her a punch directly at her abdomen, the impact so powerful it sent a shockwave through the air.
Zilia flew through the air like a broken doll, her body rubbing and slamming into the dusty ground until she finally crashed into one of the werewolves and finally stopped besides Gaza.
"Are you alright?" Gaza asks, his expression turning serious for the first time. The smug look was gone, replaced by a cold, serious glint in his eyes.
Zilia stood up, wobbling a little, and wiped the blood out of her face. "Yes, I can fight," she said, her voice full of venom and hate.
"Good," Gaza nods, he was ready to unleash the whole pack of werewolves on Maruti, to tear her apart piece by piece.
But at that moment, Zilia stops in confusion and points at the nothingness in the air and says, her voice trembling, "Snake... there's a snake coming."
"What snake? There's no snake," Gaza felt confused by her reaction, his eyes scanning the empty air around them.
But Zilia starts trembling more and more, the horror on her face just worsening. "Help... help me, the snake is going to bite me," she shouts in a trembling voice, her eyes wide with a terror only she could see.
She turned around, trying to run, but her legs stiffened, locking in place. Before Gaza could understand anything, Zilia's body goes limp all of a sudden, and she falls to the ground, not moving at all.
There was just a small twitch in her eye, indicating she was still alive but fully paralyzed.
Actually, earlier when Maruti punched her, she had injected her will and used her Essence Stone's Snake will to soon poison Zilia's mind virtually and make her almost brain dead.
She could feel the pain and see everyone around her, but she couldn't use her body at all. She was a prisoner in her own flesh, completely paralyzed.
"Kill them!" Gaza shouts in anger, his face turning red with rage. He felt like he was completely humiliated by this random girl who had taken down his two subordinates in less than a minute.
Howl!...
GROarrrr!...
Howlllll!...
The werewolves and wild boars howled loudly, a chorus of primal rage, and ran towards Maruti and the guards to tear them apart.
"Now that's what I like," Maruti grinned with a thrill, her eyes shining with excitement. She was in her element.
She directly jumped at the front, crashing against the horde of werewolves without fear. She was a blur of motion, a whirlwind of destruction.
BAM!...
SMACK!...
She punched and crushed their skulls with each hit, her fists like deadly hammers. The two guards were not backing down either.
They slashed their swords with precision, cutting and slashing, creating a small circle of safety and giving Maruti a good cover from being completely surrounded.
"Tch, let's see how you handle this," Gaza sneered, his confidence returning as he watched his massive horde swarm the girl.
He jumped off the back of the lightning werewolf and mentally ordered all the lightning werewolves to attack Maruti.
Howl!...Hzzzz....
Lightning cracked from the single horns on their foreheads and shot directly towards Maruti, a barrage of deadly, electric spears.
"Defend!" the first guard shouted.
The second guard immediately ran to the front and blocked the lightning with his sword, the metal humming with energy, even though there was no need.
Maruti was already moving, her body weaving through the attacks.
Despite the lightning attacks, Maruti still charged forward with her brute strength. She was like an unstoppable force of nature.
Gaza couldn't help but grit his teeth in anger. "Let's see how long you can hold out, I got the numbers," he stated, backing down, making more distance between him and Maruti while sending even more werewolves than before.
But then, a sharp, clear sound rang through the forest, causing the howls of the werewolves to go silent.
BANG!.....
A mana bullet, moving faster than the eye could see, shot through the air, piercing Gaza's skull with a clean, precise hole.
His body fell to the ground with a small thud. He died without even knowing who killed him, his face frozen in a look of surprise.
At once, all the werewolves and boars stopped, free from his enslavement.
They looked around, their glowing eyes no longer filled with malice, but with confusion and fear. Their first instinct was to run away immediately, and they did, disappearing into the depths of the forest.
Both guards looked around in confusion, trying to find the source of the shot. But Maruti clearly knew where it came from.
She looked back with her shoulders slumped in disappointment. She could see Esdeath at some distance, sitting on an upper ground.
Her ZK-20 had turned into a big white sniper rifle, smoke still curling from its barrel.
"Why? I was about to defeat him," Maruti sighs, but there was nothing she could do now. The thrill of the fight was stolen from her.
A few minutes later, Esdeath comes back, the situation was already resolved. The great plunderer was dead, just like that.
"Can I slap you?" Maruti asks, her face serious, her annoyance clear.
"No," Esdeath replies with the same firm expression, her face unreadable.
She casually walks to the front while the two guards follow her behind. She bends down, looking at Gaza's dead body. She turns her ZK-20 into a sharp dagger and cuts his head, separating it from its neck with a single, smooth motion.
"Here, this is your reward. Split it among yourselves," she says, casually throwing the head to the two guards. Being a famous criminal, of course, he had a great amount of bounty on his head.
"T-Thanks, I guess," the guard says, still kinda confused about the whole situation.
"I'll go get his head as well," the second guard says, going over to Rex's dead body to claim his own small bounty.
"What about her? She's alive. Should we hand her over to the authorities at the awakeneds kingdom?" the first guard asked, looking at Zilia's paralyzed form.
"No, let her be like this. It'll be more fun," Esdeath chuckles, a cold, humorless sound.
She turns around and walks towards the carriage. "Now let's go, don't waste any more time," she says.
"Y-yes!" the guard salutes her out of instinct and immediately rushes to make the driver drive the carriage once again.
Maruti exhales deeply, her mood was already kind of ruined. She just quietly sat back inside, the adrenaline fading away, leaving her with a feeling of emptiness.
The carriage moved without stopping.
Meanwhile, seeing all this, Zilia could not move an inch. She could see as the carriage slowly drove towards her with small hiccups of fear, her eyes wide with terror.
And then—CRUSH!...
Its tires crushes her legs, causing an immense, bone-shattering pain. But she couldn't even scream; only her eyes turned red with tears of agony.
The carriage drives off without stopping, leaving her there as free food for the forest animals.