Her eyes couldn’t keep up as a blur approached the monster.
Was it Drew? Or Anthony? Or even Julius?
She doubted that they were even this fast...
And then she saw it — silver hair catching the reflection of the white tundra, crimson eyes gleaming with a dangerous light.
It was Azel.
Veyra’s heart skipped.
’How the hell is he moving so fast?’ she thought.
The same question had gnawed at her yesterday when she glimpsed him flash across the firld.
At the time, it had been so fast she wondered if she’d imagined it.
But now... now she saw it clearly.
His speed wasn’t a trick.
It was real.
’Is this how Dante felt?’
That helpless sensation of eyes barely being able to follow, yet the body utterly failing to react.
Even as a Rank 3 monster, the Primate King — crowned in jagged ice, blue eyes glowing like frozen stars could hardly muster a response.
Its massive silver-furred frame loomed like a mountain.
Yet even with all of that monstrous might, it could not stop Azel as he closed the distance between them.
It was like watching something inevitable.
His blade shimmered, radiating light — no, not light, but starlight.
For a second, Veyra swore she saw stars themselves dancing along the arc of his weapon.
But Azel didn’t rush recklessly.
His crimson eyes flashed with calm calculation as he stomped the ground.
Cracks spread like lightning bolts across the frozen earth as he gathered every ounce of his aura into a single decisive motion.
She could feel the wind and light hitting against her face, she wanted to squint her eyes closed but at the same time she didn’t want to miss it.
A massive diagonal slash tore through the Primate King.
The Rank 3 monster, the terror of the Divide, was cut clean in half.
Time seemed to unfreeze.
Veyra, mid-leap, felt her own body complete the motion she had begun seconds before, though the battle was already over.
Her feet landed lightly on the snow as she turned her gaze back to him.
Azel stood before the monster’s bisected corpse.
Unlike his previous battle, where wounds had marred his body and left him staggering, now he wasn’t wounded at all.
In fact — he was smiling.
’Who knew cutting it diagonally could reduce the strain on the body?’ Azel thought, suppressing a grin as he flexed his fingers.
There was still ringing pain in his hands, but it was manageable now — bearable, even.
[You mastered it, I think.]
Kyone’s voice hummed in his mind.
’Hehe, where’s your praise for your genius husband?’ Azel teased.
[Esteemed Husband, may I ask a favor?]
’Okay?’
[Please don’t start laughing like crazy and try spanking me while we spar.]
Azel blinked.
Kyone’s usually confident voice sounded... nervous? Scared?
’I promise, I’m not a pervert,’ he reassured softly in his mind.
Kyone didn’t reply, but Azel pushed it aside.
The battle wasn’t over yet.
The others were still fighting.
He tightened his grip and blurred forward, rejoining the carnage.
...
Hours later, after the last monster had fallen and the howls had faded into silence, exhaustion settled over the group.
The frozen plain was littered with corpses, blood staining the snow until the ground itself looked wounded.
Azel found himself stuck with one of the least glorious duties: cutting duty.
"The snow will cover up all the blood on the battlefield," Veyra explained, her voice calmer now as she gestured to the countless wolf monsters sprawled across the ice.
"Our job is to cut all these up — for our consumption and to sell in the market when we return in three days."
Azel sighed but didn’t complain.
He sat down cross-legged on the snow, pulling out massive bowls from his storage ring.
Yesterday they had insisted he save several items they deemed important.
Today, he understood why.
’My Skinning skill is already max level, so this will be a breeze,’ he thought, drawing a corpse closer.
The wolf’s silver-white fur was stained red, its lifeless eyes staring into the endless void above.
Azel drew a bone knife and worked efficiently, cutting through the hide with practiced motions.
Veyra sat beside him, her own wolf corpse dragged closer.
The cold air made her breath visible as she hummed faintly.
Despite the exhaustion, there was a serenity to this quiet work after the chaos of battle.
"So," Azel began, breaking the silence as he peeled the hide away from the muscle, "is there some sort of reason we’re here now? After all, you said they can come out at any time... does that mean you spend all your time here?"
Veyra chuckled lightly, brushing snow off her arm as she positioned her knife.
"No. There are specific seasons for everything. These three days are the last of the usual times when the monsters attack."
She paused, tilting her head toward him.
Her eyes flickered with curiosity as she noticed his progress.
"You’re fast. I do like a man that’s good with his arms."
Azel snorted, lips quirking. "Yeah, I usually did this back when I lived near the forest."
He held up a piece of wolf meat, the fur already cleanly stripped, the head and entrails removed. "It really isn��t that hard."
The pile beside him already showed several neatly skinned hides, folded cleanly and ready for storage.
His movements were efficient, precise, and shockingly quick.
Veyra watched for a moment, and then looked at her own, she was good at skinning but not as good as Drew.
"Hmm, help me then." She said and watched him.
Azel chuckled.
"You’re the honorary member of the Furious five, skinning should be a breeze for someone as strong as you." He said without looking at her and she puffed her cheeks.
Gradually ice flakes that were falling took the shape of blades and ran across the body of the wolf in her hand, cutting and skinning it clean.
She turned to Azel to see the bowl already with five wolf corpses and he was half done with the sixth one.
"The hell? Are you a machine?"