Yet, in response to Dominic's intensity, Yimin cutely tilted her head. "This hooman… Who is he again? Yimin doesn't remember."
Dominic almost fell flat on his face mid bullet burst, whereas the others, including Cassius, were left speechless at the genuine confusion of the dog-like dragon girl.
"I… I'll KILL YOU!!!"
No longer able to restrain his fury, Dominic's skin tone went from tan to purple to green to red, as his aura became even more powerful. He activated all of his B-Rank and below skills, going all out right from the get-go!! The bitch would die!!!
In response to such intensity from Dominic, Cassius let out a heavy sigh. Then, with a single step forward, he blurred behind the charging B-Rank Hunter.
Through Dominic's rage-filled eyes, he caught a glimpse of the terrifyingly cold expression lingering behind the shadowy hood. His eyes widened in horror as he prepared to slash to the side with his longsword. Yet, before his sword even left its sheath, a jagged jigsaw blade was already mere centimeters away from the back of his neck.
"You can't—!!" he tried to say, yet was interrupted by the sharp edge of a serrated blade slicing through his soft, human skin in one clean cut.
The other B-Rank Hunters gasped in terror, whereas Yimin jumped up in joy. She was mere milliseconds away from getting the job done herself, but luckily, her Master was there to prevent her from breaking the oath she promised him.
Cassius expressionlessly watched as the decapitated head left a trail of blood sailing in its wake.
"I was originally going to let you live, even despite your repeated aggression. But after briefly glimpsing at what little I could discern from your lengthy system description, I… changed my mind," he said coldly, his eyes containing not the least bit of sympathy for the scum r*pist.
'And if that weren't enough, his targets were almost always of the younger variety, below the age of 18… Scum through and through,' he spat in disgust. 'But it is also partly because of this disgusting fetish of his that the women in his party were left untouched in that regard. Or, rather, they were left for later…'
There were pros and cons in everything, but this was definitely not the topic to be discussing something like that. After reading what he did, Cassius didn't feel like eating for a week.
Was horrid pedophilia a side effect of becoming famous or something? If so, then he hoped that he would always remain low-key…
After slinging the blood off his precious Lilith with a refined sword slash, Cassius redirected his focus back to the B-Rank Hunters trembling in place. He debated what he should do with them, ultimately deciding to do the only thing that would prevent them from opening their mouths about this matter to anyone else.
Even though what happened in a Gate stayed in a Gate, that was only the case if everyone was implicated and of the same cause. This was not one of those situations.
"T-The Captain…" Lexi was finding it difficult to hold her stomach down.
She, along with the others, was too drawn to the bloody sight of their leader's headless corpse collapsing to the ground midway through his once domineering attack.
However, when they felt the immense eruption of killing intent emerge from the body of the mysterious hooded man, they immediately shifted their terror-stricken expressions toward him. With every slow, unempathetic step he took in their direction, they felt more and more parts of their souls leave their bodies. Even Stella was no exception, as she felt herself freeze in place, not able to muster a peep.
Yet, when Cassius had made it mere inches away from John and raised Lilith to slash down, he heard a feminine voice shout out to him from the side. "Y-You don't need to kill us!" shouted Issa. "We won't tell a single person about what transpired here! N-None of us even liked Dominic to begin with…!"
"Y-Yeah, he was scum!" John agreed.
"That bastard had it coming to him is what I would say!" said someone else.
"H-He's better off dead!!"
Seeing that everyone was so adamant about keeping their lives and were clearly sensible enough to understand their predicament, Cassius emotionlessly asked, "And how can I be sure that you won't betray me as soon as we enter the outside world?"
The B-Rank Hunters suddenly exchanged glances with each other, then nodded in unison. "We have slave collars here, enough to enslave all of us!" they yelled. "As long as you put these on us, with your blood as an ownership seal, then you will be able to completely control us… They will become invisible shortly after being placed, but our lives will still be entirely in your hands…"
Cassius could tell that they were wholeheartedly against the idea, yet their will to live was greater.
He smiled, which caused hope to surface among the B-Rank Hunters. They assumed that they were about to make it out of this awful encounter in one piece. And just as John reached for his storage bag and took out a dozen or so semi-translucent spiked metal collars, they saw an unnerving smile appear on Cassius's face.
As if on instinct, they knew they were going to… die.
However, did them knowing even make a difference?
Cassius blurred from his spot and slit the wrists of everyone who went to grab for their weapons. Though, to be fair, he also slit the wrists of those who didn't grab for their weapons as well. He was a cautious man, after all.
"Aghhh…!!! It hurts so much!!!"
All besides Stella were writhing in pain while rolling around on the sandy ground. Even the females were no exception, as Cassius was a firm believer in equality. In fact, the only reason he hadn't given the stunning Miss Stella the same treatment was because of their similar backstories and the fact that she didn't have disgusting descriptions like the rest of them.
Did people just arbitrarily carry around collars used to enslave other living beings? And to have so many of them—was that common?
The answer was obviously no.