GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?



One hundred prepared ocular monkeys fought 60 sluggish and unprepared defenders and lost 58. It is a shameful victory. What would have happened if they had fought their enemies in the day when their blood was hot? What would have happened had there been 60 of them to fight against 60 of their sluggish enemies? He doesn't like the answers to those questions. So they had no choice but to attack at night, but they were barely able eeking out a victory. It is making him angry.

They won the first encounter, but he is still angry. How many of them will survive this encounter? He is durable for a mana entity, but he is not in good shape. He is missing an arm and part of his chest where the arm was connected with. There is a large wound on his skull where more than 20% of his head is missing.

He is in a critical situation, and his situation is not getting better the more he loses blood from his injury. Running through the forest so fast is causing the wind to peel at his wounds. Pumping so much energy through his body is preventing him from healing. He should be in pain, but he is not. He is just angry.

Anger is easy. Anger is good. It occupies the mind and stops you from thinking too much about things. Memories of the gruesome death of your brothers-in-arms won't fester in your mind. The cries of pain that your comrades made as they were shredded won't bother you. The screams were torn out of them just like his arm was torn from him. But it doesn't matter anymore. He can't think of that. He must focus, and anger is good for that.

He needs focus now more than ever before. Losing blood is making him feel lightheaded, and he needs to focus right now. He can hear their enemies just ahead. They are rushing about in the dark. It is probably another defense for their settlement. So the fight is almost upon him. He can't falter now. Neither can he stumble. He has to focus, and the anger is good for that.

The enemies are close, so he followed protocol. He created a signal with his divine sense. It rippled slightly against the divine sense of those around him. His comrade beside him sensed it. Then she transmitted it to the others. The ocular monkeys beside her sensed her signal and transmitted it. Soon their whole company knows that their enemies are ahead. 

He is at the head of their company, so he is the first person to sense the enemies. His warnings are good. They are needed if they are going to have any chance against their enemies. No one should be caught off guard in the kind of dangerous battle that is to come.

He rushed ahead, only for his pupils to shrink suddenly and for his speed to slow down. Something in front of him moved. It was standing still before. It was still like a statue. Then it moved, and that was the end of things, usually. It went from being still to being in front of him in the next movement. Its yellow vertical pupils glowed brightly in the dark and served well to accentuate the state of hatred that the Viper fixed on him as it sought to rip him apart. 

He knew that it moved, but that's all his divine sense gave him. If not for his special glowing eyes, he would only be able to see who tore his throat out and how it was torn out. If not for his eyes, he would never be able to react to the absurd speed. But the world was slow in his vision, so he saw the Viper move slightly slower. 

Fortunately, he has a strong body. His good friend Hadrick made sure he could create the best vitality core in his previous stage. He also has a mana focus of the element of wind, so he is also fast. His eyes saw the incoming threat, and his body was strong enough to react to the incoming threat, so he was able to react to the attack.

The same cannot be said for his comrades. They don't have the advantage of a strong body like him. The vipers tore into them with reckless abandon. Have you seen a hungry dog of any kind go at a piece of flesh or bone? The dog will use all of its teeth with gusto to tear its prize apart. The same thing happened here. His comrades became the prize to be torn apart.

If not for their ability to cast spells which the Vipers lack, then they wouldn't be able to match up to them at all. Even so, their resistance was pitiful. Arms were slashed and cut off or gripped and ripped off from the body. Body parts were crushed or torn easily. Chests were caved in, and heads were smashed apart. The ocular monkeys were dying en mass.

He has to focus on his attacker so he can't spare them any attention, but he can hear it. He can hear the sound of flesh being dug into and torn. He can feel the sudden spike in the concentration of Mana in the air as mana-laden blood came free from the bodies of his comrades. He can sense the snap of bones caving in under the encouragement of external pressure.

He can hear it all, so he knows that they are losing for sure. That made him even more angry. The ambushers have become the prey. They have special weapons that can use Mana. The vipers only use their bare hands to fight. They have the advantage of the initiative, and the vipers are sluggish. 

They are 42, and the vipers are only 20. They should be winning. They should be winning by a landslide. But reality is not a matter of wishful thinking. They have done everything to prepare, and yet they are barely able to survive. It is not fair at all. It made his anger erupt from within him. It threatened to overwhelm him.