Lord Shadow

Every few minutes there would be some stupid ape that came attacking. Most of them do not dare attack considering Azief was there.

But there are some rogue apes as he terms it that even though he is clearly and obviously the superior being, there are still some apes that dares attack him.

Which puzzles him, to tell the truth.

When he activated Fear Aura, the apes would be paralyzed with fears, their eyes is looking at elsewhere, trembling and sweat filling their fur like they see something only they can se.

Their fear he is reminded.

When they are paralyzed he just need to kick or punch and the apes would turn into splashes of blood.

Unless he uses his blade which chops them into fine meat.

Sofia also tries to benefit by always using kill steal. He doesn't mind it that much. Killing the apes does not increase his EXP by that much after he evolved but it is helpful to Sofia who needs as much EXP right now.

As he evolved he could also feel the EXP. What does he mean by that?

He means that when the EXP enters his body he does not feel rejuvenated or strength entering his body like eating a pill or potions but feeling that subtle change in energy inside him.

He could feel if the EXP is a lot or not by feeling the purity of energy entering his body. He could not explain it or describe the feeling.

You need to feel it to understand it, kind of stuff. Then they finally arrived at the field. There is tall high grass, swaying like a paddy field.

His nose could already smell the rotten smell of blood.

'You smell that?' he asked

Sofia nodded. She looks left and right trying to see and sense if there is any beast nearby, or any enemies but she picked up nothing.

Nothing.

No sound other than the wind and a few calling calls of the ape. Sometimes there is also the sound of crickets but other than that the place totally looks abandoned.

Azief move and approached the area. He could see 6 bodies. He quickly identified the victim.

2 woman, 1 child, and 3 men. The woman is around 20s, the child is about 12 or 13 and the three men is 20s and 30s.

Then Azief tilt his neck and he smiles. He then look at the bodies, looking at the bodies, scrutinizing every details.

'You can stop now, Sofia' he said. He put his hand on his chin, thinking of something. This is not as simple as he thought before.

Something or someone is preserving the crime scene he mused. He did not look around but he could feel like he is being watched.

He needs time to determine their positions he inwardly thought.

'What?' Sofia reply as she lowered her weapons

'This is not a monster attack.' He said, still looking at the bodies.

Sofia come closer to the bodies and also examines the body.

What makes you say that? She ask. She did not understand why Azief would say that. To her, the only thing that could do this is either a beast or zombies.

Azief on the other hand recognizes the darkness in the human hearts especially in this new world where strength is the new law of the world.

Azief shows the body to her and make her look closer as he explains the reason why.

'Look at this body' he said. It was the 30 year old man.

'Look at his fingernails.' Sofia squatted and looks at the man fingernails and a look of shock and disgust appeared on her expression.

'It's not there. His fingernails in not there.' Sofia exclaimed in shock

'It is removed.' Azief coldly said. Then Azief feel the man's finger and he smiles.

'It is broken.' Azief could also see blue marks on the victims ribs, signs of being beaten. Crude torture method.

He then continues his explanation as he is buying time.

'He is tortured to death. Former military. Commando, probably' he said.

'How do you know?'

'He has a lot of scars. Normal people don't have this kind of scars. Unless you are military or triads member then you would rarely get scars like that' as he opens the man clothes and shows Sofia the scars.

'But then he might be a triad member.' Sofia offer

'Look at the stitches and the sign of surgery. It is not a mess.' He pointed at a hole like scars at the man ribs.

'Gunshot wound. Most triad member doesn't go to the hospitals and they have their own private doctors. But that is for the people high up on the chain. This kind of surgery and how clean the stiches it led me to believe he is either a military or former military.'

Hearing Azief said it like that he almost looks like a detective.

'But I might be wrong' he said.

'But it clear he is tortured. But for what?' he ask himself as he moved to the second bodies. His mind still is on the victim number one.

What information would be so important that a man would be tortured to death? It's not personal. If its personal, the only one who would die will be that man not six people.

People who are thriving on revenge sometimes have their own logic. The torture method was disciplined, and cold.

It doesn't feel personal. But then Azief came back to the present as he neared the second body.

The second body was of the young man. Azief checks his pants to check his wallet or anything but there is nothing. There are also no rings on the corpse possession.

The killers also loot the stuff…..but they guarded this area. Why?

Whoever killed them strip them of all of their clothes. But by now, it is obvious to him, that this six people is not killed by some beast or monster but by humans.

What makes him curios is why are their bodies remaining intact? Do the ape does not eat human meat?

Why did, this body remains even after a few days?

By the condition of the body, they might be dead for 5 days or longer. The smell and the lividity he could only roughly guess.

He checks the second victim. Sofia behind him ask

'What do you think?'

'Cause of death, blunt trauma to the back of his head.' He looks at the back of the man head and see a large hole.

Then he began reconstructing the scene in his mind. He got some of the pictures already. But not enough he mused. He needs to check the other bodies.

Sofia behind him maintained a look out. But she is also interested in how does Azief knows this stuff. This time he went to one of the other three men.

Sofia just follows behind him, noting his eerie silence as he looks at the bodies, examining it.

Revolting. Disgusting. Smelly. That is what Sofia thought of the bodies and honestly she just wanted to proceed to the beast in the elementary school instead of spending their time here.

But Azief is still calmly examining the bodies like a forensic examiner. He is still deep in his thoughts as he looks at the body

Another former military he deduced.

But this one is slit in his throats. It was clear and precise.

He nodded and then he moved to the two woman bodies not too far away from the man bodies.

One of them must be the mother of that child he mused. As he inspect the bodies he is sure. One of the woman is older and there is some trace of Caesarean section on her stomach.

The other one is still young, black hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes were open. Azief slowly closes her eyes gently while Sofia offers her prayers.

Cause of death, for both of the woman is internal organ rupturing by some powerful force. Then he checks up the child body. The cause of death is the same but something is different from all the bodies.

The child face was mutilated beyond recognition. This usually implies that it was personal or deep hatred but that is inconsistent with all the other bodies.

The other bodies clearly shows that whoever doing this is very methodical and lack any mercy.

A cold and methodical killer.

But then Azief touch the blood. This is fresh. About a day he mused. Hmmm…he is deep in his thoughts.

By now, there is certain conclusion that he has conjured up. He smiles as he figures it out.

There might be some mistakes in his deduction but he is pretty sure he got the right answer.

He stands up and he looked around the area.

'I think I could deduce what happened here' he said.

'What do you think happened?' She said. She was also curios.

'6 bodies' he said.

'Two women. The first is a young woman; the other one is a middle aged woman who has a child. Three men. Two of them are military; one was for all I know is just a low leveler. And the child. First the killer kill that John Doe' as he pointed to the man with the slit throats.

'Probably in this group he was the strongest so the killer dispatches him first. Then the young man who was in the near proximity is bludgeon by something resembling a baseball bat or a bludgeon. The young man head caved in and kills him instantly' and then Azief moved to the woman.

'The mother takes her child and tries to run way. Look at the footsteps.' He pointed out and Sofia realized there is some trace of footsteps.

'If you realize, this footsteps is a little bit deeper than the other one' as he pointed to another set of footsteps.

'That another set of footsteps belongs to the young woman.'

'They run to separate direction.' Sofia nodded offering her insights. Azief nodded.

'How do you know that the deeper footsteps belong to the mother?' she ask

'She carried her child. That gives double the weight, thus a deeper footsteps. The killer, was fast and he or she killed the mother with one strikes to her chest, rupturing her ribcage and killing her with pain. The child too.' He answers

'Then the killer goes for the young woman, right?' Sofia added.

'No' Azief said.

'There are two killers. One neutralizes the threats, while the other restrains their target.'

'What do you mean?' Sofia ask

'There is three men right? What do you think the other one was doing?' Azief ask Sofia as he let her figure it out

'While the first killer kills, the other one must have incapacitated the other men with some kind of poisons.' Sofia said and Azief smiles, nodding at her words.

'I checked earlier and there is some tiny dot on the man neck. He was poisoned or drugged.' Azief added

'When the young woman runs to a different direction, it was the second killer that kills the young woman. And what they wanted-'

'Was information.' Sofia said cutting his words.

'Whatever information they needed from that man' he said pointing at the tortured man.

'Wow' she exclaimed

'How do you know all this?' she asked looking in awe at Azief. She knows he is a little bit weird ever since high school but this?

Azief lightly scoffed.

'I was a fan of criminal investigation and I don't mean the kind on TV. I read case files, old case files. Some of them in archives on library, the other you could see in the Web. Sometimes, I also did some research for my fictions' He explained just a little.

But there is one thing he did not explains. The mutilation. He has his ideas about the mutilation but he kept it into himself.

Right now, excluding him and Sofia, there is 3 people in this forest.

There is also the reason why no monster comes around the body. He could also deduce that but if he said it then...maybe those people hiding in the shadows would come out.

By now, he could already think of a few scenarios.

'Should we bury them?' Sofia asked looking at the body.

'No' he said.

'Why?' She asked.

'Not our problem' he said.

'We need to find the beast first. After that if the bodies is still here, then we can bury them'

'What kind of logic is that? By then their bodies would be rotten or worse eaten by the apes Sofia said.

Azief could not understand why Sofia didn't realize the things he has realize. If the body would be eaten by the apes or other beast, the bodies would be long gone.

He could also smell the faint smell of blood nearby. Whatever beast that tries to eat the corpse is neutralized.

However for what reason would they let the bodies here and even guard the body? He has too little information to infer more.

Azief come to her and whispers a few words to her and her face which is flushed with anger suddenly turn calm again.

'Okay. If you say so' she said obediently this time.

There is a reason why Azief did not want to bury the dead. He one way or another believe the killer let the bodies lying here.

They are waiting. They are not waiting for him…but they are waiting. Azief could surely contend with them but he wanted to settle his problem first.

Anyway the people are already dead. He needs to kill the beast first and he also wanted to see if Hamad group is still there.

There is no login in interfering with other people business.

'Let's move' he said and Sofia obediently follows.

Her heart is still beating fast. She remembers what Azief told her a few moments ago.

'Listen. Don't react to what I'm about to say. The killers are here' he said. She was about to raise her bows but Azief stop her movement.

'We complete our goal first then we come back. This is not a simple murder' he whispered and Sofia nodded.

Leaving the field of bodies, they move deeper into the forest, this time she is being very cautious.

***********************************************************************

A few distances away from them, a young child is looking at them and then he smiles. With one steps he disappears into the darkness again.

Not far from the young child last position is a young man and girl who breathed a sigh of relief.

They did not want to contend with a person who could easily kill an ape with just one kick, so they are now relieved that the man in the hood did not remove the bodies.

They have waited for a week and the target didn't even show himself.

They are tired of waiting and if a few days from now, the Mad Alchemist Sina did not come they have no choice but to find other way to catch him.

But then they have to report to the General and that is always a fearful encounter. But a mission is a mission. They are doing this for the New Malaysia.

Making sure that the duo has left the area they resume back their watch and waited.

*************************************************************************