After killing the first tiger, Fafnir shifted his gaze to the other two.

The chains holding the third had been long shattered, allowing the third tiger to defend itself. But judging by its injuries, the chains seemed to have held it enough for the second tiger to land some blows.

As for the second tiger, although it didn't look in good condition either, it definitely was in a far better condition than the third.

When Fafnir saw their fight, he noticed that the third tiger was hesitating in its attacks, as though it was trying to return its friend to its right state of mind rather than kill him.

Of course, Fafnir didn't care. He immediately connected Dante's misfortune to them and moved.

Shadowstep!

In an instant, Fafnir emerged from the second tiger's shadow and stabbed its heart.

The tiger's stomach was soft and didn't have thick fur or thick skin, making it weaker than any other part. The blade cut smoothly into the soft flesh until the heart was pierced.

Thud!

It fell immediately to the ground, the blazing madness in its eyes fading away and leaving soulless eyes instead.

Roar!

The third tiger looked at that sight with fury. Fafnir was now soaked in its friend's blood, that was unacceptable!

It opened its mouth widely, the brown energy gathered and compressed there. Before Fafnir could use Shadowstep again, it spat tens of stone needles.

Showing no changes in his expression, Fafnir raised an arm.

Silver Ether Spell — Ether Barrier!

A silver barrier materialized immediately. It was thinner and weaker than the usual barriers, an attempt to reduce the silver ether consumption and backlash. But because it was made of silver Ether, that thin barrier was enough to block a Rank 1 attack.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Tens of stone needles struck the thin barrier, but they only caused small cracks before shattering by the force of the impact.

After the barrier blocked all the attacks, Fafnir dismissed it and used a quick spell.

Shadow Spell — Shadow Flash!

The injured tiger suddenly lost its vision. Before it could regain it, Fafnir appeared under the injured tiger and killed it as well.

'Two remained.'

His gaze turned cold toward the male tiger and the remaining female tiger, then a sigh left his mouth.

'One remained.'

The male tiger didn't show any Spirit value, it was dead. Apparently, the internal bleeding was enough to kill it slowly.

The female tiger stood behind it in grief and sorrow. It had just lost the male of the group and witnessed all the other females getting slaughtered, it knew that it had no hope in surviving this.

As one last effort to keep the bloodline, it tried to push the little tigers away, letting out soft purrs to warn them.

Unfortunately for it, the little tigers refused, clinging to its legs and unwilling to leave it.

Slash!

Just then, a sharp sword struck its neck, piercing its fur, skin, and flesh until it reached the middle of its throat.

It tried to turn its head around, but before it could, Fafnir punched the back of the blade, pushing it deeper until it sliced the tiger's neck cleanly.

The tiger's blood splashed all over the place, painting Fafnir, the ground, and the little tigers in red.

'I'm done.'

Fafnir exhaled deeply and began to gather the tigers' cores in front of the little tigers. They attacked him several times, but he simply ignored their weak attempts to harm him and continued gathering the cores.

'It's better to let them live. They're too weak to reduce my lord's misfortune and have no cores currently, so I won't gain anything from killing them this early.'

After a few minutes, he absorbed the five cores, sending their essence directly to Dante. Afterwards, he made a large bag made of shadows and put the corpses inside.

As he dragged the corpses away, the little tigers kept following him for almost half an hour before falling in exhaustion. When Fafnir saw their expressions, a memory from the last flashed through his mind.

It was a memory from the original Fafnir within him. A sudden surge of negative emotions attacked his mind as he remembered how his parents were executed in front of him.

'Why am I remembering this? I'm just a cheap copy of him.'

Fafnir didn't pay the tigers and his memories any mind and continued moving.

His mana pool wasn't big enough to manifest the shadow bag for so long, therefore he had to rest several times, which caused the returning journey to take more time than usual.

Eventually, he reached the hill.

"Stop there!" One of the soldiers at the watch tower shouted before jumping down.

Fafnir dismissed the bag, revealing five tiger corpses, and threw the sword toward the corpses.

The soldier, already used to doing this every night, examined the corpses with the eyes of an appraiser.

Afterward, he checked the fancy sword, looking for any damage.

"The sword is perfectly fine, the beasts aren't burned this time, only one tiger has completely ruined fur… I think this hunt was a good one for you." The soldier smiled before handing two mana crystals to Fafnir.

As Fafnir was about to go, the soldier added: "Though, I have to tell you, the scouts won't search specifically for beasts for a while, it's too dangerous currently and the situation is uncertain."

Fafnir nodded and walked into the camp indifferently, but internally, he wanted to curse.

'Less cores…'

He was annoyed that he wouldn't be able to hunt beasts for a while. It wasn't easy to find Rank 1 beasts, as most beasts were young and rankless.

He had relied on the camp's scouts to find them. The commander was supposed to inform Fafnir, then Fafnir would kill them for their cores and return the bodies. But now he couldn't do that.

But what could he do? He couldn't leave and search for them by himself. In the worst case, he might face a Rank 2 beast and die.

'Hopefully, they start searching for them again.'

After a few minutes of walking, Fafnir returned to Elizabeth's tent.

She was alone on the bed, lying on her back and moving her feet up and down like a girl with ADHD. Her friends had other things to do at night, which caused her to stay alone in the tent most of the time.

"You are here!" She suddenly moved her head to the side, clearly sensing Fafnir's presence.

Fafnir suppressed a sigh before walking helplessly to her lap after throwing the mana crystals under the bed. Suddenly, she carried him into a tight hug and moved her fingers lightly through his inky-black hair.

"Still won't tell me?" Elizabeth asked before lying on her back again.

Fafnir wrote the word "Secret", causing her to sigh helplessly. But she understood that he didn't truly belong to her and he had his own life.

"Goodnight, then. It's too late, we have to sleep." Kissing Fafnir's head lightly, Elizabeth closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Fafnir looked at her face for a moment longer than usual. He didn't sleep, he couldn't even if he wanted to. But he pretended to, just to ease her.

For a brief moment, he remembered the face of the original Fafnir's sister.

She was one of the few dragons who didn't look at Fafnir with disgust.

She even promised that she'd take him out of the prison after becoming stronger. Unfortunately, she had failed and Fafnir himself died, leaving a loyal shadow that had only 80% of the original's personality.

Fafnir immediately dismissed the unnecessary memories and emotions. He didn't need a family or friends, he only needed to see his lord smiling.

However, his hollow eyes still softened when he looked at Elizabeth again.

'...Goodnight.'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.