Chapter 223: The Hunter Hunted

Near the edge of the forest, the swordsman, who had spent the entire time lounging comfortably against the trunk of a tree, suddenly jolted awake, his expression turning grave in an instant.

He reached into a pocket of his robe and pulled out a strange, circular piece of wood.

On the surface, there was nothing special about it. No carvings, no markings of any kind, nothing, save for a single crack running through its center, splitting it cleanly in two.

The swordsman studied it with hard eyes and touched the two halves together, only to find them coming apart again without resistance.

He hadn’t broken it.

Something else had.

"Shit, what the hell did that girl do?" he cursed, immediately grasping the implications.

The girl was dead.

She had been his plant, the one he’d sent to make sure their target was delivered to them. But who would have guessed that not only would she fail to return, but that she’d actually end up dead?

The piece of wood in his hand was a life tracker. A portion of the girl’s mana had been infused into it, letting him sense any change in her condition.

If it had shattered so suddenly, that could only mean one thing.

The girl was no longer alive.

He had no idea how or why it had happened, but the mere fact that a C-Rank Mid-Stage like her could die so suddenly was far from good news.

His eyes turned cold as he pulled out another object, a rectangular stone device etched with strange symbols.

He infused it with a trace of mana, and the moment it began to glow, he brought it to his mouth.

"Hey, we’ve got a problem," he said.

A voice answered almost immediately.

"Hmm, let me guess. She’s dead?"

It was the voice of his companion, the one who had gone on ahead to hunt.

The words threw the swordsman off. He couldn’t help but ask:

"How do you know?" he asked, trying to remember whether he had ever told him who the person he had sent to bring the girl there was.

He hadn’t.

And even if he had, how could the man possibly know she was dead?

The answer came without delay.

"Well, you see, I’ve got her corpse right in front of me right now," the voice said.

The swordsman’s eyes widened.

"Wait, what? Where exactly are you?" he asked, before immediately catching on to something.

The girl had died less than a minute ago.

And now his companion was telling him he was standing right in front of her body?

He didn’t think his companion had killed her. He was certain of that.

But that wasn’t what put him on edge.

It was the man’s voice.

He sounded calm.

The swordsman couldn’t help but grow uneasy, and he asked at once, almost to confirm his own suspicions:

"Is someone else there?"

"Hm? Someone else? No, why-"

The voice cut off abruptly, and the connection went dead a moment later.

"Damn it," the swordsman cursed, understanding immediately what had happened.

He put the device away and, without hesitation, took off in the direction his companion had gone earlier.

It was obvious his companion had been caught off guard by the girl’s killer.

And if that person had managed to kill her, it meant they were at least C-Rank Mid-Stage, possibly stronger.

His companion was a B-Rank Mid-stage, which should have offered him some measure of comfort.

But he didn’t know enough about the situation to stay calm, so he didn’t allow himself to.

’Just what we needed. Hopefully that lunatic doesn’t get himself killed,’ he thought as he sped through the trees at full speed toward the direction he remembered, extending his mana sense to sweep the surroundings for any trace of his companion.

Meanwhile, in the part of the forest where Selena was, another battle had already begun.

Not long before, Selena had finished interrogating the girl. After some effort, she had managed to learn part of the reason why the girl had targeted her.

She had been sent to capture Selena and take her somewhere.

By whom?

The girl didn’t know, or at least that was what she had claimed.

Still, Selena had caught an important detail in her words.

She was supposed to bring her to a specific location, where others were already waiting.

That had immediately put Selena on alert.

She’d extended her mana sense and swept the surrounding area, quickly picking up someone approaching from a distance.

She didn’t know who it was, but she didn’t hesitate.

The girl was no longer of any use to her.

So Selena killed her without a second thought, then masked her presence once more.

Shortly after, she sensed someone arrive.

A young man, probably barely into his twenties, emerged from the trees and made his way quickly to the spot where the girl had been standing only moments before.

The instant he arrived, he saw the girl’s corpse lying beside the tree.

He examined the body for a moment before pulling out a device and beginning to speak.

Selena listened closely and quickly understood he was the girl’s accomplice.

She made her decision at once.

She would strike now, while he was distracted.

From what she could sense, the other party was at least somewhat stronger than her in rank.

A B-Rank, at minimum.

She couldn’t afford to confront him head on, which meant she first needed to gain some kind of advantage.

A surprise attack would give her exactly that.

She knew she couldn’t simply run away and, judging by the man’s words, he hadn’t noticed her presence yet.

Still, it was only a matter of time before he started searching for her.

She had to make her move now, while she still had the chance.

So, without making a sound, Selena channeled mana into her blade and her legs.

Then, without wasting another second, she lunged forward and attacked.

Although the other party was strong, the sense of danger he gave her was nowhere near that of an A-rank.

And Selena could tell, because she had already had the chance to fight against many A-ranks in that dimension.

This meant he was a B-rank, a rank above her, but he was still within her reach.

Sure, he might be hiding part of his strength, but that didn’t change much.

Regardless, she couldn’t simply run away without alerting him, so her only real option was to attempt an attack.

That way, at the very least, she’d get a better read on the situation and could decide what to do next based on it.

But no matter how stealthy she’d been, he was still a B-Rank, and sure enough, the moment she was a step away from him, ready to cut his throat, the other party moved at incredible speed, barely managing to block her attack.

"Whew, that was close," he said as he immediately put some distance between them, his eyes locking onto the attacker who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Well, aren’t you a sneaky one?"