Her fingers tightened around her sword hilts. She took one step forward and brought her right blade down hard, stabbing right through his throat. She shoved her weight into the hilt until the steel tip actually sank into the soil beneath him.

She pulled the weapon out, and another messy splash of blood fell on her boots and leather armor.

Then, she felt weird.

She didn’t feel bad for the guy at all. She felt nothing as she killed him and she felt nothing as she stared down at him. There was not a single drop of pity or guilt.

As she stared at the body, something snapped in her head.

Slowly, a twisted smile stretched across her face.

’Humans are nothing but fair skinned goblins.’

She felt a massive surge of adrenaline and her mana heart pumped the mana into her blood stream.

Octavia looked up at the sky, her hands trembling but this time, it wasn’t from fear.

Adrian followed her gaze and looked up at the sky too, only to see a massive, bright full moon up there. This only meant one thing; Moon Princess blessing was activated at maximum capacity.

Octavia almost vanished.

She was so fast that all they could see, was a blur. She ran past Vance and Tessa and crashed straight into the thickest group of Avarice soldiers.

Adrian hid behind a thick tree trunk. His brain could barely process what he was seeing.

Octavia turned into a literal meat grinder with her dual swords as she cut every single person around her like they were mere pieces of meat. Three kills a second and sometimes four. It din’t look like she was fighting soldiers anymore.

Necks sliced clean, severed hands fell to the ground and flesh was cut deep.

She ducked under the quick thrusts and weaved through wild sword swings. A soldier stepped back to block? She’s slide right into his guard and gut him. If someone rushed her blind, one simple parry and their windpipe was gone.

There was no hesitation in her movements and it almost looked like she was dancing between the soldiers as they fell.

Red blood splashed onto the trees and random body parts literally rained down on the grass. And among the the horrific screams of dying men, Adrian heard something way worse that made his hair stand on end.

Octavia was laughing. A loud, unhinged cackle as she killed people around her.

Adrian stood still as he stared. He couldn’t even form a sentence and instead, he rubbed his face and let out a dry chuckle.

"This is completely insane."

Next to him, Claire stared at the girl butchering most of the army by herself.

"She is a monster." Claire whispered in awe. "I am a C rank... and I am not entirely sure I could beat her right now."

The other four kids snapped out of their shock. They saw Octavia taking all the kills and their competitive instincts kicked in.

They were not going to be overshadowed by her.

Vance roared, spinning his Guandao as he jumped into a group of swordsmen. Tessa and Milo formed a two person team, blocking and attacking perfectly. Hugo was even more reckless than Octavia as he jumped into groups of people just like her, but instead of dodging everything, he ate the the attacks that weren’t life threatening.

Multiple cuts piled up on his body every few seconds, only to get healed in an instant.

"Encircle them!" Adrian yelled to his sixty knights. "Do not let even a single one escape!"

The heavy steel knights charged down and took positions, encircling the entire group.. They crashed into the panicked Avarice soldiers that were trying to run and forced them back in.

The battle was not a battle anymore, it was a one sided execution.

Thirty five minutes later, the valley was dead silent.

Five hundred Avarice soldiers lay dead in the mud.

Adrian walked towards the group and inspected the corpses. The enemy troops were poorly equipped, so they only had cheap chainmail and leather armor.

"Strip the bodies." Adrian ordered. "Take the chainmail, the swords, and the rations. Wrap the loot in their tent canvas and we’ll head back. Though, we’ll rest in this forest for a few days."

His knights looted the dead before tying the cheap armor into massive bundles and slung them over their shoulders.

They did not march back to camp immediately. Instead, they rested in the forest for the night.

The next morning, they began the trek back to Vaneira’s territory.

Adrian did not want to rush. He took a full week to get out of the forest return trip and used this time to let his knights relax. But he also had his own things to do.

Every night, when they set up camp, Adrian dragged Claire into the woods.

"Fight me." Adrian said.

They fought barehanded for hours. Adrian got knocked down, bruised, and bled like there was no tommorow. But he relentlessly absorbed the experience. He memorized Claire’s footwork, learned how to shift his weight so he could avoid her attacked and learned how to predict a jab by watching her shoulders instead of her hands. Though, most of it was instinctively learned.

His Pain Tolerance skill let him train past the point of normal physical shutdown and Claire literally started treating him like a wild animal. She stopped holding back her C rank strength just to keep him down.

By the time they finally saw the war camp in the distance, Adrian’s experience and his reflexes were much sharper than before.

Adrian walked straight to the command tent.

General Vekar was studying a map when Adrian walked in. The General looked up, surprised to see him alive.

"Baron Sterling... you’re back." Vekar said as he stood up. "Report."

"The dam is secure." Adrian said casually. "The enemy troops have been eliminated."

Vekar nodded slowly. "Excellent work. Did they put up much of a fight? Two hundred men can be tricky."

"There were five hundred." Adrian corrected him.

Vekar froze. "Five hundred? Are you certain?"

"Yes." Adrian nodded. "We killed all of them. I left the looted armor with the quartermaster outside."