Chapter 216: [216] Poking A Dead Snake

"Didn’t you say we should always stay out of your way, captain?" one of the Sunborns asked as he walked towards the woman’s body.

Their sub-captain was on his knees, checking on the deep groove that had been carved into his neck.

"Shut up," he snarled, staring at Thalia with a scowl. The violent wench had finally been quenched. With five spears in her chest, there was no chance of survival.

It didn’t matter how violent you were, death would always bring silence.

The Sunborns returned their gaze to her and frowned. "But what is so special about this woman, captain?" the first man frowned.

"I’ve seen you take down a frost bear alone without breaking a sweat. Some even say you are as strong as the unit captain..."

The man next to him nodded and squatted down in front of Thalia, observing her closely.

"Yeah, and yet, this woman, a woman, actually managed to exchange a few blows with you?" He cocked his head to the side, then leaned a little closer.

"How did she—"

Thalia’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

"What the fuck—?!"

In an instant, his head was ripped off, his body spurting out blood onto her face.

"She’s still alive! Get away from her, now!" The others immediately tried to distance themselves, but they never got the chance to.

Booom!

Snow blasted into the sky, surrounding all the Sunborns. Flashes sparkled within the haze, screams followed, and when it cleared...

Thalia had wrapped her massive body around every single one of them, slowly squeezing the life out of them as they choked for breath.

There were towers and dungeons where the system changed the way the NPCs perceived players so that they could fit their roles, sometimes giving them new appearances in their eyes.

But this was not one of them...

This tower only altered their minds so that even in the face of a lamia, a skeleton or worse, the story would still play out the way it should have.

So Dimitri was able to see everything in crisp, clear detail.

He watched, eyes bulging out of his head, body trembling all over as his men struggled for their lives.

He watched as her coils constricted, as they grew tighter with each passing second...

Pop—!

The sound of their necks snapping was the final straw that pushed him off the edge. Dimitri had to get out of here. He had to escape her, to escape that monster!

Thalia rose up like a fiend, rising several feet tall and casting a shadow over him as she extended the coils she had kept hidden all this time.

She wiped off the blood from her face, and then a forked tongue slipped out of her mouth, licking it, before her cold eyes fixed on him.

Dimitri turned and he ran. The cold wind was chilling his bones, and the blizzard intensified. He ran. He tripped a number of times. He got up. He ran.

He kept running, but he didn’t go far before Thalia’s coils caught up to him, swirling around his body, lifting him into the air, towards her.

"Please! Don’t kill me! It wasn’t my fault. I was just following orders. It was my boss’s command!" He grovelled, begging for his life.

’I just need to stall for now!’ Dimitri thought, his heart filled with bitterness and rage. If he had enough time to heal the cut to his neck, then he could focus on escaping.

"Please—"

His breath suddenly became muffled as Thalia’s body grabbed tighter onto him, one part wrapped around his head, while the other tugged on his body.

Thalia watched as he flailed around, humanity lost in her magenta eyes as his body groaned.

He managed to hold on for a few seconds and then—

Snap!!

Dimitri’s neck tore into two parts like a thick cord of rope, a dying breath emerging from his throat as Thalia discarded him like a broken toy, turning her attention elsewhere—

<•••>

Slash!

Ragnar’s sword dug into the chest of one of the Sunborns, his sword bursting out of the other side.

He took a glance at where Thalia was and frowned slightly at the nasty sight. Right now, save for her human face, Ragnar could not differentiate her from a monster, and a powerful one at that.

Even now, his instincts were screaming at him to attack. His instincts had marked her out as dangerous, far too dangerous to be kept alive.

Thalia was the only one in their guild who was on the same level as them, so naturally, he had expected her to be strong, but not this strong...

The Sunborns were not weak. Each one of them was as strong as a talented player, maybe even stronger.

Dark was facing two of them, and so far, he was not doing so well. He had already gotten so many injuries, some nearly fatal.

Ragnar was fighting four, including their leader. He had managed to kill two, leaving only two left...

But Thalia had already wiped out all four who had attacked her, including their sub-captain.

His frown deepened. ’If I were to fight her, who would win?’

’This might be a problem...’

Clash!

The leader of the Sunborns suddenly lunged forward, swinging his sword in a horizontal arc, right at Ragnar’s neck.

Ragnar managed to raise his sword just in time, the weapons exploding against each other, flashes of steel filling the air.

"How dare you look away from me during a battle? How dare you insult me with your insolence?!"

His blade screeched over Ragnar’s weapon as he shoved him back with rage. He closed the distance between them, his sword whistling forward like a whip.

Ragnar raised his sword with ease, slamming it into the blade and deflecting the strike. He stabbed at the man’s neck, but he managed to get away just in time, the blade slicing through his neck and drawing blood.

The captain rubbed the blood with a scowl before turning his eyes back to Ragnar, his sword glowing blue.

The attack had been deep, but not deep enough...

Ragnar pointed his sword forward. "Your head will soon be mine."

"Tsk! Take it if you can, you beast!"

This time, the captain charged with the other Sunborn who had been recovering. The two of them came like two parts of a whole, each move efficient, each strike done with chilling lethality.

Boom!

Their weapons clashed as they usually did, but unlike before, a wave of frost suddenly wrapped around Ragnar’s blade, freezing it down to the core.

Ragnar pulled back the weapon and then he lashed out at the second Sunborn racing from the side—

Bang!

The sword shattered, and the Sunborn smirked as he drove his blade towards Ragnar’s chest, its tip shimmering with a strange green light.

Ragnar did not seem the least bit bothered that his sword had been reduced to a dagger. He easily knocked the blade to the side, and then his claws tore right into the man’s skull.

"I said never look away from me!"

The captain screamed from behind Ragnar, mid-leap. His sword was burning with a fiery, bright blue aura, his eyes glowing just as intensely.

"This time!" he growled. "You will die for your mistake!"

A large shadow suddenly loomed behind the captain, filling his heart with dread. He did not get to see what happened before Thalia bit his head right off his shoulders, tossing his body into the snow.

Ragnar stared at the body for a few seconds, his face twisting with disgust, then he turned back to Thalia, whose face was now caked with blood.

She had killed him just the way a monster would. No tact, no plan... just utter savagery.

It was a sign of someone who had given themselves to their inner beast at least once in the past.

Just how many people had this woman killed?

"I had him. You didn’t need to interfere."

Thalia met his gaze for a few seconds, magenta eyes boring into deep orange. Tension sparked between them, and then she turned away.

"We are all murderers, Ragnar."

"Don’t think to assume yourself better, jus because you do it with a sword."