Chapter 16: Who Laughs Now?

Ethan looked at him for a moment before asking, "Why were you following me?"

The Laughing Fiend leader stared at him before suddenly laughing. "Hahaha! Do you think we’ll tell you?"

Ethan frowned.

A scream suddenly came from behind the group.

"AHHHHH!"

Everyone turned around at once. One of the Laughing Fiends was pulled backward and disappeared into the darkness.

"What?!"

"Save him!"

Several Laughing Fiends rushed toward the place where he had disappeared, but they stopped after only a few steps.

The forest was quiet.

The Laughing Fiend was nowhere to be seen. Only pieces of his body remained on the ground. His armor had been torn apart, and his body had been ripped into several pieces.

The Laughing Fiends froze.

"What happened?"

"Where did he go?"

"Something attacked him!"

The leader quickly looked around, but there was nothing. He couldn’t see what had attacked his companion, nor could he find where it had gone.

Ethan watched them from his seat for a moment before looking at the leader again.

"I asked you a question."

The leader looked at him.

"I ask the questions. You answer them."

The Laughing Fiend leader looked around the forest before turning back toward Ethan.

"You..."

He gripped his weapon tightly. He had already realized that whatever had attacked his companion was connected to Ethan.

"You think you can—"

Three shrieks suddenly came from different directions.

"AHHH!"

"HELP!"

"WHAT IS THAT?!"

The voices stopped almost as quickly as they started.

The Laughing Fiends looked around in panic.

Three spots that had been occupied by their companions were now empty. There was no sign of them anywhere.

"What happened to them?"

A few Laughing Fiends carefully moved toward the places where they had disappeared. They searched the ground and looked between the trees, but there was nothing.

Then one of them noticed something on the ground.

"There’s blood...".

A few of them began looking around nervously. The laughter that had filled the forest earlier was completely gone.

The leader’s grip tightened around his weapon as he looked at Ethan, who was still sitting on the Goblin Trailrunner.

The leader wanted to say something, but the words didn’t come out.

One of the Laughing Fiends suddenly took a step backward. His eyes moved around the darkness as fear slowly appeared on his face.

"I don’t want to die here."

He turned and started running.

"Wait!"

The leader shouted, but the Laughing Fiend didn’t stop.

He ran deeper into the forest, not caring where he was going as long as he could get away from this place.

A few moments later, a short shriek came from the darkness.

"Ah—!"

The forest became quiet.

The remaining Laughing Fiends stood still, their eyes fixed on Ethan. The leader took a deep breath before finally lowering his weapon slightly.

"We were sent to stop anyone heading to the other village."

Ethan said nothing.

The leader continued, "We can’t let outsiders reach them. If you get there, you could warn them or tell them what’s happening here. Once the two villages start communicating, things will become troublesome for us."

Ethan looked at him.

"So you were sent here to kill anyone who tried to reach the village?"

The leader nodded slowly.

"Yes."

He paused before adding, "There are sixteen of us in this group. We were supposed to intercept anyone who came through this area."

Ethan didn’t say anything.

He already understood what was going on.

The two villages weren’t supposed to communicate.

In his previous life, the other village had also been surrounded. The people attacking it had deliberately kept the two villages separated, sending groups like the Laughing Fiends to intercept anyone who tried to pass between them.

They didn’t want the villagers to know what was happening on the other side.

More importantly, they didn’t want the two villages to communicate and realize that they were both being targeted.

Ethan’s eyes moved across the Laughing Fiends.

So this had already started.

The leader took a deep breath and slowly lowered his weapon.

"Since you already know why we’re here..." He hesitated before asking, "Can you just let us leave?"

Ethan looked at him.

For a moment, he didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes was enough.

It was almost as if he was looking at an idiot who had just asked a very stupid question.

The leader understood that look.

There was no way Ethan was going to let them leave.

His face tightened. "Everyone, run!"

The remaining Laughing Fiends hesitated for a moment before the leader shouted again, "Go! Don’t stay together!"

They immediately scattered in different directions and disappeared into the darkness. The leader also turned and ran.

Ethan remained seated on the Goblin Trailrunner, watching them disappear between the trees.

They had made the wrong choice.

The Shadow Wraiths were already spread throughout the forest. Running in different directions wouldn’t help them.

A few seconds later, a shriek came from the darkness.

"AHHH!"

More screams came from somewhere farther away.

The sounds continued for a short while before the forest became quiet again.

Ethan waited for a moment. Through One Mind, One Legion, he could already see that none of the Laughing Fiends were still moving.

All of them were dead.

Ethan didn’t pay them any more attention. He pressed the starting button on the Goblin Trailrunner and continued toward the other village.

The interruption had delayed him for a few minutes, but it wasn’t enough to change his plans.