Ain't an Ordinary Girl

Chapter 27

Ezra, with cold eyes and black lines over his handsome face, looked around his surroundings. The scene that greeted him, the Knights and the few Paladins, was one that did not even scrape their minds.

It was gory.

Complete mayhem had broken out.

The putrid smell suffused the air, in which the heavy downpour and cold wind could not even wash away. Blood coloured the ground dark red. Remains of humans and monsters littered about. Their severed limbs, torsos, and guts were mixed together in the puddles of blood.

The turbid eyes of those with their heads intact, or just the heads alone, even those with halves remaining, were wide open, as if even at the moment of their death, the scene in front of them was too terrifying for them to take.

Vivid expressions of pure horror were still on their faces.

They had been played with, taken a chunk. However, since there was a lot to choose from, whatever kind of monster or beast that had created such an appalling scene overcame with great excitement and enjoyed its time, creating chaos in its wake.

Ezra and his men were no novices; they had experienced the same situation several times. Their stomachs could handle the foul smells and disturbing images well.

But that didn't mean they were ready for this.

Before they crossed, each of them readied themselves with tight nerves. There was tension on the other side, after all. Upon crossing, though they expected something to happen, like an ambush of some sort, at least it was not as what they were seeing now.

Wretched.

Even the weather worsened the atmosphere. Everything gave off a negative feeling. Negative to any possibility of survival. To any possibility of life.

"...Father, let us look around first before we make a conclusion."

Everett, who was no better, tried to pull Ezra out of his pessimistic mind. He knew that such a scene welcoming them right after crossing the Point had a great psychological impact. The scene itself was more than enough evidence to tell them how horrendous the situation had happened here.

He, like his father, was greatly shaken upon seeing the scene, anxious about his sister. But unlike his father, Everett refused to think negatively like him.

Each one of them thought that their enemy was only the humans: Mercenaries who were commissioned for the job. Monsters were negligible since it was rare to encounter them, considering how vast the Hunting Ground is. If, however, they did indeed encounter some, it's not as if it would be difficult to eliminate them.

Not difficult, yes, because the kind of monsters they were talking about were the ones called Strays, those who were left outside their Dungeons.

As for the overwhelming number of monsters involved, horrifyingly enough, there was an even more terrifying creature that toyed with and preyed on both sides. It only meant one thing...

There was a Dungeon Break.

'Was', because by the looks of it, it has ended. However, how long did the Dungeon Break last? And after the Dungeon Break, how brutal did the people here have to deal with the remaining monsters who failed to return to their respective Dungeons and became ballistic?

People who frequent this place have this common knowledge that monsters who fail to return to their Dungeons decrease in strength and other capabilities. They are called Strays, and they are much easier opponents.

The exception is if their number is overwhelming, exceeding their opponents' and charging altogether at once, the advantage of the battle would reverse.