Blood Assimilation

Brawler Randy realized the cruelty of the demons from listening to Liena speak with a visible change in her emotion. He wondered if she had seen such a scene many times, causing her to become affected emotionally when she talked about it. After listening to her talk as they walked to their destination, he suddenly interrupted her when he thought of something.

"Can they be saved if they've been planted with this Demon Seed?" Brawler Randy asked, even though he had an inkling of the answer to his own question.

"Impossible." As expected, Liena became agitated, stopping in her tracks, turning her body to face him. She coldly added: "Once you're affected by the Demon Seed, the only outcome is the death of the host to prevent the death of many innocent lives. Do you think I'll be on this mission if they could still be saved?"

"How are you so certain? Can't they be saved by extracting the Demon Seed? Is it from experience or just your speculation?" Brawler Randy tentatively asked her, not expecting her to answer, but unexpectedly, he saw Liena's face flash with anger and sadness before responding.

"Speculation? I have seen with my own eyes how my... someone had transformed and taken the lives of their own loved ones and the members of their village. Do you think I'll be on this mission if extracting the Demon Seed was possible?

After studying the corpse, it was discovered that killing the Demon Seed would also kill the host, as their lifeline was inexplicably linked." Liena explained, taking a deep breath to calm her emotions at the end of the explanation, realizing that she was losing control of herself.

Realizing that his questions were riling her up for some reason, Brawler Randy decided to not pursue any further. The two of them silently made their way to a village in the distance.

Not long after, they entered the village. However, the village was scarce and quiet with only a few people walking on the street. It was daytime, so it was strange for there to be fewer villagers walking about on the street. Furthermore, no one came to welcome them, even though they entered the village through their makeshift gate made from utilizing the logs from the nearby trees.

Liena, without bothering to talk to the villagers, began to look around the place, seemingly searching for the target of her mission.

"What are you doing?" Brawler Randy couldn't completely understand her actions of merely staring at every house they passed by without uttering any words or approaching them to confirm the location of her target.

"I'm looking for my target." Liena tersely replied.

Also, before that monster left, I heard it muttering something in human language, saying: 'This can't be happening. I only wanted to protect them.' Then, as if in despair, that thing let out a piercing shrill before running away in the direction of the nearby forest where our local wild beasts lived."

Before Brawler Randy could ask any further questions, the old lady had taken advantage of his contemplative state after hearing her recount to enter her house and lock the door, leaving him standing all alone in front of her house.

While he was initially stunned and taken aback by her actions, he didn't dwell on the quirkiness of the old lady and turned around to leave, only to notice Liena coming toward him.

"Did you find them?" He asked when Liena stood before him. He thought Liena would attempt to leave him behind, but she defied his assumption and came back.

Liena replied: "No. We're leaving."

Bewildered, Brawler asked: "Where are we going? Weren't we here to find your target? Why are we suddenly leaving?"

"I already know where they might be, and they are definitely not in this village." Liena replied and began to walk away, prompting Brawler Randy to follow behind her.

Following the clues discovered, Brawler Randy, led by Liena, traced the location of their target to a hut in the forest that housed wild beasts. When they arrived at the hut, they saw a man holding a wild beast that looked like a giant rabbit, seemingly coming home from a hunt. When he saw them approaching his hut, he dropped the rabbit, about to run.

At this juncture...

Shockingly, Liena changed her tone and cold demeanor, displaying an amiable smile as she addressed the man.

"Hello there, mister. There's no need to be afraid. We're just hunters looking for a temporary space to rest, and we happened to notice your hut in the forest."