Unedited*

The ten figures watched him from high up in the trees. What he had thought would be a rare occurrence—finding them in this place—had become commonplace.

In just four hours since he’d decided to venture into the forest, he’d already encountered 12 of them.

’Even though I killed two, I can’t fight these ten. It took me over three hours to kill just one the normal way. I’ll die if I fight them." Edward swallowed hard and began to back away slowly.

Since he hadn’t fought with his summoned beast in the last battle, he prepared to feint, so he summoned his earth snake, which behaved strategically but foolishly, tripping over some branches that then fell to the ground along with it.

The Sanguines watched this with slight confusion, but the moment they hit the ground, a powerful earth magic exploded.

BOOM!

The explosion sent up a huge cloud of dust that blanketed the surrounding area, alerting the Sanguines.

They watched intently until the smoke cleared. Then they realized their target had vanished.

One of them took a deep breath, inhaling all the air around him. Then he looked in a certain direction.

They exchanged a brief glance and nodded.

Within seconds, without saying a word, eight of them shot off in pursuit of the target that had just fled. The other two dropped to the ground and walked over to the emaciated body lying there.

One of them took out some bottles of blood and splashed them over the body from head to toe. The body quickly absorbed the blood. All the bottles were emptied onto the body, causing it to slowly regain its color.

Then he began to shake himself several times, until he stood up. He was alive, but now he had no head.

One of them frowned and finally spoke. "I don’t sense the brother nearby."

"Is he dead too?" asked the other.

Their voices weren’t that strange, despite their appearance and the fact that they had no mouths. They were very human voices.

"I don’t even sense his corpse nearby. What happened?"

"That’s strange. Could that intruder have eaten him?"

"Yes, surely. He looked like someone who could eat us."

"Sigh, that guy tended to let his guard down often. And being strong enough to devour this one, I’m not surprised he was able to do it."

"Forget it." One of them waved his hands and started walking away. "I’ll go look for him. We can’t let him keep eating. Wait until he recovers. Remember that without a head, he won’t have much intelligence, so be careful."

"All right, leader. I’ll keep that in mind."

--

Edward ran frantically, dodging ranged attacks and blows that shook the ground.

The trees around him kept changing, but he couldn’t find a way out of the river. Instead, he had to make the decision to venture further into it, as he found himself surrounded by even more of them.

There weren’t just 10 of those guys around here; it seemed they were split into more than six groups.

’There are so many Sanguines... How many are there? And what exactly is this race supposed to be? They’re way too strong and dangerous!’

’Shit.’ Edward suddenly stopped when he sensed a new group joining the rest and standing in front of him, still at a distance.

He couldn’t go that way.

But he looked to the right and couldn’t go that way either. To the left... behind...

There was no way out anywhere, and the distance between him and the first groups wasn’t very great. Suddenly, he had found himself in a desperate situation.

He needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

He looked for a place where he could hide.

The large trees around him covered most of the landscape, casting shade and barely allowing the afternoon sun’s rays to filter through their leaves. Those enormous trunks seemed to date back thousands of years or more.

They seemed to hold the secrets of a world from the past.

They provided good shade, but because of them, it was hard to see the surroundings.

But he soon found a rather peculiar tree trunk. It was thicker than the rest and seemed to be rotting, with large holes revealing small cavities large enough for a human to crawl into.

’It’s not a good idea to hide in such an obvious place when so many people are chasing you, but...’ Edward jumped over to it and, without giving much thought to the possible consequences, he leaped into the cavities in the tree’s roots.

If he stayed outside, he would have to face more than five groups of ten Sanguines each. He would die in seconds. If they found him inside this cave, at least he could try to take out one of them before fighting the rest.

Of all the options, he thought that was the best one.

Inside the caverns, everything was dark and damp. Somehow, that seemed to help him avoid the smells. However, they didn’t smell a scent on him. Rather, they sensed him through his blood.

So he braced himself for an attack.

It wasn’t long before he began to hear the sound of footsteps. Dry branches snapping under his enemies’ feet, and also some words.

"At least they speak my language and seem human," he thought, hearing them for the first time.

"Did he escape?" asked one of the Sanguines outside, carefully scanning the surroundings.

"It seems so... Can anyone else sense it?"

"The last time I sensed it, it was right here..."

"What a strange situation. Did it turn invisible?" One of the leaders, the last to arrive, said this as he approached. "It also seems capable of devouring us. The other person in charge of patrolling this area vanished without a trace."

"Ability to eat us? Is it some kind of evil beast?"

"I don’t know... It didn’t look like one." The one who gave the information shrugged.

"We’ll have to split up and search for it. If it’s not an evil beast, it’ll be hard for it to escape us. Search every corner."

"Yes, sir."

As the search began, Edward’s heart was in his throat.

’There are more of them than I thought...’ He swallowed hard. There were over 100.

A hundred Sanguines!

"If I’m not mistaken, the minimum level is 50... Going out there would mean facing over 100 five-star students specialized in blood arts, with the ability to become immortal and superhuman stamina... I’ll die if I do that."

He swallowed once more, but tried to calm himself. When they mentioned that they had to search every corner, it meant that, somehow and for some unknown reason, they hadn’t found him.

He had to remain hidden.

Several groups were tasked with searching for him in this area. Among them was the group that had forced him to flee earlier.

They discussed various things, and after a while, the one who was missing arrived... accompanied by another.

’That’s...’ The wounds on the latter’s body and the fact that he had no head made Edward tremble slightly. ’It can’t be, can it?’

He pulled out the head he had stored in his ring and examined it closely. But just then, a faint jolt struck him, and the head seemed to tremble.

At the same time, on the other side, the headless body, which was walking in a strange manner, also trembled.

Edward immediately put it away and gripped his sword.

’W-what the hell? Not only do they have that strange immortality, but they can also revive the dead...’ He didn’t know how many times he’d swallowed hard today, but he did it again.

He was scared, for the first time in a long time.

This situation was more dangerous than he had imagined.

"What happened? Why is he trembling like that?" The leader of the Sanguines approached the one he had assigned to watch over the headless one.

"Sir... to tell you the truth, I have no idea. I wasn’t trained to deal with the Headless Ones."

"Could it be that he sensed something?" The leader frowned.

Just then, everyone watched as the Headless One began walking toward... a huge, oddly shaped log covered in strange protrusions.

He walked unsteadily and stumbled once over the roots before lunging forward like a frenzied madman.

He’d found something!

But soon, a wooden stake pierced right where his head should have been and went all the way through to his back.

"What are you doing, you headless idiot!" The leader tried to grab him at the last moment, but he was too late. "Damn it, you bastard, do you think they give away the Blood Elixir for free?!" He roared angrily and began kicking the new corpse furiously.

Everyone was stunned.

Including Edward.

Although Edward wasn’t stunned by what was happening outside. In fact, he didn’t hear the leader shouting.

He was stunned because right in front of him, covering his mouth and preventing him from speaking, was a...

"...S-Sanguine," he whispered.

"Shh." The man—who looked much like the others outside, except that his head wasn’t encased in glass—signaled for him to be quiet. "They can’t sense you, but if you make a sound or move the wrong way, not even I will be able to save you. I don’t have time to fight so many Corrupted on my own."

Edward swallowed hard, again, and nodded. He didn’t know who he was, but just before the headless man threw himself against a wooden stake, he’d thought he’d been found and was about to attack without hesitation.

Fortunately, this man stopped him in time. You could say he saved him.

The man noticed that things had calmed down outside again, so he smiled. "Follow me," he said and began walking toward the depths of the earth.