Chapter 146: Pity For Enemies
The creature locked its eyes onto Joe Joe, it gave a low growl and snapped its jaws one more time. Joe Joe just calmly stared at it.
He decided that when he was done killing it, he would take a closer look, to see if it was just a mutated rodent, or a diffeeent beast.
The creature hesitated, it was bigger than a dog, and smaller than a horse. They all were, but it didn’t make them any more dangerous than regular dogs, or dire wolves.
On the above world, these creatures would be classified as low-tier at best.
After a while of snarling and plotting its next attack, the creature was seen to abandon all sense and attack as ferociously as possible, there was no attack pattern or technique. Just unbridled savagery.
The giant rat shot towards him, it’s jaw wide, ready to snap at a moment’s notice, but Joe Joe remained calm, his blade wailing faintly as he gripped the handle.
He gracefully sidestepped as the creatures jaw snapped shut on empty air. As it landed on the other side, it made a gurgling sound as blood dripped from its mouth.
Joe Joe watched with his eyes wide as he realized that this creature had snapped its jaws so hard, it injured itself, its own teeth had pierced its gums so hard that it was now bleeding profusely.
These were signs of extreme starvation, it not only angered the man, but it made him feel a sliver of pity towards the creature.
’I wish I didn’t have to put you down.’ Joe Joe frowned as he twisted his blade, spinning it in his arms and occupying a stance.
The creature didn’t seem at all bothered by the blood dripping from its mouth, infact, it seemed to go into even more of a frenzy as it tasted that blood.
It reminded Joe Joe of the way he would catch dire wolves in winter. He would freeze the blood of dead creatures on his blade and stick his blade in the snow.
When the wolves came to lick the blood, ther low temperature of the ice popsicle numbed their tongues so they did not realize when they would start to run their tongue along the sharp edge of the blade.
As they licked the edge of the blade, their tongue would shred slowly, but because their tongue was numbed, they wouldn’t feel it, and then they would bleed.
The scent of their own blood would cause them to go into a frenzied state, because they would not know it was their own blood.
In this case, this creature must have known that it was its own blood, it must have felt the pain, but it was too starved to even care, all it cared about was eating.
Joe Joe sighed as the creature lunged at him one more time, this time he would put it out of its misery, Joe Joe might have been a seasoned warrior, a veteran. But he was a kind man at heart, he did not wish to see even his enemies suffer, which is why he always killed creatures as quickly as possible.
He never practiced torture, he could not bear to watch another being suffer slowly before approaching death, so he took the quickest route. He had mastered over a hundred ways to kill something, or someone in the quickest way possible.
The creature swiped at him with unbridled fury, but he was faster, he dodged through the air, and with one final slash; flesh and bone parted under his blade.
The creature was torn in half by his rapier, the life in its eyes was instantly drained. The snarling and snapping stopped, it just lay there, dead.
Joe Joe walked up to the severed creature and looked at it, there was a hunting of pity in his eyes as he squatted to take a closer look at the creature.
It really did resemble a rat, the features were the same, identical. He noticed that the fur on it skin was thicker and it reeked of a putrid stench.
He didn’t know what the creature was, or what it was called, so he just cleaned his sword on its body for the mean time, whenever he found a clean water source, he would wash it properly.
He never liked the sword to be stained with the blood of his enemies, he had spent years training to achieve something called a
But he had never perfected it, it was a technique where one could cut the limbs off a creature or slice it in half, and not get a single drop of blood on their blade.
He and Alaric had set out to learn it together, but Alaric mastered it first, leaving him behind. That was generally the story of their friendship.
Alaric was too gifted to the point it always seemed as though he left Joe Joe behind in life, one of the reasons the man decided to isolate himself.
He was never in any competition with the man, that was his best friend. All he was trying to do was bridge the gap. He wanted to be able to stand beside the man and be proud as an equal.
But this wasn’t the time for sappy memories, he had a mission to fulfil. He looked straight ahead. There didn’t seem to be any of these creatures lurking around for a few meters, that made him pleased as he didn’t want to have to unalive any more of them.
He had previously turned off his source of illumination in the tunnel to be able to fully concentrate on the monsters, so he raised his hand again as his hand illuminated the path ahead of him.
It remained quiet, only dripping water and distant clanging sounds that echoed through the walls, he did not know how far the castle dungeon slay ahead, but he knew that he had to be careful. One wrong step and he would be gone, down to the abyss.
He took one step, and then another, delving deeper into the depths of the tunnels.