CHAPTER 36: NEWS SPREADS FAST

Nick, the unremarkable nobody. The small fry. The weakling who no one gave a second look to.

He’d just outplayed the two most powerful gangs in the War Beast Sanctuary, pitting the two of them against each other at that...

He quietly cackled to himself.

Beast Slayer would be gunning for Dido now. And there was nothing Dido could do about it.

Unfortunately for her, she was the only person that fit the bill for that kill steal — both the one strong enough to land such a killing blow, and the only one with such power that wields spears.

Naturally, Dido would retaliate regardless, since she was convinced that Beast Slayer was the one behind the kill steal on the Whiteclaw Snake King.

The two powerful gangs would start an all out brawl whenever they encountered each other outside of the Sanctuary soon enough.

Radiant beasts would be the least of the peoples worries soon.

And while the heavyweights slugged it out, bleeding their numbers and draining their resources...

Nick would be somewhere else entirely.

Hunting.

Watching.

Laughing.

They would be too preoccupied with fighting each other to go out on hunts of their own, leaving Nick to his peace and quiet, allowing him to go out hunting of his own accord.

And once he finally gains the courage to face off against Mutant beasts...

He would be unhindered in his hunt!

No risks of encountering the War Beasts or the Radiant Slayers!

Not for a while, at least.

Still, Nick had quite a ways to go before he was at such a level.

Sure, he’d gained a lot over the past week, but only in the form of Beast Armaments.

Unfortunately, even though his kill steals were successful, he would be unable to gain any Radiant Soul seeds from his kills, since he’d have to physically dig out the beast core from the dead beasts’ corpses and somehow manage to escape with it unscathed and unseen.

That was just plain impossible, and it would put an even bigger target on his back.

He could forget living a long life if he dared to pull something like that under Dido’s or Beast Slayer’s eyes.

***

A few hours later, Nick reappeared near the War Beast Sanctuary from the forest on the opposite side of where Beast Slayer and the remaining bits of his gang would return from, so that he could reduce any possible bits of suspicion coming his way — even though nobody would likely suspect him regardless.

But you could never be too careful.

However, he didn’t plan on sticking around for long.

All he wanted to do was show his face in public for a bit to give himself an alibi, as well as to fish around for any bits of information.

It was only 5 minutes later that the ragged and dishevelled Radiant Slayers — what was left of them — stepped through the entrance of the Sanctuary, garnering the attention of everyone nearby.

Especially with the body of the huge Mantis being dragged on the ground behind them — that was what garnered most of the attention.

After all, it was quite obvious to deduce just what had occurred.

Beast Slayer and his gang had set out on a hunt for yet another Radiant Beast, and it seemed they were successful in their endeavour.

But many people sucked in their teeth when they saw the state that Beast Slayer and his gang were left in.

They couldn’t imagine just what kind of struggle they had gone through!

"DIDO, YOU KILL STEALING BITCH SHOW YOURSELF!"

A ruckus was quickly caused by their return, and word quickly started to spread as Beast Slayer didn’t hide his blood lust for Dido and immediately shouted for her to show herself.

With interest and hidden glee, Nick watched all of this unfold from the side, while listening in on the conversations of those nearby.

"Did you hear that? Beast Slayer called Dido a kill stealer! Does that mean she’s finally retaliated against his Radiant Slayers after he stole the kill on her Whiteclaw Snake King! Damn! I’m getting all riled up just thinking about the incoming war between the two gangs!"

"Yeah! And Dido’s still not back from the hunt for some Mutant Beasts with her group! Is she intentionally hiding from Beast Slayer? Surely not right, since her War Beasts are stronger than his gang, especially now after the intense losses the Radiant slayers have suffered."

Murmurs of excitement, anxiety and all other sorts of emotions filled Nick’s ears as the area near the entrance quickly began to fill up with people, making the streets become reminiscent of a can of sardines tightly packed together, rather than a bustling market...

Meanwhile, Nick kept his smirk small while he snaked his way through the bundles of busy people.

He knew that he was completely free of suspicion at this point.

Now that Beast Slayer had essentially declared war on the War Beasts so openly after accusing Dido of being a kill stealer so openly, regardless of whether she actually did the deed or not no longer mattered.

After all, they said that information was the strongest poison when it came to large groups of people!

It all starts with one bit of false information, and if its pushed as the truth enough, then more and more people believe it, eventually drowning out all of the lies and deception, essentially making everything indistinguishable.

Nick wasn’t planning for such a thing to happen — he was nowhere near smart enough to have pulled something as sophisticated as this off in such a short time frame — but things were going better than he could have ever hoped.

After all, why should he directly interfere just for the chance of decreasing his suspicion, when he could sit back and watch his enemies do all the work themselves?

And he was having a hell of a time watching them do it as well!

’Man I wish I could stick around to see Dido return from her hunt! How I’d pay a thousand credits to see the look on her face when word reaches her ear of Beast Slayer’s actions near the entrance!’

Alas, Nick wasn’t planning on sticking around the War Beast Sanctuary any longer.

He had some research to do!