The dark tide was a special kind of "natural disaster" in this world.
Whenever the tide of darkness swept across the land, dark creatures would spawn from the shadows. More monsters would sneak into the Goliath Empire's borders from the Dark Lands in the south.
Even worse, some would step directly out of the void, chasing those entangled by darkness.
Veronica ran at full speed through the forest, with the injured Muken behind her.
The male hunter's right arm had been torn open by sharp fangs, bleeding non-stop. He'd dropped his weapon too.
Right now he could only run while using his left hand's short gun to stay alert for the monsters chasing them from behind.
Two incredibly fast "hounds."
They could easily catch up and bite them to death with those mouths that split open like petals, but those cunning, sinister things didn't do that.
They were toying with their prey, enjoying the scent of human fear.
Veronica had to turn back and grab Muken, helping him run faster. As long as they could escape into the border fortress's patrol range, they'd have a decent chance of being rescued.
Gotta say, they were really unlucky.
The two had just been chasing cultists into the Klan Mountains when those lunatics held a dark ritual right on the mountain. Even more unluckily, the sky suddenly plunged into darkness—the dark tide arrived.
That damn ritual, which shouldn't have succeeded, summoned terrifying void hounds.
Those thin, smooth monsters appeared and immediately bit all the summoners to death, then leaped into the shadows, jumping back and forth through the darkness, chasing and biting them all the way.
The young hunters were no match for void hounds. These weird creatures had extremely strong vitality. The sharp hooked claws on their four limbs and their sharp tails were all terrifying weapons that could kill a hunter in one hit.
Between their rows of densely packed fangs was terrible void toxin too. The bitten Muken was already having trouble breathing. If he didn't get treatment soon, Veronica didn't know what would happen...
"Hang in there, Muken! We're almost there... almost!"
That's right, the Klan Mountains' border was just ahead. They were about to return to the fortress's surveillance range. As long as they found an outpost...
Whoosh!
Suddenly, darkness surged ahead. A half-man-tall black creature leaped out from the churning darkness. It opened its petal-like mouth and roared, its scarlet elongated tongue like a twisting whip, even licking Veronica's neck!
They'd caught up!!!
These damn things were just toying with them—first letting them see hope of escape, then snuffing out all hope, enjoying the look in their eyes when they fell into despair.
Veronica stared at the two rows of constantly twisting eyeballs on the hound's head and drew her longsword, ready to fight to the death.
"Even if I die! I'm cutting off that damn tongue of yours!"
"So their weakness is the tongue?"
A voice suddenly came from the shadows beside her, startling Veronica so much her sword shook. She turned to look and saw a tall figure in black clothing and a leather hat slowly walking out from the forest.
David Frank!?
She never dreamed he'd appear at a time like this.
"Hmm... 1777 life value?"
David stared at the void hound, his pitch-black pupils seeming to contain whispering evil spirits.
No wonder the young hunters were no match. For this strength of dark creature, you'd need a second-tier hunter like Videns...
Actually, facing two void hounds, even a second-tier hunter would need to consider their own abilities.
But before David, it was the opponent who needed to consider.
The hound was very wary of this human who'd suddenly appeared. It had already sensed the enemy's powerful life energy—something a human shouldn't possess...
Whoosh!
Just then, another void hound suddenly pounced from the darkness behind David. This dark creature was bigger and more sinister—compared to toying with enemies, it preferred the thrill of a one-hit kill!
"Watch out!"
Veronica, seeing the hound's sneak attack, cried out in alarm. But the next moment left her stunned.
Boom!
A dark red fist shot out from behind David, viciously striking the hound's waist and abdomen. Massive force erupted, splitting the entire void hound in two with a "splat"!
"It... it shattered... dead!?"
Veronica's eye twitched. The pouncing hound exploded into bloody chunks mid-air, purple-red blood splattering everywhere, forming a small rain shower...
The other hound saw its companion instantly killed and actually backed up a few steps in fright, like it wanted to run.
How could David let it escape?
He grabbed his hand axe and rushed forward in a few quick steps, but the creature's form flashed as its long tail turned into a pitch-black shadow and whipped over.
Worthy of being a cunning creature—turns out it was just trying to lure the enemy into approaching.
The word "fear" didn't exist in the void hound's dictionary.
But likewise, the word "dodge" didn't exist in David's vocabulary. He let the spike-covered tail pierce his body and grabbed the tail tip that was clamped by his powerful muscles.
Then Veronica had the privilege of witnessing a bloody fight between man and beast that completely exceeded her imagination... That noble young master was actually engaging in close-quarters combat with a dark creature?
No, was he really that David Frank?
What the hell was that terrifying claw?
Veronica's brain had gone blank. She just watched as David chopped off the hound's tail with his hand axe. His monster claw clashing with the hound's sharp claws and fangs didn't lose ground at all—he even directly tore off one of the void hound's long legs!
The hound's agility advantage had vanished. David continued pressing forward. His combat skills had shown visible growth over these two months of training.
The sharp hand axe blocked the hound's fangs. The Hand of Monster pierced its throat, pulling the enemy's body back with force, then lifting his knee to viciously strike its heart area.
The dying hound's back suddenly split open. Blade-like claws stabbed out from its shoulder blade position, straight at David's eyes.
The pale Heretic's Arm extended out, steadily grabbing the claws. The hound's movements immediately froze. It seemed to have forgotten what it was going to do next...
The Hand of Monster cleanly pierced the void hound's chest and dug out its heart.
The entire fight lasted only a minute. David's monster claw activated only six times total, while the void hound's constantly swinging claws and venomous fangs also dealt over a thousand points of damage to him.
But before his life value of 48,830, that thousand-plus damage seemed meaningless.
David chopped off the hound's limb with one axe blow, then went back to pick up the shattered hound's claw, skillfully absorbing and devouring them. Life energy surged by over three thousand points again.
After doing all this, he came before the stunned Veronica, his gaze coldly looking at her... chest.
"Miss Veronica, you're safe now."
The awakened Veronica, supporting the now-unconscious Muken, backed up two steps with a complicated expression. "You... who exactly are you..."
At this moment, she didn't have the mood to confirm where David's gaze was really wandering.
"I'm David Frank. Did you lose your memory?"
David shook his head. Actually, he was still pondering inside whether to just kill these two hunters right here.
Because of Videns, hunters from the hunters' guild were all within David's vigilance range. If some big shot really wanted to deal with him, he didn't mind killing every lone hunter he encountered.
Actually, he'd been waiting for those hunters for a long time now. Videns died so inexplicably—the other side shouldn't just let it go easily.
But this retaliatory attack never came. He was certain the hunters' guild had noticed his monster hunting activities over these two months. Why weren't they making a move?
Veronica looked at the thoughtful David, her mind also recalling some rumors.
Supposedly, a supernatural being who kept hunting dark creatures had recently appeared at the border... So that person was David Frank?
"Lord David, you... how exactly, how exactly did you do it..."
Veronica was suddenly very curious about where David's incredibly powerful strength came from.
This definitely wasn't the kind of power that cultists' half-assed rituals could control...
You have to understand, advancement rituals that could truly grant supernatural powers weren't as simple as buying groceries at the market. Any ritual had an extremely low success rate. The reason Videns had worked so hard for so many years and still couldn't advance smoothly was exactly this.
Seeing David had no intention of answering her question, she persisted: "Sir, why don't you join the hunters' guild?"
Heh... You're inviting me to join the hunters' guild?
David's face was expressionless.
"The frontier hunters' guild doesn't reject hunters using some special methods to fight darkness... With your strength, you could help more people." Veronica said seriously.
David couldn't help rolling his eyes and raised his hand to point at Muken on her back. "If you don't save him soon, he's gonna die."
In his eyes, Muken's health bar was already nearly empty.
Veronica jumped in shock, only then remembering her companion's terrible condition...