"Let go of me!" the man in my hands yelled, his voice hoarse with panic as he thrashed like a fish out of water, limbs flailing wildly in a useless attempt to break free. His boots scraped against the dirt, sending up small puffs of dust as I dragged him away from the others.
"Oi, stop fooling around," I muttered, my tone casual, but my grip unforgiving. Without warning, I dug my nails into the side of his head.
"Augh!" he cried out, his eyes going wide as he froze in my grasp.
"Yeah, now shut up," I said flatly, continuing my slow stride forward. My fingers curled deeper into his scalp for a moment, just enough to make him whimper.
Reaching a clear space a few meters away from the group, I raised my hand and conjured two tall metal poles, each about three meters high. They emerged from the ground with a metallic groan, standing two meters apart like grim sentinels.
"Huh, what are you going to do with those?" Sammy asked, approaching from behind, her steps surprisingly light considering the tension in the air.
"You seem quite energetic with all the activity going on," I remarked, half-turning to glance at her. "Is it because of what I did?"
Sammy tilted her head up at me, brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't know. The subject is just interesting to me. But enough about me—how are you going to torture this guy?"
She waved vaguely in the direction of the man still squirming in my grip, like he was a minor detail in her growing curiosity.
"You'll see in a bit," I replied, my smile sly as I dropped the guy unceremoniously onto the ground with a dull thud.
He let out a grunt as he landed, quickly curling up and clutching at his head. But I ignored him for now. I held out my hands and began conjuring fine, glowing wire between my fingers—thin, yet strong enough to cut through bone with enough force. Each strand shimmered slightly with embedded mana, the air around them crackling faintly.
"What are you going to do to me?" the man asked, his voice shaky now. He struggled to sit upright, eyes wide as they darted between me and the glowing wire.
"Hmm… I never asked your name," I mused, glancing down at him with mock politeness. "Mine is Kitsuna Draig—"
I stopped myself mid-sentence, blinking. "...Oops."
"Hey, dumbass, it hasn't even been a week," Kayda muttered, her voice dry and unimpressed from her spot behind me.
"Sorry, I got caught up in the torture and forgot about it," I replied with a sheepish laugh, scratching the back of my head.
"Draig?" Grandenzil echoed, a curious glint entering her eye. "So you're the rumored adopted child."
"Draig? No wonder you're so strong," Sammy said, eyes wide with realization.
I shrugged, half-embarrassed. "I'm not forceful, though. I don't even have a class."
"You don't have a class?!" Sammy yelled, her mouth hanging open.
"Yeah," I said, casually looping the wire around the man's wrists and ankles. "I might be faster than you guys, but I'm not stronger."
"You don't have a class, but you're faster than my men? How does that make sense?" Grandenzil asked, stepping closer with a skeptical frown.
"You do know who my mother is, right?" I said, smiling awkwardly. "Yeah, that beast is my teacher too."
Grandenzil visibly shuddered. "That makes sense, I guess. I never want to meet that woman again."
"You guys fought?" Kayda and I asked in unison.
"No… it was a massacre," Grandenzil admitted quietly. Her eyes lowered, and her voice grew distant. "If she hadn't let me escape, I would've died."
'I can use that to my advantage, I guess,' I thought, tying off the last bit of wire. The man was now tightly bound at each limb.
"Huh. Okay, good to know," I said, nodding at Grandenzil before looking back down at the bound black panda.
"What are you doing?" he muttered weakly, his voice cracking.
"I was going to give you a simple blood eagle," I said, smiling coldly. "But I thought about evolving it into a human eagle instead."
"Dumb name. Think of another one," Kayda chimed in from the side, arms crossed and brow raised.
"What? But it sounds cool!" I protested, frowning as I looked over at her.
"Change it, or do you want to join the King in his club?" Kayda said with a smirk, a playful edge in her tone.
"Club? Uhh, no thank you. Dan can stay in his club alone. I'll change it later, though," I muttered, face scrunching in distaste. I looked back at the panda. "Anyways, let's get this job started."
With a practiced pull, I tugged on the wire connected to his wrists, hoisting him up into the air. His arms stretched wide as he hung in a rigid T-pose. The muscles in his shoulders bulged under the strain, and I could hear his breathing turn ragged.
I took the wires connected to his feet and looped them around the two lamp poles, securing him in place with a few sharp knots.
"There. Now stay like that, little panda star, until I get back to you," I said sweetly, patting his chest before turning around.
I flexed my fingers, letting the faint ache of drained mana fade from my hands. 'That wire took too much mana for me to continue with this one,' I thought.
"Hmm. Anyone up for talking yet?" I asked, forming a small, razor-sharp knife from ice and holding it between my fingers like a toy.
"Fuck you, bitch! No one will talk just because of some torture!" snarled the nearest panda, glaring up at me with defiance in his eyes.
"I understand what you're saying, and I get it." "You guys trained not to break under torture," I said, shrugging as I reached out and grabbed him by the head. My fingers dug into his scalp. "However… I really hate it when people call me bitch."
He squirmed under my grip.
"Like, you know nothing about me. How do you know, or why do you think I'm a bitch? Seriously, it's irritating." I frowned, dragging him a few steps closer to the group.
"How would you feel if I called you… Angel Lovers?"
"Don't you fucking dare call us that!!" they all shouted in unison, their outrage immediate and loud. Even the one with the rod still lodged in his throat let out a muffled snarl.
"Sheesh. You know what I hate even more than someone calling me a bitch? Someone shouting so loud my ears might bleed," I said, rubbing my ear with a grimace.
"Why should we care? You just called us Angel Lovers," the one in my hand said, clearly offended.
"Oi, don't get so mad at me. What should I call you instead? Elf lovers… dwarf lovers… monster lovers… beast lovers… demon lovers…" I let each name drip off my tongue like poison, watching for any reaction. "Come on, speak up. I won't know what to call you if you don't say anything. Aaah, what about… devil lovers?"
The group went dead silent.
Their bodies stiffened, expressions frozen.
"Well, that's troubling," Kayda mumbled under her breath, her posture tense.
"Yeah… that's not good at all," I agreed, scowling. Without another word, I clenched my hand—and crushed the man's head.
Thud!
His body collapsed in a heap.
"What do you guys mean?" Sammy asked, glancing between Kayda and me.
"These guys worship devils. That's why torture doesn't really work on them," I explained, still watching the remaining pandas closely.
"How sure are you?" Grandenzil asked, her tone skeptical.
"When I listed the names, they only reacted to 'devil.' The others just irritated them. That word triggered something else entirely," I said, flexing my stained fingers.
You know what? Let's do this. I thought, stepping toward Sammy.
"Why are you moving closer to me?" she asked, backing up slightly.
"Well, I'm going to teach you how to torture people. What do you think?"
"That…" she hesitated, glancing at Grandenzil.
"If you want to, you can learn from her," Grandenzil said evenly, watching Sammy's reaction.
"Thank you. I'd like to learn as much as I can," Sammy said, bowing slightly, a determined spark in her eye.
'You wouldn't think we're enemies if you saw us like this,' I thought, hiding a laugh behind a crooked smile.
"Good, good. Here, catch," I said brightly, tossing the knife to her.
She caught it awkwardly. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Just come here. I'll show you," I said, turning to one of the pandas and kicking him squarely in the side of the head.
Thud!
He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
"Okay. Now spread this person out, face-down," I said as Sammy crouched beside the body. I burned his clothes off with a flick of fire magic, revealing the broad muscles of his back.
"Now, like this, we're going to remove his spine… without killing him," I said, grinning.
"Huh? Is that even possible?" Grandenzil asked in disbelief, while Kayda merely sighed and shook her head.
"Yes, of course it is. You just have to be gentle about it," I said, turning to another panda and preparing the same way. I straddled the unconscious man's back, conjuring another knife. "Just watch how I do it. Then you can do the same."
"Okay," Sammy said, eyes focused.
I placed the knife at the base of the man's neck, aligning it carefully.
"Start here. Make a mark at the middle. Then cut to the bone, about three centimeters to each side horizontally. From there, cut downward, all the way to just above the waist, staying close to the spine, and then connect the lines."
With careful precision, I followed my instructions.
"Now, peel the skin down like this."
"Augh!!"
"As you saw, this wakes them up. You would rather not knock them out again. They need to feel it. But you also don't want them to bleed out, so—burn the holes closed." I did just that, cauterizing the open flesh. "Be careful. Don't overdo it. You still need to work around the bone."
Then came the next step.
"Here's the hard part. With the knife and your strength, you won't be able to cut them normally. But with these restraints weakening them, we can. Watch closely."
I slid the blade under the second vertebra and slowly pushed down, adding pressure.
"You can't go too deep, or you'll kill him. Just enough to sever the bone—then pull horizontally."
After a moment of resistance, the knife cut through. I moved to the eighth vertebra.
"Now, choose one in the middle. This is the hardest, because you're starting from scratch. Cut the sides. Sever the muscles. Once loose, slide your hand under—then pop."
The bone slipped out, slick with blood.
"That's one. Now you can continue down. It gets easier as you go."
Sammy held the first vertebra in her hands, eyes wide.
"You can also snap them like this," I said, cracking the next one in half and pulling it free. "But you're too green to try that just yet."
I smiled at her, blood running down my gloves.