The voice was faint but audible.
Though he could hear the voice, he couldn't bring himself to respond.
The world spun, and he felt a sharp, pulsating throb ring through his skull; each beat felt like a nail getting hammered in his skull.
"Young master…"
The same voice echoed again, messing with him as his consciousness swam in and out like a ship caught in a storm.
"Urgh!"
He let out a low, involuntary groan.
His vision blurred as shapes and silhouettes bled together.
Then, as his vision cleared, the world came into focus.
'Where am I?'
The sky above was tinged with hues of pink and orange, while the land beneath shone in golden hues. The slender stalks of the crops rustled with the breeze.
However, the scene around him was moving.
But he could tell that he wasn't moving his muscles. Then what was happening? This confused him until he found himself getting carried.
His arms were tied behind his back with coarse rope, his ankles bound together. He could feel the jostling of a shoulder beneath him—one of the wolf-kin warriors carrying his weight as if he were nothing more than a sack.
"Where? Where are you taking me?" He retorted in defiance.
He tried to reach for his sword, but failed to move his limbs. It was as if his limbs were tied, which he only found out later that he was tied.
"Young Master, you're awake…" Elior felt relieved.
Following the voice, he looked around him.
To his right, he saw Lina. Her limbs were tied, her clothes dirt-stained, her hair tangled, and her complexion pale. Her eyes were filled with panic.
Just beside her, he found Elior, who was held captive as well.
However, unlike him, the two of them had given up on their struggles. Their condition looked miserable, nonetheless.
Seeing their state, Valen couldn't help but gnash his teeth. His eyes turned bloodshot as intense rage welled up from within.
Just like before, he had failed to protect his allies.
This realization didn't sit well with him, and it stung him.
However, he couldn't understand what had led to this situation. He remembered he was holding his ground against three wolf-kin warriors. But after the last strike, everything blurred.
'I… I got hit. But what hit me?' He pondered.
Just as he started pondering about the battle, a sharp ringing throb assaulted him. However, the pain he felt now was in a different part than before.
He felt a stinging pain in his abdomen, the sharp shoulder blades of the wolf-kin warrior poking his abdomen.
"Urgh!" He let out a pained groan as memories started flooding in.
He remembered.
The battle. The blur of motion. The blinding strike from nowhere.
Though he remembered getting hit, he couldn't remember who attacked him. The searing pain was making the journey uncomfortable, but he endured the pain through his gritted teeth.
For some reason, he couldn't help but feel curious about the strike.
He could tell that whoever had struck him had avoided his vitals. If the person wanted to kill him, he'd have just struck his vitals.
But he avoided hitting his vital.
His gaze scanned around, searching for the culprit responsible for his condition. He spotted the three wolf-kin warriors with whom he had engaged before.
Combined with those three, there were altogether nine warriors.
But who among them could be the culprit?
He rolled his pupils, scanning the surroundings.
Then, his gaze landed on a smaller figure, shorter than the rest, with a wild mop of black hair jutting in all directions like a storm refusing to settle. The warrior was laughing, his shoulders bouncing with some joke Valen couldn't hear.
But Valen felt something stir inside him.
A wave of dread crawled up his spine. Though the warrior's face wore a grin, an oppressive weight bore down on Valen's chest like a boulder. His fingers twitched, trying to reach for a sword that wasn't there.
His breath caught.
Sweat slicked his brow.
'What's with him?'
He felt a shiver run down his spine.
His instincts told him to flee. But he couldn't even move his limbs.
Then his gaze fell on another, a tall, lean-framed individual with long, silver-grey hair just beside the short individual. Unlike the short individual who kept moving around and blabbering, he wasn't talking.
But he felt even more threatening than the other.
His composure was calm, but upon looking at him, it felt like staring at the dead silence of a foreboding forest.
'That one…' Valen swallowed hard. 'He wouldn't need to draw his blade. If we fought… I'd already be dead before I blinked.'
'Just what the hell's going on? Who are these people?'
Shame pooled in his chest like molten lead. The fire of confidence he'd carried earlier now felt pathetic, laughable.
How could he have ever thought he had a chance? He wasn't even in the same league. He was prey among predators.
If he had encountered these monsters, let alone fighting back, he wouldn't even have been able to lift his limbs.
These two individuals were already terrifying enough.
But when he saw Kael, he felt his soul slipping away from his body.
His presence wasn't loud or sharp like the others; it was something deeper. He felt like gravity itself, as if the world bent just slightly around him.
Valen's breath hitched in his throat.
Looking at Kael was like staring into a bottomless abyss; a silent void that pulled at your soul and whispered, "You are nothing!"
Valen's mouth went dry.
'This… This isn't strength….'
He couldn't even feel his heartbeat anymore. Even the searing pain from before was replaced by something even more terrifying— Fear.
Seeing them, he lost all his will to escape.
He knew he wouldn't even be able to escape if he tried. He could tell his life was at their mercy now.
Though he disliked feeling like this, he couldn't help it.
"Chief, you're back."
The people greeted Kael and the pack as they approached the village.