novelraw Chapter 726 In or out?
Chapter 726 In or out?
Chapter 726 In or out?
A couple of seconds later…
The four beast-men lay sprawled across the cracked black stone, limbs twitching faintly as residual poison sizzled through their systems. Their muscles refused to obey them, every breath coming out ragged and uneven. Yellow fur was matted with sweat, claws dug uselessly into the ground.
Damon stood over them, hands clasped behind his back, calmly examining each of them as if they were interesting specimens rather than defeated enemies. "Huh," he muttered. "Decent physical resistance. Strong instincts. Not bad at all."
One of the beast-men turned his head with visible effort and spat to the side. "Ptui."
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Still got the spirit, huh? That's good. I'd be disappointed otherwise."
No one answered him. The group chose silence, their eyes filled with hostility and pride, even as their bodies betrayed them.
Damon sighed softly. "You guys are really making this harder than it needs to be." He crouched down, resting one elbow on his knee. "Let's get a few things straight. I don't know who you are. I don't know where you're from. And more importantly, I don't have any grudge against you."
His gaze sharpened. "But I do need information."
The scarred beast-man bared his teeth. "Kill us if you want, blood-stinker. We won't—"
Damon snapped his fingers. The poison inside their bodies surged violently for a split second. Not enough to kill. Just enough.
All four beast-men convulsed, muffled groans tearing from their throats as their nerves lit up in agony. Veins bulged beneath furred skin. One of them slammed his forehead against the ground, unable to stop himself.
Then, just as abruptly, it eased.
Damon stood back up, expression almost apologetic. "See? That's exactly the part I wanted to avoid."
He tilted his head slightly. "Now listen carefully. I'm not asking you to betray secrets, swear loyalty, or kneel. I'm offering you a deal."
He raised one finger. "You answer my questions."
A second finger. "I remove all the poison from your bodies."
A third finger. "You walk away alive, intact, and free to do whatever the hell you want next."
His smile widened. "That's it. Simple. Clean. No tricks."
The female beast-kin clenched her jaw, eyes burning. "And if we refuse?"
Damon shrugged. "Then the poison stays. It won't kill you quickly. That would be boring. It'll just make it harder and harder for you to move… to think… to survive whatever this place throws at us next."
Silence fell again. Seconds passed. Finally, the scarred beast-man let out a low, bitter chuckle. "Tch… you're a real bastard, you know that?"
Damon smiled warmly. "I get that a lot."
The beast-man exhaled slowly. "…Fine. Ask."
Damon's eyes gleamed. "Good choice."
He leaned forward slightly. "First question. What exactly are you guys, and what world did the Golden Throne rip you out of?"
The scarred beast-man hesitated for a moment, then finally spoke. "We are Kharuun, children of fang and sun."
Damon nodded. "And your world?"
"Ravakar," the female answered this time, eyes never leaving Damon's face. "A savage world of endless plains where the horizon never ends, and the sky bleeds red at dawn and dusk. There is no mercy there, only the law of strength. The strong devour the weak, and the weak are erased. If you think you can march into our world and enslave us, you are gravely mistaken. You will never survive there. In front of our raw strength and power, your poison is nothing."
Damon chuckled. "Like I said before. All I am doing is gathering information. I have no intentions of visiting your world anytime soon. Moving on to the next question. Do you have any special treasures on you?"
Ptui! The beast woman spat this time. "So this is what you were after all along. We Kharuuns only rely on our strength and ability to walk our path. Our God gives us our strength. We do not need cheap trinkets to defeat scum like you."
"You actually did not let me finish." Damon sighed lightly and laughed again. "When I say treasures, I mean treasures to keep track of your friends. For example, if I kill this guy over here, is there a way for you to know?"
Everyone immediately froze in shock. In their eyes, Damon was a madman who was capable of doing anything at any time, so they so they went rigid all at once.
The scarred beast-man's pupils contracted. "You touch one of us and the hunt will never end. Our kind does not forget blood. It is not a trinket but we know when one of us is dead."
While Damon was chatting with them, he spotted a spatial rip a few feet away from them. Without wasting time, he immediately scooped up the entire group and dashed to the spatial rip.
"Alright. Chit chat is over." Without explaining anything to them, Damon tossed one of the beastmen into the spatial rip. He then moved a few feet back and put the rest of the group on the ground. "Now, can you check if he is still alive?"
The group gaped at Damon in absolute shock. Damon had actually expected them to be like the treants, knowledgeable about the rifts but the group was definitely not in the know. They stared at him as if he had already sent their friend to death.
One guy quickly took out what was most definitely a tooth and stared at it. Only after staring at it for a whole second, he let out a breath of relief. "He is alive! He is alive!" The beast man shouted. Then right in front of Damon, his face changed.
The tooth started decaying and crumbled into black powder. The beast man speechlessly looked at Damon. Damon could only give him a helpless smile. "I did what I had to do." He did not bother explaining anything more.
He spotted another spatial rift some distance away and then tossed two more of the group into the rift. Only one was now left standing. "Do you have the teeth for those two as well?" Damon asked.
Anger and resentment filled the beast man's heart.
"I removed their poison." Damon explained.
The guy's expression changed a little as he hurriedly took out two more teeth. Nothing had happened to the teeth. "They are fine. They are indeed fine." The beast man started rejoicing. But in just a few more seconds, even these teeth decayed and disappeared.
The beast man looked shocked. He looked up at Damon, his eyes searching for explanation but the next moment, his head was sliced clean and his blood essence was sucked out.
The beast man speechlessly stared at Damon.
"I am sorry buddy. I am a bastard and I got family back home. I need to get my ass out of here while I am still alive and kicking. I needed to make sure that it was my poison that killed your buddies and not the rift. Unfortunately, you are the only test subjects I got. Besides, if I had let some of you go, would you have forgiven me? I already have too many enemies. Can't afford to leave one more alive."
He ransacked the corpse and put all the stuff in his spatial ring before he scanned horizon. Soon, he spotted another spatial rift. Without any hesitation, Damon sprinted forward and this time, he dove head first into the rift.