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“This is no place for you to die…” Rikshasha said as she pushed them from behind. If there were any more sacrifices, she would have truly lost the last shred of pride she had left to face her master.

“If you’re that worried, then hurry on and inform Master of the situation,” she said. Only with that mission did the Naga Rangers finally move on, becoming one with the darkness.

“Keeeeeeergh!”

While escaping the battlefield, half of the Naga Rangers were caught by the Striped Wasps’ sensory ability and were ripped in half, but the other half managed to escape safely with their lives.

“Pathetic…” Rikshasha muttered. She was sure that in the past, she would have had the same fate as the ones who were caught and killed. Before she met her master and regained her pride, she was no different from them.

But she was a different being now. Rikshasha’s form melted into the shadows, and in an instant, two Wasps that had been shredding the Under-Elves beside her were suddenly torn to pieces.

“Fight.” She reappeared in the midst of the scatter of flesh and blood, raising her own kin’s body and repeating, “Fight.” She had somehow torn off the limb of a Wasp and was holding it like a dagger.

She put one foot forward and emerged from the shadows, repeating the same order. But her clanmate was still frozen in fear and refused to move an inch.

“How unfortunate,” Rikshasha said. Her clanmate had grabbed her other free hand. She looked down at him, sighing. “Yes?”

Unable to understand her words, he continued to tremble, wide-eyed. Beside him lay the body of a young Under-Elf on the cold, hard floor, with blood spewing from her mouth and her body curled up like a tiny sparrow that had been shot.

And in her chest was the Wasp’s limb that had been, just moments ago, in Rikshasha’s hand. The young Under-Elf whose life had been spared grew pale at the sight of his kin, who now lay dead beside him.

Rikshasha repeated herself once more. “Fight.” But once again, the young one refused to listen to her, and he too was stabbed through the chest like his counterpart.

Rikshasha looked on bitterly at her clanmates’ corpses before running through the passage. The swiftness she had gained from her evolution into an Under-Elf Runner allowed her to easily outpace the predators.

“Stop!” she shouted, swinging her blade around while charging forward. One of the Under-Elves who was running ahead of her screamed as one of her arms was sliced off. Rikshasha yelled, “Fight! If you aren’t going to fight, you have no right to live! I’ll end your miserable lives right here!”

A clan that had been tamed like livestock and lost the courage to even take care of their younglings, let alone their pride, would be better off being wiped from the Underworld. That was what Rikshasha truly believed.

Thus, she continued to mercilessly cut down the endless waves of her clanmates without hesitation, as they ran toward her in their attempt to flee from battle.

“Kaaaargh!”

“W-what the hell are you doing!?”

The rest of the Under-Elves screamed and shouted at Rikshasha’s sudden betrayal, but none of them dared to fight back. That was how pathetic the Under-Elves had become. They were now a pitiful shadow of their former glory that were content with just existing, lacking even the instinct to survive.

Rikshasha had no intention of presenting such weaklings to her master. What her master needed were capable warriors and scouts, not these worthless scum. She said, “If you’re not going to fight, then I’ll personally take your lives.”

“What are you doing… We just want to find a safe place for us to live…”

“Peace is to be fought for, not begged for. If you can’t prove your worth, then what does it matter to you?” Rikshasha replied coldly as she stepped forward, wiping blood off herself. With every step she took, dozens of Under-Elves scattered backward.

At that moment, a few dozen other Under-Elves tried to run past her in their attempt to escape, but they too became pieces of flesh.

“There’s only a handful of enemies. Fight and prove your worth.” Rikshasha’s eyes, words, and actions all screamed of nothing but pure madness.

“Uuwuhh…”

They may have all started off as members of the Under-Elf clan, but having lived under Kim Jin-Woo and been reborn as an Under-Elf Runner, Rikshasha was too ferocious and tenacious for the other Under-Elves.

Eventually, they succumbed to pressure as they turned around and ran toward the epicenter of the battle.

***

The Striped Wasps were repelled. As they had only numbered fifty or so from the start, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Under-Elves, who had turned around and chosen to fight them head-on.

In the end, the Wasps lost half of their troops as they hastily retreated.

“Argh…” Countless Under-Elves lay in pain all across the battlefield, hugging their bodies as they groaned in pain from all their wounds. Rikshasha’s expression, however, only turned colder at the sight.

It wasn’t difficult to drive out the Wasps when the Under-Elves rushed to fight them. No matter how much they might have lived as slaves and tasted defeat, their innate stealth and agility remained.

Although the sacrifices were great, no matter how many clanmates died, the casualties couldn’t compare to the number of meaningless dog deaths that had occurred during their retreat.

Thus, Rikshasha only grew angrier. If they had only fought like this from the start, there would have been even fewer sacrifices, and the Naga Rangers wouldn’t have died meaningless deaths either. The flames of a thousand fires burned within her as she realized how pathetic her clan was.

“From here on, we will fight and fend off all capable foes.”

“W-we have no weapons, and we have too many casualties with us,” one of the Under-Elves whose arm had been ripped off retorted.

Instead of replying, Rikshasha picked up a dozen of the Wasps’ limbs that were scattered all over the floor and handed them to the Under-Elves.

There was only hardship for the Under-Elves from that point on. Rikshasha thoroughly evaluated the strength of her foes, determined when to fight and when to flee, and the Under-Elves who didn’t fight were slain by her hands.

By now, only five hundred Under-Elves had survived. They had been reduced to half the numbers they had initially possessed when they began fleeing their pursuers.

But Rikshasha wasn’t bothered in the slightest. No, in fact, she grew prouder as her clanmates dwindled over time. Although endless hostile gazes were directed at her, she was genuinely delighted that her clan had become somewhat usable. All she could think of was how much use they could be to her master, no matter how little.

Days and nights passed as they continued employing guerrilla tactics against their pursuers. The 8th Floor labyrinth masters had no intention of letting the Under-Elves go so easily. Their greed knew no bounds, as they recklessly charged at the Under-Elves with hunger in their eyes.

There were times that Rikshasha and the Under-Elves had to fight head on, and there were also times they had to retreat due to the sheer difference in strength. But with each battle and escapade, the Under-Elves became more formidable warriors.

Despite paying with their blood, they unwillingly but gradually rose from livestock, to slaves, and finally to warriors. Finally, with just over three hundred of their people remaining, the Under-Elves were able to reach the edge of the 8th Floor. But there was someone waiting for them.

“Well, what do we have here? I didn’t believe the rumors, but I’ll be damned.” A huge man stood in their way. His head was that of a lion, with a full mane covering his neck. His body was muscular beyond belief, and he was known as the Strongest of the 8th Floor, the Blood Lion Marcus.

“The Underworld has been a mess these days, and I haven’t been able to hunt properly. You, the Under-Elves, will serve as fine prey.” Marcus grinned as he revealed his large fangs.Behind him were a hundred more Blood Lions that looked just like him, and they too growled.

“Please clear the path. We have a destination to head to, and we mean no trouble,” Rikshasha said as she stepped forward.

But Marcus simply rolled his large eyes and burst into laughter. “What did this puny Under-Elf just say?”

The tension grew thicker as Marcus’ cold laughter echoed far and wide. All the fighting spirit the Under-Elves had managed to claw together through all their battles and conflicts was blown away by that laughter alone.

“Yes, livestock should behave like livestock.” Marcus snorted at the Under-Elves, who were shivering with fright. He was already behaving as if he had all three hundred Under-Elves in the palm of his hand.

Rikshasha was infuriated by his arrogance, but she was even more angry about her clan slowly listening to and following Marcus’ words.

“If you don’t fight, I’ll personally…” Rikshasha had no choice but to block her clan’s path of retreat as she raised her scimitars. Her scimitars, having tasted more of her own kin’s blood than her enemies’, had evolved into Demon Blades.

The Demon Blades growled deeply, and the Under-Elves instinctively raised their hands as they grabbed onto random pieces of creatures’ legs, teeth, and horns as weapons.

“Oho, a lowly Under-Elf is trying to play King?” Marcus growled as he stared hard at Rikshasha. Until just a moment ago, he had been looking down on her, but he was now vaguely curious.

“I only serve one King,” Rikshasha replied as she quickly surveyed her surroundings. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to escape. There was only one path to the 9th Floor, and she was on it.

If she could, she would have sent a message to the Fortress via the Party Hall on the 7th Floor, but she had unfortunately taken a wrong turn while fleeing from her pursuers. There were too many eyes on her and her clanmates for her to retrace their path.

“Everyone, listen up!” Rikshasha raised her voice as she addressed her kin. "The pursuers are too close for us to retreat. You don\'t have to fight to win, just focus on getting to the 9th Floor!”

As the entirety of the 9th Floor belonged to Master, all they had to do was make it past Marcus’ army and survive. At that announcement, some life and hope returned to the Under-Elves.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to pull here, but none of you are going to make it to the 9th Floor. Don’t worry, not all of you are going to die. There are plenty of ways to make use of an Under-Elf.” Marcus spoke as if he were a cat talking down to a mouse. After all, he had the right to speak that way. Given the circumstances, he was the perfect predator, and the Under-Elves were the perfect prey.

To make matters worse, the Striped Wasps the Under-Elves had thought they had outrun were slowly approaching them, as the chaotic buzzing of wings grew louder and louder.

“I haven’t even gotten to taste my meal, and yet pests are already gathering. How unlucky for me.” Marcus frowned as he turned around. “Capture the young and healthy ones alive, and kill off all the old and weak ones.”

As soon as Marcus gave his orders, the hundred Blood Lions that lay waiting behind him started sprinting towards the Under-Elves. At the same time, the buzzing of the Striped Wasps’ wings reached a crescendo as their abominable swarm appeared behind the Under-Elves. There was nowhere for Rikshasha and the rest of the Under-Elves to turn to.

But at that moment, the rear line of Marcus and his Blood Lions were interrupted by a disturbance. One by one, they started to run, howling ferociously.

Flap!

In the midst of the battlefield, in a situation where the Under-Elves had been about to be trampled on by Blood Lions at any moment, black feathers began to flutter accompanied by the sound of flapping wings.