90 Removal

"Who the fuck are you?!"

Gruo couldn't contain his anger anymore. He had been utterly defeated, on top of being humiliated. Even though he had lazied around for a few years, he was still unmatched in the village, so him losing in such fashion was disgraceful and shameful.

The Berserker only harrumphed, not even deeming the bloodied person in front of him to be an adversary. The fat man was obviously skilled with his spear, but to someone like a Berserker, it was akin to being poked by a needle.

The only thing it had remotely paid attention to was Gruo's aura, and that was because of its eerie and sinister nature. It could feel its evilness and its instincts told him that countless beings had suffered for it to be this vicious.

The commander's anger rose another notch, clearly realizing that the titan was dismissing him like an ant. How did this fucking brute dare ignoring him? He shouted insults after insults, to no avail.

Seeing his insults provide no results, he switched targets. He started yelling curses at the soldiers around, but nobody answered him. Their faces were all stone-cold, as if they had done this their entire lives. Their discipline honestly shook him.

On top of this, he looked at their armor, and realized that they were all brand new and made of iron. Who the hell were these guys? They couldn't be the related to the persons they had captured… Right?!

"Your ugliness truly matches the nastiness of your words..."

Gruo heard a voice, and he immediately associated it with the woman who had ordered the charge against them. She was certainly responsible for this whole debacle.

"Show yourself and explain what's going on. If your explanation's satisfactory, I'll consider letting you go"

Even if he was on his knees and covered in bruises, Gruo refused to give an inch of control. He always obtained everything he wanted in his life, and to him, this situation would be no different.

"Oh?"

What he didn't expect was that the air around the soldiers changed. The change was simply brutal. It was as if he had just fallen into a pit of icy water, and there was nothing he could to extirpate himself from it, slowly drowning in the process...

For the first time in his life, Gruo felt something he had never felt before… Fear. A fear so strong that his earlier bravado instantly vanished. His eyes darted crazily around him, trying to find the source of this monstrous oppression.

That's when his gaze landed on the Berserker, and when they met its black, abyssal eyes, he felt like a dust particle entering a new, unknown universe. His powerlessness, his insignificance… Gruo wanted to speak and try to free himself from this influence, but his body had already relinquished control… He was like a lamb ready to be slaughtered.

"You asked us who we were, but when we tried to present ourselves, you killed our representatives..."

Eloise smirked when she delivered her snarky comment, but one could definitely hear the enraged underlying tone. The envoys were, after all, soldiers she had trained. She still had trouble accepting the fact that their deaths weren't her fault.

As for Gruo, he was still aware of his surroundings, even though he couldn't move nor speak. When he heard her sentence, he felt his heart break. The war machine that had subdued him in mere minutes was actually the ones they had offended…

Eloise turned to Thomas, and nodded in his direction, which prompted the Berserker to deactivate its skill. The previously suffocating aura immediately vanished, and many of Albanel's soldiers fell unconscious.

Unfortunately for Gruo, he wasn't one of those lucky bastards.

"What… What are you talking about? We… We haven't met anyone here! It's a misunderstanding!"

Eloise couldn't believe her ears. The fat and ugly pig in front of her was now denying seeing their envoys? How shameless could this man be? Her rage, which had been boiling for a while, finally erupted.

*BANG*

Without any warning and without letting any time for Gruo to react, she violently kicked his head, making it whip backwards until it crashed into the ground in a loud thump. The hit was so violent that Gruo's lower jaw was completely shattered.

The commander couldn't even scream in pain anymore, and only made agonizing grunts, with tears falling down his puckered cheeks.

The soldiers around were surprised to see their General lose her temper, as she had always seemed in control. From the looks of things, it had been a facade…

"Why…"

Gruo somehow managed to speak this one word, which made the already furious Eloise explode further.

She took out the sword from her waist and stabbed Gruo's left leg.

"AHHHHHHHHH"

This time, the pain had overwhelmed the one felt in his jaw, and he let out an ear-piercing scream that tore across the plains.

"Lie again, and I'll use this sword to cut off each of your members individually"

Eloise had learned a few tricks from Derrick in terms of cruelty, and this was one she wouldn't mind trying on such scum. 

Gruo gulped. He could see it in her eyes… This woman was serious. He was used to seeing this type of craziness in his Lord, so recognizing it here was easy.

"Plus, this wound won't kill you quickly… I'll make sure you bleed out like the pig you are"

The fat commander furiously nodded while controlling the pain as best he could. His muscles and tendons were definitely done for, so cooperating now was the only option. Plus, being butchered was not a good alternative.

While concentrating to a maximum, he spoke.

"I... understand…"

"Good. Are our envoys still alive?"

He nodded.

The soldiers and Eloise's expressions changed to one of relief, but before she could rejoice, she quickly asked another question.

"How are they?"

Gruo grimaced when he heard the question. How the fuck was he supposed to tell them that they were being tortured and had probably gone insane!?

Eloise immediately saw the badly hidden expressions, and her body tensed up. For this scumbag to make faces like this meant that they were in serious trouble… The remaining sympathy she had in her heart crumbled.

The anger she had previously alleviated suddenly surged once again, and this time, she let it all out with a single sentence that shook the heart of every soldier present.

"Leave none alive…"

***

"Why is it so long? Wasn't catching a couple of rats easy?"

The scrawny Lord was comfortably sitting, and he kept playing with the glass of wine in his hand, making it roll between his fingers. Such luxury in this region was practically unheard of, and it came at great costs. In his case, he had sent soldiers to retrieve it in the nearby villages that were close to the border. They had to cross the forest on their trip, so most of them lost their lives, but who cared…