Under the black, starless sky, Faust reached the outskirts of the village.

  With anxiety heaving his heart and the weight of possible failure on his mind, he was doing his best to remain calm, or at least as calm as he could.

  Inside the village, he could already see the great illuminating light created by the flickering fireplace. At the same time, Faust could hear the singing and dancing of those creatures echoing through the village.

  Touching his axe with one hand and massaging his temples with the other, he recalled his simple plan.

  Eliminate the alone monsters silently. Use fire to create chaos and isolate the ones close to the campfire. Finally, kill the ones still alive.

  What he would do after that… he had not given much thought yet, maybe something with the sacrifice rune. Being unsure if he was even going to be able to survive in the first place made him unable to think further than immediate precautions.

  Faust focused on moving stealthily through the village. Using the alleys and paths between houses to hide, he managed to approach an unknowing monster which was leaning against the wall of a house.

  Holding his axe, he glanced around and made sure the monster truly was alone.

  A clean strike to the neck… that’s all I need.

  With quick steps, he rushed the monster from its side.

  Unable to react, the monster’s neck was cleaved by the axe. Because of its poor quality and skill of the user, the attack met spine, halting the motion.

  Making noises and moving erratically, the half-dead monster tried to counter attack.

  No!

  Faust pulled the axe to the side, cutting the monster’s neck open. Blood sprayed on the white snow alongside the felled monster’s body.

  He quietly moved the monster to an alley and took the time to recover the energy he had just spent. Killing things was difficult, not only physically but mentally too. Yet, something about the mental part had changed. Faust was not paying much attention to it; what he was doing was simply to survive.

  Monsters were enemies. If they were enemies, they would kill each other. Watching others kill during the road to the dungeon entrance maybe had prepared him slightly for that, but practicing it with his own hands made the lesson much more etched into his being.

  Killing… Faust looked at his hands, both dirtied with blood, then shut his eyes and opened them again.

  For a moment, he hesitated, but focused again. He stood up and cleaned the blood off the blade while thinking about a different matter.

  While moving through the village, he noticed a pattern, or was it more appropriate to say a common detail? While the village had houses, they were all empty, having no furniture or creatures. Faust had observed this through their windows, and apparently every house was like that.

  This made the houses look like cheap decoration instead of actually serving a purpose. Though this cheap decoration funnily had a purpose to Faust, even if not the intended one of being lived in.

  Indeed, what a coincidence… too much of a coincidence.

  Faust shook his head in disbelief.

  There’s no way this is just some coincidence. There must be a reason for that… everything has a reason.

  He had the impression these buildings served as a way for the dungeon to create an illusion of a life-like city or to tell a story, though the first theory was much more accepted by himself.

  Finishing his short rest, Faust ignored his suspicions for now and found his next target. With focus, he held the blade with both hands, trying to finish this with one strike and not allow the monster to even attempt to fight back.

  Once he judged the time to be ideal, he rushed towards the white monster as he guided his axe through the back of the enemy’s neck. The strike was cleaner than the first, cutting through the monster’s neck before being torn off, half-decapitating the creature.

  Blood sprayed on Faust’s face and body, creating crimson strokes as if painted by an artist. Once more, he hid the monster’s body in one of the alleys.

  …

  Faust’s axe cleaved from behind and was just as quickly removed, making the monster fall dead to the ground, the fall muffled by the deep snow. While moving the monster to an alley, Faust’s eyes were oddly focused on the task and his face mostly expressionless.

  Five…

  He noted inwardly. Five kills. In the matter of around half an hour, he had already racked up a total of five kills inside the village. Slowly, the sensation of killing turned easier to accept.

  In any case, he spent more time hunting the creatures inside the village and stealthily eliminating them. His thief skills came in handy once more, allowing him to be almost completely silent, even if some external factors contributed to that, such as the strong wind and muffling snow.

  After an hour or so, he had eliminated a total of nine creatures. He moved around the village and found no other isolated creature, leaving him with the hardest part of his plan.

  Killing the ones around the campfire.

  Thankfully, not all of them wielded weapons. Apparently, only the males did so, while the females only danced senselessly. Even better, the males had poor weapon skills; even training for only a week and a couple of days, Faust could already tell his axe skill was in another league compared to these monsters.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Getting his axe ready, he left the safety of the hidden alleys and walked through the now empty streets towards the flickering light where chants echoed. Soon enough, Faust found himself facing the gigantic campfire, with its bright flames reaching higher than the tallest house and glowing stronger than the azure moon.

  Around it, pale monsters dressed in dark leather quickly took notice of him, their eyes meeting his figure. Concurrently, the women in white dresses layered by flowers reduced their pace of dancing, observing the young man with crimson eyes.

  The foes spoke amongst themselves in a language Faust could not comprehend and had no intention of doing so.

  Holding his woodcutter axe and being smeared by blood proved to be enough of a visual threat, seeing as how the males drew their weapons and the females stepped back. A silent and looming aura of violence roamed the area…

  With sluggish steps, eleven males walked towards Faust in an arc formation, leaving the closeness of the fireplace, while Faust mimicked them and also walked closer, gradually picking up his pace.

  It’s all or nothing… all or nothing. Faust inhaled, his weak muscles tightened and eyes targeted the great light coming from behind those monsters.

  “All or nothing.”

  His steps grew quicker, not having time to even sink in the snow.

  It only took a moment before he was right in front of the monsters.

  Suddenly!

  A sickle came aimed at his neck, cutting through the howling wind!

  Faust stepped back and dodged the attack by a considerable margin.

  Then, a blade beside him came aimed at his abdomen, forcing him to twist his body and counterattack with an upward slash of his axe.

  His attack connected, leaving a gaping vertical wound on the monster’s torso. Yet, before he could capitalize on the dealt damage, another attack was aimed at his chest. This time, he was too close to dodge and the blade pierced, but was stopped by the multiple layers of leather he wore, including the armor.

  Damn it!

  Many attacks kept coming at him, making him unable to attack or react properly. Fighting over five creatures should be difficult; fighting double that was… easy? Many times, the monsters overlapped each other’s attacks and messed up their motions, even injuring each other during these attempts.

  Thanks to that, Faust kept his combat plan fairly simple. Dodge. React. Run away. Repeat.

  Counterattack was not too effective, but that was alright; after all, it was not his main plan.

  Faust waited. Waited for an opportunity; that was all he needed.

  Once he noticed some of the injured monsters had lost their speed or simply seemed “disconnected” from the fight, he used the chance.

  Taking multiple steps back and then running away, he reached a great distance as the creatures sped up to pursue him. Then, he turned towards them and bull-rushed with all his speed, breaking through the formation of injured attackers.

  Not losing his momentum, Faust bolted towards the campfire while already readying his bottle of wine. The women who had retreated at the sight of combat used the chance to run away even further, while the males were forced to violently change their directions in an attempt to reach Faust.

  However, he was faster!

  Faust reached the gigantic campfire, its flames flickering violently. Strangely, the pursuers did not dare to approach him beyond a certain point, as if they were afraid of the flames they were dancing around just earlier.

  That’s it!

  They stopped in their tracks and did not come closer, only observing Faust from a distance.

  With a quick motion, he positioned the wine bottle in a way the flames would ignite the liquid inside. Then, he passed it through the campfire.

  As expected, the wine within the bottle instantly ignited, stronger than it should normally be. The heat grew so suddenly Faust could only hold the wine bottle for a couple of seconds before being obligated by his own body to throw it towards the monsters.

  In a matter of instants, the wine bottle shook itself against the closest monsters, instantly igniting their bodies with a strong orange flame. The snow around them melted just as quickly, and then the flames began to spread out to anything close enough, including other monsters that were not even hit by the alcohol.

  “Gah! Ahh… Ahh!” Silent screams echoed in the village, replacing the rhythmical hummings from before.

  Faust was surprised by such potency; he had not expected anything close to that. The shock was so intense it broke his concentration as he glanced at the campfire behind him and fearfully distanced himself from it.

  However, Faust had not yet finished what he planned to do. He rushed towards the distracted creatures which were not engulfed by flames, and quickly disposed of them with strikes to their heads.

  Seeing their monstrous friends dying to the flames, those still alive did not even pay attention to Faust and basically allowed themselves to get killed.

  Just as fast as Faust killed the unlit monsters, the ones which were engulfed by flames turned into a dark, coarse powder on the ground. Faust's eyes flicked towards it, a part of his mind noting the strange residue, but the thought was lost under the weight of his exhaustion and the remaining threat.

  Faust paid no mind to it. Instead, he contourned the campfire and rushed towards the escaping female survivors. They amounted to less than the males and were also slower.

  They screamed in a sorrowful tone, apparently fearing the one killing their kind and now pursuing them.

  That one… he followed the few of them, he tackled them from behind and killed them with ease one by one, as they did not even attempt to resist.

  Slash!

  While knelt top of its body, he cleaved the last survivor’s head in half, Faust had successfully eliminated every enemy in the village.

  Dropping from the enemy’s body to the side, he sat on the snow as his breath recovered.

  Differently from earlier, his expression was not one of fear, neither was it of rage or desperation. His black hair guided by the wind as his face bore a weak frown.

  How pitiful. These creatures… they were so disorganized. This was… easy. At least easier than I expected, far easier. I was prepared to die, but was met with whatever that was, instead.

  At least… Faust removed his headgear, his eyes staring at the campfire not too distant. At least there was something interesting.

  What in the damnation is that fire? It spread so strongly, so fast and… it was weird. I’m sure it’s not normal. I mean, it was already obvious it was not a normal fire. I don’t think any normal fire would survive this wind.

  When I was close to it, it didn’t feel hot. Such a mystery… that’s quite exciting. I wonder what that fire is. But before that…

  Faust’s glanced at both sides, then above, then back at the snow, then to the village right beside him and back to his axe.

  Why am I still here? Haven’t I killed all of them? Wait. Wait… Wait.

  Was that not the answer?

  “Shit,” he covered his mouth. “Did I do all this work for nothing?!”

  Shaking his head in disbelief, he could not accept the case.

  “No way, that cannot be.” Putting his axe back in his belt, Faust immediately stood up and went towards the village.

  The pale young boy walked through the now empty streets, ignoring the campfire while he searched for any survivor. Having experienced these creatures’ strength first hand, he was completely fearless of them. They were much weaker than he had anticipated; now he was sure his first experience with them was simply like that because of his mental situation.

  After searching three times through the entirety of the village, both on the streets, inside the houses he assessed as empty, and even inside the stone temple, there was nothing.

  With a bitter smile, he pulled his hair back and observed the pale moon. Such bad luck; he wanted to kill himself and failed, then wanted to die inside the dungeon and had a change of heart, and now that he wanted to survive, he would die...

  “So that’s it?!”

  He sat defeated in front of the campfire, unfocusedly watching the flickering light. Even if perplexed by such a thing, Faust’s mind was heavy with the fact he had failed… or had he.

  A flicker of an idea washed over by the situation just reappeared in his mind.

  The sacrifice rune!