Because they previously saw how ruthless she was when she killed the monsters, and this girl didn’t have any regard for life at all!
However, snickers and jeers followed even after her warning. Their cowardice had turned to arrogance now that they believed numbers were on their side.
Shen Ming’s face darkened. "Shut your mouths!" he barked at his n, but his voice lacked true force. His eyes flicked toward Ling Yu, conflicted, torn between obsession and fear.
Ling Yu stood silently as the cacophony grew.
Then she laughed.
It was not the laugh of a delicate woman, nor the polite chuckle of soone amused. It was sharp, jagged, a sound that sliced through the air like broken glass.
"Heh... hahahaha—"
The scavengers faltered. That laughter wasn’t sane. It dripped with cruelty, with mockery, with a promise of violence yet to co.
When Ling Yu finally stopped, her crimson eyes glead like burning coals in the dim light.
"You want to leave my things?" Her voice was low, cold, and almost intimate in the way it sent shivers down their spines. "You think you can strip of what’s mine?"
She took a step forward.
The scent of blood that clung to her body seed to thicken, pressing down on the air. mories of her rampage through the ape horde surfaced unbidden in the scavengers’ minds, were the image of her drenched in blood, fists pounding monsters into unrecognizable pulp, eyes glowing with predatory madness.
"Tell ..." Ling Yu tilted her head slightly, lips curving into a smile that was all teeth. "Are you confident you can hold back? After seeing what I did out there?"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
One man tried to sneer, but his voice cracked. "Th-there are dozens of us—"
Ling Yu’s gaze locked on him.
Just that and nothing more. But the man stumbled back as if struck, collapsing onto the dirt with a strangled yelp. His companions instinctively shuffled away from her line of sight.
[Host’s intimidation aura increased.]
[Fear status inflicted: Minor.]
Fluffy stretched lazily on her shoulder, its fluffy tail swaying like a pendulum.
[No unnecessary bloodshed recomnded. However, Host is free to take action for strategic deterrence.]
Above, the divine beings stirred in excitent.
[God of Carnage cheers for the Strear excitedly.]
[Yes! Show them what happens when misely mortals bare their fangs at a predator. Crush them!]
[Goddess of rcy reads the Strears’ expression.]
[Trickster Deity feels extrely satisfied with the Strear’s rage ter.]
[Threatened by re rats, she bares her fangs like a dragon. Delicious entertainnt!]
[Unknown Cosmic Deity expresses their anger on behalf of the Strear.]
[Those mannerless idiots! How dare they try to touch my sponsor’s to-be babysitter! I’ll take care of the aftermath, bash their heads as you like! I’ll gift 500 coins for each one whose head goes rolling on the ground!]
Coins rained down again into Ling Yu’s account. The divine audience was captivated.
Back on the ground, Shen Ming’s fists clenched. Sweat beaded at his temples. His sponsor’s warning rang in his head.
’Do not provoke her. Do not oppose her.’
And yet, watching Ling Yu laugh like a madwoman while his n cowered... humiliation burned his chest.
Ling Yu ignored him. Her focus was solely on the scavengers, whose courage was crumbling by the second.
"You threaten ," she said softly, her voice slicing through the heavy air. "You dare demand my things, after you sat on your asses while I fought, after you begged my healer to abandon mid-battle?"
Her smile vanished, replaced by icy stillness.
"If not for my mood, all of you would already be corpses."
The scavengers froze, pale and trembling. The weight of her killing intent pressed on them like a boulder. So clutched their weapons, but their hands shook too badly to lift them.
Song finally stepped forward, his cold voice cutting into the silence. "You heard her. If you value your lives, get out of the way."
The scavengers didn’t move. Their eyes darted between Shen Ming and Ling Yu, desperate for soone to resolve the standoff.
But Shen Ming said nothing. He couldn’t. Not with that suffocating aura pressing down on even him.
Ling Yu let the silence drag for another long, rciless mont before finally turning away.
"Co," she said to her people, her voice calm once more. "We’re leaving."
Song moved instantly, lifting the half-conscious Xian Yu and signaling the others to follow. Fluffy leapt from Ling Yu’s shoulder to her bag, but not before baring its teeth at the scavengers, tiny but razor-sharp, a mockery of their earlier bravado.
Ling Yu didn’t look back as they walked past the trembling scavengers and out of the courtyard. But her words lingered in the air like a blade pressed to their throats:
"Try if you dare."
Nobody dared to step forward. The courtyard stank of sweat and fear; faces that had been loud and cocky only minutes ago were now pale, eyes darting like trapped animals’. They shoved at one another, gesturing with trembling fingers, pointing at a man here, a woman there, pushing their weak champions into the middle as if a human shield could earn them courage. It was an ugly, desperate, panicked theater: they wanted soone else to pay first, to test the waters, to die so that the rest might live.
Ling Yu watched them with a long, slow smile, the kind that did not reach her eyes. It was a smile that contained snow and knives. She had wanted this; the cruelty of the base had been obvious from the start. n who beat the weak and pretended to be saviors, n who had tried to pry Xian Yu away mid-fight, she had been waiting for an excuse to flatten them, to make fear root in their round, greedy hearts. Tonight, they gave it to her.
She stepped forward a single pace as the air tightened around them. Fluffy hopped to the ground and planted itself at her feet like a small, fierce sentinel, with its cheeks puffed, and eyes blazing.
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