The Laughing Swordsman

The leader looked at Hex's figure. Despite not even reaching a meter high, Hex seemed to tower over him.

His smiling shadow rose from behind him, giggling ethereally as though it wanted to taunt the leader.

He felt a strange fear grasp his heart.

In reality, the leader wasn't a coward. He had ventured through the forest alone, fighting the wild animals he came across.

Though they were nothing compared to the animals currently roaming throughout the forest, it was still an impressive feat for a normal person.

The leader had charged straight towards a wolf that was baring its fangs at him, challenging it head on. Although he was afraid, he always had the courage to stand up and fight.

That was how he got to his position in the first place.

Yet... when the leader looked at Hex, he could feel despair sprout in his heart. He didn't even understand why he was afraid or why his body refused to budge.

The smiling shadow reached out with its abnormally large claws. However, it didn't reach for the leader.

Instead, it grasped a nearby guard, lifting him up and slowly crushed him. The guard woke up, seconds before his death.

The guard's eyes were filled with horror.

"What is this? No, it hurts! Stop!"

The smiling shadow paid no heed to his cries, crushing his body.

Frightening snaps filled the air, the sounds of fractured bones.

The guard continued to cry out in pain, no longer able to think coherently. The armor did little to protect the guard.

At best, it let out groans while its shape deformed. At worst, its fragments pierced into the guard's flesh, further increasing his agony.

In the end, the guard's body was crushed into a mangled mess. The only part that remained intact was his head, which still had a grimace plastered over it.

The smiling shadow continued killing the guards this way, crushing them with its large claws.

It did not take long for the other guards to snap out of their stupor. After all, the sounds of crushing bones and screams of terror filled the air.

The guards began to panic. They wanted to get up and run immediately. However, the smiling shadow did not hurry to kill them all. In fact, it slowed down.

The guards weren't going to question it. Their first priority was surviving.

...Yet not a single one moved.

Their hearts violently hammered in their chests.

They were afraid of Hex.

Even those that weren't directly looking at Hex felt a strange intangible fear coming from his direction.

And all Hex was just standing there, harmlessly.

Their minds tried to command their body to run with all their might. However, to their dismay, their bodies were limp from fear. It was almost like they were under the effects of sleep paralysis and Hex was the sleep-paralysis demon.

The smiling shadow giggled ethereally. It continued to harvest the lives of the guards, one by one.

The only thing these pitiful guards could do was watch with trepidation, and wonder when they were going to be next. Those thoughts tormented them, sending them down the spiral of madness.

Slowly but surely, the guards thinned. Only five were remaining, along with the leader.

These last few guards had lost it.

"Kill me! Just kill me already!"

"Choose me next! I don't want to listen to this anymore!"

"No, you have to pick me! I can't take it, I just can't take it!"

They no longer had any hope of surviving. Their only desire was to die sooner.

As for the leader, he remained silent. His mental state was unstable, but he did not reduce himself to begging.

The smiling shadow picked one of the guards, who was female.

This guard got terribly excited.

"Yes, yes! Thank the heavens, it's finally my turn!"

The other four guards groaned in disappointment.

"No, why her? This can't be..."

"This is unfair! How did things turn out like this?"

"No... why is my existence being prolonged while she gets to die?"

The smiling shadow crushed the guard, making her cry out in anguish. However, mixed in with those cries was the laughter of a maniac.

"Yes, it is... finally coming..."

There was a smile on the guard's face. As her soul left her body, the smile disappeared, leaving a dull expression on her face.

"Now me! You can't keep me waiting any longer!"

The process repeated itself until the only one left was the leader.

The leader used all of his strength to raise his head a few degrees.

"...What the hell are you?"

Hex casually blinked.

"Me is... Hex."

The leader felt an unbearable pressure fall onto him. His heartbeat sped up violently, painfully forcing blood through his veins.

His eyes bulged out of his sockets while cold sweat cascaded down his body.

Then... he died.

Hex did not touch the man, nor did the smiling shadow. In the end, the man died purely from his own fear.

Hex rubbed the top of his head with his sleeve.

"Hmm... Me hide bodies now?"

He spoke innocently, as though he didn't just torture anybody to death.

Hex furrowed his brows.

"But... how me hide?"

He turned to look at the smiling shadow.

"Ah, me knows!"

Hex pointed to the smiling shadow.

"Get rid of bodies!"

The smiling shadow proceeded to open its mouth wide, revealing eerie, translucent teeth. It scraped against the floor, letting all of the broken flesh and dead bodies enter through its mouth.

In just a couple of seconds, the floor was swept clean. Although the shadow's body was translucent, there was no sign of the corpses within it. The shadow proceeded to meld into the ground, attaching itself to Hex.

With that, Hex continued running down the wall with his sleeves spread out.

As for Apollo, he was running down the hallway in the opposite direction of Willow.

At that moment, a squadron of over thirty guards appeared in front of him.

"Stop! What are you doing here?"