THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

BOOM!!

Ivan jumped off a high point and landed on the ground with a loud sound, four more similar sounds rang out as Ralph, Karin, Glen, and Clint jumped and landed behind him.

"Where is this place?" Karin muttered while looking around.

They seemed to have landed in the middle of a giant crater that looked like it was dug by humans, a small village with ten to fifteen ancient stone houses could be seen in the middle of the crater.

The houses looked very ancient and abandoned; parts of them were missing as well as if a battle had occurred here in the distant past; the village was eerily silent, but a faint glow of a bonfire lit up the place, burning silently.

"Fire? Are there people here? That's impossible!" Glen voiced out.

"Let's take a look around first, stay close," Ivan ordered before taking the lead and stepping into the small village; the rest followed behind him.

The walls of the houses in the village were made from ash-colored stones, and their rooftops were made from straws tied together, open square windows with torn pieces of clothes dangling over as coverage were the only thing that allowed light to enter these structures aside from the open entrance that had wooden doors.

Many of the buildings had long collapsed, and pieces of the collapsed buildings littered the streets; craters and broken items could be found at a few places in the village.

Moving through the quiet roads, the ground was constantly on the alert in case of any sudden monster that might appear but none showed up; they only found something after reaching the center of the village where the bonfire was.

The group stood about ten meters away from the bonfire, with looks of surprise on their faces as they stared ahead.

Sitting around the bonfire were the figures of what looked like two men who had their backs facing them. These two figures wore old, tattered cloaks that rubbed the ground behind them, and their heads lowered as they chewed on something in their grasps without making a sound.

One of them suddenly stopped as if it had sensed something; it turned its neck and looked at Ivan's crew; it looked just like an average middle-aged man.

A look of surprise appeared on his face upon seeing the five of them; he blinked before suddenly flashing a wide smile and waving at them, his lips stained in red liquid, making him look almost like a certain villain with white makeup.

The expressions on the faces of Glen and Karin turned grim, they gasped and took a step back while covering their mouths with one of their hands. Ralph had a serious expression on his face as he stared at the smiling man who was waving at them with narrow eyes, Ivan and Clint remained expressionless.

The reason for their various reactions was that the man who was waving at them was too pale to be a human, and his smile was creepy. What's more, it was waving at them with the severed arm of a person that was half chewed! The bone poked out from the elbow joint, and severe bitemarks riddled the arm.

And the red liquid on the man's face was…blood! The damned thing was waving at them with the arm of another person!

The second figure in a tattered cloak also turned at this point, just like the first, it was a pale-faced old man with blood stains on his face and holding onto a half-eaten leg; a huge chunk of the leg muscles had been bitten off which this figure was currently chewing while waving the leg at Ivan and the rest as if inviting the five to come join them in their meal.

"Gross!" Glen exclaimed, feeling his insides turn at the carnivorous sight.

Karin wasn't able to hold it in anymore, she bent over and started retching hard.

"Human limbs, where did they get them?" Ralph mumbled.

"Those can't be Elliot's, right? Please tell me it's not" Glen voiced out with wide eyes.

Although he argued with the guy a lot, they needed him to control the land carrier for them and take them back to the base so he didn't want anything to happen to Elliot.

"No, it can't be. They would have crossed us to reach where Elliot is" Ralph replied with a thoughtful expression.

" Ah, that's a relief," Glen sighed while patting his chest.

" Stay focused!"

Ivan's voice rang out at this point and Glen immediately returned his attention to the bonfire and the two figures sitting in front of it.

The two had stood up at some point and were not facing the five, tossing the limbs in their grasps away; the limbs landed near a few more that were in front of the bonfire.

With the two figures now facing them, the irritated looks on Glen and Ralph's faces became more vivid; even Ralph couldn't keep a straight face anymore, and his face showed clear disgust while Clint frowned.

They were now able to see clearly what the two figures looked like, and it wasn't friendly in the slightest; their features were mind-troubling.

Firstly, they stood at a height of 7 '0 feet; their ash skin looked like they were molded from remains of burned wood, which stopped at their necks while their faces were as white as paper.

Their bodies were like pieces of dried skin wrapped around twisted bones, creating a disgusting sight as some of the bones poked the surface of their skin from time to time.

Their legs were a large mass of twisted flesh dripping with slimy substance and constantly swelling and bursting blisters, they strangely didn't make any sound while popping.

"Hello travelers, welcome to our village. Would you like to check into a place to rest?" The figure with the face of an old man said with the voice of a cute young woman, his lips not moving as the wide creepy smile remained plastered on his face.

*Or would you like something to eat first? We have varieties of dishes." The other one that had the face of a middle-aged man joined. His voice was like that of a young teenage boy; his lips also did move and it seemed like their words were welcoming right from their necks.

The sight of this made Karin's skin crawl and she shivered slightly.

"How about you die?" Ivan uttered calmly, his eyes dull and his face expressionless.

The two figures turned their gaze to Ivan; their eyes rolled disgustingly in their sockets as if trying to force themselves out, and their smiles reached right under their eyes.

"Sorry, we don't offer such services in our village. Maybe you should ask our village head?"

The both of them announced in unison with their childish and girly voices.

"Your village head? Who is your village head?" Ivan asked them.

The body of the two figures began to twist, their necks elongating and their mouths tearing wide as they began to laugh like crazy psychopaths.

"Hahahaha, our village head is the most generous"

"The most caring"

"The most mindful"

"The most courtesy"

"The most demure!"

"He is the protector of our village, all hail the village head!"

As if reciting a memorized poem, the two creatures that now looked nothing like humans sang with great joy in their voices.

Immediately after they recited the last lines…

BOOM!!!

The ground right beneath the bonfire exploded and sent a cloud of dust into the air, Ivan and his cohort could see the vague outline of a huge creature within the cloud of dust before an extremely cute voice rang out.

"Misters, are you going to hurt us?"