The hunting knife cut into the mud wall, and four fingers of different lengths fell down, bouncing and rolling away.
The woman's face turned pale, and a suppressed scream escaped from the depths of her throat.
"You can continue, and so can I." Lifting the woman's chin with the tip of the knife, Elena whispered as if she was crazy.
After the tragic death of her friend, her personality changed. She became more cold and aggressive.
The woman stared at Elena bitterly and cursed: "The pain you will suffer will be far more than mine!"
Elena didn't respond and just cut off another part of her finger.
She whispered coldly: "I can cut this arm twenty more times, and then the other one, you still have legs..."
The inner fear broke through the numb body, and the woman finally told Elena what happened in the village.
A week ago, a villager picked up a statue in the wilderness. Not long after, he claimed that the statue would protect the village from invasion and give them the power to "not feel pain" at the cost of feeding the living statue.
However, the food in the village is limited, and the villagers' thinking has become dull because of the power of the statue. They first feed the old and useless people to the statue, and then the passing travelers.
"Is numbness considered strength?" Elena, seeing the true nature clearly, sneered.
"The Lord...protected...us..." The woman didn't think so.
"You mean the 'statue' that killed more people than the weird ones?" Elena looked like a fool.
The woman was silent.
When Elena was about to let go of the useless woman, she suddenly spoke intermittently: "If you don't feed it...it won't be...changed by power..."
"Those who do not want to be fed... and travelers... are shut up next to it... and they... live..."
After the words fell, the woman broke away from Elena, held her palms with both hands, and put her neck against the hunting knife.
Elena wanted to withdraw, but was too slow. Blood gushed out from the woman's neck like a river. Elena's cheeks were covered with warm blood, and she watched her fall with a complicated expression, her eyes looking towards the pile in the corner.
Children's clothing, clearer than ever before.
At the last moment of her life, the woman regained consciousness.
"My... child..."
Indistinct murmurs could be heard amidst the sound of gurgling water, and the woman in the pool of blood lost her voice.
Elena's arm holding the hunting knife dropped, silent.
Lu Li came to the side and covered the woman's body with a blanket.
Elena was not silent for too long, she still had her own things to do. Withdrawing from the woman's story, Elena came to the window and looked outside.
The melee has ended. The dirt road from the outskirts of the village to the campfire is littered with corpses. There are villagers and hyenas.
More than twenty hyenas lowered their heads to bite the eating hyenas, symbolizing the beast's final victory.
The faith statue did not give the villagers the power to fight against the wild beasts, nor did it appear to protect the villagers.
Maybe because the attackers were beasts rather than monstrosities?
Lu Li lit the oil lamp to face the darkness that was falling at night. Elena was still observing by the window.
Weird laughter echoed in the night sky. The hyenas who were eating turned their heads to look at the invisible corners of the cabin, and then dragged the human corpses and the corpses of their companions away from the town, like soldiers cleaning up the battlefield.
"The hyenas are acting strangely, please wait a moment."
Elena said to Lu Li who was walking aside.
The bonfire was crackling and burning brightly, dispelling the cold and dark night.
The strange fog has not yet enveloped this place.
"Are you always so cold-blooded?"
Elena's eyes fell on the illusory reflection on the window: "I thought you would help the villagers outside."
"I will do what I can and what I should do." Lu Li replied calmly.
Talking to Lu Li is obviously not pleasant. Generally speaking, two people with high emotional intelligence will always have a happy conversation because they know when to ask what and how to answer.
Elena, who wanted to talk, hoped that Lu Li would also ask her, but he did not ask.
"It's okay." Elena opened the door and walked out of the cabin with a much colder tone.
Lu Li followed behind.
The village was not big. They circled around the campfire and found the tied up villagers and travelers at the edge of the light.
"Pig pen?"
Elena was a little shocked when she saw the environment they were in.
Lu Li looked around and landed in a dark barn nearby.
The exterior of the barn is decorated with hay garlands and looks like a simple church.
The statue should be inside.
Elena has climbed over the wall and stepped into the dry but still smelly pigsty.
"We are here to save you." She said to the people who were agitated and frightened by the approaching footsteps.
Their eyes were blindfolded, their mouths were gagged, and their limbs were tied. Elena swung her hunting knife and cut open the rope of one of them.
The rescued person took off the blindfold and the stuffing in his mouth, and said in a dry voice: "Thank you... I am——"
"Go and help them untie themselves." Elena was not going to waste time listening to them introduce herself.
"Okay, okay..." the rescued person responded quickly and went to help other victims untie the twine.
The rescued people helped others, and more and more people were rescued. They didn't know what happened before, but they still suppressed their movements and didn't dare to make a sound. Only emotions called happiness and excitement appeared on their faces.
Elena saw the village chief Abdel in the crowd and walked towards him.
"Is it Elena?" The old man with his skinny chest exposed narrowed his eyes and looked at her.
"It's me, the village chief Abdel." Elena answered and introduced Lu Li to him: "That's the exorcist, Lu Li."
Many eyes fell on Lu Li with gratitude. They thought Lu Li came specially to save them.
"Thank you for your help." The village chief Abdel put his palm on his chest, saluted Lu Li, raised his head and asked Elena: "Has that monster been eliminated?"
"No." Elena said.
The expression of village chief Abdel became tense, and the relief of the rescued people also solidified with his words.
"Did you sneak in?" Chief Abdel looked at the dazzling bonfire.
"No, they are all dead," Elena said.
"Dead...?"
"Well, maybe there are a few left alive."
Some villagers, like the woman, must have been staying in their houses when the hyenas attacked.
Abdel Village Chief's lips trembled. He wanted to blame but couldn't say: "It's you..."
"It was hyenas that attacked here just now." Elena interrupted and answered.
"No wonder their cries are so close..." Village Chief Abdel breathed a sigh of relief.
Even if they were betrayed... it would be easier for the villagers to accept their lives at the mouth of beasts than to be killed by humans.
"What is the statue?" Lu Li, who was observing quietly, spoke at this time.
"Mr. Exorcist."
Chief Abdel saluted respectfully and was about to say something when he was interrupted again by Elena.
"You plan to keep chatting in the dirty pigsty next to the monster?" Elena put the hunting knife back into the sheath on her thigh. "We'll talk about it back to the campfire."
The rescued people climbed out of the pigsty and returned to the warm and bright campfire.
Some young and strong men went to search the village, looking for clothing, food, water, and villagers.
Village Chief Abdel sat down in front of the bonfire and told Lu Li everything they had encountered.
