Hana stood over Vane, her breathing shallow but steady. The Dragon Prince was still wheezing on the ground, the wind knocked out of his lungs by a human who barely reached his shoulder.

They had heard of the species called humans that did not have tails or animal ears. They were not dragons, and yet they had a similar type of ears to dragons.

But that was not the point. The point was that humans were said to be weak and very inferior to beastmen. So how...? How was she able to put him down without breaking a sweat?

Beside them, Sera’s yellow leopard eyes transitioned from shock to a murderous, feline glint.

She did not listen to Hana’s words to get lost and instead she crouched low, her tail twitching with the urge to pounce. She wanted to show she wasn’t scared of a human girl who didn’t even have claws or fur on her arms.

"You hairless bitch," Sera hissed, her muscles coiling. "I’ll tear those marks right off your back."

Hana’s hand went to her flint knife, her eyes narrowing. She was ready to gut the cat and be done with it. But then, the world blurred into that familiar, nauseating blue hue.

> [URGENT MISSION: THE MERCIFUL OVERLORD]

> Objective: Subjugate the Leopard Mate (Sera) without drawing blood.

> Constraint: Show the ’Apex’ that a Human’s mind is more dangerous than a Beast’s claw.

> Reward: +10,000 Karmic Points (Behavioral Correction Bonus!)

> Penalty: -50,000 Points & [MIGRATION PAIN]: You will feel the sensation of your bones shifting as if you were forced to transform into a prey animal for 12 hours.

Hana’s eye twitched, nearly widening. Ten thousand points? That was a massive reward. But it asked her not to draw blood. If she did, she would get a setback of -50,000, and she had zero interest in feeling her bones ’shift.’

It was so annoying.

"System, I hate you," Hana muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Sera growled, taking a cautious step forward.

Caspian moved to intervene, his throat glowing orange, but Hana held up a hand. "Stay back, Caspian. This is my fight to manage."

Hana looked at Sera. The leopard woman was fast, but she was predictable—driven by ego and instinct. Hana didn’t pull her knife since that was a sure way to draw blood.

Instead, she reached into the small pouch at her waist where she’d tucked the leftover crushed Peppercorn berries and a handful of Salt-Leaf dust she’d prepared at the stream.

"You think your claws make you strong?" Hana asked, her voice dropping into a chilling, calm tone. She stepped forward, seemingly defenseless. "In my world, we didn’t need claws to kill things more dangerous than our fellows. We just needed to be... creative."

Sera lunged with a guttural roar, a blur of yellow heading towards Hana with sharpened claws.

Hana didn’t retreat. She waited until the very last millisecond, then threw the handful of spice-dust directly into Sera’s sensitive, dilated leopard eyes and nostrils.

"GAH!"

Sera’s momentum carried her past Hana, but she didn’t land on her feet. She hit the dirt, clawing frantically at her face as the intense, stinging heat of the concentrated peppercorn and salt hit her mucus membranes.

To a beastman with a sense of smell a hundred times stronger than a human’s, it was like having a grenade go off in her sinuses.

Hana didn’t waste a second. She stepped onto Sera’s back, pinning the leopard woman’s arms behind her in a painful lock, and pressed her knee into the back of her neck.

"Listen to me, cat," Hana whispered, leaning down so only Sera could hear her over her own sneezing and coughing. "I can make your life a living hell without ever leaving a scar for the System to complain about. I can make every meal you eat taste like ash. I can make every breath you take burn. So, you can either go through all this, or... You can be useful."

Sera let out a muffled, tearful whimper, her pride utterly shattered along with her vision. "S-stop... please... it burns..."

> [MISSION PROGRESS: 90%... 100%]

> [REWARD: +10,000 KARMIC POINTS ACQUIRED] 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

> [CURRENT BALANCE: -1,231,480]

Hana let go and stood up, wiping her hands on her thighs as if she’d just finished a dirty chore. Vane was finally sitting up, looking at his mate sobbing in the dirt and then at Hana with a look that was no longer ’appreciative’—he was terrified.

Were all humans like this? He wondered and gulped heavily.

"Caspian," Hana called, turning back to the stunned Dragon King. "Tell your brother and his ’toy’ to get up. We’re going to your den, and I want a proper bed and a roof by sunset. If they want to help, they can carry the meat."

Caspian looked at Hana, his golden eyes wide with a mix of awe and a terrifyingly deep lust. He didn’t care that she’d just humbled his brother; he only cared that his mate was the most efficient predator he’d ever seen.

"You heard her!" Caspian roared at Vane. "Pick up the boar! Move!"

Raiden let out a sharp, delighted bark of laughter, hopping down from his rock. "Ten thousand points of style, Great Female. Simply delicious."

Hana ignored them all, her eyes watching the dragon prince and his mate visibly complain about the chore with their eyes and facial expressions.

She flipped her hair, thinking about how efficient violence was.

She wouldn’t have had to go through all that hassle if she had been allowed to slit Sera’s throat from the start. But guess that wasn’t very ’good’ of her, and it defeats the whole redemption nonsense.

She let out a quiet huff, her brown eyes fixed on the path ahead. One mission down. Nine hundred and some thousand points to go.