Shin considered his options for a moment and began moving fast. He had little time to waste, so he left the swamp border and advanced quickly.

In no time, he neared his destination. From a distance, he spotted a man shielding a girl, someone he recognized as Arlo, a minor beast-kin character, if he remembered correctly.

And by the looks of things, he has just reached his limit, unable to defend anymore. His body was covered in wounds, and the light in his eyes was beginning to fade.

The leader of the trio attacking them grinned disgustingly, licking his lips with a long, snake-like tongue. His sharp gaze looked down on the fallen warrior with utter disdain. Then he laughed, reveling in the sight of his defeated enemy.

"Get out of my way, trash," he sneered, kicking the man who had shown unbreakable determination aside.

Even sprawled on the ground, Arlo refused to stay down.

The moment the snake-faced man stepped in, Arlo twisted his hips and shot his arm out, desperately grabbing his enemy’s ankle. With little strength he had left, he tried to break the man’s balance.

But the snake-faced man reacted fast.

He wrenched his leg free with brute force and answered with a downward stomp. The blow crashed into Arlo’s ribs with a sickening thud.

"Pathetic mutt," he sneered, his voice dripping with contempt.

Arlo coughed, blood staining his lips, yet his eyes stayed sharp. As the next kick came, he raised his forearm just enough to deflect the worst of it, angling the impact away from his skull.

The snake-faced man clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Still resisting?" he muttered, before driving his heel down again, aiming for the same bruised spot just to hear the crack worsen.

"I won’t let you do nothing, my pride won’t allow it!" Arlo roared, trying to summon strength from beyond his limits.

His body pushed to the breaking point, blood flowed from his open wounds as he struggled to stand. However, he had reached his limit. His body gave out, and before he could even get up, he felt himself crash to the ground.

Behind him, the woman, named Lara, still trembling with fear, tried to scream, but no sound came out. In truth, she could barely move her own body. The problem wasn’t just that she was terrified; she simply couldn’t move.

A powerful poison had spread through her body, paralyzing her and leaving her unable to even speak. In other words, she had no way to escape the situation.

"Finally, I get to take care of you, baby," the leader of the trio said, his lustful gaze undisguised as he approached.

There was a reason he had gone to the trouble of poisoning his prey; he wasn’t about to miss the chance to indulge in his desires with such a delectable woman.

His eyes lingered on her, roaming over her wide hips and sensual thighs. Finally, his gaze settled on her chest. She wore a shirt that couldn’t have been tighter, outlining her figure and her massive breasts.

He approached with slow, deliberate steps, forcing the girl down against the ground. The other two men moved closer as well, their expressions equally depraved. Finally, they tore the girl’s clothes, leaving her in nothing but her bra and panties.

Lara’s despair surged as the scene revived the traumas of her past. Her heart raced, and terror filled her eyes.

In that moment, all she could do was pray for God to take her life and spare her from enduring such suffering again. Her body trembled, and she wished for death as she felt those filthy hands grope her chest.

Yet all she could do was cry. Even if she wanted to fight back, her body wouldn’t move an inch. She couldn’t even defend herself.

Please, someone, please just kill me already... Anything would be better than that, she fought in frustration. She needed to protect her virginity; it was her responsibility with the clan, but the poison wouldn’t even allow her to bite her tongue to protect her purity.

Great god, I’m sorry.... She fought. She would fail with her oath. But please, please, save me, save me... She begged even more, though.

And just as she was begging for her god, Shin came running and jumped high, landing between the men and their victim.

"Kill him immediately!" The snake man was furious with the interruption,

And immediately, a man wearing boxing gloves advanced to attack Shin. However, our hero dodged his first punch with ease. The boxer technique wasn’t bad, but he simply was not fast enough.

He seemed capable of delivering powerful blows, but the problem was that none of his punches even came close to hitting their target.

Frustrated by his inability to land a hit, the man recklessly charged forward. Seeing his foolish approach, Shin stepped aside and left a foot in his path. The fool stumbled over his own momentum and crashed face-first into the ground.

"Die!"

The second henchman, a fire mage, tried to hit Shin with a fireball. But Shin reacted fast, cutting the attack with his obsidian sword. The blade shimmered, absorbing the magical power.

The mage tried to create a fire wall to protect himself, but it was useless. Shin charged straight through the flames, emerging on the other side before the mage could react.

A brutal kick folded the man over, and in the same motion, Shin grabbed him by the throat, lifting him effortlessly off the ground.

His grip tightened, rage surging through him. He had made it in time.

"I give up!" the mage choked.

Shin’s eyes didn’t change. The next second, his fingers crushed the man’s throat. A sharp crack echoed, and the body went limp before he tossed it aside.

The second attacker lunged from behind, but Shin dismantled him in seconds, one strike to break his stance, another to drive him to his knees.

"Wait, please!" the man begged, collapsing. "I can be useful! I’ll help you, I swear!" He tried to sound composed, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him. "I’ll even give you the girl—"

The sentence was never finished. Shin severed the man’s head, and his body hit the ground with a cold, heavy thud.

While all of this unfolded, Vesta, the leader of the trio, began to panic.

His system, Poison Master, granted him access to deadly toxins, like the one he had used on Lara. But his raw stats were lacking, and his abilities needed time to take effect. In a direct fight, he was practically helpless.

He clung to the hope that his lackeys would handle it, but they failed completely. Now, Shin was getting closer, and before he could do anything, Shin grabbed him by the collar and lifted him clean off the ground with one hand.

Desperation flashed in the snake man’s eyes.

"Idiot, you can’t hurt me... You probably don’t know anything, because you are a newcomer, but I...I have an alliance with the ice wolf clan." He shouted, kicking his legs in the air, trying to mask his fear. "Put me on the ground immediately!"

"You are also a newcomer taking the test just like me, so how come you have an alliance with such an important clan from inside the tower?" Shin asked

"I... I met with their leader, Gut, and he said that if we captured the girl, we would be part of his clan. And she is not the only target; any woman who is beautiful and has a good system is useful enough." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Shin’s eyes silently glistened with interest.

So it’s during the exam that Gut captures and enslaves so many girls... Shin fought, thinking it explained events from the future.

However, Gut was not in any way, shape, or form the leader of the Ice Wolf clan. The idiot in Shin’s hand had just been lied to.

"I don’t think you even understand how powerful the ice wolves are. They definitely wouldn’t waste their time with you," Shin grip tightened. "Anyway, can you take me to Gut?"

"I..." Vesta’s voice faltered. Then his expression twisted.

A sickly green spread beneath his skin, veins darkening as something writhed inside him. His body trembled, teeth grinding as the poison he had been harboring began to turn inward, eating through him from the inside.

"Y-you think I’d just... take you to him?" he rasped, a hysterical edge creeping into his voice. "You’re dead anyway... so it doesn’t matter!"

With shaking hands, he fumbled inside his cloak and pulled out a small vial. It was something Gut had given him for an emergency.

Before Shin could stop him, Vesta bit the cap off and forced the contents down his throat.

His body arched violently.

A guttural scream tore from his throat as the substance took hold. Muscles bulged unnaturally, skin cracking in places as a toxic vapor began to leak from his pores. The green glow intensified, turning almost blinding as his presence swelled.

His eyes snapped back to Shin, now glowing with a deranged, desperate fury.

"I refuse to die on your hands..." he hissed, claws forming at the tips of his fingers, "I’m going to kill you!"