"Bang!"
"Aahhhhgg!!!"
"Get up and fight!", Rina shouted at the marquis's son after delivering a powerful kick to his backside, sending him flying into the trunk of a tree four meters away.
After hearing from Yara about the plans of the marquis's son to choose some lionkin girls and turn them into his sexual slaves, Rina hated him more than she had ever hated anyone. But when she overheard him talking about what awaited the rest of the lionkins, those who weren't "lucky" enough to be favored by him, her hatred surpassed all limits. She couldn't imagine ever being more furious at anyone in her life than she was at the marquis's son in that moment.
However, Rina wasn't used to beating someone who no longer showed any signs of resistance, like the marquis's son, who had curled up as soon as he was thrown at her feet. On top of that, it irritated her to see how useless he was. Didn't he think he was superior to her and the other lionkins? So why was he now groveling shamelessly at her feet?
So Rina wanted a fair fight with the marquis's son to make him feel what it was like to be defeated by someone he had underestimated, not to let him see himself as a victim subjected to violence without a chance to defend himself. Besides, it would help her feel much more at ease while hitting him.
Yet, the marquis's son seemed as if he hadn't even heard her words; he continued moaning in pain without moving from the spot where he had landed. Well, it wasn't just because he lacked a warrior's mentality, but also because it was madness to try and exchange blows with Rina, who was many times stronger than him. Wasn't it like poking a bear?
"Bang!"
"Uuuugh..."
"Didn't you understand what I said?", Rina asked as she struck the marquis's son again with her foot. Since he was already next to a tree trunk, he didn't take off flying again, but the experience was even more unpleasant, as his situation now resembled that of an object caught between a hammer and an anvil.
Looking at the marquis's son, who began vomiting everything his stomach hadn't finished digesting due to the pressure his midsection had endured, Rina started to think she had expected too much from him. More than that, she felt it was dishonorable to strike someone so pathetic.
'No, honor doesn't matter here... It doesn't even matter how I feel about hitting someone who's already down. The only thing I need to focus on is punishing him for what he intended to do. What would have been the fate of Nalani, Marisa, and the rest of the village girls if they had succeeded in getting their hands on them? They probably would have preferred death. No, I can't stop now… Maybe that's exactly what he's hoping for at this moment: that I'll lose interest if I see he's not making any effort to resist. Or maybe he thinks he'll earn my pity... No, such beings don't deserve my pity. They deserve nothing but pain. That's the only thing they can understand...', Rina told herself, frustrated with her own thoughts for even considering that she should stop punishing the marquis's son to avoid dirtying her hands by striking someone unworthy of being her adversary.
With the looming threat that the peace her village had enjoyed for over 20 years would soon end, and worse, they would have to fight on two fronts, both against the humans who wanted to exploit them and the tigerkin who sought to rule them by force, Rina knew she couldn't afford to hesitate in front of her enemy and had to learn to be ruthless.
With this thought in mind, Rina no longer tried to make the marquis's son confront her, and without saying a word, she grabbed him by a leg with one hand and started dragging him behind her like a branch, paying no attention to the fact that his face was scraping along the ground. However, Rina didn't intend to drag him far, or rather, her destination was still the same tree where the marquis's son had crashed, since she only made a loop to change his orientation. Once again standing in front of the tree, about two meters away, Rina grabbed the marquis's leg with her other hand as well, and taking a swing as if she intended to hit someone with a bat, she slammed him hard, back first, into the tree trunk.
"Crack!", went the marquis's son's spine, which, like almost all the bones in his torso, instantly snapped upon contact with the tree trunk, around which the marquis's son wrapped like a whip.
Because of the shock, the marquis's son, whose blood didn't just spurt from his mouth and nose but also from his only remaining eye and ears, fainted before he could fall away from the tree due to gravity. However, since the healing potion Lucy had poured down his throat was still in effect, he woke up in less than two minutes, when his wounds were only halfway healed, and the pain he felt then was even greater than when he hit the tree. If he could have formed a coherent thought, he probably would have told himself that it would have been better if he had never woken up.
'I suppose in this way, it can't be said that I hit someone who was down. Technically, I hit the tree...', Rina thought, as she waited for the marquis's son to at least be capable of groaning before slamming him into the tree again, this time with the other side.
............
'It seems that Rina doesn't need my help after all...', Lucy thought to herself after watching Rina slam the marquis's son into the tree trunk for the third time.
At first, when Lucy saw that Rina wanted to make the marquis's son fight her, she thought that although Rina was extremely angry with him, she would probably stop after hitting him a few times and realizing he had no intention of defending himself. Perhaps Rina was a warrior who didn't hesitate in battle, but it's much easier to be cruel when you're confronting someone, when your adrenaline is at its peak, than when you're hitting someone who has completely surrendered.
However, even though it started off a bit rough, Rina eventually got herself together, and the way she slammed the marquis's son into the tree earned, in Lucy's opinion, a perfect score of 10 out of 10. Not only did it highlight Rina's physical abilities, but it was also quite artistic, with the way the marquis's son folded around the tree despite his physical limitations, almost like a visual metaphor for the nobles' ability to bend under pressure while still maintaining a facade of elegance.
Lucy knew that Rina wasn't particularly thrilled with what she was doing, because she had an indifferent expression, as if she were shaking out a rug. But Lucy thought it was a good thing that Rina was starting to get used to not treating enemies like human beings, as showing mercy to them could turn into a fatal mistake.
"Do you think we should tell her to go easier on him? At this rate, the marquis's son might die...", Yara asked Lucy, who had joined her while watching Rina.
"That's not necessary. Every time she hits the marquis's son, she waits for him to regain consciousness to see if the potion is still working, so she'll probably stop when she sees that he no longer wakes up. And even if he does lose his life, it's not a big deal. There are still three others, aren't there?", Lucy replied, for whom the marquis's son's life no longer had much value. Plus, she had started wondering whether it might be better not to bring him alive to the village to avoid conflicts over what should be done with him.
Since Rina was handling things on her own, Lucy planned to start interrogating the marquis's subordinates, and thinking that there might be some things she wouldn't understand, like the location of the dungeon where they intended to take the lionkins, she invited Yara to join her.
Soon enough, as the marquis's son regained consciousness again, his cries were joined by the groans and screams of his subordinates, turning the clearing where they stood into what seemed like a concert hall of hell, playing a symphony of pain.