Of course, if Nick's actions somehow, in some way saved those poor fellows from death…
Then he still wouldn't intervene any further than that.
His primary goal in this impromptu stalking of the Radiant Slayer gang was simply to follow them, see what they were up to, and if the opportunity arose, steal their kill!
With a group as large as them, they casually encountered the odd Mundane, or even Awakened Beast or two, who the gang dispatched as quickly as they encountered them.
Beasts like those hardly even posed a threat to them, and even most Mutant Beasts were the same! Only some rare, specialised Mutant Beasts could pose a greater threat to Beast Slayer and his gang.
Still, Radiant Beasts were the greatest threat, even with their combined strength. As the second strongest gang in War Beast Sanctuary, they held tremendous power and influence, but they still fell a bit short of the power the War Beast gang possessed even though they had twice the man power.
The difference between the two gangs was one of quality, rather than quantity. Dido was the strongest in the entire Sanctuary, there was no doubt about it and she had no equal, not even Beast Slayer himself.
As for the other members of the War Beasts, they were all exceptional in their own right.
Nick didn't like to admit it, but even Meylin, that psycho, could hold her own against a Radiant Beast for a short while.
Of course, she'd only be able to delay the inevitable, it still took the whole force of their gang to take one down.
Even they, as the strongest force in the War Beast Sanctuary, had suffered their fair share of deaths over the past few years.
Trifling with Radiant rank beasts was no joke.
Which was why Nick was so overjoyed and happy to come across Beast Slayer and his gang in the middle of a hunt.
As someone who worked solo most of the time, his chances of ever killing a Radiant beast were basically zero — making opportunities like this one a god send.
Dido was the only one in the entire Sanctuary that could face down a Radiant Beast solo and actually have a chance at killing it — showing just how far ahead of everyone else she was.
His cooperation with Dido and her gang should have never even happened. He was only supposed to be bait, but his situation had pushed him further into that role than he'd have ever liked.
'Maybe, with my rather unique Soul Ability, I might stand a better chance than most to survive battles with Radiant Beasts.'
Nick's Vitaldrain was quite powerful in that sense.
He still had yet to fully test its powers. For all he knew, it could hold even more potential than he could even imagine!
Many hours passed and yet the Radiant Slayers still hadn't shown any signs of slowing down.
By this point, Nick had already traversed farther from the Sanctuary than he had ever before, surpassing the distance he'd even had to travel to find the Whiteclaw Snake King.
There was basically no human activity this far from the Sanctuary, which made his situation quite dangerous if his presence became known to them.
There would be nobody to witness his death, and subsequently report it, if he was found out…
Beast Slayer had made his intentions of killing Nick known on many occasions in the past, and Nick wasn't willing to try and call him on that bluff — since he knew that the madman would definitely try to do so if given the opportunity.
Just look at the poor fellows leading the gang! They practically already had ropes tied around their necks, ready for death the moment they arrived at their destination.
Eventually, another few hours passed before they'd finally started to slow down.
'We're almost at their desination it seems, but just where are we? Another forest?'
Without knowing his exact location, Nick had next to no idea where he was in reference to the Sanctuary.
All he knew as the direction they'd been going in, which was to the south of the Vaylan Forest where he'd been hunting the Sabertooth Wolves.
The group finally came to a halt a few dozen minutes later.
To Nick, the environment looked just like every other forest in the area surrounding the War Beast sanctuary.
But, there was one thing he noticed immediately after crossing a certain point.
Something he remembered quite vividly from his time with the War Beast gang.
The forest was quiet, far quieter than it had been during the previous leg of the journey — which told Nick one thing.
They were in the territory of a Radiant Beast now.
No roars, howls, or any echoes of fights between distant beasts like there usually were.
Just the wind.
Shaking his head from any distracting thoughts, Nick got serious.
He hunkered down in a bush and watched the Radiant Slayers from afar, listening in on their conversation.
"Have you caught onto its scent?" Beast Slayer was the one who spoke, asking one of the rather anxious looking Altered at the front of their group.
"Y-Yes… It's around 1 kilometre to the west of her—" The poor fellow started speaking, but had his throat slit by Beast Slayer's sword a moment later.
Beast Slayer didn't even display a lick of emotion from his savage act of murder.
He just carried on as if nothing had happened.
He yawned and turned to one of his lackeys before continuing his speech.
"Tell the men to get ready, this beast is going to be particularly tricky to hunt. Even that bitch Dido would have a hard time against it." A scornful expression crossed his face the moment he mentioned Dido's name.
There was clearly some sourness between the two powerful leaders.
"Lead the way." He turned to one of the remaining two 'hired' help, before walking back to join the rest of his gang in preparation.
A warm stream of liquid found its way flowing down poor fellow #2's leg when Beast Slayer spoke to him.
The image of his friend's corpse would forever be ingrained in his mind…