One of the giant babies took the head of the doll it was licking out of its mouth. This baby had only one eye still in its socket; the other had fallen out and was hanging by a thin thread of nerve. It dangled uselessly on its cheek as the creature shook its head, and a devilish smile stayed on the baby's face as it kept fondling its doll.

Then, as if sensing something, it turned toward the mouth of the canyon. On the edge of the cliff above, it saw the ronin of decay holding a really long sword on his shoulder like the omen of death. Dressed in black, his form emitted wisps of dark smoke that seemed to distort the very air around him.

But in the few seconds that this creature saw the ronin, it could see what looked like a massive mirage of a hooded figure behind him. This hooded figure was a skeleton that was burning with green fire.

The happy expression on the baby's face suddenly twisted into a mask of terror as it was suddenly filled with dread. It raised a hand and pointed at the ronin, drawing the attention of the other babies around it, but in that moment, a shadow suddenly fell from above. It landed atop the baby, driving a katana into its head and causing the baby to go limp and collapse into the dirt like a puppet with its strings cut.

Black Flames erupted from the point of impact and began to slowly spread across the corpse.

Aika took out her katana and looked at the other creatures around her with her black eyes. When the babies saw her figure, some that were too scared to approach began to throw their dolls at her and scream in shrill, piercing voices, while a few still attacked despite the fear gnawing at them.

"Yeah. He's right. These vermin need to go."

She leapt and spun, unleashing a massive, slicing wave of black flames from her sword. The flames surged forward, engulfing a baby and a few others behind it.

One of the creatures let out a cry as it crawled desperately towards Aika. But before it could reach her, Cedric appeared above it with his arm raised high, and then, he brought down his six-foot-long nodachi, beheading the vile creature.

It went limp, and its head rolled coming to a stop with its lifeless blue eyes staring at them.

Without hesitation, both Cedric and Aika lunged at another creature, and then another. Their blades sliced through air, and each time, an abomination collapsed to the ground with the weight of a felled tree.

Things looked easy at first, until a different batch of babies showed up. These ones weren't crawling but walking like toddlers and were significantly bigger than the others. They had pacifiers in their mouths, which was a bit weird to be honest.

The first approached the duo, who were still engaging with the others, and suddenly took out its pacifier and gagged.

At that moment, Cedric called, "Aika!"

Both erupted into a flurry of feathers as the creature suddenly began spewing a thick, acidic green bile from its mouth onto the spot where they had stood. The liquid poured out like a high-pressure hose, and when it touched the floor, not only did it hiss and dissolve the stone, but it also sent up a cloud of toxic fumes.

"Careful. Don't let that shit or whatever it is touch you, okay?" Cedric yelled as he appeared by the foot of the creature. In one fluid motion, he sliced off its leg.

The baby toppled over, its massive weight hitting the earth with a sickening thud. As it landed on the ground, it began to cry in a shrill, glass-shattering wail that vibrated through Cedric's chest.

Three of the same babies closed in near Cedric. At that moment, he made an "O" shape with his hand and breathed out a thin, continuous stream of black flames while also moving his head in a circle, making sure to engulf all three, including the one that was struggling to stand from the floor.

All four shrieked in unison and tried to get the flames off them but couldn't. One even fell onto the floor and began to roll around in a circle in an attempt to extinguish the fire, but the black embers only spread further across its body, feasting on its flesh.

Cedric coughed a bit, then turned around to move on to the next target when suddenly a massive doll plummeted from above.

A baby had thrown it from at him from a distance. Cedric could see it in time due to one of his ravens above and immediately leapt out of the way. The doll smashed into the ground where he had been standing, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The baby thought it had hit Cedric, and so it began laughing, clapping its hands and hitting its legs like a child. Seeing that, Cedric waved at the baby and called out, "Hello."

When the baby looked up at him, he pointed at the doll. "I think you missed."

The baby's eyes widened. It immediately turned around and began crawling away, but then suddenly paused when it saw Aika in front of it.

"Boo." In the same manner as Cedric, she breathed out a stream of flames, engulfing the baby.

The black fire roared as it met the creature's skin, turning its cry of confusion into a muffled gurgle of agony. Within seconds, the toddler-like beast was nothing more than a heap of smoldering shadows.

An hour of intense slaughter passed, and seeing that they could not survive the onslaught, the creatures began to crawl away in dread.

But Cedric and Aika would not let them, and so they stopped their retreat with cold, calculated efficiency.

Both of them swapped places with a raven at every chance they got in an attempt to level up the skill. They continued this until their mana ran low, and even then, they kept on slaughtering. After several hours had passed, Aika and Cedric finally decided to retreat to a nearby territory several kilometers away where they could rest and recover Cedric's mana.

However, before they left, they stationed a raven at the mouth of the canyon to track the remaining babies, ensuring that not even one could escape them.

Two days later, once Cedric had fully recovered his mana and strength, he returned with Aika to continue dealing with the abominations. He was truly determined to use them as his personal leveling farm.

He retreated whenever they were exhausted, and when his mana was fully replenished days later, they returned to finish what they had started.

And like that, two weeks passed…

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