Ghouls look seventy to eighty percent similar to humans in appearance, except they are much more burly, generally over two meters tall. Their muscles are especially well-developed, bulging in large masses, with veins coiling across them, making them look particularly ferocious. Most of them go bare-chested, with animal skin skirts wrapped around their waists, their belts hung with battle knives and all sorts of strange weapons, and animal skin boots on their feet.

If their physique still bears some resemblance to humans, their faces are far from human, yet not quite like beasts either.

Most of them have twisted, even deformed faces; three out of five have asymmetrical eyes. Their teeth are jagged and uneven, but the only obvious and consistent feature is the four fangs protruding from their upper lips.

When they saw Eleanor Clark and Alice Clark, the five ghouls reacted extremely strongly, drooling incessantly.

Four of them surrounded Alice Clark, with only one heading toward Eleanor Clark. It wasn’t for any other reason, but simply because it was clearly less robust than the other four. After being yelled at by its companions, it reluctantly turned toward Eleanor Clark.

At this point, Alice Clark had already thrown all caution to the wind and launched the first attack. With a shout, she stepped forward, shooting toward a ghoul like a cannonball.

That ghoul clearly hadn’t expected Alice Clark to be so fast. Before it could react, Alice Clark crashed into it, and together they flew backward, landing heavily on the ground.

The ghoul was left dizzy and dazed, and the girl didn’t fare much better, but she recovered first. Her hunting knife rose and fell, stabbing the ghoul’s chest more than a dozen times in an instant.

The other ghouls were stunned for a moment before they finally reacted.

One ghoul raised a thick wooden club, intending to smash it down on Alice Clark's head, but was grabbed by another ghoul, who then roared at him. The third ghoul strode over to Alice Clark, raised its huge hand, and swung a slap at the back of her head.

Alice Clark was still furiously stabbing the ghoul beneath her. Only when she heard the rush of wind did she turn her head, seeing the massive hand swinging toward her. Her face instantly turned pale, and she thought to herself that it was over. This slap wasn’t fatal, but it was enough to knock her out.

Once a woman fell into the hands of ghouls, her fate would be worse than death. Alice Clark had heard such stories more than once. If not for Eleanor Clark being by her side today, she would have chosen suicide over being captured alive the moment she realized she couldn’t escape.

She closed her eyes in despair, but the huge hand, whistling through the air, merely grazed the top of her head, sending a few strands of hair flying.

The expected heavy blow never came. Alice Clark opened her eyes to see the massive body of the ghoul in her field of vision sway, then collapse to the ground, motionless.

The change happened so quickly that she couldn’t figure out what had happened for a moment. Suddenly remembering something, she jumped up and shouted, “Eleanor Clark!”

Eleanor Clark’s voice sounded behind her: “Only now do you remember me?”

The girl spun around like a whirlwind and saw Eleanor Clark standing calmly in place, as if he hadn’t moved at all. Yet all four ghouls were lying on the ground, their fate unknown.

The hunting knife in Eleanor Clark’s hand was as clean as a mirror, not a trace of blood on it, making the girl wonder if what she saw was real or just an illusion.

“You, you…”

“We’ll talk later. The ghouls aren’t all dead yet.”

Before Eleanor Clark finished speaking, a ghoul suddenly leapt out from the tall grass behind him, pouncing at him in midair!

Seeing the gray markings on this ghoul’s body, the girl’s heart leapt into her throat. She opened her mouth to shout, but it was too late to warn him.

But Eleanor Clark simply sidestepped, easily dodging the attack. The ghoul, missing its target, crashed straight into the ground, shaking the nearby trees.

It seemed the fall was too hard; the ghoul’s limbs twitched a few times, then it stopped moving. However, ghouls are tougher than the villagers—how could a single fall kill it?

The girl was stunned, and the other ghoul hiding in the tall grass seemed stunned as well. The grass rustled, parting in the opposite direction as that ghoul actually fled.

Eleanor Clark raised his eyebrows, reached behind him for his longbow, and with a stretch of his right hand, four arrows were already between his fingers. He drew and released in quick succession, four sharp arrows shooting out in a line, straight into the tall grass!

A shrill scream came from deep in the grass, then all was silent. Clearly, the last ghoul hadn’t escaped Eleanor Clark’s deadly arrows either.

In the blink of an eye, all the ghouls had been slain, yet Eleanor Clark showed no sign of happiness or excitement. He looked at the ghoul that had ambushed him, frowning slightly.

This ghoul was different from the first five. Its body was slightly thinner, its limbs much longer, and it was smeared with gray mud, crisscrossed in deep and light shades, all different tones of gray.

After staring at this gray for a while, Eleanor Clark actually felt a slight dizziness.

A faint red layer appeared deep in his pupils, and his vision changed as he activated the power of the Holy Radiance to enhance his sight. But in his vision, the ghoul’s corpse, which had been clear before, now appeared somewhat blurry.

Wherever the gray mud was smeared, there was distortion and skewing. The areas not covered by the mud remained clear.

Eleanor Clark kept a calm expression, but inside, waves of shock surged. The mud smeared on the ghouls’ bodies could actually block the power of the Holy Radiance!