Hayato wakes up on the couch of the small house, he stands up with an annoyed expression ' Damn it, when did I fall asleep? I didn't even train or make a clone, it was a waste of time ' Hayato stand up and watched the empty bed ' Where is she? ' Then she saw the bathroom door and saw some vapor coming out under the door ' Good, she is still here '
Hayato walks towards the door and leaves the house, he didn't want to disturb Kara when she is taking a bath, as he was walking to the training grounds he was thinking ' I slept very deeply, it's been a while since I slept like that, it must be because I was very tired, but now I feel refreshed '
Hayato arrived at the training grounds and don't even 2 minutes passed when a group of people approached him, they were Selene, Erick, Scarlett, and a young man and woman who he doesn't recognize, but he feels that he has seen the young woman before. The young man is tall (around 1.85 meters) he has a very strong body, short black hair, and dark green eyes, the young man has the face of a middle-aged man but he has to be a student, after all, Selene said that the group would be only composed with students. The young man wears shiny silver armor just like Erick but he has a long spear and Erick a white sword. The young woman was a little tall (around 1.76) she had yellow eyes, and long brown hair, she has a thin but curvy body, she is quite beautiful but she has a cold face, she wears an upper armor with a skirt covered with metallic plates and high metallic boots just like Scarlett the difference is that her armor is light blue and she has a staff and Scarlett has a golden armor with a golden sword
Selene wears her red robe and has her staff in her left hand she was leading them to the training grounds and was the first to approach Hayato and when she arrived in front of him she says with a serious voice " Is Kara still on the house? "
Hayato nods with a calm expression " Yes, she is taking a bath "
Selene doesn't say anything else, she starts to walk towards the house, and without turning around, she says with a cold voice " I will go for her, stay here and don't cause any trouble "
Hayato watches her enter the house, then the young woman speaks " You like to hit women? "
Hayato turns to see her with an expressionless face and says " And you are? "
The young woman sees him with a frowning expression " You don't have the right to know who I am, slave, but you dared to raise your hand against my sister "
' I see... that's why I felt I saw her before, she is the sister of that woman Jasmine, they look alike ' Hayato keeps his calm face as he says " Your sister tried to pull Kara's hair, I just grabbed her wrist "
The young woman makes a cold snort " Hmph, I don't care, you will apologize to her, or I will kill you "
Hayato sees her with a bored expression and says " No "
The young woman sees Hayato with anger " Stupid slave, you... " but she didn't finish speaking when someone interrupts her
" Shut up Emma, you are annoying me " Said Scarlett with an annoyed face, but inside she was yelling with anger ' How dare she speak to my Hero like that!! Should I cut her head here?! '
The young woman named Emma turns to see Scarlett with an expression of disbelief " But I... " Scarlett interrupts her again
" You didn't hear me? " Scarlett sees her with a smiling face but her eyes look cold like a snake seeing her prey. The young woman named Emma shivers in fear and bows her head without saying any other word
Scarlett nods with a smile, then she turns to see Hayato with a very sweet smile thinking ' Aah.. my Hero, I want you so much... ' Then she grabs both sides of her skirt bowing her head a little " Nice to meet you, my name is Scarlett Allencourt, 7th princess of the Slyorn Empire, can I know your name? " Scarlett spoke with a sweet humble voice surprising Erick, Emma, and the tall young man
Hayato was seeing Scarlett with a calm face but he can't avoid thinking ' This woman, she was acting dominant yesterday and now she is acting humble, what is she thinking? ' Then he says with a calm face " My name is Hayato Uchiha "
Scarlett starts to smile widely the moment she heard his name, her smile could enchant any man who sees it, then she says " Nice to meet you Hayato, he is Erick Clarkin third son of Duke Clarkin, the other one is Roman Beaumont's fourth son of Count Beaumont and finally, that rude woman is Emma Dewitt second daughter of Duke Dewitt " Scarlett presented her companions without stopping seeing Hayato
Roman was the only one who nods when Scarlett presented them, the other two don't even pay attention to Hayato, they were seeing Scarlett with incredulous expressions
Scarlett tilts her head to the left side as she keeps her sweet smile " So, Hayato, where are you from? "
Hayato hesitates in lying that he was from this continent, so he says "... I'm from the Human Continent "
Scarlett raises her eyebrows a little at the surprise " The Human Continent? " Then she smiles sweetly again " I see... but you are strong, from what I observed from your battle with Erick, you could be someone very important in the Human Continent, how did you turn into a slave? "
Hayato sees her with a calm face " I fought a powerful monster and I lost consciousness, when I woke up, someone already put me on this slave collar and sold me, so now I'm here by my master's orders " Erick and Emma grin with disdain hearing Hayato's history
Scarlett makes a sad face as she says " Your life was rough, then, I guess that that tattoo on your forehead was made by the slave trader? "
Hayato nods slightly and says " Yes when I woke up it was there "
Scarlett keeps seeing Hayato's forehead but she can hide seeing him in the eyes with a face full of desire for a second to then say " Let's change the subject " Then she makes a small smile asking " Your name is interesting, it remembers me those names that appeared on the old tales that my mother used to read me when I was a little girl "
Hayato grins ad says " I have heard that a couple of times, but that's just a coincidence "
Then Kara and Selene arrived, Kara is using the armor and the gauntlets that she bought yesterday, she has her hair a little wet and her cheeks a little rosy. They arrived near Hayato and Kara smiled at him very sweetly that smile passed unnoticed by Hayato but Scarlett saw her and she starts to see Kara with a very cold face
Selene sees Emma with a smile and says " It's good to see that you behaved well, after all, if you tried to attack this guy here, he would have killed you, it maybe doesn't seem, but this guy is stronger than Erick " Emma and Erick saw Hayato with surprise, Roman looks at him with interest and Kara and Scarlett smiled a little, Selene sees them with amusement and speaks again " Come on, we will use horses to get there before the night arrives "
The group walked to the entrance of the city, it took them a half-hour to arrive there, Hayato could feel Scarlett's eyes on him all the time he doesn't turn to see in her direction, but he chose to ignore her
When they arrived at the entrance they saw a group of knights grabbing 6 horses with ropes waiting for them when they approached the knights, they bowed and the leader says " Lady Selene, the horses are ready for your use, the Emperor chose them personally, they are the fastest horses on the kingdom "
" Good, we will leave now " Said Selene as she was climbing onto the horse, Hayato and Kara ride the same horse, Kara in the front and Hayato in the rear, Scarlett keeps seeing Kara with a cold face even when she was on the horse but no one was seeing her
" Yes my Lady, please take care of the princess and the others " Said the knight with his head bowed
" No problem " Said Selene with a smile and they left on the horses, riding them fast through the forest near the Slyorn Empire after a few hours " There is the Greyfort village, let's get down from the horses and be ready, there could be an ambush nearby " the Greyfort village was still far away, but Selene can see the roofs of the buildings
Hayato walked beside Kara seeing left to right from time to time, all of them were on guard until they arrived at the Greyfort village. The Greyfort village was surrounded by a wood wall with watchtowers, there are some holes in the walls and a few collapsed watchtowers, the entrance was open and there is no sign of people, the place is empty and silent
" What happened here? " Said Kara with doubt
" Let's enter, maybe there are people inside " Spoke Roman with a serious face
They entered the city inside they saw a few houses collapsed and signs of a battle, but there is no sign of corpses or even blood
" Teacher, are you sure this place was attacked by bandits? " Asked Roman as he was seeing the place with caution
Then from behind a house, they hear steps, the steps sound metallic, all of them raise their guard preparing for an attack, and from the corner, a man wearing full armor appeared
The group is surprised and lowers their guard " It's one of the knights that came here for the report " Said Selene with surprise then yells " Hey! What happened!? where is your partner!? "
The knight turns to see them and makes a happy smile and runs towards them " We have trouble! " said the knight, Selene's eyes glow with a bright blue light and she calms down, the knight arrives in front of Emma panting
" You... have to.. help... me... " Said the knight with a tired voice, and grabs Emma's left hand, Emma sees him with a raised eyebrow
Then the knight whispers with a terrifying voice " I need more " Emma frowns and tries to pull her hand but her hand was strongly grabbed by the knight " Release me! " the hands of the knight begin to absorb Emma's hand
" Grr! " Emma makes a pained expression, she aims her staff towards the knight, but before she can chant a spell *SWOOSH* Hayato cuts the knight's arms with his Lostvayne covered with a dark fire then she pulls Emma and throws her towards Selene
" Kami Chigiri! (Thousand Divine Slayer) " Hayato cuts the knight's body into small pieces and he sees the small pieces with surprise ' There is no blood and I didn't receive system points from this guy, why? ' he turns to see Selene and saw that knight's arms that he didn't cut on pieces were still attached to Emma's hand and even more it was moving slowly, changing its form and color until it was a blue gelatinous mass that was trying to consume Emma's arm
" Damn it! what's this?! it burns! " Emma sees her hand with a pained expression and she tries to remove the gelatinous mass
" Don't touch it! Fire Reinforcement! " Selene grabs the gelatinous mass with her hand covered with fire, the gelatinous mass shakes like it was feeling pain then it turns into ashes, revealing the severely burned hand of Emma
Hayato frowns seeing that and turns around quickly, he saw that the small pieces were gathering together and taking form like the knight's arms, he jumps back a little and " Hell-Blaze! " he burns them with black fire until they were ashes too
" Teacher! What happened to that knight!? " Said Erick with doubt
Selene shook her head with a serious face " I don't know, I scanned him with my Soul Eye and his energy was completely normal "
" It wasn't human, it was almost like a Slime " Said Roman with a serious face
Erick turns to see him with a frowning expression " What are you saying, Roman? Slimes are harmless if you know how to handle them and they can not take a human form "
Selene that was overhearing their conversation surprised ' It can't be that thing, right? That thing has been dead for centuries '
Then Hayato speaks with a serious face " Hey! We have company! " and everyone turns to see him. From the roofs and behind the houses hundreds of people start to come out, men and women of different ages there are even children, but they were different from the knight, they have blue tentacles instead of arms, 3 per arm. The tentacles are long and some had tentacles with sharp bones on the tip. All of the people who arrived where seeing Hayato and the others with drooling smiles
Selene makes a very serious face " Erick cure Emma, Emma you Kara, and me we will stay behind and use only long-range spells, Roman, cover us, and Scarlett, Erick, and Hayato, try to stop their advance, make sure that they don't touch you "
Erick began to use Light Magic to cure Emma's arm, Kara and Selene approached them with Roman in front of them protecting them, Hayato stayed in the same position and Scarlett arrived next to him
" Give me more! " A man on the roof yelled and all of the mutated people dashed towards Hayato and Scarlett " Hell-Blaze! " Hayato creates a wall of black fire that covers the mutated people that were falling from the roofs
Scarlett sees Hayato with a smile and raises her hand towards those who were on the ground " Ice Arrows! " hundreds of ice arrows travel towards the mutated people but *PIERCE* The ice arrows killed just a few of them, the rest were intact, the ice arrows passed through their bodies without making any damage
Selene frowns seeing that then she raises her staff aiming at the mutated people on her right " They are weak against Fire Magic! use that to attack them! Fire Maelstrom! " Hundreds of magic circles appeared in the air releasing purple fire ovals to the ground *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* The purple fire ovals explode by making contact with the mutated people after the explosions passed a great black smoke raises and from them, more people were running towards them
Selene makes an incredulous expression as she thinks ' Impossible, there are new ones, but I'm sure that I hit a few ones that are on the front... they have different types of resistances!? then, it's really that thing? but why did that evil guy's fire kill them? '
" Master! The horses! " Kara yelled as she was throwing blue fireballs toward the mutated people that were running towards her. Kara's fire seems to have the same effect as Hayato's Hell-Blaze since when she hits them, they turned to ashes
Some of the mutated people were grabbing the horses until they absorbed them inside of their bodies then they divided, ones took the forms of humans and the others took the form of horses with tentacles instead of heads ' Damn it, they were assimilated '
Emma aimed her staff toward those mutated horses and yell " Water Bomb! " A water ball (around 3 meters wide) travels towards them and when it was about to hit them it contracts taking the form of a small marble and *BOOM* it explodes creating a big column of water and mist, but just like before, some of them are still alive and were rushing towards them
Erick frown and jumps where the mutants are heading " I will take the rear, Teacher! Fire Reinforcement! " he covers his sword with a layer of fire and begins to attack the mutants cutting the tentacles they use to attack him " Wind Slash! " Erick cuts a mutated horse and a couple of mutated people in half but they reattach their bodies and keep attacking " Damn it, these things are weak but very resistant! "
" They are weak against water, ice, and fire magic! Emma, cover him! we can't let these things escape they can turn different live beings into those monsters! " Selene has a very serious expression right now ' Damn it... is that thing...is really that thing, I'm 100% sure about it now ' Selene grits her teeth and hits the ground with her staff cracking the ground a little bit then her body begins to shine with a red light and her eyes turned red for a moment then she yells " Sealing Fire Area! " *ZOOM* A giant cube appeared but this time was different it was more than 200 meters tall and more than 200 meters wide, it covers the whole village and some parts of the surrounding area ' A sealing area of this size requires a constant magic supply, I need to trust that they will kill them without my help ' from Selene's body a red vapor was going to each side of the cube's walls
Kara sees the cube with a confused expression she turns to see Selene " What are you doing master? "
Selene's body was shining with a red light and a red vapor was going to each of the cube's walls, she has a solemn face when she says " We can't let those things escape, we have to kill every one of them, even if we fight to the death "
" Ra! " Roman stabs a mutant in the chest, he has his spear covered with a layer of fire but the mutant keeps moving with a smiling face " Die! Myriad Thrust! " he stabs the mutant a lot of times in a blink until it disappears, then he says as he fights another mutant " Why!? what are these things!? "
" I will tell you later! first, you must kill them all, I will prevent them from escaping! " Selene said without moving ' I really hope the original is still weak and is here if that thing continues to assimilate living beings, only Heroes will be able to stop it '
*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* *SWOOSH* Scarlett was surrounded by dozens of mutants with sharp bone tentacles, all of them thrusting their tentacles trying to stab her, Scarlett evades them with smooth and quick movements then she puts her arms to each side and yells " Absolute Zero! " creating a small blue dome around her that frozen all of the mutants " Ha! " she swung her sword and destroyed the mutants on little pieces, she scanned the area with worry ' Where is my Hero? ' she saw the roof of a house and smiled sweetly
Hayato was swinging his Lostvayne covered with a black flame, he just needs to cut the mutants one time to turn them into dust ' It doesn't matter how many of them I kill, they keep coming, how many people lived in this village? '
Hayato turns to see Kara and when she saw that she was killing the mutants with just one attack he smiled ' It seems that her fire can kill them easily, now I will reduce their numbers more ' Hayato jumps as high as he could, then he retracts his Lostvayne and " Hell-Blaze! " He covers most of the village with black flames
All of the ones who saw him do that were amazed but Emma yells with anger " What are you doing!? there could be people still alive in the village! " Hayato didn't hear her and swung his Lostvayne a few times more creating more black flames that covered mutants and buildings equally
After Hayato landed he keep killing the remaining mutants. They keep fighting for hours until night, the mutants now were trying to escape the cube, but they only hit their walls trying to break them, There were a lot of them trying to escape by doing that so Selene was having a hard time, she had her teeth clenched and she was sweating a lot
She didn't calm down until Hayato and the others killed them when the mutants stopped their attacks against them they searched the village for more finding a few that were trying to hide in the basements of the buildings, in total they maybe killed more than 2000 mutants, more than the population of the village
Selene concluded that those mutants attacked more villages before attacking this one, maybe those villages were from other Empires so that's why they never heard from other attacks
They gather at the entrance of the village sitting around a campfire " Master, now you can tell us, what were those things? " Asked Roman with a serious face
Selene looks a little bit tired she has her head a little bit bowed when she responds " They are some kind of Slime "
Erick makes a face of doubt " Slimes? but master slimes never change their form, how it's that possible? "
" I know, but they are not normal Slimes, they were just a part of one unique Slime, that Slime existed hundreds of years ago, and the ones who defeat it were the previous Heroes, we have lucky that that thing wasn't very mature if not those monsters could be stronger than us " Selene spoke with a very serious face
The group was surprised and Erick says " What!? if he fought against Heroes, why is that thing alive? "
Selene shakes her head and says " I don't know... the Heroes used a combined technique to kill it, I just hope that that black flame killed the original, but... "
" That thing isn't dead " Hayato said with a serious voice and everyone turns to see him with surprise ' If that had been the case, I would have received system points for its dead '
Kara sees her with doubt as she says " Huh? Why are you so sure? we killed all those things in the village, no? "
Selene speaks with a calm voice " He is right, after we killed a certain number of people, I noticed that those things attacked other villages "
" Then what now, master? " Kara asked with concern
Selene sees her with a tired smile and says " They killed our horses, we need to walk back to the Empire, so let's take a rest first we will leave after that "
" Teacher, why we didn't hear about that thing before? if it's that dangerous, everyone should know about that thing " Erick asked with doubt
Selene turns to see him with a serious face and says " It's because of the guardian races, they order every empire to hide their existence and wanted to erase the name of that apocalyptic thing, that way the people will have peaceful lives outside big cities, that's why even the princess here didn't even know about it "
" And how do you know that? " Scarlett asked with a frowning expression
Selene smiled at her as she says " Because of your father princess, everyone who becomes important to the empire needs to know about what could be a threat to the empire, I made a promise to not reveal anything but at this point, I think that is meaningless "
" So, what is the name of that thing? " Hayato asked with a curious face
Selene makes a serious face and says " Its name has been changing for years, but the Heroes called it Hex, we have to kill that thing as soon as we can "