The Haulia watched with a horrid fascination as Alex systematically and calmly slaughtered the Empires soldiers. In one hand he wielded his staff. Twirling and swinging it to and fro as he used it to either smash or impale the soldiers; in the other he used fire magic to not only burn the soldiers alive, but also to clean up the remaining bodies after he killed them. What the Haulia focused on was the fire in his hand, an impossibility for a demihuman yet he wielded it naturally.
They weren't the only ones watching his display, as the commander of the knight Grid Half watched his men get slaughtered with relative ease. He had figured that they would at least be able to overwhelm Alex with sheer numbers, but it seemed to be nothing more than child's play for him to kill them. As a last ditch effort he ordered a couple of his remaining men to sneak around and try and take some of the rabbitmen hostage, hoping that he could use Alex's humanity as leverage against him. What happened however only frustrated him, as his men that approached the rabbitmen suddenly collapsed while foaming a the mouth.
"If you want things done right you have o do them yourself." Grid cursed the uselessness of his men, and stepped forward to join the fray as Alex turned his back. The second his foot hit the ground however,
CRACK
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG!!!" Grid screamed, as his now destroyed knee gave out and sent him to the ground. He looked at it and saw that from the knee down his leg was bending the opposite way it was supposed to, meaning if he didn't get to a healer he'd never be able to walk again. At that moment Grod looked back up and saw Alex dispatch the last of his men besides Pete, and thought 'forget walking, I'm about to die and can't do anything about it!' As the one who slaughtered his men approached, smiling slightly as his tail swayed behind him. Grid clenched his teeth and said,
"What are you monster!? There's no way you existed in this world without being found out! And mark my words, the Empire will not accept what you've done here today!" His words made Alex stop, before his grin grew wider and he said,
"Indeed I'm not from this world, and I plan to deal with the Empire's issues personally eventually anyways." His words made Grid freeze as he confirmed that he wasn't from this world, making Grid realize there must be travelers from other worlds besides the summoned heroes. Before his thoughts got too far however, Alex shouted,
"BATTER UP!" And swung his staff, taking Grid's head with it and sending it flying towards the canyon in the distance. He then turned towards Pete and said,
"Now for the last one." As he slowly walked closer. Pete was still suffering from the hit Alex gave him earlier, as he only held back enough to not kill him, and he started screaming as Alex slowly approached.
"NO PLEASE, STOP!!" The rabbitmen watched in undisguised horror as Alex slowly and painfully killed Pete, before burning all of the remaining evidence of the incident. Now nothing existed that told of the gruesome event that took place, except for the weapons and scorch marks that would soon disappear. Alex then turned towards the frightened rabbits, and said,
"Now that that's done, let's chat shall we?" Though they were very frightened, the Haulia clan did recognize the fact that Alex helped them even if it wasn't his original intention. Many went up to him to test the waters and thank him for saving them from a life of slavery, before they saw he wasn't as scary when he wasn't killing people. At that point Alex was being swarmed by the grateful rabbits, before a voice shouted out,
"THANK YOU!!!" As a certain gray-blue haired woman came flying at him, her face covered in snot and tears from her earlier crying. Instead of being caught and held in his arms like she pictured, Alex immediately reached out his hand and delivered a merciless forehead flick to her, using enough force that she even went flying back a few feet. Though one would normally receive a lot of damage from that, Shia was back on her feet within seconds and rubbed her head while saying bitterly,
"Why hit me?! What kind of guy says he likes women then flicks a beautiful young maiden that hard? Don't tell me you actually prefer men and those women are to cover-" Alex shut her up with another forehead flick with an annoyed expression, as he just now recalled how bad Shia's personality was in the beginning. He then said to her,
"I don't prefer guys, it's obnoxious to refer to yourself as beautiful, and what person would be ok with being used as a snot rag?" At his words Shia suddenly became aware of her current state, and immediately started trying to clean herself. Many of the Haulia surrounding them looked at the two with warm eyes, while a certain man walked forward to greet Alex.
"Greetings warrior, my name is Cam and I'm the patriarch of the Haulia tribe, and I see you've already met my daughter Shia Haulia. Even if it wasn't your original intention thank you for saving us, may we know your name?" Alex shrugged, and introduced himself,
"I'm Alex, a traveling warrior from another world." As Alex introduced himself honestly the Haulia paid attention, and didn't seem at all fazed when he said he was from another world. Shia in particular seemed to be trying to commit his name to memory, while her father stepped forward and said,
"Then Alex, I wish to make a request, please protect us until we reach someplace safe!" As he said his last words Cam got on his knees as if he was begging Alex to stay with them, while the rest of the tribe followed their patriarchs lead and did the same thing with their pleading eyes. Alex smiled warmly towards the rabbits, and responded,
"Nope." Causing many of them to stall at his refusal. Before they could complain he then explained,
"I have my own things to do so I can't follow you around to protect you, plus where can you say you'd be protected outside the Sea of Trees? It just seems like you're asking me to waste a lot of my time keeping you guys safe." The Haulia started fretting at his words, but none could argue against them as they couldn't ask Alex to drop everything he was doing for their sakes. Shia then said,
"Then maybe we can follow you while you protect us!" Hearing her words the rest of the tribe once again looked hopeful, while Cam grinned at his daughter, thankful for her idea and aware there was probably more to it than she let on. Seeing how her father looked at her, Shia blushed deeply and looked away. Though she wouldn't say it out loud yet, she also wanted to stay with Alex as he was "like her". Though he had stated that he was from another world, this hadn't deterred Shia in the slightest. She had never seen someone remotely unique like her, and spent her life thinking she was the only one; while Alex was from another world, he was also similar enough that she wanted to know more about him. The person in question responded to Shia's idea,
"What benefit would there be for me if that happened? Not only would I have to protect a hundred extra people from monsters, but wouldn't I also have to worry about constant slavers after all of you as well? Plus that doesn't even start on how we'll be living with food or expenses." Though Alex was stating reasons why it wouldn't work, this was so he wouldn't seem too eager to have them along. In fact this was what he wanted so that he could use the Haulia once he more or less "reprogrammed" them. Without divulging his true intentions, Alex waited for their response, to which Shia tried to say,
"If there's no other choice then you can use my body as you-" but before she was even done speaking her father spoke up with a smirk,
"Are you sure you're not just offering your body for yourself dear daughter?" Shia stammered and said,
"O-of course not father, b-but for the betterment of the tribe sacrifices must be made!" Shia tried to play off her words, but no one in the tribe apparently bought it. Alex then interrupted Shia's self defense by stating,
"Don't worry I already have several women to satisfy my needs without forcing someone who wouldn't be interested." Though his words would normally be a relief for someone in Shia's position, she instead looked conflicted, at least until Alex continued.
"Though I wouldn't deny you if it's something you really wanted." She breathed a sigh of relief and calmed herself, while Alex then said to Cam and the rest,
"I won't refuse accepting you all, but I would need you to all pull your own weight, firstly what are the rabbitmen good at?" At his question everyone stares thinking seriously, but the first reply was the one Alex was after,
"We're good at hiding!" One of the kids shouted out, causing the rest to nod their heads in pride of their hiding ability. Cam then explained,
"When there's conflict with either the human or demon race sides we rabbitmen usually act as scouts for the demihumans. We can truthfully boast that none are better than hiding than we are!" Alex smirked and said,
"And yet you all got found and surrounded so easily by the Empire's soldiers earlier." The rabbits looked sheepish at his words, not knowing how to respond. Alex shook his head and walked off to the side, causing some of them to panic slightly at the thought that he was abandoning them, before he started using magic to mark something on the ground. Alex soon finished the large scale magic circle, and turned back towards the rabbitmen. He then activated his 'Devils Charm' as he spoke,
"This circle will take me and any who join me to my current hideout, those who follow me will receive my training and follow my orders from here on out. Those who choose not to go will stay behind and be left to fend for themselves. Prove yourselves to me and you'll be able to continue following me well into the future, and you'll be able to hold your heads high with pride when you introduce yourselves in the future as the Haulia tribe!" Many of the rabbitmen were holding their breaths at Alex's words, waiting for him to say more. When it was apparent that he wasn't going to say anymore they started conversing amongst themselves.
When Alex used his 'Devils Charm he didn't try to force them to do immediately as he said, he simply used it to make what he told them more appealing. To the Haulia things like pride and combat capabilities were negligible and unneeded, however now they were starting to wonder if that was really the case, especially since they no longer had the protection of Fea Bergen.
Soon they seemed to reach an agreement, and everyone of the Haulia tribe started making their way to Alex's magic circle. Alex smiled at the outcome, knowing the stakes were essentially all or nothing since the Haulia were famous for familial bonds. Soon there was just Cam and Shia left, as Alex made his way to them.
"So I take that as a yes." Alex said simply, as Cam laughed and replied,
"I look forward to working with you, Boss." Alex subtly flinched at his new title, recalling how they acted in the series. Cam started making his way to the magic circle, leaving Alex and Shia left, who was in deep thought about her future.
"Well let's go." Alex said as he turned and walked away, leaving Shia to watch him from behind. Shia then realized something, she didn't want to be stuck looking at his back. She wanted him to look at her regardless of how many other girls were around him, she wanted to walk at his side with him.
"I'll catch up!" Shia declared to herself, before she started running to the magic circle and her future.
***
Kuroka lounged on the bed of the room Alex usually slept on when he stayed in the hideout, trying to take a nap. She was tired of endlessly killing monsters and was thankful Alex sent word that they'll be moving on the next day. The only real problem, was those damn rabbits. Kuroka didn't know what it was but she couldn't stand them even though they'd been there for two weeks already, though she made it a point to tease them every chance she got. She would always be entertained by their reactions when she teased them, showing scared expressions and acting as... well acting as prey.
The main cause of her being uneasy around them though, was how they would easily be able to avoid being detected by her, and these were the ones Alex wasn't training in the upper levels for the last two weeks. Since there were several elderly members of the rabbit clan he had them stay behind and assist with the gardening if they were capable, as they wouldn't be able to handle the training he would put them through, though Kuroka doubted the ones he was training would improve either. The only one she considered an exception to this however was the strange rabbit with different colored hair, who was being trained by Yue and Grayfia. At that moment,
"SHIYAAAAA!!!"
"NYAAAAAA!!!"
A cute sounding yell rang out, right before the entire space started shaking from the impact of the giant boulder Shia just threw, while Kuorka was then shook out of the bed with the vibrations. She then stood up and looked out the window to see Shia sparring with Grayfia while Yue coached her from the side, teaching her some kind of magic called 'Physical Reinforcement'. Kuroka's brow twitched in annoyance, as she spat out,
"Those damn rabbits!" Before disappearing into the mist to return to Asora, where she might be able to find a better place for her nap.