Huang Shun Yin tugged the collar of his high school uniform, loosening it a little so that he could breathe. Precisely because he had only just officially started as a first year high school student a few days ago, he still couldn't get used to wearing the weird black straight-collared uniform that somehow resembled a military attire more than a school one. It even had that old Meiji period styled cap.
"Only thing they need is a cape and we might as well return to the Meiji period," Shun Yin muttered. Except that this wasn't Japan…however, the nation called Japan was now located within the super-entity known as the Global Federation, along with the vast majority of Asia, Europe and North American continent.
At his side was a sword, which normally would have earned him inquisitive looks from the authorities, but he held a mage license. The police in the area already knew of his role, and they gave him a lot of space whenever he was called to perform his duty.
Speaking of duty…
"…it has already been nine years, huh?" he remarked nostalgically as he placed his hand on the embroidered hilt of his sword. he couldn't believe it had been almost a decade since he had started learning magic, and could believe less so that he had somehow managed to make it this far. Even though anyone could theoretically learn magic, few people had the tenacity and determination to withstand the punishing regime and spiritual abuse that the training demanded.
In return for teaching him magic, however, the city council had assigned him to perform missions. He had been doing that throughout the third year of his middle school despite officially being underage. Normally the City Council only allowed second year students of high schools to undertake such dangerous missions.
However, Shun Yin wasn't just any student.
He had shown promising talent and far surpassed any other mage his age, his mastery of fire spells surpassing even the specialized fire mages of the Porter family. He had heard rumors that they sought to adopt him, or perhaps marry one of their daughters to him in an attempt to marry him into their family, but he paid them no attention.
There was only one girl he would ever be interested in, and she was beyond his reach. Furthermore, his goal wasn't to get married or for fame, but to become a hero like his idol, Michael Porter. He wanted to be an ally of justice, and protect civilians who weren't as adept at wielding magic as professional mages.
And his first task as a "hero" was to save the household in front of him, the poor dudes who were being plagued by monsters.
"I swear, I don't know how they got in!" the owner of the house was complaining to an indifferent-looking policeman, who merely nodded as he recorded the details in his electronic notepad. "They just showed up one day…!"
"It happens," the policeman told him in an almost disinterested manner. He most likely wouldn't bother putting charges against the guy because it was too troublesome. Not to mention, the guy was telling the truth. It was unlikely that any random guy could smuggle monsters into the city. He would probably be killed the monster got loose.
"Please! You've got to exterminate them!" the guy was begging. "If this continues, my wife and kids will be in danger!"
"Relax. We've called in a professional. He'll deal with your problems shortly. Just give him the details regarding your monsters."
"Like I said, it's not my monsters! They all showed up one day, without warning! I have no idea how they got into my house…"
"Most likely underground," Shun Yin suggested as he finally reached the frantically gesticulating man. "They might have burrowed through the ground and exited through your basement. You're just really unlucky."
The house owner turned and glared at Shun Yin sharply, as if to say this was none of his business. However, the policeman beamed.
"Ah, you're finally here!"
"Yeah. Sorry for being late."
"No, no. we didn't wait long." The policeman took a step back and gestured toward the house. "This is all yours now."
"Roger that."
"W...wait!" the house owner blurted out, turning his eyes from the policeman to Shun Yin. "You don't mean to tell me…"
"Ah, forgive my lack of manners." The policeman briefly took off his cap to scratch his head. "This is the pro I'm talking about. He'll exterminate your monsters for you."
The house owner's jaw dropped. He was so stunned that he didn't correct the policeman this time (regarding who the monsters belonged to). He turned to stare at Shun Yin, unable to form any words despite his mouth flopping open.
"B…but he's just a kid!" the guy finally found his voice and protested hotly.
"So?" the policeman responded. "He's still a pro magician."
"Stop joking! Get me a real mage!"
"Why don't you let me in your house and deal with the monster?" Shun Yin asked coolly. "If I can't defeat it, then I'll call my master. Will that be acceptable?"
"Hell, no." the policeman paled. He turned to the house owner and shook his head. "Trust me, you don't want this kid's master to get involved."
"Huh?" the guy glowered at the policeman, but Shun Yin had enough. He impatiently shoved past the guy and walked straight into the house. Noticing the teenager barging right into his property, the house owner got all flustered. "Hey, wait!"
"For what?" Shun Yin glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "The monster is inside your house, right?"
"No, but what can you do against…?"
Shun Yin placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. The house owner trailed off when he saw that, and he gulped audibly.
"Make yourself feel at home," he muttered as cold perspiration formed over his face. Shun Yin responded with a smile, and then stepped into the house.
At first, he didn't see anything. The corridor leading to the main hallway was empty, as was the kitchen and living room. Shun Yin proceeded to the basement, and found the hole where the monsters emerged from. Closing his eyes, he muttered an incantation, and then drew his sword. Slashing at the hole, he sealed it with purifying flames, scorching the earth and filling it up with holy fire. The fires cooled down and hardened into rock-like crystals that blocked off the burrow.
There wouldn't be any monsters coming from there again.
Satisfied, Shun Yin sheathed his sword. However, he had yet to find the monsters the house owner was talking about. He doubted they were in the burrowed tunnel when he sealed it, which meant the monsters were still lurking somewhere inside the house.
No matter. He was going to flush them out and save the family from their nightly torments. They had yet to suffer any casualties, but Shun Yin knew that wouldn't last long. The house owner was intelligent enough to quickly evacuate his house and send his family to his parents' place while he struggled to deal with this threat.
"Where could they be?" Shun Yin murmured to himself. He closed his eyes and reached out with his senses, only to stiffen. "This is bad…"
There were quite a few monsters, and they were located upstairs, in the bedrooms. However, what concerned Shun Yin wasn't their numbers, but the strange way in which their monstrous auras were expanding.
They were clearly growing stronger. He wasn't how, but they appeared to be feeding on something and converting those raw materials into power. If he left them be, they would only become more terrifying.
No wonder none of the house owner's family had been threatened yet. The monsters were biding their time, feeding on something else, and waiting to grow strong enough so that they could overwhelm the family and devour them all in one go.
Hurtling up the stairs, Shun Yin drew his sword and skidded across the second story. He kicked the door to the first bedroom open, and caught sight of something chittering on the floor.
A humanoid monster, almost the size of a kid. However, it sported green skin instead of pink flesh, and was bald, its scalp scabby and full of warts. At the front of its head were three horns, the two side horns curved inwardly.
"Tri-Horns," Shun Yin whispered, recognizing the rank F monster immediately. It screeched at him, and then spun away to flee, dropping to all fours and bounding toward the window.
Shun Yin didn't give it a chance. He immediately swung his sword and unleashed a crescent of fire that incinerated the poor Tri-Horn before it could get within a meter of the window. The creature wailed as it was roasted alive, its feeble body reduced to blackened ash that drifted across the room.
Shun Yin then quickly inspected the room to ensure there weren't any other monsters hiding inside the room. Once he was satisfied that it was clear, he moved on to the next room.
Unfortunately, his senses warned him that he might be too late.
"They're all gathering together?!"
The moment he exited the current room, he caught sight of a dark silhouette darting into the last room at the end of the second story. Cursing under his breath, he pursued, dashing across the second story and into the last room.
He then skidded to a stop the moment he reached the open door.
There were a lot of monsters, but they were congregating somehow. The dozens of Tri-Horns, each of them a size of a human child, were gathering and clambering over each other, almost as if they were forming some monster mountain.
"You guys…"
Growling, Shun Yin swung his sword to unleash a blast of flames, but the Tri-Horns didn't seem to care even as the fire hit them. A few of them were incinerated instantly, but enough of them survived to do whatever they were planning to do.
Right before Shun Yin's stunned eyes, all of the surviving Tri-Horns melded and merged into a single gigantic Tri-Horn. Resembling a fearsome horned oni from Japanese myths, the green creature let out a bellow before lumbering toward Shun Yin. It was so huge that its head smashed through the ceiling, and its feet actually smashed holes through the floor.
And then the structure unable to withstand the giant Tri-Horn's weight as it stomped toward Shun Yin, gave way. The gigantic Tri-Horn crashed through the floor and into the first story, but it didn't seem bothered. Snarling, it raised a hand and smashed through both walls and flooring in order to crush the hastily running Shun Yin.
Cursing, the teenage mage hurdled himself over the railing and dropped to the first story below. The Tri-Horn, its head still poking through the floor, rammed through the structure with brute force to track its opponent, and another fist came crashing down upon Shun Yin.
"Tch."
Shun Yin clicked his tongue before swinging his sword to engulf the Tri-Horn in flames. The creature bellowed in pain and recoiled, but it managed to kick out at the young mage, forcing him to evade. Hitting the ground, Shun Yin rolled right below the gigantic foot, and lashed out with his sword, cutting a small, shallow wound across it.
"Gr…!"
The Tri-Horn pulverized more walls and flooring as it struggled to grab hold of Shun Yin. Jumping to his feet, the sixteen-year-old managed to sail over another one of its kicks before diving to the side and widening the distance between them. The Tri-Horn spun to face him clumsily, throwing another powerful punch.
Taking a deep breath, Shun Yin straightened up and parried the gigantic fist with his sword. The ground around him shattered, the concrete unable to withstand the immense impact, but still Shun Yin managed to hold his ground.
Then with a single motion, he swung his sword and sliced off the Tri-Horn's arm.
"UGH!"
The Tri-Horn bellowed in pain as it crashed backward, clutching its bloody stump. As it fell, it demolished the wall behind it and toppled right into the open. Outside, the policeman and the house owner jumped when they saw the monster emerge out of the crumbling house.
The arm tried to split apart into the little Tri-Horns, but Shun Yin had already anticipated that. He had enchanted his blade with a spell, which was now coming into effect. The disembodied arm was suddenly wreathed in flames, the Tri-Horns composing it shrieking in agony as they were burned into cinders.
With that taken care of, Shun Yin jumped outside, through the hole left in the demolished wall, and prepared to finish the Tri-Horn off.
Growling, the Tri-Horn swatted at him desperately, but Shun Yin merely severed its fist at the wrist. Once again, the hand was incinerated before it could divide into small Tri-Horns. The gigantic monster bellowed as it retreated, both its fists amputated.
Even so, it was far from helpless. Red mana began coalescing around its horns as it prepared to launch some sort of beam attack. Being a fan of manga, Shun Yin decided to jokingly christen the spell as a Cero.
Even so, the spell would have no effect on him. Gathering crimson flames around his blade, he swung his sword and overwhelmed the colossal beam that the gigantic Tri-Horn unleashed on him. The flames actually incinerated the crimson beam before engulfing the Tri-Horn and incinerating it.
The gigantic beast howled in agony before it was disintegrated, reduced to nothing but soot.
Closing his eyes briefly, Shun Yin tried to probe the remains of the house for any other monsters. He jumped back through the hole in the wall and proceeded to the rest of the bedrooms to ensure there weren't any strays. Once he had checked and confirmed that there was nothing left inside the house, he emerged into the open where the house owner was speechless.
"My…my…my house!" he shouted.
"Sorry about that." Shun Yin bowed his head slightly. "The damages were unavoidable. I believe you should be able file a claim from your insurance company."
"That's not the point! You destroyed my house…"
"The monster destroyed your house," the policeman corrected. The house owner spluttered and shook his head.
"Fine! The monster did! But why didn't you kill it before it damaged my house?!" he threw up his hands in despair. "I knew kids wouldn't do it! You should have called your master here to exterminate the monster before it destroyed my house!"
The policeman burst out laughing. "Are you an idiot?"
"Huh?" the house owner rounded on him, but the policeman continued to laugh.
"If the kid's master was the one fighting, he wouldn't even bother to save your house. He would have destroyed everything along with all the monsters inside it. There wouldn't be anything left of your house except ash. At least now you still have three quarters of your house standing. Just a few repairs and it will be all good. But if this kid's master was the one handling the task, you'll probably have to rebuild your house from scratch! Might as well buy a whole new house if that's the case."
Not really interested in the adults' affairs, Shun Yin waved casually as he whirled away.
"I'll leave the rest to you to handle, uncle."
"Yeah. Good work as always."
The policeman waved cheerfully and watched Shun Yin depart. Then he turned back to the spluttering house owner.
"Now, if I can get the details of your insurance company…"