"Do you see any?" I asked Leonna.
"No, there's nothing." she said
We kept following the trail that the members of the Army of Darkness left, but we couldn't find any monsters.
"Do you think that we should go off course for a little bit?" Leonna asked.
"I don't think we have a choice." I said a little frustrated.
I didn't want to go off course because I wanted to get to Xylvia as soon as possible, but I wouldn't be able to do anything to help if I didn't get stronger.
"Ok then, I'll scan the area around us and see if there is a place we can hunt monsters." I said.
"Sounds good." Leonna said.
Everyone in this world has the ability to use magic, and one of the most basic magic skills is the "Scanning Circle." In fact, it's so basic that it doesn't even show up on your skill list because everyone can use it easily. You also don't even need to chant it to use it. You can just say scan in your head and imagine the Scanning Circle to activate it. What the Scanning Circle does is pretty self-explanatory. When you use it, it creates a giant circle that can scan a fifty-mile radius. The Scanning Circle is only seen by the summoner unlike offensive or defensive magic circle.
"SCAN!" I shouted in my head.
A giant blue circle appeared right below my feet and quickly spread out as far as the eye could see.
Quick Note- Each type of magic circle has different colors. Offensive magic is summoned from red magic circles, defensive magic is summoned from green magic circles, and everything else is summoned from blue magic circles.
I started to sense many kinds of different places. The cool breeze on the beach was to our right, and the warm, humid climate of a forest was to our left.
"We have a choice between a beach and a forest," I said to Leonna. "Where do you want to do it?"
Suddenly, Leonna started to tense up. Her entire face turned bright red and she was starting to tremble on her legs.
"W-Where do I-I-I...want t-t-to...'do...it'," she said in a shaky tone. "I-I don't know. It's l-like I s-said, I don't have m-m-much experience w-with this kind of...s-stuff."
I then started to realize what she was saying.
"W-Wait a minute," I said waving my hands frantically. "I meant 'where do you want to go monster hunting', not sex!"
"...Eh? Ohh...Uh...Y-YEAH! UM...I-I KNOW!" she said obviously embarrassed.
"Ok...uhh...I-let's head to the forest," I quickly said trying to get back on the right track. "Most monsters probably prefer more humid places."
Leonna, who's face was still bright red, and I started to walk towards the direction of the forest.
"Wait a sec." I quickly said to Leonna.
I pulled the long sword out of the sheath and traced an arrow in the direction we were originally going, and marked a giant circle around it.
"CHECKPOINT!" I shouted in my head.
Checkpoints are basically places that you mark and can come back to by using your Scanning Circle.
"This is so we don't lose our path to where those members of the Army of Darkness took Xylvia." I said.
"G-Good thinking." she said in a less shaky tone.
"Alright, now let's get going."
"Ok."
After about an hour of walking in the scorching desert land, we finally reached the forest area. The warm, humid climate didn't help our exaggerated heat strokes, but at least it wasn't as hot as it was in the desert.
"Can't you use those vials of water to cool us off?" Leonna asked.
"I'm out of vials, but I can use the water in the ground and on the trees." I said.
We were in a forest that gets at least fifteen centimeters of rain every week. All of that water gets seeped into the ground. Some of it stays on the leaves of the trees and just drips off of them continuously.
I summoned a blue magic circle and began to chant.
"Aqua Splash!" I chanted.
Water came up from the ground and into the circle. Then, the amount of water grew tremendously and splashed all over Leonna and I.
"Ahhh...that's soooo much better!" Leonna said.
After another half an hour of walking, we heard a terrifying roar that came from our right.
"Looks like we finally have a monster." I said with a cocky grin.
"We may have a monster, but we're still not sure if it's C-Class or not." Leonna said.
"Well then, I guess there's only one way to find out."
I immediately started to run at full speed to where the monster's roar came from.
"Wait, Hiro!" Leonna shouted from behind.
I didn't stop running. I ran as fast as my legs could allow me to run. I had an unlimited supply of water at my side because of all the rainwater this forest gets. I kept running until I finally saw two dog-sized monsters close together. Both were C-Class when I scanned them.
"Nice," I whispered to myself. "Now I can finally get stronger.
Both of the C-Class monsters looked like wolves, except they had many different features. They both had bright neon purple fur and black veins bulging from their faces and sides. Their paws were much bigger and had claws the shape of kitchen knives. They had huge, red fangs and eyes that glowed a pitch black color.
"Wow," I whispered. "Despite the bulging veins, they both look incredibly bad-ass!"
After admiring them for a few seconds, I leapt out from my hiding spot and chanted a spell to get rid if the first one.
"Aqua Shot!" I chanted.
At least twenty bullet-sized balls if water shot out of the red magic circle and hit one of the wolves. I then pulled the sword out of my sheath and slashed the other wolf. It fell on it's side.
"Well...that was easy," I said a little unsatisfied. "I was at least expecting a little bit of a fight."
I looked at my sword and noticed something a little off.
"Wait, why is there no blood on the sword?" I asked myself.
As I asked this question, the wolf that I just slashed suddenly kicked back to life and leapt at me with it's mouth wide open. It's fangs bore into my right leg and knocked me to the ground.
"AAAAHHHHGGHHAAAAHHH!!!" I screamed in agony.
This pain wasn't like any kind of pain that I ever felt in my life. I've only experiences few ankle sprains on my adventures, but this time...blood was involved.
"LET ME GO YOU FUCKING MONSTER," I screamed while slashing at it's face with the sword. "I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!! I'LL KILL YOU!!"
I slashed at it repeatedly with the sword but it wouldn't let go. It kept biting down on my leg; it's fangs going deeper and deeper into the flesh of my leg.
The second wolf suddenly go up and started to charge at me. It's eyes were staring at me like I was nothing but an annoyance to it. It charged at me with it's mouth wide open, it's red fangs wanting to become an even darker red.
"HIRO!!"
Suddenly, the wolf's head fell off of it's body. Blood, the color of midnight black, spewed out from where it's head used to be.
"GET OFF OF HIM!!"
"The wolf's neck had black blood spewing out from it. It let go of my leg and began to charge at...Leonna!
"Light Magic! Become one with the blade that I possess!" she chanted.
Suddenly, her sword started to be engulfed in a bright light. The light swirled around the sword and danced with excitement.
"HAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
She charged in at full speed with her sword ready to strike. When she finally reached the wolf...
'SHINK'
Her sword left a huge ray of light the went right through the wolf's neck. After a few moments, the wolf's head slowly fell off of it's body and landed on the ground with a 'SPLAT'. Black blood spewed everywhere.
"Hiro," Leonna said running to me. "Hiro, are you...Oh god...you're leg is..."
I payed little attention to Leonna. I had my eyes completely deadlocked on the wolf's headless body. I suddenly saw that little girl again. The little girl who got her head cut off right in front of me, and I did nothing about it.
"Hiro-ro-ro-ro?...?...?"
Leonna's voice echoed in my ears as I stayed lying down, completely paralyzed by the girl who stood over me.
"..."
The little girl said nothing. She just sits there with a sad expression on her face.
"What...do you...want?" I asked, weak from the blood loss that I just noticed.
"...d...daddy...?"
The scene of her head cutting cut off played silently in my head again. A single tear fell down the terrified expression that formed on my face.
Suddenly, my vision went black. The last thing I could see was a pool of red blood coming out of my own leg...