Chapter 1 - Leo Heart

Author: M_W Cancer

Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral

50 years have already passed since every single Human from Earth got transported into a new world called the Celestial World.

It was a long 50 years of endless suffering, deaths, torments, and with no other choice aside from running from one place to another.

From the 7.5 Billion total population, a mere 1 Billion remained alive throughout the 50 years.

Although a population of 1 Billion may sound like a lot back on Earth. But, in this Celestial World, a population of 1 billion could only occupy a little speck of land. Even this small piece of land that the Humans occupied was still being shared by countless other Foreign races more powerful than the Humans.

In other words, Humans were no longer the dominant creature anymore unlike those on Earth. Even a quarter of the remaining Humans were slaves of the other Foreign races.

However, everything would be changing soon...

Inside a forest, an 18-year-old young man was currently riding on his horse, moving fast to hunt for the prey in front of him.

This young man has black hair swaying with the wind, a black pupil reflecting his maturity and experience, a slightly bit muscular body due to always hunting and working out over the years, a handsome face, and a 6-foot tall height.

This young man's name is Leo Heart, the second child of the Heart Noble Household.

Leo was born after the catastrophe had happened on Earth. So, he is a member of the first group of people born within the Celestial World. In addition to that, his parents were the first generation of Mages trained by the respective leaders of the Human race, too. Hence, being given a hereditary Noble title Viscount.

Just like on Earth, the Nobles in this world were people who were wise, powerful, rich, entitled to land and the power to rule, and members of the higher hierarchy within the Human race. However, being a Noble was no longer a great thing anymore in the present moment.

Becoming a Noble only meant that the person being entitled as such would be battling in the War of Races located at the border of each race's territory, defending the Humans' existence from the other Foreign races trying to invade the Humans' territory.

Naturally, with capability comes great responsibility. Since Leo's parents were the first ones to be trained to become Mages, and thus being granted the title Viscount, they had also become the first group to defend the territory of the Humans. Unfortunately, it was for these reasons that Leo's parents and brother died. Moreover, he was still 8 years old at that time.

Being alone at a young age was a depressing thing, especially in such a cruel world.

However, despite losing his parents at such a young age, Leo didn't lose all his hope in life. He had kept on living, and his parents' death had only made him mature much earlier than the other kids, which then made him the rightful ruler of the Heart City.

Being born in the Celestial World, Leo had long been aware of the situation of his race. He had long known that sooner or later one of the members of his family would die. So, maturing was a given already. In his case, it was much earlier than usual.

*Rustle!

In the depths of the forest, a tiny creature resembling a rat scurried about frantically as it tried its best to escape from the group chasing after it.

This beast was called the Green Rat. It is a common rank Magical Beast that has no extraordinary ability or unimaginable power. It was just an ordinary rat, except much bigger than the ordinary rat, possessed quite the intelligence, could demonstrate greater power, and had been living in the wilderness throughout its whole life.

It was named Green Rat since all the unique beasts within this Celestial World are unlike the ones from Earth, hence being labeled under the category of Magical Beasts.

*Huff! *Huff! *Huff!

Behind this Green Rat were fourteen men riding on an ordinary horse, chasing closely behind.

"Stop running, goddammit!" Leo cursed loudly while he kept on urging his horse to run faster to follow closely the half-a-meter-tall Green Rat.

*Whoosh! *Whoosh! *Whoosh!

In the next moment, dozens of arrows from Leo's 12 soldiers suddenly came raining from the sky, trying to restrict the Green Rat's path of escape.

"Young Master, slow down!" a 40-year-old man was closely following behind Leo, also urging his horse to quickly follow behind Leo's leading horse. This old man was Leo's Butler named, Xiao.

Butler Xiao was a Chinese man and has been at the side of Leo's side for a long time, specifically ever since Leo was still a baby until the present age.

"No way, Butler Xiao! If I don't catch that rat this time, then we will not have any hunt for today!" Leo quickly rebutted as he kept on urging his horse to run faster to follow the rat closely, his silhouette going deeper and deeper into the forest.

"Aysh!" Butler Xiao shook his head helplessly after realizing that his persuasion to his Young Master was just useless. He could only choose to follow behind since Leo was his Young Master.

Running deeper and deeper into the forest, Leo, along with Butler Xiao and the former's 12 soldiers, was finally able to corner the Green Rat. With a sling of the string from Leo's bow, the Green Rat was immediately penetrated through its eyes and went straight to its brain with an arrow, hence finally getting killed.

"Congratulations, Young Master!" Butler Xiao said as he moved his horse to come closer to Leo's side.

Leo excitedly motioned his men to go and bring the Green Rat's body. However, before his men could approach, he suddenly and quickly motioned his right hand again, ordering everyone to stop their approach towards the body of the Green Rat.

"Something is wrong!" Leo suddenly warned everyone as he surveyed his eyes around his surroundings. Looking around, he quickly realized that the forest was unusually quiet at this moment.

He had been in this forest countless times in the past, so he was already extremely familiar with its environment. However, unlike the normal silence of this forest, where he can still hear some birds chirping and other insect's sounds, this was his first time encountering this sort of silence in this forest.

Simply put, it was unusually quiet.

"What's wrong, Young Master?" Butler Xiao asked in concern as soon as he arrived beside Leo.

"No sounds of birds or even insects. Aside from us, there is no other sound at all!" Leo replied, eyes full of alert.

Hearing his Young Master's concern, Butler Xiao quickly thought of something, "I've heard some merchant talk about this before. If the noise in a certain place isn't the same as usual, then it only means that a predator strong enough to silence every Magical Beast is currently near our area!"

Leo immediately understood how dire the situation was. He swiftly urged his horse to turn around as he also sent out an order to his men to prepare for a retreat.

"Men prepare your horses! We are getting away from this place!"

Although Leo hasn't confirmed if Butler Xiao's assumption was truly the case, it was still much better to be safe than sorry. After all, it was merely a Green Rat, nothing comparable to their own lives.

Albeit confirmation came relatively quickly.

The moment everyone had prepared their horses to retreat, multiple Magical Beast howls were heard just a few dozen meters from their current location.

"Run!" Leo quickly yelled to the others before urging his horse to run opposite from where the sound had come from. With his years of experience hunting Magical Beast, he had long learned of the very fact that every Magical Beast would be attracted to the smell of the blood, which exactly meant that they would be attracted towards where their current location was due to the dead Green Rat.

Getting away from the place as soon and as far as possible would be the best option to do at this very moment!

While his horse was quickly running away, Leo couldn't help but swiftly turn his head to take a glimpse behind him to see what kind of Magical Beast was going to be attracted by the Green Rat's blood.

To his horror, Leo couldn't help but slightly shiver as he saw that it was one of the strongly rumored Magical Beast Wolves, the Silver Fur Wolves.

This certain Magical Beast was a wolf covered with silver-colored fur, the reason for its name. Of course, it didn't just get its name because of that. The type of fur the Silver Fur Wolf possesses is akin to the toughness of an Iron Armor.

Seeing the pack of Silver Fur Wolves, specifically 12 wolves, thoughts of having a horse with more legs quickly surfaced in Leo's mind. Actually, not just his mind, but everyone else's, too.

Leo had long learned some information about Silver Fur Wolves since he had been hunting for the past 10 years. It was boldly capitalized that such a Magical Beast has this type of fur where an iron weapon would have a hard time dealing damage to its body.

So, looking at their weapons that haven't been replaced for years now, Leo quickly thought how could their already weakened and low-durability steel weapons be able to even cause any critical damage to such a Magical Beast?

"Dammit, how come this type of Magical Beast is around this place?! We aren't even that deep inside this forest yet!" Leo exclaimed loudly in horror as he kept on urging his horse to run faster.

AWOOO!

One of the wolves loudly howled while staring at Leo after it heard the latter's loud voice, which also quickly alerted the other wolves around.

The other wolves immediately turned to look at Leo and his group. Looking between the small Green Rat and Leo's group, all of them swiftly moved away from the rat they were currently eating as if realizing that it was much better to hunt the Humans in front of them than this one little rat. After all, there are 12 of them. There's no way a little rat would be enough to fill all of their hunger.

In the blink of an eye, the wolves then began chasing after Leo's group...

"Fuck!" Leo swore as he realized that it was his stupid voice that had attracted the attention of the wolves.

On second thought though, even if he didn't make a single sound, the mere loud ruffling noises made by more than a dozen horses running away would still attract the pack of Silver Fur Wolf's attention. It was just a matter of time. 

Leo immediately grabbed the handle of his sword, preparing for the worst-case scenario...

Although Leo's group was riding a horse, it was basic knowledge to everyone in the Celestial World that all Magical Beasts are much faster than ordinary animals.

As time ticks on, the distance between the wolves and Leo's group was slowly shrinking.

50 meters.... 30 meters.... 20 meters.... 15 meters.... 10 meters...

After a few minutes passed, Leo's group was finally surrounded by the wolves.

With no other choice left but to fight, Leo and the others quickly dismounted from their respective horses, while preparing their weapons to fight the Silver Fur Wolves.

After landing on the ground, Leo swiftly unsheathed his sword with his right hand while holding the leash of his horse with his left hand. He suddenly said to his horse, "Sorry buddy, but I will be using you as a shield today!"

Leo knew that it was somewhat cruel to use his horse as a shield for the Wolves, but surviving in his current situation was his top priority.

Being born into this world, Leo was quickly taught by his parents to use everything within his surroundings as a tool if ever his life was threatened. Though he was already old enough at that time to know that sometimes it was cruel to do so. But, for the sake of his survival, it was important to learn to be willing to sacrifice a few things despite it being against his own will.

The Celestial World was, after all, a world of Survival of the Strongest. He was always reminded that being weak would only cause his death and that being strong was the only way to allow him to survive in this World. So, sacrificing his horse to live was a really small price to pay!

"Ready yourselves!" Leo commanded as he pointed the tip of his sword in front of him.

At the end of his sword was a wolf currently baring its deadly sharp teeth while at the same time staring at him with thoughts of killing him for his meat.

"Yes, sir!" Butler Xiao and the 12 soldiers nodded in unison to express their understanding.

"Hmph! Tasting us would not be that easy little dogs!" Leo said before he quickly charged himself towards the wolf in front of him, while at the same time also pulling his horse from behind. The horse was helplessly acting as his shield from any possible attacks to his rear.

In a situation where you are on the weak side, choosing to be aggressive has always proven to be very effective. Of course, it always depends on who you are up against. In this case, he was confident that he could handle what would happen next.

After getting within range, Leo immediately slashed his sword towards the wolf. But the wolf wasn't stupid enough to just let this weakling Human hit it with the sword.

Leo missed, but he didn't panic as he quickly backed away a little, preparing himself from the wolf's possible counter-attack. Exactly the moment he positioned his sword in front of him for defense, the wolf also swiftly charged to his right side.

Leo slashes his sword in front of him, trying to disrupt the wolf's path of attack. But unexpectedly, the wolf didn't mind his slashing action at all as it continued to launch itself towards him.

The wolf was aware that Leo's slash was only meant to disrupt its attack pattern. So, the wolf didn't mind it at all as it kept charging towards Leo.

Left with no other choice, Leo lowered his sword as he dodged to the side before he quickly decided to use one of his family's techniques, the Guided Horse Kick. A technique that uses the kick of the horse which was currently acting as his shield, as a weapon. This technique needed him to guide the horse's offensive attack towards its target, the exact reason for its name.

Leo quickly jumped back to distance himself from the wolf before he dragged his horse to a position where the wolf was most likely to land.

As soon as the wolf landed, Leo hit the back of the horse.

*Pungg!

The horse swiftly kicked, which had exactly hit the head of the wolf. With how strong the kick of the horse was, the wolf was immediately sent flying towards a tree on his right side and fell into dizziness.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Leo let go of the horse and he swiftly charged towards the wolf. Without any hesitation, he stabbed his sword inside the wolf's eyes, the only weakness he knew that he could exploit.

With his weak weapon and how tough the wolf's body was due to its silver fur, Leo long knew that its eyes were the only weakness that he could use to immediately kill the wolf.

*Pluck!

The sword penetrated through the wolf's eye, then went deeper straight to its brain.

*AWOoooo!

The wolf howled softly as it finally took its last breath.

Leo wiped off his sweat with his sleeve before he looked at his surroundings. He surprisingly saw that the remaining wolves were falling back as if realizing that they were already at a disadvantage.

Quickly observing the scene, Leo started checking his soldiers one by one.

Out of the twelve soldiers that he had taken with him, five were injured; three with a serious injury, while the other two only had a slight injury.

Leo can't help but exhale in relief since fortunately, no one has died. He then immediately ordered his soldiers to assist the five people and to quickly begin cleaning up the place.