With everything being all set to go, Gertrude and her escorts began their journey to the city Onavine.
Gertrude sat in her carriage while Nico, Ella, Leon and the others all walked. Some may have found this unfair but it was the adventurers job to protect the person they were supposed to escort therefore they always had to be on guard and they couldn't be on guard while inside the carriage.
After a little bit of discussion about the positions it was decided that Nico and Ella would be the vanguard and lead the escort while the other three would follow behind the carriage so that they could protect it from the back and watch the sides.
Nico and Ella had no complaints about this set up because they both wanted to be away from Leon and his two girls.
While walking up to the front to take their positions, Nico threw a tease at Ella.
"It seems that you caught that Leon dude's eye, why not expand his harem a bit…Hahaha." He teased.
"Humph, men like that disgust me. If he knew who I really was, I would like to see if he would dare to look at me with such eyes." She responded with a slight hint of disgust in her tone.
"Oh? And who are you really~?" He said in a playful voice. But in reality he was trying to sound her out.
Unfortunately, Ella realized this fact and only responded by saying,
"That is not for you to know~" She said in the same playful voice as Nico.
Nico decided not to dive into the matter any more, thinking that it would only cause him trouble, and changed the topic.
"Haa…Fine. Anyway, it seems you are not the biggest fan of harems based on how you interacted with him before." Nico decided not to dive into the matter any more, thinking that it would only cause him trouble, and changed the topic.
"Well, not really. Having a harem is actually pretty common for both men and women in noblily but it's a little more rare in the common people. And while I'm not necessarily against harems, most of the ones I have experienced are just toxic." She said putting on a complex tone.
"You've been a member of a harem before?"
"Absolutely not! I just grew up around them…" She explained.
These words had basically confirmed Nico's suspicion about Ella being a part of the high society.
"You know it's pretty obvious to tell that you are some kind or noble or something like that right?" Nico thought he should warn Ella about watching her words before she got herself into some trouble.
"Oh well," She shrugged. "It's not really that big of a deal if you figure it out, it would just cause a ruckus that I don't feel like messing with."
"Oh? Then can I see your face~" He already knew the answer but decided to tease her regardless.
"Nope~"
While responding to Nico, she happened to catch a glance of the trio following behind the carriage and saw them playing around with each other, causing her to sigh.
"Haa…I'm glad you decided to take on this commission. I don't think I could have handled being alone with those three." She said.
Turning his eyes towards the trio, Nico nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I agree. They should at least stop flirting for the moment." He said.
This was when one of the girls, Trish, noticed his gaze and stopped flirting with Leon while beginning to fidget.
This sight earned a chuckle from Ella and she decided to use it to get back at Nico for his previous teasing.
"My my, what a bad guy. Taking the heart of another man's woman. Tsk,tsk." Ella finished by clicking her tongue in a fake teasing disapproval.
"I can't help it that I'm this handsome, you are more than welcome to fall for me as well if you want." He responded, making himself sound like a narcissist, causing both himself and Ella to chuckle.
""Hahaha…"
*
About 30 minutes later, Nico and Ella were still talking about trivial things, while trying to disregard the looks they were getting from the two girls and Leon respectively. This was when Nico felt that something was off and he spoke in a loud voice.
"Stop the carriage!" Nico spoke in an authoritative tone, not leaving any room for questions.
Immediately the coachman stopped the carriage and Gertrude stepped outside to ask what was wrong.
"What's wrong, Nico?" Even though Gertrude hasn't known Nico for a very long time, she started to see him as her grandson and knew that he doesn't do anything for no reason.
"Stay inside the carriage granny and everyone else be quiet." Nico responded quickly.
Seeing that Nico was being extremely cautious about something, Gertrude didn't hesitate to hop back into her carriage with a worried face. This was when Nico heard a voice coming from behind him.
"Why did you stop us dude! Nothing is around us!" Leon yelled.
Instead of responding, Nico pulled Ella's hand and increased the distance between them and Leon's trio. Ella was about to protest but Nico quickly put a finger on her mask where her mouth would be and spoke.
"Stay quiet…" is all he said.
Ella saw the look in Nico's eyes and nodded in acknowledgement.
'I don't sense anything, though?' She thought.
As if not feeling the tension in the air at all Leon yelled once again, but this time louder.
"This is a mission, stop messing arou-*Crash*" His loud voice was cut off by something slamming him into the nearest tree with monstrous force.
""Leon!"" yelled both Riley and Trish, then they started to run over to the fallen Leon.
"Dumbasses!" Nico shouted under his breath and dashed at the two girls, pushing them out of the way from the claw heading towards them, saving them from having the same fate as Leon.
After pushing the two girls out of the way, Nico turned around and was met with the culprit behind this commotion. It was a giant black leopard about 20 feet tall, with gray patches covering it.
"That's an Alpha Stealth Leopard!" Yelled Ella as she ran to Nico's side.
'An Alpha…'
An Alpha monster was a monster that had greater capabilities compared to others of their race, but the biggest problem was that Alpha monsters possessed a certain amount of intelligence. Alpha monsters were also always larger than normal, that being their defining factor, and were at least level 75.
"Grrrr, RAAA!" Noticing that it was spotted, the Stealth Leopard growled and roared.
Hearing this caused Nico's mind to immediately enter combat mode. His heart beat started to calm down and senses grew sharp, giving him full control over his body and mind.
[Ping!]
[You have earned the Passive Skill {Flow State.lvl:MAX}.]
Despite the notification, Nico didn't lose focus on Alpha Stealth Leopard in front of him. He then spoke to Ella.
"Leave Leon to those two girls, you should help me." He said calmly.
Seeing Nico enter such a state of calmness despite the situation he was in, left Ella flabbergasted and could only nod her head, while thinking,
'To be this calm in the face of such danger…what have you been through, Nico?…'
"Can you use ranged attacks?" Asked Nico, breaking Ella out of her thoughts.
"Hm? Oh! Yes, I have a skill which allows me to focus wind bullets on the tip of my sword, would that be okay?" She said.
"The skill {Wind Origin} right? Yes, that would be fine, just fit in a shot when you can, alright?"
Ella responded with a nod as Nico dashed towards the enemy before him.
Seeing the measly human coming towards him instead of running away in fear caused the Stealth Leopard to let out what sounded like a sneer before raising his paw to squash the bug before him. But to his surprise instead of finding a squashed human under his paw, he found a spear lodged in it. It didn't hurt that much so he moved to take it out, when a wind bullet came out of nowhere and hit the spears shaft, pushing the spear farther into his paw causing him to let out a little squill.
"Heeee!"
Nico also noticed this sight and sent an approving glance at Ella.
'She knows her wind bullets can't hurt it under normal circumstances, so she is using my attacks to bypass the Stealth leopard's tough skin…not bad!' he thought.
Turning his attention back to the Leopard, Nico dislodged his spear from the beast's paw and jumped onto its back, only to be thrown off by the leopard.
Figuring that getting on the leopard's back would be too much of a task. Nico decided to take another route and quickly went under the beast's underbelly.
[Skill {Fire Origin}, Activated!]
As he activated his skill, Nico then coated his spear in flames and cut one of the leopard's back leg hamstrings. This caused the Leopard to howl in pain.
"RAAA!"
Seeing an opportunity, Ella activated her skill once again.
[Skill {Wind Origin}, Activated!]
Looking at the leopard and waiting, she soon saw her chance and shot a wind bullet right into its eye, while Nico was continuing his work on the legs of the beast.
Ella caught sight of Nico's performance and became entranced for a second.
'So…beautiful…I can tell he has trained with a spear for an extraordinarily long time because what he's doing isn't something one can do with just the {Spearmanship} skill. His skills were forged in fire. Yet…they're still so beautiful…No,no, now's not the time to think about such things! Focus back on the fight, Self!' She thought, slightly ashamed that she had lost focus in the middle of a life or death fight.