Seeing the army of bearmen walk, a single thought ran through Selena's mind, 'Fluffy'. Ulfric didn't seem to want the huge group of bearmen to intimate us from the looks of it, since he was waving his hand trying to disarm the situation in his own way. Jin on the other hand wasn't looking at Hajime since he still remembers his last time they met. Selena's group walks to meet them and stop when they stop only about four feet away. Cam stood tall, eyeing his enemies if they came with ill intentions. Hajime just looked like he wanted to get this over with. "Yes is there anything we can help you with?"
"Watch your mouth, human you talking to our elders," some of the younger bear-men call out since they believed that Hajime cheated in their test of strength.
"We haven't come to get in your way, Hajime-San," Ulfric said with all sincerity he could muster since the other bearmen were not making it any easier. But at that moment Jin snapped.
"Raaaaa! Quite you lot! We didn't come here to pick a fight with them."
"As I was about to say before they interrupted, Jin here came to say his peace."
Jin stepped forward and bowed to Hajime. "I'm very sorry about my conduct in our last conversation. I hope to mend our bonds since I believe I was acting in the best interest of Vaburgan." All the bearmen were stunned to see their elder bowing to a human.
"Look, I don't claim to know anything about your lives. I forgive you for your transgression, but I won't forget it." Hearing that Selena couldn't help but giggle. He just tried to move on as fast as possible to not try and drag the moment on anymore than he had to. "If ya want to thank anyone for being on your feet an' all, she's standing on my left anyways," he took a step back and let all the bear-men see their savor in a sense. Selena waved since it felt awkward having all those eyes on her.
Jin stood back up and took a look as well. "I thank you little lady for this miracle you handed me. I thought my days of leading and fighting were over."
"Umm it wasn't all wholely for you." His look turned sharp since he knew something like this would come up.
"What would you like?" His eyes became stern, "Know that I can't help the banished rabbit-men since it took the whole counsel to change a pass down verdict."
"Make an alliance with us for any future disasters." The bearmen were oozing disgust hearing such a ludicrous idea.
"I don't think we can do that," Ulfric stepped in.
"We'll just end up having to help the weak rabbitmen." Cam glared at the bear-man elder.
"Hmm, how about a match then? No holds bar, our force against yours."
"Hmph, I don't think that you could beat them." Selena snapped her fingers and all rabbit-men that were hidden to this point stopped hiding their presence and all bear-men went on alert since they didn't sense them this whole time. "It will be thirty on thirty since that's all you have."
Ulfric started sweating and turned to the bearmen leader to see what his choice would be, since it was his people who were called out.
"Don't look down on us rawrrrr. Fine we take you on," their pride clearly being the driving cause for their rash choice.
"I will stand witness to this match for Verbergen." Ulfric says with a sigh.
Selena looks at Cam "Okay, try not to go over bored. No killing."
"Roger that XO" Cam saluted as he got his own group of thirty rabbitmen ready. 'Oh god Hajime you didn't!!!'
Both sides stood across from each other at an equal distance from the center, ready to go at each other.
Hajime looked a bit interested to see how his boot camp from hell would affect the match.
Ulfric came in the middle and said "This is a spar. No killing, one side loses if they're all knocked out or if they surrender. Are both sides ready?" Both sides nodded to confirm. "Begin," as he jumps back towards Hajime and his group.
The Haulias quickly surrounded the bearmen tribe and kicked dirt in their direction as they retreated into the trees.
The bearmen were confused why they retreated before noticing that the presence that they felt from the rabbitmen disappeared. As they were looking around in confusion, a series of whistling sounds started to come out from various directions. Arrows came at them from the trees at low angles. Some of them hit their targets, while others were able to dodge them right away. The outcome, five of the bearmen were face down on the ground clutching their groins, having been shot by rubber tipped arrows.
The rest of the bearmen quickly make a circle, scanning the trees for the Haulias. The only things that could be heard by them were the dark chuckling from the trees and the insults being thrown at them.
"Look at the great and powerful bearmen. Can't even deal with a few rabbits."
"Heck, look at those five, down in one hit."
Then, right next to Regin the next voice came, "And you can't even protect your chief." The circle of warriors turned to see a child next to a passed out Regin.
"How did a kid get here?"
"Does it matter, get him!"
The warriors charge at Baltfeld, with the intention of capturing him. Baltfeld ducked under most of them and then jumped into a nearby shrub. When one of the warriors went to check, he was confused by what he saw.
"He's not here!"
As the majority of the group looked around their surroundings, the bearman that was checking the bush yelped and was pulled in. The few that noticed, brought it to the attention of the others, and a group of 3 decided to check it out. When they found their friend, he was hog-tied, gagged, and knocked unconscious.
"The hell's going on! I thought that they were just some dumb weak rabbits!" One of them shouts as he backs up fearfully.
*** With Hajime and Co. ***
Shortly after the fight started, Ulfric was impressed by the speed of the Haulias along with their level of stealth. His reaction changed when the first volley of arrows came though, as Ulfric unconsciously covered his groin, while Hajime's eye twitched slightly. "Hajime-dono, it seems that you have made them into quite the vicious fighters."
"I've only taught 'em to survive." Hajime states.
"More like ya brainwashed them into fighting machines." Selena retorts, still pissed that he sicked them on her.
Shea, on the other hand, was slowly becoming more and more devastated hearing the dark chuckling and trash talking that they were doing. The thing that brought tears to her eyes was the sight of lil' Par-kun, the self proclaimed Baltfeld the Executioner, appearing in the middle of the group of bear-men and knocking out their chief in one hit. "What has become of my family." She wails in despair wanting her kind and loving family back.
Upon hearing the shout from the terrified bearman, Hajime and Selena gained a pitying look on their faces.
"What's wrong Hajime-dono?" Ulfric asked, confused why they had that look on their faces.
"Well, that bear-man just signed their death warrant," Hajime stated, "They seemed to have gotten a trigger word that makes them want to kill every enemy that is in front of them." The moment that Hajime said that, a wave of bloodlust crashed upon everyone in the area, causing most of them to shudder from a cold chill on their spine. "Selena, get ready to interfere soon."
"Got it."
*** With the Bearmen***
As the wave of bloodlust crashed over them, some of the weaker willed bearmen fell unconscious, not used to a large intent to kill them. Their group of twenty-three remaining men fell down to eight in an instant.
Jin looked around at his fallen clansmen and felt unrestrained horror at what has become of not only this fight, but of the Haulia tribe. The only thing that was going through his mind was, 'What have we walked into.'
The Haulias, having lost themselves to their bloodlust, closed in on the remaining enemies. Once they had closed in the circle to the point that there was almost no room to escape from the middle, they threw their daggers for the kill.
'Ah, I see… I'm going to die…' Jin couldn't help but think. However…
CLANG
An ice dome formed around Jin and the bearmen, protecting them from the daggers.
Selena ramped up her bloodlust to over power the Haulia tribe, making them unconsciously turn towards her and take a step back.
Ulfric, standing next to Selena, was covered in a nervous sweat. He never expected such a silly acting girl to contain such ferociousness under the façade she showed. To top it off the meek rabbit-men he had seen were changed to that.
Now I want you to walk to the ice dome, and look at your own faces.
Shea walked to the ice dome, "Looked at yourselves," as the Haulia looked, they saw a mad glinting smile on their face. "I know Hajime had to stuff your all to kill but he took it too far." Glaring at Hajime and he turns to Yue, ignoring this moment. "You all were becoming as bad as the empire that was chasing us down" those words did more damage than any physical attack could do to them. "I don't even know why I fell for a guy like that! He's mean to me, doesn't give me the time of day, and unless special to him he won't say more than a few words. Kill without hesitation too honestly why," tilting her head. Selena dispelled the ice dome, letting the bearmen out of the make-shift cage and they saw all the rabbitmen so close. They yelled in fear the few that were still awake and fell unconscious leaving just the bearmen elder.
Hajime walked forward awkwardly and said "I'm sorry for that. I didn't think about what would happen when I taunt them to kill. but did put much mind on the effects that it would have on their mentally." Cam in the distance was shown a fact in horror.
"Boss, get it together!!"
"Maybe if I hit him with my hammer, it will return our Hajime." Shea was twirling her hammer contemplating hitting him.
"You should do it. I think the fresh air got to his head." Selena egged her on.
"Oh really now, they're all getting cheeky" Hajime's eye started to twitch.
Yue, being the best girlfriend in the world, decided to just watch the fire rage on like the good girl that she is.
"Okay you worthless rabbits, I was trying to be nice about it since it is my fault you're like this. But you all just throw my good will away." Reaching for Donner all the rabbitmen were about to jump when once again another oppressive aura sprang up and Hajime started to fire at the whole group. "And YOU aren't helping with adding on to the misunderstanding!" as he aims at Selena and fires Schlag only at her to make all the bullets ricochet try to get a clean hit anywhere since she got better at dodging single rounds. Shea had dived behind the kneeling Jin, scaring him half to death when a round shaved the top of his furry head to hit Shea on the butt after bouncing off the stomach of a passed out bearman.
"AAHH!"
"You need to lighten up Haj, it's just a joke. Hehe," Selena dodges all the bullets till Yue traps one of her legs in the ground. She got hit with two on her forehead before falling to the ground.
"We're even now." Yue smiled at seeing Selena with red bumps on her forehead. In the meantime he already reloaded some many times over and hit every rabbitman somewhere on their body, head, or butt it didn't matter.
"That's just mean, Yue!!" Rubbing her hurt forehead from the sting.
"Now about that alliance. I assume we have it."
'It doesn't sound like a question.' "Yes Hajime-dono, I believe we will have an alliance with the new Haulia tribe from this point on in case of emergency."
"We'll be heading to the grand tree now. I don't think those bear-men will want to see Haulia any time soon given the ass whooping they were handed."
"Yes I do believe you are right. A lot of their pride will be in shambles for quite some time."
"You sure have time to train and get them ready. It doesn't look as though the next year is going to be a quiet one given the series of events." Selena interjected hint to Ulfric
"We shall take that into consideration." He wasn't too keen on militarizing themselves. Given by the stiff expression he gave the group.
"We'll see you next time, Ulfric," Selena waves as the whole group walks deep into the forest.
"Hmph oh my what kind of future will befall our great forest." Look at the aftermath of the passed out bearmen even Jin couldn't last after being shot at.
*** With the Haulia Tribe ***
"That was so mean Hajime" Shea was yelling right next to him while rubbing her butt much like all other rabbit-men.
"I don't want to hear that from someone who hid behind someone else try no to get hit. Sigh"
"It's only because of my teacher!!"
"Ya I taught her well." Yue says, puffing out her chest.
"At least you didn't get double teamed," Selena grumbled. Her red bumps had already disappeared since she used mana to recover such a low damage wound.
"Just keep your mouth shut next time," Yue said, smiling all the while.
"We have a long trip, Yue. I will have my day," Selena narrowed her eyes at Yue. Just before her mood switched once again "Oh right, Shea didn't you want to ask Hajime something?"
"That's right!" Snap her finger. "I want to join you on your journey."
"No." Without any build up Hajime was as ruthless as ever.
"I knew you would say that. But this time I got help! Yue-san, would you please."
Hajime turned to Yue who looked at him like she bit on a lemon. "Let's take her with us."
"No way, that was what the wager was about."
"Yes." Yue looked away with a sour look.
"You sure have seen me Hajime. I was like bam while Yue was zap."
"So how strong is she?"
"I'd say about 60 percent of your strength before you use limit break."
"That high. But you know with those stats, you wouldn't need to join us anymore. Nothing in this forest is your match."
"Before you said I got in the way but now I'm just like all of you."
"We're going to go into more dangerous places."
"Good thing I'm a monster."
"Sigh"
"Does that mean I win?" Shea asked, feeling giddy.
"I don't know what that even means."
"It means my feelings reach you silly."
"Given the fact that you fought Yue, your life was on the line. No half ass resolve would've allowed you to hit her."
"So??" Ear flopping back and forth at the praise she was receiving.
He turned his head to look at Selena since Yue was on board to let Shea join. And regret it.
Selena was given two thumbs up with shit eating grin.
"Fine…"
"Yaaay! I did it." But before she could go on to cloud nine, Cam joined the conversation.
"Boss we also like to join you as well."
"No."
"But why!!!"
"You never caught Selena in the last few days of training." Her eyes started twitch recalling how despair they got. They weaponized their cuteness. They shamelessly used the kids to cry out to her asking for help. She had to throw some rabbitmen to break such a lethal trap to her. Her aura grew dark and sent chills down Cam's spine.
"Yes, I can see that we're not ready. But we are your army. We would like to join you in the future."
"Mmm we talk about this after we're done with the labyrinth."
'He's going to be pissed.' Recalling the fact that this will be the last of the labyrinths they will clear. Soon after they had finally made their way through the fog to see what looked to be a dying tree.
"The Grand Tree has supposedly been like this since before Verbergen's founding. Yet it's never rotted away. It's stayed withered like that for as long as we've known. Because of the way the fog acts around it, and the fact that it never dies despite being so withered, the people of this forest consider it sacred. Well, I say sacred, but it's more just like a fancy tourist attraction…" Seeing Hajime's and Yue's confused faces with Selena's awed face, Cam offered an explanation.
"Look there, Hajime" Selena pointed out the stone slab in front of the tree breaking their confusion. The party walked up to it to see what looked to be cravings of different symbols when he saw Oscar Orcus' crest. He pulled out the ring they had received from the conquered of the Orcus Labyrinth. The stone started glow and words appeared:
—Four markers of strength.
—The power of restoration.
—A beacon woven from bonds.
—Only with those three ingredients in hand will the path to a new trial be opened.
"What does that mean?" Hajime questioned.
"Four markers of strength… probably refers to getting four crests from other labyrinths?"
"Yeah, that makes sense. Then what about the power of restoration and a beacon woven from bonds?" Hajime tilted his head in confusion as he asked that, but surprisingly, Shea had an answer.
"Hmmm, well a beacon woven from bonds probably refers to whether or not you can get the beast-men to guide you here, right? Most beastmen never leave the sea of trees, and getting one to guide you here like you did is something that's never happened before."
"I see. Does sound like you could be right."
"All that's left is the power of restoration… Does that mean me?" Yue points to herself, no doubt referring to her automatic regeneration. As an experiment, she cut her own finger and pushed it against the tree's bark as her magic activated… but nothing happened.
"Hmm… I guess not."
"Well, maybe we have to… restore the tree… and bring at least four crests from other labyrinths…? So not only do we have to clear over half of them, we need to get ancient restoration magic from one of them?"
Such was Hajime's conjecture. Yue nodded in agreement.
"Well that sucks, guess we need to go to another place first Haj." Selena says shrugging her shoulders.
Turning to face the Hailias Hajime said "Okay our deal is done. I taught you everything you need to survive in this forest and Selena made an alliance for you. We will only take Shea with us since she's strong enough to travel with us." Shea puffed out her chest when he said that.
"Boss we still want to go too," were the voices of other rabbitmen.
"Look, I need guys to guard this place for me till I come back to clear this labyrinth."
Cam stared at Hajime, trying to see if there were any lies in his words. "You're not just saying that to get rid of us? Because if you are, we'll go into every town and yell out that we're looking for our boss Hajime screaming like mad men till we find you."
A bit of sweat showed on his forehead, Hajime replied. "No you guys just stay here and train twice as hard. When we come back to conquer this overgrown tree we see if you are ready for the dangers of the world."
Nodding after hearing the fact that they will get stronger with more training to fuel their devotion to Hajime even more since, in their mind, he was looking out for them. "Got it, we'll get so strong that you won't be able to leave us behind next time boss."
"Shea if you have anything to say to them now's the time." Hajime starts walking out of the clearing from the grand tree followed by Yue and Selena.
"Dad…"
"Don't worry Shea next time we will be so strong we will protect the boss not you!!!" At a loss for words Shea turns and follows the parting group embarrassed by her own father since he yells out so Hajime would hear that.
Shea squeezed in between Selena and Hajime to get close to Hajime. "So where are we going?" She hugged his mechanical arm to try to get his attention.
The group left the Haltina Woods and ventured to a nearby town after explaining their plans to Shea about checking out the Reisen Gorge and seeing if there was a labyrinth hidden within there.