(Haru POV)
It's been around half an hour since I let them fight the zombies again, and it seems they won't need any help when they are facing only F-rank zombies. It's not like they would lose to an E-ranked zombie it would just take them a little time. When I was killing the zombies on our way along with Saeko I gave the stats of the zombies she killed to her, which caused her to power up more. She didn't kill that many zombies as I took care of them quickly, but she still killed at least 20 zombies and her stats are C- or in D+ rank. However, this progress will stagnate at C+, as I had felt it myself. When she got this abnormal boost in strength, she looked at me with wonder and curiosity, at that I just shook my head implying 'not now', which she understood and nodded. By the way, I have my stats increased to a B- rank. It happened when suddenly when I was absorbing the stats of one of the E-class zombies I killed, somehow the number of zombies that we had killed together along the way, has reached more than 400. If I had stolen the stats of every zombie, then why am I only at B-? that's because I have been helping others increase their rank a little as well. Also, it seems I can't increase my strength using F-rank zombies anymore, as I would need to extract the power of at least 1000 F-rank zombies to even feel some increase in my rank and it would be a tedious task. Then there is also the option of using 100 E rank ones to increase my stats to B rank and I am thinking of doing that.
If we don't face some problems on the path, we will reach my house timely. The school gate closes at 9 am, and at 9:30 am people started becoming zombies, then it took us around 40min to get ourselves out of the school, after that we travelled for half an hour before we were out of gas and from there it had been 3 hours, now its 1:40 pm and if we continue at the speed we are walking in, we will reach my house before 5 pm, if we don't face any unique situation. I just hope I didn't raise any flag.
While we were walking, I observed the elemental abilities of everyone and gained an affinity with their elements. I got fire affinity from Takashi, water affinity from Kazuki, nature affinity from Shizuka, thunder from Rei and even Saeko's null affinity. Somehow, I can feel that I can do whatever I want with those elements, almost as if they are my...pets?
'Sisty, I don't have any manipulation-type ability so why am I able to manipulate them?'
[It is one of the abilities of Dream Ruler's body, but it is not elemental manipulation. You can control it in some ways, but if you want complete manipulation, then you will have to work hard on your control of elements.]
So even if I can have perfect control over any type of energy, I will still have to master every element separately, Huh? Well, I'll see how it goes.
"What kind of ability is that?" Saeko had been walking with me at the back while observing for any danger. So, she easily noticed my eyes shining whenever I activated my ability. Therefore, she asked while pointing at my eyes. In response, I just smiled and made a ball of Null element in my hand then a ball of lightning in another, which caused her to gasp a little.
"Do you also have some kind of copying ability?" She asked in shock, as till now she would have understood that I had some power-stealing ability, as she was getting powered up when she killed a zombie, and even though no one noticed, I could feel that she had noticed that zombie suddenly became weak before they died. That might have made her have the conclusion that I had some kind of power-stealing ability and that alone would make me very very powerful. So, her being shocked was not without any reason.
"No, it's not a copy-type ability. It just lets me gain affinity to any element I see, as for how I use the element that is up to my control." I shook my head and explained to her, but she looked at me with some grudge in her eyes and said, "It's not 'just', it literally gives you access to every element you see. How am I going to catch up to you like this?"
I looked around and saw that no one was looking at us, then held her waist with one hand and the back of her neck with the other and kissed her as hard as I could. Normal people might not be able to hear her last words as they were in a whisper, but was I normal?
When our lips parted, she held me tightly for support as her legs were trembling from the pleasure of the kiss. She was trying to catch her breath while looking at me with hazy eyes and her beautiful face full of blush. I looked her in the eyes and said in a deep voice, "I don't want you as a fighter, I want you as my woman. And which man would like to be protected by his own woman? So, you don't need to catch up to me, just let me protect you. Alright?" I could feel her tremble with excitement when I said those words in a deep and possessive voice, but I chose to ignore the point that she might be a masochist as well. Because right now I needed to make my point clear, or else like in some anime or manga, she might turn dark in hopes of catching up to me.
She just meekly nodded her head like an obedient wife. Unlike her always maintained gentle expression, right now she had a flushed expression, and she was fidgeting while rubbing her thighs together, imagining something, while looking at me with those hazy dark blue eyes. Looking at her like this I patted her head and said with a sigh, "Don't get aroused in the middle of the road, Saeko." This woke her from her daydream, and she hurriedly corrected her posture and nodded after noting that everyone was still focused on the zombies.
"It's your fault for looking so charming while you are angry." She said, now smiling gently like her usual self. I could only smile helplessly, 'This is not even my max charm…' I didn't say it out loud though. I shook my head and turned towards everyone, covering my metal rod with blade aura and swiftly moved while killing the remaining zombies.
"Move back and recover your energy. We will take care of things from here." I said while nodding towards Saeko who also nodded and started killing zombies together with me. Everyone else also walked slowly together with us while trying to recover their energy. Still, everyone was getting tired slowly but surely. Even if they can recover their mana, that doesn't mean that they can continue fighting without getting tiered, that too along with the mental pressure from the surprise attacks from the zombies. So, now they were not complaining when they were given some time to take a breather.
We continued like that. One hour me and Saeko, then everyone else for another. We were getting closer to my house, and it seems even though I thought nothing would happen to my parents, I was still pretty nervous.
I felt someone hold my trembling, and looking to my side I could see Saeko was holding my hand looking at me gently, "Everything will be fine." She spoke. I let out a chuckle looking at the irony, as I said the same thing to everyone when we started this trip of ours. Somehow, this calmed me down a little. So, I just tightened my hold on her hand. "Thank you." I kissed the knuckle by bringing her hand close to my lips. She just smiled sweetly.
"HARUU!!!"
I turned and saw Kohta trying to hit a small 'thing' moving towards the group, it was very fast (not for me though), and I could see none of Kohta's shots were even touching it since he can't follow its movement, he can't hit it. It was Kohta who called my name, as he was the weakest in the group, he was also unable to follow that 'things' movement, even with his skill. But it was different for me and Saeko.
We could clearly see a cat moving towards the group, and it was D-ranked. I was not surprised that the whole group weren't able to follow its movements. Even if they were killing many Zombies, they were not powered by him like Saeko, so all of their stats were still on E-, E, and E+ ranks. Some of them had reached D- in one stat or two. But that didn't mean they would be able to follow D+ ranked speed. Instead of panicking, if they thought of a plan, they would be able to defeat it, but let's talk about that another time. I just moved with C- speed and caught the cat that was struggling to even survive in my hands. It had black fur and black eyes, its size was similar to a dog after its awakening, and it looked intimidating and cute at the same time. (Cutimidating😊?)
"Do you want to tame it?" I asked looking at Saya, who was along with everyone (not Saeko) looking at him with awe and some shock. When I asked the question, "Eh?" was all she could say. I smiled and said, "Didn't you say that telepathy had a function to let you tame animals? Even though awakened, this cat is still an animal." As if it could understand some of the things I was saying, the cat began to struggle more. I just used some mana to pressure it, then it became docile. As an animal, it could sense that I was far stronger than it, after sensing my mana.
"So, what do you think?" Saya now had a thoughtful expression, so I asked.
"I want to try taming it." She said after a while, and I could already guess what she was thinking. 'I can get stronger If I can Tame it.' Something along the line.
"Ok, try it." I threw the cat in front of Saya, and it silently sat there, not reacting to me throwing it.
As Saya started talking with the cat with telepathy, trying to make a deal with it. I gestured for Saeko to stay close to them just in case. Then I turned forward and started killing zombies alone as everyone was curious about the process of taming.
It has been some time since Saya started talking with the cat and now it seems like she was done, as she got up and the cat also got up.
"What was the deal?" I directly asked.
"She asked about something called 'Magic crystals' that is found in zombies' heads and said as long as we provide it with magic crystals and protect it from someone that she can't handle, then she is happy to work with us." As she said that every one of us looked at the cat that now had cracked the skull of an E-ranked zombie I had killed, then took out a yellow gem from inside its head and ate it. 'Phew….' I breathed out, it was good that I was only stealing the crystals from the zombies when we started moving from away from the corpse. Though none of them would have suspected me even if I did steal them, other than Saeko, I guess?
"She? So, did you give her a name?" I asked after I saw that the cat didn't eat more than three crystals. I had expected it, after all, even if they can grow faster than humans that didn't mean they could just keep eating the crystals and keep growing, they can only eat the quantity they can digest. As I asked this question everyone looked at Saya, even the cat looked at Saya showing a somewhat eager expression. She already knew she would not be able to escape, so she just accepted her fate, though she did make a good deal.
"I was still thinking about it, but I can't think of a good name. why don't you suggest something?" Saya asked, now everyone was looking at me, including the cat. Though now I can see her eyes held little fear and awe for me, after all, animals worship the strong, so it's only natural. I thought for a while, then suddenly a name clicked in my mind.
"Kuroneko," I said looking at the cat with a smile. I could literally see stars in the cats' eyes, so I guess she liked the name. then I looked at everyone, and they were looking at me with a strange expression, "What?" I asked.
"How?" this was the only question they had, and when Saya asked it everyone nodded.
"What? Is it strange? She is a black cat (Kuro Neko) right?" I asked and they just nodded their head. after all, the name was simple but none of them thought of that name. but still, they all thought it was a good name, I could see that from their expression.
"Now Kuroneko would also be fighting along with the group besides Saya, so, let's go," I said while stealing the magic crystals from the zombies as we moved forward. We continued on our way faster than before, as we knew we were close to our destination.
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