Master and I left the building, but seeing as the former information guild was abandoned, decrepit, empty, and unguarded, we didn't bother with stealth.
"Those buildings should be inhabited," Master stated. "If they don't know what happened, we're going to have to find another avenue of information."
"*Knock Knock Knock*"
A few moments of silence were followed by a panicked scuffle towards the door by the individual inside.
"*Creeaaak*" Whomever this was evidently did not want to be seen, opening the door just enough for his eye to peek out.
"Wh-ho are you? What d-do you want? Can't you see? T-this i-is a slllum… we have n-nothing you would w-want…" the man stuttered in a raspy voice. The awkwardness behind his pronunciation made it seem as if he had not spoken in years.
"We're trying to figure out what happened to the information guild," Master stated firmly. "We would appreciate it if you willingly gave us any information you have on it," he threatened.
For some reason, the man flinched at the guild instead of Master's threat, trying to cover up the reaction by saying, "Eeek! Th-that guild is b-b-bad business! Yep yep! B-but I don't know w-why… 'was j-j-just told so."
"By who?" I asked.
"T-the guardsman…
*Spit~*"
The guard? If they're involved, then we should probably lay low and not investigate any further. It would be detrimental for all three of us if we became wanted for any reason, legitimate or not. I'm sure Master would also rather play it safe.
"The guards…. Huh…" he pondered. "Fine, we'll leave you alone."
Master turned to me and whispered, "We're being watched from somewhere. They're good, too good for us to find on our own. Scatter and meet back at the inn. We don't want any unwanted company during our sleep."
I reacted immediately, and dashed as fast as I could through an alleyway. How could master have found out someone was watching us when I couldn't? My eyes are always darting around, scanning every nook and cranny of our surrounding area, yet I couldn't see anyone?
I placed these thoughts in the back of my mind and continued sprinting around. Using Flickerstep, a 3rd division technique, I dashed around as fast I could without damaging anything.
In many situations, particularly when I need to misdirect someone, Flickerstep is a great technique. Currently, I am refraining from using it in many battles because I am attempting to gain head-on experience. When using this technique, my Isolation Footwork's "weirding effect", its ability to make the user unpredictable and bug-like, is enhanced. So, even for skilled opponents, such an effect will instantly put them on the back end without any opportunity to press any mistakes I make.
Now, however, is a perfect time to use it. I have no idea if the person following us took after me, or Master, nor how powerful they are. So, in order to escape, I'm pulling out all the stops.
Over and over again, I flicker and Grasshopper through alleyways and over buildings, making sure to make my way to another inn I saw earlier on. Not a single shingle was shifted despite my impressive speed, creating a few hilarious situations where feline beasts and monsters jump out of their skin for no apparent reason, and canines start barking as I pass by.
Once I reached that place, I walked in nonchalantly. Once I closed the door, I slipped behind a larger patron and hid my presence for a few seconds. Once he reached the front desk, I quickly hurdled out an open window on the other side of the building. In mid air, I took the cloak I received earlier today and put it on.
"*Few~*" If they still are following me after all of that, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands…
.
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======
~Two minutes ago
3rd Person POV
In a building not far from where Alfred and Cysandoth were investigating the stuttering druggie stood a figure draped in a deep, bloody-red cloak that reeked of iron. His face was hidden, and to any onlooker (despite there not being any), he would appear to be a statue. Unmoving and aimlessly staring off at a wall. However, this was not the case.
He was listening. Listening in on Alfred and Cysandoth's conversation. Although it was not his specialty, evident by the fact that he didn't dare look at them directly, he still believed his snooping would go unnoticed. Still, it seems he has met his match.
The conversation he was listening in on seemed to have come to a halt, then, suddenly, he felt something off.
"Damn~"
Looking out the boarded up window overlooking his previous targets, he sighed.
"Well, 'didn't expect that."
Yes. Somehow, one of the two had noticed his presence, or at least had a hunch. Even so, he didn't pursue it. 'I have all I need~' he thought.
The figure disappeared from the building, brushing up the residual dust in the building, leaving a cloud of it in his wake, reappearing many hundreds of meters away. Repeating this, he eventually made his way to a clothing store on the other side of the town.
The place was evidently closed, but he still walked in. No lights were on, but on his entrance, a man sat down in the receptionist's chair.
"Sir, we're closed for today," this man said.
"Sorry, I just need to be fitted nicely, head to toe. I have a meeting soon."
The two sat in silence, until the man sitting in the receptionist's chair broke it.
"Follow me."
The two men walked into the fitting room. It obviously wasn't built for two people, but when the "receptionist" kicked the adjacent wall, the sound of stone rubbing against stone permeated the entire store. Eventually, a passageway opened.
Only the hooded man entered. It didn't take long until he reached another door, by which he simply opened and continued walking.
The dark and damp passageway was no more, as he entered a rotten-smelling and dimly-lit room with many cauldrons evenly spread about, each having two individuals in dark green attire working away. The smell was visibly permeating from said cauldrons, but it seemed as if the individuals working on it were unaffected.
Lining the walls, top to bottom, were barrels upon barrels, presumably with whatever was being made down here. Those working only took a second to check who it was who entered their workplace before giggling and continuing their work.
The man, already knowing what was within, walked forward at a relaxed pace, his footsteps lightly breaking up the bubbling and sizzling of the pots.
Eventually, he reaches a large double-door. After hitting it with far too much force, a voice from within, barely audible, beckons him in.
"*Creeeaaakkk~*"
"~Red brother…~
"~I presume you've come to let me know that your end is… taken care of~" the man whispered.
Within this room was a desk with many vials and flasks containing indeterminate liquids and concoctions, powders and dusts. In the middle of it all sat a man in similar green attire as those working in the room outside, however, he had his hood down.
His visage was mangled, particularly around his neck and nose, looking as if he had swallowed hydrofluoric acid and huffed chlorine gas.
"Well, that too. Besides, I know you would have started soon even if we weren't." this "Red brother" said with a mocking undertone. "Anyways, I think we should start now. Don't tell me you of all people are behind schedule."
"..."
The man with a mangled face put down his work. "~That is… true… However, I would like to know why you think we should start now?~"
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I found some individuals snooping around our little test-site, ~Greenie~. I have reasons to believe they are related to one of the noble families, or some martial family."
"~The information guild, huh…~ he drawled, ignoring Red brother's tease.
"At least one of them is a Master martial artist, and a good one at that. I still can't figure out how he noticed me," Red brother said.
This got the attention of "Greenie", who finally gave Red brother his full attention. "~Stronger than you?~"
"Probably," he said while grinning ear to ear. "He'd be a perfect test for us! If we begin now, our data will be much more applicable."
Greenie nodded.
"The other one was much younger, but I felt their potential from my hiding place. It was quite difficult not to engage."
"~Good… very good… Very well. We will start the process now. Escape by twilight tonight, if you don't want to get caught in the crossfire.~"
"Heh, yeah. The Beast King will have no choice but to believe these animal huggers were the ones who poisoned his precious ~babies~. After all, he's the one who supposedly introduced them to this ~plant~, one only he is supposed to have access to.
"I'm glad we could work together, ~Greenie~" Red brother said, mocking Greenie's voice ever so often.
"~It's Borealis Brugmansia Comosum, Red…~"
"Didn't ask," Red replied while pulling a live centipede-like creature, or colies, from a pouch. He bit off its entire top half and tossed the other to Greenie. "Stay safe, ~Greenie~. Us working together now doesn't mean you're safe from the leader's research."
Greenie didn't respond, and simply ate the other half of the colies.
Red had already slammed the door shut before he could swallow, disappearing back out into the city.
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======
Alfred's POV
After a short walk, I finally returned to our room Master was already there, while Morrissey was busy refining.
"Did he follow you?" I asked.
Master shook his head in response, "I guess the same is true for you…" Master shook his head. "That could be good or bad. Good if they legitimately gave up or lost us, bad if they know where we're going, or where we are already. Whatever the case, I want you in tip top shape, because we will be leaving as soon as possible tomorrow."
I agree with his assessment of the situation. Right now, we are in a worse position than we started in. We know we have an enemy, and we know they are at least competent, enough so that they were able to spy on us without even showing any visual or audible signs of their position. However, we have no idea who they are, what their intentions are, and how far they are willing to go for their objective.
Personally, I would rather fight something I couldn't beat while knowing this information instead of what we are doing now. Still, nothing can be done at the moment. The more time they spend avoiding us, the more chances we will get to find all this information on our own.
.
.
.
!!!
I shot out of my bed and activated HSM. Lots of noise outside had come all at once in a wave of screams, roars, howls, and rumbles. Even Morrissey had awoken and was on high alert, not to mention Master.
"We're leaving," Master ordered. Such an order was unneeded, as I and Morrissey were already dressed by the time he said it.
Outside of our room was pandemonium. Fire, broken buildings, and people scattered about in a panic. Even more unnerving was the beasts and monsters. With HSM, despite the crowd, fire, and dust, I was still able to get a good hard look at the beasts and monsters within our field of view. Each of their eyes had green veins pulsating throughout, and their pupils were constricted to the max.
Naturally, or in this case, unnaturally, they were attacking anything in sight, especially if it moved.
"It seems something is making the beasts act this way while leaving the humans unaffected," I said aloud. "Something unnatural. Their eyes have green veins, and their pupils are constricted."
"It isn't our job to find out," Master said. "We will be leaving the city. Follow me."
I grabbed Morrissey and followed Master out of the window onto the roof. Once there, we began our sprint towards the south-western wall of the city, arriving there shortly after. The evident plan was to make our way over the wall out into the wilderness of the Wolf continent, however, our plans were thwarted by a red barrier.
Before either of us got a chance to reach it, I pulled a wooden beam off a house and hurled it at the barrier. To all of our surprises, upon making contact with the barrier, it rebounded with twice the velocity.
"What the fuck?" I swore. "What now?"
Master didn't respond immediately, instead choosing to look around. I did the same. The whole city now seemed to be affected by the chaos. Many fires had started, and those houses or buildings that were unaffected had more than likely been heavily damaged.
"Hiding won't do much in this situation. For now, taking a more proactive course of action may prove more effective," Master said.
"And Morrissey?" I asked. The boy in question was surprisingly able to stay composed, although he was shaking like a maraca despite it.
"For now, he can use this time to gain some experience," Master retrieved his guardless sword from his Item compressor. "Öthe, lend him a dagger. Morrissey, you will make use of your innate sneakiness to sneak behind weak, and only weak, beasts to mutilate or kill. Otherwise, I want you to stay close to us and keep a very high alert.
"For now, we will find any surviving humans and eliminate the beasts or monsters that have gone feral."
I tossed Morrissey a dagger and a sheath. Once he equipped it, I once again hoisted him over my shoulder.
It took next to no time at all to find our first engagement. A small group of individuals in a defensive formation holding off a group of beasts nearly twice the size of theirs. Many of the ones at the back were injured.
Master and I instantly arrived, decapitating one large feline each. I dropped Morrissey off in a darker section of the street to make his job easier.
The humans behind us were stunned, but the beasts didn't seem to have any fear, as they charged forward as a group.
Despite the fact that beasts are typically quite weak relative to someone competent at martial arts in this world, the sheer number and lack of hesitation or fear in these was quite the dangerous combination. Whomever did this wanted to kill as many civilians as possible.
A large bison-looking beast charged ahead of the pack, which I simply bisected down the middle with my claymore. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bird-beast diving down on the group. None of them had noticed it, leaving me to deal with it.
"*Thunk~*"
A throwing needle did the trick, pinning it against a house by its head. Back to the larger group of beasts, a pack of canine-beasts was circling me. I gave them no time to truly coordinate by flickerstepping next to the closest one and decapitating it. The others had no idea where I went due to the effects of flickerstep, taking them by surprise and consequently breaking down their formation.
I now took a more direct approach by using Grasshopper horizontally, executing the lot swiftly.
"*Yip!~*"
A small yelp sounded out near the backside of our human group. I took a quick moment to look, but it was just Morrissey who had stabbed a small canine beast in its neck.
The rest of the beast's group stood no chance. They were entirely uncoordinated with each other, simply choosing to throw themselves at Master and me. Such a strategy would have worked if they were stronger, but alas, it only aided in their downfall.
Finally, the last beast was defeated, leaving only us and the group of humans in this area. Many of the humans had already broken down in tears. I assume some of these beasts were theirs.
"Master, is this really the best option? These beasts have owners, after all," I asked.
"That is precisely why we must do this. Many of the people here will have a hard time defending themselves against their beloved pets. Imagine how much worse it would have been if people were the ones affected."
I nodded.
"*Sigh*... It's not like I enjoy this either. Beasts in particular aren't useful, nor particularly enjoyable to fight. It doesn't help that they all have names."
But it must be done. "Understood," I said.
I grabbed Morrissey and we left without speaking to the group of humans. Only a block away was another group similar to the last, just smaller. We dealt with them quite swiftly. It took just two more groups before we encountered our first monster.
It was an extremely erratic and bouncy primate with pitch black hair. Its limbs were muscular but long, so it looked closer to a chimpanzee than a gorilla. A few martial artists were engaging with it, but their skill left much to be desired, so we jumped in to help. I left Morrissey away from the battle.
Within the short time we arrived on the scene, the beast had already eviscerated three houses in its destructive wake. Without wasting any more time, I Grasshoppered over and cut off one of its hands, or at least tried to. Its reflexes were surprising, and underneath all of that madness was evidence of real combat training. Thus, I was only able to take a few fingers from the monster.
"GIRL! DON'T ENGAGE DIRECTLY WITH IT! IT'S BEEN TRAINED TO-" one of the martial artists had begun to yell in warning, until-
"*Shuah~*"
The monster froze in its place, before falling to the ground without its head.
My intentions were never to kill it myself. Not when Master was helping. I only needed to take its attention for a moment to allow for a clean kill.
"-KILL- W-what?" The man yelling wasn't even able to finish his sentence once he registered what happened.
"What happened? Is it dead?" another yelled out.
"I-I think so…"
"-It is!" I called out. Master had decapitated it easily. In fact, my involvement was unnecessary to say the least. Even I hadn't seen the exact moment he swung his sword, let alone a few Experienced level martial artists.
"*RUMBLE!!!~~~*"
Completely out of the blue, a huge impact somewhere behind us shook the whole city, kicking up dust all around us. Master and I both jumped high up while looking towards the cause of the impact that caused that rumble.
!!!
Over near where we had planned to exit the city earlier was a massive beast… no, monster… whatever. A colossal thing that easily towered over the wall. It had the head and torso of a lion, but there were reptilian wings that were outstretched. Combined, the wingspan was at least four times the size of the monster.
I looked into its eyes, just to see that it hadn't been affected by whatever the rest of the monsters and beasts had been in here. It shook its head a couple times, seemingly because it ran face-first into the barrier that had trapped us all.
"*ROOOAAARRR!!!!~*"
Whatever this lion-thing was, it radiated power. Even I could tell that it was capable of harnessing äura, something I had only read that some monsters were able to do.
We landed silently back on the ground. "What do we do now? That thing doesn't look very friendly," I remarked.
Master mumbled under his breath "...Beast King…"
"Beast King?" I asked.
"That 'thing' you mentioned is the Beast King. It is one of the very few fully sentient monsters alive today, and as you probably noticed, it has a very high mastery of äura. No less so than me…"
Fuck. "Does it know martial arts?" I asked wearily.
"Not necessarily. It has, however, lived for a very long time. Naturally, with such a long life comes great skill gained from experience. It is not something we should fight now, especially with Morrissey as he is and with you only as an Advanced martial artist."
What the fuck is it doing here then? And why now of all times? This "Beast King" wasn't mentioned in any book I've read, similar to how this area's unnatural obsession with beast and monster companions was seemingly hidden. In this case, at least there would be a decent reason to keep a secret such as this. Intelligent and extremely powerful monsters would unnerve the layman, which could possibly hinder tourism wherever its territory lies.
"Does this change our plans at all?"
Master shook his head, "Not when it comes to our escape. I am confident in our stealth, at least enough to remain unnoticed next to all of the others left in the city. However, now, I believe we can use his appearance to our advantage.
"I believe the Beast King is not here by mistake. Either someone provoked him, or he can feel the change and death of the beasts and monsters in this city. Even if it isn't the latter, I assume he can physically see it happening in front of him."
Morrissey had made his way over here, and was listening in on the conversation. From my observation, he was holding back from shaking uncontrollably. I even felt my spine shiver every time the Beast King's gaze swept over our general area.
An idea popped into my head. That being: can a monster earn a Manifesto? I mean, if any monster did, it would be this one.
Still, unless its manifesto gave it some sort of fear or intimidation vision/aura (not äura), that doesn't explain how intimidating it feels. Usually, I don't have a lot of real fear, but right now, I feel completely oppressed. Maybe that's something beings that have become master martial artists, or at least that level of äura in this case, are able to do.
My short inner thoughts lasted milliseconds, so I returned my thoughts to the conversation at hand. "Master, are you suggesting we bring down the barrier and let it kill the rampaging beasts?"
"Not exactly. The Beast King is an alpha, meaning it has a sort of natural authority over beasts and monsters alike. I'm sure you can feel it now. Despite us being human, we still are, in technicality, beasts. The only reason it doesn't hold true authority over us is due to our innate souls."
Interesting. Wait- "wouldn't all living things have a soul by definition?"
Master raised an eyebrow, "I don't know where you are getting this 'definition', but no. Sentience is derived from a soul, thus the Beast King too has a soul. This same principle applies to all other sentient monsters."
"Are we able to see souls?" I asked.
"...It… no. We can't see it, nor feel it. Honestly, I don't know how the definition came to be, but I feel like it isn't an unreasonable assumption."
I nodded. It seems the fantastical ideas of a "Soul" that my world had were incorrect, or at least don't apply to this world. I'm sure there is something testable that the humans used here to find out this supposed fact, even if Master doesn't know of it.
I wonder, do I have multiple souls? Or is mine deformed, or alien. If so, I would not like this information to be public. Hopefully, whatever potential testing apparatus that can display such a fact is difficult to use.
"Now," Master said, "Back to the plan. As you two might have figured out, we are going to see if the Beast King can control these rampaging beasts and monsters despite their apparent madness. This whole plan rests on the idea that the barrier was made to prevent his authority."
The two of us nodded.
"Let's get a move-on before the situation gets more out of hand. I predict that finding the power-source of this barrier won't be easy."