Where they all originally encountered the three evolved beasts.

–

The moon-faced beast waved its head back and forth, presumably taunting Mia. “Damn, I was hoping I’d get to be paired with the white-haired human… And not this freak…” It grumbled.

“No need to be rude” Mia tapped her foot as she retorted. A few moments passed and she came to a hopefully witty response, “Well atleast my head doesn’t cause drowsiness”.

…

It became silent… It was clear to anyone that her response was a swing and a miss.

“Shit”, she thought… “I was trying to kill its morale with a burn while also looking cool in front of Nomi”, she called and looked behind her. Nomi’s expression seemed unfazed. “Maybe she didn’t hear me…”

The silence faded away, “no more playtime human”, the moon-faced beast lunged towards Mia, giving her no time to draw her sword.

WOOOOOOM!

It jabbed its hand into the ground, causing a small upheave of dust and leaving a small crater behind.

Mia just barely dodged, “shit, I guess evolved beasts really are on another level”, she said while blocking her face from flying debris.

The beast retracted its hand from the ground, “evolved beasts huh, that’s the term you’ve given us? Ridiculous”. It stood up straight, “you huntsmen always do this, you know all this information about us but refuse to use it”.

“What are you going on about? You’re an evolved beast, plain and simple”.

“So they don’t even teach trashmen like you huh? Let me educate you a bit before I kill you and that brat over there”.

The beast looked to Nomi and licked its lips, “I’ll be especially slow with your death…”

“Agh! Just get on with it!” Mia looked annoyed and raised up her hand, preparing her blood ring.

“Don't worry human, this’ll be quick. As you should know, we beasts crave the deaths of humans. It’s an eternal hunger that's deep within us. As we kill we gain more and more, the hate builds up and eventually overflows. With all this excessive energy and rage within us it only has one thing to do… Empower us. The more we kill the more powerful we become, and the more powerful we become we eventually reach our peak”.

“Blah, blah, blah… I already know all this… Get to the point already”, Mia rolled her eyes and tapped her fingers together, waiting for its story to end.

“Such a rude human. Anyways, with us at our peak all of that energy has to go somewhere. All of that energy forces us to evolve… into what you would call a ganado… It is the true name of what you call “evolved beasts”. Human… You should also know that us ganado are just the beginning… But you won’t live long enough for that information to matter”.

“Hm, well seeing as how I never went to the huntsmen academy I suppose it’s natural that I wouldn’t know any of that… Though it makes me wonder why the Captain and Hikaru mislabel all of you. Hm, maybe I’ll ask them later”.

Mia looked towards the beast and gave it a sinister stare, “now with all that boring information aside, let’s have some fun”.

A shadowy silence swept across the area.

VvvvvvvvWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW!

A rumbling echoed through the ground.

“What the hell was that?” Nomi looked around, “It sounded like it came from where Hikaru went…”

“A doom blast huh? Also known as a vacios. That moron released it here, what a fool”.

“A what? Vacios… The hell is that?”

“It doesn’t matter… A pest like you isn’t worth the energy I’d have to conjure”.

Mia looked displeased, “are all beasts assholes or what?” She thought.

“Mmm. Mmm. Mmm!”

A muffled scream appeared.

Mia looked back. The lesser beast that had been keeping Nomi tied up was gradually losing its cool. It covered her mouth to lessen her screams. The beast slowly widened its mouth, revealing a row of sharp fangs.

“Mmm. Mmm. Mmm!”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Nomi’s muffled screams continued as the beast's gaping maw got closer to her neck.

Mias eyes widened, a raging fury within them. She immediately snapped her fingers, drawing blood and forming her blutklinge.

“NOT ON MY WATCH YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” She screamed.

In an instant she was there.

SHLOOOOOK!

She slashed at the beast, relieving it of the top of its head. A spurt of blood gushed out and painted the wall.

“Woo! That was close. Nomi, go and hide okay? I’ll make this quick”.

The little girl got up and nodded, she then ran off behind a collapsed house with a sapling growing through its center.

“Mia shot back to her original position, “sorry for that”.

The moon-faced beast said nothing. It bolted forwards, making quick movements through the wreckage.

“DIE HUMAN!” It yelled.

The beast closed in on Mia and jabbed relentlessly.

“Damn, those long legs give it a huge advantage with all the rubble around”, she thought.

The beast hopped from place to place, swinging off old wooden posts and jumping off piles of wreckage.

“It’s like a weird-looking monkey…” Mia’s brain rattled as she dodged each attack. “Ack! I gotta figure something out soon, I can’t just dodge the whole time… My stamina is gonna run out”.

The onslaught continued.

“YOU WERE COMPARING ME TO ALL THAT TRASH GUARDING THE VILLAGE WEREN’T YOU?! I'M A HUNDRED TIMES STRONGER THAN THE LIKES OF THEM!” It roared.

“GACK!”

Mia shot backwards, landing into a pile of rubble. “BEGH!” She coughed up a shot of blood. “Shit, I’m getting slower. That bastard is starting to land some hits”, she thought as she rubbed her stomach.

The beast began walking towards Mia, “human, you know how when a beast evolves it gains an ability? Well you should anyway, usually beasts just focus it into pure destructive power… But not me. My power is simple yet marvelous. With each jab I deliver I become faster… And it doesn’t even matter if it’s on my opponent”.

The beast smiled at Mia.

“So you’re saying… That each time i’ve blocked and you’ve hit my blutklinge… You’ve increased your speed?”

“That's right… So no matter what you do, dodge, block, it doesn't matter. I’ll keep getting faster until you can’t even see me”.

“Well… we’ll just have to put that to the test then”.

Mia slowly got to her feet, “shit, if I don’t do something soon, it’s game over”. Mia’s brain went back and forth coming up with ideas, but each was ruled out. “Diversion? No. Surrender? Hell no… Damn it, if I can’t think of anything soon then Nomi and I are screwed”.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Human, I can see you struggling to come up with ideas. It’s quite satisfying…”

“Shut up you moon-faced freak! I don’t need your annoying commentary”.

“AHA!”

A metaphorical lightbulb appeared above Mia’s head.

“Thank you beast. With you chattering away about your ability made me come to a conclusion”, Mia smiled, “If you keep on getting faster then I’ll just have to get you to stop moving…”

“Huh? AS IF A LOWLY HUMAN COULD DO SUCH A THING!”

It lunged forward, this time it held its hands together.

“THIS IS MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE, WITH THIS I'LL GO RIGHT THROUGH YOU! NOW DIE!”

The distance between them became less and less every moment.

Mia stood still.

“This better work… The timing will have to be perfect”, she thought.

One more second…

–

It arrived, “I Got.. You? Huh? Human?”

The beast looked confused.

“You look troubled. Are you alright?” Mia appeared beside the beast and gripped the beast's arm tightly. “You see my plan was a gamble. Honestly, it was super reckless. I had to decide quickly on a fifty-fifty shot on if I could use my bindestrich fast enough”.

“Binde-strich?”

“Yeah, it’s a high speed movement we huntsmen use. Usually they teach it in the academy but I guess it came naturally to me. You see beast, I grew up in the slums, I ran a lot… from people I stole food from… Erm, that's not the point. My plan was to use bindestrich to move to the side right as you were gonna connect with me”. She pointed down, directing the beast's eyesight to a large tear in her uniform”.

“You damn human, you think you’ve won because you caught me? I think not!”

“Oh I don’t think I've won just because of that. I win because of this”, Mia held up her blutklinge, “goodbye you moon-faced freak”.

SCHLLLLINNGG!

With a quick stroke she slashed downwards, cleaving the moon-faced beast’s head and arms clean off.

The beast's body fell to the ground and a pool of blood began to form around its lonely neck.

“Well, that's over with… Damn… I’m exhausted”. She groaned, “gotta find Nomi, I can’t rest yet”.

Mia stumbled a bit while trying to move forwards, “damn, well, maybe i’ll sit for just a moment”.

“Big sister?” A small voice came from her right.

Some rustling came from behind some rubble. Two black pigtails appeared and finally a face.

“Nomi! I’m happy you’re safe”, Mia smiled and a tear came down her face. “I’m sho haffy that your shafe”, her words became loopy as an ocean of tears went down her face.

“Big sister… You’re hurt… I’m sorry”, Nomi looked down and fiddled with her fingers.

While wiping her tears she signaled for Nomi to come closer. “You don’t have to apologize. I’m completely fine! As if some weirdo could hurt me”, she said as she showed off her “muscles”.

“Ah, ah…”

“Nomi?”

“I'M JUST SO GLAD YOU’RE OKAY!” Nomi began bawling and jumped into Mia’s arms.

“It’s alright, the enemy is all gone. You’re safe”. Mia caressed Nomi’s head and held her close.

–

Away from both Mia and Hikaru, Captain Yakusuke stood in wonder.

–

“Hm, I hope I made a good judgment call for Mia. I know these beasts were just ganado but still”. He looked down at the mangled corpse of his opponent.

“Ahhh, it should be fine. If I can kill it in one shot then I’m sure she’ll be alright… Oh and Hikaru too. Heh, almost forgot about him. Though I guess their boss hasn’t shown up yet, nor has Nomi’s mother”.

“Something big is gonna happen… And I shouldn’t stand in the way of it…”