The ruins fell quiet. A slight cold breeze brushed through the area, it sang an eerie song through the cracked windows and collapsed structures. What once was a bustling section of the village fell to ruin an unknown time ago, but now it fell further, becoming a battlefield as well as a grave for these horrid beasts.

–

“Ahhhhhh, I’m so tired. I barely managed to win that”, Mia sighed and looked over at the beast's corpse, “I nearly died to it… I have to get stronger… For revenge… For Aira”, she thought to herself with a serious look.

For a moment Mia thought about her time with Aira… But this time she shed now tears, she was simply determined.

A moment passed.

“Mia!” A voice came from the distance. A stumbling Hikaru walked under a semi-demolished building, his clothes ragged and caked in blood. Luckily, he looked relatively unharmed.

“Hikaru? You’re alright! I was hoping I’d see you after that huge blast. Though, I knew you’d win.” Mia slowly got up, “me on the other hand, well, I’m not in as good of shape”.

Hikaru continued walking to her, “Well I have a bit of knowledge about arcana healing spells. They mana-” He paused.

A silence fell around them.

Hikaru’s eyes locked on, not with Mia but with another.

“You’re safe”, he said, staring at Nomi. A tear went down his face.

Nomi made no reply, crushing his spirit instantly.

“Ouch, shut down again huh?”

Hikaru bent down beside Mia, with a determined look on his face and a fiery spirit in his heart, “I aim to protect all of the kids in the world… Though I don’t really understand why they keep they’re distance”. He looked up and pondered, finding no solution.

“Man, you just come on WAY too strong. Anyways, hurry up and heal me so we can go ahead and meet up with the Captain”.

He nodded and straightened out his arms towards her. He then raised his palms as if telling someone to stop.

Arcana healing: Verjungen!

A yellow glow emanated from his palms and flowed into each of Mia’s injuries, causing a feeling of warmth.

“Whoa, it’s as if the tightness and fatigue is just lifting away”, she said.

“It’s a relatively simple healing spell, one of the first ones we learn in the academy. The best thing about it is the speed in which it heals, which makes it optimal for long missions where injury is usually expected”. Hikaru concentrated on Mia’s wounds, slowly healing each individually.

“I see”.

“By the way Mia, I see you really did in that evolved-beast, I’m surprised you made it out with no life-threatening injuries”.

She looked up at him, “oh! That reminds me, when I was fighting it, it mentioned that the term evolved-beasts was wrong… If that’s true then why do huntsmen mislabel them?”

Hikaru remained quiet for a moment.

“Well, it’s not that huntsmen mislabel them… Uhh, it’s just the Captain… Forgets that they’re called ganado. Our entire division has kinda ignored it for a while, but recently it’s just better for us to go along with it until he figures it out himself”. Hikaru had an awkward expression, “alright, that should be all good”.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“How did the Captain even become a captain?” She wondered. “Oh I feel great! It’s as if I didn’t even get injured in the first place”.

Mia stood up and turned to Nomi, displaying her now fully healed self. She smiled and flexed her “muscles” once more.

Hikaru came to his feet, “hm, where is the Captain? There’s no way he’d take long with some small fry”, he openly asked, expecting no answers. “Mia, let’s go to where the Captain went, hopefully we can rendezvous with him and find the beast that started this whole mess”.

The two prepared themselves, gathering their confidence and strength and they began to set off in Captain Yakusukes direction.

“Wait!” Nomi yelled, “you can’t leave me here! I’m coming too”, she said adamantly.

Mia turned around and bent down beside her, “You can’t Nomi, this is gonna be really dangerous and there’s no way i'm gonna put you in that situation”.

“I have to go, I just have to. My mama is there and I have to see her. I know she’s there… I can feel it”, she said, her tone lessened. “Big sis, please let me come, I won’t get in the way I promise”.

She clasped her hands together and her eyes widened.

A moment passed.

“Agh! Fine, but as soon as there’s trouble you have to hide. That’s the one condition”.

Nomi smiled, “Deal!”

The three began walking in their Captain's direction.

It didn’t take long for the three to arrive, The area seemed rather untouched for a place surrounded with decaying houses and ruined streets.

The three looked on at the disgusting sight before them. The once black-winged beast that arrived with the trio of ganado, laid motionless on the ground. Its body was ripped apart into several pieces, its organs decorated the ground around it.

“Nomi, close your eyes. You don’t need to see this”, Hikaru said.

“Damn, the Captain does not hold back does he…?” Mia looked around, searching for her perverted Captain.

“I can’t pick up on his quelle at all… Mia, can you sense anything? It’s as if he vanished right after he killed this beast”.

Hikaru looked at Mia with a confused face, Mia returned the gaze, “I can’t sense a thing”.

Around ten minutes passed by and they couldn’t pick up a single trace of their Captain's quelle. Both of them had a feeling of foreboding rising inside of them. Their worry rose with each passing minute.

“Dammit Captain, where are you?”, Hikaru thought. He turned to Mia and Nomi, “I’m sure it’s fine, he probably had to run off to take a dump or something. Heh heh!” He laughed awkwardly. His worrisome thoughts lingered and grew.

Another ten minutes passed.

Mia and Hikaru knew that under any other circumstance that they could immediately run off and look for their Captain, they knew that he’d probably be at some brothel partying with girls… But right now they had no luxury to search for him. Right now they had to protect Nomi, and complete their mission.

“Mia, I think that we-”

WOM! WOM! WOM! WOM!

“Well then, three little mice have come this far into my domain”. A loud menacing voice came from behind them. “I guess those three commanders of mine were killed, though I don’t know how three brats could’ve accomplished that but who cares”.

The beast that approached them… The giant monstrosity that found them… Was the leader and master of all the beasts residing in this village.

Mia looked up, noting his hairless body and long waving tentacles.

She noticed one other thing as well. One of the tentacles was holding something… Someone.

“MAMA!” Nomi screamed, instantly recognizing the face of her captive mother.

The woman looked down at her but couldn't utter a single word.

“So that's your mom huh?” Hikaru asked, “that makes this easy then. “Mia, let's beat the shit of this overgrown tentacle baby and save Nomi’s Mother. After that we can find and beat up the Captain for ditching us”.

“I agree… To both of those things. I’m gonna put my foot so far up the Captain's ass that his grandchildren will feel it”. Mia looked over at Nomi, “our promise? We’ll take care of this in a flash. We’ll kill this guy and save your mama”. She smiled at the little girl and looked back towards her enemy.

“Alright you giant freaky potato, time to kick some ass”. Mia tightly gripped her blutklinge and rattled with determination.

“You? Defeat me? Don’t make me laugh! Just because you killed my commanders doesn’t mean a thing. There's a reason that they’re MY commanders… It’s because they’re significantly weaker than me. Don’t you think for a second that you’ll be able to spill a single drop of my blood”.

The beast raised its tentacle holding Nomi’s mama and tossed her to the side. Luckily, she landed in a group of bushes, giving her a safe landing.

“MAMA!” Nomi screamed as she ran towards her mother.

The beast smiled, “come at me humans, let me show you just how weak you really are”.