[Chloe’s PoV]

Picking up the handle for the cart that the humans were sitting on comfortably, I withheld my anger. I wanted to attack them, tear these humans apart for every painful thing they’ve caused me. Taking away Sally, forcing me to work in those mines for years, entrapping our kind for generations. There was no way out, I knew this, everyday I had to fight the temptation to draw my sword and attack them.

I wouldn’t be the first to do so, nor the last. There have been stories where an entire batch attacked their handlers and were wiped out easily. The level difference was simply too much, there was even a human showing all question marks for his level.

[Level ??? Human, Terry]

I knew this meant he was at least ten levels higher than me, I was only level 7 but could see a human’s level at level 17. This group was slightly higher level thanks to the dungeon, Chargestone Cave, being level 6.

Moving the cart at their command, I start moving from the front of the dungeon, to my left is a cliff face and to the right a waterfall leading into a river. The noise of the waterfall was loud, the only flora around was the moss growing on the cliff face and the sides of the river.

Moving the cart slowly at first while picking up speed, I felt a lash hit my back, another wound joining the ones I’d earnt in the dungeon. We’d lost twenty of the fifty Hybrids in this exploration, something about mutated enemies appearing more causing more deaths than usual. I’d been heavily injured, but they don’t care, unless you’re dead they’ll keep pushing you.

After twenty minutes of pushing, the cliff face moved away from us, being replaced by tall trees that hang over the path, casting shadows making the scenery quite beautiful, even if it was fouled by the humans behind me. As we continued to move, I saw something up ahead, something unusual. A figure was sitting on a boulder to the side of the path, I couldn’t quite make it out, at least with my vision.

Upon seeing the figure, I stopped for a second as I saw it stand up slowly. It was about a hundred metres from us, was it a human waiting here?

“Number 26, why are you stopping!” Feeling several lashes on my back I cry out. Unable to say anything, the other three pushing the cart had stopped, looking forward. “What the fuck are you all looking at?”

Silence hung for a few seconds as I felt danger coming from the figure in front of us. “W-what is that?” Hearing a commotion behind me, the humans were all standing on the cart suddenly. What was going on?

“Hybrids! Attack it, if you don’t I will kill you on the spot.”

Hesitating, I feel for my sword, finding it to be missing, I’d left it on the equipment cart. Looking around, the other Hybrids were moving up in front as the humans glared at those that didn’t move, their intent obvious. Just as the remaining Hybrids started moving, I heard a beautiful voice ring in my ears.

“Fragile humans, refusing to face any dangers yourself. I will not harm those Hybrids, instead I will be taking them.”

Looking back at the figure, she had gotten closer much faster than I expected. She was tall, a slender body with long black silvery hair and deep blue eyes. I thought I saw a hint of white mixed in, and she had a pair of ears on her head, a tail slightly above her behind. Seeing her come closer, I saw her System information.

[Level ??? Mystic Lunar Fox, Lunar Fist of the Wind, Alisha]

‘Another unknown level!’ With that thought, I stepped back out of fear, seeing other Hybrids do the same. We weren’t the only ones however.

“A-a l-level 20 monster?! Here?! Impossible, why are you here?” Hearing a handler speak in anger and fear, I see the Mystic Lunar Fox, Alisha, come to a stop before us.

Tilting her head, she seemed annoyed. “I told you already. I’m here for the Hybrids.” As she took another step towards us, I felt a hand grab my hair, pulling my head back as a sword rested on my neck.

“Any closer and we’ll kill these Hybrids you claim to be here for.”

Stopping, the girl shook her head. “I'd hoped to do this peacefully.” Looking around, I saw her move her lips like she was counting. “Well, I only need one of you handlers alive to send a message.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, I heard the cry of a bird “Kraa!” and the girl disappeared…no, she didn’t disappear, she moved so fast I’d lost track of her. In the next instant I had a scream behind me as the sword fell from my neck, something warm and liquid spilling down my shoulder.

Looking down at the sword, I saw an arm holding it, not attached to anything. Shocked, I turn to look behind me. The human who had grabbed me is now being held by the girl, blood splattered across her face as she held Terry by the neck. Looking at the other humans, they seem to have been hit by some sort of spell, their eyes were unfocused.

“Hybrids, move away.” Hearing the girl, I do as she says straight away. Just as I moved away, I heard a crunching noise and looking back, Terry’s head was in her hands, his body on the floor. Arms covered in his blood, the girl throws the head away and moves quickly.

Seeing her face, she looked excited. Bloodthirst radiating from her as she moved to another human, a level 17 one. The human never faced the girl at all, it was like he couldn’t see anything. Punching directly at his chest, it exploded as a fist sized hole appeared. In one punch she had finished the human.

Moving to another human, she did nearly the same thing. It kept happening, punches, kicks, she even tore one of the humans in half, all the while a gust of wind was blowing from her. Blood soaked, she stood before the last remaining human, who was trembling and kneeling. Unable to comprehend what happened, I stared at her as a bird landed on her head, like it was home for it. Are we being taken from the humans to be slaves to something this powerful?

Feeling my heart sink, I only wished for freedom yet it seemed we were being taken by someone stronger. As I started feeling depressed, the girl's next words caused my hope to skyrocket.

“Return to Crater and tell them we’re coming for the rest of the Hybrids. Touch a single one of my brethren and we will raze your city to the ground. Your nobles can’t do anything about us. Your council will know this as the truth.”

Trembling, the female handler named Jessica stuttered “P–please don’t k-k-kill me.” The girl looked at her and kicked her head.

“Then move already! My patience is limited, I don’t have the time for your fear.” Quickly stumbling to her feet, nearly falling over again, Jessica runs off towards Crater. Crossing her arms, the girl looks around, looking disappointed.

“Weak, too weak. Maybe I should’ve not used Wind magic…oh well.” Turning to us, she starts talking.

“Now we’re freed of the distractions, let me introduce myself. I’m a fellow Hybrid…or rather, was. You may have heard, or overheard of some Hybrids escaping, I’m one of those three. Now I know you’re all rather tired, injured and likely confused, but we don’t have the luxury of time.”

Hybrids escaping? I haven’t heard anything like that recently. There were cases of them escaping but they were always hunted down and made an example of.

Glancing around at us, she nods. “Take what you can from the equipment cart. Those who are too injured to move sit over there.” Pointing near the river, she turns and points at me “You search through their sacks and take any medical potions and bandages. There are monsters approaching, I’ll take care of them while you help those that are injured.”

I do as she tells me to as she moves into the trees. Shortly after I hear the sounds of fighting, monster growls and the river running. Searching through the supplies the humans had, I found plenty of healing potions and bandages. It was enough to give anyone injured a potion and cover any severe injuries.

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Moving to those who were near the river, I helped them with drinking potions if they needed it. There were around six in total who were badly hurt. After helping them out, it had been ten minutes as the girl came back.

“Alright, let's get moving. We’ll be moving at night, so I need you all to grit your teeth and keep moving no matter what. I can’t guarantee that I can save you if you fall behind too much. If any of you see someone fall behind, help them.”

Feeling fearful at the words of travelling at night, the rest of the Hybrids started looking confused and scared, but no one spoke out. We had just witnessed this girl massacre the humans like it was nothing. No one wanted to question or refuse her.

“It’ll be fine, we’re close to our home so it’ll be quick, a few hours at most. Keep your swords by your side, if any monsters come to attack do not try to attack it, block their attacks or dodge.”

Nodding nervously at her instructions, I keep a hand on the sword I got from the equipment cart. Turning around and walking down the path towards Crater she says “Stay close.” As she walks. Quickly moving to catch up with her, we walk down the path, leaving the remains of the humans behind us.

Reaching the end of the path, Crater could be seen from here. We would walk downhill from here and after another hour of walking we’d reach the first set of walls. The girl looked over at the city and sighed. Turning to the left, instead of going down the path she led us downstream of the river that ran down the hill towards a bushland. Steeling myself for the journey the girl told us about, we moved.

Is this really a chance to be freed, or was the girl lying to us and planning to enslave us. Keeping a hand on my sword, I planned to take my own life if they tried to enslave us.

[Alisha’s PoV]

Calming myself down from the excitement I felt earlier, I kept leading the thirty or so Hybrids down the riverside. After crossing through the bushland here, it’ll be another three or so hours until we reach the grassy plains where our home is. Another hour of walking and we’ll be at the new home.

The plan we had come up with was relatively simple. Sally, Elizabeth and I would wait along the paths of the dungeons that Elizabeth told us about and rescue our brethren. We weren’t going to kill any handlers, intending to send them back to Crater with a warning and would only kill them if they threatened or harmed anyone.

Originally we had planned for Elizabeth to head to Crater, but with the plan of sending the humans, or some of the humans, back to Crater Gray ended up volunteering to take over, watching Crater for a few days. He would then rotate to Olivia outside of Cerberus’s Domain to check in with her.

Moving into the bushlands, I felt Alice fly off my head and start circling above us. Her job was to watch over the Hybrids behind me and for any monsters that may approach them without me seeing them.

The night approached as we reached about halfway into the bushland, I felt my strength returning. Even weakened by the daytime the humans were not a threat. While it felt good to kill them, I was quite concerned about what this meant for things higher level than me, or even around my level.

While we trek through the bushland, my wind wandered. I thought of things I like, or like to do. Majority of Hybrids kept themselves withdrawn, afraid to show their personalities around the humans out of fear we would be scorned, hit or killed if we weren't emotionless. Just looking at the Hybrids behind me confirmed that none of them spoke up when I basically kidnapped them, they just looked frightened which had saddened me seeing them like that.

Thinking about it, I wasn’t sure about what type of person I was. Did I enjoy killing, I did feel excitement killing those humans before. What type of foods did I enjoy eating? I really liked those strange foods in Zalus, if I could find that kind of food again I would eat it. My world view was incredibly tiny, a result of growing up as nothing but a slave, I didn’t know enough about myself.

Maybe when we’ve settled the problem of the Hybrids I could explore the world. I felt excited at that thought, we needed to find Olivia’s home so I could take the chance to explore. With how many people we had to care for, I might not be able to explore the world so soon.

Sighing internally, I wanted to know more about myself, find out what kind of person I am. I keep moving and looking for any monsters lurking nearby, while keeping a noise for those that might be hiding away. Seeing monsters in the distance just sort of appear was unsettling.

Apparently a common sight at night, I had yet to go out just as night was setting in so I’ve never seen this occur. Some of them just appeared while already walking or eating, were they being brought in from somewhere. Was this a naturally occurrence in the world? Olivia said it's just a thing that happens.

There were also a lot of other monsters that came from caves, in packs of up to ten at a time. Whether they were hiding from daylight or just sleeping, they’d come out full force once it was night. I don’t know my upper limit yet so I wanted to avoid fighting too much at night, lest we lure something like that abomination again.

As we moved quickly through the bushland, I could tell the people behind me were exhausted, at a point of near-collapse. I felt myself pained at this sight, they were weak, we were weak too when we were like this. It’s been a little over two months but after eating decently, as decently as meat every meal gets, we looked a sight better than the Hybrids who’d been stuck as slaves.

Quickly thinking of the route I took here, I didn’t remember much other than the next area we were moving into. I couldn’t think of a place to hide thirty people to allow them to rest, nor to cook food for them. The bush land's end was in sight, and the area we were entering was a marsh-like area. Unlike the swamp we crossed, this area was just muddy with some shallow pools around. The problem is that it was too open, monsters would easily surround the group. I’d severely underestimated how exhausted the Hybrids would be. Looking at Alice, I whistle to her.

If all else fails, plan B was the way to go. Landing on my hand I tell her “Go find Olivia and then Sally, they’ll know why you’re there.” “Kraa!” Seeing her fly off I hear a gasp behind me. I know seeing a bird land out of nowhere is surprising, but it’s not that surprising right?

Turning to look at the one who gasped, it was a young girl, about the height I was before my evolution with dark brown hair and pink eyes. Seeing her shy away from me at my stare, I turn back to watching my surroundings.

With Alice somehow being able to locate Sally and Olivia, I keep moving the group towards the marshland. The monsters were starting to increase, and while I was able to deal with them easily, they were getting to a point of overwhelming even me and my speed of dealing with them. We had slowly come to a halt as the people in the group formed a tightened circle to defend themselves.

It wouldn’t last though, these monsters were level 16, and while they weren’t a threat to me, the lower levels with me were too much of a temptation to give up for the monsters and they would easily kill them. For the time being, they were parrying an attack but it was at a cost, some got injured or had their swords break.

Plan B was the alternative plan in case things were worse than we imagined. Olivia would camp out the dungeon entrance of Cerberus’s Domain until nightfall then move towards Crater, not within sight but enough to respond to any help I request from Alice. If no help was needed she could go back to watching the dungeon doors with ease.

[Lunar Blessing (Incomplete) applied to self.]

Steadying myself for a lot of movement, I instructed the people around me to stay on the defence while I kept myself moving, waiting the thirty minutes it would take for Olivia to arrive.

[Olivia’s PoV]

Looking over the arrows I had left I grimaced. Out of the fourty or so I had in my quiver before waking up here, I only had fourteen left. Elizabeth had lent me her sword in case I needed to rely on it, but I had no talent for it. Some of the remaining arrows were nearly worn out as well, and without the right supplies I couldn’t make more.

Looking over at the city of Crater, I could make out the slums and while it was impossible to see anyone I could tell at a glance the living conditions were rancid. Just moving my eyes up I could make out the roofs of houses, typical housing from a human perspective.

I could see the city from my vantage point on this tree, a place I felt comfortable was always at the top of a tree. It’s how I survived the nights here, excluding some flying monsters that I could shoot down almost nothing came up.

Adjusting myself to a more comfortable position, I look around the darkened landscape. I was convinced; I was in Crater Hell. My father had told me stories when I was growing up. Located a good four day trip from our village was Crater Hell, as the name implied it was a massive crater in the earth, said to be the result of a war between the Hero Party and the evil Gods thousands of years ago. It was said that nothing lived here, but who would’ve thought there would be living beings here, and at such a low level too. It certainly would explain the incredibly shortened daytime as well.

Knowing where I was, or I assumed I was, didn’t help my situation in the slightest, in fact it made it worse. Recalling what my father said, there was no known way into or out of Crater Hell, though he always did say it was thanks to a lack of exploration. Looking at the massive curved cliff face that Crater stood in front of, there was certainly no way in Artemis’s name we could climb that thing, it was huge.

Who knows though, maybe Crater held secrets on getting out, or maybe they knew of a way out. If that was the case, maybe I would need to get involved in the fight between my new friends and Crater. Thinking of the four I’ve met here, I was honestly happy, I have never really had friends, those that have friended me before were only after my family's influence or wanted to dig up dirt on me.

Having people like Alisha, Sally, Gray and Elizabeth around made me feel happy, even in the predicament I was in, where I didn’t know if I’ll see home again. They never judged me like the others, never shunned me cause I used different magic and never left me out of things they were doing. Sure I was only keeping watch, but I was really happy that Alisha trusted me enough to ask for my help.

Sensing something approaching, I look towards the source as I hear a “Kraa!” Getting up, I put a palm out and Alice landed on my hand. Fetching a slice of jerky I had taught and made with the others, Alice picks it up and eats quickly, before leaving again.

Jumping down, I knew the reason Alice was here was because Alisha was stuck in the marshes, the timing meant either just before the marshland or she had just entered it. Leaping from the tree to the ground softly, I stuck within the shadows and used the sword Elizabeth lent me to make my way to Alisha.