“Wake up or your brother will leave now and won't escort you to your demon hunter initiation ceremony.” These were the first words Boe heard after his mother pinched him in his sleep. After couple of seconds, he jumped up from his bed and rushed out of his room into the kitchen. His father and two brothers were already eating their breakfast. His father was very bulky man in red uniform, which signified that he was one of the demon hunter crops commanders in their village. Boe was very proud of his father his whole life and always wanted to become demon hunter like him. Today was the day when 14-15 years old kids were enrolling into the demon hunter academy in Komyns city of Green Plains Kingdom. Boe Nas was 14 year old middle son from Nas family, he had short black hair, black eyes and ordinary face. Both his brothers and his father looked very similar to him in appearance. His mother was different than them, she was very graceful and beautiful, her hair were blonde and very long, her eyes were blue and her facial features very exquisite.
His older brother Rak was 17 years old and was in third and last grade in demon hunter academy. Rak came back from academy to this village specifically to escort Boe to the academy because the way from a village to the academy is very dangerous and Boe would most likely die to wild animals or bandits if he would go there without anyone strong enough to escort him. Rak was now demon hunter of first rank with fire attribute affinity so he could easily defeat any wild animals and bandits wouldn’t attack him simply because they were afraid of organization behind Rak.
“Alright, are you ready to go now, Boe?” Rak asked after Boe ate his breakfast and said his farewells to parents and little brother.
“Yes, big bro, lets go to aca-”
“Don’t call me big bro, from now on i’m senior Rak for you. From today and onwards you will be disciple of Red Claw Academy and only people in your class will be your brothers and sisters, everyone else will become your rivals or superiors, including me.” Rak interrupted Boe and his tone wasn’t of kind big brother Boe knew, he was speaking as if Boe was his subordinate.
“Yes, senior Rak.”
“Good, now we can set out to academy.”
Trip to academy wasn’t fun like Boe expected, two brothers was walking for three days already, but Rak was only speaking to Boe when he was instructing him to make a stop to rest or hide somewhere, when he was dealing with wild animals.
“Boe, hide behind that rock and don’t make any noise.” Rak noticed that five wolves were coming their way from the woods. Rak pulled out a sword and started chanting words Boe didn’t understand, but before Rak even had a chance to attack, one wolf exploded and other wolves ran away in fear of something.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Rak shouted into the air and Boe thought his brother is going insane since he couldn’t see anyone there.
“Hello, human children, do you mind telling me in which direction should I go to reach the nearest village from here?” asked female voice from woods.
“Show yourself or I’ll have to attack!” Rak didn’t put away his sword, which was now covered in flames, it was one of Rak’s magic spells which he chanted before. This technique was called “Amplification” and was one of the easiest spells of fire magic from his academy. Even though Rak was sure in his ability to deal with wild animals and could even wipe out bandit squad of 5-10 people, for some reason he was feeling dread toward the owner of the voice.
“I do not plan to hurt you, so you can relax and just answer my question.” Right after Rak and Boe heard these words they saw beautiful girl with blonde hair and green eyes come out of the woods. This girl looked to be 16 years old and was the most beautiful girl they saw in their lives, but what shocked them was that girl wasn’t a human, she had a long green tail behind her.
“You… you are a forest nymph.” Rak was shocked, he heard about forest nymphs from his teacher in academy, but they were never seen in Green Plains Kingdom and were a rare sight even in central parts of continent. Only now did he realize why she called them “human children”, even though she looked to be 16, she might be a few hundred years old already, since forest nymph are all born with a strong vitality and could live up to five thousand years without even training in any kind of magic.
“Indeed, I am a forest nymph and my name is Lith, can you answer my question now, child?” Lith smiled and Boe’s heart stopped beating for a few seconds. Boe has never even heard of such creatures and would never imagine such beautiful girls walking on the same earth as him. But before he even had a chance to thoroughly “inspect” Lith, he suddenly lost his footing and lost consciousness.
After a few hours passed, Boe woke up and managed to get up after five tries. What he saw after he looked around shocked him and he froze. In a place where Lith stood was only a pool of blood and near the tree where his brother stood, was only one detached arm laying on the ground. Boe started crying and fell to his knees, shouting like crazy. After few minutes of yelling and crying, he managed to get up and started walking to the detached arm laying on the ground. When he walked up to the arm and took it into his arms, he saw a red bracelet with “Nas” written on it.
“Kid, what happened here?” asked a man sitting on a giant green lizard, he wore a green battle armor with a sword behind his back. After he didn’t get any response from Boe, he jumped off of his huge lizard, pulled out his sword and started walking toward Boe.
“Kid, answer me now or I’ll have to use force to subdue you and take you to Komyns city to interrogate.”
“Captain Knoff, I don’t think you need to unsheathe your sword or use any power to subdue that kid, he doesn’t have any battle aura emanating from him” said another man in green armor sitting on a smaller lizard.
“Wel, you should never underestimate your enemies, he might be a powerful demon pretending to be a small child. If he’s demon of rank 2 or above we won’t even be able to detect any battle aura from him and he will easily slaughter all of us in a blink of an eye.”
“Captain, why would rank 2 demon need to pretend to be a child in front of us? He could just crash us like ants and do whatever he wants after.”
“Enough arguing, go ahead and talk to that child yourself if you are so brave and smart, Wel.” Captain Knoff stopped moving and put his sword back in sheath. Wel had no choice but to jump off of his lizard and start moving in Boe’s direction, glancing at detached arm near a kneeling child. Wel came close to Boe and tried to shake him a bit to wake him up from his trance, but Boe didn’t react in any way, so Wel had no choice but to come even closer and look into his eyes. After staring in Boe’s eyes for a few seconds Wel just took the detached arm and inspected it.
“According to uniform on it, this arm belongs to a student of the demon hunter academy from our city and it seems like whoever lost this arm is related to this child, they both have bracelets with “Nas” written on them,” Wel said while looking at his captain.
“Poor child, he doesn’t even look to be of age to become a soldier and already saw his own brother killed by animals. No wonder he seems like he lost his mind, let’s take him with us to the city and decide what to do with him there.”
“Captain, I don’t think it was done by animals. The way this arm was detached seems like it was cut off using wind magic.”
“What? If it’s true then we have to rush to the city and get demon hunters to investigate this. Take a kid with you on your lizard and give me that detached arm, I will store it in my magic case.”
“Commander Kigs, Captain Knoff is here with urgent report and wants your audience.”
“Ana, didn’t I say that I don’t want anyone to disturb me today even if demons will attack our city?”
“Commander, Knoff says that his case is urgent, it has something to do with demon hunters.”
“Demon hunters? Alright, let him in, but if what he says isn’t worthy of my attention, I will make both of you work without a rest for the next month.” Kigs was obviously very displeased that Knoff came disturbing him right now. Kigs was playing with new magic artifact he got yesterday from one of people who needed his help in smuggling goods into the city.
“Commander Kigs, captain Knoff is here to report.” Knoff said in a very strict military way.
“Yeah, yeah … Just be quick and report everything you have, don’t make me lose even more time with you, Knoff.” Knoff was very displeased with Kigs' manners. Everyone in the city army knew that Kigs got his commander rank only because he has a very good relationship with city mayor and his brother is young genius rank 2 demon hunter. So Knoff didn’t have any respect toward Kigs, but he had to be very polite since Kigs was his superior in army and he was the only one in horizon who had status high enough to speak to demon hunters.
“Commander, on the way back to city from our escort duty my squad met with a scene of murder and we stopped to inspe-.”
“Alright, alright, stop chit-chat and go on to the main topic which somehow has something to do with demon hunters.” Kigs didn’t have patience to listen to Knoff’s official report and just wanted to get back to his games with his new magic artifact.
“Sir, this is an arm we found on the scene.” Knoff placed detached an arm on Kigs' table.
“Stop! Remove that filth from my table! What does that shit has to do with demon hunters, you stupid fuck?!” Kigs was mad at Knoff for dirtying his table and didn’t even try to stop himself from yelling at Knoff.
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“I’m sorry Sir, but that arm was detached using wind magic and we have no authority to investigate it any further, we need to report this to demon hunters, so I decided that I have to bring it to you.” Knoff was very calm on the surface, but inside he was ready to pull his sword out and butcher that stupid rat in front of him.
“Okay, take that shit with you and go to the demon hunter academy, I will inform my brother of your arrival.” Kigs started waving his hands to let Knoff know he doesn’t want to see him in his office anymore.
“Are we really going to the demon hunter academy, Captain?” Wel was shocked that his captain was going to the demon hunter academy, which was like a sacred ground to common people like them. Wel has never even got close to the academy, since he didn’t have any elemental affinity and couldn’t become a demon hunter. Demon hunter academy was open only to teachers, students and very high ranked nobles of the city.
“Yes, our fat ass commander doesn’t want to do shit himself and makes me do everything in his place.” Knoff treated Wel like he was his little brother so he could speak anything he wanted in front of him.
“Oh my god, I will have a chance to meet demon hunter lords! Maybe I will even have a chance to seduce a young demon hunter girl and will become a noble!”
“Stop dreaming, idiot. Mighty demon hunters will never even look in your direction, you are just an ant in their eyes. And if you will try to do anything funny in front of them, they can obliterate you by just waving their hands, so don’t get cocky there and bow to anyone you see.”
Demon hunter academy of Komyns city was only a third tier demon hunter academy and wasn’t famous in the Kingdom, it has never produced any outstanding demon hunters of rank 3 or above, but any random rank 1 demon hunter was enough to kill an entire squad of ordinary soldiers of city horizon. In Green Plains Kingdom demon hunters were the main military power and were treated with a very high respect. Each and every demon hunter after advancing to rank 1 would become respected and called genius in Komyns city and after advancing to rank 2, would receive noble rank and get his own little castle in any city in the Green Plains Kingdom to manage as he wished. Rank 3 demon hunter could become governor of a region; mayor of Komyns city was of this rank, he was managing Komyns city and all villages around it. As for rank 4 demon hunters, they were pillars of Green Plains Kingdom and would all be respected at same level as princes and other highest ranked nobles. King of the Green Plains Kingdom was a rank 5 demon hunter, he was a hero of the nation who stopped a Demon King Alarys from conquering the Green Plains Kingdom 600 years ago. There were no other rank 5 demon hunter in the Green Plains Kingdom, but the Green Plains Kingdom was not considered to be a big kingdom on a territory of the Lin continent. Green Plains Kingdom only had a ~570000 square meters territory, while the biggest territory on a Lin continent belonged to the Demon Emperor’s lands with ~13200000 square meters. Demon Emperor is considered one of the strongest beings on the Lin continent and has a power equal to rank 9 demon hunter, only the Grand Inquisitor from the Church of Light and the King Karib from the Shadow Kingdom could contend against the Demon Emperor. The only thing that stopped these three from conquering all small lands from Kings of rank 8 and below, was the contract that three of them signed, it stops them from expanding their lands. And even if one of them wanted to expand their lands, they wouldn’t even look in the Green Plains Kingdom’s direction, because Green Plains Kingdom had a very low level of battle aura in an air and didn't have any expensive resources.
After 10 minutes of walking, Knoff and Wel came in front of the huge black gates and stood there not doing anything for an hour.
“Who are you and why are you blocking my way?” Knoff and Wel both jumped from shock, because they didn’t hear or notice anyone coming their way. They both turned around and saw a young looking girl with black hair and black eyes, but feeling they got from looking at her was as if a huge and bloodthirsty crow was looking at them. Wel has never expected that first demon hunter he encountered today would be a young and beautiful girl. He always wished to meet a beautiful young female demon hunter to try to seduce her, but now his only wish was to run away from her as far as he could.
“We are very sorry for being in your way.” Knoff kneeled and made Wel wake up from his trance and kneel before the young girl. Girl didn’t look angry at all and just moved past both soldiers, right after she came close to the black gatesa she disappeared.
“That was a director of this academy, a famous rank 2 demon huntress Gal Zi, so don’t ever even think of her, she is the one of three rank 2 demon hunters in our city and she is fifty years old after all.” Wel was still shocked from a feeling he got from that young looking girl and couldn’t even answer to Knoff. After a few seconds the black gates opened and Knoff saw a young looking boy coming out to meet them, Knoff immediately knelt and made Wel do the same.
“I am Captain Knoff of the city horizon army, here to report of a murder scene we encountered in woods near our city to Sir demon hunter Rigs”
“Alright, you both can stand up, my brother already told me the reason of your arrival. Where is an arm?” Rigs looked like he was only 15 years old, but Knoff knew that person in front of him was a powerful rank 2 demon hunter who was only second to a mayor of the city and a director of the academy. Knoff hurried to take out a detached arm from his magic case and tried to give it to Rigs. However Rigs hasn’t even moved before speaking.
“There is definitely a wind magic aura on that hand and it seems like it belongs to one of the student of my academy, where did you find it?” Without even inspecting an arm or coming close to it, Rigs has already determined that an arm was cut off using a wind magic.
“We found it in 30 minutes north from the city and there were a pool of blood and a boy near this arm when we found it.” Knoff didn’t keep anything hidden from Kigs and even described Boe as a 14-15 years old boy with slim body, black hair and black eyes. He even told Kigs everything about bewildered state of Boe when they found him.
“Take me to that boy, I need to talk to him. And even if he won’t be able to speak with me, I can just directly search his memories and find out everything about an incident.” Kigs didn’t care about some little random boy from some remote village, even if he had any connection to a dead disciple of his academy.
“You don’t even care about that boy’s condition and want to mess with his brains?!” Suddenly Wel spoke from behind Knoff. Before Knoff even had a chance to react to Wel’s words he saw blue streak of light flying from a tip of Kigs’ finger into Wel’s head. After Kigs’ attack hit Wel, he just dropped dead without even making a sound or reacting in any way.
“Hmph, I don’t need a mere mortal to teach me how to work.” Kigs was looking very calm as he glanced at Knoff and started walking towards the city horizon headquarters. Knoff wanted to check on Wel’s condition, but when he saw Kigs walking away from him, he had no choice but to abandon Wel’s body at place and walk behind Kigs. In this world, powerful people, who could be of importance to a King and the Kingdom had an ability to do whatever they wanted with common people who had no backing, so it wasn’t too rare for an ordinary soldier to die from hands of a demon hunter just because the demon hunter was in a bad mood.
“Here he is, Sir.” Knoff took Kigs straight to an infirmary of his squad where Boe was laying on a bed with open but empty eyes. Kigs looked at Boe and felt that Boe had some level of affinity toward shadow attribute magic so he didn’t start his memories extraction, instead he finally took a glance at a detached arm and saw “Nas” written on it.
“Looks like I know who he is and whose arm it is. Person who lost an arm should be Nas Rak, rank 1 fire attribute demon hunter and disciple of mine, this boy is his little brother. He was supposed to enroll into the academy tomorrow and become my new personal disciple. Whoever managed to cut off my disciple’s arm and even murder him, must be of rank 2 or higher, I must report this to a director and maybe even a mayor will have to act this time.” Kigs didn’t seem angry at all even after finding out his personal disciple was probably murdered.
“So, what does our lord think we should do about this matter?” Kigs has gone to invite Gal Zi to speak with a mayor Kyp Zard about the death of his personal disciple, now two of them were standing below the golden throne where Kyp Zard was currently sitting.
“That Nas kid was definitely one of the best students we had in last ten years and he was one of the strongest rank 1 demon hunters in region, so killer is definitely of rank 2 or above. I don’t think it was a demon hunter from neighbor region, since everyone are now busy with enrolling new students into their academies, nor do I think it is an attack by a demon since they can’t use a wind magic at all. Do you two think it might be one of other races' warriors or an elemental animal?” Kyp was very relaxed as he spoke, he was sure no one above rank 3 would come to his lands to make trouble and he was very confident in his ability to win over any being of rank 3 or below.
“Hahahaha, are you an idiot? It was obviously a level 4 demon who cut that arm off” Kyp was sure there were only three of them in a throne room before, but now he could clearly see a middle aged man in a simple silver colored robes with red hair and red eyes. Robes on that man looked very strange, as if he wasn’t from the Green Plains Kingdom but came from some ancient civilization.
“What are you doing in here?! How did you break through my guards and how dare you speak to me in such a tone?” Kyp was enraged and already started chanting some mysterious words. Strange man started laughing even louder after he saw Kyp’s magic being prepared.
“So this is how you use battle aura in your lowly world? The way you use it is awful, you waste too much energy and casting of spell takes too much time. Here, let me show you how its supposed to work.” As he said that, he flickered his right hand’s index finger and a huge red dragon flew out from his finger and started flying in throne room looking at three demon hunters as if they’re its prey. Even though the dragon shocked Kyp, he kept his calm and finished his chanting, right after it, a big orange tiger appeared next to Kyp and roared. Tiger noticed a dragon in the air and started trembling and kneeling as if he was in a presence of an emperor.
“What’s happening? Leo, stop shaking and attack that dragon! It isn’t as strong as it appears to be, I am absolutely sure that idiot just used up all his power aura to create a big but useless dragon to show off here.” Tiger didn’t move even after his master ordered it to attack, but a dragon was obviously very unhappy by Kyp's words and tapped tiger with 1 of his claws, tiger disintegrated instantly and Kyp coughed out few mouthfuls of blood. Kigs and Gal Zi were shocked when they noticed that their lord had not just lost a battle with his powerful tiger Leo, but Leo’s aura disappeared from Kyp’s body entirely as if Kyp lost his spirit animal partner.
“I am sorry about that stupid dragons actions, I really didn’t mean to destroy your connection with that cute tiger of yours. Here, let me give you another animal spirit as a compensation.” Strange man waved his arm and a black bear appeared, his aura emanated a strength of level 3 just like the tiger from before, but it was much stronger as if the tiger was a mere cub in front of a mighty big bear. He then pointed at Kyp and bear vanished into Kyp's forehead.
“Thank you, my lord, for showing such a grace toward this lowly one after I insulted you. May I know the name of an esteemed lord?” Kigs and Gal Zi were absolutely stunned when they saw how hard their lord was licking an ass of that strange man, but they knelt and bowed their heads toward strange man.
“Waow, you sure know how to survive, huh? You can call me “The Strongest”, kiddo. I am here to take in one person from your lowly world to become a disciple of mine.” All three demon hunters didn’t believe how arrogant was person in front of them to call himself like that, but couldn’t say anything since they knew they were a lot weaker than that person. After couple of seconds of thoughts, they all understood that becoming this person’s disciple is a huge deal and decided to try their luck.
“Don’t even think about saying whatever you have on your minds right now, I’m here not for any of you kids, I’m here to find the most suitable person to become my disciple and none of you meet my criteria” The Strongest cut them off before they even had a chance to speak their minds out.
“I need that kid with lifeless eyes you encountered earlier. He will become a perfect Demon Emperor after a few years of my teachings. I felt his despair, hatred and rage few days ago so I came to this world, he is most suited to become my new disciple and will inherit one of my strongest battle teachings.”