“That’s the big building you told me about? A hotel?.” He pointed at the deteriorating structure with a giant hole at the middle of it.

“Yeah!” Then the Demi turned and stared at him, “What’s a hotel?”

“You-” He stopped himself from completing the sentence. His hand painfully curled up into a fist before it relaxes, “A hotel is a place where people from other places temporary live in.”

“Why do people leave their home and come to temporarily live in a hotel?”

“Well...different people have different reasons for doing that. Anyhow, let’s not lose our focus now. Where did you hide your brother?” He gestured them to slow down their steps and slightly crouching.

“I hid him in the one..two..three..third floor! We were running down the stairs and we thought it couldn’t come to the third floor because it doesn’t have any big hole for it to come down. We saw a room with an open door and we ran towards it, but before I could go in, the monster tore open a hole and jumped down! It instantly saw me and I quickly closed the door so it wouldn’t see my brother. After that, I ran down and out of the building and just kept running until I met you!”

“I see…There’s a huge possibility that there might be a nest inside, would explain why it’s so adamant about killing you. This means it’s likely that there’s another monster living in it, maybe even with their offsprings.”

“But we don’t need to worry since Mister Kizo is here! You can just shoot the monster to death! Bang bang!” He made a gun blasting gesture.

“I’ll try not to. The fighting noises might attract other monsters. We’re lucky that it didn’t happen when I killed the one chasing you.”

“So this is a stealthy mission?”

“Yeah. Try to stay quiet. I rather not fight another monster today. Eli, go ahead and scout the area. We’ll be right behind you.”

“Okay hostie!” He sprinted towards the hotel, no sound made by his footsteps. The other two approached the hotel in a cautious manner. Before they enter the building, however, Kizo went to the side of the hotel and made the containers floating behind him attached itself to the wall. Then, he activated the containers’ camouflage, which made it almost impossible to discern the containers from the wall.

“Hostie, the path to the staircase is clear.” He informed Kizo telepathically.

“Roger that.” He then turned and whispered to Kellen, “Alright, the path is clear, let’s go.”

The Demi nodded and the both of them crept towards the staircase, slowly advancing up the floors after the tulpa gave confirmation that no danger was spotted.

“Alright, we’re on the third floor. Where’s your brother?” He asked in a soft volume. Kellen gestured Kizo to follow him for a meter or so before pointing to a door room.

“Check the upper floors and see if there’s another monster.”

“Roger that!”

When they arrived in front of the door, “I’ll go in first, mister. My brother can be easily scared.” An “OK” hand gesture emote appeared. The boy slowly opened the door and immediately, the sound of frantic footsteps could be heard.

“Allan! It’s me! Your brother! I came back to save you!” He tried to keep his voice down as much as possible.

“Kellen? You’re back!” An even smaller boy darted across the room and hugged him tightly. He began sobbing quietly, “I-I thought you were killed by the monster! I-I thought when you didn’t come back after I couldn’t hear the monster, it had eaten you!”

“I won’t die that easily Allan. Didn’t I promise you? I’ll always protect you!” He then kissed his brother’s cheek.

“B-but how did you escape the monster?” Tears on the little boy’s cheek were wiped away.

“It’s all thanks to mister Kizo! He’s waiting outside right now. He killed the monster with his gun! It was so cool! But I didn’t actually see him do that because I was hiding...” Suddenly, there were three knocks on the wall.

“Can I come in now?”

“Oh! Yes! Of course! Come in Mister Kizo!”

The man walked lightly into the room and closed the door. He saw Kellen and another smaller rabbit Demi child hiding behind his back.

“This is my brother, Allan! Say hello Allan.” He nudged.

“H-hello mister Kizo. Thank you for saving Kellen.” Said the Demi before he timidly returned to his brother’s back.

“Hi Allan, and you’re welcome,” He crouched down, “Anyway, Eli found the nest a few floors up and there are some baby monsters there, but no sign of the other adult monster. We don’t know when it’ll come back, but let’s not stay here and find out. Where can we find your parents?”

“Mama and papa told us to meet at a building filled with books if we were separated.” Said Allan.

“A bookstore? Which direction?” Both boys pointed in the direction opposite of where Kizo and Kellen came from.

“I see. Okay, let’s go then. Stay close to me.” The boys nodded and followed Kizo out of the room and towards the staircase, where Eli was waiting for them.

“That’s Eli Allan! He’s a magic boy! He is mister Kizo’s ‘friend’.”

“Hello! Nice to meet you, Allan.” Eli was the last in line, guarding the party’s back.

“H-hello Eli.” He waved timidly.

“Guys, don’t slow down. We don’t want to be here when the mamma monster comes back.” After his warning, everyone zipped their mouths tight and exited the building as fast as they could. Kizo then went to the side of the hotel and detached the containers.

“This way right? How far away are we from the buildings with lots of books?”

“About ten minutes!”

“Noted. Eli, watch our backs. Let’s go.” He started running at a moderate speed towards their destination. The rest picked up the pace without much problem.

As they approached the bookstore, Kizo noticed a few hints here and there indicating it is most certainly that the other monster headed towards the same direction as them. It was clear what most likely had happened, but he didn’t want to tell the brothers his theory.

Luckily, there was no sign of a monster when they finally arrived at the bookstore. They trodded carefully into the building. Shards of glass and destroyed books covered a large part of the floor.

“Mom! Dad! Are you here?!” Kellen shouted.

“Momma! Papa! We’re here!”

Ruffling noises could be immediately heard at the other end of the structure. Kizo alertly aimed his rifle towards the door as the knob started to turn. To everyone’s relief, an adult rabbit Demi appeared from behind the door. Kizo aimed down his gun and the two brothers sprinted towards their father. Their mother also came out and all of them hugged each other tightly.

Kizo felt his chest slightly tightened, memories of the past flooded his mind. When Eli patted his back, only then he realized both his hands were shaking. He shook away his thoughts and advanced towards the family.

The father noticed his children’s saviour, stood up, and bowed formally, “Thank you for saving my children. I am forever in your debt.”

Kizo resisted the urge to crack a joke and just uttered, “You’re welcome.”

“Dear...” The mother spoke. There was a sense of urgency in her voice.

The father stood right up again, “I’m sorry, traveller, but it will be best if we leave this place as fast as possible. There was a monster chasing us, but something else appeared and--”

BWOOMMM

A deafening crash shook everyone to their core. Kizo instantly darted to the front door to see the same four-legged beast fighting with a wyrm of its size. Both monsters were tumbling and crashing into nearby buildings as they wrestle with each other.

“Alright, we need to move to now!” He power-walked back to the family and urged them to get up and follow him.

“There are no other exits--”

“I got that covered, so just follow me. And don’t mind the blonde kid, he’s magic and is more than capable to fight.” Kizo brushed past them and walked straight into the room behind the door. The parents just stared at Eli as he waved at them before entering the room as well.

Kizo quickly found a part of the wall with nothing attached to it and proceeded to place a black hemisphere, taken from his bag, on the wall, a few centimeters higher than him. The device opened up four small ports and four smaller hemispheres with legs crawled out before positioning themselves in a way that they formed a large rectangle the size of a door. He pressed a button on the device and the concrete within the invisible border lines vanished, allowing anything to pass through.

“Eli, you take the front. I’ll guard the rear. You know which protocol.” He turned to the family, “All of you! Follow Eli, he’ll guide you all to somewhere safe while I watch your backs. Go!” The family panically nodded and followed close behind the tulpa. After all of them made it out, Kizo grabbed the device inside the building and pushed it out to his side along the surface of the wall and pressed the button again. The concrete materialized back and the small hemispheres crawled back into their ports.

Just before he put the device back to his backpack, he heard a scream and immediately turned around.

The monster that was brought down by Kizo’s bullets was alive, it’s remaining eye wrathfully locked on the family.

“RUN BACK HERE! RUN!!”

He stuck the device back at the wall again and began firing his weapon at the vengeful beast.

Eli, who was the closest to the beast, materialized a giant sword, and flung it to the right without releasing the handle. This caused the sword to split it into many individual parts and revealed a toothy spine underneath the blade. He forcefully slashed upward, giving the beast a massive cut across its face.

The beast painfully dodged back, allowing more time for the family to run back to the bookstore.

“That damn thing must’ve had regenerative abilities!” He then fired a grenade shell at the beast the moment he finished attaching the grenade launcher underbarrel to his rifle. The beast dodged, causing the shell to miss and landed on the ground beside it. The explosion temporarily fazed the beast.

“Eli, keep that fucker company. I’m going to call for backup.” He then threw another device onto the ground before retreating back to the store.

“Roger!” Eli leaped into the air and forcefully swung his sword once more, slashing the back of the beast. However, the cut wasn’t deep. The beast slapped its paw towards Eli and missed. The tulpa gracefully landed on its paw for a split second before backflipping away from the beast and hit the ground unharmed.

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“Let’s play, kitty~” He taunted before sprinting towards the monster once more.

Back at the bookstore...

Kizo quickly removed the dematerialization device and shove it into his bag.

“What do we do now?! There’s no way we can escape!” The father exclaimed.

The family screamed as the two massive beasts in front momentarily crashed into the store before moving again.

“From now on, don’t disturb me. I will be calling backup.” He removed a heavily modified walky-talky and switched it on.

“V! Are you there?! Answer me!” The reply was nothing but static buzz.

“V! Do you copy?!” Nothing but static buzz again.

“V, I swear to god if you are ignoring me I will walk back to Sanctuary and personally kick your arse! Answer me goddammit!” Still static buzz.

Kizo furiously punched the wall, carving a fist-sized hole at the concrete.

“Dude, I was just taking a piss. No need to shout.” A voice finally came through the device.

“So, what’s--”

“V, listen very carefully. I want you to immediately summon an A rank squad and have them teleport to my location through the teleporter I placed about one meter away from me ASAP. I have a family of four, civilians, at my side. There are two B+ rank beasts fighting with each other in front of the building I’m currently occupying and another one fighting Eli behind the building. I don’t care if that assface denies my request, but if that squad doesn’t come through in less than 8 minutes we’re all dead! Do you copy?!”

“Copy. The squad will be there in five.” He slotted the walky-talky back into his belt and ushered the family to exit the room.

“Will help get here in time?” The mother asked with grave concern.

“They will ma’am.” They moved to behind the counter, now two walls behind the beast fighting Eli. Kizo swiftly set his backpack down, grabbed a book out, opened and ripped out a page, and placed it down on the ground. He poked a hole at the center of the ripped page and suddenly, an almost transparent green hemisphere formed around them. He attached the containers to underneath the counter and readied his weapon.

“Is this….magic?”

“It is a shield ward. It’s strong enough to withstand at least 7 standard grenade explosions. Careful not to slip out of the ward, or you won’t be able to get back in.”

Meanwhile, both the beast and the tulpa were equally exhausted from their battle, now a few meters away from each other. Eli glanced at the special watch on his wrist and decided to finish the monster with his final attack. He murmured a few words under his breath and his contracted sword began to glow. He jumped as high as he could, uttered another word and practically flew towards the beast’s face like a meteorite.

Unfortunately, the nimble beast dodged the attack slightly which caused Eli to miss. However, his blade still pierced all the way through its neck, blood gushing out from the wound. Even with that injury, the attack didn’t take down the beast. On the contrary, the monster somehow forcefully tightened up its wound, stopping the flow of its blood. It also ensure Eli’s blade could not be pulled out.

The beast grinned creepily at Eli, who was trying to pull his sword back out, and charged towards the bookstore.

“Hostie, the monster is going to crash into the building now!!”

Kizo instinctively turned towards the where he thought the beast would strike and charged up his piercing shot. Mere moments later, the beast assaulted the concrete wall and destroyed it completely. Eli managed to twist his sword, causing the beast to cry out loudly and then slapped Eli away, sending him flying into a nearby building.

The beast stood up on its hind legs and plunged his heavy body down onto the ceiling. Concrete collapsed on the ward, causing the family to scream in terror. Kizo took his shot when he found an opening among the concrete rubble. The bullet struck through its cheek, causing it to involuntarily stepped back.

However, the beast held back its pain and thrust down its claws at the ward. Kizo tried to think of any other way to push back the beast from destroying the ward, but it was moving too fast. The family closed their eyes in dread, waiting for their inevitable doom.

Right before the final moment, the beast was forcefully pushed towards the side, as if someone with incredible strength punched it away. It was then when Kizo noticed the teleporter was finally activated and the squad he requested was, at last, standing a few meters in front of him.

“What took you guys so long! Waiting for a dramatic entrance?!” He trudged towards them, trying to figure out which squad came to their rescue.

“You okay, robotman?” A tall, buff looking female orc turned to the soldier as he approached her.

“Joan? I thought you lead the fastest response squad.” They powerfully slapped and shook each others’ hands.

“Klein wasn’t thrilled to fulfill your request for backup. How are the civilians?”

“Damn assface. The civilians are fine. All rabbit Demis. Two kids, two parents. A wyrm and what seems to be a chimera subvariant are currently fighting at the main street. The chimera’s partner is lying over there. They also seem to have moderate regenerative abilities.” He pointed at the beast trying to get up to its feet.

“He’s just trying to do his job. Alright, Solas!” She clapped her hands, “Here’s what we’ve gotta do...”

Kizo marched back to the family, “Where do you guys live?”

“We live at a settlement around two kilometers away. We came here with our car, but I parked it on the street.”

“So it’s either pushing the battle between the two monsters away or kill them both…”

“Robotman! Where do the civilians live?!” Two of the squad members marched towards the growling monster while Eli staggered back to his host.

“Two kilometers away! Their vehicle is parked on the street!” Kizo stepped forward and hugged Eli as he collapsed.

“You can go back to the wonderland and rest.” Eli nodded and slowly dissipated away until his body was gone. His sword dematerialized along with him.

“Then we’ll distract the two monsters away and you take the civs back to their vehicle and get them safely back home!”

“Roger!” He turned to the family, “Tear the paper apart, it’ll release the ward.” He swiftly ran back to the teleporter.

“I’ll call you once I’ve reached the settlement.” He disabled the teleporter before shoving it into his backpack.

“Instructor Kizo.” A teenage elf with orange hair nodded at the soldier. He quickly patted the teenager’s back twice, “We can do some catching up after we’re all at the settlement, Hoshi,” Kizo went back in and get his containers to follow him again.

“Let’s go!” Joan and the remaining two squad members sprint through the bookstore, exiting to the streets and joined into the battle between the two monsters.

“What does your car looked like?”

“It’s a red sedan.” With that description, Kizo quickly spotted the vehicle in question and sneakily guided the family to the car. At a distance, all of them could see 3 humanoid figures join in the battle between the two angry monsters.

Since Kizo’s containers couldn’t fit into the car, he attached them onto the roof. He called shotgun as all of them entered the car. The car started successfully despite its worn-out appearance, but the engine’s revving sound was quite loud. Kizo hoped it won’t attract any other monsters as the car carried its passengers to their destination.

He sighed in relief when the danger was completely out of sight.

“Mister Kizo, is it?” The father reached out his hand towards Kizo, “I haven’t properly introduced myself, my name is--”

“I would appreciate it if you focus your attention on the road.” He remarked coldly.

“Right! Right.” The father tightly gripped the steering wheel.

“A question I would like to ask. Why did you two bring your kids to such a dangerous place searching for food? All of you could’ve died had I not came across your son.”

“We were...running short on food, and everything within a 2-kilometer radius has been looted clean. We simply had no choice. And the settlement we mentioned? The place doesn’t really have guards, just people living together. We only had a few rules making sure no one steal from or kill each other. Other than that, it’s every man and woman for themselves. We didn’t want to take the risk that the settlement could not protect our children.”

“Where’s your weapon then?”

“We ran out of bullets and had to throw them away or risk being too slow to escape.”

Kizo wanted to lecture them about not discarding their weapons regardless of the circumstances but he just groaned.

“Why was the Chimera so persistent on chasing you four? As far as I know, they don’t really pursue anything smaller than three cows stacked on each other to fill their bellies. Did you threatened its young or something?”

“We did fire some shots near their ‘nest’ after the monsters discovered us.”

“And the wyrm? Where did it come from?”

Right at that moment, they could hear a roaring sound originating behind them. Kizo turned his head back and a wrathful wyrm came into all of their vision, slithering towards them at full speed.

“Did. You. Guys. Steal. Its. Egg?” He minced his words, stifling his anger.

“I told you we shouldn't have taken that egg!” The mother turned her backpack to the front and opened it up, revealing a giant egg with a slightly cracked shell.

“I’m not a wyrm expert! I didn’t know it was its egg, and it’s not like we can be picky about what we food we came across!”

“Everyone, shut up!”

The car immediately became silent.

“Just let me handle this. Evan, you’re up.” He knocked the roof.

“Evan? Who’s Evan?”

“Someone that’s going to save us.”

A brunette child with the same stature as Eli slowly materialized on the roof with a unique bow and a quiver full of arrows hanging on his back. There were faint glows beneath his boots, attaching himself to the roof. He removed an arrow etched with inscriptions and drew the bow’s string with it. The wyrm was only a few meters away before Evan released the arrow trained on its head.

When the arrow pierced through the wyrm’s thick skin, a powerful shockwave was discharged by the arrow and it blew the monster’s head apart. The corpse thumped onto the ground as Evan dematerialized.

“Please keep in mind that you are not to pick up anything you don’t fully understand in your next scavenging. Is that clear?”

“Yessir.” The father gulped. All of them remained quiet for the rest of the journey back.

They eventually arrived at a football stadium with a closed roof. The stadium had some structural damage, but overall, it looked intact. There were makeshift walls set up at each of the stadium’s entry, but no guards to be seen.

“Now that all of you have safely arrived at your home, it’s time for us to part ways,” Kizo announced once they all exited the vehicle.

“What‽ Why‽” Kellen loudly asked, his sadness obviously shown on his face.

“I’m a wanderer, Kellen. I don’t stay and mingle with every people or community I come across. I helped you because it was a right thing to do, and my obligation ends when all of you are safe.”

“But! But!”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for awhile Mister Kizo? Don’t you need rest and a safe place to tend your wounds?” The father hugged Kellen back, preventing his child from clinging to the soldier.

“I am, for the most part, unharmed. And please don’t try to repay me either. I am very self-sufficient.”

“....alright then. Kids, say goodbye to Mister Kizo.”

Kellen hugged Kizo tightly, “Goodbye Mister Kizo. Thank you for saving us. We’ll never forget it.”

Allan joined the hug too, “Bye bye, Mister Kizo. Thanks for saving us.”

Kizo patted their heads, “You’re welcome. And goodbye.”

“Oh! Take this Mister Kizo, so you won’t forget about us.” He handed a shiny card to his saviour. The word “Pokemon” was printed in large letters on the back.

A genuine, warm smile emerged on Kizo’s face as he stared nostalgically at the card, “I’ll forever treasure it. Thank you, Kellen. I’ll never forget you.”

Kellen smiled happily. The brothers then went back to their parents.

“May the gods protect you on your journey.” The mother blessed. Kizo slightly bowed.

“Ah, there is one more thing I should tell you all.”

“What is it Mister Kizo?”

“The backup I called, they are in an organization called Osiris. Their goal is to rebuild the world. In a few days, there will be more of them visiting your settlement to provide help among other things. When they do arrive, please tell your fellow settlers that they bear no ill will.”

“I understand. Good luck on your journey Mister Kizo.”

“You all stay safe too.” With that, the family walked back to their home.

Evan materialized and stood beside Kizo while he reactivated his containers, “What is our next step, hostie?”

“We’ll call Joan and her squad here, do some talking, then we’re back on the road.” He removed his walkie-talkie, changed the frequency on the device, and activates it.

“Joan, you there?”

“I trust you took care of the wyrm without any problems?”

“You could’ve given me a heads up.”

“We were occupied. Plus, we severely weakened it, won’t take much for you to kill it. Why did the wyrm suddenly made you guys its target?”

“The family stole its egg without knowing it.”

“Hmph, not surprised. Anyhow, where’s the settlement?”

“Just walk straight towards the direction we took off. There’s a few turns here and there, but that won’t be a problem when you’re close enough to see a big ass stadium. The settlement is in there.”

“Roger that. ETA 20 minutes.”

“Copy that.” He switched off his walkie-talkie and began ambling around the area after he carefully stored the card at a safe place. After some time, he decided to sit down and started reorganizing his backpack.

“Yo, robotman.” Kizo zipped up his bag and stood up, staring at the squad leader.

“You killed the chimeras?”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t want these creatures hanging around. It’s always a pain in the ass to separate their heads from the neck. It got a nest nearby?”

“It’s inside a hotel a few hundred meters horizontally behind the bookstore.”

“Guess we’ll need to send an exterminator team to deal with that,” She looked down on the bag, “Take out your teleporter. Need to go back to HQ and get another one.”

“You didn’t bring your own?” He kneeled down, removed the teleporter from his bag and placed it on the ground a little further away from them.

“Fastest response team remember? We only grabbed the essentials if we want to maintain that title.” She kneeled down, pressed a few buttons on the protected keypad, and a portal opened once she hit enter.

“All of you go back to the meeting room and help me fill in the reports. Hoshi, go grab another teleporter.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The rest of the squad replied in unison and proceed to walk into the portal.

Once all of them were out of sight, Joan hugged Kizo tightly.

“Why did you have to leave?”

“Why do you miss me so much? I thought you couldn’t care even if I lose an arm and a leg.” He patted her back. She took a step back and frivolously glared at him.

“Well, for starters, the only person who can have nerdy conversations with me is gone. My off-times are now significantly more boring.”

“And the second reason?” A ‘raised eyebrow’ emote appeared.

“You didn’t say goodbye when you left. A letter is not considered as a goodbye.”

“You would have tied me in the basement until I change my mind otherwise.”

She chuckled, “True. Anyway, you got anything that can appease Klein’s frustration?”

“We found a new settlement, so that’s definitely going to make him happy. More people for him to take care of, and he loves taking care of people, doesn’t he?”

“Har, har.”

“I also found a mostly unsalvaged supermarket warehouse at this coordinate.” He removed his smartphone and showed her the coordinates on the old world map. She noted down the coordinates with her own modified smartphone.

“Not sure if this will be enough, but at least he can’t complain that you wasted our resources again.”

“How’s everyone back at Sanctuary?”

“Most of them are still alive and kicking. Two got married, and one had a child. Steven’s child, a girl, if you’re wondering.”

“I see. What about you? Got a partner yet?”

“Nah, I don’t have time to invest in a serious relationship yet. But I have a few options I had considered when the time comes.”

“Wanna tell me who do you have in mind?”

“It’s much more fun to let you guess.”

The elf teenager came back from the portal with a similar but larger teleporter. Joan kneeled back down again and deactivates Kizo’s teleporter and returned it to him.

“I’ll set up the teleporter a little closer to the settlement. Don’t you go anywhere yet Kizo! I’ll get you some supplies after teleporter is up and running.” She sprinted towards the stadium and installed the teleporter close to the walls.

“How have you been, instructor Kizo!” Hoshi grinned wrapped his arm around Kizo’s shoulder.

“You can drop the ‘instructor’, Hoshi.” He messed with the elf’s hair, a grinning emoticon appeared.

“But I want to show you my utmost respect, sir!” He purposely deepened his voice and gave him a serious salute.

“You cheeky little...” He snickered.

The elf lets go of his ‘serious’ persona, “It has been a rather boring six months since you left, instructor. A lot of people still misses you, including General Klein, but mostly because he thinks you still owe him something.”

“I won’t change my mind, Hoshi.”

“I know, I’m just saying the days when you’re still with us showing us your porn collection are far more interesting than these days.” Kizo attempted to slap Hoshi’s back failed when he leaped away while giggling.

“You should be a comedian instead ya bastard!” He just can’t stop grinning when he’s around his favourite pupil.

“But then I won’t be able to become the most powerful hero and get all the girlz~”

“Still thinking about girls--” A tin can zipped through the air and Kizo catches it with pinpoint accuracy without looking at it, “--eh?”

“Catch.” Joan threw a big pouch to him and approached the two of them as he caught it perfectly.

“Got some ammo and ration in there. Thought you might miss some cold soda so I grabbed one for you.” She pointed at the can in his hand.

“We need to get going, Klein’s been demanding a report from me. Do call every one once in a while, robotman.” She hugged him again.

“I will, she-hulk.” A winking emoticon appeared.

“See you, instructor. Don’t forget to fap often.” He gave his pupil a long, hard squeeze before letting go.

“Don’t die.” She said before leading her squad member back to the teleporter.

“You too.”

He watched them sauntered back to the teleporter and vanished into the portal. He then sorted his newly acquired resources into its respective containers. After that, he opened up the can and drank the refreshing beverage.

“Let’s go, Evan.” The wanderer held his tulpa’s hand and continued his journey into the unknown.