Plue held a hand to her head, the wings growing from it ruffling a little bit as she focused. After just a moment, she was done.

  “Okay, so, the monsters are moving a little weird. They moved out of their nesting place, but I can track them down,” Plue informed the siblings.

  “You must be really good at sensing, Plu,” Machua complimented. “I can’t tell anything down here.”

  “Mm. I’m cheating a little bit though.”

  “Cheating?” Machua questioned.

  “Yeah.”

  There was a bit of an awkward silence as Machua waited for Plue to explain further to no avail.

  “Um,” Plue suddenly turned back to them, “since we’re going to be fighting soon, we should do a review of our armaments and Aspects.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Machia stated.

  “Ooh, then I’ll go first!” Machua leapt forward.

  “As you both know, I have Major Dimension! I can make dimensions and put things in them and take them out whenever I want,” Machua announced.

  “For the record, I also have it as a Minor Aspect.”

  Plue commented, “It must be nice not to have to wear a dimensional storage ring everywhere.”

  “Uh-huh. It really is.”

  “Alright, back to the topic,” Machia said. “Introduce your weapon now, if you have any.”

  Machua leapt to attention and made a certain pose before taking out two certain weapons from her storage.

  “Tonfas? After all I did for you…” Machia wryly smiled as he raised an eyebrow.

  Machua was indeed sporting tonfas just like Lemuel. However, whereas Lemuel’s tonfas were bigger and built in a rectangular shape as if he was wielding steel beams, Machua’s were standard. They looked like long sticks with a handle jutting out from them partway down its length.

  “I couldn’t find the ones Lemuel uses, so I went with these instead.” Machua spun her tonfas, producing a tiny bit of wind.

  “You wouldn’t find them anywhere. Papa’s are custom. His are made for monster takedown, which is why they’re bigger. Normal tonfas are built for self-defence and safety against other humans, though papa’s good enough he can use his big ones for both,” explained Plue.

  “They’re a bit difficult to use because of that, but tonfas do happen to intersect with most martial arts. You should be fine,” said Machia.

  “Heh, of course I’ll be. I was gonna have Lemuel teach me a bit while on the job, but this’ll let me polish it up before that.”

  “Bet you picked them up purely because of that.”

  “Course!” Machua exclaimed.

  Machia sighed as he looked upon Machua, who was excitedly spinning her tonfas around. Plue was happily clapping for her.

  ‘How did I end up babysitting these kids?’

  Nevertheless, this was how it was. It was also a fact that Machua had decided to use tonfas instead of, well, nothing. The last time around, Machia had no idea Galas had chosen him, so he didn’t try out any new weapons. He figured he’d learn on the job, relying on the self-defence lessons he had undergone in school.

  “Machi, come to think of it, you said earlier Dimension is your Minor,” Machua said.

  “That’s right. My Major,” Machia walked over to a wall, “is this.”

  Slowly, Machia’s body turned transparent. Leaning back, he allowed his body to partially pass through the wall.

  “”Wow!”” Exclaimed both girls.

  “It’s called Ephemerality. I can phase through anything but not for long.”

  Machia walked back to the two, still phasing. He was met with the two thrusting their hands inside of him, trying to touch him.

  “Look, Plu! We’re fused!”

  Machua walked straight into Machua’s space and imitated his pose. The two siblings overlapped completely, making it impossible to tell where Machia started and Machua ended. He let out a slight sigh. Which Machua copied as well.

  “Alright, let’s continue,” Machia walked into an open space and phased back. “As for my weapons, I practice martial arts, so I don’t use any. If you really wanted to put one down, you could say my shoes.”

  Both siblings then turned to Plue expectantly, the suddenness making her a little flustered. Her wings flapped a little nervously as she prepared herself.

  ‘Okay, this is it,’ Plue thought.

  Plue took a deep breath and silently reassured herself everything was gonna go okay. “I use… this.”

  Plue rubbed the storage ring she wore on her finger and directed her mana towards her weapon. In an instant, her hands now held her preferred choice of weaponry. A large scythe.

  “Hoh.” Machia muttered.

  “Wow.” Machua immediately followed up. “Plu, you can really use something so big? It looks like it would swing you around!”

  “Y-yeah!” Plue brightened up. “It was a little hard to get used to, but I think it really helps with monster extermination. It helps me cut their heads off in one go.”

  Plue made a big swing that demonstrated she knew how to handle it. There was little to any wasted movement, the scythe sliced exactly as she wanted to. Even Machua, who was unfamiliar with it, was able to tell how good Plue was.

  “Okay, next is-“ Plue suddenly stopped herself from continuing.

  She looked as if she had just received some dire news and was trying to parse through it.

  “No time! I’ll explain on the way!”

  Plue dashed off with her scythe in tow. Machua looked to Machia for guidance who gestured for her to follow along. Follow the leader, he mouthed at her.

  “Plue, what’s wrong?” Machua asked as she caught up to Plue.

  Plue was much faster than Machua expected, and she deftly traversed any and all obstacles in the sewers. Any gates, hurdles, or obstacles, she easily traversed, almost like she was flying through them.

  “Some kids wandered down here! The monsters are heading their way!” Plue hurriedly informed.

  “Plue!” Machia suddenly made his presence known. Inexplicably, he was already ahead of them, even though neither saw him pass them.

  “Tell me where to go. With my Aspect, I can pass through every wall in the way,” Machia calmly explained as he ran right through a gate the other two had to climb.

  “Okay!“ Plue closed her eyes and focused. “Follow the cockroaches! I’ll make them move in the direction you need to go!”

  “Follow THE WHAT!?” Machua burst out.

  Machia nodded and quickly disappeared into a wall. Machua and Plue had to take a turn instead, and hope that he made it in time.

  Now that she knew, Machua began noticing that all around the sewers, insects were moving in the same direction they were. Cockroaches were steadily skittering and following them along. When old ones fell behind, new ones popped up to guide them.

  “Your Aspect controls cockroaches!?” Machua asked in between pants.

  She veered away from a particularly big cockroach. She wasn’t too scared of them, but they definitely made her jitter. Especially when there were this many around them.

  “I have Major Swarm. Auntie El says it facilitates effective mass communication,” Plue explained. “So I can talk to a lot of bugs at the same time.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Got it, got it.”

  Plue’s eyes suddenly widened. “Monsters around the corner! Get ready.”

  “Right!” Machua replied, readying her tonfas.

  The two swerved around the corner, ready to face their foes. There were a few lizard monsters roaming around the corridor, basic enemies that even a novice Hunter could defeat. However, their venomous tongue could prove deadly to an overconfident Hunter.

  *Shwing!*

  In just a few seconds, all of their heads separated from their necks, and gushes of blood spewed out from their throats. Each and every one of them fell limp before Machua knew what even happened.

  “Done,” Plue stated, now on the other side of the corridor. Her expression did not change in the slightest. It was as if this was nothing special to her.

  “Machu! Come on!” She yelled, before dashing off into the distance.

  “A-ah, right.”

  Machua gulped down her nervousness and made her way across the bloodstained floor. The sight itself didn’t frighten her too bad, but it was shocking to just have that happen in front of her. And especially by Plue of all people. The blood stains were a bit slippery, which made things worse. She tried to run across it as fast as she could.

  By the time Machua had made it across Plue had already disappeared. There were a few cockroaches signalling to her to move on, with a few of them forming up into arrows.

  “Catching up’s gonna be sooo hard…”

  ———————————————————————

  Swarm had a much wider reach than I expected. I had been traversing the sewers at maximum speed, hurtling through walls and floors, and wherever I went, Plue’s cockroaches were always there to guide the way.

  “Nearby,” I muttered, as I skidded on the ground.

  From the distance, I could hear a loud skittering sound, alongside the slithering of lizards. However, I also heard a weird gushing sound. Sort of like if a viscous liquid was trickling down a hall. I could hazard a guess as to what it was, but if I was correct, then what was happening down here was far stranger than some children walking into a monster-infested sewer.

  I dashed forth, following the sounds. I couldn’t hear any screams or anything, so it didn’t seem like the children had encountered the monsters. If they did, then hopefully they were only too scared to scream and not worse. Still, the sounds were concerning. From what I could tell, each of the 3 sounds came from the same place and were moving towards the same direction as well.

  I decided to move to cut off the direction of the sound instead of intercepting it directly. So, instead of following Plue’s directions, I rushed towards the direction the source of the sound was moving to.

  I jumped through a wall and emerged from it to a corridor. I could sense the wind coming from outside, this must have been close to the entrance the children used to get in.

  “Now, to find those kids,” I muttered.

  “Hih-!” I suddenly heard, followed by a smattering of footsteps. Light ones.

  “R-run!” A young voice yelled.

  I hurriedly rounded the corner where I heard it come from and came face to face with the source.

  Two trembling kids, a boy, and a girl, stared into my eyes. The boy had tears running down his face, and the girl was bravely standing in front of him. Both were very messy and suffered a few scrapes and bruises. It seemed like they were siblings.

  “Hey, you two. How’s it going?” I asked.

  “H-huh?”

  “Not good, it looks like. But don’t worry, I’m here to help get you outta here. I’m a Hunter, I was sent here to exterminate monsters, but my squadmate located you two down here.”

  “She’s lying!” The girl yelled nervously. “S-stay behind me, Ri.”

  “Nuh-uh, I’m not lying.” I folded my arms.

  I produced my Hunter license and tossed it at their feet. The girl slowly picked it up and read it.

  “See? I’m a real Hunter you know. And that means my job is to protect you two,” I comforted the two, slowly crouching down.

  The two children stared at me apprehensively. I gently looked back, waiting for them to answer.

  “…But that’s what the other guy said before he…” The boy began to say.

  *Cri-crack!*

  Suddenly, the ceiling above us broke open. A giant spider monster crashed into the corridor, separating me and the children. The children let out a scream as the spider turned to face them.

  Just as it was about to lunge at the kids, I slid under its body and smashed its head wide open with one blow. The spider stopped moving instantly.

  “I’m strong, see? You’ll be safe with me, that’s a Machua guarantee,” I promised them, looking back with a smile.

  “R-really?” The girl asked.

  “Of course! I’ll have you know I’m part of Lemuel’s squad,” I boasted.

  “L-Lemuel! He’s from Erebus Squad, right?” The boy’s eyes shot open.

  “Uh-huh. If you’re lucky, we’ll get to meet him. But before we can do that, we gotta get out of here. So, follow me, okay?”

  The two siblings shot each other a glance and then hurriedly nodded.

  I looked at the way I came from, past the dead spider. It was where the exit was located but I could sense that a horde of monsters were approaching us from that direction. With just me, it was a bad idea to even try heading there. I couldn’t risk the kids coming to harm.

  As I was lost in thought, one of the kids brushed up against me. I briefly glanced at them and spotted a bunch of ants forming a big arrow.

  “Nice. Alright, kids, let’s follow the ants. I’ll watch your back so run.”

  The kids and I ran, following the direction of the ants. However, it wasn’t long I sensed some monsters up ahead. I told the kids to get behind me so I could check it out.

  “Slimes? Working together with giant spiders and lizard monsters?” I muttered to myself, as I came face to face with all 3 types of monsters.

  Strangely, the monsters were not attacking each other. All 3 were common in these sewers, but since they were all monsters, they were competitors in the food chain. As such, there was no way they would be working in concierge, especially if their target was indeed these two children.

  The monster horde before us was waiting. Waiting for us to move and going against their natural instinct to devour us.

  “Tell me about that man you saw before.”

  “Uh, he told us he was a Hunter and could lead us out,” the boy said.

  “Yeah! But then he sic’d his monsters on us! We were running for so long!” The older sister shouted.

  “Did you do anything to him?”

  “U-uh, I picked this up. He looked like he wanted it,” the boy answered, raising up a small crystal.

  I beheld the crystal in his hand. It seemed to be a small magic crystal. On further inspection, the crystal had magic carved into it. This allowed it to seamlessly cast or enhance the magic that was carved. The engravings were not particularly powerful and seemed like a part of a greater whole. I wouldn’t be surprised if it slotted into a staff or piece of equipment. If the man specialised in controlling monsters, the magic crystal might have been important to extend his powers. That, or he simply wanted the money he could get by selling it.

  “Keep that safe,” I ordered.

  At this point, the man would have to be all in. He was already found trying to kill two kids and now he encountered a Hunter squad. There was no way we could bargain for our freedom. If he wanted to bargain, he’d show himself by now. He was aiming to kill us.

  “Hah…” I sighed.

  If I was alone, I could easily take care of this. If I was not in a sewer, I would simply take the kids to the skies. But no, I was in a very disadvantageous situation, without any backup for the moment. I had to make a decision fast, I was sure the monster horde was aiming to surround us.

  I took a deep breath. Anytime now.

  “HAAAAH!” A scream that I had only heard from my own mouth before appeared.

  From the back of the monster horde, a giant spider flew straight through the middle, crushing many of its lizard comrades.

  “Machi! Let’s clear this out! Plu’s secured an escape route!” She yelled.

  “Alright, kiddos, just follow my lead. We’re going to walk slowly into the horde, and I’ll protect you. You have to trust me.”

  The two siblings nodded their head.

  I looked back to the monster horde. Machua was wreaking havoc back there, striking as many monsters as she could with those tonfas of hers. As expected of her, she was able to take care of the monsters with ease. My training had paid off. She was even able to take care of the giant slimes easily. Most people would have issues identifying where their nerve cores were, but Machua struck true every time.

  Machua twisted her tonfas around so the longer ends were facing forward in order to strike the nerve cores deep in the slimes, but it wasn’t always possible with all the monsters around. She seemed to have an idea how to handle it but was a little hesitant.

  I decided to take care of the problem for her. I pointed my fingers forward, interlacing them in a specific hand-sign and intoned, “Chain Lightning.”

  Purple sparks flew from my fingertips before a white lightning bolt shot forth and struck a slime. It shot into its nerve core and electrocuted it to death. The lightning bolt bounced between slimes, totally frying most of them.

  I looked to the kids. The two of them, despite standing behind me, coughed from the mana I exuded. They gave me a nervous smile, as if telling me they were okay.

  I clicked my tongue. If I didn’t use the purple sparks, I wouldn’t have hurt them. It was decided then, I wasn’t going to use any spells in front of them.

  “Machu, be careful of shooting off any spells. The kids are fragile.”

  “You gotcha!” She responded, while crushing several monsters with her tonfas.

  I looked back at the children and evaluated their mana purity. The girl had 17% and the boy 14%. My mana purity was 49%, a far cry from what I used to have. But this was all I could manage with my mana purity being reset. Still, the disparity between our mana purity was large enough.

  If I wasn’t restraining my mana, it would kill them. A disparity of 10% would make them sick and a disparity of 20% would kill these children. It wouldn’t do so instantly but since our disparity was over 30%, they’d drop dead on the spot. Luckily enough, the monsters living here had on average a mana purity of 22%, so the children could survive being in their presence. But not mine. If they weren’t by me, I could have unleashed my mana and potentially scared them off, which might not have worked anyway if the control on them was strong enough.

  I slowly made my advance. The children huddled closely behind, and I wrapped them with my mana. Captain Galas pounded into me the finer points of filtering mana, so I was confident it could protect them without killing them. So long as I didn’t make any big movements or big attacks. Still, it felt like I was handling an egg. At any moment, the shell could break.

  I took a deep breath as we approached the monster horde. A lizard dashed at us with its jaws wide open, ready to clamp down. I slammed it shut with my foot, before kicking it aside. I say that, but its ribs blew wide open. It basically exploded.

  A giant spider came at us next, trying to pierce us with its legs. I grabbed it mid-stab and ripped it clean off, before stabbing it straight into its head. I kicked the corpse away before continuing.

  I had to be careful with the kids near me. I was only intercepting with my melee strikes and did not go on the offensive. If they weren’t here, I’d trample over all the monsters easily.

  A great number of monsters lunged at us, all aiming to kill. I intercepted each one, breaking through their ranks and killing them as effortlessly as I could kill a fly. Our advance was slow, but sure. Nothing could touch us. It was expected with such a wide mana disparity between us.

  “Machi!” Machua rushed up to us and stood with her tonfas in a defence position. She was covered almost entirely in gore.

  “Careful. Your mana’s too pure for these kids.”

  ‘43%? That was higher than last time. We had 41% a year ago, when I arrived here, and with a lot of training and battles, I managed to gain almost 10%. She should have stayed at 41%, though it’s not strange to naturally grow 2% in purity over time. Just a small change, I guess.’

  “Oh, got it,” she replied, restraining her mana.

  “You stay here and guard the kids, you’re wielding the defensive weapons after all. I’ll crush them,” I stated, and rushed forward without hearing Machua’s response.

  I stepped in front of a giant spider and my mana flared up. I stamped my foot onto the ground and got into a stance. Focusing my mana into my arm, I thrusted my palm. A textbook palm strike. But the result was anything but textbook.

  [External Palm Destruction]

  The opposite of Qimranut’s technique that destroyed my innards. Instead of focusing mana into a singular point and causing it to rapidly burst once impact was made, it was simply a palm thrust with mana imbued into it. The exact form the hand held guided the mana to burst forward with force.

  A massive shockwave burst out from the palm strike. The giant spider at its epicentre exploded, and every monster in its path either shattered or was blown away by the blow.

  “Path’s clear. Carry the kids and let’s get on out of here,” I turned back and said.

  Machua and the kids didn’t respond.

  “…Come on.”

  I could understand the kids being shocked, but why did Machua have to make such an incredulous expression too? You’d think she never watched a Hunter fight before. Geez, didn’t we spend so much time watching battle videos as children? Lemuel and Galas did things like this constantly.

  “Ah, right. Okay,” Machua quickly stored her tonfas and scooped the kids up in her arms.

  The two of us ran, following the ant guides Plue had left us, like before.

  “Where is Plue, anyhow?”

  “Finding the mastermind. She heard your conversation with the kids, so she said she’s gonna try and take him out if she can.”

  I nodded silently at that. As the ‘administrator’ of the test, it was up to her to get rid of unknowns. Our job was only to exterminate some monsters, but now we had gotten wrapped up in this as well.

  I dashed along, clearing the path of any monsters, while Machua followed behind me. Things were going well, but I couldn’t shake off this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “Uh, Machi, what was that attack before?” Machua suddenly asked.

  “Yeah! It looked like you just punched them but then all of them went woosh!” The girl said enthusiastically.

  “Y-yeah! It was cool.”

  “That’s just a palm thrust.”

  “What the hell kinda palm thrust does that!?” Machua retorted.

  “Long story short. You flow your mana into your palm at about the same moment you’re about to impact your opponent. It’s called a Mana Burst,” I explained.

  “Hm… I think I get it. Usually you envelop your hand in mana to protect it and enhance your attacks, but if you do it at the same time, then you get the force of the rushing mana and make a powerful attack right?”

  I smiled. Machua was good at picking things up without much explanation.

  “That’s right. The downside is that if you time it wrong you can really hurt your hand. You’re also not protecting your hand until you hit your opponent. It requires good timing and good awareness. But I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it before long.”

  “Heheh, okay.”

  “Oh, but you two should not try this at home. Got that?” I turned to the kids. They nodded back.

  I splattered another lizard and sped along to the next intersection. I looked both ways before looking at the ants on the walls. Something was wrong.

  “What’s up? Oh is it about it being ants instead of cockroaches? Plue didn’t wanna scare the kids.” Machua asked.

  “…Machu. Do you think Plue’s safe?”

  “Why?” Machua’s face grew worried.

  “The ants.” I pointed to them. “They’re just skittering in whatever direction. Plue’s lost control.”

  “Wha-? Then, what do you think happened?”

  “She encountered him.”

  Suddenly, as if right on schedule, we heard a powerful growl. The sounds of battle followed suit. The battle was occurring not too far away from us, but we could easily escape. It seemed both sides were focused on the battle.

  “Now, what I want to ask you is, what do you think we should do?”

  I stood and stared directly into Machua’s eyes. Her eyes darted away nervously, before coming to look at me again.

  “Why me?”

  “Without a captain or our administrator, We can’t afford to make a decision lightly. The two of us have to agree on it,” I emphasised. “Plue is nearby, and she’s encountered the mastermind, who seems to be commanding a powerful monster. She’s fighting him alone, but we have two kids with us.”

  Machua gulped. She closed her eyes, furiously thinking. She was worried, confused and scared all at once. I could tell what was going in through her thoughts, and while it may be harsh to make her choose, this was something she’d had to face sooner or later. I couldn’t make the choice for her and rob her of her opportunity to grow.

  “I.. I want to go help Plu. But, these kids come first, so I think we should probably get them out of here first.“

  “… Do you think Plu will lose?” I asked.

  “I-“ Machu’s voice jittered.

  “I asked. Do you think Plue will lose?”

  “… Maybe. No, I think. I-“ Machua grew silent, ”-I’m scared she will.”

  “In that case, I think we should go after Plue.”

  Machua’s face grew confused.

  “Hunters don’t leave their comrades behind. If they have the opportunity to save them, then they have to do all they can. It would be different if Plue expressly told us to leave her behind, or if it was someone we could trust to survive. But since we can’t, we’ll have to rescue her.”

  “What about the kids?”

  “D-don’t worry about us!” The girl piped up. Her brother nodded along.

  “You heard them. We’ll have to take them along, but I trust you can protect them. There’s 2 of us now, Machu. We’re not alone. We can protect the kids and save Plue.”

  “Right!” Machua’s face lightened up.

  “Let’s go!”