Hero's Return 18 Returning To The Village And An Unexpected Visitor

The ride home was a calm one, the hunters didn't encounter any major disruptions or problems during their travel. The most they would encounter were some wandering bandit groups that immediately ran as soon as they saw the ma.s.sive group of hunters, even when injured, a group of hunters this big would have powerful figures in the mix and bandits would usually not take the risk, no matter what they thought they had on them, no point in stealing something if you can't get away with the things you stole. Atop one of the wooden cart's was Sora, Seiju, Del, Kuo and Rez, they were talking about the mysterious woman and little girl that appeared, Sora was the last to be fully filled in on the little girl.

So: "What?"

K: "Yeah, she appeared then dropped our hunters, uninjured and everything, then left. The aura she held was below the other woman but it was definitely more powerful than anyone at the village..."

So: "Anyone, even the hunters above me?"

R: "You kidding me?"

So: "Hm?"

R: "There's no hunter 'above you' now, you're probably the strongest in the village if you were able to take that thing on alone."

So: "Hehe... you mean it?"

R: "Calm down, I'm just telling the truth."

D: "Whilst hard to admit as a hunter, it's true, as it is right now you are probably the strongest in the village."

Se: "I would agree."

K: "I got knocked out by that thing in one shot, to take it on by yourself, I agree aswell."

So: "You guys... thanks..."

R: "Why you thanking us for? We're just telling the truth."

Everyone started laughing.

So: "Well... I guess I'll spar with the master of the hunters to see just how strong I've gotten."

All: "What?!?!"

Everyone's laughter turned into shock.

R: "The master?!"

D: "Don't set your sights that far this early!"

Se: "I would heavily advise against that..."

K: "Bit high..."

So: "Hm? Why not?"

In the way rankings worked in any guild, group or organisation - the masters / leaders of the group would never be held in the rankings as they were usually seen in a ranking of their own. If they could fight anyone in the ranking below them they would be placed into a rank of their own, and if one was the master of the group this was usually the case. Whilst Sora had definitely reached the top of the ranks in terms of the hunters, he was still a ways of from the master of the hunters who was undoubtedly the strongest person in their small village.

So: "It's not like it's a life or death duel, I just wanna see how strong I've gotten after this."

R: "Well..."

K: "He is right..."

D: "Still... are you absolutely sure?"

So: "Yeah."

Se: "We won't argue against you then."

Sora smiled

So: "Well... back to the subject... those two..."

R: "Me and Del already tried to find some kind of explanation for them but everything just leads to a dead end, we need more information."

D: "One stopped us and one helped us, they are both strong but the one that blocked us was noticeably stronger, neither of them wanted to fight us and on of them even helped us, the things we have to work with are weird. They probably aren't enemies, there's too much of a power gap according to many of hunters we asked. If the little girl's power was immeasurable, then that woman's power is probably near the top of even the 100 Legends."

So: "The 100 Legends?!"

K: "I felt that both the power held by that little girl and the power held by that woman, what they're saying is the truth, we aren't even close to that level of power, I don't even think I'll get to a quarter of it in my lifetime, it's definitely on par with the 100 Legends."

So: "This is... This..."

Everyone knew Sora was a mssive fan of the 100 Legends, it's what he had based his lifestyle off of, whilst some of them were evil, he ignored those and looked towards the ones that were seen as heroic figures, he wanted to be like them if possible.

R: "Please, calm down Sora, it's just a theory..."

D: "A really believable one..."

Sora calmed down.

So: "Well... even if it is one of the... Legends..."

Sora sat in silence for a while.

So: "Yeah! even if it was a Legend. I heard they sometimes travel in groups, maybe those two are a team."

R: "Well yeah, but that still doesn't explain why they would help a small group of hunters like us."

Whilst the group of hunters they were in was far from small, for any Legend, even the weakest one, they could be crushed as easily as breathing, so to call them small wasn't an overexaggeration.

So: "Hmm... dead end..."

R: "Yeah... now you're fully caught up..."

D: "No matter what route we go we get to a dead end. If they show up again we'll definitely be able to conclude that they are doing something related to us somehow."

So: "Yeah..."

K: "Well, for now. All we can do is wait."

Everyone smiled.

D: "Guess so."

R: "Yeah."

The group looked into the distance and saw the village, they all couldn't help but let out sighs of relief, they had been out for over 3 days at this point, a hunt that should have a little bit over half a day let alone 3, the first day had been spent tracking the monster, twelve hours had been spent being attacked, retreating then leaving it to the most powerful figures, and the rest had been spent healing most of the injured hunters back to a suitable state then returning. Due to the fact that they had thought it would be a short hunt, they had not taken any form of communication they could use to send back messages to the village, so to the view of the village they had just lost connection with a big group of hunters, this left a huge amount of families worried, the master of the hunters had tried his best to calm them down but was worried himself.

The wooden carriage stopped and all the hunters stepped down from the carriages, many families had been standing outside the gates waiting for their sons and daughters - as soon as the hunters saw their families they immediately ran to them and entered back into the village, to Sora and the others who were fighting the monster on somewhat equal levels, it had just been a fight to remember, to the hunters who were much weaker than they were, it was an impossible threat they could do nothing against, it was a traumatising experience and whilst most of them were experienced, many of them were glad to be taken into the embrace of their families, they had survived.

Sora and his group of 5 jumped down from their carriage and began walking towards the gate whilst chatting to eachother.

?: "You five..."

So: "Hm?"

They could hear a voice from the top of the gate and as they all looked up they saw a figure charging towards the floor, the figure seemed to be moving at an extreme speed but they landed as soft as a feather, standing up they immediately did a light bow.

All: "Master"

They all stood up once again, it was not necessary to show respect to the master of a group if you were near a high ranking, but they did it anyway because they had immense respect for their master. The master was a woman that was about 6 feet tall, she had white hair that went down to her shoulders, she wore a blue outfit with black lines on the arms, waist and knees, she had green eyes and was extremely beautiful.

M: "Seriously, I told you. Call me Yuin, no need for that master talk."

D: "Sorry, we respect you too much to call you by your name."

Y: "Huuuuh? Wouldn't it be more respectful to acknowledge my request?"

R: "Nope."

Yuin was undoubtedly the strongest figure in the village, whilst not on the level of a Legend, she was definitely one of the stronger figures in Elia, the only reason she was not known was because she kept herself secluded in the village instead of going out and making a name for herself, she liked it there after all.

Y: "You guys really had me worried, when you didn't come back after a day I was already thinking about coming after you, but I held back the urge. After the second day I started preparing but I couldn't leave the village in this state, many families were standing outside my place and I had to take care of all of them individually... I couldn't catch a break, and now it comes to today, I was about to leave but I sensed your aura's coming towards here from far away. I almost died of happiness you know..."

Yuin was a very kind person, she had formed a bond with all of the higher ranking members of the hunters and had given a good first impression to most of the other hunters, she was a very charismatic person and was genuine in her care for her members.

So: "Hehe... sorry..."

D: "I'm really sorry!"

R: "Soz..."

Se: "I apologise."

K: "Real sorry."

They all bowed again. Yuin sighed.

Y: "Stooooop, you're embara.s.sing me, oh yeah, when I felt all your aura's, I sensed that one of you had gotten significantly stronger."

So: "Oh yeah! Master! Can yo-"

Y: "Yeah yeah, a week from now at the earliest, I'm busy right now. Go rest with your families first, they've been worried sick."

Sora looked up and smiled.

So: "Thank you!"

After saying this Sora immediately ran past the gate and to his home. Yuin said her goodbye's to each person individually as they all calmly walked through the gate, Seiju walked home silently alone, Kuo did the same whilst Del and Rez walked the same way as they argued about something. Yuin just watched them.

Y: "Jeez... those two never change."

Yuin watched the rest of the hunters reunite with their families untill all of them had entered the gate, the only one's standing outside now were her and the guards that were standing by. She looked out to the distance and her expression changed to one of slight sadness.

Y: "Maybe I'll have to let some of them go, for a better future for all of them..."

Suddenly, an extremely fast shadow jumped up the wall of the village and sped through the outer houses, quickly disappearing into the village.

Y: "Hm?"

Yuin immediately noticed this and cla.s.sified it as a danger, she jumped up the wall and chased it, as she chased it it noticed and began trying to lose her but she just kept getting closer and closer, eventually Yuin chased the shadow into a corner.

Y: "Huh? What are... awwwwwwwwwww..."

Y: "Really? well... sounds like him..."

Y: "Don't sense any hostile intent..."

Y: "Okay... he lives just down there."

Y: "Seeya."

The shadow scuttled away. Yuin sped back to the hunter's base.

Sora's Home [Night]

Sora stood outside his house, it had felt like ages since he had been here even though it had only been 3 days, alot had happened, he left his home for a hunt that lasted much longer than it should have, not only that, but the beast was much more powerful than anything he had ever fought, to make it worse he basically had to fight it alone. But in the end, he had won, and had gained a power completely unique to him that he had yet to make truly his own. Sora stood at the door, not moving - he felt a warm, soft texture on his arm, when he looked down he saw it was the head of Reiners, the wolf had been sleeping outside and had unintentionally snuck up on Sora, Sora smiled and crouched down to pet him.

So: "Let's go inside buddy."

Sora opened the door and was met by the immediate embrace of his mother, Selica had been waiting here for a while now, she had sensed her son's aura but wanted to surprise him, she didn't know he would stand there idly for so long. Rayn was sitting down on a chair distant from them with a neutral expression on his face, like his son, he was playful and whimsical.

R: "So where were YOU for three days huh?!"

S: "Rayn, calm down."

R: "What?!"

S: "I don't think it's gonna work..."

R: "Don't think what's going to work?!"

S: "..."

R: "..."

So: "What?"

S: "Um..."

R: "I don't know how to... tell people off... so... we rehea.r.s.ed... but..."

S: "I kinda messed it up with the whole hugging you thing."

So: "Were you worried about me?"

R: "You kidding me? course we were."

S: "The only difference is that we believed you'd come back, after all, believing in the other option would hurt us too much waiting."

R: "I sensed your aura from miles beyond the gate."

S: "So did I."

So: "Oh... sorry..."

R: "Hm, well if you're sorry that's fine."

Rayns immediately stood up and went upstairs to go to sleep.

So: "Huh? that quick?"

S: "Hehe... well... we act like this but we were genuinely worried you know... we've been up for 2 and a half days."

So: "Two and a half?! But that's... that's exactly after we were supposed to come back! You guys! don't tell me..."

S: "Yeah... we waited for you to come back and when you didn't we waited some more."

So: "I... I'm really sorry!!!"

S: "It's fine. Really. As long as your fine."

Selica kissed Sora on the forehead then left to go sleep aswell. Sora just stood down the stairs with Reiners at his side.

So: "Man... I really was reckless... I didn't even think about them..." He looked down at Reiners "Were you waiting too buddy?" Reiners let out a small whimper, Sora petted him "Gotta say sorry to you too huh... well... sorry, I guess..." Reiners let out a small bark before leaving into the back room to go to sleep. After seeing how even 'Reiners was tired, he also went up to his room and jumped onto his bed.

So: "This was a long 3 days..."

Sora began thinking about everything that had happened up to this point, it must all have been undoubtedly linked, the dream he had before the fight began, the conversation with Azu, the woman and the little girl at the level of Legends, not to mention that he was directly told he had to fight the Demonic King, a height so high he probably couldn't even see the middle from where he was standing.

So: "How am I gonna do this..."

Sora turned around in his bed, he had too much to think about and sleep was the furthest thing from what he wanted to do right now. He lay down staring into nothing as he thought about everything that had happened, after a while he let out a silent grunt of frustration as he held his head as he turned around.

So: "Aaaaaagh, there's nothing I can think of... why would there be two legends here? why was I chosen for this pow-"

Sora immediately stood up from his bed.

So: "Um..."

Looking at the window he saw a small cat that looked more like a kitten at a closer glance, it was also small enough to stand along one's arm, with small blue flames on it's paws, at the end of it's tail and some that seemed to form some kind of mane around it's neck. It sat there with no hostile intent and just stared at Sora, the aura that emanated from it was weaker than his own but definitely wasn't weak, it was most likely on the same level as either Del or Rez, it would be possible to defeat it if Del or Rez were to go one on one with it but it could not win if they teamed up, which is most likely what they would do.

So: "Um... h.e.l.lo?"

Sora slowly walked towards it, hoping not to scare it. It pounced towards him, Sora immediately reacted by throwing his hands up in front of his face, after closing his eyes for a while he saw that it was perfectly balanced on his arm.

So: "Huh? uhhh..."

He now stared at the kitten that emanated the aura of a tiger on his arm as it stared back at him, they were extremely close now, it scuttled up to his shoulder and stood there, it fit perfectly and did not restrict Sora's movements in any way.

So: "What the? what are you doing?"

The kitten jumped down and started rubbing up against Sora's leg, purring, before jumping onto his bed and going to sleep.

So: "Wha? Hey!!! That's mine!!!"

The kitten didn't react to his shouting, after realising that it wasn't working, he climbed onto his bed and manouvered around the kitten to go to sleep.

So: "What is going on..."

Sora went to sleep, with a kitten next to him that night, he couldn't get rid of it so he eventually gave up, after a couple more minutes of theorising and arriving at dead ends, he pa.s.sed out.