Fatty's shout made the zombie hounds alert.

Upon Hearing the taunting voice, all the nearby hounds became angry and shifting their viscious glare to fatty.  Immidiately,  All the zombie hounds near fatty attacked him. 

Seizing the moment, I quickly activates my Ki focusing them in the soles of my feet. I dashed towads the backline. With the help of the charge, I gathered enough force to knock away the zombie hound that was attacking Rika. 

"HOOOORRYAAAAA! "

Seeing one of them was send flying, another zombie hound howled and jumped straight at me. 

I caught a glimpse of its razor-sharp teeth as it comes at me with its mouth wide open before defending myself by shoving my arms protected by my metal armband straight to its mouth.

"Gah! "

Its heavier than I thought. 

Even with its sharp fang biting my arm and taking its attack directly,  I still managed to stop it from gaining an advantage.

"SNAP OUT OF IT! THE LONGER YOU STAND THERE, THE MORE LIKELY WE WILL BE KILLED" I shouted to the top of my lungs, alarming edgar  and mark to ready there weapons. 

I exerted full force to my arm hurling away the zombie hound.  

"KAHAAAAKK! 

The hound shrieked in pain as it slammed heavily on the ground.

"Rika! Pull yourself together!  I know it's scary but  you need to deal with it!" I was just stating the truth even though its a bit harsh telling a girl to deal with it. There was no time giving flowery words. 

"Y-yes!"

I was in the process of encouraging Rika to stand up when I saw fatty was still dealing with seven zombie hounds.

"Damn this Mother fuckers" fatty cursed as he struggles to shake off the zombie hounds. 

 

It's was really amazing seeing that he was tanking those beast without even taking any damage but at the same time he also didn't deal any damage at all with that small hammer of his. He just looked like a kid being beaten by seven dogs.

"Mark, Edgar assist Fatty!"

"Got that!" Edgar

"Okay" Mark

Edgar readied his bow and arrow while Mark started to chant.

"Rika,  Cast a Light Wisp to me"

"Okay!" Rika swept her tears and stood up, then she held her staff high and started chanting. 

Yellowish white hue started to gather in the tip of her staff constructing a ball of light. As She continued to to chant, the ball became bigger and bigger. 

"Light Release Magic: Heal and Guide thee!  Light Wisp!" The Ball of light travelled in a very fast motion and attached itself to me. 

When the light touched me,  I felt a very warm energy enveloping my body.  It was very comfortable and calming. 

Sensing one of the zombie hound charging, I wasted  no time bringing my sword into position. 

"HYAAAAH!"

Stealing the first blow with the help of the downward momentum of the sword, I cut the zombie hound's head with ease. 

I feel no resistance at all, it's like I was cutting through air. 

blood splurted from the decapitated body before it turned to ash leaving a small sized crystal w/c was known as the beast core.

'so this is the effect of light magic to demonic beast, awesome! '

"Great! One down!" I once again brandished my sword into position. 

"Okay! This time let's try all the skills I learned from Old man ornn!" 

An Arc of silver light and another zombie hound fell motionless on the floor. Everytime I swing my sword another one will turn to ash. 

"Tripple Thust!"

Another one fell

That was the fifth one that I killed.  The longer the battle goes on,  I can feel that the accuracy of my sword  strikes was increasing.

Everything went perfectly. Fatty and I were tanking the remaining zombie hounds while Mark and Edgar were dealing damage from afar, and Rika was doing the support.

One by one, the zombie hounds turned into nothing but ashes. 

Edgar's Piercing arrow was amazing when he took down the last batch, it killed three zombie hound in one shot. 

After a whole day of hunting, we decided to stop because the sun was starting to set.

---------------------->>>>

The Canyon is getting darker and colder.

The sun has already set and the silvery moon was already waving in the sky.

This was our first night in the wild. It was kind of exciting like those camping jamboree in Boyscout. 

At night, the canyon was totally dark and dangerous. The only light were the heavenly bodies in the night sky and the blazing fire that we set.

In night time, demon beast were very active. We can even feel the furious looks of the beast wanting to devour as alive but even if they want to, the only thing they can do is watch because we are protected by a magic tool that cast a barrier made of light magic.

We were sitting around the fire eating the first set of meal today. On the menu was a large piece of bread, a chunk of meat and a bottle of water. Though it was very delicious, it felt like it was missing something. 

"I miss eating rice!" Fatty sighed as he lifelessly took a big bite on the bread. Hearing Fatty's complain,  We all gave a big sigh and start eating. 

It was a very long time since the last time we ate rice.  As a Filipino,  Rice was irreplaceable. For us rice was not a side dish, Rice was always the main course! 

"Maybe there are someone selling rice on the town. Why not we try to go there.  We haven't been to the town yet, Right? " Rika 

"We'll I would love to go! But remember the king told us not to go to town until we finished our training?" Edgar

"Should we try sneaking out?" Fatty

"I think that's a bad idea, It might  become an issue. You see, the king is a very good person but how about the other nobles. Instructor Eve once said that the King's faction is responsible to us so we breaking the rules in the castle might become troublesome to the king." Mark

"In any world,  Politics is really a pain in the ass" Fatty said and Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well if that's the case, we can just ask instructor Eve maybe she can make an exemption" I suggested.

They looked at each other and nodded.

"We are relying on you!" they said in unison. 

they were looking at me with their eyes sparkling in anticipation.

I was confused. 

"No way!  It should be We not Me? WE should ask together" I immediately denied their suggestion and emphasize the word WE. 

"Don't be like that, Brother, We already notice that Intructor Eve has the hots for you" Fatty

What the fucking fuck was this idiot saying and dont dare nod you idiots. 

"Dont let anyone hear that idiotic nonsense. Instructor Eve and I has a very pure relationship and it is called teacher-student relationship, You got that fatty!?" i quickly denied any accusation that these Fat bellied pig said. 

"Pweh!! You Womanizing Fuck!" fatty made a spitting sound while looking at me in disgust. I didn't quite hear all of it  but I'm sure he was cursing me. 

"Are you cursing me?"

"of course not. By the way how many beast cores did we gather today?" Fatty asked, quickly but effectively changing the topic. 

"Oh! we got 20 beast cores." Rika answered. 

"That's quite a lot for our First time,  Well It's thanks to Andre" Edgar. 

I was flabbergasted.

"of course not. It's thanks to the group we gather that much" I said while feeling somewhat embarrass. 

"No it's all thanks to you! because of you we were able to move.  If you are not there we might not know what happened to us" Rika seconded while Mark and Fatty in agreement.

It was  very heart warming having a group that can appreciate you. 

"By the way Andre,  Your moves back then It was really amazing. Your swordmanship,  you are not using it as a skill, it was like you are skillfully using it. How did you do that?" Mark

"We'll it's all thanks to the teaching of the veteran soldiers in the castle.  If you want to you can join me after we come back? " Andre

"That's a good Idea, I am planning to use a short sword for my melee combat" Edgar

"If its okay, I also want to learn combat moves for staff." Mark

"Me too! I dont want to be protected everytime" Rika

"Well it sounds tiring, but if there's anything for my hammer then I will also join"  Fatty

"Well then after we go back,  Lets go and have some fun!!" I yelled and offered a toast. 

"HOOOOOWWWWWOOOW" They cried in unison and tap their respective bottles to mine. 

It was really nice having friends, you can share joy and hardship. Friends you can smile with. 

Suddenly,  I remembered everytime Rei was on my side calling my name. 

'I wish Rei was here'

Not having Rei by my side is somewhat lonely.

I tried to brush all the lingering thoughts while looking to the glamouring empty dark sky.