"Mother, who is that?" A boy tugged at his mother's sleeve and asked, pointing at the man with a hideous scar jogging with a blue tracksuit and covering his face with a mask. 

"Shush! Stay away if you see people like that." The mother whispered to her son and quickly took his hand to go away.

 

**********

 

"Aaah! Someone save me!" The young woman was trapped in uncountable vines as her vitality was being absorbed. In front of her, three 'people', were standing in front of her, looking at such a horrifying sight with bored expression. No, only two were looking bored, one of them was laughing maniacally, staring at her with a hungry look.

"Gehahaha! Jashin-sama will be pleased with the flesh of a virgin."

"Be quick, will you Asmodeus...." Aurelia sad while twirling her hair in boredom. Suddenly, her eyes widened a little and she swiftly backed away from where she was standing.

Kuhkurum too jumped back, his large stature taking a leap of dozens of meters in a single jump.

Slash!

The vines, along with Asmodeus suddenly showed countless thin lines and suddenly the all of them were cut into numerous small pieces. 

Step, step.

A lone man walked out from the clouds of dust, his hand carrying a unsheathed katana and a toothpick in his mouth with an uninterested look on his face.

"Hmm. Are you the ones who disturbed my training time?" Atomic Samurai looked at them.

Kuhkurum and Aurelia didn't say anything but kept looking at him vigilantly. Atomic Samurai too just stared at them.

"Kyaa!" The scream of the woman who had been saved by Atomic Samurai broke the silence as she ran away while clutching her forehead.

Breaking the awkward silence, Atomic Samurai spoke first.

"So...has the criteria for Dragon-class has become so low now?" Atomic Samurai taunted the monsters.

"Kukuku. You think so? Why don't I show you with my fists?" Kuhkurum walked toward Atomic Samurai while flexing his large arms but suddenly the voice of Aurelia stopped him.

"Stop it, Kuhkurum." Kuhkurum looked at Aurelia questioningly but she stared at him very seriously.  "We have our own mission. Leave this to that fanatic madman."

"Huh!" Kuhkurum scoffed but at the same time got back, silently agreeing to Aurelia.

"Heh. And you think I would just let you both go?" In a moment, Atomic Samurai who was standing away from them appeared next to them as his katana moved as swift as the lightening!

"Atomic Slash!"

Boom! The wind blew as a storm from the clash. But to Atomic Samurai's surprise, his sword didn't cut anything. No, it was stopped by something in its way!

"Kuku. Don't think we are running away from you, hero." Kuhkurum blocked his attack with his arms with a huge grin on his face. "You should first worry about yourself."

Scwooon-Schwooon-Schwoon

An enormous giant made of plants and vines, even larger than the building of Hero Association had appeared behind the Atomic Samurai. On the centre of the giant, Asmodeus was entwined and connected with the large body as a core with hideous veins popping out of his body.

"YOU DARE INTERRUPT MY CEREMONY FOR JASHIN-SAMA. DIE!" The green giant's fist flew toward Atomic Samurai, but...

"Atomic Slash." Once again, the big giant was torn into innumerable pieces along with Asmodeus in its centre.

However, to Atomic Samurai's surprise, he saw the pieces of plants and vines and even the flesh of Asmodeus moving toward each other as they once again started joining to form the monstrous green giant again.

"DIE!" The giant once again punched his giant fist toward where Atomic Samurai was standing.

"Sigh....A Regenerative type. This could be a little troublesome." Atomic Samurai looked at the giant who was again standing after being cut with a troubled expression as he raised his katana.

 

**********

 

"Aurelia, wouldn't it be difficult for Asmodeus to defeat that hero?" Once they had gotten away, Kuhkurum questioned Aurelia.

"No, he would be fine." Aurelia looked indifferent. "He is the worst kind of match up for someone like a swordsman. And that hero doesn't know, in that kind of berserk state, the more times Asmodeus would be cut, the stronger he would become."

Kuhkurum too nodded after hearing the explanation, but suddenly he looked vigilantly ahead of him. 

Clack.

"So you are the Dragon-class, huh? Looks like I bet right when I thought you would be here." It was another man. However contrary to the middle-aged Atomic Samurai, he had completely different appearance. His skin was sickly pale with deep red eyes and belts wrapped around his body under his coat.

S-Class Rank 8 Hero - Zombieman!

Kuhkurum and Aurelia realized that this was another hero sent by the 'humans'.

"Aurelia. You go 'head. I will fight this time." Kuhkurum grinned and an intense battle aura started spreading from where he was standing.

Aurelia nodded and started moving without looking back once.

Both Kuhkurum and Zombieman stared at each other intensely and even sparks could be felt because of their glares.

Without saying anything, Kuhkurum moved first quickly and tried to grab Zombieman. However Zombieman dropped to the ground with a dive, and with an agile leap, he wrapped his arms around Kuhkurum's head and tried to break his neck. 

"Do you think somethin' like that would 'a kill me?" Kuhkurum turned around with a grin and caught Zombieman with his legs in his hands, and threw him to the ground with immense strength!

Crack

The sound of breaking bones spread throughout the streets.

However instead of leaving it like that, Kuhkurum didn't let go of Zombieman's legs and thrashed his body against the ground again and again.

Crack. Crash. Crack.

The 'dead' body of Zombieman kept laid on the floor. Bones were shoeing out of the body and only blood could be seen, covering his whole body.

"Che. Another weakling. I wish I had fought that swordsman."  Kuhkkurm spat on ground and turned back to go towards where Aurelia had gone, however...

"Where are you going, monster?"

Zombieman, who had just been 'killed', was standing again with blood flowing out from his whole body, holding an axe in his hand. His injuries were so severe that it was impossible for any human to be alive with them, but he was still there, standing without a gap in his stance.

"This was the first death." He spat his saliva filled with blood on ground and stared at Kuhkurum.

"The battle of attrition has just began."

"Kukuku. That's how I like it." 

Kuhkurum raised his huge muscular arms, and started running towards Zombieman with a large grin on his face.

 

**********

 

"Hmm. I am left alone now, aren't I?" Aurelia mused to herself while moving forward. She wasn't worried about her three companions. She knew how strong they were.

'And even if we got defeated, we still have 'that'.'

Sraah.

Aurelia suddenly looked up at sky and saw a huge storm of debris brewing directly above her. Before she could even do something...

BOOM!

Swish, swish.

"Hmph~ It is over?" A green-haired petite 'woman' wearing a form-fitting black dress floated over the ground to where the wreckage was. She was the one who had caused the destruction on par with a natural disaster!

S-class Rank 2 Hero - Terrible Tornado!

She was also the first secret weapon of the Hero Association before King. The strongest psychic ever! 

"Who needed those other heroes. I will  just finish these weak monsters alone quickly."

When she started floating back to where other monsters were, she heard a voice behind her.

"Where are you going...brat?" It was Priestess of Corruption, Aurelia. She was unscathed from the storm of rubble except of some dust which had gotten on her princess dress. A black aura, eerily similar to the green aura of Terrible Tornado was covering her whole body. To remain unwounded form such an attack, she was definitely very strong.

However, Terrible tornado, or Tatsumaki's attention didn't went on that. 

"What did you call me?"

"I called you brat, you kid!"

"You, you are the kid!"

Boom. Boom. Boom.

A battle of incomparable scale was taking place unlike others. Huge buildings and roads were treated like stones thrown at each other. The whole area had collapsed due to their battle. It felt as if the nature itself was taking its wrath on the humans.

"You are smaller than me!"

"No, you are!"

"No, you are, you kid!"

Contrary to the monstrous battle, a childish quarrel was taking place between the two lolis.

 

**********

 

"Hah...hah.."

Panting with exhaustion, King stopped and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Phew. Jogging at morning sure feels great!

Suddenly, King had an ominous foreboding in his heart.

These days, facing near-death experiences almost everyday, King's sixth-sense had been developed to the extreme! 

Shit! I won't be dragged into some other mess, would I?  Cold sweat started dripping from King's forehead.

When his premonition of danger had been getting closer and closer, a sudden noise suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

Boom! 

The whole wall besides King suddenly crashed as he saw a man flying towards it, breaking many walls and houses and finally collapsed after colliding with a building. King looked at the man and was shocked. It was Puri-Puri Prisoner!

Katsu, katsu.

The sound of steps coming closer also made King's heart beat faster and faster with fear.

Hooo!

 A man, no a knight whose whole armor was covered in crimson stood in front of him. He was carrying a sword in his hand and walking toward the unconscious Puri-Puri Prisoner.

"...Igris" A murmur escaped from King's mouth.

Igris suddenly stopped when he heard King's murmur, and turned around to look at him. The hollow red eyes under his helmet glazed for a moment.

"...Who are you, mortal? How do you know my name?"

Katsu, katsu.

He started moving towards King with quick steps.

Hiss!   

King took a deep breath in fear and almost passed out because of the terror he was feeling.

Nima, what have I done?

King had recognized the knight and spoke in surprise by mistake when he saw him. It was the Blood-Red Commander Igris from the manhwa 'Solo Levelling' he had read in his past life.

However what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be hunting some high-level monsters with that Jinwoo? Why the heck are you bullying a newbie like me!

However without caring about King's thought, Igris walked till he was just a head's distance away and stood in front of him.

Ba-Dump Ba-Dump Ba-Dump

King felt that his heart would almost get out of his body but Igris kept staring at him without any fear or anxiety and finally opened his mouth.

"I was going to kill you later after killing that human first, but you have piqued my curiosity."

"Let me ask you, mortal...."

"How do you know my name, when you are so...."

"Weak."

For the first time after coming to this world, King truly felt that he had finally found a comrade who knows the truth about him and who he could have a heart-to-heart talk with.