"STAND YOUR GROUND!"

A chaotic scene occurred at the town square. In an instant, more than three digit city guards died by nightmares. 

The encirclement they were desperately holding on to was finally shattered, all because of the sudden horrifying scream. Even if it was only for a moment, the scream managed to infuse terror in everyone's heart except for the nightmares.

The nightmares took this opportunity to run all over the city.

It would be impossible for the guards to clean up this mess on their own. Luckily, the third division troops had arrived in time as reinforcement.

The old general who acts as third division supreme leader entered the rooftop where Mayor Darton and detective Delta Greyhorn were.

"Hey there! How'd ya doin?"

"Ahaha! Sanjaya! It's always nice to see old faces."

Darton gave the old general a warm hug. They were comrades on many battlefields in the past. Currently, Darton had retired from the front line while Sanjaya was still active in the army.

Unfortunately, now was not the right time for a heartwarming reunion. They must immediately formulate a plan to deal with the monsters that roam across the city.

"Let's get to the point. Right now there is a 4000 strong third division army in this city while the rest are still on the way. 2000 should be enough to recreate encirclement. The rest would search and exterminate the escaped monster," Sanjaya proposed.

"Nah, we just need to buy some time until the specialist comes," said detective Greyhorn.

"Oh! You must be that famous detective. I don't see you there. When you say specialist, did you mean adventurer? Well, that should work too."

Darton clicked his tongue after the word of adventurers came out.

"Tch. Those rascals, should we trust them? They don't even show up when the whole city is in danger!"

"You don't have to worry. They surely will come-"

"And the hero has arrived!"

Greyhorn's words were cut off by a high pitched voice from the sky. A woman suddenly fell to the rooftop and alarmed everyone on the site. The guards hurriedly brandished their weapons.

The detective still had a poker face as usual and said nonchalantly, "You're late."

"I'm quite busy, you know. Besides, heroes always show up late, don't they?" answered the woman.

"Many people would die because of your laziness."

"That's your business, not us."

"Excuse me, whose this lass again?" Sanjaya interrupted and asked the question that everyone kept wondering about. 

Well her identity might be obvious from their conversation. But, just to be sure.

"This-"

"It's Anna! I'm here as Adventure’s Alliance representative."

Darton immediately snapped after hearing the word of adventurer, "You're four hours late!" 

Yet, she seemed unconcerned.

"At least we came, oldie. You don't know how hard it is to gather a decent amount of those rascals."

Darton grew increasingly irate at Anna's rude attitude. Detective Greyhorn then immediately changed the subject to prevent further conflict.

"Now, now. it’s not the right time to argue. Anna, how many adventurers have you gathered?"

"The criteria are a bit strict so there are only about 30 people. Maybe 50 more adventurers are willing to move if we use some force."

"Then so be it. I will permit you to threaten them a little. Also, say we would give generous rewards for those willing to help."

"Okey-dokey."

Without further ado, Anna then jumped and once again disappeared into the night sky. 

She came and left like a storm.

"Tch. Those rascals do as they please."

"At least they possess real power."

"Well then, what should we do now…"

Meanwhile, the guards on the spot cheered up when new reinforcements came and changed the flow of battle.

They were low numbers with no unity and cohesion. However, their strength was the real deal.

They were high-rank adventurers and specialized in conquering dungeons. Furthermore, they were already preparing to exterminate nightmares. Yep, they came late not for nothing.

If it takes a group of guards to kill a single nightmare, the adventurers only need one person to do it and do it a lot faster. 

They were definitely strong allies.

With this, the Denia big incident city would soon reach its end.

****

Somewhere in the abandoned market, hundreds of tentacles ravaged the surrounding area.

Facing it was a woman whose body was enveloped by light. She looks like an angel, the angel of death to be precise.  Moved like lighting, cutting everything that blocked her way.

The tentacles had tremendous strength and incredible resilience, yet the woman's sword can easily cut them down.

The tentacle monster was chopped one-sidedly. There was nothing it could do because the woman was moving too fast.  However, it didn't care how many tentacles were cut off because all of them would grow back in an instant.

It was like an unstoppable object meets immovable obstacles.

Suddenly, the woman stopped and sheathed her sword. She stood still as if she was waiting for something. The light around her also grew dimmer and dimmer until it finally fully disappeared.

"Chance," the monster thought.

Dozens of tentacles immediately charged at the woman. It had imagined the woman would be crushed to death.

However, a moment later,

[Death God Secret Technique: White Death]

The woman quickly drew her sword. A bright glow when she unsheathed her sword seemed to blind anything. It was as if the sun had appeared on the abandoned market.

Within a radius of 100 meters, every single tentacle was immediately cut into two pieces, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, then sixty-four, and finally it became one hundred and eight pieces.

Nearly all of the tentacle had been cut off. But the monster didn't care because once again, no matter how many times the tentacles were cut off, they would soon grow back-

Wait, why is the regeneration so slow this time?

Wait, why are so many tentacles not regenerating at all…?

The deadly scream of terror once again occurred. But that doesn't have any effect on the woman.

"So noisy," said the woman, coldly.

She once again moves and cuts tentacles like before. But this time, The monster's regeneration ability had been negated.

Jump, slice. Avoid an attack, then slice. And slice, and slice, and slice, and slice, and slice, and slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice.

"KyEekkK!"

After some while, the tentacles fully stopped regrowing and gradually evaporated into thin air.

The abandoned market became quiet again. 

However, the winner of this battle, Captain of the Judgment unit, Irelina, doesn't seem happy at all. 

First of all, she got delayed very long thanks to this ugly creature.

Another note was she got marked as a sworn enemy by some unknown strong creature.

"Hu... man… Let's... meet again… In the future… Kyek!"

That was its last message to Irelina. 

Honestly, that was beyond creepy. Fighting it once was more than enough. She doesn't want to face this ugly tentacle again for the rest of her life.

"It's all that old man's fault… Just you wait."

With strong hatred inside her heart, Irelina once again continued her pursuit.

a/n

Don't know. Just wanted to write some of my thoughts. Don't read it if you're not interested.

Useless facts:

The Adventurer's Alliance assigns a rank starting from F to S for a monster by several factors such as their strength, intelligence, and ferocity.

Nightmares have a lot of variety and the majority of them have rank B not only because they are strong, but they are also intelligent enough to be able to work in groups. Some nightmares also have special abilities, like horse monsters that can turn someone into stone and chameleon monsters that can be invisible.

While the tentacles that Irelina fought (yes, only the tentacles and not including the whole creature) were categorized as rank A or maybe lower rank S because of their tremendous strength, resilience, and regeneration.

Actually, S wasn't the highest rank.  Above it was an SS rank and an X rank. The SS was for monsters that were much more powerful than the regular S rank. While rank X is for monsters that are impossible for humans to fight. An example of a rank X monster is a primordial dragon.