46 The Hero
On the edge of the outskirts of Nagazora, behind the last line of the garrison.
"Who are you…? No, nevermind. Even if I knew who you are, it's useless. Either way, thank you for helping us, if it weren't for you, this last line of defense would have collapsed earlier and would have resulted in a lot more casualties. I'm very, very grateful."
A woman in her twenties, the prime age of her life where she is the most beautiful, was sitting relaxedly against the wall, staring at the track of road covered in sword marks below the fort.
If those monsters didn't disappear when they are killed, there would definitely be a sea of corpses belonging to hundreds of Honkai Beasts and Zombies.
The woman expressed her sincere gratitude to the boy who was standing quietly beside her with a large sword in his hand.
If this boy hadn't appeared a few hours ago, there would have been countless Honkai Beast and Zombies rushing inside Nagazora City from the outskirts.
During that time, the evacuation of Nagazora citizens had not been finished and many people would undoubtedly die.
Nagazora City's garrison unit didn't have the ability to handle such a situation right now, they were just meat shields meant to buy time for the citizens to evacuate.
Staring at the woman in front of him, Kouro frowned when he saw that half of the woman's face had turned white-gray due to the Houkai energy's infection, he already had an idea on how to cure this infection.
"Wait a moment." Kouro opened his status interface and then added twenty-two points to the Houkai stats.
Status :
Name: Hanagami Kouro
Level: 16
Job: None
Title: Wolf Slayer
HP: 9,000/10,000
SP: 1,152/1,152
Fatigue: 64
Strength: 74
Agility: 50
Vitality: 50
Senses: 50
Intelligence: 50
Houkai: 72
Point: 62
After that, Kouro grabbed the woman by the shoulder and forcibly absorbed the Houkai Energy that had eroded the woman's body to prevent her from turning into a Zombie.
Kouro, who had increased his Houkai parameter to 72, was able to control Honkai Energy to this level.
He had previously tried to absorb Honkai Energy from Honkai Beast, just that, before he could absorb them, they had already disappeared.
Absorbing Honkai Energy forcefully is like drinking poison to quench your thirst.
Unlike the Houkai Energy he uses from the system, which is very stable, the energy outside is too chaotic, fortunately, his control over Honkai Energy had increased greatly so the amount of pain he felt is greatly reduced.
"Stop! What are you doing!? Stop… Just kill me before I turn into a zombie. You must be really tired, right? If you kill me, the area around the fort would be safe for a while, and you can rest to survive."
The woman's voice faltered slightly.
She wanted to push Kouro away, but she could only push him weakly because she didn't have much energy to do so.
In the previous battle, she had also tried her best to defend. There previously were dozens of people in the fort. But now, all of her comrades had died, some were killed by Honkai beasts and Zombies, and some committed suicide first when they felt that their bodies had been corroded by Houkai energy.
She was the only one who endured to the end, but when the battle was over, the tension in her heart disappeared which made her feel intense pain piercing her soul, the unbearable pain made her want to commit suicide as well.
"You stop moving!" Kouro endured the growing pain brought by the increasing Houkai Energy from his absorption at a tyrannical level of speed.
"I… I'm just a stranger to you, I don't even know you, but why… why do you insist on saving me?" The woman spoke while crying.
"Do I need a reason to save someone? I helped you because I wanted to! Also… sorry, due to the abundance of Honkai Beast earlier, I couldn't save anyone else." Kouro said firmly, apologizing at the end of his sentence.
"You don't need to apologize, because of you we were able to complete our task of buying enough time, you are a Hero, a Hero who fought against the Honkai. The one who should apologize is not you."
HP:8,967/10,000
HP: 8,743/10,000
HP:8,000/10,000
Kouro didn't answer. He endured the pain and continued to absorb the Houkai Energy even as his hand started turning white-gray.
Suddenly, a system notification appeared in front of his eyes.
[A Harmful substance has been detected]
[Skill 'Unknown' has activated}
[Buff: Cure Poison's effect is healing you]
Reading through the notification, Kouro smirked a little, he could feel the pain he was experiencing gradually lessen, even his hand that had started to change color slowly returned to its original color.
Kouro opened his status interface and looked at the skill he had no idea how to use.
[Passive Skill: Unknown Lvl Max]
All diseases, poisons, and negative status effects are healed, and sleeping will explosively increase regeneration ability.
Permanent Effect: Longevity.
Permanent Effect 'Will to Rehabilitate': Any dismembered body parts are restored.
???
???
At this moment, Kouro's cell phone suddenly rang.
Feeling his cell phone ring, Kouro closed his status interface. Looking at the caller's name, Kouro took a deep breath and answered the call while continuing to absorb the Honkai Energy.
"Hello?"
"Kouro? Thank goodness you're still alive! Where are you now? Mei and I will go look for you."
"…Tell me your location, I will go look for you. I will meet you there before the sun goes down completely."
Kouro tried his beast to a steady voice, but the volume and speed of his voice is much slower than when he normally spoke.
Fortunately, Kiana, who was happy to find out that Kouro was still alive, didn't notice.
Kiana then told him their location and after telling her to be careful, he quickly hung up.
His breathing that he had forcibly suppressed became quick again.
He is too tired. Before he came here, he was previously at Tachikawa Academy, studying as usual. But just as it was nearing noon, Kouro suddenly saw Zombies invading the academy. He knew that an eruption had occurred again and there was a high probability that it was large in scale.
He swiftly protected the teachers and students while evacuating them to a safe place.
He did so for three hours before heading to the suburbs after his enhanced perception sensed multiple presences of numerous Honkai Beast there.
Even though he fought the Honkai Beasts with the help of the garrison unit of Nagazora City, the conventional weapons they used were not enough to kill a Honkai Beast over 10 meters tall. Kouro was always the one who would finish the Honkai Beast of that size.
There were too many Honkai Beasts for him to fight. Although most of them are ordinary class and Kouro, with his Nitro Crystal Greatsword, can easily destroy them, only because there were too many of them, plus the fight against them is always high intensity, Kouro's mind and body were tested to its limits.
And now, he had to endure the severe pain from absorbing Honkai Energy, luckily, the 'Unknown' Skill activated and healed him. Although Kouro could sense that his body was whining much more than when was training hard.
Fortunately, Kouro had trained hard since childhood, otherwise, he would definitely not be able to survive and would have long passed out by now.
"I feel much better already. Since you have your friends in Nagazora City, hurry up and go."
Thanks to Kouro's efforts, and the system, of course, the woman's fate was reversed.
This was a miracle that would shock the world.
An achievement that humanity would always remember, had just happened on this fort.
The woman was back to normal now, but her strength was still lacking.
But she had enough to push away Kouro's hand from her shoulder that was absorbing the Houkai Energy.
"Do you think I would leave you here alone!?" Kouro yelled in annoyance.
The person he had saved painstakingly, and also the only survivor of the Nagazora city garrison security team, how could he ignore that!
"Then leave her to the Bronya."
A small figure of a girl appeared on this fort, and just after saying that, a huge creature suddenly appeared behind Bronya and carried the woman in its big arms.
"The Bronya will do her best to get her to safety. The Project Bunny 19C can also absorb Honkai energy in the air to create a relatively safe environment. So don't worry, she will not turn into a Zombie."
At this moment, Kouro, who was holding the Nitro Crystal Greatsword, had many questions in his mind, and Bronya just added to that when a huge creature suddenly appeared behind her.
But in the end, the two of them didn't question each other.
"Ok, go ahead."
Kouro didn't leave first, he watched Bronya and the woman until they disappeared from his sight.
*Thump*
The Greatsword that he was holding suddenly fell on the ground heavily, making a muffled sound. He leaned against the greatsword and spat out a mouthful of blood. After spitting out so much blood, Kouro's complexion looked better.
"If the artificial Stigmata's Houkai Energy is the same as this, I can understand why the average lifespan of a Valkyrie is so short. They endured this pain silently without screaming. I hope the artificial Stigmata's Houkai Energy is more stable than the Houkai Energy I've just absorbed. Otherwise, it's going to be really torturous."
After wandering around for a while more around the outskirts of the city and making sure that there were no more Honkai Beast, he quickly left and returned inside Nagazora City, leaving behind a mouthful of blood.
This last stronghold had defended against a large-scale Honkai Eruption. This even may either be remembered or forgotten.
