2 Chapter 2

*A new era *

It had been twenty years since the beast attacked. New people joined the ranks of the Nimrods,this time not only men safe guarded the cities but ladies too. Some ladies had even become stronger than the men through hardwork. The Nimrods gained respect and were showered with gifts always when the city was safe. "Good luck on your mission" the townspeople always said to those going out to work for the safety of town.

When the Nimrods went on missions, they were sometimes successful and sometimes it was a failure. When they came back with injuries if they had no magicians on their team to heal them.

This time, blacksmiths had the skill "Orion" which they used to gather kyokais(energy waves) from dead beasts that were in the surroundings. They used the absorbed Kyokai and fused it with the metals used to make weapons for he Nimrods. This gave weapons a buff even if they Nimrod was weak.

The humans had gained rankings according to the strength of their "Kyokais" as Nimrods. The rankings were;

✓ Bronze

✓Iron

✓Silver

✓Gold

✓Platinum

✓Diamond

✓Master

✓Grandmaster

The beasts also had rankings just like the humans. Every Nimrod that took up a mission was given only a mission within their capacity.

Every human was ranked as Bronze as hey could use the normal weapons to fight but were the weakest in the ranks of Nimrods. Throughout the fifteen years when the beasts attacked, there has only been six genuine Grandmaster ranks that existed who were he first people to fight the first beasts that arrived toe to toe. Nimrods struggled for the Grandmaster ranks but the difference was like heaven and earth. A Nimrod could hardly even each the master rank.

The first person who reached the Master rank was a magician. Who started gaining high respect but not as compared to the Grandmasters. The Grandmasters were treated like gods among humans.

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"Kyokai,Second phase:Ignis' wrath" Lord Kaito rushed forward as he hit his newly evolved iron staff that had it own Kyokai now,bursting with a red aura that could eliminate the goblins the weakest beasts upon contact.

BOOM!!,BOOM!!,BOOM!!

The skill brought down massive shockwaves just as if there was giant gorilla on top of the orcs crushing them.

"So this is the power of the Grandmasters. I feel like almost suffocating." one of the Silver ranked Nimrods who were to assist Lord Kaito on his mission.Two Silver ranked who were blacksmiths,three Gold ranked and one Platinum ranked Nimrods were assigned to help Lord Kaito.

The air around had become thicker as compared to when they first arrived in the abyss. Just by using his first two Kyokais, it made it very difficult to breathe for the lower ranked ones. The Silver ranked and the Gold ranked were hardly able to breathe and the Platinum ranked was also barely clinging onto his life force.

They had already done their jobs of killing the smaller and weaker that was actually done by the Gold ranked and the Platinum ranked guys. They had stopped attacking the other orcs because Lord Kaito said he wanted to exercise his newly evolved iron staff.

When he started walking towards the orcs the pressure form his Kyokai aura was too severe that the orcs could feel his rage.

BANG!!!

The boss of the orcs had just landed from nowhere just when Lord Kaito had sat down. He told the Gold ranked Nimrods and the Platinum ranked Nimrod to take care of the orc king. He intentionally did this so that they didn't seem to think he was underestimating them.

The Gold ranked were made up of two ladies in their early twenties. The other Gold ranked and Platinum ranked were men. The four nimrods charged in as if they were commanded to do so. The Platinum ranked rushed in at an incredible speed since he was stronger than the Gold ranked.

The orc king told them "don't try to be more violent than because I'm the king of violence itself." It picked up the dead bodies of the dead werewolves and goblins that came to attack first. Right after consuming them, it speed seemed to have increased and it was now twice as strong than it was before.

One of the ladies rushed in with her long whiplash with one slash. The whiplash had slashed of the orc king's arms. It yelled in pain and grabbed one rock throwing it in the direction of the woman but the Gold ranked man rushed in "Maho Gnosis: Gale palm slam." This power created a gale that slammed the rock down. The second lady also rushed forward with her spear at the same time and said "Kyokai,Second phase:Focal point" this skill focuses the weider's energy and increases speed and damage output for a short period of time. She threw the spear straight at the head of the orc king to finish it off.

Swoosh!!!

The spear had gone right pass the head of the orc king. It had sensed the danger coming and reinforced its senses and defense to be able to dodge the spear. The spear vanished right when it hit the rock behind the orc king as awakened weapons return back to their weiders when not in use.

The lady with the whiplash charged in once more, "Kyokai,Second phase: Tornado's grip" a skill that creates a tornado-like effect that deals damage and and sends the opponent in the direction in which the weilder wishes. The lady slashed her whiplash at the orc king which dealt numerous damages on it. The lady then sent the orc king in the direction of the Platinum ranked nimrod.

Clack!

"Kyokai, Fifth phase:Kasumi no Metsu(Misty Extinction)" a skill that moves the weilder of the Japanese katana to the back of the opponent and deals a critical damage ignoring all defenses. The katana was back in it sheath. A perfect finish for a perfect assignment. The orc king fell to its death.

"When did he even reach there?" the Gold ranked were astonished at his astounding performance.

"This move remembers me of only one. Well, nobody was told about the seventh Grandmaster." Lord Kaito thought to himself. Let's wait as the blacksmiths gather the

aetherstones and Kyokai from the dead beasts.

The aetherstones were like crystals but were believed to be powered by the stars and had a very strange power stored in them. The powers differed in any beast it was found. A few people tried to absorb the Kyokai of he aetherstones but failed miserably and were never able to awaken their weapons, so were classified under Bronze rank as mere humans.

**Back in the Town**

"Lord Akira, you're back from your mission?"a boy with vibrant blue hair and eye had asked. "I told you to drop the 'Lord' title. Axel you're also back." Akira answered back.

The name of the teenage boy was Axel Ito. A fifteen year boy who just joined the Nimrods. He was under the care of Akira with his little brother Julian Ito. Julian was like his weakness as he wished to protect him. Axel saw Akira as a father but knew that wasn't his father.

He was the first and youngest person to have joined the Nimrods in the age range between fourteen and sixteen.

The six Grandmasters had taken a liking to him because of a past event which they never told Axel about. The six Grandmasters took him in turns of his training. This made him one of the popular nimrods among the older teenage Nimrods above him.

All Gold ranked Nimrods were known to be able to master only three phases of their Kyokais but he was able to master the fourth phase of his Kyokai. Although he was able to master the fourth Kyokai all his Kyokais were weak. This was as result of awakening his Japanese katana at the age of twelve with his body not able to withstand the energy. He was called a genius when he was around but in his absence people used to make fun of him saying his pride will send him to death.

When it came to normal life he was nothing but a weakling in the sight of older teenage boys who could beat him anytime he was stubborn around them. Because of this, he was never able to make teenage friends. His only friends were the six Grandmasters but this made him happy as he put in more effort into his training. This was to tell them their training was all for good.

Axel was a kind hearted,shy and the always happy type. It was rumored that once when a teammate of his died whiles by his side in an abyss, his rage caused him to burst with his Kyokai. Before the other teammates could calm him down he had finished off the rest of the high ranking beasts that came to absorb his overflowing Kyokai. Unfortunately he had turned to finish of he rest of the teammates but a magician was quick to put him to slumber.

Since that day he had been wearing a fake smile everywhere he went. He was never able to get stronger no matter how harder he trained. And became a secret laughing stock for those who said he was so full of pride.