Ch382. Last bosses

Rei looked towards the north where he felt the two massive Yoki signatures coming towards Pieta, one of them seemingly distressed that Rigaldo's Yoki disappeared, while the other was oozing satisfaction, most likely due to the weak third signature of a normal human without unlocked chakra pathways that was near her and gave of the feeling of worry.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a worry for his own life. It was some other kind of worry that Rei didn't bother deciphering.

He looked at the group of Claymores gathered at the edge of the town square, waiting for his instructions, and gave them a reassuring smile. It calmed some of them while putting others at the edge but one simply can't please everyone.

"I am going away for ten to thirty minutes." When they looked incomprehensibly at him, Rei's smile became a bit forced. They seemed to have no concept of hours, minutes, and seconds. He knew they were backward but he had no idea it was this much. "Haa~, I will be back soon. Just... wait for me here and tend to your injured, okay?"

He turned to Flora and Miria as he asked that, knowing these two were respected among the group.

Getting the hint, Flora nodded and Miria spoke, "We will wait for you here."

It would have been extremely bothersome for Rei if the Claymores decided to run when he went through so much to get them into his service.

Smiling in acknowledgment, Rei disappeared from the Claymores' sight in a burst of speed.

...

Rei appeared right in front of a traveling party of three people on two horses.

On the first horse was a youthful-looking man with long, silver hair, and next to him, on the second horse was a pretty ordinary-looking boy with short light-brown hair and a scar above his left eyebrow. On the second horse in front of the average boy sat a skinny, pre-adolescent girl with short brown hair and brown eyes.

The girl and the silver-haired man instantly noticed Rei while the brown-haired boy seemed oblivious for a while yet.

"Hi, I came to privatize your lives!" Rei cheerfully exclaimed.

His energy was once again tightly suppressed to levels of a normal civilian. The silver-haired dude at least definitely felt his chakra when he defeated Rigaldo so Rei didn't want to give his identity away so readily. He wanted to see their reaction first.

He was left disappointed. The three people silently stared at Rei without any reaction until he felt quite awkward.

The girl finally turned towards the silver-haired man and tilted her head in confusion, "What does privatize mean?"

The silver-haired man genially smiled and said, "I have no clue, Priscilla."

Before the girl could turn towards the brown-haired boy, he too spoke, "I don't know either."

The trio turned expectantly towards the flabbergasted Rei who decided it was the best time to facepalm, having to remind himself again he was basically dealing with cavemen.

'Elemental Nations, I am sorry for calling you backward when I first experienced your technology and civilization level. Compared to this, you are golden!' Rei wistfully sighed in his mind.

"Haa~, whatever. I came to see if you are useful to keep alive or if I should just kill you." Rei dryly said, suddenly giving off a menacing aura as his chakra burst free from the suppression in its entirety, causing both Isley and Priscilla to feel as if the weight of the world dropped on their shoulders.

Isley was instantly drenched in a cold sweat, looking at Rei as if he was a monster... which was funny, considering he was the one who ate people out of the two of them.

Raki, much like the horses, didn't feel a thing so he was quite confused about why Priscilla stiffened and Isley looked as if he saw a ghost. The poor lad was just a normal human. There was no need to traumatize him by letting him feel Rei's chakra.

But it was Priscilla whose reaction was the worst.

At first, she stiffened, staring at Rei with wide eyes full of terror.

Then she slowly whispered, "Yoma." In a scared voice... before her eyes turned gold.

That was the only warning Rei got before she blurred and he was forced to jump back to dodge the ax-kick from the now transformed Priscilla. When the kick impacted the ground, it created web-like cracks all around the zone of impact.

Rei steadied himself, quite impressed with the sheer physical power displayed, and looked at the transformed girl.

Her Awakened Form was a winged humanoid about two meters tall with a single horn on her forehead and a pair of wings on her back. It wasn't bad, as far as a Yoma appearance went but the most human part of her was her face. Her body reminded Rei of dryads from games whose limbs were made of several branches, just in Priscillas case it was all flesh and purple. She was humanoid but she did not resemble a human.

Rei saw how the horned girl glared at him with hate, causing him to lift his eyebrow at her and wonder what was her problem.

"Oi... I said I am going to kill you if I deem you useless but you don't have to make the decision so easy for me." Rei amusedly started.

Yeah, he could admit that attacking a dude who comes and threatens your life was a smart thing to do but... that only applied if the dude was on the same level as you. If he was leagues above you, then attacking him was suicide.

He wondered what was used as fillings in the girl's head because brains were clearly lacking...

Priscilla did not seem to appreciate Rei's comment and lunged at him... which he sidestepped and let her sail harmlessly past him, breaking several trees with her body as she impacted them like a cannonball.

Rei briefly glanced at the girl's companions, noticing the silver-haired one was in a dilemma about what to do. He was clearly smart enough to know defeating Rei would be a tall order even if he joined forces with Priscilla.

Worse yet, Priscilla was not a very reasonable being. It would be a miracle if he managed to not get attacked by her because he was in the way or something rather than expect teamwork from her.

Raki on the other hand looked helpless. He wanted to help Priscilla but she and the newcomer were just so fast his normal eyes could not even catch their shadows. He gripped the handle of his sword but did not draw it because he felt it would have been useless.

He could only powerlessly watch and hope for the best.

Unfortunately for Raki, Rei was going to disappoint his expectations.

As Priscilla returned, dashing at Rei again and her fingers started stretching at break-neck speed, becoming sharp and intending to skewer Rei's body, he stepped forward, drawing the sword on his hip in one fluid motion and...

All Raki saw was a blue electric flash and had to cover his eyes. When he finally regained his ability to see, he was greeted by the scene of Priscilla's head separating from her body and flying into the air.

Isley saw more of what happened but his vision was also mostly obstructed by the sudden blue flash. The undeniable truth was, however, that Priscilla was now dead.

Rei coldly watched as the headless body powerlessly dropped to the snowy ground as if its strings were cut and turned back towards the men on horses.

Raki seemed to barely restrain himself from attacking Rei but Rei just rolled his eyes. The kid posed no threat even if he stood and let him hack his sword at him to his heart's content.

Well, it didn't matter. His offer was not aimed at the boy.

"So? What will it be, Isley?" Rei asked the silver-haired man who gave him a forced smile.

"I... I think I would like to live a bit longer." Isley sheepishly said.

He was a warrior his whole life and didn't fear death in combat but what the man in front of him unleashed at Priscilla was not combat. It was a slaughter. She was so outclassed it was not even funny.

Isley did not want to meet his end in a battle against an opponent who didn't even consider him worthy to use his full power against him. That was not an honorable end worthy of a warrior. That was a pathetic end.

"Well, good for you." Rei nodded in acknowledgment.

Isley seemed a bit smarter and calmer than Rigaldo.

Well, it didn't matter. Rei gave them his offer because he wanted to see the differences between Yoma and Claymore after some training. He was also sure Tsunade would like the opportunity to research both of these 'species'.

And since he was going to subordinate an Awakened Being anyway, why not go for one of the strongest of the lot?

"Now, take the kid into your arms," Rei gestured towards Raki, "and come with me. I am sure you will be able to keep up."

With that, he started to run back towards Pieta at a moderately slow pace.

'Hah! As if I let the last bosses show up in the town where they could try taking my new group of subordinates as hostages! I'd rather cheat and bring the fight to them instead. Rules of conduct between villains and heroes do not apply in real life.'