A Deal

A/N: My secret goal of having them kill a dragon one day is slowly growing closer.

"They're stronger than I thought…" The group was originally prepared to kill Shirei and the others without hesitation. After all, they had done this to multiple villages across the region and barely faced opposition. And even when they did, how could villagers and farmers ever hope to defeat trained swordsmen?

But this was different. Four of them were defeated in a single swing. It caused them all to become both cautious and afraid. Seeing them freeze up, Kazuma laughed. "A bunch of cowards who can only fight when their enemies can't fight back." Although he said this in scorn under his breath, the group still heard him.

"You!" One of them cursed at Kazuma as their Commander finally spoke. "Defeating them by charging blindly won't be possible. That boy with the sword is probably their leader, so focus on him than deal with the others." Hearing his orders, the group nodded. "Yes, Sir!" With their target changing to Kazuma, all of their blades shone in the sun's light.

"Uh… That's a little intimidating." Kazuma felt slightly nervous as Shirei suddenly smiled and spoke. "Kazuma, put your sword away." Kazuma seemed surprised as he looked at Shirei. "Eh? Ok…" Placing his sword on his back Shirei turned to the AAV's Androids that were in their human forms. "Take care of all of them, don't let any of them escape."

The Androids nodded, confirming Shirei's orders, and walked ahead. "What the… They're messing with us!" Seeing how their 'Leader' put away his sword and left it up to two seemingly unarmed men to fight the group's thought process was understandable. However, that soon changed.

"Screw it, kill these two first!" Five men broke from the rest and charged towards the AAV Units with their swords raised. Hidden deep in their eyes, a flash of light followed by procedures was being executed in the AAV's System. Facing two of five, the AAV Android on the right suddenly charged forward.

They swiftly moved between the two attacks grabbing one of the men by their neck. "Gah!" Being held to the point of choking, he immediately dropped his sword and reached for the Android's arm. However, he couldn't make it budge an inch no matter how much he tried. "Huh?" Having his attack dodged and seeing the android choke the other man, he prepared to attack again.

However, before he could move into attack, the android turned around and slammed the man it was choking into the other. Their skulls slammed into one another and cracked almost instantly as their bodies slammed into the ground on top of one another. In a single instant, the two of them had died.

The other three hadn't noticed the two who died and charged towards the second AAV Android. However, instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat, the AAV reached for the weapon on its back. This was a PR-2, one of the first guns Shirei had fabricated. Although inferior to the Assault Rifle he had now, it was more than enough.

The AAV Android immediately locked onto its targets and opened fire without hesitation. A swarm of Plasma bullets ripped through the bodies of the three men charging towards it and died shortly after. The main group who had watched this all go down had their faces frozen with expressions of horror.

Kazuma was already enough of a surprise to them, but the AAV Androids were another thing entirely. They were superior to normal humans when it came to precision and speed, creating a spectacle when observed. "These guys… They're a bunch of monsters!" One of them began backing away when he looked at the Assault Rifle in the AAV Android's hands.

Suddenly they saw the second AAV Android draw its PR-2, as well as they locked onto the group. "Oh Sh-" Immediately, they all began to turn around in an attempt to run, but it was too late. The two Androids opened fire, holding down the triggers on their weapons. In men's eyes, their vision had been encompassed in blue light.

As the pulses rang out, their bodies began to shred as they collapsed to the floor. The villagers who were watching from their houses and windows were in shock. The sound of pulsing and screams rang out for a full minute before it stopped. By the end, the barrels of both Assault Rifles were smoking, and a pile of bodies laid before them.

"Oh, I see what you meant." A slight tremble was in Kazuma's voice as he looked at the pile of bodies while Shirei and Asami remained motionless. One of the Androids then changed targets to the Commander of the group and prepared to open fire. Pulling the trigger, three Plasma bullets flew through the air, almost perfectly aimed at his head.

Suddenly he moved his head to the right as the three shots flew by his cheek. Shirei's expression changed slightly when he saw that. 'What kind of reaction speed is that?' The Commander, who remained motionless this entire time, swiped his thumb across his cheek. "I see. The whole lot of you are interesting."

Reaching for the handle of the ax on his back, Shirei's expression changed once again. Dashing towards the first AAV Android who had shot at him, he pulled the large ax off his back. Swinging down on the Android, which was followed by the sound of air being cut. The Android's reaction time kicked in as it dodging to the right just in time.

The ax slammed into the stone floor and caused the ground to tremor as it cracked and upheaved chunks of stone. "Holy… That old man is swinging that ax like it's made of paper." The other AAV Android immediately locked onto the Commander and fired at him. Switching, witch hands held his ax. He held it up like a shield blocking all of the Plasma Bullets that could even rip through rock.

The moment the barrage of shots stopped, the Commander raised his ax as if he would attack despite the Android being over twenty meters away. With a swift swing, the ax left his hand and flew towards the Android while spinning. As it spun, it ripped through the ground and caused the Android to roll to the left.

As it stood back up, it saw the Commander was already on top of it as his fist slammed into its head, sending it flying. The Android's body skid across the ground, creating sparks as it went despite its human appearance. Soon Shirei received a message from the AAV's. [General Shirei, this target is beyond our capabilities.]

Hearing that, Shirei laughed a bit. "Ya, no shit, I didn't notice. Fall back. I'll deal with him." Shirei immediately sent out an order to them, causing the two Androids to immediately retreat back towards Shirei and the others. The Commander didn't give chase and went to grab his ax, which had gotten stuck in a nearby building.

As he did so, he turned and looked towards Shirei. "Despite me hitting him full force in the face, he's perfectly fine, and at the same time, it felt as if I was hitting a piece of metal. In any case, I'm afraid you're all still going to die. I can't let you go after killing my men like that." Shirei listened to him and sighed.

"First time here, and we run into a monster's old man. World's of fiction truly never disappoint." whispering to himself, Shirei began walking towards the Commander who was watching Shirei. "My name is Zane. I am one of the three Combat Instructors of the Fenrier Family as well as the Commander of the Squad you just massacred."

When Shirei heard that, he glanced at him for a moment. "Oh, when exchanging names, my bad. You can just call me Shirei." Zane smiled slightly and spoke in a dark tone. "A pleasure to meet you, Shirei , now please die." The attack was sudden and out of the blue as Shirei back stepped as an ax slashed down and crashed into the floor.

Zane showed a look of surprise as he looked up at Shirei, who had dodged. 'I swung at full force, but he still managed to avoid it?' Lifting his ax again, Zane slashed toward's Shirei, who was just a meter away. Ducking down, Shirei calmly dodged another attack before spinning on his heel. Then, raising his leg, he kicked towards Zane using around half of his strength.

The kick was so fast it was a blur, and before he could recover, the Commander felt an intense amount of force slam into his stomach. "That old man's strength, but he ended up fighting Shirei." Kazuma took a deep breath in as he felt the impact of that kick even from this far away. Asami nodded as she watched Zane cough up a mouthful of blood and fall on one knee.

Maybe in the Fenrier Family, Zane was strong hell the fact he could see doge Plasma Bullet's alone was an accomplishment. However, Shirei wasn't human, and his body went way beyond any kind of training regiment. Sure he could handle the AAV Androids, but could he handle someone who could knock over an entire giant golem.

Of course not, and that was being proven as he stared at the ground with blurred eyes. 'What just happened? Why am I on the ground? Why does my stomach hurt so much?' These questions sped through Zane's mind as he slowly raised his head and saw Shirei standing over him. Despite being so tall when on his knee's Shirei's unfeeling and robotic gaze encompassed him.

"Ho-" Shirei clenched his right hand just as Zane began to speak before he slammed his fist into Zane's jaw. A cracking caused all the people watching to flinch as Zane's entire body was lifted off his knees into the air. Staring directly at Zane's chest, he reeled back and punched him, causing a wave of pain to flow through the man's body.

Zane's vision went dark as he flew back and soon slammed into the wall of a nearby house, causing more blood to erupt from his mouth and stain his clothes and the ground. His mind was muddled as his gaze wandered, and he tried to regain focus. Shirei walked towards him slowly and reached for the Plasma Blade attached to his side.

A blue blade appeared from its hilt and caused the area around Zane to glow in an instant. "Ugh…" Finally regaining focus Zane saw Shirei once again standing over him. He no longer had his ax, and for possibly the first time in years, he felt fear as his eyes widened. 'This brat…' Clenching his fist, he lashed out and punched at Shirei with all his might.

However, just a second later, a beam of light flashed in front of his eyes. The hand with which he had just attacked Shirei was completely gone, and only charred bone and flesh remained. "Agh!" Seeing his hand fall to the ground, a disjointed roar of pain shot from his shattered mouth as he grabbed onto his arm. Shirei remained unphased as he spoke.

"I still have a few questions for you, so go take a little nap." Deactivating his Plasma Blade, Shirei punched Zane in the face causing him to lose consciousness and drape over completely. Kazuma and Asami, who were watching, just shook their heads. "Well, I guess that handles that." Having taken care of the Commander and his men, the main threats were gone for now.

However, no one expected the second the sound of cheering would erupt. It started small as people opened their windows and door and saw Zane unconscious and his men dead. But as more and more people saw it, the cheering got louder.

"They- They did it!"

"They're finally gone!"

"We're saved!"

"Thank god!"

Hearing the sudden cheer's Shirei was surprised and looked around. It didn't take long for the villagers to leave their houses and began to swarm them. "It was no issue, really." Shirei held up his hands, trying to move away from the mob around him. "Can you let me speak with the person in charge?"

Of course, outside of just saving the village, Shirei did have another motive. Hearing Shirei says that the villagers compiled without any form of resistance. They quickly led Shirei and the others to a slightly larger house at the end of the Main Road. "Chief Rugo, come out quickly!" One of the villagers called out as a few moments later, the doors of the house opened.

A man in his late fifties revealed himself wearing a robe on his body and having a large brown beard. He clearly opened the door nervously, but when he saw all of the villagers outside of their houses cheering so openly, his heart sank. "What are you doing! If the collectors see you, they'll…"

His words trailed as one of the villagers began explaining what had happened. "What?" Chief Rugo glanced at Shirei and the others before looking back at the villager. "Is this true?" He was clearly in shock as the villagers made their way and showed the unconscious Zane being dragged by one of the AAV Androids under Shirei's orders.

He stumbled over his words multiple times, not being able to speak before looking towards Shirei. "P- Please benefactors come in." He immediately invited them in as the villagers pushed Shirei, Kazuma, and Asami into the Chief's house. "You two stay and guard the door and make sure he doesn't wake up." Shirei gave the AAV Androids one last order before entering the house.

Now that they didn't have to worry, the Chief didn't hesitate to take the boards off the windows in the house, letting the light in. "Please, please sit." The Chief led the three of them into a room in his house, which had a circular table. Shirei didn't hesitate to sit down when the Chief offered, and soon the Chief sat down as well.

"I'm sure you've heard, but my name is Chief Rugo I'm in charge of this village. I can't thank you enough for getting rid of those… Men." His voice hesitated near the end, showing he still had fear buried in his heart. "It wasn't really that much of a challenge, honestly." Kazuma took the lead in speaking as Asami shook her head and spoke after.

"Sorry if we caused a bit of a mess." The Chief shook his head with a smile, but soon the smile died down, which all of them noticed. "It's fine… However, I'm afraid to even this peace won't last very long." Kazuma showed a look of confusion as he asked the Chief to explain. "Well, once the Fenrier Family find out that one of their squads did not return, they'll send someone to check."

He didn't need to continue as they could piece the rest together. Some random group of strangers killed their men and were now gone, so the only thing left would be a defenseless village. There was no way that would go well in any kind of scenario. "Crap… What should we do?" Kazuma looked over at Shirei but saw his face was still calm.

"Actually, I had an idea a while ago that could help both parties. Currently, we are looking for a place we can use as a base. While the surrounding land is pretty barren, it's not that good for building. But I saw there was a lot of flat Land in the VIllage not being used for anything. So how about we make a deal?"