EXPLOSION!

Klein smiled at the bafflement on the faces of everyone who witnessed him swiftly dispatch three large otherworldly creatures.

Lieutenant Sid recalled how earlier Klein did not make a move to help him against that large wolf.

'My ass. He could've killed that thing in a second...'

Aside from how wronged he felt, the other soldiers there who were unfamiliar with Klein simply stared off into the distance, rubbing their eyes and confirming with their comrades what they had just witnessed.

"West..." Captain Alex muttered, still trying to gather his sanity, "Who is that?"

Captain West's thoughts were elsewhere. He had already witnessed a mind-boggling magical display back at the white castle, but there was something more in the way that young man faced those three titans.

He had been in the military for long enough to recognize what it was...

'Efficiency. Efficient murder' He thought. Although he hadn't been in this new world for long, he could tell that Klein's ability and precision at such a young age should be unnatural.

Klein observed the silent soldiers and furrowed his brow.

'Did I not impress them enough?'

"Hey hey! I just said we make a good team, don't we? Aren't I super useful? It'd be terrible to lose out on me you know!" He patted his chest in a confident gesture, then looked around the pile of beast corpses on the ground.

West was the first to regain his senses.

"Yeah, sure. But brat..." West felt his hip holster, continuing "You should ask the next time you take things from others"

"Aha, sorry about that, it was an emergency..." Klein nervously chuckled as he scratched the back of his head in a semblance of an apology before returning to his corpse inspection.

He dug his arm through the eye socket of the downed rhinoceros, feeling around at the insides of its skull, attempting to retrieve the cool knife. Along with that, if he wasn't mistaken...

"Aha!" Klein's eyebrows raised as he retrieved his blood-soaked right arm from the beast's skull, holding the knife, and secretly pocketing its Magi-crystal.

'Can never have too many of those' He thought, and then turned back and walked to approach the knife's owner.

"Here ya go!" Klein offered the knife to the alien warrior with a thankful smile.

Drip. Drip.

The once black knife was now coated in a thick red liquid. It dripped red in a rhythmic pattern, and the arm offering it was no different.

Captain West observed his besmirched knife, and then at the arm, and then at the owner of the arm, and then at the owner's smile.

"Nevermind. You can keep it for now" he said with a straight face.

"Really? Awesome!" Klein ran up to the man for a hug but was swiftly evaded and denied.

"Aha... guess aliens don't do hugs, huh?" Klein smiled as he focused back on his newly acquired knife.

West facepalmed before turning to his comrades, not missing the amusement and bewilderment in their eyes, along with the many questions they wished to ask.

He sighed.

"I'll tell you later. Let's get out of here before -"

A screech echoed in the sky.

Upon detecting its source, the soldiers were baffled at the sight.

Body of a lion. Head and wings like an eagle. 

Wasn't that a Griffin?

"Ah, that might be a bit of trouble..." Klein looked up briefly, made his assessment, and then focused back on his new toy, casting 'inspect'.

West snapped his head towards the nonchalant wizard and quickly asked.

"Trouble? How?"

"Hm? Oh, they shoot fire. And they usually fly in flocks" Klein said absentmindedly, still focused on his discoveries.

'The structure of the material is interesting. Do aliens have different ores?'

"Fire?" Captain West gulped.

"SHOOT THAT THING DOWN NOW! RETREAT" He shouted out his orders to the soldiers who had yet to escape their awed silence.

Immediately, the familiar sound of repeated gunfire sounded, successfully shooting down the creature from afar.

The soldiers who were told to disengage hurriedly escorted the civilians away as fast as they could, however...

Another Griffin flew over. Then another. Then more.

The soldiers there did everything they could to shoot down the beasts as they retreated, managing to do so with limited success.

The beasts, now around a dozen, circled around the gathering of humans in the air, and without warning, they screeched out beams of fire.

Everyone panicked, running as far away as they could. Klein cast a shield about him and leisurely took a few steps back, completely oblivious to what would soon occur.

The flames latched onto the wood of the fallen tree once used by the ape beast as a club. The fire spread as the soldiers and civilians attempted their escape.

One of the griffins swooped down, its talons grabbing hold of a woman's skull. Then it twisted and flew back, and in a grotesque manner, the woman's head was shorn off her body.

Another dived in with its beak, piercing the heart of a retreating soldier.

The other griffins also alighted, beginning their predatorial hunt. The retreating soldiers also fired back, but in such a chaotic and extensive melee, found it difficult not to commit friendly fire.

Klein walked around the massacre, blinking a few centimeters now and then whenever he was the target of a bestial charge or a soldier's inattentive collision.

He looked around and sighed.

'Well, I guess if I wanna remain with these guys, they should be alive first' He prepared to kill the griffins, beginning his next cast for 'blink'.

Usually, magicians would never opt for such a spell in a high-intensity combat situation like this, as the spell required precise spatial awareness and mana proficiency.

However, to Klein it was perfect. The mana expenditure was kept to a minimum if the distance was optimized, and his mana control was something that even Mr. Reid, a well-seasoned combat mage couldn't help but marvel at.

He didn't have too much mana to spare after all.

Before Klein once again leapt into action, however...

The fire from the fallen tree had grown and followed in the direction of the petrol station.

A spark caught onto the gas tanks.

And then...

EXPLOSION!

A massive eruption of flames engulfed the entire glade, dwarfing the height of the forest, allowing it to be visible from miles away.

And then another gas tank caught fire, causing a second eruption.