Ashen City

Arriving at the Ashen city and after giving the guards at the checkpoint their IDs as members of the army, Kai and the four split up into groups of two -except for Myra who went alone- as they began their search for the unknown monster… 

Ken and Conor wanted to go together yet Kai refused as he knew these two couldn't be trusted when together alone, so he decided to go with Conor while Ellen went with Ken… 

Before splitting up completely, Kai gave Myra a quick warning glance unnoticeable for normal humans which even Myra herself was barely able to notice even with her trained superhuman eyes… 

….

Sigh* 

"Where the heck could this monster be hiding? We've been looking for it for the past 5 hours… How long is it gonna take before we find this MotherF*cker!?!"

Tired and annoyed by the time it was taking them to find this monster, Ken began grumbling about the situation as he frowned while walking by an ugly old lady on the crowded streets of the city… 

"Tch… You're right, we're wasting our time here… Let's try searching in one of those forests nearby…" 

Ellen suggested as they passed by another crowded area of the city… The two were hoping to find the monster here as they predicted it would be somewhere around these places knowing low-ranked monsters who rely completely on their instincts and seek for human crowded areas… 

The only explanation for the monster's current unknown location is that it has a higher intelligence, whether it was because of its initial, primal body's higher intellect… Or because of reaching a higher rank and gaining it while so… 

The two both rejected the second reason as they had already been told it was an F-rank monster… The lowest of them all and what every newbie group is demanded to fight for training… 

F-rank monsters can only have enough intelligence to resist their instincts if they were an intelligent species in their primary form… 

Thus making it Ellen and Ken's most logical assumption… 

….

Meanwhile, on Kai and Conor's side, they had the same train of thought as they were walking down the road towards their side of the nearby forest… 

Yet even after 30 minutes of searching, they were still unable to find any trace of the said monster… 

It was getting Conor kind of angry while Kai himself didn't seem to have gotten angry or annoyed any less or more than he is usually as he had the same expression as usual yet this was only from the outside… 

From the inside, even Kai himself wasn't having the best times as he felt very anxious about the situation… 

He didn't know why but he was feeling like something really bad was about to happen… 

But he ignored all his doubts thinking whatever is about to happen won't be able to kill all 5 of them considering they literally have 3 superhumans and even 2 who have the power of one… 

It wasn't that Kai was arrogant or reckless, in fact, he was even very cautious and thought of the possibility of misinformation and the monster being an E-rank monster and prepared some plans accordingly… 

It was already crazy enough to send newbie kids like them to fight an F-rank monster, fighting an E-rank one would make most newbies simply fall into despair as they'll have zero chance of survival… 

This was the difference between two ranks which nobody- no matter how talented they are- could pass or ignore… 

Yet Kai still had a very good plan that he thought about very carefully of a way to defeat that type of monster… 

Many would call Kai paranoid for that, but this wasn't the case at all, it was just that Kai always tried to assume the worst when it comes to his plans… He didn't want everything he schemed to be ruined because of some slight mistake or misinformation… 

Well… Maybe he is, actually a little paranoid…

"Let's take some rest, we don't wanna find that monster only to be so exhausted to deal with it… "

Kai suggested as he wanted them to take a little break, he wasn't tired at all yet he was able to tell that Conor was from hearing his frequent, long and tired gasps of air every once in a while… 

He knew from his little understanding of Conor's personality that he'll never ask for a break first, as long as he's seeing Kai walking he'll push himself even if his feet were numb or bleeding… 

Conor was happy to hear Kai's suggestion as he was really exhausted and could barely feel his legs anymore… Sweat was dripping all over him and he was already questioning if he should ask Kai for some rest… 

Thankfully, he didn't have to as Kai had already decided it himself… 

They started eating some of their food supply after they found a decent spot to take some rest in, while so, Conor's annoying personality came back out as he couldn't just let them eat in peace and began opening his big mouth like usual… 

The two chatted for a bit… Perhaps it's better to say Conor was chatting with himself as Kai wasn't even listening to any of Conor's bullshit… He simply nodded his head every once in a while pretending to hear everything he was saying… 

"So, do you think any of the others found that monster yet? "

Eventually, Conor said something that Kai actually listened to, but as he was about to answer his annoying teammate, they both heard a distorted female voice coming from their radios… 

[It's Myra, I'm on the west side of th… On the west side of the forest… I have made contact with the monster… I need backup… I repeat… I need backup… ]