Corruption Spreading

The next morning, we were all ready to leave. Dante became kind of Green Shelter's secret guardian, so he couldn't come with us, but in his place, we had Rose to scout around without problems and (despite the massive opposition from Hayley, Rose, and myself) Pinky was going to reunite with us to give us some information too…

"I'm incredibly honored of finally seeing the Hero's party in his full strength!"

He seemed more excited than anything, so I was hoping he doesn't say something stupid as usual…

"Yes, it's been a while since we were on a mission together."

Now that he mentions it I can't remember a moment where we all fought together like this, the nearest might be the battle at the city edge, but we were just part of the same army and didn't really fought together. This was the first time that we actually go into a mission only the five of us.

"Then this beast will be done in no time, Sir."

"I hope so… Dante mentioned that you had some information for me."

"Yes Noble Hero, we have managed to locate 3 beasts, and we believe that some more escaped from the city to the west. The one that attacked the people from the Green Kingdom is a chimera of a crocodile and lizard. As the hero already figured out in his vast wisdom the corrupted blood left behind by the Blood Lord was, in fact, his last trap to cause problems and try to destroy the alliance!!"

I don't remember saying any of this…

"What do you mean what did the blood do?"

"As we looked around we found beast and animals that couldn't handle the power that came from the blood but this one is powerful, we just find the other two and haven't been able to test them yet, but we think it is correct to believe that they are also strong enough. The chimera got additional abilities besides what it already had, but the worse part is not this ability but the corruption… All of the brothers that fought against it and managed to bite the beast were infected by this corruption.

"What this corruption did?"

"We are not sure, their minds were taken away from us and the connection severed. Their eyes turned red and started to attack their brothers…Please, Hero, save their souls before it's too late."

"We will do our best don't worry. You mentioned another two beasts in the city?"

"Yes, they didn't spread their corruption like the crocozard, at least for now. One of them we think is a follower of the former Demon Emperor Dante a small size grey feline, about the others we are not sure… Our scouts insist that it's a chimera of dog and mouse, but our expert said that is a weird race called Chihuahua we don believe him too much, so we are using the code name dougse for the moment. About their abilities as mentioned before none of them has been tested yet but our scouts are in the lookout, the feline is especially slippery and difficult to follow."

So the other two are a cat and a chihuahua… I wonder how those two little animals managed to resist the power that came from the blood.

"Thank you, Pinky. We will be on the move then."

"You are welcome, hero, and the Snake Goddess bless you on your task."

When I thought that I was able to leave the conversation unscattered, he added.

"I hope you invite me to your weddings."

Seriously I hate this guy…

After getting the directions from Pinky, we moved, some of us really happy about running away from that rat.

We were too many to use my space folding to move all of us at the same time, so Hayley got with Hope into a custom made vehicle that used the same principle than the one I made inside the cow. Rose changed her body and went into the sky to follow us flying, and G and I moved by foot… I'm not taking his hand, so I just used a short-timed Accelerate on him.

Thanks to our movement methods we were able to get to our objective really fast.

From Pinky's descriptions besides the crocozard, a bunch of berserk rats were also to be expected to appear. And if my guess is right, the hunting team that disappeared might also have joined their ranks.

Once near the place, we decreased our speeds and waited for G to arrive I might have mistimed the accelerate a little … Hayley got out of Hope's sphere giving space for hope to fold it. The vehicle left behind three rings surrounding her and the platform where she was sitting.

It was a smart and straightforward design which I could throw into my item box without problems if I wanted. This was a prototype exclusive made for her. The plan was to create a better version in the future, but it has been pushed down in the list of priorities for the moment. I put the platform inside the item box, but she left the rings floating around her for protection. (A/N: google astrolabe sphere, and you will understand)

"Give me a second."

Hope was floating slightly above the floor thanks to her new magnetic boots when I asked if someone needed a weapon from the system she took advantage of it and instead asked for this and then made G work on her weapons… She threw 6 metallic objects of different sizes outside the rings, and they also started to rotate around her while spinning themselves, as if she was the star of her own solar system and the two chakrams and four shurikens were her planets.

She gave off a dangerous feeling with all the stuff spinning around her.

"I'm ready!"

We all looked at her, this was the first time that we saw all this, she seemed to have been practicing her control and working hard on her ability… with all this around her, I'm wondering how far she is from getting into the C-Rank… she can't be that far right?

As we looked at Hope in her war mode completely dumbfounded G appeared near us with his mouth wide open. I started talking to call their attention back into the mission.

"The last time the crocozard was seen was around this area. We have to assume the worse, and he probably is going to have rats, the disappeared hunting team, and even some other animals with him."

They noticed that this was not the time to be surprised and after the initial shock they paid attention to my instructions. Nodding at my works.

"Hayley and Hope, the most annoying part will likely be the rats and other minor beasts you take care of them, From Pinky's description, this "corruption" might have some side effect so don't let them get near or touch us. G, you are going to handle the crocozard in the meantime. If the hunting team appears, I will hold them off and take care of them. Otherwise, I will help G manage the crocozard. If someone finishes with his targets first, they can start supporting others. Rose check the surrounding we don't know if they are going to be the only corrupted beast in the area and I don't want surprises."

They all nodded and agreed with my instructions.

"Questions?"

Rose who right now was in her physical form with us raised her hand.

"Yes, Rose?"

"Do you think you can hold the hunting teams for a while? I want to see if my Cleanse works on this corruption."

"I'll try, it would be nice to bring them back home, Paws check the surroundings and you and Lucy are with me with the hunting team if they appear. Anything else?"

This time no one raised his or her hand. With the revised plan in order, we got ready to move, but something unexpected happened

*Bark! Bark…!*

Suddenly a hi-pitched, and extremely annoying sound pierced our ears.

I reacted instinctively, taking a spear from the item box I turned around and threw it at the head of the beast which wanted to keep annoying us.

At the time that the spear went into the forehead of the dougse (Aka. chihuahua) the chimera was frozen by Hayley's Frostbite, and the next second the ice statue shattered leaving the shards in the place.

"Holy shit that scared the sh*t out of me!!"

It was G's comment, to be honest, I think that it was a bit of an overkill, but I know for a fact that Hayley hates those dogs… and it actually scared me too… how was it even able to sneak on us like that?

I looked around me and noticed that the seemingly simple attack had more effect on us than what I thought since Hayley, Hope, and Rose had blood coming out from their ears.

It just took me a couple of seconds to heal them, but still, it was our fast reaction what made the chihuahua stop the attack…

Never look down on a beast… maybe it wasn't an overkill after all.