16 - Kohaku of the flame

The boys met up near a cafeteria. "Did you get a suitable weapon?" Albert asked.

With a smirk, Mase drew a rapier from his scabbard. "Pretty cool, right?"

"Not bad!" Lele replied with sparkly eyes.

"By the way, what the heck did you do? As soon as I gave her the crystals, she started blabbering about making a weapon for you and how she won't be defeated."

"That's a long story, let's handle the rift first." Albert said.

As the group walked toward their destination, they couldn't help but notice something strange. A large crowd had gathered, along with lines of reporters. Curious, Albert approached a random passerby and asked, "What's all the fuss about?"

"You don't know? Kohaku of the flame is here to clear a rift. To be honest, this number of people is less than what I expected."

As they moved away from the crowd, Albert exclaimed "Shit, I think that's the rift we were supposed to clear. I want to get a closer look and see what's happening firsthand."

Lele seemed strangely on edge. His unusual demeanor became apparent as he placed his hand on Albert's chest, blocking his way. "That's a bad idea," he said, "I don't know why, but something tells me she is strong."

[Kohaku side]

As chaos ensued, a reporter managed to get close enough to see a woman with flaming red hair. She stood at 165 cm, with a slender and well-proportioned body. She wore a black leather jacket and tight leggings, paired with a plain white t-shirt underneath. Her brown eyes exuded ferocity as she looked at everyone with a sense of superiority and aggression. Her sharp face further increased her strong appearance.

"Miss Kohaku, how does it feel to be the only awakened person in Italy to have achieved the yellow color during the mana crystal test?"

"Don't bother me, I'm about to clear this rift. W"eak-ass regular humans should stay away from the stage. Besides I have always been the strongest, the results of the test don't surprise me one bit."

"As bad tempered as ever, but that's why we love her!" The reporter kept talking looking at the camera "Before the mana situation she was making herself famous in the MMA field, and now she's already gained another title Kohaku of the flame. In less than 4 days she has cleared 5 rifts single handedly, and she is approaching the sixth."

Kohaku turned her head just because. For a moment her gaze met that of a muscular boy. A shiver ran down her spine. 'Who the hell is that?' she thought. 'If I were to fight him, I would have to prepare myself to lose a limb or two. How can I, the strongest in this country, be intimidated by a simple gaze?'

She looked again in the crowd, but she couldn't find any trace of the boy. With her head filled with thoughts, she entered the rift.

A vast expanse of scorched earth lay before her, with lava lakes scattered throughout. Kohaku smiled, forgetting what happened just a few seconds before. "Looks like it's my lucky day."

A group of massive iguana-like monsters slowly became aware of her presence.

"I really need to blow off some steam after that frustrating situation earlier."

With her feet ablaze, she moved at incredible speed towards her first target. "Fire punch."

Her right fist plunged through the beast's skull, frying its brain.

She suddenly felt a warm substance, warm lava dripped down her back.'If it was someone else it would have been very bad, however thanks to my passives [Fire resistance, Heat resistance], it doesn't hurt one bit.' Scanning her surroundings trying to identify where the attack came from. An iguana approximately 20 meters away spit a blob of magma at her. 'So that's what hit me' she thought as she swiftly dodged to the side and quickly casted a fireball burning the monster to a crisp.'I should still try to dodge all of the attacks. This time I was lucky, but what if it was acid or some different element?'.

Drawing her twin daggers, she focused her heat into the blades and dashed forward, effortlessly striking three monsters on her way, each one receiving exactly seven precise cuts that sliced through their flesh like butter. "Let's get serious." she declared.

[10 minutes later]

Kohaku stood before the exit rift, surrounded by the lifeless corpses of over 30 iguana monsters. "Time to head back." she said.

After her return, Kohaku's personal assistant led her through the crowd to a luxurious car. "I want you to investigate a boy." The assistant was left speechless for a couple seconds. 'The miss is actually interested in someone. I must put my best efforts into this investigation.'

Meanwhile Albert and his group were raking up their brains trying to figure out what to do since that rift was taken.

"Can't we just go to a different one?" Finn asked.

"We could, but we need to be careful. Close to us there are a few rifts categorized as Lv 5-10 but I want to avoid those. I would much rather keep focusing on the ones on the 1-5 range. The only problem is that they are clearly the ones that the government is prioritizing, so the closest one is a 2 hours drive."

"That's annoying." Mase replied.

"Well I don't really think that we have a choice." Albert sated after a bit of thinking.

After a boring and uneventful drive they stopped the car in the middle of nowhere. They were surrounded by wheat fields. The group started walking in the field.

"Albert, are you sure that there is a rift here?" Mase asked

"I'm certain, do you think I would willingly walk in this dirt if I wasn't sure."

After a bit they finally found themself in front of the rift, but something was clearly wrong. The rift didn't look as usual, it was instead unstable. It was trembling in the air.

"I don't know if going inside is a good idea." Finn said.

"Yeah I have a bad feeling about this." Lele added.

Before they could discuss what to do they heard a crackling noise. "Stand back" Albert stated in distress.

A pair of skinny arms and a round head with no facial features, except for the mouth, emerged from the rift, emitting a terrifying screech. The group froze in shock, but Albert quickly took charge, "Get ready to fight, everyone!" Each member of the group drew their weapon, and Mase summoned his pawn to prepare for battle.

A man, alarmed by the sound, rushed from his nearby farmstead. "Who's there?" he shouted, clutching a lupara.

"Run, old man!" Finn exclaimed, urgently.

A creature emerged from the portal, crawling on all fours. Its limbs ended in hands with three human-like fingers, each tipped with sharp, triangular nails that could easily pierce flesh. While its physical structure was similar to that of a human, its incredibly pale skin and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth set it apart as a fearsome beast.

As the farmer laid eyes on the terrifying creature, fear consumed him and he froze in place. In a flash, the monster pounced on him, catching him off guard.

Just as it seemed all hope was lost, Lele sprang into action. He moved with such speed that he appeared to blur, before suddenly materializing next to the monster. With lightning-fast reflexes, he gripped the creature's head with one hand and its body with the other. With immense strength he ripped the monster's head apart from his body. A freezing blue liquid poured down his severed neck.

The old farmer started screaming and ran away, disappearing in the field. Lele almost puked 'These monsters look a bit too human. No they aren't, at the end of the day they are monsters I must kill them brutally with no hesitation' he thought to himself.

"Guys snap out of it, we must take our chances now! They are coming out one by one, and as long as we take care of them fast enough it is going to be a constant 4 vs 1."

The group approached the rift and every monster that came out met his end almost instantly, it was either slashed by Mase's pawn or pierced by finn spear. Each time they injured one of them it released a chilling cry of pain.

After just a couple minutes that felt like hours to the boys the rift collapsed disappearing. A mountain of corpses was staked where the rift was just a few seconds before. The friends breathed out in relief.