Unexpected encounter

Watching Hajime kill in cold blood was very off-putting. Not the fact he did it, but if she could do that? Up to this point killing monsters felt like a video game since they were mindless beasts trying to kill them, so Selena was able to disassociate it in her mind due to that fact. 'But people… he did it so effortlessly. Can I do that?'

"How do you feel?" Yue asks as she watches Hajime look down at the corpse of a knight with their armor blown out from the impact of the bullet he had shot. 

"Mmm not happy, but it was them or us and I will always pick us. My bullets without lighting field empowering them are more than enough though. And my grenades are good too. Any more blast rock and the blast would have blown up more than just people. If I killed innocent bystanders it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. And anyways, it was more or less a test for myself, and I passed."

Shea and the Haulias were on the side, hearing them and were surprised to learn that it was the very first time he had killed a fellow human since it looked so effortless. Some of them looked away or took a step back in fear. "Wait, that was your first time killing?" Shea looked confused as she asked that with a hint of fear."

"I don't know, couldn't you just let those last few survivors live? I mean they couldn't do anything to us after your first wave of attacks?"

Hajime found it bewildering that she was fighting for the people that just recently want to kill her family and rape her too. "You know showing weakness is a sin especially when you yourself can't protect yourself. Yeah, I wasn't going to let any of these enemies live cause if I leave one alive, it was going to just bite us in the ass later. When we were down in the depths of hell, it was a lesson we learned the hard way.

"I mean I get it, but still…" Shea looked at odds since she had not seen much of the world to this point, being safely behind the wall of Verbergen.

"You all are being incredibly ungrateful right now, you know?" walking away or looking away, Yue's tone didn't change much, but hit them all like a ton of bricks and most of the adults looked down in shame.

Cam walked up to Hajime and bowed at a 90 degrees angle, "I'm sorry. Hajime-san. We are just not used to this kind of violence. Seeing as we choose not to fight, it was very surprising to see that you kill without mercy. We are very grateful that you will help us get back to the sea of trees though." Most of the Haulias were also murmuring sorry as well in the background.

Nonplussed, Hajime brushed it off. "It's alright, I don't mind. We made a deal and it is what keeps us together for now."

"Hoho I like a man who can keep it simple," smiling at the fact there was a solid reason why he was helping them out instead of some vague idea like heroism. All the while Hajime noticed that Selena was awfully quiet all this time. And turn too see her looking at the body of other soldiers. 

"Hey are you alright?"

Hearing she was being addressed she turned around, a bit flustered. "I was just thinking since it is only one day I should go on my own and save the rabbitman while you guide these to the sea of trees."

"You sure?" His eyes show a bit of concern. But the tone stayed the same since he didn't want to show any old random stranger his emotions. 

"Yea I just want to test something as well, and helping out these people won't even be a problem. We are the strongest," she smiled but it didn't reach her eyes.

He knew she was in the same place as him since he just barely killed a person for the first time here and now. Nodding he spawned the two motorcycles and turned to the Haulias, "Alright you worthless rabbits. Get the carriages unloaded and get them hooked up to my bike and we'll get going."

"Yes sir." All the rabbitmen quickly ran to carriages and began to unload them so they could fit for the journey ahead. Hajime went over to Selena and handed her a watch-like artifact with an arrow pointed at him. "When you get closer to the sea of trees just pour your mana into this and it will show the way to this," He pointed at his own watch-like artifact to show it off. 

"Got it." Put on her watch that was back and scaly like the used the skin of the hydra to make the band it was using. "It looks nice. I didn't know you made something like this."

"Also try not to crash the bike please I won't be around to fix it if you break it."

"It was one time," looking away Selena couldn't meet his eyes 

"ha ha really? Then what about the time you break so hard you were the one sent flying?"

"Ugh just stop, I'm not a child and cars are safer."

"Silly cow," Yue added.

"Not you too," Selena slapped her face and ran her hand down it.

"Ha, I'm still working on it. This is only just a prototype." Smile appear on his face since it was just the three of them.

A little off the distance Shea was looking a bit envious since she could still hear them. Hajime seemed to be kind to Selena and it seemed that Yue knew that they were more like Shea and her family. But that wasn't what Shea wanted, although her heart started to beat just a bit faster in his presence. The four of them started to walk towards the biggest tent, hoping to get a map.

XxXxXxXx

A little after that Selena had split off from the party and she had a map in-tow, so she had a good idea of the path they had taken and the track of wagons was also a dead give away. Selena looked at the road ahead thinking about what was to come. After half a day her mana sense alerted her to a lot mana signatures, but at the same time they were being erased from what looked to be a battle. As she got close enough to see, what she saw was a demon platoon encircling the caravan of Empire soldiers. It looked like a small squad had managed to break through and were running for their lives on horseback. Leaving her sense since she tried to make sure she didn't miss a single soul in the current battle. 

Out of reflex, she started to turn all of the chakra in her body into ice elemental chakra as she formed a few hand signs as multiple ice spears appeared in the air above the demons. The first volley shot out twenty-five spears in a circle, careful not to land close to the caravan since it might hit one of the rabbitmen that were cowering in the wagon. Of the few there, the moms were shielding the kids, and the slightly older ladies were ready to die to protect their family.

Some of the demons that were far enough from main battle turned and casted fireball, wind blades, or earth wall to protect themselves from incoming volley. The unlucky ones that didn't see them coming died right then and there, but it had only caught two soldiers. The empire soldiers were reinvigorated to see a fellow human coming to their help. 

The demon's leader in the back shouted out to Selena. "Leave this place adventurer, this has nothing to do with you. Or else you end up just like these humans." He says, referring to the dead on the ground. 

"I like to see you to try and stop me then," Selena says, getting off her bike, she forms ice blades in both her hands that look like throwing daggers.

"Let it not be said I didn't give you a chance, filthy human." He pointed to four soldiers and charged at her, already casting fireballs and wind blades at her. Clearly meant to attack her, even if she had chosen to walk away from the battle.

Selena throws her daggers to intercept the attacks, and as she does so, an icy aura emulates from her arms, creating more ice daggers just as fast as she throws them. Eventually the daggers start to form in the air around her and are even launched from the air.

As this is happening, the daggers start to overpower the attacks and getting through to the demon soldiers on the other side. At first, it was just a nick on the cheek, but then escalated to a dagger to the knee, the leg, the chest or the head, killing them off at a rapid pace. She has been practicing imbuing her ninjutsu with additional effects from her skills, with little success. The best that she has been able to do has been to affect the techniques that are within five feet from her. 

Going into a panic, the general yells out, "Stall her! I will cast Thunder Hammer!" With this command, the remaining soldiers start to charge at Selena, hoping to buy their general even a little bit of time. As he watched on, he saw his men get cut down as fast as they charged at the women. Ice daggers were formed near her persons and shot out. But unlike the earlier hail of raining ice spears, she was only able to make two ice blades. As the next wave attack sure hit her she teleported a short distance next to one of his soldiers and stabbed him. It was very odd since the look on her face was very distant, unlike her aura at the beginning. 

"Oh lighting com…" he was just about to finish casting the thunder hammer spell when he looked into her eye and he saw little black dots rotating around her eye and the next second he was strapped to a cross unable to move. At that moment all the soldiers that were still alive were confused since their leader just stopped casting and his nose started bleeding out of nowhere.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

"Why did he stop?"

"No please no I don't want to die."

In that moment the leftover demons try to run and from the sky another wave of ice spears impaled the remaining soldiers. The general started screaming as he fell to his knees and passed out. After killing all the demons, Selena walked to the knocked out general and looked at his face and saw that his nose was bleeding.

"Guess even if the opponent is weak I can put them in genjutsu but I hit them as subtle as a sledgehammer." She was in own world, still not letting the fact that she had killed hit her mind just yet since she was there for the rabbitmen. 

The few remaining soldiers circled Selena and started to thank her and a leader for the group came up. "I thank you very much for saving us. Our commander ran with the elites of our convoy and left us for dead." He ball his fist as he said those words. "Can you please help us miss adventurer, we are from the empire and we need to take these slaves." one of random soldier was not happy almost die se the leader was just knock out in a rage he stabbed his sword in to the demons heart kill him instantly. While spitting on him like a crazy killer. 

Tired of this moment with a dry voice she said, "Can you please leave and I will take the rabbitmen."

All the soldiers were confused for a moment and started drawing their blades ready to fight. "Look here, these slaves are the property of the empire. Are you really going to make yourself an enemy of our kingdom?" Clearly forgetting that she single handedly killed all the demons that had, not too long ago, almost killed him and their men. 

"Look if I didn't come and save you just now you would be dead. I could have waited and let you die off but I didn't. So can you just walk away?"

"Charge men! She must be weakened after using all that magic!!!" The next moment the men saw her draw out her blade and wind gathered onto it and the next second their heads were rolling off their necks. There was no time for them to regret their decision. 

All the while, the rabbitmen saw the altercation and were even more afraid of Selena since she just killed everyone in cold blood and didn't look none the wiser. On the inside, however, she was a huge ball of emotion. 'Could you just walk away? Was my strength not enough to make you back off? Men are so stupid!!' In order to cope with it she had shut down her emotion for the moment and walked to the cage that had been holding the rabbitmen. She swung her blade, cutting the lock right off. "I'm here to save you. Shea Haulia made a contract and this is just part of it." 

Timidly one rabbitmen girl teen walked out from the crowd. "My name is Lana. Did Shea really send you, why isn't she here? Are we truly safe?" She was firing off so many questions.

"Look, I'm heading back to the sea of trees, so you see for yourself. For now, get the other cages tied on to the back of my ride and I'll pull those cages for you guys." Selena was a bit more standoffish since at the moment she was still put off the killing of people. She walked back to her bike and brought it closer to three cages they daisy chain and handed the rope to Selena so she tied it onto the back of her bike.

Lana came up and saw Selena was very distant. "Are you alright?"

Let out a breath. "No, but thank you for caring. I'm just trying to keep it together. That was the first time I killed people…"

"I'm so sorry but I'm very grateful you came to help us. I don't know how you are feeling but I'm here if you need a friend." She came up and hugged Selena and a single tear came out.

"Thank you, I needed that." With a bit of the weight she had been carrying was lifted. "Okay, you can stay with your people. I still want to ride alone."

"Okay," she squished her with the tight hug she gave her and walked hopping onto the wagon and Selena started her trek back to the sea of trees following the compass artifact point in one direction. Hours passed and it was nightfall by the time she could finally see the sea of trees and all the rabbitmen in the front cart were happy since they could see their home.

"We're going to stop here," Selena told them. "Tomorrow morning we made our way through the sea of trees and see your people."

Seeing no reason not to, they all made themselves comfortable around the wagon and kids were allowed to stay in wagon while most adults slept around the wagon and Selena sat crisscross in half awake to stay alert in case any monster made there way to the clearing. A few times during the night she silently kill a few brave monster that ignore their senses, since Selena was projecting her intimate skill outwards to keep most of them out.

Their two months of training was coming in handy at this moment. Thanks to that she was able to recover her missing mana and did not feel so fatigued. She was still hung up on killing people and was not in the best state, but she kept to her current mission and did not dwell on it for now at least. 

XxXxXxXx

Lana came up to Selena as all the rabbitmen were starting to rouse awake and stretching. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. I guess we should be close. Maybe we will spend the morning to find Shea and the others, wherever they may be." Know full well that they most likely got kick out of Verbergen since Hajime doesn't know how to read the atmosphere. 

"Wait, you can navigate through the sea of trees?!" Lana exclaims, wondering just what kind of human she is.

"No, I can't. But I got this artifact that allows me to locate the other one that is currently in the forest."

"Oh, I see," she says, relieved that humans as a whole couldn't just walk through the forest without getting lost still in normal circumstances. 

"We will be going on foot from here." Selena addresses all the Haulias to stay in a tight group. "I will protect you while we make our way through the forest."

"Home at last." "I can't wait to see the others." "What do you think they are all up to?" Were just some of the things the Haulia were saying as they started their track though the sea of trees. 

While they were making their way through the forest, the Haulias noticed that they were not heading towards the city. Lana walks up to Selena, "Why are we heading in this direction?"

"It is pointing me in this direction," showing that the artifact was in fact pointing in slightly off the way to the city. 

"Why is that?"

"Did you forget why you left in the first place?" Selena just looks at her in confusion.

"Oh ya. I forgot." as she recalled that they had all left for Shea's sake in the first place. 

As they talk about this and that Selena had been forming ice daggers and throwing them every time a monster got too close to the very skittish rabbitmen. Since their ears keep turning on the incoming enemies. But every time they heard a thud they look forward once again and keep walking to avoid stepping on the flower and bug much to Selena's exasperation. 

Out of nowhere all the rabbitmen stop walking. From the fog came out a troop of beastmen and a tigerman led them looking very weary at Selena.

"Why are you here human!!?? Did you come to kidnap our kin??" The tigerman questions with his hand on his sword. 

"Captain are those Haulias? Weren't they all with that savage boy with the eye patch." One of the beastmen questions.

"Don't you mean demon. I heard he one punched an elder and got away with it." Another beastmen responds.

The rabbitmen were confused and surprised to hear that anyone would defy the Council of Elders since they were in control of the country. 

"I'm looking for them. To be precise, I'm their comrade and I went and chased down the empire soldiers to rescue them." She gestures at the Haulias behind her. 

"How do we know you're not just lying to us in order to get to the city and catch more beastmen?!"

"Look, if you want a fight are you ready to suffer the consequences of that course of action?" She turned on her intimidation, not in mood to kill needlessly 

Feeling the same pressure coming from the girl leading the pack, all the beastmen got goosebumps all over their skin not wanting to provoke another monster. "I see you were telling the truth, but by the decree of the Elder council, all of the Haulia clan are considered slaves to Hajime-san. You are forbidden to step into the city due to the actions taken by him."

"Sigh, I could guess he was as friendly as he could be, until one of your guys provoked him, I'm guessing." She says full of sarcasm on the word 'friendly'. All the beastmen looked away knowing full well that was exactly what had happened. 

The patrol group knew Jin's temperament dealing with humans in their territory, and knew that he would and did attempt to strike Hajime. With a cough, the captain looks at her, "Well, yes, that did happen. Even so, we will need to tell the Elder about you… Hajime didn't mention you at all. Will that be fine with you?"

"Yeah that is fine." 'Though I will need to get back at that jerk.'

"Zam, you know what to do"

"Yes sir." With a quick reply, one of the patrolmen left. 

"The rest of you, make a protective perimeter around them," then he turns back to the group, "you may rest for a while as we get the elder here. We will promise not to do anything against you while we get things cleared." The captain says before sighing under his breath with exasperation, "again."

Hearing that, the rabbitmen that were pushing Selena's bike flopped onto the ground exclaiming "Finally!"

Looking towards the cry, the captain looks confused, "What is that thing?"

Glancing at where he was looking, Selena nonchalantly states, "Hmm? Oh that is my artifact that allows me to travel long distances. It doesn't really work here though, too many roots that could trip me up."

"I-I see." He says nervously, before settling down for the wait.

XxXxXxXx

A few hours later, a few new presences appeared on her detection. She stands up, ready to greet the newcomers. Out of the forest came an elf with long blond hair and striking blue eyes that held a large amount of wisdom. 'This must be the elven elder… what was his name again? Legolas? I will just call him Legolas from now on.'

This man's already frail appearance, seems to be especially worse with the messy hair, sunken face, and bags around his eyes. "Man, you look tired and haggard."

"Yes, very much so. Especially since our last guest left us with a whole retinue of problems to fix."

"Well, if you would kindly allow us through, so we can join them."

"Before that, would you please describe your friends first."

"Really, does this not prove enough?" Selena says while gesturing towards the other Haulias that were with her.

"I am just trying to make sure that we don't just let any random human into the Sea of trees and kidnap our kin."

With a sigh, Selena points to her hair and starts, "He should have white hair like me, about my same height, he has a metal arm, trying to go for the edgy look, I mean in this day and age, doesn't it scream Chuuni vibes? He doesn't even need the eyepatch." After a while, it seems like the descriptors that she gives, while accurate, are more done in a jovial manner and even does a weird pose, as if trying to emphasize the eye.

While confused, Ulfric seems to know who she was talking about and nods. "And the other one?"

"Hmm, there is a little blonde loli, about half my size, and is a monster when on the prowl. I think she is a cougar." she says, then snickers to herself, "We will keep that last part to ourselves."

Hearing that, the members of Verbergan looked at each other in confusion at the description for what they presumed to be a child. Then a chilling wave of air prickled the backs of everyone's necks in the clearing, as if death was waiting for them. 

"What is this about Chuuni vibes?" An ominous voice came from the forest on the right. Glancing there, the group sees three figures emerge from the foliage and into the clearing. The one in the lead was none other than Hajime with his arms crossed across his chest, looking like a blade from marvel comic he was ready to go on war path in killing vampires. His Intimidate skill was on full blast, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Following behind Hajime, were Yue who looked annoyed at being called a loli, only instinctively knowing that it was basically an insult. Following up in the rear was a nervish Shea, who was looking at all the larger beastmen in the clearing, afraid that they might attack her on-sight,

Yue had a calculating glint in her eyes, ready to get back at Selena for her words. 

"Oh, hey Hajime… What are you doing here…" Selena says, eyes darting left and right, looking for an escape.

The only reply that he seemed to give, was the slow movements of his arms from being in front of him, to hovering over his guns. The beastmen, feeling the bloodlust welling up in him, slowly back away from Selena, while the rabbitmen were slowly moving into the forest to hide behind the trees.

"...Any last word?" He asks coolly.

"...YUE DID IT!" She yelled before she bolted away from him.

Hajime then proceeded to pull out his guns and fire at her in a dangerous game of Cat and Mouse. 

For the next 5 minutes the beast men were in awe that what they had seen the day before wasn't anywhere near the true strength of Hajime-san prowess. And clearly the new coming was no slouch too and they all turned to Yue in fear thinking she was such a monster too, recalling the wind spell that had thrown up all the sad Hollis just the day before. 

"Take your lumps like a man damn you!!!"

"Nooo it hurts!!"

"I am not an edgelord damn it!!!"

Booom. A tree was toppled down in the middle of the game. 

Yue was used to this since Selena was the only one that managed to get him to act a bit more childishly. At some point Lana went to Shea and they were both hugging each other in awe and a bit of fear. 

At some point Selena had pulled out her Abraxos and shot an incoming tree Hajime threw and was using to cover up how he was shooting at Selena. Growing exasperated with this play fight Yue gathers her mana and lifts her arm forwards as she calls ice coffin to stop them from taking this any further. It was a bit too late though since all the beast men and the elder were looking like they were ready to bolt. 

Yue took a quick glance at Selena, noticing that she was not all there. Almost like she couldn't get something off of her mind. It reminded her of when they doubled back for her in Orcas labyrinth. Her eyes looked worse, but it was still similar to then. 

Seeing what looked to be a spar in their eye Ulfric came up right behind the group with the tiger man following suit. Ulfric coughed in his hand, trying to get their attention. "I see that our new guest to the sea of trees is also in your group, so she will also be banned from entering our city."

While he was addressing them, both Hajime and Selena had broken their way through the ice prison since Yue was really only just trying to hold them in place for a moment. 

"Can the two quit acting like children?" Yue walked up to Hajime looking like he still wasn't done with this moment. "Also why did you blame me Selena?" 

"It's easy when in doubt, blame someone else…" She smiled like she was some kind of genius. 

Yue's eyes twitch after hearing something so stupid. "So you're just an idiot. Very well then, so let's get the two of you on ice to cool off." 

"Speaking of which Hajime, what did you do? I heard from the beast men you punched an elder or something." Internally 'I wish he was able to handle it more diplomatically.'

"Hey they started it," Hajime said, looking like she was blaming him solely. 

"Haha, I could guess."

"Yes, Jin is in our hospital currently recovering, but he will never be able to fight again."

"Tch, he's lucky I didn't kill him. Normally I kill my enemies."

Slapping the back of his head, Selena walks up to Ulfric, pulling out one of the few vials of elixir and hands it to Ulfric. "Have him drink that, it should get him on his feet. I do have one piece of advice though."

Grateful they will be able to heal one of their strongest warriors, the elder nodded his head. "What might that be? "

"You sure be careful for the foreseeable future. When I was rescuing the rabbitmen from the empire's clutches, they were in the midst of getting raided from the demon army. I am not sure why, but it looks like they are looking to capture your kind."

Ulfric's eyes widened since up to this point the demons had ignored them, choosing to attack the empire and the kingdom. "This is very disturbing news to hear." All the beast men were murmuring at the revelation. "As an elder, I thank you very much for bringing us this vital information and we will not forget this kindness. We are in your debt," he says as he bows. 

"Thanks, but I'm just letting you know cause you were here. Since we are banished from your city, I don't think I would have gone out of my way to let you know normally."

Wincing at the fact that they were at odds with people who honestly didn't see them as foe was very regrettable at this moment. 

"If we are done here, we get going." Hajime was already over having the same long talk once again. "Shea can guide us back." 

"We need to get back to training." Yue looked at Shea who was shivering at having to dodge many incoming attacks thrown at her. 

"How is dodging attacks training?!!"

"It builds character," Yue mussed. 

"What!!!"

The beastmen that were encircling them let the new group of rabbitmen pass though, since they were considered slaves. 

As they made way to where they were currently based. Shea was bringing up to speed what the tribe decided to take Hajime train camp for the next ten days before the deal was done. The new group agreed readily since they didn't want to feel so powerless and recall almost being captured a second time when the demon came for them.