Momiji could feel her heart beating rapidly within her chest as she walked down the dark streets of the warehouse district.

  The few flickering magic stone mps around were the only things that kept the area somewhat illuminated in the dead of night, which only made the atmosphere ever the more tense.

  ‘You can hardly see anything here… maybe that’s why they want the exchange to be here…’

  In her hands was a bag filled with all the money they had saved up so far for the sole purpose of leaving the Soma Familia, yet it was now being used as ransom for their friend’s safety and freedom.

  She could only grimace at how long it took for them to save up this much, and how much longer it would cost them before being able to leave their Familia.

  But her friend’s life came first; they could always earn more afterwards.

  After taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she entered the empty warehouse that had been designated as the rendezvous point, where the kidnappers were waiting with a smirk on their faces.

  “About time you show up.”

  It took all that she had learnt back home on etiquette to keep herself from snarling when she came face to face with the same bastards that tried to rob them months ago.

  And it wasn’t just the three of them either. They were also with the same thugs that attacked the Arcane Manor earlier that evening, the dozens of them cackling like the bunch of hyenas they were as they surrounded her.

  And kneeling on the ground next to him was her friend; her eyes widening in shock when she saw the state the pallum was in.

  “Coco!!”

  “Ngh… Mo-Momiji…?”

  Bruises all over her visible skin, her clothes ruffled and torn in certain pces with blood soaking into them, and one of her eyes was swollen shut; it was a small mercy that she was at least still decent.

  The leader of those bastards smirked as he tapped the ft edge of his sword on the injured pallum’s head, “Oh, this? Your friend here tried to attack us, so we have no choice but to rough her up a bit.”

  Momiji was so gd that Kaede wasn’t with her right now; the hume bunny would fly into a rage the moment she saw this. It didn’t mean that she wasn’t furious at them for it either.

  Oh, how she wished to unleash her spell right into every thug bastard in this pce. But they would simply rush at her the moment she started chanting, so she held herself back.

  “Here’s the money.” She threw the sack into his waiting hand, “Now let her go.”

  He opened the sack and scoffed at the amount inside, “Tch, just this much? Is your friend really only worth this much to you?”

  With fists clenched, she asked, “…how much do you want?”

  “Don’t, Momiji! He’s—argh!!”

  “Shut your mouth, you!!”

  The pallum let out a yelp of pain when the bastard’s foot struck her in the head, knocking her to the ground before stomping onto her side hard.

  “Coco!! You…!!”

  “A million vari.” He told her with a grin, “Give us that much every month, or we might start looking for a buyer for your little friend here.”

  Momiji immediately dropped her facade and growled at him, “You no good lowlifes…!!”

  “Ah, ah… you better watch what you say. Or I might—”

  “Guah!!”

  “Hrgk!!”

  The sounds of pain-filled cries had everyone looking towards the warehouse’s doorway, where the thugs blocking it were lying on the ground unconscious; and Momiji allowed herself to smile at what she knew was going to unfold.

  Standing over them was the Hecate Familia’s ‘Masked Fox’ Kyumaru, his katana drawn and his eyes gring into them with such clear and potent killer intent that they all instinctively stepped away from him.

  Not that it would do them any good as his body moved before they could react to his presence, his figure moving swiftly through them while his bde swinging and sshing anyone that he passed by with deadly accuracy.

  By the time they regained their senses and prepared to counterattack, almost half of them were taken out and lying on the floor unmoving.

  “It’s just one guy—Grah!!”

  But even as they tried to fight back, they were hopelessly outmatched. For all of them were just Low-Css Adventurers that ck the talent and the skills to handle anyone stronger than them in any way.

  Even if they tried to use their numbers against him, with one even tried to grab Momiji to use a human shield, Kyumaru easily outmaneuvered them at every turn and even used their own men to disrupt their movements.

  “Get back, Momiji.”

  “A-Alright!”

  “Fuck this! We’re getting out of here!!”

  Many saw the futility of the situation and tried to flee the warehouse. Yet the moment they stepped out into the streets, arrows embedded themselves into the legs and they all swiftly colpsed onto the ground in agony.

  For in the darkness outside, standing on the roof of the building opposite them was the ‘Lone Ranger’ Drake with his bow aimed at the doorway for any deserters attempting to escape them.

  With all the chaos happening around her, Momiji took the chance to run towards her injured friend, but she was stopped in her tracks when the leader stepped between them with a snarl.

  “You set us up, didn’t you!?” He screamed at the renard.

  “You people are the ones that attack the Hecate Familia in the first pce!” She shouted back, “This is simply retribution for your actions!”

  “You bitch!!”

  “No!!”

  The leader swung his sword at Momiji with the intent of cleaving the renard open, but Coco quickly grabbed onto his leg as hard as she could and caused him to trip and his attack to miss.

  “Run, Momiji—eyah!!”

  “Damn brat!!”

  He let out an annoyed growl before kicking the pallum off of him and turning his malice towards her instead, Coco attempting to crawl away from him but was stopped when he stomped on her gut hard.

  Her eyes widened in fear as the leader positioned his sword above her in a reverse grip, the tip pointing right where her heart should be.

  “Say goodbye to your friend, dumb bitch!!”

  “Coco, no!!”

  Momiji ran to stop the leader, but she was too far from them when he stabbed his sword down at the terrified pallum, the renard could only watch in horror as the bde tip reached ever closer to piercing Coco’s heart.

  Only it didn’t, as Kyumaru sped past her and shoved the bastard off of the pallum; Coco stared up at the swordsman in awe as he stood protectively in front of her, his katana hanging loosely in his hand.

  One gnce around the warehouse and he was greeted with the unconscious forms of his fellow drunkards, the ck of blood being the only thing that indicated them still being alive.

  “You…!! YOU…!!!!”

  With a rage filled roar, the leader rushed at him and swung his sword wildly at him, all sense of control gone from him with only his anger guiding every swing of his bde.

  All of which Kyumaru parried away with great ease, not even moving from his spot in front of the pallum; that only made the bastard angrier and his swings getting more erratic as time went by.

  He then made the mistake of taking a rather wide swing, which the renard parried away with such force that the sword was sent flying out of his hands, leaving him wide open for Kyumaru to strike.

  Using the back of his katana, he struck the bastard’s body in quick succession; the knee joints, the elbows, the wrists, the liver, the colrbone, every known weak point on the human body wasn’t spared.

  As the bastard dropped to his knees groaning in agony, he looked up at his assaint with horror as he reeled back his sword for one final heavy swing, and realized what their Familia had unfortunately done.

  ‘We messed with the wrong Familia…’

  Those were his st thoughts before the renard swung down and smmed the bde’s ft side into the top of his head hard, the sound of his skull cracking echoed upon the impact as he colpsed onto the ground unconscious.

  Coco let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding as she looked around at the carnage that the swordsman had wrought; said swordsman casually sheathing his clean sword and not looking like he had even broken a sweat.

  She then recalled the way he had saved her from the face of death, and stood before her like a loyal knight protecting his beloved princess from the—

  “Coco!!”

  “Mo-Momiji!?”

  The pallum was pulled out of her musings when her renard friend rushed up to her and pulled her into a tight hug, the pain from her bruises shooting up the spine was nothing to how fbbergasted she was.

  For all the months she knew her, Momiji had never been the type to initiate such intimate actions with anyone, not even with Kaede and she was her closest friend.

  Yet here she was, actively hugging her like how she hugged her precious stuffed toy; it was jarring to say the least.

  “I’m so gd you are okay…! You make us worried sick…!”

  “Momiji…”

  A small smile crept onto her face as Coco hugged her back, ignoring the pain from all her injuries as she enjoyed the first real intimate interaction with the renard.

  Though eventually the pain became too much and small hisses of pain left her lips which brought their bonding moment into an abrupt close.

  Momiji immediately let go as a small blush crept up her cheeks, “Ah! Ri-Right… your injuries… sorry about that…”

  “It’s fi-fine, Momiji.” Coco assured her.

  At that moment, Kyumaru decided to walk up to them before kneeling in front of the pallum, “Can you walk?”

  “Eh? Ah! I-I think so—ow, ow…!”

  Pain erupted over her entire body when she tried to stand, causing Coco to drop to her knees groaning in pain.

  “No, you’re not! Look at your injuries!”

  “I-It’s okay! I’ll just—!”

  “Please excuse me.”

  “Uwah!?”

  But before she could try again, Kyumaru’s arms slipped under her legs and lifted the pallum up into the air, her eyes widen in shock at the realization that she was now in the rumored princess-carry.

  “I apologize, but we need to get your injuries looked at as soon as possible.” He told her, “I hope you can forgive my ck of manners.”

  “O-Of course! It’s no big deal…!” She squeaked out, face as red as a tomato before stuttering out, “I’m not too he-he-heavy, I ho-hope…”

  “Not at all; you are quite light.”

  “Fueh…!!”

  Metaphorical steam burst out of her ears as she covered her red face in sheer embarrassment, her heart beating like a drum as she was carried out of the warehouse.

  All the while Momiji looked on with a teasing grin on her face.

  My vision went red the moment I saw Tris with a broken nose and being dragged along by that blonde bastard who was clearly the one responsible for her injury.

  “Let go of my friend!!”

  In an instance, with lightning crackling around me, I closed the distance between us and swung my fist into him as hard as I could. He let go of Tris and raised his arms to block the attack and was sent stumbling back from its impact.

  With my friend now free from his grasp, I grabbed onto her by the arm and ran back to Jirou and Emma before dispelling my magic, the tter immediately got to work cutting her free with her short sword.

  “How are your injuries, Tris?” I asked her.

  “No-Nothing major; just a broken nose.” She told me.

  “Ah, that’s good to hear.”

  “Wait, what about Coco!? She’s also…!”

  “We are aware.” Jirou told her, “Don’t worry, we are rescuing her as we speak.”

  “Re-Really!? Oh, that’s a relief…”

  With my friend now rescued and secured, I turned my attention to the people responsible for her kidnapping.

  The Adventurers of the Soma Familia that weren’t drunk looked at us with shock as a few of them scrambled around for their discarded weapons, while the ones that were drunk sobered up immediately and did the same.

  One of them, a grey-haired man with gsses that had just joined his fellow members from what I assumed to be the compound’s basement, looked at us with a terrified expression.

  He must be their captain if the description Momiji told us was correct; he looked like the kind of guy who would use his underlings to do all the dirty work while keeping his hands clean.

  Jirou stepped forward and addressed him directly, “You must be the captain of the Soma Familia, Zanis Lustra. Nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”

  “Wh-What are you doing here…!?” He cried out.

  “Why, you ask? Don’t py coy with me. You know exactly what you had done. So now…”

  With one smooth stroke, he removed the wooden sword from his belt and pointed it at the gsses-wearing captain as he gred at him. “We’re here to return the favor.”

  “Ru-Rush them down! They are just three people!!”

  At their captain’s desperate command, the alcoholics and addicts rushed towards us as their respective battle cries echoed throughout the compound, weapons drawn and ready for battle.

  Jirou dashed forward to meet them head on, charging right through them and sending a few flying with a single swing of his practice weapon.

  He was not done, as he began taking them out one drunkard at the time, each of them barely needing any more than a single strike from his wooden sword before colpsing onto the ground unconscious.

  Though his objective here was more than just defeating them, as he made sure to break the walls and their ckluster furniture whenever possible by sending their members smashing into them.

  They tried to surround him from all sides to box him in, but he easily and swiftly broke through their sloppy formation before they could enclose him and continued his rampage throughout the compound.

  It was a mercy on Jirou’s part for not using a wooden sword instead of an actual one, or their floor would be covered in a pool of their blood by the time he was done with them.

  “Gr-Grab the girls!!”

  A few of them avoided heading right into the massacre and instead targeted the rest of us; a decently smart move to make but was not the right one to make either.

  Cracking my knuckles, I stood in front of Emma and Tris with my fists clenched and ready for the beatdown I was going to dish out; and with people like them, I had no need to use my enchantment magic.

  The first one had his sword knocked out of his hands by me, before getting a kick into his gut that sent him crashing into his fellow alcoholic as the two tumbled all over themselves into a tangle of limbs.

  Another one had a spear that he ran up and stabbed me with, making it very easy for me to break the tip before countering with a strike into his torso, which was swiftly followed by an uppercut to his chin that knocked him out.

  The initial two untangled themselves before charging at me with the broken legs of one of their tables and swiftly colpsed after receiving two punches to each of their faces.

  The st one decided to ignore me and went straight for Emma and Tris, only for the former to parry away his weapon and leaving him open for me to pounce on him and sm him headfirst into the ground.

  “Nice work, Emma—”

  “Dae, look out!!”

  The sound of footsteps was only other indication of the sudden attack, as I quickly turned around and blocked the sword with my gauntlet; the assaint being the blonde bastard that had tried to drag Tris away.

  “You…” He gred at me with gritted teeth, “You’re that famous new rookie… the one that broke the record.”

  “And who might you be?” I asked him, “Because you don’t seem to be a member of the Soma Familia.”

  “The likes of you have no right to know my name.”

  He pulled away and swung at me with more skill and strength than any of the thugs in this establishment ever hoped to achieve.

  I dodged the attack and retaliated with a straight punch aimed for his head, but he swiftly parried it with a flick of his bde before stabbing at me.

  Which I parried away and countered with a body blow aimed for his liver and missed the mark when he moved out of my range before charging back in and swinging his sword at my neck.

  I barely avoided getting decapitated by taking a quick step back, but he was quick and closed the distance before following it up with a swing down that I parried away and countered back with another strike.

  Again and again, our attacks went back and forth with neither of us allowing the other to nd a proper strike, before our attacks cshed with each other and sent us stumbling back.

  He let out a huff, “As expected of the Record Holder; you aren’t one to be trifled with.”

  “I can say the same to you.” I noted with a grunt.

  That little exchange of ours taught me a few things about my opponent, mainly that he was clearly in a league higher than the lowlife thugs of this Familia, and he was definitely a Third-Css Adventurer like me.

  If I were to guess, he must be among upper ranks of Level 2, and had plenty of skill and power to match his arrogance.

  Though he seemed to have recognise that I wasn’t someone he could afford to look down on, and I was of the same mindset.

  His gaze then suddenly shifted to behind me before letting out a snarl, “Pink hair… you must be the one Lord Aeshima is after…”

  “Aeshima…!?” Emma let out a gasp in shock, “Th…Then all of this… is-is because…”

  “You should have just accepted his offer when you had the chance.” He told her, “Otherwise, Lord Aeshima wouldn’t have to resort to doing this.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Emma!” Tris cried out, “This isn’t your fault! It’s that god’s fault for not willing to take no for an answer!”

  “Tris…”

  It looked like a lot had happened in the few days we were in the Dungeon for, though it was now apparent that this was all the doing of this blond bastard’s patron god.

  We had originally assumed that the Soma Familia took the chance when we weren’t around to unch an attack as revenge, but to think it was by the machinations of this Aeshima god.

  The blonde bastard scoffed, “You may said that, but this was all due to your rejection to my god’s generous offer. If you don’t want anymore incidents like this, all you have to is accept—”

  “Strike, and break through; Electro.”

  My lightning enchantment crackled to life around me as I stepped up to him, “I don’t know what your god wants with Emma, but she isn’t going anywhere with you.”

  He huffed at me, “And you think you can stop me?”

  “I can, and I will.”

  “Then you will fail.”

  No other words were needed as we immediately swung at each other, his arm blocking my punch while mine blocked his sword in a stalemate as we gred at each other with gritted teeth.

  The momentary stalemate broke when we withdrew our respective weapons before striking at each other in a series of rapid blows, way faster than our little exchange moments ago.

  Gauntlet met bde, a side ssh was parried back, a straight punch was blocked, a stab was countered, an elbow was avoided; every possible attack was unched one after another in quick succession and was countered just as quickly.

  But the stalemate didn’t st long, as a stab managed to slip past my guard and grazed my side, no blood was spilled with my lightning aura protecting me.

  Though it immediately turned the tide and I found myself on the defensive as I desperately blocked and parried the series of fast attacks that struck all over my entire body before I was able to react to them.

  The difference in our experiences and skills were starting to show, not to mention that I hadn’t fully recovered from the expedition which the bastard had no doubt noticed and took full advantage of.

  If I had not used my enchantment magic, I would have been bleeding from all the sshes I had to endure so far.

  “What’s the matter? Is this all the Record Holder is capable of?”

  “Grr…!!”

  “I’m sure you can see the gap between us! You may have Leveled up faster than me, but you are still nothing compared to me!”

  “Grah!!”

  An unexpected back kick smmed into my gut hard, sending me stumbling back towards the two girls behind me before barely managing to get back on my footing.

  Then he raised his hand towards us and started chanting rapidly, and I immediately raised the output of my magic to the max as braced myself for his unknown attack spell.

  “Ekrixi Tele—Gah!?”

  But before he could fire off his spell, Jirou’s wooden sword smmed into his side, cutting his spell short and sending him flying across the room and crashing into the wall.

  He rested his weapon on his shoulder as he turned to us, “You guys having trouble with him?”

  “Yeah…” I nodded, “He’s a lot stronger than the others.”

  “I can tell. Not one of them, I take it.”

  “Nope. You done with the Soma Familia?”

  He simply pointed behind him with his thumb, where the aftermath of his indiscriminate rampage was in full dispy for us and anyone that was still conscious.

  Every possible furniture was destroyed beyond repair, the walls and even the floors were filled with cracks and craters from his strikes, and the many drunkards lying unconscious all over the floor.

  Zanis himself wasn’t faring any better either, tears and snot pouring down his face as he y in the middle of the carnage with broken gsses, his face swelled up like a grape and limbs broken with pieces of his bone sticking out and bent in different directions.

  Suffice to say, the Soma Familia would not be bothering anyone for a while.

  “Damn…you…!”

  After crawling out of the hole Jirou put him in, the blonde bastard wiped the blood from his lips before leaping at us and swinging his sword at the eastern man.

  Jirou didn’t even turned as he easily parried the attack, sending the man stumbling before quickly regaining his stance as he stood ready to unleash another strike.

  “Get lost.” He told him with a gre, “Before I make you.”

  “…Tch…”

  With a click of his tongue, the bastard sheathed his sword and began making his way towards the destroyed gate; his eyes bored into Emma’s as he passed us by.

  “This isn’t over. Not until that girl realised what she have to do.”

  With those parting words, he left the compound and soon disappeared into the shadows of the dark streets, leaving us to ponder on his foreboding statement.

  “…looks like this isn’t over.”

  “It would seem so.”

  Jirou then turned to Emma, the girl had her arms around herself as her fingers clenched around her sleeves, her entire body shaking as she bit on her lips with her head down.

  He let out a sigh before telling us, “Let us return home for now and patch up Tris. You can tell us everything once we get back.”

  Emma flinched at his words, before bowing slightly to him, “I’m sorry…”

  “Don’t be. You have nothing to apologise for.”

  The walk back home was slow and quiet; none of us said a word about it, but the tension in the air was clear that we all were aware of the storm coming our way.

  And if what that blonde bastard had said was any indication, we would be cshing with his Familia very soon.

  …To be continued…

  Here we are! Maximum carnage!

  It is always fun to write dominating scenes; though I did consider writing a section where Jirou pretty much wailed on Zanis, but it couldn’t find a pce to put it.

  As for why Jirou is using a wooden sword? His sword broke and he ck a spare, so…

  So this guy, Enoch? He is extremely difficult to write when it comes to dialogue, especially when there was literally nothing about him aside from what was on the wiki, and it was as barebones as it could be.

  The only thing I know about him personality-wise was that he is an arrogant prick that views everyone aside from his god to be beneath him and sees them as disposable pawns for his god’s machinations.

  Basically a Bete-lite if that makes any sense.

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!