I Heard That

To heat things up, I use my Fire Breath over the area as the scent of singed fur begins to fill the air.

"Hey, don't use too much fire and turn the place into a wasteland. People still need to be able to make use of the land here." Milla says before she jumps into battle using fire herself.

"And she tells me not to use fire..."

"But Milla's attacks are anti-personal, while yours is a widespread AOE. Why not use something other than fire that won't cause permanent or long-lasting damage to the ground?"

"Fine, I'll try out the new abilities I got then."

Manipulating the remaining bits of grass that haven't been eaten or burned, I sharpen them to a point and have them rise, piercing through the unsuspecting rabbits above them, leaving them impaled and incapable of moving. With the sight before us, I wouldn't be surprised if someone from Earth mistook me for Vlad the Impaler. Actually, this might be worse, most of the rabbits are still alive but the hardened grass blades have pierced right through them, carrying them up into the air, suspending them and rendering them immobile. Although it takes a few of these grass blades to keep them suspended due to their size.

Neither Milla nor Lia let go of this opportunity as they begin to kill off all the skewered rabbits. In the meantime, I surround the area in a wall of ice to prevent the rabbits from running and try out one of my new breaths, Shrapnel Breath. From my mouth, countless metal shards go flying out towards the herd of rabbits, dyeing their already bloody fur to an even deeper shade of red. Most of the rabbits that had been previously burned by me have fallen dead. It's too bad that the amount of experience I get per kill on these is barely above 30, the disparity between our tiers causes this to not be worth the time or energy if it was solely for the experience.

Using my manipulation skill, I gather up the metal shards that are scattered around is condense them into spikes and skewer more of the rabbits. But there are still plenty of rabbits that are still running around within this cage of ice. Deciding to hurry this up, I use my Wood Manipulation to bring the roots of the surrounding trees and other plants up from the ground and wrap them around the many rabbits. After around twenty minutes, all the rabbits still alive have been skewed and suspended with several hardened grass blades or caught up in plant roots. The three of us spend the next while systematically go around killing all the rabbits until none remain.

With the last rabbit dead, I dismantle the Ice Walls that surround us and begin the cleanup process and by that I mean I go around eating all of these giant rabbits. Contrary to their appearance, I don't get as biomatter per rabbit as I thought I would, only getting 20kg per rabbit. After the feast has concluded, I end up with a total of 7,000kg of biomatter from 350 Hel Rabbits.

"Well, that's that. Not too hard, just a little tedious. Now how long are you going to stay like that? Reactivate your shapeshift so we can return to the city."

"Actually, I have an idea. It's like this..."

Spending a couple of minutes explaining my small plan, Milla agrees and we head back to Siriliam with me still in my true form. Since Milla can't ride on my back with hurting herself, we can't take advantage of my higher movement speed as I have to match Milla's pace. Of course, Lia takes full advantage of her immunities and rides on my back without a care in the world, completely ignoring the disdainful look Milla was giving her.

In around the same time it took to arrive, we near the city. Just as I thought, the garrison and many adventurers are outside and armed, expecting a battle. It seems like someone was about to begin shooting arrows towards me, but was stopped as someone else noticed that Milla was in front of me and since I haven't made any aggressive moves, the just hold the line. Standing before the city walls and the line of soldiers and adventurers, I notice that many of the adventurers were hanging around the Guild when we were in there earlier.

Breaking the silence, one of the older adventurers walks out to address the situation. "You are the Khatun, right? I saw you at the Guild, can you explain what's going on?"

Not saying anything, she just turns her head toward me. Lia jumps down from my back and once I see she's fine, I use my shapeshift, revealing the form I had when they saw me in the Guild. Nearly everyone at the scene is shocked by what they just witnessed. Just like when Milla's identity was revealed earlier in the Guild, whispers begin to spread. While most are inaudible for others, with my hearing I have no problem eavesdropping.

"Isn't she the Angel that was with the Khatun earlier today?"

"You fool, what kind of Angel has a tail and horns like that. Just because someone has feathered wings doesn't make them an Angel. You saw that monster just now, her wings look like the feathers that covered her body. Hey, did anyone with a high-level inspection skill take a look at her before she transformed?"

"I did, but most of her attributes were hidden from me. I did see her race and tier though. She is a Tier 8 Elite Adult Elemental Spirit Dragon, and apparently, those aren't feathers but scales that look like feathers. The description I got told me that she is the last Spirit Dragon alive, so don't let her youthful looks fool you, she's probably an old hag."

"Hey, what's a Spirit Dragon?"

"Don't ask me, I'm no scholar. I just repeated the description I got from the System."

The many adventurers in the back continue to gossip while Milla explains the situation to the people of authority in the area before beginning our walk back to the Guild. The mass of people make way for us, but they continue to stare and gossip over what they just saw.

As we pass by some of the adventurers, I lean towards one of them and whisper, "I heard what you just called me, you better watch you back at night or you might find a knife in it."

Taking no less than a couple of seconds to convey my message, I leave the now pale faced adventurer and catch up with Milla and Lia to turn in our Hel Rabbit extermination quest.