C rank Mercenary

Zeph slowly regained his consciousness and found himself on hospital bed.He found his body covered in bandages.Immense pain caused wrinkles over his forehead,he with difficulty tried to shift himself in sitting position.

"Stop that ,you will reopen your wound "came lazing voice from sideways bed of Zeph.He looked around to found Sauren sitting on side bed eating fruits.

"Hole was poked in your waist area , fortunately not all organs were destroyed,ah and also ribs are also cracked"

"How many days I was unconscious?"

"Not many just one hand half day"

Zeph gave sideways glance to Sauren and said "You were late ".

Sauren suddenly felt anger gushing to his head .He pointed his finger at Zeph and said,"you...you...,idiot I nearly burned my veins to execute superior skill forcefully and you still are not satisfied even after killing that pesk,I ran over immediately to help you .

You repay me with those harsh words .You unsympathetic bastard"Sauren began accusing Zeph by calling him selfish, ungrateful etc.Zeph merely closed his eyes in meditation.

"Are you even listening"

"Are others okay?what about villagers ?"

"Kyton signaled corps for renforcement before we started fighting. Team with professional workers reached around midnight at our place.Villagers were rescued but many of older ones died due to loss of excessive life force energy from them. They also confiscated Plants for research purposes.

Professional Team recognised Yaksha to be at peak Navel chakra level and that mantis beast to be just stepped into Navel chakra level.Kyton damaged his hand nerves due to overusing excess ice energy resulting in non usable hands and energy for about half year,Veena is in comma but out of danger .She will not wake up until her mental energy is regenerated.

Sephora is good only with minor injuries and overdrain of elemental energy."

Listening to report Zeph remained silent.In his heart he was grateful to Sauren for caring about him.

He thought about his final strike and compared it to cloak formed by Grandfather during his sparring session.Maybe if he can extend lightning energy to whole body from inside out maybe he can give huge boost to his all physical stats like power,speed etc Maybe he can be as fast as that mantis when he used air propulsion.Both of them remained silent each lost in their own thoughts .

Silence broke after few minutes when Boss came inside ward ."You two are okay ,I am immensely releived.It was negligence on our part to send you on such sucide mission without sufficient intel.Well I humbly ask for sincere apology from both of you.

"You don't look like little bit sincere thought both Zeph and Sauren.

"Well who could possibly predict future so you yourself have to be strong enough to deal with situation"Boss turned his attitude around 180 degrees in a second.

Sauren couldn't stand any more hypocritical statements and yelled,

"Thank you boss for caring about us but are you here to bring some information"

"Yes , I am here to congratulate both of you for completing mission and here to give you rewards and adequate compensation.Here in these cards contain reward money of 100 gold coins and you Zeph now are officially upgraded to rank C mercenary.As for compensation for our negligence,here is 20 gold coins extra."

"wow boss you sure are generous."exclaimed Sauren.He knew 100 silver coins turn to 1 gold coin whereas 100 bronze leads to 1 silver coin.1 silver coin was enough to live in inn for 1month .

"You should rest and recover as soon as possible ,I will take my leave now"with that boss hurriedly went away .

Sauren and Zeph remained hospitalised for another two months only after that they were allowed to leave.Medical skill is also sub class of warriors like scouts ,they were advanced in their methods and skills.

Staying together in hospital made them quite friendly with each other.They sparred with each other in evening regularly.Sessions usually ended with Sauren enraged for not being able to land single hit with only taking beatings from Zeph.Today was also such day ,

" Don't dodge if you are man"

"Hit me with your fireball if you are man"replied Zeph calmly.

Enraged Sauren began to shape fire into big arcs and threw them indiscriminately towards all directions wanting to land atleast one blow .

Zeph was dodging each of them efficiently while dodging he was also trying pouring elemental energy into his whole body to form lightning cloak around him.

Suddenly Sauren stopped threwing arcs and pushed his hands into ground

"Fire dome"he chanted and boom a whole curtain of fire rose from ground .

It was massive AOE damage type attack which engulfed whole area into flames .

Zeph quickly made lightning cloak to protect himself.He succeeded in first try but it was quite unstable form as Zeph was busy stabilising cloak .

A figure emerged from fire screen

"Got you "

yelled Sauren as he threw his pressure punch towards Zeph.

Zeph was totally surprised and his cloak disintegrated due to loss of concentration .He raised his sheathed sword to counter blow .As both fist and sheath striked it produced shockwave of energy .

Zeph was not able to withstand force of punch and was flung to the ground.He twisted his body midair to again land on ground but still slipped quite a distance due to force.

Sauren jumped in celebration at his own place

"Haha finally"

.He ran in cover of fire screen to avoid detection and catch Zeph off-guard and force him to not dodge his blow.He succeeded magnificently .

"Ok let's end this,and go to restaurant to eat. Any new food which I haven't tried can you recommend me?"

"Ok time for meal.I already told you I am familliar with all dishes. This time you should try taste soft boiled king crab.Man, what should I say to You.Its soft meat has delicate flavour without any excess spicyness and blandness.

Extremly balanced with rich aroma and mouth watering taste goes quite good with tomato sauce.you will become total fan of it"suggested Sauren with drool already forming at mouth.

"ok"replied Zeph but his shining bright expecting eyes betrayed his face's calm nature.

As they were heading toward restaurant, they found Kyton standing in front of restaurant.It looked like he was waiting for someone..

He was still wearing his black tuxedo but his hands were fully wrapped in bandages.Sauren and Zeph both decided to greet him.

"Hey Kyton how are you"

"I'm fine .I am here to deliver message by boss.He is expecting to see you both in his office tomorrow morning,Be sure on time."

"Alright come eat with us "

"No thank you "

As already expected,all talking was done by Sauren alone.Zeph only greeted him once at beginning then only witnessed the exchange between them as bystander.Kyton went back in street.

Zeph commented,"how did he know we will be here?"

"Intuition"spoke Sauren wonderingly.Zeph gave him disgusted glance reminding him about his behaviour at mercenary corporation hall where Sauren whole day sing praises of this particular restaurant and how he wants to eat his three meals at restaurant only.Sauren only awkwardly chuckled to ease atmosphere.