Ice Breaking

I slammed the door open after I heard the monster's name, inadvertently bringing lots of attention upon myself from the villagers who ran in a panic because of the surprising news.

Expectedly, one of them sees me.

Villager 1: "T-t-the werewolf is escaping! Stay away from it!"

Villager 2: "Call the village head!"

One after another shouts followed.

Now, more people are running aimlessly in fear either because of the incoming Devellings...

Or me.

Noah: "Oh no. Not him."

Me: "What is it?"

I tilted my head to the side as Noah takes a few steps away from me and that's when I hear the familiar sounds of heavy footsteps rushes towards me.

Me: "Gah!"

I got slammed against the outside wall of the barn by the same stud who punched me in the face.

Or in other words, Noah's father.

Village Head: "What are you doing here with my son!?"

He choked at me at the neck as he pinned me upwards, scrapping the fur behind my neck against the wall at the level where my feet can't even touch the golden dusty ground underneath.

Noah: "Father, stop!"

Village Head: "Huh?"

As he was carelessly got distracted by his son, I took the chance to lock my legs around his neck and butterfly kicked him simultaneously made him fly backward as both of us fall onto the ground at the same time, loosening his grip off from my neck as my legs are still choking his neck whilst locking his right arm, stretching it, holding it from getting loose using my both arms.

Completely immobilizing him.

I was trained by the most terrifying and strongest fighter in the academy and I can't afford to lose to this oversized monkey.

Not today at least.

All the villagers are looking at us in awe. Too afraid to interfere with the fight.

Noah: "Bal! What are you doing!? Let go of him! Stop fighting!"

Listening to him, I loosen my grip and let go of his father out of pity as I rolled my body backward further in a safe distance away from his father.

His father coughed several times, gasping greedily for air to breathe.

Next, after he's done collecting himself, he rushes towards me to attack, still not giving up on the fight.

I just stayed there, watching him steadily as Noah interfered with the fight by standing right between us with both of his palms pointing at us.

His father slowed his pace down, shocked...or rather disappointed with his son's decision.

Village Head: "What's the meaning of this?!"

Noah: "Please, father! Stop this useless fight. Don't you think that we have more important problems to solve?"

Village Head: "But he's a werewolf! The servant of the devil! I knew that I should've killed him when the first time I saw him!"

My ears perk up as I heard the word 'werewolf' as I fast-walked towards him, clenching my hands, baring my fangs at him with the fur behind of my neck bristles out of anger but Noah stopped me on halfway, holding his hand in front of my chest in disdain.

Me: "Call me a 'werewolf' one more time, and you'll be sorry."

I snarled at his father.

Noah: "Enough! Both of you just fucking stop!"

He yelled, taken back by his unexpected loud cursing.

Shortly, a random guy appears, slipping himself, passing through the crowd to deliver a piece of news for the village head while panting violently in exhaustion.

????: "Sir! We have bad news- Ouh! Uhh... Are you busy? Do you want me to leave you with your business, sir?"

Village Head: "No need. Tell me what is it, Haley."

Haley: "Oh...Uhm... It's the Devillings, sir! There are eight of them. Coming straight to this village."

He said with a terrified expression carved on his face.

The villagers who spectated our fight earlier then ran, panicking around like a bunch of headless chickens; most of them went into their residential establishments while a few of them went into the narrow alleyways between those houses and huts which I do not know where the road leads them to.

Village Head: "....."

The expression he's making right now is nothing like I'd ever seen before.

Soon, I smell a familiar scent lingering in the air coming from one of those incoming monsters from a distance.

The very scent from one of those monsters from last night in the forest.

My eyes then go wide open upon the realization.

Me: "How? How can it still be alive?"

The village head turned his head on me after hearing the small muttering that escaped from my mouth.

Village Head: "You know about this?"

Busted.

Me: "I've seen them before last night. When I tried to save your son, I've already killed three of them on that night."

Village Head: "You 'killed' them?!"

He then looked at his son in confusion as I can even see his eyebrow is twitching frustratingly above his right eye unamused.

Noah: "..... Maybe.... I've changed the story the one I told you a 'wee' bit than the original one... Hehehe..... Sorry."

He explained meekly to his father, rubbing his elbow, not even mind looking at his father in the eye as he's feeling guilty for not telling the truth about my dangerous capabilities.

Me: "But why? How can I still smell the same scent coming from one of them? They should've been dead! All of them!"

After that, I soon got reminded of something merely important about last night.

The last monster which it ran away into the forest, I did shot it with my sniper rifle and hit it, but...

To my discernment, I gasp.

Me: "It's not...dead yet."

Village Head: "What?!"

I groaned.

Me: "Ahhh! Stupid, stupid, STUPID ME! Why didn't I go check it out to confirm the kill first!? I'm such an idiot!"

I slapped my forehead upon the horrid realization.

Me: "Great! And now it's probably coming for me. Just my luck."

Village Head: "WHAT!?"

Me: "Hey, it's not my fault that I'm here!"

Then, we both looked at Noah at the same time.

Noah: "Oh, so it's my fault now?"

He asked sardonically while looking at both of us with his sassy gaze.

Village Head/Me: "Yes."

To his dismay, we replied in unison as he winced by our dry response.

Village Head: "So you can 'kill' those things, huh?"

He stood in front of me, puffing his muscular chest as he was looking down at me, both figuratively and physically speaking.

Damn, he's so tall that I've to look up at a right angle just to look at his face which made my neck a bit sore.

What is he?! A giant?!

His body is too huge for his own good.

Me: "Yes?"

Village Head: "How?"

Oh well, the cat is out of the bag now. Might as well tell him that how I killed them before back in the forest.

What's there for me to lose by telling the truth now, right?

However, Noah who's now standing behind his father is making various kinds of signals with his hands, warning vigorously at me about....not telling his father about...something(?)

I just entirely ignore him and shrug it off from my shoulder and continue to reply to his question.

Me: "What do you mean by how? With magic of course."

I said it to him with a smug-ish attitude.

But he just went all silent which is quite scary, with him staring at me full of horror.

Village Head: "Go away. Far from here. You've brought too much trouble to all of us as it is."

Huh? What with the attitude?

Me: "Excuse me?"

Village Head: "You heard me. Leave!"

Me: "But...but why? You know that I've told you that I'm a hero right? Let me help you. And even if they are coming for me, it's probably too late for me to run away somehow. I can't just run away leaving you guys to be here to suffer because of the mess you didn't even ask for. I am no hero if I ever did such a thing."

He clicked his tongue thus grabbed me by the collar, frowning in irritation and contempt.

Village Head: "Magic is forbidden in this kingdom by the King's order!"

He exclaimed himself and then let go, turning his back around at me.

Wait, whatever do you mean by 'kingdom'?

Me: "Wha...why?"

Village Head: "Because for all magic users out there have already been heavily accused of being the servants, working for a Demon Lord named, Kriv Vanduch, who rules the dark continent of Mavaruk, pass over the mountains, on west far away from here. He's the one who summoned those Devillings out there to the surface of the earth straight from the Underworld."

Oh, so they have Demon Lords now? Of fucking course they have Demon Lords cuz why not?!

Me: "But...I'm not a servant of any kind of demon lord...or anyone."

Village Head: "Perhaps you're not. But who knows what the other people might think about you. There are also severe punishments await for those who wield magic, whether good or bad, they will be either burned on a stake, chopped off their heads, tortured, or even get skinned alive. Depends on the King's order."

I gagged by just thinking about those crucial ideas.

Am I really in another world now? With humans in a kingdom with the prohibition of utilizing magic or, there will be severe punishments and consequences?! THIS IS ABSURD!

I've been getting a strong isekai anime vibe now rather than having real reasons or theories behind the truth of me being transferred into another world using logic and facts.

Me: "Aight, now that's just straight cruel."

I wonder who governs this whole continent. Sounds like a big asshole.

Village Head: "Heh, you can say that again."

Me: "Why are you telling me this now?"

Village Head: "It's because you saved my son. Therefore I am indebted to you for that. And for your sake, if you ever get out from here alive I prefer you to stay low. Other than that, sooner or later, we can really do anything as this village is as good as dead anyway."

Noah gasped at the absurdity of his father's words.

Noah: "Father, how dare you say that to your own village?! You're the head of the village, for gods' sake! So please refrain yourself from spouting such ludicrous nonsense and get a grip!"

His father remained silent, crossing his arms on his chest, sighing.

I don't care.

Me: "...I don't care."

Village Head/Noah: "Huh?"

Me: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT STUPID KING OR THE STUPID PUNISHMENTS! I AM PROUD OF WHO I AM AS I AM BALTHAZAR BROOK, THE NUMBER ONE WORLDWIDE HERO AND IN THE NAME OF THE UNITED NATION OF HEROES AND CREATURES, I WILL SAVE THIS DAMN VILLAGE BY USING MY POWERS AND MAGIC WITH MY OWN WILL!"

In Agrian, I did swear to protect the weak and the one who's in need.

And I shall do the same with these humans as I'll not let anyone suffers while I'm here when I'm able to prevent the torment.

Noah and his father are both surprised by my sudden outbursts.

Village Head: "...Thank you."

He said firmly, trying to hide the sense of gratefulness behind his superior image as a village head as I simply nod in return.

My, my, this is the first time since forever I've seen him looking at me with that kind of genuine smile cracked on his face like that.

When I look at him closely, he does look kinda handsome for my taste.

Me: "That's my job. Protecting people that is."

Noah smiled at us.

After that, I gesture my nose upward, sniffing the air.

Me: "They're getting closer. I can smell them."

Noah's father raises his eyebrows in amusement at my animalistic act.

Village Head: "To the main entrance."

-Later-

As soon as we've arrived at the main entrance, I see lots of men from the village gathering including the guards, standing in their battle stance behind the barricaded gate armed with only poorly made spears and rusty farming tools.

Me: "Oh God, please tell me that you're not gonna fight those monsters using 'that' thing."

Village Head: "It's the only one we have. We don't have many other choices. Anyways, how's the barricade?"

He replied leisurely and quickly switches his attention to one of the guards nearby.

Person: "We've locked down the gate and hopefully it will slow them down, sir."

I sigh.

Me: "That is obviously not enough."

The guard then let out a short scream right after he noticed me.

Guard 1: "Oh my gods! You're the werewolf that has been brought into our village!"

I give him a cold stare and smile eerily at him as I walk towards him slowly after I heard the least favorite word of the day I've been getting since the first time I came here.

Me: "Call me that ONE MORE TIME and I will be the last thing that you'll ever see in your life."

He nods meekly in terror with his expression like he is about to piss his pants then comically passed out in the blink of an eye.

The other guards who finally notice my presence are also weirdly looking at me like I was some kind of ghost...which is rather very insulting.

Me: "Seriously. Don't you have ever met with a beastman before?"

Village Head: "As I said, we've never heard such a thing like beastman before."

Me: "...I see."

Ughh, it seems that I really need to accept the fact that I've been transferred to another world that is filled with humans and Demon Lords before this whole illogical information turns me insane.

Or am I already insane?!

A few minutes later, the ground begins to shake like an earthquake.

Village Head: "Noah, go hide somewhere safe. Now!"

Noah nods and ran away as he was commanded by his father.

He then picked up a spear nearby from one of those guards.

The man in the watchtower near the gate rings the bell again to warn us about those monsters' arrival.

Guard 2: "A hoard! Eight of them! Coming in full charge!"

After the warning, I ran to a nearby house and climb on its straw roof by jumping and leaping on top of the barrels and boxes laid next to it as a ladder, and saw a hoard of monsters are charging at full speed a few meters away near the gate.

Me: "Brace for impact!"

The guards pointed their spears and farming tools at the gate, instinctively responding to my warning as the gate was then easily fallen, destroyed, and crushed down by the monsters' huge disastrous bodies, adding a powerful element of momentum for the impact.

All the men and guards are all got thrown away like mere flying rag dolls which most of them with their skulls got miserably crushed under those monsters' very feet which same goes for the other parts of their bones in their bodies as the red paint of blood flies and splattered everywhere in the scene.

Devillings: "GRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

The same deafening roars boomed through the whole village as the nightmare is about to begin-... No...

The nightmare has already begun.

Those monsters barged into the village as they've already owned the place simultaneously split up, destroying everything in their path including the houses.

Guard 3: "They're going for the houses! Women and children are all hiding in there! Stop them!"

After the command, other men and guards ran towards the monster heroically but fighting against it without any proper skills and weapons means only one thing...

DEATH.

Their spears pathetically either got snapped or cut into pieces like twigs by only one swing of its claws while the claws on its other free hand effortlessly run through their heads, necks, and bodies in the most devastatingly unnerving way possible.

Blood and organs splattered everywhere as they're getting cut into hundred of pieces of human flesh.

Right, this is the real world. The real deal. One wrong step and you're dead.

I have seen and been on this kind of specific occasion lots of times back in Agrian during a mission where death always lurks, staring at you somewhere in the dark.

Blood and deaths are very rare...and yet not uncommon for me to live with as death will always chase everyone tirelessly and indiscriminately every day, every time.

That I become dull to these kinds of situations for most of the time.

All we can do is learn how to trick death in order to survive a little bit longer, even if it's just for a few seconds.

Me: "Summon: Sunspot."

I summoned my sniper rifle as it quickly materialized in my hands from particle to particle out of thin air.

I knelt on the roof where I was standing and uses my knee to support my elbow while aiming.

Me: "Which means... I was built for this."

BANG!

A loud bang echoed from the rifle. Got a headshot on one of those monsters who's trying to dig the roof of a house to get inside.

Me: "One down. Seven to go."

There on another roof nearby, I saw the village head who's running on top of it and thus jumps off from the roof with not one, but two spears in his hands, and landed on the back of the monster, stabbing those spears with a full thrust from behind and ended up going through in front of its chest.

Me: "That's....badass."

After he killed the monster, another one appeared from behind him.

He notices the monster's presence and quickly turned around as he tries to pick up the spears from the monster's corpse he killed earlier but unfortunately, it got stuck as the monster swings its claws at him by all means to kill.

But not on my watch.

The second bullet has been released after I pulled the trigger followed by a loud 'bang'.

Another headshot has prevailed skillfully on the monster's head.

He was stunned by the sudden death of the monster in front of him.

He turns his gaze at me, blinking his eyes as I wave my hand at him from a distance.

Don't ask me why I waved my hand. I just want to, okay?

Me: "including the village head's; Three down."

Seconds later, I heard a boy screamed somewhere far down the road on the left behind me.

Me: "Noah!"

I shouted the kid's name inside my head.

I look at where his father was standing earlier and he's already on the move, running towards the screaming voice.

I follow him by leaping from one roof to another with my sniper rifle in my arms.

While I was doing so, I look at him running through the path down below and saw many body parts and limbs scattered with blood painted along the path.

It was a huge scale parade of pure genocide.

Moments later, we saw Noah being chased by a monster in an alley between those houses.

Noah then accidentally tripped himself over and fall onto the ground.

The monster should have the chance to kill him but it seems that it has a problem of its own as it tries to chase the kid into the alley, the monster luckily doesn't fit to get inside the alley as it stuck itself at the entrance of the alleyway between those walls.

It stretches its arm, clawing the air, scratching the ground and walls, trying to reach the kid.

Village Head: "Noah!"

Noah turned his head around and sees his father standing at the other end of the alley.

Noah ran towards his father and landed gracefully into his father's embrace, sobbing.

Noah: "Hrk! Father...."

Village Head: "Shh, shh, shh. It's alright. Don't worry, I got you."

He hugged his son lovingly and wholeheartedly. Didn't let go of his son even for a moment as he understood what his son had just experienced.

I feel something strange, aching deep inside of my heart when I saw them.

....'Loneliness'.

The monster in the alley: "GRRRAAHHHHH!!!"

I returned to reality as the monster roared inside of the alley, stuck as it struggled itself free which ended up destroying the walls which also mean the houses.

However, before it charges itself to the village head and his son, I let go of my sniper rifle and hit the small azure stone on my bracelet located on my left wrist, expanding and transforming itself into a gauntlet fused with complex features in its appearance.

I grabbed something out of my inventory and toss it on top of the monster thus blooming out a huge spherical black hole within itself in midair, sucking and devouring the monster whole including the half portion of the house clean into nothing.

Eventually, the explosion caused by the black hole goes in reverse as it shrinks, sucking itself inwards into the void and vanishing.

Me: "Phew".

I let out a sigh of relief and jump off the roof to regroup.

Me: "Are you guys alright? Got any injuries?"

They both shook their heads sideways and continue to stare at me weirdly like almost in...terror(?)

I don't know what they're thinking right now and I'm bad at reading expressions.

Are they....afraid of me now?

Somehow...thinking about that idea kinda made my chest hurt.

Hah, what am I talking about? I've been knowing them for only half a day.

What is there for me to be sad about?

I have always been alone since the beginning of the story. So what did I really expect from them?

Me: "I-I'm...sorr-."

As I was about to apologize to them which I don't know what I'm about to apologize for, they both quickly jumped at me, giving me the warmest and the most passionate hug I could ever ask for.

Me: "W-wha?!"

Village Head: "Come're you little."

He continued to hug me and his son roughly and caringly at the same time.

Soon, I can feel warm tears flowing from my eyes.

Village Head: "Hey, w-why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere?! I didn't hug you too rough, did I?"

Noah: "Wow, you made him cry, hahaha."

Noah laughed at his father teasingly as I shake my head in disagreement.

Me: "No, I'm fine..*sniffed*..just...got something in my eyes that's all, hehe."

I wiped my tears off with my sleeve as he randomly patted my head.

Me: "What are you doing?"

Village Head: "D-do what?"

Wait, is he blushing?

Aww, for someone who knows how to punch does know how to take care of a sad person.

Me: "Nevermind."

Now when I'm thinking about it I think my face is also getting hot.

Noah: "Ehem. I'm still here, you know."

He cleared his throat for attention. He smiled at both of us mischievously.

Just like someone I know.

Village Head: "Yeah yeah. Whatever you say, son."

He ruffled his son's hair playfully with his hand.

Noah: "Hey!"

He grumbled while his father just laughed at him.

Although, these moments of warmth got rudely interrupted by a loud, ugly scream of a man coming from a nearby area behind us.

Village Head: "Looks like we're not done here yet."

Crunching noises can be heard from afar.

Me: "Indeed."

The familiar sniper materialized in my grasp.

Village Head: "Stay behind me."

Noah did as he was told by his father.

I cocked my sniper rifle as a soft whirring sound generated from it.

Me: "Let's go kill them all, shall we?"