Explore and Encounter

"Have a great adventure and be care"

"Thank you, Auntie"

Saying goodbye to each other, Vinna and her auntie hug each other.

"Hiro"

"Yes"

"Please protect Vinna and take care also"

"Thanks, don't worry I'll take care of Vinna"

Then bowing to her.

"Let's go, Hiro"

"How about your father?", I asked

"I already do that in the palace, he said that he has to do something so don't worry about it"

"Hmmm"

"W-what?"

"Nothing"

Her voice is low, it seems like she's disappointed because her father won't see her before we go. Well, it can be help, her father is the king after all.

"Bye Auntie"

"Be careful"

"Don't worry auntie we have this to protect ourselves"

Vinna slightly raises her hand showing the back of her palm. I slightly bow my head and smile before exiting the palace.

After stepping outside the palace I already notice the clear and blue sky, also I can feel the fresh air around, and hear the sounds of the birds, what a great time to go on an adventure. This is the first time going outside in the Moriai, same as Vinna.

Vinna and I need to walk three hours to reach A-1 Headquarters. Before continuing to walk, I look again at the Kingdom, I can't believe how big it was and its cover of white and blue color anywhere.

After I feed my eyes of a great view, Vinna and I continue walking. I glance at Vinna, I can see clearly her beautiful and mature face and also her blonde hair and blue eyes, no wonder most of the boys in the Moriai have on crush on her but because of her strong personality, no one dares to come to her and asked for a date. After looking at her for so long, Vinna notices me.

"What? Is there something on my face?", she asked.

"Nothing"

Vinna is the daughter of the king of or should I say the princess of the Kingdom of Moriai, her mother died when she is two years old and that's why her auntie, the older sister of her mother took care of her. Vinna has an older which is the prince of Moriai, his name is Prince Albert.

Despite her young age, Vinna learns so many things including swordsmanship from the strongest warrior of Moriai, which is the former owner of the Unbreakable Amulet that she's wearing now on her left hand.

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It's almost one and a half-hour of walking and the temperature is getting hot, Vinna and I decide to take a rest under the tree.

"Ugh"

"Hmm, what?", I asked

"No, it's nothing, it just the sun destroy our perfect adventure."

Well, I can't blame her for that. Despite having a strong personality, she can be cute sometimes.

"Well let's waiting for the clouds to cover the sun."

Fifteen minutes have passed and finally the cloud over the sun, I don't when it will get back but if we walked another thirty minutes we can reach the forest which will cover the sunlight.

Vinna and I stand up to continue our walking. After fifteen minutes of walking, we can see the forest from our position. Before we continue walking Vinna notices something.

"Huh?"

"What is it?", I asked.

"Well it's just, this footprint is from a dog, right? I just wondering where he went."

"Hmmm". I notice that there's something weird about this footprint. When I look upon my own feet I notice that it didn't produce any footprint, so that means that the ground is hard enough to not produce any trace where I walked to. Or maybe the dog step here when it's raining. When I look again at the footprint I notice that there is one more thing that is not normal. I think of it deeply.

"....."

Wait..... its size is bigger compare to the normal one. That means that.

"Vinna! we need to-"

Before finishing my word a dog jump in front of us but it's not a normal dog that we can see around the street, its so big enough to surpass my height, and also his fangs are too big, its almost the same as my palm.

I need to run but where this dog is surely faster than us so running will be useless. There is only one thing that I can think of.

"Vinna!"

"Yes?!"

"Run from that way, I'll try to distract him"

"W-what? How about you?"

"Just run!"

Vinna is shaking, so I have no choice, I'll run first.

I start running from the opposite direction of Vinna. The big dog starts chasing me.

When I looked at my back, the big dog is still chasing and.... huh?

"Where's Vinna?"

Don't tell me that she didn't get what I mean in the first place.

"Well, I have no choice."

This is the first time I run so serious. While running I look around, I noticed a big tree from my left side, I change course to go there. The big dog also turns left. I run straight to the big tree, the big dog is only one meter apart from me, when I'm getting near to the big tree, I jump and after my one feet land to its body, I pour some force from my feet to throw myself upward then.....I backflip. After I do backflip the big dog tries to stop running but its too late, he hit himself through the big tree. Because of the impact, the body of the tree crush, and its falling to the big dog, it will be enough to kill him. When the tree falls...

"Huh?"

The big dog bites the falling tree and crush it with his mouth.

*Sign*

"My plan don't work huh, I guess I just have to run again."

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Running away from the opposite side where Hiro chased by that big dog. I already far from that creature and.....

*and what now?*

I notice, what I'm running away in the first place? Hiro is in danger I should go and protect him.

"Its Hiro's fault, why did he order me to run and..... huh?"

*He only said I should run but he never said to go in the safe place and hide... so that means.*

"His planning to distract the big dog so I can kill it !!"

"Jeez! That guy, I need to go and find him immediately before something bad happen to him."

Before I can go back two another big dogs appear on my front.

"Stay back or else!"

The two don't go back but instead it slowly walking towards me. I draw my sword and ready myself to fight.

"Hiro wait for me!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

When a gray-skinned creature with a blue line on its body invades the world, people's lives turn around in a blink of an eye, this creature eats anything that moves. These things have the same figures of various animals but with gray-skinned and blue line on its body and also it has great strength and speed that enough to kill anything around it. It kills and eats animals and even humans,....and one of them is chasing me.

"Ahh, ahh". Running away from a dog, a dog which three times larger than its original size and gray-skinned with a blue line on its four legs and jaws. This big dog is chasing me with incredible speed, his mouth is drooling, and with a face that wanted to kill someone. What's more unbelievable is his eyes that look like a night sky.

Running at full speed, I'm out of breath and my body is full of wounds, I have two choices, one is to run until he runs out of breath but I think I'm the one who's running out of breath, my endurance is average, so it's not an option. Two is to fight but my problem is this big dog is strong enough to break trees and its 3 times faster than me, the only reason that I'm still alive is every time it jumps and tries to bite me I always change course to dodge it. I might die here but the good thing is Vinna is already far away to danger. I'm already at my limit, I stop running, the big dog also does the same, he lowers his front body as if its ready to jump on me at any time. Fixing my glasses with my two fingers. Drawing my two knives and lower my stance to ready myself to fight. How unlucky I am to get a fight to this creature called...

"Outsider."

From running for ten minutes, I already observe all of its body including the blue line on its four legs and jaws. From my guess it seems that the blue line from its body is the strong point of this monster, the blue line from his legs which allows him to jump so high and run fast, and from his jaws which strong enough to crush a big tree. Which means I should attack the other parts of its body aside from legs and jaws. I should attack before its too late.

"Ho.", I exhaled.

I was shocked at myself for being calm in this situation, maybe because I have this amulet, an amulet that attaches to one of my knives on my left hand. This amulet called Assassin's Amulet, its one of the amulet the gives magic to any person who holds it when it's attached to a weapon, and when it's attached it will be impossible to remove it, and the weapon where its attach become unbreakable. The only problem I have is what this amulet capable of. They said that the last person who used this dies 200 years ago, so anyone in the palace doesn't know how it works and what it's power. But since it's unbreakable, I might used this to kill this outsider.

When the outsider runs towards me, I also start to run. The outsider tries to bite me but I dodge it when run to its left side and after that, I slice his front leg. As I expected, his legs didn't have a single scratch, so the means the only way to defeat this dog is to target the other part of its body where there is no blue line.

I run again towards him, the outsider opens his mouth already but instead of turning left or right, I slide under him, after I reach its belly, I thrush the knife on my left hand and...

"Huh?"

The outsider jump immediately before my knife reaches its belly.

"This is bad."

I didn't expect that he could react to that. The outsider runs towards me.

"Tsk!"

I run out of ideas. The outsider is already in front of me.

"I'm dead!"

I closed my eyes, but when the ten seconds passed, I notice something. The outsider stop moving, no it gets slower, no wait, not just the outsider but everything around me slow down. The leaves fall from the trees, the rocks that fly through the air because of outsider and even its saliva of its mouth. Everything is slowed. Wait! no time to think now. The time gets slowed, which means I have a chance now. It seems that even my movements get slowed but I'm a little bit faster. I hold my knife tight and then I slice the outsider's neck..... Everything gets back to normal. The outsider is laying down now from the ground and when I look at it, it's already dead.

"It seems that I survive huh."

It's weird that the time slowed or maybe it's the real power of Assassin's Amulet, now that I know what it's capable of, I can fight outsider now without any worries but first I need to go and find Vinna right away.

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Walking through the forest, holding the heavy bag behind my back. Holding a map, my location from the eastern side of the forest. Base on this map it seems that I need to walk one and a half hours to reach that location. I stop walking when I step into a hole but when I look at it, it's not a hole but a big footprint.

"I see."

It seems that there are some outsiders lurking around here. I continue walking but silently. I hold my katana in my right just in case some outsider appears out of nowhere. When I reach the place where there are no trees, I heard someone shout.

"Ahhhhhhhhh."

Base on the sounds, it seems like someone fighting and I think it's a voice of a woman. I run to the place where it came from and I see the woman who holds a sword with her two hands fighting against two outsiders.

"It seems like she's in trouble."

I run towards the two outsiders.

"Huh?"

It seems like the woman notice. Before the outsiders could react, I draw my katana and slice the head on one of them. The one already notices me, he turns away from the woman and faces me, he runs towards me and he opens his mouth but before he could bite me, I thrust my katana into his mouth. The outsider is still alive and struggling, I thrust harder my katana, and.... the outsider drop to the ground.

"Are you okay?", I asked the girl.

"Y-yes and thanks for saving me."

"No need to thank me."

After walking towards me, she extends her right hand.

"..."

I stare at her hands for 5 seconds before she speaks.

"Shake Hands"

"Ahh...okay"

When we shake hands she introduces herself.

"I'm Vinna, Vinna Rosefield."

"I'm Greg."

"Hello and thanks for helping me."

"No like I said-"

"Vinna!"

Before I finish speaking, someone shouts in my left side.

"Huh?"

He must be shocked to see me.

"Hiro! Are you okay? What happen?"

"M-me? I defeated it"

"Wow! I never thought you can kill it"

"Hey, Vinna"

The guy looks at me.

"Ah, this is Greg, he saves me from the two Outsiders who attacked me."

"R-really?"

The guy turns me and bows.

"Thanks for saving her"

"No, it's nothing, it's just I accidentally hear her voice when I'm walking."

This is getting awkward. This is the first time I speak to people who's not from the village.

*I wonder how long we gonna talk.*

________________________________________________________________________________________

Running from where Vinna might be, I try to look around where we get separated but she's not there.

When I get near the forest, I notice Vinna immediately.

"Vinna!"

I shouted. But when I get closer, I notice someone beside her and it's a MAN!

"Huh?"

I shocked by what I see, Vinna and that guy hold hands.

"Hiro! Are you okay? What happen?"

"M-me? I defeated it"

"Wow! I never thought you can kill it"

*How mean!*

"Hey, Vinna"

I look at the guy

"Ah, this is Greg, he saves me from the two Outsiders who attacked me."

*Wait, two outsiders? I nearly die from just one!*

"R-really?"

I need to control my emotion, I shouldn't act this way, after all, he saves Vinna. I face the guy and bow.

"Thanks for saving her"

"No, it's nothing, it's just I accidentally hear her voice when I'm walking."

It's getting dark right now.

"Vinna let's go already, it's too dangerous to be outside when it gets dark."

"Okay"

*Oh I forgot to introduce myself.*

"By the way, I'm Hiro Sage"

"H-hello I'm Greg."

"Where are you going anyway?", I asked.

"M-me? I'm going to Area-1 Headquarters."

*Seriously!*

"Seriously!"

Whoops, it came out of my mouth.

"Really Greg? "

*What you two already that close?*

"Y-yes, what about you two?"

"Were also going to A-1 HQ"

"R-really?"

*Ugh, this is a pain but I need to be polite to him.*

"H-hey Mr. Greg, do you to join us?"

*Ugh this is really a pain.*

"Are you sure?"

*Well for me? it's not.*

"Of course"

It's not me but Vinna.

Well, I think I have to walk with a stranger huh.