Boom!!

An explosion expelled a figure who struggled to keep his balance

-puchi-

The figure spat out blood as it stared at cat-like demon beast in front of him standing at 3 feet of height on all fours, with fiery red fur and crimson eyes the cat appraised the figure like a jewel as it slinked towards him while licking it's lips.

"What the hell is this?" Hal yelled with blood trailing down the side of his lips.

He had only been in the forest for an hour trying to get close enough for grimiore to lock in on the location of the salmon's lair but so far he had been attacked by beast after beast not to mention the times he had been outnumbered and had no choice but to retreat.

"Stop licking your lips. You perverted cat. My looks are not for you"

The cat blinked and then it's fur began to glow, a sure sign of another explosion

Hal couldn't help but comment to grimiore about just how unfair this was, it wasn't enough for demon beasts to be more capable physically, some of them also had to be naturally intuned with elements to boost their attack.

Hal leapt out of the way of the blast but was still caught in the blast area of effect. He cursed violently, the beast was only equivalent to a sixth stage cultivator but it's talent being in tuned with the fire element was making things difficult. Not to mention Hal barely rested after his last attack, but he would be damned if he let a stupid and possibly perverted cat get the best of him.

The cat leapt forward claws out to tear Hal into pieces, it's success with long distance attacks convincing it of it's superior ability; Big mistake.

Hal had been waiting for such close distance opportunity since the battle began so he made short work of itvand ended the beast's life.

'If I have to do this again, I might go crazy'

'Then you better start moving because you will soon have company if you don't' Grimiore informed him

'You know, I can't help but think that the only thing you are good for is delivering bad news'

As they bantered back and forth telepathically Hal left before he became swarmed with demon beasts once again.

A sound of struggle nearby garnered his curiosity and following the sound he found a few injured mercenaries fighting to escape an entrapment of four demon beasts. It was easy to guess what had happened as they had obviously come to the forest to hunt and ended up having the tables turned on them. What really drew Hal's attention was the only female in their midst, she had a beautiful face, long black hair tied into a ponytail, her chest was not very big but her ass was perky and her legs were long, she was wearing tight fitting clothes common among mercenaries, of all of them, she looked to be the least injured.

Hal would have left -after all while she was quite breathtaking, it was not to the point that he could not resist-, however he had already come to the conclusion that there was something fishy about the demon beasts today so maybe watching the action instead of being part of it would offer him some insights.

"You need to escape my lady, we will cover you" said the man at forefront whispered to the young lady but hal heard it perfectly

"I won't leave you here, I made the decision to come here. This is my fault" The lady said in a beautiful and firm voice

"No it is not, if you don't leave and you're killed, our families won't survive your mother's wrath" the man persisted

"I chose this forest because i did not think it would be hard for us to handle, obviously I was wrong, someone or something has instigated this beasts. No I will not leave Jon, unless everyone leaves here together"

"But there is so much more at stake than your life" Jon said and pointed at one of the demon beasts which looked like an hare but had the quills of a porcupine and it was over four feet tall.

"That is the virile Hare, every single one of it's quills is coated with an aphrodisiac. It's effect is such that it would take make us lose our sense of reasoning it uses it to keep it's victims occupied so it can pick them off and we don't have the antidote"

"You mean..." The lady turned pale

"Yes" Jon nodded gravely

The lady backpedaled

"Besides, once you escape we can focus on taking the initiative" the instant he said so the beasts began to close in

The lady gritted her teeth and escaped but not before she was struck with a quill.

As soon as she was gone the deadlock ended and the men fully revealed their cultivation base so as to fight at full strength.

'Wow, they're all at the cosmic pearl realm, and from the feel of it they seem to be at the peak stage. Okay that settles it they can not possibly be from Salmon city or else they would be very well known, and I don't think they are really mercenaries' then the demon beasts let their cultivation base out to show they were up to the task

'I have locked unto the location of the salmon's lair' Grimiore informed Hal

'Good, cause I now have to help someone, out of the goodness of my heart'