Arashi's walking pace slowed down as she saw two pieces of fabric that she gave to Reiki. As she saw the large brick roughly the same height as Reiki she hesitated for a minute and then continued. With the expectation to find his dead body Arashi was glad to find the 'grave' to be empty Kiru was a few steps behind her and was observing the surroundings. Kiru said. "This is strange... There's no one here. Signs of a struggle yet no corpses... But this doesn't make it a good thing. It could be a bad sign that the ones who were with my little brother were able to capture him after struggling... That... Ditch? Could be one of the places they fought."

Arashi didn't say anything but was already writing on a piece of parchment that she got from her grey string bag. Due to her hands having some blood the parchment had a few places of bloodstains. Arashi folded the piece of paper and held it above her head towards the sky. Kiru, seeing this, was skeptical but didn't say anything. Soon she saw something up in the clouds as Kiru's pupils started to have a faint glow to them she saw an eagle soaring. After blinking the eagle disappeared and so did the parchment in Arashi's hands.

Arashi said. "I don't know about you. But I have to make sure my Lil bro is safe. Goodbye." As she gave a formal bow after taking a few steps Kiru said. "I'm coming with you." Arashi glared at her and said. "Huh?" Kiru, not being intimidated by her glare, kept eye contact and firmly said. "I'm. Coming. With. You." With her hands on her hips. Arashi replied. "No, you're not! Unlike you, I know him." Kiru smiled and said. "Prove it." Arashi said. "I know he exercises every morning." Kiru said. "How is that piece of information relevant?" Arashi answered. "I know because I was with him. Unlike you who just paid to know everything about him."

Kiru said. "Well, sorry to burst your bubble because. We made a deal." Kiru made a happy smile that rubbed Arashi the wrong way. Arashi asked. "What deal?" Kiru's smile was replaced with a small frown and said. "I'm not allowed to say. Since you were with him longer you should know that he doesn't share that much." Arashi took a deep breath to calm down and said. "Is it about money?" Kiru replied. "Nope. It's something else entirely."

With a smile on her face but she then noticed Arashi had a smirk on her face. Kiru seeing this said. "What's with the smirk?" Arashi added insult to injury said. "I'm not allowed to say. Since I know he doesn't like people meddling in his private business unlike me. His Nee-san who came just in time to help him when he needed it most." Kiru frowned and said. "How much?" Arashi was taken aback and said. "Excuse me?"

Kiru said. "How much did he ask for. I'll pay you three times the amount." Arashi smirk widens and said. "I don't know... We've both seen what he's capable of. Give him some time to grow and nothing can put a price on him. Your move Kiru-san." Kiru watched the expression on Arashi's face and tried to think of something to say. Before she could say anything Arashi's phone started to ring in her grey string bag. After a few seconds of trying to find it with a press of a button before the person on the other line said anything.

She said. "Dragon... We have a problem. Wait gimme a minute." As she pulled out a different talisman that was gold with black writings. The talisman started to softly glow and enveloped Arashi and the phone entirely. With the golden talisman in hand, Arashi's lips moved but Kiru couldn't hear anything not even with the help of her magic she immediately made a phone call.

Arashi said to Seijo on the phone. "Lil bro's been kidnapped... Possibly." Seijo on the other line replied. "Possibly? Just give me a summary of things." Arashi took a deep breath and answered. "Long story short Lil bro and I went on a quest to gain experience. One of the instructors turned out to be the head of a trafficking business. They were able to separate Lil bro from me and after a reusable barrier was broken-." Seijo interrupted. "Wait! A reusable barrier? Are you sure about that?" Arashi answered. "Yeah, it was reusable. The old man said it himself. I don't know which type of barrier it is but if you hurry you should be able to see the remaining residue since only a short period went by."

Seijo on the other line was silent before saying. "Stay there. And call the other four." Arashi was surprised and said. "Call the others but aren't they on their way to train?" Seijo said. "I'll be the one to shoulder the responsibility." After that Seijo hung up. Arashi, hiding the golden talisman once again, saw Kiru was also hanging up her phone. She scoffed and said. "And what did you do in the last three minutes?" Kiru said. "I was using some of my influence to search for MY. Little brother." Arashi kept an indifferent expression. "I'm guessing it's the influence of your family rather than yours."

Kiru said. "And what about you. I expect you did the same thing." Arashi smiled and said. "My method is different. Lil bro met my friends unlike you who probably threw money at the problem and already have dozens of people running around like headless chickens just to have some spare change and a chance to get into your good books." Kiru stayed calm and said. "It's nice to be as ignorant as you in times like this." The ground below Arashi suddenly had a web of cracks but the ground was still safe to stand on. Arashi calmly said. "Care to elaborate?"

Kiru smiled and said. "My little brother made a deal with me. Since we made a bargain, how do you think he'll react when you start meddling? But since you can't connect the two. I might as well spell it out for you... And you know what? I'm going to make a prediction."

Arashi managed to contain some of her anger and said. "I'm all ears." Kiru had a cruel smile and said. "When you ask my little brother what kind of deal we made. He'll answer somewhere along the line of. 'The two of us aren't that close.' And that'll prove our relationship." Arashi, seeing Kiru's cruel smile, faltered a bit inside but kept an indifferent expression and said. "He'll never say that." Kiru didn't say anything but just smiled.

Queen Hunting

Q was hopping from branch to branch on top of the trees as three large-sized boars were drinking from a river. Q leaped and was above all three of them and Reiki's right hand changed color to black and stretched unnaturally and ripped the faces of the three boars.

[System: Queen has dealt 2,345 Damage.]

[System: Queen has dealt 2,486 Damage.]

[System: Queen has dealt 2,971 Damage.]

[System: Due to irregularities Host is unable to gain experience.]

With the boar's faces spurting blood everywhere the black hand started to split open again.

[System: Queen has used Devour.]

Q ate half the boar which resulted in the sounds of meat being forcefully ripped apart followed by the sounds of bones being chewed on like chips. Before the black hand moved again the voice said. [Q. I know you're hungry but we need to kill that monster. And besides, I bet that monster tastes better than what you're eating right now.] After being tempted by the voice the Reiki's right black hand started to grow in size and with one bite ate the two and a half boars in one go.

[System: Queen has used Devour.]

[System: Queen has gained 0.5 Hunger.]

[System: Queen has gained 0.5 Hunger.]

[System: Queen has gained 0.5 Hunger.]

After finishing the three boars Q started to sprint again while Reiki's right hand started to copy the same color of his skin. Q was in such a hurry she forgot to clean the blood off the ground like she used to. Q started to run at fast as he could push Reiki's body.

Back At The Girls

After a few minutes of waiting, Seijo was already there along with the four zodiacs. Fuitchi had multiple small cuts all over him making a small trail of blood every time he walked, Enkei looked pale but had a small noticeable limp on his right leg, Igai had bags under his eyes indicating he was doing some sort of mental fortitude, and lastly, Yuko had blood on the left side of her simple clothes but was fine overall. Seino said. "Arashi gave the four of them the round down. I'll love for the residue of the barrier around."

Arashi gave everyone an apologetic look and said. "Guys, I need your help. Long story short Lil bro wanted to come here for experience. We got separated by the barrier and he might've been kidnapped." Everyone had a small smirk and Fuitchi said. "No need to worry about that Tora. Dragon over there already briefed us on the way here. On to a more important topic did the Lil bro break a reusable barrier?"

Arashi replied. "Then why did Dragon say I should give you guys the rundown?" Fuitchi answered. "It's his way of getting even when you made him lose some money." Before Arashi could say anything else Seijo was already right beside Fuitchi. As Seijo said. "Whoever owned this barrier made sure to splurge because it's high quality... Even though it's nothing compared to our standards over here this type of barrier is only available with certain credentials." Fuitchi asked. "What type of barrier is it?" Seijo answered. "... It's based on the barrier eight trigrams." Fuitchi said. "You mean the one that's arranged to their opposites to make an octagon called Bagua?" Seijo nodded with a solemn expression. Fuitchi, seeing this, asked. "What makes this barrier different then?"

Seijo answered. "Its an improved version... I don't know who made it... But by the formation where the residues were, it should be a barrier capable of making 8 barriers simultaneously. But since I was only able to find two then it could potentially add the missing number of barriers to the existing ones... Tora did you try to punch it?" Arashi replied. "I didn't want to. One look I could see a solid wall of mana even if I broke both my arms it would only crack. So I chose to wait it out until it suddenly disappeared and I decided to call for you."

Seijo pondered for a bit and said. "Let's say that for every barrier missing the barriers active gets strengthened by 2x. Since only two of the eight were in use it should be 2x2x2x2x2x2... Which means that both barriers were at least 64x more powerful. If the kid broke the barrier then..." Yuko interrupted. "I think I know where he's heading." Seijo looked at her and nodded to indicate she should continue. Yuko said. "When I mentioned a boss class monster he asked me a few questions such as when was this monster spotted and among other things... After answering a few of his questions he fell quiet and he asked Tora when he went out to gain experience."

Seijo said. "You think Reiki has some sort of connection with it?" Yuko pondered for a moment. "More like he was inquiring about something. I just couldn't put my finger on it..." Seijo said. "Do you know where the monster is located?" Yuko pointed towards the direction Q was heading and said. "It should be a whole day worth of traveling for us... Well, if we run well at most save an hour or so." Seijo looked at everyone and nodded as they started to run towards the monster.

Back At The Adventurers Fighting

A deafening roar was made by the black ogre as it tried to punch the nearest adventurers near it. But every time its fist was about to make contact a mage would cast magic or a scout would appear right beside him with a dagger coated with poison. The Ogre's body was covered with countless cuts in various sizes, some of them even exposing bone the ground beneath it had dozens of blood puddles from all its bleeding. A mage shouted. "Plant Bind!"

Plants started to grow rapidly as it started to stretch towards the ogre's limbs before the monster could break free two warriors with a sword and a cutlass slashed towards the ogre and a scout stabbed it twice before all of them ran to a safe distance. The ogre breaking the binds without trying too much saw a tower shield that looked like it was made of sheet metal and had dozens of dents on it. The leader bashed the shield hitting the ogre's face as its vision went blurry for a few seconds. The leader shouted. "Archers Fire!!"

Light started to surround the leader as he was all of a sudden back to a safe distance with a few light mana slowly dissipating. A rain of arrows fell upon the ogre as all of the arrowheads were bathed in different poisons to negate the monster's regeneration as much as possible. Some of the arrows were able to hit but none of them were able to cleanly pierce the ogre's flesh as it was only able to give it flesh wounds.

With another deafening roar, everyone covered their ears to block the sound as much as possible. With a leap towards the air, the ogre was aiming to land on the ground with the most people in one place. Bits of light started to appear above the ogre as the leader with the shield bashed towards the monster forcing it back to the ground. With a large crash, the monster hit the ground and tried to stand up again.

While the ogre tried to stand up a few archers shot arrows but were only able to give light cuts. A warrior with a broadsword was in the middle of slashing his sword as the ogre tried to punch him, the leader with the shield smacked the back of the monster's head. Which angered it and turned towards the leader and made a heavy blow towards him with the shield in hand to block the monster's blow the tower shield was split in the middle as the warrior with the greatsword was able to slash a deep wound on the back of the ogre.

Before the ogre could scream again a mage shouted. "Freeze!" As it was covered in a thin layer of ice. The leader and the warrior went back to a safe distance the leader asked the woman in the purple robes and said. "Sagyo-san, any word on where my allies are currently?"

Sagyo wearing the purple robe with a clipboard in hand said. "... None of them want to take part in subduing this monster." The leader heard this said. "They're all the same. They're too worried about holding onto what power they have and making sure that there won't be any competition. Very few people actually care about the future of our country. At this rate, Japan's growth won't just stagger but would drop completely. The higher-ups keep saying. 'We'll do everything we can to help the next generation grow.' Yet here they are cutting buds before they even have a chance... People with potential either get killed by another force or we're forced to slave away under them..."

Sagyo said. "Masayoshi-san, don't worry. The best thing we can do now is to minimize casualties. At least our sponsor is doing what they can to support us in the shadows if not we won't even have the resources to do anything." Masayoshi said. "Well, at least we have someone who has the same goal as us. But every time something like this happens I get the feeling Japan will be under another country jurisdiction sooner than later."

Sagyo didn't reply and just kept silent. After a few seconds the bush on their right moved and a scout reported. "Masayoshi-sama the monster has lost a total of 12%. By the rate we're going we should barely able to kill it but the trade-off would be our casualties skyrocketing." Masayoshi didn't get angry and replied. "Thank you for the update. Go help the others that are short of manpower." The scout nodded and vanished. Sagyo said. "Is this okay Masayoshi-san? We'll be able to kill the monster but in exchange, we have to recruit more mercenaries again. The more we do this the more unlikely they'll join because of our high death rate and those that do are usually incapable in a fight."

Masayoshi let out a long sigh and said. "We need everyone we can get out hands-on. Some of them can't fight but others could always teach them." Before Sagyo could say anything a deafening roar was heard again followed by the screams of mages casting magic and warriors either getting punched or slashing the monster.

Before Masayoshi said anything the same old blacksmith returned and said. "Your shield is about 75% done. Give me your armor and I'll give it to you in 12-15 hours tops." Masayoshi slowly removed his armor that had countless dents scratches and a few pieces missing. The old man said. "Put it inside my bag, you know not everyone can lift it." As the armor hit the ground loud sounds of thudding were made. Underneath the armor, Masayoshi was wearing a long black sleeved T-shirt and black pants. He didn't take his iron boots off because they were more or less fine. Masayoshi said. "Is it possible for you to speed up the process of repairing O-san?"

The old man said. "10-12 hours... And stop shortening the word Ojisan to O-san. I'm not a building." Masayoshi replied. "Thank you for your hard work O-san." The old man let out a sigh of frustration and passed his leather bag to him. Masayoshi picked his armor and placed it inside the old man's leather bag. He passed the bag back to the old man as the blacksmith started to walk back to his workshop somewhere. Sagyo said. "I think you should take this opportunity to rest while your equipment is being repaired." Masayoshi replied. "I'll rest after making one last round around the camp." As he stood up slowly with Sagyo next to him.

Q Running At High Speeds

The more potent the smell of the ogre the faster Q ran. Behind Reiki's body was a straight line of trees that were smashed roughly in the middle and some patches of dirt were a few feet deeper as if someone was leaping on one leg. The voice said. [Calm down Q we don't want the boy to lose his skin and stop smashing trees in half we don't want him to get into trouble. The monster is already close so lighten up.]

Q slowed down a bit and stopped destroying the trees in front and saw another herd of monsters on the side of her vision. The voice said. [Don't even think about it Q you already ate on your way here. The monster is already so close.] After saying that the ogre's faint roar was heard by Q which only motivated her to run faster towards its location.

~30 Minutes Later~

The ogre was ignoring everyone that was slashing, casting, and shooting at him and was running and searching for someone. A mage screamed. "Freeze!" Which stopped the ogre for a second and shattered the next moment with a few pieces of his skin missing another one casted. "Plant Vine!" With the vines growing beneath the ground it entangled the ogre as a scout hiding nearby splashed a black substance on it.

A mage shouted. "Engulf!" As the ogre let out a horrendous shout of pain but kept on ignoring all of them. With fire on its skin, the ogre ran to search for someone with a left turn he saw Masayoshi without armor on. Masayoshi, seeing the ogre, was taken aback and started to surround himself with light with Sagyo behind him. He said. "Sagyo, stand behind me!" With gritted teeth, he prepared himself for the ogre's blow. Sagyo stood still frozen when seeing the monster up close.

From the corner of both their eyes, a child-sized figure wearing a blue robe that was a bit big on him walked in front of Masayoshi while Q was pulling the right sleeves on Reiki's jacket. Both of them saw a white circle on a black sleeve and the ogre raised both its fists in the air in an attempt to slam Masayoshi into the ground.

Q using Reiki's left hand deflected the monster's blow by diverting it towards the left making the ground next to them crumble. With Reiki's hand on one of the ogre's wrist, it looked down to see who this new prey was. Q looked up and revealed her inverse colored eyes with a smile on Reiki's face.