When Saitama's eyes finally started picking up images, they had already been teleported. Away was the brick and wooden walls of buildings that made the city, now they were in the confines of thick forestry. Saitama looked up. Gone was the bright blue sky, now a deep crimson and purple haze reigned over the heavens themselves.

"Where are we?" Raphtalia shouted in alarm. She scanned the trees near them, trying to find something, anything to indicate where they may have been teleported to.

Saitama kept staring at the sky though. Then, the distinct sound of shattering made its way to them. "Oh, is the sky cracking?" Saitama pointed up and looked at Raphtalia for confirmation. The sky was, indeed, breaking apart to reveal a type of dark vortex hidden behind it.

From within the ripples of the vortex, figures started to pour out. Fleshy, flying, rotting, and dread-inducing figures. An army of the undead followed by legions of gigantic wasps. Every single monster looked ready to kill as they plummeted towards the earth.

The three heroes were the first to make a move. Smiling with their weapons held lazily in their grips, they charged towards the largest force they could see. Neglecting everything in the way, rushing towards the gnashing maws of the undead while failing to be perceptive enough to notice something off in the distance.

"Master!" Raphtalia called out to Saitama as stared into the vortex hanging over their heads. Raphtalia was pointing at a very familiar place.

"It's the coal mine!" Indeed it was. The same rusty shack outside and untouched minecart in front. "That means Lute village is nearby!" Saitama's mind finally clicked and he realized the danger all those people were in. Saitama turned around to try and get the attention of the other people, but it seems that they had already runoff.

"We have to go help them!" Raphtalia said, already running towards the village. Saitama nodded and grunted in affirmation.

He turned towards the village and said, "I'll meet you there!" Before running off at astonishing speeds. Dust was thrown into the air seconds after he had passed. Raphtalia stifled her shock and sprinted towards the village as quickly as she could, hoping to be able to help the poor people that stood little chance of surviving by themselves.

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"Die daemon scum!" A large burly man shouted as he plunged a pitchfork into the armored chest of a ghoul. He was surrounded, but he had no plans to die like a coward. He would stand his ground in the name of this village, his home, and his family.

A giant zombie swung its axe down on the man, attempting to cleave through him. But the man dodged the attack, slamming his body into the titan of decayed flesh before reaching for the zombies' eyes. It cried a gurgled roar as the man fished around its head for anything to crush, at the same time, he stole the zombies' axe and used it to hack apart any other monsters that got too close.

The roar stopped, but now it was trying to pry the man of itself. The man desperately searched for something until he finally felt a squishy ball the size of his thumb. With a smile, he clenched his fist and felt a nasty squelch in his palm before violently ripping his hand out to crack open the skull of another zombie. The massive zombie stopped moving completely and fell backward on top of a small group of undead.

As the man finished off a zombie with a dirty headbutt he saw that every rotting corpse in sight was lying on the floor in a pool of rotten flesh. He smiled, "Haha! Come at me you Xeno filth! I will purge you with every breath I take!" He laughed with a massive grin.

Though, his smile fell as he heard the distinct sound of buzzing. He turned around his weapon at the ready. But he was not prepared to fight off the horde of giant bees that were speeding towards him. He squinted his eyes and hardened his face before putting his axe up to defend himself.

The first one was faster than the rest by a substantial amount. It was drawing closer, faster than he could blink. Soon it was upon him. He put his weapon in the way of the bee's massive stinger in an attempt to block its trajectory. Instead, he screamed.

The bee flew straight through the metal and slashed the side of his head. It even crashed through the stone wall behind him making a huge hole going straight through. The man fell to his knees as the buzzing grew louder. He glanced behind him and saw the fast bee peering at him through the hole with a hateful glare despite its lack of expression.

He closed his eyes, feeling a sudden weakness overtake him starting from his cheek. "Dammit!" He grumbled to himself. He was not going to make it to see the village safely make it through the wave. 'At least he thought, 'I wasn't a dammed coward.' He waited for death to come. Quickly, he felt a sudden rush of air and an overwhelming feeling across his entire body. Is this what it feels like to die?

"Hey, are you alright?" He heard a bland voice speak to him. Was this god? Why did good sound so... bored. "Oh crap! Are you already dead?!" So maybe he wasn't dead. He opened his eyes only to be blinded.

A bright crimson light was shining down in his eyes. He immediately shut them. "Stop shining light into my eyes!" He shouted at whoever was causing his retinas damage. He opened his eyes again, this time he was met by the slightly confused, bland face of a bald man in yellow with, oddly enough, two capes. Or was that a cloak?

"Um... are you okay now?" Saitama asked. Saitama set him down against a tree. He sucked in a breath to deal with the numb feeling in his body.

He exhaled deeply before answering, "Yeah, I'm alright." He glanced around, expecting to be attacked, oddly enough, there weren't any monsters nearby. Nor were there buildings, or any sign of the village. Where were they?

"Well, if you're okay then just wait here. Some knights should be coming here soon. They'll help you... probably." Saitama said before walking away. The man raised his hand, wanting to stop the professional hero.

"Wait, who are you?" He asked with the small amount of energy he had left. Saitama stopped for a second before glancing back at him.

"I'm just the Shield Hero for fu... Just the Shield Hero actually." The Shield Hero had just saved him. That supposed scumbag was this guy? This is nothing like what he had heard of him. He stared at the bald man for a few seconds longer. Saitama shrugged, "Okay, bye." before disappearing in the blink of an eye. The only evidence that he was ever there was himself and a sudden dust cloud.

He mulled over his thoughts for a bit longer. Comprehending what had just happened. That was until a realization occurred. That bright light must've been his bald head. Then the knights arrived.

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Saitama landed in the thick of it when he returned to the vulnerable village. He had already carried most of the people out of there, but it wouldn't hurt to check again.

A fallen watchtower had barricaded the majority of the monsters off from the center of the village, which made it so that the most common assailant at the moment were bees. That limited the number of monsters that were able to swarm the knights and adventures that were stationed here. Those that were already capable of holding their own, that is.

When it seemed someone was being overwhelmed, Saitama would swoop in and get them out of there, dropping them off somewhere in the path of the knights meant to arrive as backup.

Saitama saw a swarm of bees rushing towards the gathered fighters. At the speed they were going, they'd slam straight through the people gathered, even with their armor. Saitama walked behind the mob of fighters while they were distracted by whatever monsters they were fighting and started to lift the roof of a shattered house. Despite its size, 10x10 in meters, and its material, brick and dense wood, Saitama raised it over his head easily. With one quick motion, he launched it towards the swarm of giant insects, turning all of them into a gory mist.

"W-What the hell was that?!" One of the knights gasped as he saw some large mass fly through the air, nearly faster than he could blink.

"What could have done such a thing?" An adventurer asked as he noticed the sudden bombardment of organs and flesh falling from the sky.

"Nothing I want to get close to. Bloody hell." A significantly older knight commented as he held a zombie back from biting his head off. "Now get back to fighting!" He commanded, quickly gaining the distracted combatants' attention back to the fight.

Unfortunately, though, the time they spent gawking at the peculiar scene was enough for the monsters to get an upper hand. As the group of fighters began to falter, the strength of the monsters only seemed to increase.

Eventually, someone would go down and oddly enough, seem to disappear from the battlefield, but when someone was unable to fight and the people starting losing fighters, the monsters only grew in number. Soon, a group of 50 skilled swordsmen, spearmen, archers, and mages had dwindled to only 3 spearmen. Although they did notice the lack of human blood within the pile of flesh and decaying liquids that covered their ankles.

This was the best time for the monsters to slaughter the last three men that were still in the fight. They charged, piling more and more bodies near the warriors as they used the last of their faltering willpower to keep fighting. At the same time though, it was the best time for Saitama to test out his new abilities.

"" He said, almost bored. Suddenly, as the first undead got their hands on one of the warriors, its arm was cut off by the sudden appearance of many metal shapes tightly packed by chains. It took everyone some time to register what just happened as their weapons smacked against the metal walls surrounding them.

Suddenly, the three men found themselves being thrown around in the ball of metal. The surface that encased them felt like it was on top of an earthquake. One of them landed flat on his stomach. When he opened his eyes after regaining his wits, he could swear that he saw the ground through a small crack, and it was nothing more than a light brown and green blur.

Soon enough, he was let down onto the soft grass of the plains outside of Lute village. He quickly got to his feet, equipping his spear and raising it to fight any monster that showed their ugly face.

Nothing came. There were only empty grasslands and his other two comrades. He turned around to see a pillar of smoke rising into the sky. It was Lute village. Somehow, he and his comrades had been transported far from the place they were protecting with their lives. Beyond that, there was no evidence of how they got there. Nothing other than a trail of indented footsteps in the tall grass.

Saitama had gotten everyone out of Lute village now. The evacuation was a success. All that was left was to wipe out all the monsters. He turned to the sound of slashing. Raphtalia was cutting a path through the horde of undead and quickly making her way towards him. When she arrived, she brought her sword up and scanned the area. "I'm ready to help!" She said, determination filling every ounce of her voice.

"Oh, I kinda already saved everyone." Saitama nervously muttered. "Sorry for doing it all." Raphtalia was surprised. She knew he was powerful, astonishingly so, but to have evacuated an entire village in less than 25 minutes was absurd. Yet the evidence was around her. There were no human corpses, no human blood spilled, and no sign of there being people in the village in the first place. It almost looked to be a ghost town, disregarding the monsters and the fire that is.

She smiled at her master. "I wouldn't expect anything else from master Saitama!" She cheerfully announced. Saitama gulped, fearing that he had a second Genos on his hands. He loved the guy, but one is enough.

"Oh." Saitama noticed a cluster of bright orange lights in the sky. Then he noticed that they were flying towards him. His eyes widened for a second but quickly receded to their normal state.

"Get down!" He warned Raphtalia. She turned around to see the bombardment of fireballs soaring through the air towards the village. She quickly ducked behind cover, waiting for Saitama to follow suit. Instead, Saitama continued to stare up at the bombardment.

Raphtalia figured that she should stop being surprised. She has seen his power so many times now, but a small amount of her was still shocked when Saitama jumped into the air. At the apex of his jump, right in front of the fire projectiles flying towards him, he muttered, ""

A shockwave crackled through the air, caving in parts of the buildings and debris, but more importantly, completely annihilating the fireballs. Raphtalia felt herself get pushed harder against the floor from the spacial reaction to Saitama's counter. By the time she reorientated herself Saitama had landed in front of her.

"I wonder where that came from." Saitama brushed the dirt off his pants and shirt. Raphtalia too wondered, but she was able to figure it out when she saw the main guard strolling into town. They even had mages in their posse, and judging by their faces and slightly singed hats, who else could've launched that attack.

The tallest guard, adorned in thicker armor than the rest, a cape, and a helmet with a single jewel embedded into it, walked up to them. "You are quite tough." He dryly complimented. Saitama just barely turned around when Raphtalia's face contorted into a rage which she then acted upon.

Rushing forward with her blade at superhuman speeds, she and that guard locked their blades together. Raphtalia's face still held anger her opponent, however, had a bored expression. He cared not for what he would refer to as demi-human trash. "If you knew Lord Saitama was here, then why did you attack?!" She shouted in his face. "Know that depending on how you answer, I may not be able to forgive you!" The guard held his bored expression, growing tired of this little dramatic scene, but he answered anyway.

"I can't be certain as to why, but the demons were gathering in this spot." He spoke without an ounce of care. Saitama began rubbing the smudges of dirt off his pants. "It was our chance to clear all of them away. That's all." His face then turned into a Cheshire grin. "Well, hew came out of it just fine, so what's the problem?" He finished. Saitama finally looked up at the person that was talking at him. He raised his arm towards the guards. The leader's smile grew a little wider and his grip tightened.

Was the Shield Hero gonna attack him? Can he finally kill this filth in front of him? These thoughts echoed through his head. Then he noticed that the Shield Hero was pointing. He was pointing above himself.

"That is," Saitama spoke indifferently as he pointed above the guards. The tallest, who was probably the leader, turned around with his bored face back on. But that quickly faded into wide-eyed fear as an ax fell towards his face.

The group of guards quickly broke apart, scattering and unholstering their weapons in a panic. "Stay in position!" The leader shouted as he went for his sword. "Protect me!" He spat at his cohorts. They were too distracted with their own self-preservation to notice. He too was focusing on self-preservation by trying to sacrifice his comrades, so focused he failed to notice just how quickly the ax was traveling.

"Uwaaaah!" He cried as the tip of the ax slid into the top of his helmet. Suddenly, an incredible forced shoved him to the side and planted a hole in the giant zombie. Not a second after the same force decimated the other monsters that had gathered.

As quickly as they appeared, they were eliminated. "Sorry for pushing you guys. I had to..." Unfortunately, in his efforts to save the guards, he had accidentally knocked them all out, whether, from the force of the push or the force of the impact, all the guards were reduced to a drooling mess. on the debris-ridden floor.

Just as suddenly as Saitama's intervention, the sky began sealing. The gaping maw of the vortex closed and the serene blue of the sky returned. At the same time, the village was quiet say for the mumbling guards that were knocked on their rears. Saitama and Raphtalia gazed at the carnage then at the corpses that lay on the floor.

Then Saitama gazed at his shield. Then at the corpses. Then back at the shield. This repeated several more times before he shrugged and pinched a piece of bee brain off the floor.

"Welp, might as well." Before depositing anything that seemed interesting or valuable. At the end of their "cleaning" Raphtalia and Saitama happily walked away with new abilities, slightly better equipment, and at least 3 gold worth of extra weapons and monster parts that Saitama tasted before deciding to just sell it.

As they walked away from the village, clearing most of the debris out while doing so, they saw the many villagers returning to their broken and barely standing homes. Holding small gratitude for at least keeping the land they lived on. At the same time, however, Raphtalia was having an inner dilemma.

"Lord Saitama." He cringed at the name but didn't bother correcting her. "I... Did my utmost, did I not?" She bit her lip and strained to speak more. "I... limited the number of monsters that could make kids," She gulped. "Like me, didn't I?" She teared up. While not arriving in time to help with the evacuation, she still killed any monsters she found and protected any survivors she came across.

So yes, "You did well." He pat her head. She smiled after reigning herself in and walking beside Saitama towards the nearest place that would buy their junk.

Later, the village would speak of the hero that, kind of, saved their property and saved all the villagers. The Shield Hero, and within that same village, would awake one guard captain, sitting on a barrel in his undergarments and a mustache doodled on his face with soot.