Volume 3 Chapter 3: Part 3: Camping

"Those damn bastards?! How dare they treat me like garbage?!" Vinnie shouted in anger. Now that everyone had gone to bed, he was free to say anything.

"Does he think he's some hotshot for being D-rank?! I bet he got that rank because the guild master played favorites!" Vinnie continued to curse out.

Nothing needed to be said about what happened. From one glance alone, anybody could tell the whole group was against Vinnie.

We were only a few minutes late. Vinnie couldn't get that thought out. The reason why he and Blaine came late was that they woke up late. However, there was no problem at all. When they did their previous rank-up exam, they didn't really care whether or not they were late.

Rather, they just did what they wanted. The group only needed to kill some monster, and that was it.

But they were being treated as public enemy number one. Even on the wagon, the girl wouldn't even look at him after hitting on her. And the other guy just stared into space!

"It's all because of him! That bastard caused all of this!" Vinnie's dark expression turned even darker as he looked at Onyx's tent.

"Hey! Don't say something like that. Do you know what'll happen to us if the guild master finds out?" Blaine quickly tried to cool him down. He was angry too. But he knew if the guild master heard about this, Vinnie and him might get into trouble.

"Who cares! Don't you think it's odd?! He looks younger than us, yet he's a higher rank?!" That was what made it weird. Not only was Onyx younger, but he hadn't even been with the guild for a year now!

Yet, he was D-rank.

"He beat Galven from what I heard," Blaine said quietly.

"Bull Cr*p!!!" Vinnie's face raged, "How can master Galven be defeated by him?! I bet he cheated!" Galven was the one who taught them everything.

How could he be defeated by a guy like that? There was no way he could believe it.

"And those bastards too! How can they listen to him like a bunch of dogs?! This is pissing me off!" Vinnie continued to scream out like a fool.

Hearing all of this,

"Don't go outside." Onyx grabbed Rena's hand. She was about to jump out and attack them right then and there. They heard everything.

Vinnie and Blaine screamed so loud Onyx was pretty sure everybody else could hear all of it.

"But master-" "You don't have to worry about these things. What we should be focusing on is sleeping and getting our rest." Onyx continued to stop her.

He didn't care about what Vinnie or Blaine said about him. The thing he should be focusing on was rest.

"They can say all they want about me. But those two will never say it to my face." They should focus on their recovery and rest rather than what they say.

And the others didn't go out either. They were probably not going out because I didn't. The main person Vinnie kept badmouthing was Onyx.

Realizing he wasn't going to step out to deal with it meant they should ignore it.

"If you can't sleep with them screaming, you can put two pillows between your ears." Onyx joked.

"..." Rena sighed, "I'm fine, master." She didn't say anything else as she went back to sleep. Laying on the bed, Onyx was a little surprised by what the two said.

So those guys were Galven's students. Onyx almost didn't remember him if they didn't shout his name consistently.

He took out Galven without any difficulty. Afterward, he hasn't heard from him since.

Why am I not surprised it's his student? But hearing Galven's name, he understood why those two were watching so arrogant. The student takes up the master's, I guess.

Onyx didn't think anymore as he slowly went to sleep. What he didn't know was he wasn't going to get any.

Vinnie and Blaine continued to badmouth Onyx and the rest without a care in the world. What they didn't realize was something creeping their way slowly and slowly.

If they didn't talk so loud, they would have noticed.

"Hiss!" It was already too late.

"Woah!" Because the next second, they heard some trees getting knocked down really close to them.

"What's going on?!" Vinnie reacted first as he turned around. Only to find a tree about to slam down at him! He quickly rolled away before the tree dropped on him.

He took his sword, ready to fight. But the moment he saw them, he instantly dropped his sword!

"Why are these guys here?!" What Vinnie saw were giant brown lizards. Each one was at least 2 meters in length.

"Ahhh!" Blaine was the first one to scream out in horror. He knew what these monsters were. Rock lizards. Their strength was at D-rank, at the least.

They were waiting above their rank. Vinnie slowly backed away from the monster, wanting to flee. But the stone lizards realized it as they charged toward him.

"Stop screaming like a bunch of chickens!" Before the stone lizard could swipe down on the two, Onyx dashed out with sword in hand. Hearing their shouting, Onyx already knew what happened.

Damn, can I take a nap? It's only been ten minutes since I've gone to sleep! He kicked the lizard's head, pushing it away.

"Call the others to wake up!" Onyx ordered. There were at least 30 stone lizards staring him down! Instead of following Onyx's orders, what they did next was just.......repulsive.

"Run for it!" Onyx didn't know who said it, but both did the same thing.

Blaine and Vinnie didn't do what Onyx said. Instead, they ran away in the opposite direction of where the stone lizard came from!

"..." Onyx took a few seconds to process it before shouting, "You damn bastards!" It was every man for themselves. They didn't care about the others at all.

"Rawr!" As Onyx roared out, another stone lizard took the chance and jumped at him. What it got was an arrow to the head!

"Master, stay focused!" Rena was the one who shot the arrow at the lizard.

"..My bad." Onyx's face was still dark, but he stared down the stone lizards.

"Master, I'll go wake them up." "No need to!" As Rena was about to leave, Cyrus and Nigel jumped out of their tents and charged into the battlefield.

"Can't believe you guys are still awake?" Onyx smirked, "Aren't you guys tired?"

"Heh. How can we be tired when those fools keep screaming the daylights out?" Cyrus laughed. They heard everything Blaine and Vinnie said. There was no way they could sleep from all that yammering.

"Rena, go wake up Willa and Tricia. Bring them to Morgan and the rest and protect them."

"Understood." Rena nodded and quickly dashed off.

"Think we can take these stone lizards down without a hassle?" Nigel said with a smirk.

"Of course, they are nothing but small fries. Just going to be a long night with all of them here." Cyrus laughed. There were at least 30 of them. This was going to be a long night.

"What's the plan, Nigel?" Onyx asked.

"We'll use the same formation again. But with only three people this time."

"Gotcha."

"Also, watch out for the fire. If that's gone, then we won't be able to see." The campfire was the only thing letting them see where the stone lizards were going.

"Understood,"

Onyx didn't say anymore as he jumped into the trees. He noticed it. There were some on top of the trees as well. The lizards stared at him. Onyx didn't hesitate as he dashed towards them, cutting them up.

Cyrus raised his bow and fired at the lizards on the ground. But when the arrows hit them, they bounced off their body.

"Oh, this might be interesting." The skin of a stone lizard was similar to that of metal. Ordinary arrows weren't going to break through its skin.

How about this. Cyrus fired his arrows again.

This time, the aim of the arrows in the monster's eyes!

"Rawr!!!" The monster screamed out in agony. Cyrus wasn't done as he shot an arrow at the mouth, killing it.

Nigel wasn't doing nothing either as he pushed the stone lizards back and then used his sword to kill them.

As they fought, bodies kept dropping down. That was from Onyx. He killed all the lizards in the tree. And he wasn't done yet as he swooped down like a hawk, cutting down all lizards around him!

Onyx wasn't done as he blazed past all the monsters, slicing them apart.

"Phewww. Now that I look at the kid go, there's no need to do anything." Cyrus chuckled. When Onyx fought before, he couldn't see him in action. He was too far away to witness anything.

But now, he was up close and impressed at what he was doing.

"Stop focusing on him and keep firing arrows!" Nigel sighed as he continued to hold the stone lizards back. But damn, is he really a D-rank? Even he was surprised by how well Onyx was doing.

It was like he was dancing through the night without anybody stopping him from doing it.

Any monster pack would have an alpha to control and lead the group. Onyx remembered it from the book he read back at the royal capital. As he continued to search around, he found it.

"There you are." As the swarm of lizards continued to attack him, he saw a lizard in the trees. Compared to the other, this one had gray skin with smoother rocks.

"Going up on the trees to survey the surroundings. Good choice." The lizard noticed Onyx gazing at him.

"You're not getting away." Onyx jumped back onto the trees, ready to chase after it."

But that was what the monster wanted. Before Onyx could get close to the alpha, a couple of stone lizards came out of the shadows and attacked him!

Damn! Onyx dodged them. But he got blown away by the last one, landing a couple of meters away from the alpha.

"Onyx!" Nigel screamed out in worry. But Onyx shook his head,

"I'm fine. Just focus on your fight." Onyx said as he stared down the six stone lizards. These were different from the regular ones down there. They were much more robust.

As Onyx was about to charge in again, it was not over.

"GAWRRRRHHHH!" The moment the alpha lizard screamed out, all the other stone lizards looked over at Onyx. It didn't take a second later as they climbed up the trees, ready to take down the pest.

"Onyx! They're all coming after you!" Nigel screamed out. Even the ones in front of him ran away and charged up the trees after Onyx. They were treating him as threat number 1!

Nigel charged at the trees and sliced the ones about to get to a tree.

And they didn't care!

They continue to ignore him and chase after Onyx!

"Damn!" Cyrus fired arrows out, dealing damage to the stragglers. But there were too many of them. They all bunch up together, making it difficult for him to shoot.

"Onyx, get out of there now!" Those stone lizards were going to eat him alive!

"I'm fine. I've already got a clear target." Onyx smirked. He didn't have any plans of running away. Because there was no need to. And besides,

I've got some footholds now too. Onyx darted toward the alpha! To get across, he would use the stone lizard's heads as footholds!

It didn't even take long before he arrived in front of the alpha.

Don't even think about trying to escape from me! Onyx launched himself like an arrow.

Before the lizard could even react, its head was already cut off!