“We'll stop here for a short rest,” said Akira pointing to a thick cluster of trees that could provide them the only shade on the wide open grassy planes that surrounded them.

Akira hopped off of Grarr and stood there for a moment gazing out at the large green grassy plane that covered the land as far as one could see.

A light breeze swept past him and caused the grass to visibly sway as the wind swept by making it look like a flowing green wave.

The silence of their surroundings and the sight of the several green grassy waves was quite calming to watch. With all that they had been having to deal with it was nice to pause a moment and watch nature.

Another type of nature called Akira so he excused himself from the others and walked into the trees, stopping a short distance away before hiding behind a large tree to quickly do his business out of sight of his nearby bodyguards.

As he finished and was tidying up himself, he heard the rustling of dried leaves behind him.

Annoyed at his guards not allowing him to have privacy to use the bathroom by himself he turned around.

“Dolph, Vilkas, could let me go to the bathroom in peace?”

“Who's that?” asked an unfamiliar voice.

“Never heard of anyone with that name.”

“We sure struck gold this time! Look at his armor! We could sell it for a large amount of gold.”

“It would be enough gold for us all to buy new armor and maybe weapons depending on what else he has in that bag.”

Akira frowned as he heard these words.

Six people exited the shadows of the trees revealing themselves to Akira. They all wore matching black leather armor with drooping black hoods that covered their upper faces only revealing their nose and mouth. The armor design was nothing he had seen before.

Out of the group of 6, one of them was noticeably far smaller than the others. Just by the aura, smell, and weapons, Akira had a hunch that they were demigods.

Hearing Akira call their names Dolph and Vilkas rushed out from behind a nearby tree and joined Akira glaring at the demigods.

“Oh? You have two guards?” asked a female demigod.

“New Guy, we can't waste time here, we need to hurry up and kill them,” said the short demigod.

“You're right, let's have fun doing it, Meget,” said New Guy.

Akira, seeing that these people were not here for a friendly chat, reacted without thinking and immediately transformed. A black mist covered his body blocking the enemies’ view while letting out a deep bloody killing aura that swept through the entire area.

The soldiers and guards that were relaxing in the shade at the edge of the large cluster of trees jumped to their feet when they felt the aura wash over them.

“Protect the lord!” roared Zundar as he charged into the thickly wooded area. The narrow openings between the trees made it hard for him to charge in a straight line toward Akira.

“Yap!” said Fluffball in alarm as he quickly transformed and rushed into the cluster of trees.

“Edeot, you said he was supposed to be an easy target!” said one of the demigods, just now noticing the soldiers of different demon races flooding through the narrow trees rushing right at them.

“This is bad! He's gathering his power around himself for something big! We need to get out of here before they can target us with it!” said a frightened demigod as he stared at the black misty light that was sending out waves of killing intent directed right at them.

“Shadow chains!”

Eight wolf-headed chains shot up from the shadows on the ground and bit deep into the arms and legs of two of the demigods. It was only recently that Shadow chains had advanced to rank 2 allowing the skill to bite into two targets for a longer period than was previously possible.

Nox One and Two silently jumped out from the black mist surrounding Akira which was quickly disappearing to reveal a large muscular werewolf with black fur, a long tail, razor-sharp teeth, and claws.

'Hmm, another fight?' 'Looks like the enemy this time is those wimps over there.'

Both Dolph and Vilkas had already transformed and were ready to attack or defend as soon as Akira or the demigods took action.

“Go,” was all Akira said in his gravelly voice.

“RUN! They're going to kill us!” shouted a female demigod as she turned around and began escaping leaving the others behind.

Nox One and Two shot forward and tackled two of the nearby demigods slamming their shadow bodies into them with a surprising weight behind their attacks.

“AH!!! GET IT OFF!”

“Gah!...gurgle...”

Akira crouched down and activated the [AQR] Skill and shot forward as he ran on all four limbs. He ignored the two demigods trapped by the shadow chains and the two that were being shredded by Nox One and Two, to instead chase after the two female demigods that were trying to run away.

Fluffball, Dolph, and Vilkas tried to keep pace with Akira, but he was gaining speed with each step forward allowing him to quickly outpace them while also catching up to the two demigods who had a head start.

While still running Akira activated the basic skill [Pounce] and launched himself through the air with his sharp claws stretched out in front of him.

His claws grabbed onto the nearest female demigod's shoulders and pierced partially through her leather armor causing small lacerations. Then Akira's heavy body slammed into her, knocking her off her feet and into a nearby tree.

With the wind knocked out of her and her head spinning from slamming into a tree she was unable to regain her senses immediately.

“Get off of her you pervert!” shouted the second female demigod who was now behind Akira and too close for comfort.

Without looking, Akira swiped his tail behind him making contact with the arm of the demigod. Only a half second later a bright light flashed by cutting down a tree only a few paces away from Akira's head.

“You idiot are you trying to kill me as well?” shouted the demigod trapped under Akira.

Moments later the second female demigod was run through by Dolph and Vilkas' swords ending her attempts at attacking Akira a second time. She disappeared into thousands of light fragments with a pained and unhappy expression on her face.

“I'll get you back next time whoever you are!” shouted the first female demigod as she tried to escape from the claws that were tearing deep into her back.

Akira removed his right claw and straightened it into a knife. With one quick motion, his attack pierced her leather armor and her heart.

Her body disappeared into bright motes of light leaving behind a few trinkets, potions, and a small pile of gold on the ground which Akira fell on top of.

Luckily the potion bottles were not weak and did not break, that would have been a shame.

Akira stood up and quickly scanned the claustrophobic battlefield for any more danger but could not see or smell anything that might pose a threat to them.0

The rest of the demigods had been taken care of by the soldiers and Zundar.

“What's the damage?” asked Akira.

“Jarm lost his right arm... no way to reattach it as it was shredded by one of the demigod's skills. A potion was used to stop the bleeding. Other than that nothing but a few scrapes and wounds that can be healed normally,” said Zundar as he walked up to Akira.

Akira could see some of the so-called scrapes and wounds on the others. They looked pretty bad and could cause trouble if not taken care of immediately.

“Everyone patch yourself up as best as you can.”

Ding!

Bounty quest rank 2 has been completed!

You have successfully wiped out the Edeot bandit group that preyed on all those who stopped in this area to rest.

Reveal your name to the issuer of this bounty?

[Y/N]

Akira quickly picked No without needing to think about it.

Ding!

The Demon Hunters guild has paid out the 200 gold reward for the successful completion of the bounty!

The gold has been placed into Kodria's treasury.

Honor +10, fame +5, Kodria's security has risen by 5%.

'The Demon Hunters guild? What did these demigod bandits do to get such a large bounty?' thought Akira as he looked at the decent sum of gold that would go a long way to help Kodria. Even though it was a great help it still left a sour taste in his mouth, it felt like he was working for the demigods and getting paid for it.

“This place is probably the bandit's main base. Search the area and see what else they have stashed. There is a high possibility of finding loot from other people they have robbed or killed,” ordered Akira.

“On it!” “Understood!” said several nearby soldiers who were fully patched up from the fight.

Akira sighed as he watched them head off into the woods in pairs of ten to search for the hidden loot.

“These damn demigods won't even let me pee in peace.”

***

“Captain Fela! That bounty we put up a while ago was just completed!” shouted a female in dark blue robes and thick glasses as she burst into Fela’s office.

“Who was it that completed it?” asked Fela, looking up from the paperwork and accounting of the money flow that was coming in only to be immediately spent on maintaining their position in the northern lands with all the turmoil happening around them.

“No clue. They did not reveal their name, guild, or group they were with. But they had to be one of the main guilds as those idiots in Edeots bandit group are not the usual trash.”

“Hmph! They get what they deserve for saying what they said to me!”

“I hope whoever completed the bounty was not one of our rivals. I would hate to be funding their guild's attempts to attack Froit to take it over. Money is tight right now so we can't be harming ourselves while aiding our enemy.”

“You're thinking too deeply on this matter. It's not like they would go out of their way to do that right now. It was most likely some nobody that got lucky.”