The two men widen their eyes at the sight of Alya blocking the movement of the serpent, strands of her long green hair fluttered gently as she turned around to face the men behind her with a stern expression.

  "Hey! You two, are you perhaps from the vilge north from here?"

  She asked. At that the men could only nod their heads in responds, getting the confirmation from the two Alya's expression became even more serious.

  A bck serpent was a dangerous monster if someone were to make a list of some of the deadliest monsters in this world then Alya was sure the bck serpent would make it into the number ten spot; their poison was strong enough to kill a fully grown human in mere minutes.

  And their speed and regenerative abilities makes them even scarier.

  Even for someone like Alya it would be difficult to deal with a bck serpent while protecting others.

  (Sigh, is this even a D rank mission anymore?)

  She thought with a long sigh.

  "I see... in that case stay behind me, and don't move from that spot!"

  She shouted, as she prepared to face the bck serpent. The bck serpent hisses at Alya warily, it seems it realize it was up against a stronger foe as it gred down at Alya.

  Soon, it opened its rge mouth attempting to swallow Alya whole, but before the bck serpent could Alya leaped away lightly evading the serpent.

  She jumped high into the air, easily appearing above the bck serpent's head. Then at that moment, countless orbs of green light materialized in the sky, Alya who's figure was now hovering a few meters above the bck serpent's head lightly motioned her hand downwards, and as though responding to her gesture, the orbs of light were sent hurtling down towards the bck serpent.

  "!!"

  As though the serpent could sense the danger towering over its head, the bck serpent slithered away in a zig zag like pattern, easily dodging the orbs of light.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  A thunderous sound resounded as the orbs impacted the earth, exploding and gouging out the soil, lightly raising a cloud of thick dust.

  Alya narrowed her emerald eyes as she scans the surrounding.

  (That serpent is cleverer than I thought, using the dust as a smokescreen. A normal monster wouldn't be Intelligent enough to think of such a pn)

  She thought, she decided to raise her vigint against this kind of monster. Alya focus on the spots that were still covered with thick dust, obscuring her vision. When suddenly—

  "!!!"

  Two pairs of red reptiles like eyes glowed from within the dust. The bck serpent's giant body jumped out, once again attempting to swallow her whole, but—

  "Tch, such an annoying creature."

  Alya wasn't about to fall for the same trick twice, she gazed at the bck serpent, while muttering hatefully. As the serpent's giant body came within reach, she released a bst of wind towards the bck serpent. However, it skilfully maneuverer its giant body midair, effectively dodging the wind bst. Alya couldn't help but widen her eyes in a show of surprise. It was clear she wasn't dealing with any ordinary creature.

  However, instead of feeling despair or discouragement, what she felt was a strong desire to eliminate this foe before her.

  The atmosphere around her became tense, her emerald eyes grew sharper, and her soft, glossy pink lip curved upwards into a slight smirk.

  The bck serpent's body flinches slightly, its body backing away in a show of momentary fear, but—

  "Hiss!"

  The bck serpent hisses as though to shake off such feelings, charges straight towards Alya who had just nded on the soil, its huge body trampled the trees in its path as it made a beeline towards Alya.

  The two elderly men behind her would most likely get drag into the fight from that distance. With that thought in mind, Alya made her move.

  "!!!"

  "Huh?!"

  "Wha?!"

  The two men let out surprised voices as they suddenly felt a floating sensation, their eyes grew wide as they saw the ground beneath their feet growing distant in their gazed, before the bck serpent could reach them, Alya had appeared behind them and took them by the caller of their shirts, before leaping into the air.

  They were now at a distant of roughly 60 meters above ground.

  Beneath their feet was a circur shaped transparent barrier that was 20 meter in diameter, Alya had most likely created it as a foothold.

  Alya fired a wind like bst towards the bck serpent's huge body, sensing the incoming attack from the skies, the bck serpent instantly swept the trees using them as shields. Seeing this, Alya widen her eyes despite herself.

  Boom!!!

  The forest shook fiercely as the trees topple down one after another; the rge body of the bck serpent mowed down the trees in its path, it once again looked upwards as it hisses through its wide mouth, its cheeks then infted as it gazed at Alya with clear hostility.

  "Hmmm.... it seems our little friend here is preparing some kind of big attack."

  Alya casually said while folding her arm. The two men looked bnkly at her in confusion, even though the situation was bad she was still being calm and uncaring.

  "U-Umm, is there anything you can do?"

  A man who seems to be in his te thirties with short brown hair asked. Impatience could be felt from his voice, as he looked at Alya with hopeful eyes. The other middle-aged man with a bearded face and bald head also looked at her with hopeful eyes.

  (Honestly these men, begging a little delicate damsel in distress like me for protection, how pathetic)

  Alya thought, sighing lightly as she turned her cold emerald eyes towards the bck serpent whose cheeks was so big that it could easily pop like a balloon.... Alya held out her hand as green light gathered at her palm condensing.

  A giant orb of green light that was roughly 10 meter in diameter appeared, she hurtled it towards the serpent, at a tremendous speed. As though responding to her sudden attack, the bck serpent expectorates a rge volume of bck liquid from its mouth.

  The green orb of light collided with the bck liquid. An intense fsh of light filled their vision. However, something unexpected happened. The orb of light slowly disappeared as though the bck liquid had burned its way through. At that, the bck liquid was making its way towards Alya and the two men who were panicking from behind her.

  "Sigh! How troublesome, I didn't think it would have something like this up its sleeve."

  Alya casually held out her hand, and a square shaped light transparent barrier appeared before her but, the pce where the bck liquid touch slowly started to melt as the barrier flickered as it slowly disappeared.

  Fortunately, the bck acid like liquid also disappeared along with the barrier but, Alya's eyes shone dangerously as she gred down at the bck serpent from above.

  "Hmph, fine then if you court death so badly then I shall give you exactly that, I shall grant you the blessing of death."

  Alya said menacingly, her petite body was suddenly cd in a green aura. So much magical power swirl around her figure, seemingly changing the flow of the wind.

  Her once soft cherry-like lips became a light shade of green, it curved upwards into a crescents shape, depicting the image of what seems to be a beautiful, seductive smile.

  A green pattern like marking appeared on her forehead, the symbol had two butterflies winged like shape to them.

  At the same time, two butterfly like wings with a span of roughly 20 meters made out of green light emerged behind her small, slender back. Her body slowly started to grow older and more alluring, she now looked like a woman in her early twenties, both ethereal and gorgeous. Both the men couldn't help but subconsciously gulp their saliva at her goddess-like beauty.

  This was the original power that Alya had sealed away after forming a contract with Haruto.

  Sealing away most of her power had left her with only a mere fraction of her original strength.

  Alya is formally known as the second most powerful wind user in the world, second only to the goddess of wind, Hera.

  Whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!

  The sound of heavy wind resounded as the clear blue skies grew dark in mere seconds, the ground broke apart as the trees flew into the air by the wind current.

  It was the beginning of a disaster that would most definitely change the structure of this forest for a long decade...!

  ***

  Sometime before Alya release her restraints....

  We have just finish wrapping up our discussion with dy Artina, Nikita and I leisurely were currently walking around the vilge, the atmosphere here still seems a little tense.

  Though, I guess that's to be expected considering most of the vilgers are still missing. I could only hope Alya's search is making progress.

  "Master."

  Nikita called out as she came to a sudden stop. Her eyes seem to be staring intensely into the distance as her nine silver fox tails moved gracefully behind her back.

  "Hmm? What's wrong, Nikita?"

  I asked tilting my head curiously.

  "Something feels off... I-I can sense danger."

  She said in an unusual serious tone before looking into a certain direction into the forest. Her nine tails suddenly stood out as her crimson eyes narrowed slightly, I also turned my eyes into that direction but, I couldn't sense anything strange or off about that area. But then....

  "Argh!"

  I felt a sharp pain on the back of my hand.

  "Huh! Master what's wrong?"

  Nikita called out to me in a flustered voice, when I turned my hand backwards a symbol could be seen there glowing.

  (Hmmm! isn't this the mark that appeared when I had signed a contract with Alya before? what's happening to it? it hasn't glowed or showed any kind of changed since that day so... why? could something had happened to Alya?)

  At that bad premonition my face went pale as I frantically ran off into the forest.

  "M-Master wait!"

  I heard Nikita's flustered voice from behind me but, currently I don't have time to think about that.