Saturday October 7th, 2018.

  Alli stares at the screen from her spot in the stadium seats. Both her cheeks are puffed out in annoyance and she glares at Hinata. “That sneaky bitch.” She mumbles. “This was her plan all along. She started talking on purpose!” Alli points at the screen with her finger.

  Luna is sitting next to Alli and is doing her best to hold back her sigh. She wants to tell Alli that Helo had to do that. They all saw the massive crocodile. But she knows Alli, it doesn’t matter, she is going to pout until she gets the attention that she desires. Then everything will go back to normal.

  Releasing Hinata and slowly stepping back. Helo gestures with his hands for his party to come closer. Everyone carefully steps over any leaves and fallen branches. When they are all near, he starts to speak.

  With his voice below a normal whisper, he uses his party’s advanced perception to catch his words. “It is a massive Crocodile.” Pointing off toward the direction he came from he says. “About twenty meters, and still asleep.”

  “How big is it?” Hinata leans in and asks quietly.

  “I didn’t get to close, most of its body was still in the river. But I would say almost one-hundred-feet.” Helo says after thinking for a moment.

  Rocco, Aiko and Rurgrim all sit quietly. Cody obviously says nothing. The entire party sits there for over a minute before Hinata perks up. “Alright, so here is the plan.” She leans in again.

  Just before she starts to tell her party the plan, a deep rumbling sounds out through the area. “HARRRRRRRAHHHHH.” The sound is low and powerful. Spreading out in almost physical waves.

  Everyone’s heads snap to the left and they all stare into the distance. The sound is coming from the direction that Helo pointed to. “Well, shit.” Hinata mutters.

  As everyone is starting to stand. The trees in the distance start to shake and then some start to break with loud cracking sounds. “It’s coming.” Rocco stoically announces as he rests his hand on his blade.

  “I didn’t realize, thanks for that.” Aiko mutters sarcastically. She is a little too nervous to keep up her serene maid attitude.

  “Alright. Similar plan to the Arm-A-Rollo. Rurgrim try to trap it, I’ll lead it in.” She says in a semi-heroic fashion as she steps in front of her party and draws her blade.

  Everyone stops for a moment and stares at Hinata’s back. Each member has their own opinion on Hinata’s decision. Aiko thinks that she is being heroic. Rocco is annoyed that she is stepping into danger. Cody doesn’t like any plan that means getting close to the enemy. While Helo decides to try and make sure, she doesn’t get in over her head.

  It is Rurgrim that snaps them all out of it. The ground beneath them starts to buckle, then shift. Using ‘Earth Control’ he starts to move the ground under them. He is pushing massive amounts of earth mana out through his feet and into the ground.

  As the earth starts to move, so does the rest of the party. The Crocodile draws closer; the sound of snapping trees and the rumbling growl gets louder. At the same time the noise grows faster with each moment.

  Helo stops as he is climbing a tree. Standing on a branch he is over the shrubbery on the ground. He can see the massive back on the beast as it lumbers its way towards them. It is a hundred feet long, with a massive green and brown scaled back. Running all the way down its back to the end of its tail, there are massive spikes jutting up.

  It takes Helo a second to realize why the noise seems to be growing more quickly than he expected. Looking down he can see Hinata weaving an illusion. It is one of the largest she has ever made. She is trying to wrap the entire small clearing that they teleported into, in an illusion. In the center of the small clearing, Rurgrim is frantically working to dig the hole longer, wider and deeper.

  It only takes Helo a moment to realize it won’t be enough. “It’s picking up speed!” He shouts at his friends.

  Hinata looks up at him and pauses at her work. She stops and looks behind her to see that the hole is nowhere near large enough. Shaking her head in self-mockery she internally chastises herself. Obviously, it was too much to ask Rurgrim. Now he has wasted almost all his mana.

  Turning back to her work, she continues to weave her illusion. But she also calls out the Rurgrim. “We don’t have the time. Get out of here.”

  The dwarf stops and huffs in annoyance. But instead of leaving like she asked, he steps up to stand beside Hinata. “I ain’t gonna be the one to leave you all alone.”

  Hinata looks at the dwarf in annoyance. She wants to yell at him. But at the same time, she appreciates the sentiment. Just as she looks back up her illusion snaps into place. It is just in time as the tree directly in front of her topples and the bushes part as a massive head pushing through.

  Hinata scrambles to maintain her illusion as the tree crashes beside her. At first, she was going to lure it into a trap. But since they didn’t have time, her illusion just shows an empty clearing. She could have just wrapped one around herself and Rurgrim. But she didn’t have time to modify it.

  Now as the tree falls, she concentrates hard to add it into her illusion. It would be weird if the top half of the tree disappeared as soon as it fell.

  Up above all Helo can see is a slight ripple in the air as the tree passes through Hinata’s illusion. She and Rurgrim are invisible within the light bending bubble that she has created. He lets out a sigh of relief as Hinata is able to maintain her spell.

  The massive, fanged maw of the monster enters the clearing at a rapid pace. But the Crocodile slows down until it comes to a complete stop. The members of the party all internally sigh in relief. The tip of the crocodile’s snout stops inches from the illusion Hinata weaved.

  The monster’s beady eyes look around. It expected to find some prey, not an empty clearing. The with a massive heave. The Crocodile takes in a huge breath through its nose. The air in the surroundings gets stirred up as the extremely large lungs of the beast take in large amounts of air.

  This complicates Hinata’s illusion even further. This is already one of the largest illusions she has ever made. Easily being the most complex one, but now she must subtly modify it to and in the rustling of the leaves.

  “HAAARRRRRRRRRAHHHHH!” The monster roars as it can smell the prey that seems to have escaped. The Crocodile’s roar is so powerful that a sound wave spreads out. The destabilizes the illusion.

  Reality seems to waver for a moment. The Illusion tries to hold in the midst of the powerful monster’s roar, but before Hinata can fully stabilize it. The illusion drops.

  In the end, Hinata and Rurgrim are both standing stunned in the middle of the small clearing. The Crocodile looks down on them with some confusion. It doesn’t have the intelligence to understand what happened. But it does know that its prey just appeared in front of it.

  The monster’s eyes lock onto Hinata and Rurgrim. As soon as it looks at them, everyone leaps forward to attack. But the beast is far faster than any of them expected from such a large monster.

  Rocco is still in the air with his blade drawn and poised overhead. It is glowing with a bright blue light. On the ground from where he lept, Cody has his bow drawn and icy mana swirling around the arrow. Aiko is the fastest of them all. Light starts to swirl in front of Hinata and ‘Reflection Protect’ creates a bright circle of light in front of her.

  Helo is a little in front of Rocco, but he is still in the air when the monster lunges forward. It’s large body tenses and similar to a snake, it strikes. ‘Reflection Protect’ glows brightly as the massive jaws strikes the protective spell. The spell is quickly overwhelmed, and its own reflective ability causes the spell to explode.

  The Crocodile isn’t even slowed as smoke billows from its mouth. Its massive jaws open up around Hinata and Rurgrim. But just before they close Rurgrim shouts. “GAHHHHH!” The ground beneath him surges and he launches himself at Hinata.

  Hinata herself was trying to push Rurgrim away, but she is overpowered. Just before the jaws snap closed Hinata goes tumbling from edge of its mouth. Finally landing on her back she frantically looks around. “He’s done! Pull him out!” She shouts.

  She is trying to find the Spacecallers to get them to pull Rurgrim out of the challenge. Befreo she can push herself up, there is a flash of light. Beside her, Rugrim appears. She is about to speak, but with a second flash he is gone.

  “Hahhhhh. Thank the Goddess.” She says under her breath.

  Above the Crocodile Helo and Rocco land on its back. At the same time an overpowered ‘Ice Arrow’ comes sailing out from the brush. Helo rolls to keep his momentum and dashes through the spines on the Croc’s back and toward its head.

  Rocco on the other hand is driving his blade down toward the Croc’s massive ribcage. Just as the tip of the blue flaming blade touches the monster’s scales. There is an extremely loud whistling noise. “SHEW!”

  Before Rocco can even react. The Croc’s lower body shifts and its tail sweeps past. It connects with Rocco’s side and launches him like a bullet into the tree line. Cody’s own attack is completely ineffective as the arrow strikes the hard scales and bounces off. The ice mana latches onto the Crocodile’s wet scales, but with a simple movement any of the ice that built up is quickly shattered.

  Hinata takes it all in from her place on the ground. Aiko’s defensive skill was easily broken, Cody’s attack was blocked, and Rocco didn’t even have a chance to dodge. But she can still see Helo running along the monster’s back.

  The tail comes around for another pass, but Helo launches himself in the air just before it sweeps by. Dodging the attack Helo lands. His veins are glowing with a golden light, and shadows are wrapping his figure as ‘Bloodline Awakening’ is active.

  Hitting the monsters back, he stumbles as the monster shifts its body to face Hinata. Drawing his Kukri Helo wraps his blade in his aura and its dark grey form is covered in a swirling blackness.

  Just before it launches itself forward to attack Hinata again. Helo holds his blade with one hand on the hilt and the other on the end. Sliding to a stop he drives the blade down directly onto the monster’s eye.

  Right before the tip of the blade can pierce into the Crocodiles large beady eye, it’s eyelid slams closed like a vault door. To Helo’s surprise his knife doesn’t stab into the monster’s eye. It doesn’t even crack the eyelid. Instead, it deflects off with a “CLANG!”

  Helo stares in shock. This is the first time one of his attacks has been so ineffective. He expected his bloodline to be able to bridge the gap. Instead, he kneels on the monster’s head and stares as the eyelid slowly slides open.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Then before he can escape, the monster barrel rolls in a similar fashion to normal crocodiles. Only this is over a hundred-feet long and well into tier 2. Thankfully Helo wasn’t caught within the monster’s grasp. Instead, he is tossed aside and sent tumbling into the forest.

  By the time he picks himself back up and has the chance to get back to where the fighting is. The only members left on his team are Aiko and Hinata. Rocco was taken away after the tail swipe, and being the largest the monster attacked Cody due to him being a bigger meal.

  Running up to stand beside the two girls. Helo lets out a huff. “So, anyone got a plan?”

  “Can you break through it’s defenses?” Hinata asks him.

  “I would need a couple of seconds to build up enough power. Then I would need to be able to land a clean hit.” Helo looks at the massive deceptively fast monster.

  “Aiko? Any idea?” Hinata asks her longtime friend.

  “No. Sorry…” She says sadly. She already feels bad enough because of how weak her defensive spell was.

  “Well. I guess we should call it.” Hinata’s shoulders slump.

  Helo wants to argue. He doesn’t like the idea of giving up. Plus, he thinks that given enough time he might be able to win. But in the end, he doesn’t want to go all out with everyone watching. “Yeah… I guess.”

  Aiko retreats further into herself as her shoulders slump. “Look like Adan won then.”

  Hinata doesn’t respond and looks toward the Spacecallers. “Were going to call it.”

  “Damn…” Helo mutters as the world disappears. As they land back in the stadium he mutters. “If we fought that Minotaur that Alli did, I could have beaten it.”

  Hinata pats him on the shoulder and the group heads to find their injured friends. In the end it is Adan that is leading the first-years. His own boosting skill mixed with his Were-Wolf bloodline pushed him ahead of the rest of the group when it comes to fighting.

  An hour later the entire large party finds themselves back at their mansion. They are all in the main sitting area that is directly next to the kitchen and near the entry way. The large room is filled with different sitting areas, TV’s, and forms of entertainment.

  On the main TV, along the wall, the screen is split into four and the second-year students are going through their own challenges. Most of the high ranked students are at the beginning of tier 2, like Dorimer. But the other students, mostly non-nobles, are all near the top of tier 1.

  The party all sat down to watch, but most of them fell asleep on the different couches. At the edge of the room Cody is on a giant rocking chair to match his own giant frame. His snores are some of the only sounds that the party has ever heard from him. Carl is laying on a recliner like he is sitting in a tomb with his hands clasped over his abdomen and his blade resting beside him.

  In the center of the room Gabi is sprawled out with her legs draping over the back of the main couch and her head resting on the seat. Arisah is curled up next to Gabi with her long hair fanned out. Rocco is resting on the edge of the couch, he is also curled up like Arisah, but at the same time he is hugging his sword. On the other side of the couch Rurgrim is on his back, he seems to be competing with Cody on who snores the loudest.

  Helo is on a large circular couch that can swivel. He has Lelai and Inka resting by his feet. On either side of him Alli and Hinata are resting. Alli has her arms crossed on the edge of the couch with her head resting on them, and her legs draped over Helo’s own. Hinata is leaning on Helo with her own legs kicked out over her side of the couch.

  At the moment the only people awake are Luna and Aiko. Hinata and Alli told the two girls to get some rest, but they both are disappointed with their own performances and want to make up for it.

  Aiko is cooking, getting prepared for their party tonight and tomorrow. Alli invited a bunch of people over to watch the rest of the students go through their challenges. The real exciting matches will start the next day when the top ranked students at the school will enter the challenge. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have friends over tonight.

  Luna on the other hand is getting the house ready for other students to be there. She is also making sure that everybody knows when to come. The first-years ended around noon. The second-years are expected to be done by six, and they invited everyone to come over after the second-years finish.

  Alli ended up sending out an invitation to Da Chen from China who they still tease Helo about making a friend, Maria from Brazil, and Isla from Australia in their year, along with their parties. Then she also reached out to Layla from Egypt, then Dino and Camilla from Italy in the year above. Hinata also invited Rohan over due to Helo’s interest in his Sword Caller fighting style.

  Other people that got an invite are Jorden, his Fiancé Willow and his other party members. Along with people like Ren and Jen. They are the two students that run the Talisman shop. They are also the reason that Jorden started forming a Protection Racket.

  With potential fortyish extra people, Luna and Aiko are working hard to get everything set up. They don’t expect everyone to bring their entire parties, but Alli didn’t want to be rude and not invite them.

  As the two girls set up the living room for their guest, they are tip-toeing around trying not to wake the rest of their party. Everyone worked hard and expended most of their energy. “So, do you expect there to be any drama?” Aiko asks Luna when they are near the kitchen.

  Aiko is cooking. But the kitchen is connected to the main living area by a large internal window in the wall. That window is turned into a large bar top with some stools. Looking up from her tablet Luna scoffs. “Kuh. With Isla here, there is bound to be drama.”

  Stirring the pan filled with fried rice, Aiko doesn’t look back but she does laugh. “Hah. Good point.”

  “Woah!” Luna shouts as there is a flash from the other side of the room. Before she even finishes her shout, she is covering her mouth and looking around worried that she woke someone up.

  “What?” Aiko asks while turning. “Oh!” She jumps back and fumbles with the pan that she was carrying. “Kristen!” She hisses quietly. “You shouldn’t scare us like that!”

  The powerful tier 3 teleporting maid ignores Aiko and Luna’s complaints. Instead, she holds up her phone and shows off and image of Hinata, Alli, Helo, Lelai and Inka all cuddled up.

  “Yes, they are very cute.” Luna nods, she is still glaring at the scary maid. Before they can say anything else, or even ask for help she is gone.

  “Ohhhh! Look at them! They are just so cute!” Kiyoki says with her hands clasped in front of her. To her side Yuki and Cheyenne have similar reactions. They were just getting ready to leave the restaurant they were sitting at and head home. But before they got up Kristen appeared to show off the image.

  “You have to send that to me!” Kiyoki shouts as she reaches out for Kristen’s phone. Before she can grab the device Kristen disappears and reappears on the other side of the table in the same position. Slowly, she pulls her phone back to her chest and glares at the Dryad.

  To Kristen’s left and right Yuki and Cheyenne give one another an amused look. By now both women are very used to Kiyoki’s personality and Kristen’s own quirks. Kiyoki’s extremely social attitude clashes heavily with Kristen’s reserved one. But the two women still get along well, even if it is mostly play fighting and playing pranks. Pranks that the teleporting, semi-omniscient, tier 3 maid usually comes out on the winning end of.

  The two girls barley get twenty seconds to complain about the powerful maid before she is back. Like she never even left, she flashes around the kitchen. She never even takes a single step; she rapidly teleports like she isn’t casually defying the laws of reality.

  Kristen does take a moment to appear in front of the two young girls and click her tongue, “Tch.” She gives them an unimpressed look. She might have been gone for twenty seconds, but she knows that the two girls were complaining about her.

  A few hours later, everything is set up and ready. With Kristen helping things finished faster and look much better than what the two young women were able to do. Especially since after a couple hours most of the party woke up and wanted to try their hand at helping. That just ended up slowing things down even further.

  But before they know it their first guest arrived. “WWWHHHHHM.” A heavy hum reverberates from the front door. This signifies that someone is at the gate of the mansion and requesting to enter.

  Aiko, being the highly trained and extremely loyal maid that she is, rushes to the front door while making sure that her outfit is perfect. She is wearing a Japanese rendishion of the maid uniform. It is a classic black and white, but the skirt is a little short, and the top has a ‘V’ cut with a bow covering her chest.

  Tapping on the enchantment that is built into the wall an image appears. “Hello. This is the combined Kashiwagi and Brightmoon residence. Who might this be?”

  The man in the image flinches as Aiko appears on a similar screen but at the front gate. Rohan vividly remembers that less than twelve hours ago Aiko was bored and decided to kidnap him. He slightly turns away from the screen. Internally he debates if coming here was the right idea. Thay are obviously insane. If the maid is that crazy, what must her master be like.

  But before he can leave. Aiko speaks again. “Oh! Rohan. Lovely for you to stop by.” The image of Aiko on the gate shows her looking around conspiratorially. Then when she sees that nobody is around, she looks at Rohan with a beautiful, if slightly unhinged smile. “I trust that the actions taken to invite you will be kept in… confidence?”

  Finding himself a little too nervous to flee, Rohan visibly gulps and nods his head. “Ahem! Ah. I mean. Yes.”

  Aiko’s smile instantly turns bright. “Perfect. Come on in! Just follow the path.”

  The gate that he is standing next to lets out a subtle hum, and it starts to swing inward. The screen in front of him blinks out and Rohan takes a deep breath. Taking another, then another, he finally feels ready to survive whatever crazy thing he is going to experience next.

  He has no idea what to expect. All he has to go off are rumors about Nobles and their peculiarity. More specifically their love for chopping off heads and having weird fetishes. The only experience he has with the Twin Heiresses is their scary and unhinged maid. But, to grow stronger and perfect his craft, he needs to find someone to sponsor him. There is no way that he can purchase all the swords he will need to truly use his class.

  Rohan enters through the gate and is surprised by how beautiful and simple the entryway is. There is a simple stone path that winds its way through a garden. To the right he can see the wall extending until it reaches another wall that runs perpendicular to it. He assumes that this wall leads directly toward the cliff. To the right he can see the wall extend until everything vanishes into the blue sky.

  “This must be what the final property is like.” He mutters while enjoying the view. Infront of him there is a beautiful, if simple looking mansion. It is made from stone and appears to have several wings. But the central building is by far the largest.

  “Well, everything seems normal so far.” He mutters to himself. He is trying his best not to lose his nerve. Coughing into the sleeve of one of the only suits that he owns, Rohan reaches up to his neck and adjusts his tie.

  The walk to the front door isn’t long and Rohan can hear muttering and talking from behind the door. Before he can knock, or reconsider fleeing, the front door swings open. Aiko is standing there with a smirk on her face. “Rohan.” She grabs her skirt and curtseys. “It is lovely to see you again.”

  Rohan is stunned into silence. He never expected the maid that kidnapped him to be so normal. Before he can be lulled into a state of calm and inattentiveness. He chastises himself and reminds him that she is not normal.

  Before he can close his mouth and stop his staring, a gentle breeze sweeps past him. On that breeze he can smell jasmine and vanilla. Then Hinata is standing before him. She is wearing a beautiful sky-blue kimono with white jasmine flowers on it. On her feet she has opened toed sandals with her toenails painted sky-blue. Her fingernails are painted the same and, in her dark green hair, she has two jasmine flowers woven into her braid that curls around her right shoulder.

  Rohan does his best to stop staring. He almost got his reaction to Aiko under control. Then he was hit by the nice floral scent and then Hinata’s beauty. To Hinata’s side Aiko rolls her eyes. She knows that Hinata uses and Illusion to make her entrance more memorable. In her head she laughs. You’re taking after your father more each day.

  “Are you here to see Helo?” Hinata asks him. “I do know that he had some interesting ideas for your class.” Hinata smiles pleasantly.

  Remember Rohan, she is a noble and insane. Well probably, how could anyone so beautiful be anything but amazing. NO! Get yourself together before they make to do something weird and mentally scarring. Rohan argues with himself and all he ends up doing is nodding his head.

  Hinata chuckles at Rohan’s reaction. She has no idea what is going on in his head, but she finds his awe to her appearance sweet. Beside her Aiko is grinning because she has a slightly better understanding of Rohan’s mental trauma.

  “Well, you won’t be able to see him right now.” Hinata says with an apologetic tone.

  Oh, here it is, what horrible thing are they going to make me do, just so that I can see him. Rohan mentally prepares himself. But Hinata’s next words leave him stunned.

  “He is sleeping.” She looks over her shoulder and smiles in a very loving way.

  Rohan has yet to actually take in the interior of the mansion. Looking for the first time he can’t help but think that it looks normal. To normal, suspiciously normal. He thinks to keep his head on straight and not get caught off guard.

  The room is a simple open living area. There is a large half-circle couch in the center. A TV on the wall and near the edges of the large room there are other seating areas and even a place that looks like it is meant for tea with a low coffee table.

  All around the room there is the rest of Hinata’s party. They are all wearing semi-formal clothing. But nothing as nice and Rohan’s own suit. Even if their semi-formal clothing is probably way more expensive than his own suit. Rohan flushes a little at the fact that he came to a casual hangout, with a suit on.

  But before he can really think about it, he follows Hinata’s gaze. She is looking off to the edge of the room. There sleeping on a large circular couch and under a massive blanket is the mysterious Helo. Rohan has heard a lot about him, his strength and the feeling of danger he naturally emanates. But right now, he looks extremely peaceful, even adorable.

  Beside him a fox is curled up into a ball on the blanket. In his arms is a sleeping black cat. Looking closer Rohan realizes that it isn’t a full-sized cat, but a small baby jaguar.

  “Yah know…” Aiko mutters to Hinata. “Helo has been sleeping a lot lately. Like a lot, a lot.”

  “Hummmm…. Yeah.” Hinata hums. Hinata knows about Helo’s true origins, and she starts to wonder if that has anything to do with it. She already knows that he has gone through many changes in that last year. But now isn’t the time to get into that. Looking back at the stunned and overwhelmed teenager she smiles beautifully. “Well, come on it.”