Chapter 184: Howl

Allen stood and stared at Jake who had a confused expression plastered on his face. "You don't have to worship me likes I'm some sort of god, because I'm not."

The others started to look up, all of them having the same confused look. Normally, when you know that you have a group of people who would blindly follow you like a cult, you'd feel empowered and use them as much as you could.

At least, that's how they see the world as.

"But your majesty–"

"I'm not a king," Allen cut Jake off. "You and your father belong to the same group, you just divide yourselves thinking one is better than the other, but you're just the same. Treat me like I am. I am not a god, not a king, not even a high ranking member of the society."

"But…" Jake trailed off, standing to match Allen's gaze. "What are you?"

"I'm a Hunter who's going to change things," Allen said confidently. "And the best thing you can do for me now if you also want the change is for you to keep my identity a secret as much as possible."

"We can all kill each other here," one suggested, making Allen's seriousness fall apart and form a scrunched up face. 

"Yeah!" another agreed and drew his sword. The others followed him, sending Allen into panic.

"Guys, no!" Allen yelled, raising both his hands to signal them to stop. "You don't have to do something so extreme. You can just keep yourselves silent, or if it is inevitable that the whole world would know, you can help protect me."

"We can do that," Jake said. He fetched a ring on his pocket and gave it to Allen. "This ring has a locator. If you twist the diamond in the middle, it will send a direct stress signal to us and Winston will open a portal right where you are."

Allen smiled and nodded. He wore the ring on his right ring finger and smiled. "Do something simple like this. I like to work alone as much as I can, but since I know that's impossible, I want everyone to have little to no stress about helping me."

"Of course," Jake smiled. He suddenly offered his arms to which Allen looked at and pursed his lips on in confusion. "I want us to be friends at least."

Allen took it immediately and smiled. "Of course."

They shook each other's hands before Allen left the room. He had Howl following him and he was surprised that his dog didn't bark on Jake's men. Howl was surprisingly calm and relaxed, unlike most pets.

"Good luck," Winston said right before Allen could walk away. "You will face a lot of things in the future, but we're here. And still, good luck. May the odds ever be in your favor and may the gods not leave your side."

"You're some kind of poet, are you?" Allen teased. "But thanks. I will be careful in the future and hope that I'll survive a lot of things on my way."

"You will," Winston said. "I saw it. You'll do good."

Just like that, Winston closed his portal, leaving Allen standing in the dark alley behind the pet cafe. He ruffled the top of Howl's head before they left to go back in his room.

–

Slash. Clank! Whoosh!

"Stop!" Gwen yelled as she run from a man almost twice her size. "Gary, you don't know how to wield a sword. Stop!"

"Why are those two chasing each other in the snow?" Jeremy groaned, watching his friends run around a frozen lake.

Gary wanted to try the diamond sword, but all he was doing was swing it around. Allen laughed at how adorable he found Gary with his new weapon. The man was an expert when it comes to guns, but he was nowhere when it comes to weapons.

Gwen decided to run deeper into the forest while Gary groaned and switched his weapons. He used his sniper rifle and leaped to a tree where he positioned himself so he could find Gwen easier.

"Do you think it was okay to give him the sword?" Jeremy asked. "He always uses gun, ever since he started hunting. Now that he has the sword, he barely uses it."

"It's better than the other Celestums Bearers trying to chase me, right?" Allen grinned. "You can't use the diamond sword too since you already have one, and you can't definitely takes the sword and give the spear. The generation penalty would be too much."

"Yeah," Jeremy sighed. "I guess we have no choice but to live with his for now."

A couple of seconds of silence had passed. Allen's hair stood after he felt a danger coming. "Gary, where is she?"

"I lost her," Gary groaned. He continued to use his scope to find Gwen, but it was to no avail. "Oh, found her. She's… running towards us in an incredible speed."

"Help!"

They all spun to the side when they heard Gwen scream. Allen stood and watched the woman ran from the snow, a huge cloud of snow following her. "Please, help me!"

"What in the hell is that?" Allen asked himself. He drew his Fervent Glaive and created sparks from the sword.

"Rabbits!" Gary yelled. He leaped off of the tree and sighed. "They'd Deadly Rabbits."

Gwen reached them, panting and pointing at the army of Deadly Rabbits. These were snow bunnies that would devour even the gigantic beasts. They didn't have much power alone, but as a group, they're powerful.

Allen was about to swing his weapon when Gary jumped forward and swing the diamond sword.

"Spark Shifter!"

A white holographic light shimmered from the sword as Gary swung his weapon. He slashed his sword and fired a crescent-shaped blast from his sword. He shoot his attack and killed a fraction of the beasts.

"That was not enough?" Gary groaned. 

Allen moved forward and used his glaive to swing it and fire a flaming wheel at the rabbits. It exploded into a huge orb that killed a lot the rabbits. "Your form is not good. Your form dictates how powerful your attack is going to be."

"What?" Gary asked, tilting his head in confusion. "Form? How powerful the attack is?"

"Your weapon has a higher grade that these beasts," Allen said. "Once you slash it and use a more proper form, you can kill half of them."

"Just like this," Jeremy stepped forward. He spun his spear on his hands and created a whirlpool of power, firing it into the bunnies and killed an eighth of the remaining ones.

Allen and Jeremy teamed up and killed the rest of the bunnies, the both of them almost losing stamina after. There were just too many of the beasts, close to a thousand if Allen would make a guess.

"These things," Allen said. "They're not venomous, are they?"

Gwen kneeled on one of the rabbits and examined it. As a support role, her arsenal of Codes included ones that would help them escape the dangers. She didn't just have healing powers and buffs, she also have more to offer on the table.

"They're good," Gwen said after examining the rabbits.

Allen kneeled to reach Howl. "Hear that, boy? You can eat them."

Howl barked and ate the rabbits. Allen chuckled, shaking his head as he stretched. "That was a lot of work."

"What do you think will happen next?" Gwen asked. "Do you think there are more enemies up ahead?"

"The enemies doesn't stop coming until we succeed," Allen said. "I think even after we succeed with our goals, they're still there. All we have to do is keep moving forward and not stop–"

Allen was cut off when an arrow passed his side. It barely grazed his face, his eyes widening after he felt he dripping of blood. "What?"

"We got too impatient," a woman walked out of the misty frozen forest floors. "If they wouldn't want to kill you, we will."

"We?" Allen asked just in time for the frozen lake to shake. They ran to the side where the land was to reach safety. The frozen lake suddenly boiled and shoot up like a geyser. 

"This is really annoying," a man who had a lower body of a fish leaped out of the lake. He formed the boiling water into a throne and sat in the middle of the lake. "I wanted to wait but Leo seems too odd these days. Must be something with Virgo."

"Leo… Virgo…" Allen whispered. "Don't tell me–"

"Yes, dear," the woman laughed, fully walking out of the misty forest, revealing her true form which was a centaur. She raised her bow and created an arrow using air. "We're Celestums too. And your existence is bothering the balance!"

The woman fired her arrow. The attack was so fast, but Allen was faster. He raised his glaive then heard a loud sound nearby.

Roar!

The arrow vanished into thin air, making everyone look at the source of the sound.

Howl stood there, growing fifty times its size.