Chapter 24 Grade

"What was that...?" One of the knights muttered with a dazed look.

"Damn, I didn't know Mr. Harald was that strong, that's incredible." His mate nodded slightly lowering his sword to the ground.

Roland and Aron looked at each other, nodded, and walked toward the monster's corpse. Zayne followed silently. He supposed that Harald was much stronger than he seemed, so he was more surprised by how fast the monster was.

'I could be wrong, but this monster is probably even stronger than Hobgoblin. The Goblin leader was much bigger, however, this one is damn fast... Only Harald managed to keep up with him.' Zayne pondered.

Roland examined the monster from various angles, tapped his sword on the crystals, testing their durability, and with a thoughtful look said, "These crystals are very tough, most likely they can damage our swords, so we need to be careful."

"Commander, do you think there will be more monsters like this ahead?" The young knight asked with a worried look.

Roland nodded, "Sure, it can't be everything. What's more, judging by the strong smell, there are many flowers ahead."

"I agree." Aron looked into the darkness that was unknown how far away, "This is the Mixed Type, so there can't be only one Champion Grade enemy here."

"Champion Grade...?" Zayne muttered with a confused look as he saw the same thing in the message after he killed Hobgoblin, "What does that mean?"

"It's pretty simple. There are many different beasts or monsters in this world, and obviously, not all of them are equal in power. Champion Grade is the first category of many that denote Unique Beings." Aron explained as he swung his hand.

"So the Black Wolf I killed was also a Champion Grade?" Zayne asked as he tilted his head in confusion.

Aron shook his head, "No, although the Dark Wolf was a unique monster, it wasn't strong enough to be considered Champion Grade. It's a rare case, it usually doesn't happen. The monster's power depends on its energy, so Grades are needed to determine how powerful a monster is compared to others who are at the same level."

"I understand." Zayne replied as a strange slight smile appeared on his face as if he was glad that whoever scared him so much was something special.

"Can we move on?" Elin asked as she looked at Roland.

Roland was about to give the order when suddenly he was stopped by Harald, who leaned over the corpse of the monster with a hard stare.

"Hmm? Harald, what are you going to do?" Roland asked in disbelief.

Harald remained silent until he turned to Zayne, "Do you mind lending me your blade for a while?"

Zayne, like the others understood nothing, but he did not question and with a shrug handed the blade to Harald.

"Fine, let's see what weaknesses they have." Harald said calmly before plunging the blade into the monster's belly as a stream of dark blood came out.

"Whew! What are you doing?" Elin frowned in disgust, stepping away from Harald.

Some of the knights had the same reaction, as they didn't understand why Harald suddenly began dissecting the monster as if he were preparing for surgery.

"If you don't like something, you can just turn away, your comments won't do me any good." Harald said calmly, laying Zayne's blade on the ground. He stared at the monster's organs for a while with a thoughtful expression until he said, "Fine. Their anatomy is pretty much the same as ours."

"What does that mean?" Elin asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"That the brain and heart are their weak points, just like ours, right?" Zayne said, picking up his blade, which had already accomplished its task.

Harald smiled slightly and nodded, "Yeah, it's just like you said. Maybe you think I'm being overly cautious, but that monster just almost killed Amelia, there's no way I can let that happen."

"Were you worried that their lack of eyes, mouth, ears, and nose made them different from us in some other way, and it might get us in trouble?" Aron asked as he raised an eyebrow.

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ "Sure. I'm calm now. Let's move on, this monster was the first, but definitely not the last." Harald sighed, wiped the blood from his hands, and headed forward, keeping Amelia by his side.

Roland silently signaled to the knights as the group resumed their journey. From time to time, new flowers bloomed beside them, which made everyone tense because they expected a monster to appear again, but so far there were no opponents, so someone got bored.

"Mr. Aron, can I ask you something?" Zayne muttered, relaxed with his hands behind his head.

"You don't seem to be nervous, unlike the others. Well, I don't mind answering your question, go ahead." Aron smirked.

"Apparently, you like Harald, are much stronger than you look, but that's not the point. Have you ever seen a monster stronger than Champion Grade in your life?" Zayne asked slowly stepping forward with a thoughtful expression.

Aron answered not immediately as his eyes grew deeper as if he had remembered some very important event, then he sighed and said, "Yes, that was just the one time. That monster was one step above Champion Grade. It happened during my last day as Commander."

Aron continued, "I don't know if it was a trap of the Chaos, a trial of the Fate, or just a joke of luck, but it was one of the hardest days of my life."

Zayne nodded and with a slight smile asked, "You won? I mean, did you kill that monster?"

"Get right to the point, right?" Aron smirked, "Well, I didn't do it alone, I had a team of incredible knights, but yeah, that monster didn't get away from us alive, although it did bring some serious destruction."

Zayne didn't question Aron about it anymore, he didn't want to touch those topics that might have hurt the elder or opened old wounds.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Suddenly everyone felt a tremble as if a faint earthquake had started, and it gradually intensified as there was the sound of massive footsteps whose loud sound echoed off the walls of the caves.

"Looks like we've reached something big." Roland muttered with an ice-cold look as he prepared for battle.

At the same moment, several buds bloomed in the passage that clearly illuminated the entire area around them, showing the knights their next enemy who possessed the most powerful aura.

"Shit... Have we met their leader yet?" Roland muttered looking at the huge, five-meter-tall monster.

This big one was similar to the monster they had met before, except that this one had many bright crystals on its back that acted as a shield, and it had one massive eye with a purple pupil as well as the same horrible jaw.

"He's not alone." Zayne spoke calmly pointing to the five eyeless monsters walking beside the one-eyed monster, seemingly they were his servants.

"Fine, in that case, let's deal with them. It may not even be our last opponent, so let's not waste any time." Harald said calmly, stepping forward, but his voice frightened even the knights standing beside him, though it was directed at the monsters.