Harpies, also considered as one of the most annoying monsters of the Underworld due to their intelligent and tricky nature... Rhys disagrees.
The way they disemboweled the robbers in front of him, killing them all in one swoop by pretending to be dead was truly... beautiful.
And now, even as these feathered women turn to look at him, Rhys could not help but just stare at them. Their faces truly looked like women, perhaps just slightly alien due to the gap between their eyes being a lot wider.
Their faces were all women, but only 7 of the 13 harpies had Hearts floating above their heads — and upon further observation, even though the remaining six had breasts hanging from their torso, they also had... something hanging between their thighs.
...Is this what they meant by tricky?
'Eat. Eat. Human. Eat!'
And soon, Rhys's thoughts were finally disrupted by the desires of the female harpies as they sneakily and very subtly used their sharp talons to practically crawl toward Rhys inch by inch.
"I... can't really fulfill that desire," Rhys could really only scratch his chin as threads began slithering from his fingers,
"...Are none of you just itchy?"
"!!!"
And as the harpies let out a wail that caused even the dust resting on the ground to ripple, Rhys found himself instinctively covering his ears; it almost felt like his brain was being put in a blender and then reassembled back.
And even as Rhys fell to the ground, the harpies did not let up as they continued to scream while surrounding him, only stopping as he completely lay lifeless; his face drowning on the hard ground and blood profusely trailing from his ears, eyes, and nose.
The harpies then started looking at each other in confusion, before quickly leaning down and licking Rhys's blood. And as soon as even just a tinge of Rhys's blood touched their tongues, their feathers all rose up and started to rattle.
And once all the blood was either gone or just absorbed by the wasteland, the harpies once again looked at each other; the smiles they carried on their faces almost reaching from ear to ear. Some even licked the blood from their brethren's chin as they did not want to waste a single drop of it.
Rhys then gently whipped the threads in his hand, causing them to wrap around the harpies' body and wings, and as he started to fall, Rhys kicked in the air hard to the point that he started to spin violently — and with this, the threads wrapped around the harpies tightened... hard.
The threads, now digging through their bodies as they all started to fall with Rhys, who did not really carry any emotions on his face. After all, falling was already a second nature to him as much as these bird people.
And as the ground got closer and closer, Rhys slammed his hand down, creating a snap in the air as the hair-thin threads attached to his hand brutally whipped. And before the harpies' bodies could even hit the ground, their limbs, wings, and torsos already separated from each other.
At the same time, however, their body parts almost merged as they hit each other on the way down, creating a sort of mound...
...which Rhys landed on.
And in that instant, all the flesh and bone were thrown away, while the feathers just exploded and very slowly danced in the air as Rhys very slowly stood up.
"Hm..." Rhys then looked up from where he should have fallen from. The height should be higher than the dormitory building back in the Old York High School, and yet here he was, completely unscathed and unharmed. He then turned to look toward the bus, which was really only a few meters away from where he landed,
"...I guess that's that."
He walked back to the bus, rummaging through the robbers' corpses until he found the key to the bus. He didn't bother getting or checking anything else, as the authorities might be interested in inspecting it at a later time.
And then, with a short but very deep sigh, Rhys started the bus and started driving to where the bus manager, driver, and the other Explorers should have run to; slightly having a hard time due to his missing hand.
And eventually, after a few minutes of trying to find them through the barren wasteland, Rhys saw them still running for their lives — even hastening their marathon as they heard Rhys blow the horn.
Sadly, none of them were gifted with the blood of Hermes and Rhys immediately blocked all of their paths... and the bus manager immediately started kneeling and begging for his life.
"Please... please spare m—What the... aren't you the Lowborn!?"
"Get up...
...We still have a Hole to explore."