The Legendary F Rank

Haru and Hong Xia both crept through the forest as quiet as mice to avoid any more interruptions from any possible monster beasts in the area. They had just met with a bear and a pack of wolves in the first few minutes so it was strange that as they followed the footprints onwards there were no more animals in the area.

They walked for a few miles in wonder about what could be the reason for the lack of wildlife but they both knew the real reason why there were no animals.

They had good instincts, even better than humans most of the time. In order to avoid dying an early death before they had time to reproduce animals would stay away from areas they knew were dangerous and the part of the forest that they had walked into was one of those places.

Haru could tell as soon as he noticed that the trees were closer together that there was something off about the place. It was like he had walked into a lion's den and was staring in the face of a lioness protecting her cubs. 

He was hesitant to go any further but his instinct told him that he was close to finding out just what exactly he had seen leave the inn. If all else failed and the beast turned out to be a bloodthirsty murdering machine he knew that he would be able to fly away with Hong Xia in his arms or at least open a spatial rift to escape.

"Haru… I feel strange. I don't like this place one bit. All the hairs on my body are on edge and it feels like something is watching us and waiting to attack." Hong Xia said as they both carried on.

Haru felt his heart sink as he looked around him to see that the footsteps certainly did carry on in the direction that they were heading in but now there was a huge red circle surrounding them that only seemed to be getting thicker and thicker as the creature ran around them fast enough that they weren't able to see it moving.

Its stealth was so good that even though Haru knew that they were encircled he couldn't sense anything at all. Not even the tiniest bit of bloodlust leaked out from whatever it was but he knew that for the moment it was only observing them and probably waiting for them to get close to its home before attacking.

Up ahead, a little bit off the path of the footprints there was a small opening in the trees where it looked as though a few of them were cut down quite recently and then moved away from the area.

"I feel the same. We are about to meet our assassin pretty soon so don't make any sudden moves once that happens. If you don't like what you see then cover your eyes and look away." Haru said as he wanted to be prepared for anything.

Just in case the beast they were about to meet was a grotesque creature he didn't want Hong Xia to scream and provoke it into attacking them.

Haru then changed course for the opening and walked there with purpose as he wanted to meet with the assassin on his own terms. He wasn't about to walk into a trap and be ambushed if there were any more of them.

As they reached the clearing Haru turned to face back where they had come from and pushed Hong Xia behind his body before taking a few steps backwards. Forcing her to move back too as he stepped closer to her while facing the other way.

"What are you doing now?" She asked but Haru's response was a simple shush as it wasn't the time for questions right now.

Haru looked around to see that the beast was still circling them at a speed that was unlike anything that he had seen before. Even the footprints that were appearing before his eyes looked like flashing lights as they appeared out of thin air and then were quickly replaced by another set in the same location.

'Okay, now let's see exactly what you are.' Haru said as he pulled his sword from his storage ring and pulled it from its scabbard in one smooth motion while swinging outwards in a circular motion.

All of the trees in a fifteen-metre radius around the pair split in two at the trunk and fell perfectly to create a wall around Haru and the beast that was running circles around them.

In order to avoid the sword stroke, the beast jumped high up into the air and as the trees fell down to the ground a flash of darkness appeared in the sky above them for a few moments before landing on the ground a couple of metres away from Haru.

It was like Annabeth had said. A small person, less than 60cm tall and dressed in a brown robe was now crouching on the ground facing Haru with an ominous feeling emitting from beneath its hood as two bright red eyes glowed as they looked up at Haru's face.

Haru threw the claw that he had brought with him at the hooded figure to which he raised one of his hands up and caught it as it flew into the armhole of his sleeve that was too long to reveal his hands so there was still no telling what the hooded figure was but as it caught the claw its eyes stopped glowing and it seemed to hesitate for a few moments as Haru spoke out.

"You should be more careful during assassinations. Imagine if the organisation behind those people found your claw. They would track you down with the intention to kill you and probably torch this whole forest to accomplish that.

But thanks to you they think I'm the one responsible for the killing." Haru said with a sigh as he was hoping that the hooded figure was capable of understanding yet to his surprise he was caught off guard as they replied.

"You humans are all the same. If you didn't come here to kill me then what else would you want? Perhaps you would an apology? That's not going to happen." The hooded figure spoke with a slight accent similar to that of people with Latin based languages back on earth, making it clear that Gaohen wasn't his native language.

He chuckled at the thought of apologising to Haru before rolling up his sleeves slightly to reveal dark brown fur along with paws that looked exactly like a house cat. He then held up the claw in his hand next to his paw and pushed it back into place with a popping sound as he flexed his paw to retract the claw a few times to make sure that it was functioning again.

"Thank you for this though. I thought I was going to have to have one crafted for me but this is the best option. Now state your intentions human. I might just let you live if I like your answer." The hooded figure spoke once more as he then pointed his claws in Haru's direction.

"My intentions?" Haru asked and then paused.

The hooded figure nodded his head and waited for him to carry on but there was a bit more of a wait as Haru tried to think about the reason for tracking him down through the forest.

"Well… Other than to return your claw, I guess I wanted to know what you are. I think I saw you hunting feathered rabbits near the path to town a few days ago but I wasn't sure. I just wanted to find out if that was you or not." Haru said as he waited to see a reaction but it wasn't what he expected.

The hooded figure erupted out into a fit of laughter before raising one of his paws within the hood of his robe presumably to wipe away a few tears.

"You think Marco the Master Assassin would spend his days killing rabbits in the forest like a child? If you saw any of my people hunting then it was probably one of the little runts gathering food for the elders." The hooded figure said as he gave away both his name and the information that there was more of his kind living within the forest.

"You're a funny human. Don't they have a word for people like you? What was it again?… Oh, a clown. Is that right?" Marco said as he looked up with his head slightly tilted beneath his hood as Hong Xia began to laugh.

"Pfft. Yeah, he would make a pretty good one wouldn't he?" She laughed out and responded to the hooded figure at the expense of Haru before taking a step to the side so she could see the hooded figure too. She felt more at ease now that she knew that he wasn't going to ruthlessly attack them but as the hooded figure looked at her he dropped down on one knee and pulled down his hood to reveal bright orange eyes and a face of fur with white whiskers on each of his cheeks and two small ears upon his head.

'I knew it. It's a cat… But what kind of situation is this? Why is a cat talking like a human and standing on two legs?' Haru thought as he hadn't heard of anything like that before but his thought was quickly interrupted by the cat person he now knew as Marco.

"Oh my, such a magnificent sight. Please tell me your name my lady and I swear I will dedicate my life by your side and be at your side whenever you may need me." Marco said as he looked up at Hong Xia with a look of lust in his eyes.

"Haru! It's a cat! He's a talking cat!" Hong Xia screamed out as she dropped to the floor and put her hand against his head and began to put him.

"His fur is so soft!" She called out once again as Marco began to purr.

"Oh wow, you're an eager one aren't you. I haven't even gotten the chance to buy you dinner yet." Marco said with a grin as he suddenly jumped forward and pushed Hong Xia out of the way before catching 3 claws similar to the ones that he had lost within his paw and then looked back into the tree line to see another cat person with white fur now staring at him with anger.

"Oh meow! Run for your lives!" Marco screamed as both Haru and Hong Xia looked up to see the other cat as Marco ran away into the distance without so much as turning back.