New Arbia City was home to an artificial beach, coupled with a small artificial sea, though it was so small it could be called a lake instead. Its purpose was to be a tourist spot, a place where visitors could enjoy the beach life of a thousand years ago without worry. The beach life of today with the actual sea, was, so to speak, extremely dangerous. The ocean was a very tumultuous area of the world with rampaging waters, vicious sea monsters and purity higher than anyone could dare to dream of. Getting lost or swept away by the waves could end in death, you could find yourself in a dangerous part of the ocean and swallowed by sea monsters or even die from the sheer purity of it. Establishing a beach resort using the actual sea was the mistake Arbia City made and for that, it was flooded and destroyed. The financiers of Arbia City were determined to make a beach work though, so they had constructed New Arbia City. For a time, the artificial beach was a massive success.

  That was until a tourist was swallowed by a giant fish one day. Ever since, the beach was closed for emergency extermination. The government had paid Hunters to exterminate the giant fish and any other monsters in the artificial sea so they could investigate how they made it here, but the efforts seemed useless. Each time the giant fish was hunted down and declared dead, it would always return. Somehow, in some way, that giant fish would come back and eat more people. It had gotten to such a point that the beach was close to shutting down entirely.

  Which was why it was such a surprise when one of the security guards guarding the perimeter suddenly found a man lounging inside on a nice little beach chair and a big umbrella.

  “Excuse me, sir, someone’s snuck onto the beach during today’s extermination,” the guard informed his boss through his phone.

  “What!? Get that guy out immediately! Do you know how much we got sued the last time!?” His boss roared over the phone.

  “G-got it boss. I’ll head over right away.” The guard hung up before his boss could yell at him even more.

  The guard headed over to the visitor without much enthusiasm. The spot the visitor was at was extremely dangerous. The guard kept a close eye on the waves, watching for any unnatural movements. The big fish had the ability to control water, so it could raise the waves and attack on land before treating back into the artificial sea whenever it so pleased. The only downside was that the big fish had numerous bioluminescent lights, making it quite visible at night. It was still visible in the daytime, but with the sun out, more caution had to be taken.

  ‘Still. Isn’t bioluminescence a deep sea thing? How in the world did a deep sea fish get into here?’ The guard thought as he jogged.

  “Hello! It’s dangerous here! Please get leave the premises immediately or I will be forced to move you!” The guard screamed from a distance.

  The visitor made no motion, save for that one of his big floppy ears raised up.

  The guard rolled his eyes. It seemed like he would have to get closer. “Dear guest! Did you see the extermination tape put up around the perimeter!? It means no visitor’s allowed! Your life’s in danger!”

  The other ear raised up.

  The guard was practically steaming at this point, so he just ran up to the guy. In the beach chair, he found a lean and muscular bunnykin with dark blue hair. He had sunglasses, his arms behind the back of his head and he was clearly not alarmed.

  “Sir! Did you hear me!?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I did! Stop shouting already!” The blue bunny man waved him away.

  “Then you should know to leave the premises!”

  The blue bunny man stood up and turned to the guard, facing away from the sea. The guard kept the sea within his vision at all times, but with the bunny man blocking his view, he wasn’t sure he would notice if an attack did come.

  “I came out here for a nice vacation and now I’ve got a guy yelling at me! Where’s the hospitality you showed earlier huh!? Maybe I should lodge a complaint!?”

  “Wha-! Lodge a complaint all you want later! We gotta go!”

  “Sir Galas, your iced tea.” A server ran in with a refreshing glass of iced tea.

  “Oh, thank you,” Galas answered, and gave a big bill to the server.

  “Wha-!? What the hell are you doing serving this gu…” the guard stopped in his tracks as he looked up.

  “What’s up? You want some?” Galas held the iced tea out. “You can have it actually, I’m not really thirsty.”

  The guard unconsciously took the iced tea. He raised his other hand too and pointed it behind Galas. The serve did the same.

  “Hah?” Galas took his sunglasses down a little as he turned back.

  Behind him was a giant wave that had snuck up on them. Within that wave was a giant fish, with bioluminescent lights shining from all over it. Its shape was vague, and it was coloured almost as blue as the ocean.

  “Oh yeah. The fish,” Galas spoke right before the fish turned its tail and thwacked the beachside.

  Galas raised his hand at the same time as he jumped. Mana shot out and enveloped the guard and the server, making them float into the air. The guard and the server watched as Galas landed onto the fish’s tail.

  “Sir, no!” The server yelled out as the fish swam back into the artificial sea.

  All the guard and the server could do was watch as the waves tumbled. It wasn’t long before the guard’s phone rang again. He picked it up.

  “Oh thank god, you picked up! Listen up, that guest is our exterminator today! He’s Galas Derrida, the S Rank Hunter from Erelier’s Erebus Squad!”

  “Wai-wait! He’s S Rank!?” The guard yelped. “The giant fish’s projected to be B at best!”

  “Haha!”

  All of sudden, the artificial sea rippled.

  In the next second, the sea opened into a hole. The seawater around the centre of the artificial sea opened up all the way down to its seafloor. All of the moved seawater rose into the distance, away from the City, and it formed into a sort of giant water wall.

  “The higher-ups finally paid out big for an S Rank! That giant fish’s good as dead!”

  In the centre of that hole was Galas Derrida, standing on the seafloor. He had lost his sunglasses and he was now wet, but he had a massive smirk on his face. His grey eyes observed the seawater walls around him. Within them was the giant fish.

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  “You know, my Minor Aspect is Water. Paired with my eyes, I can see right through you, you slimy little fish. I know everything now.”

  As if enraged at the objectively correct statement the giant fish roared. Streams of water gushed out of the water walls at Galas. He ducked, dodged, and weaved through them, almost like it was an orchestrated dance. His legs and arms moved rapidly as he moved among the streams of water. With each one that came at him, his limbs ‘scooped’ something out from the water streams. What looked like little orbs was present in each water stream, and after scooping them out, the ‘water’ would limply collapse.

  The water streams eventually died down, and Galas stopped his movement. He raised a finger up, pointing at the ‘orbs’ that he had scooped from the water streams. The orbs were floating together, thanks to Galas’ magic.

  “These are all slime cores,” Galas spoke as he bounced them up and down. “You’re not a giant fish at all, you’re just a colony of slimes working together.”

  The ‘giant fish’ prepared to charge at Galas itself.

  “Your oozes are all in various hues of blue. The ‘main body’ is formed of whatever sticks out, and they have cores that light up to attract attention. The extra slimes leftover that share the same colour as the water turn off their cores and attack the prey out of nowhere. This makes them think you all can control water, but really you’re just a bunch of weaklings. And I bet you just can’t wait to reclaim your fellow slime cores.”

  As if they were angered by him, the colony of slimes shaped into a giant fish charged at Galas. The giant ‘fish’ leapt out of the water and flew through the air. Galas stepped to the side and allowed it to reclaim its fellow slimes. However, he wouldn’t let it get back to water to easily.

  “Easy there. I wasn’t done yet.”

  Galas knocked the air, and the water wall that the slime colony should have met was pushed back. All the surrounding water around the slime colony pushed even further back, almost as if the water was allergic to it.

  “Whenever Hunters ‘kill you,’ all you slimes lay low and start reproducing to pump up your numbers. With each of you being small, you could pretty easily hide away at the bottom. And also, I know you got in here with a small tunnel that connects to the actual sea. I plugged that up while I was riding your tail.”

  The colony of slimes sluggishly turned to face their doom. The dark blue bunny man sneered at the colony.

  “Now all that’s left is the actual extermination.”

  Galas formed a ring with his fingers and gently raised it before him. Formed within the ring was a thin film of liquid.

  “Bye-bye.”

  Galas blew through the ring, and a stream of bubbles shot out. The bubble swarm soared through the air at the colony of slimes. It wasn’t long before the first bubble popped.

  With as much noise as a normal bubble would make, Galas’ bubbles popped. The first bubble collapsed in itself, and then, as if not able to accept it was going to disappear, it exploded. The singular explosion destroyed the ‘face’ of the ‘giant fish,’ and many more followed up.

  The bubbles collapsed into a stream of explosions, carving out the ground and causing the water around them to burst into the air. Their lives, though brief, resulted in a massive spewer of water that could be seen anywhere from the City.

  [Streaming Collapsal Point]

  ———————————————————————

  “And that’s how I saved New Arbia City! Go on, feel free to praise me.” The Galas in the screen gestured the squad to start heaping praise on him.

  “You were really cool, Uncle Galas!” Plue was the only one to compliment him, but Galas was happy with just that.

  “Hahaha! I was! It’s a shame I didn’t get a drone to video it though. Oh, maybe the two guys watching videoed it! I gotta ask them for it later~”

  Machia and Mikoko simultaneously let out a deep sigh. She turned to him with a dirty look when she realised that. All he could do was shrug.

  It was the week after the fateful mission. Considering Dalan’s high profile status, there was a lot of paperwork and clean-up that had to be done so the Galem squad was stuck in Verdin City for a good while. Reina and Mikoko remained to help with the clean-up as well. It was only now that the squad alongside those two were allowed to go, so they were just now about to receive the mission briefing from a still vacationing Galas. The group were all in a big meeting room, using its giant screen for the video call.

  “Yeah, yeah, you can go cry about it to Sie if you wanna,” Reina interrupted.

  “Awww, but Sie’s literally always busy! And Lem’s getting just as bad as her. Isn’t that right Plu!?” Galas pointed at Plu again.

  “Y-yes! He’s so busy he only had time to lecture us the day after the Dalan mission!” Plu stood up straight and raised her hand in a salute.

  “Right??? What a hardass. Plu, you and I gotta team up to send him on a vacation!” Galas said this while punching the air.

  “Ahem, ahem. Can we get back to the mission briefing?” Machia interrupted. “Actually, wait, I want to ask something first. Why isn’t Elize giving us the mission briefing?”

  That was what Galas told them when he announced the formation of the Galem squad, but now here he was instead of Elize.

  “Ahh, that,” Galas sighed a little before continuing. “That’s cause she’s all busy with Lem.”

  Mikoko, with a pink tint in her cheeks, muttered under her breath, “B-busy?”

  “Yeah. All busy hunting down Chimaera and all. Boring stuff.”

  “Ah.”

  Reina pinched her sister’s cheek at the mistake. She angrily waved her hand off.

  “So, it’s up to me to give y’all the news. Mighty rude of them to be so busy when they know I’m on vacation, but ah well. I’m a very hardworking man so I don’t mind it too much.”

  “How’s the search for the last squad member going?” Carmine suddenly asked.

  “That! It’s going well! It’s going great okay! Shut up!” Galas lied immediately.

  Machua could almost feel the sweat drop from her face. She almost wanted to remind Galas, for the 3rd time now, to get back on topic, but before she could, another person joined the video call.

  “GAL! YOU TOLD ME-“ Lemuel’s voice was muffled and cut out multiple times as he spoke. “BRIEF- TONI-!!”

  “Well, we better just cut them off since they’re having so much trouble connecting,” Galas nonchalantly waved them off.

  The actual video portion of the call was staticky, but from time to time, what looked like a battle could be seen. The video would frequently change positions around the battlefield. Lemuel, Elize and a man with shoulder-length red hair wielding a giant sword could all be seen fighting a group of monsters. They would frequently jump at the camera, trying to save it from monster attacks.

  “Ooh, looks like you’re having trouble.” Galas asked. “Need us to call you back, Lem?”

  At this point, the camera’s signal was mostly stable. The video was stuttering a bit but the sound was mostly intelligible.

  “No!” Lemuel yelled back at the camera. “We’re talking now!”

  A monster jumped into view of the camera and opened its maw to devour it. But right before it could, the red-haired man with a giant sword blocked the strike, before flinging it away.

  “Hey, Lemue! Just how many guys did you piss off to get this many monsters after us?” He called out.

  The monsters that surrounded them were far too many to count and had such extensive variety it was impossible to name them all. The majority of the horde were animal-like monsters, many of them being carnivores or venomous creatures. Luckily for them, they were in a wide-open battlefield, so there wasn’t much room for any surprise attacks.

  “About 20 and a whole zoo of monsters!” Lemuel responded.

  “Geez!”

  “Uncle Rollo, hi!” Plue shouted amidst the chaos.

  “Hi Plue!” He turned back to answer, before a monster blindsided him. “Argh!”

  Elize jumped into view and swung the butt of her shotgun into the monster’s jaw before she fired it straight into its chest. The shotgun rounds were shining bright white, filled with mana, and tore through the monster.

  “Pay attention, Rollo! Reinforcements are on the way!” Elize informed as she reloaded.

  “Man, when did you call that in!? I thought you’re all chilled out now.” Rollo responded with a bit of a smile.

  “Lemuel left a certain hardworking junior behind and I couldn’t not let her help. Especially when the situation calls for assistance.”

  “Ha. Hear that, Lemue? It isn’t just the 4 of us anymore,” Rollo called out, despite the fact there was only the 3 of them there.

  “I get it. We can spare the manpower now. That’s my failing for not recognising that,” Lemuel answered as he bashed a monster’s head in.

  “Uh, boring much? Why don’t you go do that off-screen?”

  “Shut up!” Lemuel, Elize, Rollo and Reina yelled at him. Machia wanted to but refrained.

  Galas raised his hands in mock surrender.

  “Clean it up, Lem! Least until your juniors get there. We’ll wait,” Reina said.

  Lemuel nodded back to the camera and thrust himself back into the fight. He practically dove into the horde and swung his tonfas into any monster that neared approach. Elize covered for him by firing her sniper rifle into any monsters that could fire long-range attacks. Monsters that tried to take her out would be taken care of by Rollo, who killed them efficiently.

  Machua whispered to her brother, “Why are they keeping the camera on?”

  “You really think Galas isn’t going to pass up the opportunity to brief us without them?”

  “…” Well, he wasn’t wrong, so she couldn’t really say anything back.

  The battle raged on. Lemuel wasn’t visible anymore, but the sounds of fighting where he was didn’t stop. No one was worried even the slightest. Rollo even had time to look into the camera and point at the chain necklace he was wearing. Specifically, he was pointing to the miniature scythe that hung at the end.

  “Ooh, Uncle Rollo’s gonna do his big move!” Plue exclaimed.

  “I have to ask, Reina,” Mikoko said. “Why hasn’t Lemuel placed a barrier around the camera?”

  Machia was the one who answered, “If he puts a barrier down, it’ll interfere with the signal of the camera, so the connection will be cut off. They have no choice but to forego using a barrier in this case.”

  Mikoko shot a cold look at Machia before refocusing her attention on the battle. Rollo was just about to unleash his ‘big move,’ as Plue put it.

  Rollo holstered his greatsword on his back and grabbed the small scythe that hung around his neck. The scythe enlarged itself and Rollo held it out behind his back.

  With an almost ferocious growl, he declared, “Reap: Horizontal!”

  Rollo swung the scythe horizontally, just as he declared. However, mid-swing the scythe lengthened to such an extreme degree it nearly covered the entire battlefield. With his sheer might, every monster that had met the scythe’s blade was bisected.

  However, he didn’t hit everything. It was only a horizontal slash after all. Lemuel and Elize ducked the strike, knowing it was coming. There was a particular monster, a huge four-armed gorilla, who had leapt over the strike at Rollo.

  Its arms were poised to hammer Rollo into the ground, but before it could even reach him a sword embedded itself into its chest. The sword was followed by a horned woman with blue hair. She had another sword in her hand and when she grabbed hold of the embedded sword, she launched into a frenzy of slashes.

  [Twin Flitting Blades]

  The gorilla was turned into mincemeat. This was followed by a slam onto the ground. The woman held a man down onto the ground and had her sword to his throat. The man had been riding on the gorilla, and he had barely even realised that he was on the ground.

  “Hunter Yang Anhe here. One tamer apprehended,” the woman announced as she held her hand to a communicator on her vest. “Team, commence clean-up operation. We’ll catch them all in one fell swoop.”

  Yang Anhe looked to the horde of monsters as her hunter squad rushed into them. Lemuel emerged from it soon after with a bit of an ironic smile on his face as he made his way back. Each hunter that rushed in greeted him as they passed him by.

  Yang Anhe did not greet him when he reached her. Instead, she had a disapproving frown on her face. She slowly raised a fist and pressed it onto his chest, right where his heart was. She didn’t say anything before she leapt back into the fray.

  With the EPG reinforcements that were now here, Lemuel was finally free to begin the briefing.