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A Hero Tale: Ren

The two men made their way down the short, overgrown path without much delay. "Not so sure about delightful. Laura seems pretty adamant about the book's... uh... Shock value," Ralph whispered as they neared a large crowd that was gather outside of their village's library. It was a nameless little settlement that most referred to as 'village' and nothing more, but the townsfolk were lively, and always nice to Ren when they had the chance. Near the library's entrance, stood Laura, as gorgeous as always. Her long black hair hung loosely behind her. She'd only tied it back when it was windy. But as soon as Ren and Ralph arrived, Laura had already sat down and begun answering questions. They'd missed the initial presentation! Not that it really mattered, it's not like the book was going on sale today, anyways. "Damn it! Ah well, maybe she'll tell me more about that spooky demon thing she was talking about last week!" Ralph, without a second thought, darted through the crowed towards Laura's table, and found a place in line.

Ren caught a momentary glimpse of neon blue in the thickness of the crowd, but it was gone in an instant. It appeared again, near the front, but disappeared just as quickly. Something about it was frightfully familiar, but it had to be his mind playing tricks on him, right?

"Next!" Laura called out to the people in line. Looks like people were desperate to have their questions answered.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 33 ~

_{The Path To The Temple}

As Jenso made his way further, he could see the Mountain that housed the elementals getting closer with each step. He would have to scale the mountain, and find passage into the shrine that hit above the darkened clouds. But were those clouds normal? Pharie didn't mention anything about them. Something was fishy, and it almost felt like somebody kept watching every one of his moves.

'Try this on for size, you little brute..!'

Suddenly, Jenso found himself walking along a heightened row of land, with trenches on either side of him. It went on for quite some time, but within seconds of traversing the small bridge of dirt, quite a few Jumino darted up the hillsides towards Jenso from both directions, quickly surrounding him. There had to be hundreds of them! Jenso had to act quickly...

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Jenso latched on to each imp with his hands, and tossed them effortlessly into the tree, dispersing them in a cloud of smoke once more. They didn't seem very strong in such small groups, but from what he knew, there were many more of them.

From atop the hill, an entity remained hidden and glanced at Jenso through a wall of rock. "Ohoho! What do we have here?" She whispered to herself, holding her slender body in anticipation. "Another tasty Morsel? Ohoho"

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~ End Of Chapter 32 ~

A Hero Tale: Jeff

The sudden gust of dirt stopped the Main Hyena in his tracks, as well as the other too. "GRAAH, HEESH NO LIKE DIRT IN EYES-" The beast's unintelligible musings were cut short by Jeff's foot snapping its neck and launching its body back a few feet. As the dust cleared, the last two Hyena people growled and looked at their slain leader.

"PAY FOR KILL HEESH!" One shouted, lunging at Jeff through the air and aiming to tear open his throat. The second Hyena flanked him and went for his foot.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Jenso's sweeping kick knocked two of the little creatures aside, but the higher of the two landed on his shoulders and bit into them with their sharp little teeth and clawed at his upper back. Their attacks were barely enough to break through his shirt, dealing minimal damage, but they kept at it, trying to tear as much flesh off as possible. The other two Jumino disappeared in a puff of purple smoke upon hitting a nearby tree trunk.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

As Jenso walked further with his body pressed against the mountain's side, he noticed four little purple imp-looking creatures with pointy noses and long, thin limbs. The one imp that faced in his direction didn't notice him yet, but Jenso could see that his eyes were purple as well, and had no pupils. They were tearing into the corpse of a small deer, but they weren't eating it. As Jenso mad one more step forward, something cracked, and the four imps rose their triangular heads and spun towards him. A series of hisses rang out, and they darted after Jenso with their little clawed hands at the ready, jumping when in range to slash at different parts of his body, namely, all four of his limbs.

They were much smaller than one might expect, about the size of a small dog, but they were quick and chaotic little monsters with a strange smokey aura that became visible when their rage was triggered.

A Hero Tale: Jeff

Jeff's words summoned three hyena-looking humanoids that darted out of their three individual huts and noticed Jeff in an instant. "FEWWD!" one screeched, dashing towards Jeff immediately. The little hyena-man's furry body was only half of Jeff's height, but his stripes blurred as he dashed at tops speeds with his claws at the ready. His two allies, a black hyena with white stripes, and a grey hyena with black stripes, followed their orange leader. None of them were wearing clothes, just confirming how uncivilized they really were.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 32 ~

_{Jumino Ridden Paths}

Jenso followed the main path the best he could as it sprawled up and down, curving side to side through the hills. He saw deer, strange fox-like creatures, and the occasional bird, but no Jumino. He didn't even know what they looked like, but based on what the guard said, they were small, plentiful, and... Purple.

About an hour down the road, Jenso found himself rounding a small mountain on his left. He heard something behind it, but the bumpy landscape full of bushes and trees on his right was silent.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The guard rose and eyebrow and shrugged. "Your funeral, bub. Hey! Louise! Open the gate!"

"Opening the gate!"

With a loud series of clanks, the wooden gate rose to allow Jenso passed. "Be safe out there... Well, as safe you can be. Those things don't give any warnings before they strike. If too many find you, don't try and fight them," He warned Jenso, leading him through to the other side.

The fields of Aldariana sprawled far and wide, covered in lush green grass and mountainous landscape. In the far distance, a giant mountain stood near the center of the plains, surrounded by dark circular clouds. Was that that temple of the elementals? Jenso, with his new bottomless bag in Tow, was allowed to step into the dangerous terrain, where the Jumino lurked. Little did he know, somebody was watching him from afar.

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~ End Of Chapter 31 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"They're like locusts. We don't know why there are so many now, but there's no reasoning with the little purple bastards. We don't even know where they come from."