Chapter 13

A/N: Sorry for the slightly short chapter, I'm currently writing this at 11 pm. So please understand. I need sleep soon.

Kojiro finally got back to the temple as the others watched him place the written note on a captured Medusa. He grazed the Monohoshizao over the Medusa's throat. "You are going to take this letter to your vulgar queen got it? I've been a little bit sick of it."

The medusa quickly slid down the temple stairs even falling over as it returned to the land of the parasites. Everyone watched as Kojiro stared at the fleeing medusa before returning and thanking them for watching over the temple.

Seol laughed as they had a bit more fun before Kojiro saw them off.

Kojiro sighed as he waited the rest of his days training. He needed another technique, since he had the base of Hiken- Tsubame Gaeshi the next one should be slightly easier. A three stage thrust. He could do that immediately now the next trick he needed was to close the distance in three steps, three steps must be absolute, three strikes, three steps. The reason he needed to learn this technique was to have more of a surprise factor. The three stage thrust would have the same starting stance as the Hiken- Tsubame Gaeshi so he could either close the distance and switch to the Hiken- Tsubame Gaeshi or he could continue on with the Lightless, Three Stage Thrust.

To do this he would need speed. He would need speed and the transparency to arrive at the destination in the future. Breaking causality so to speak, he would need to combine the transparency of the Tsubame Gaeshi along with the speed in order to make it so that goes from "I step three times therefore I have arrived" to "I have arrived therefore three steps must have been made."

And so he continued to train and perfect this technique during his peaceful days.

~~~~

The parasite queen sat on her throne, she was mad, a star was getting brighter by the moment and she couldn't do anything. Every time she mobilised her forces the star got brighter and started to move. However it had stopped moving and was simply getting brighter. The star would not move as long as she did not move and it was frustrating her.

Sung Shihyun watched as his queen was growing incredibly frustrated. However her next order puzzled him. His queen had sent possibly her most powerful Army Commander with the army to face off against one person?

"Twisted Kindness go to the small gap between the Arden Valleys take your army with you."

The parasite queen did not like the hanging guillotine above her head.

~~~~

Seol had just arrived to see the bandaged Ian and the mummy wrapped Agnes. The top team in Haramark had failed and they couldn't even rescue them in this state. Though they didn't seem like they were dead yet, however Seol's mind kept wondering to a certain swordsman who had destroyed their whole team in a duel. "Kojiro" He thought out loud, Cinzia stared at him with a blank face "You want that carefree and chill bastard to do something for you? Good luck."

Agnes's eyes stared at Jihu as she muffled a yes, she knew that Kojiro would accept after all he had nothing to do except train.

Seol had just arrived the next day with vital information that could help them and make the rescue mission a success and he had contacted a certain swordsman, now the question was would he come.

Ian looked at the plan after the briefing as he muttered "Yes it might be feasible now. I still need to know is this Kojiro lad coming and exactly how strong is he?" Seol immediately responded "He's the one who resides in the temple that blocks the other gap in the Arden Valley. Last time we saw him take on a whole swarm of parasites by himself. He's been fighting them off by himself for quite a few months. Also destroyed our team without much effort."

Ian hummed "So he's quite the powerful lad eh? So is he coming?"

A smooth voice rang out behind Cinzia "I wouldn't have listened to the briefing if I wasn't intending on coming you know." Cinzia swung her fist as Kojiro leaned back while his arms were still crossed. Everything about him was elegant and casual as he evaded another punch from Cinzia. "You shit! For how long were you here?" Kojiro smirked before sitting on a chair "I've been here for as long as you've been briefing."

Just as Cinzia had said – the message of her people finding the hideout located in the Arden mountain range arrived three days later. Ian confirmed the state of the magic circle via the communication crystal, took another thorough look at the plan again, and finally gave his go-ahead.

There were six people they had to rescue.

Richard Hugo, Level 4.

Ayase Yui, Level 5.

Edward Dylan, Level 5.

Erica Lawrence, Level 6.

Ibrahim Ali, Level 5.

Teresa Hussey, Level 5.

The rescue team was quickly formed, but the number of people was kept down to six. This was simply because in case all six captives were rescued, they needed to consider the maximum weight limitation when trying to make their way back.

Of course, the idea of splitting up the members to send them through the magic circle had been brought up, but that presented a problem. The issue was with the mana, or rather the lack of it.

Ian calculated and then calculated some more for several days, and the number he came up at the end was six people. In all honesty, just trying to maintain the magic circle for 30 minutes was strenuous enough for him to worry about potential side effects on his physique. So he decided that, rather than eating into already-too-short mission time, they should minimise the number of people participating.

And so, the rescue team consisted of Ian, tasked with activating and maintaining the transfer magic circle; Seol Jihu and Chohong were tasked with infiltration itself. As for the three others, a Level 5 Archer tasked with being a header, as well as a Level 4 Warrior. Finally, a Level 4 Priest joined in to make up the six. However there was an extra person needed to ensure that this would go down without a hitch, Kojiro. Luckily he handed over a gem filled with mana just enough to add on the additional person as he joined the infiltration team.

Since the goal of the mission was clear, none of these people were pressured into participating. No, only those who volunteered were accepted. And those with deep personal connections to the captives, people determined to successfully carry out the rescue, had been chosen.

Once the mission was green-lit, one or two people began showing a sense of urgency. However, Ian didn't rush things. Depending on circumstances, prompt actions had to be taken, but since he already tasted failure because of being hasty, he couldn't help but be even more cautious than before.

~~~~

Kojiro chuckled as he sat down beside Agnes. His arms crossed as he spoke "If someone told me this was the Agnes from the tutorial I would laugh. You look like someone tried to mummify you without the preservation." Agnes glared at him through the bandages. Kojiro waved it off before placing a small bottle down "You'll be needing this." Agnes's eyes widened as the bottle he placed down was potent healing elixir from the tutorial.

Kojiro stood up before stretching for a bit as he placed the chair back.

She blinked as a swift sound was heard and he was gone.

A/N: For those of you who still do not know what the Monohoshizao looks like. And what the Tsubame Gaeshi technique looks like.