Invaders

A candle was standing on top of what seems to be a tin of a.s.sorted cookies in the middle of the dark living room due to blackout. Ahmad was sitting in front of his children telling them his story while his wife was preparing the dinner with a gas stove in the kitchen.

Ahmad is a fisherman who lives in a rural village beside the sea. During the calamity, most animals had become vicious, including pet which eventually turned into monsters. However, near the beach, they weren"t that many land animal and most sea critters aren"t able to go on the land. Thus, they had fewer casualties when compared to inland. It"s quite common to see one whole family survive.

Looking at the flickering eyes full of curiosity, Ahmad began to turn up the notch in his story.

"The storm was wild, the sea was violent. The dark sea is home to unknown dangers. But your dad and other uncles had to go out to earn for a living and catch those d.a.m.n fishes! Ouch!"

A plate flew straight toward Ahmad"s head, making him felt a throbbing pain.

"No bad words," His wife told him as she was smiling.

Despite being an enchanter, Ahmad didn"t have the apt.i.tude to become an adventurer to earn a living. He is a low-cla.s.s D-rank who couldn"t even go up against a flying chicken monster by himself. That was true for other fishermen in the village as well. They had to go out risking their life venturing the sea to catch fishes. It was fortunate for them there are more fish which stays as fish rather than becoming monsters. And most sea monsters live deeper in the sea.

"Looking at how bad the weather was, we decided to turn back. However, we were too late... the storm was already coming. The raging wind mercilessly struck our boat and rip it apart. We all had to hang on a floating plank for our lives. But that was only the beginning of danger..."

During the short silence, the children begin to get closer to hear more of their dad"s story. Their mother left the stove to let the food boil for a while and sit beside Ahmad to join the storytelling. She poured hot milo in cups for all of them to drink while waiting for the food to finish getting cooked.

"We heard a sudden scream out of nowhere. Uncle Razak lit his fire to brighten the surrounding. When I finished counting heads, one person was missing. Just as I was about to tell Uncle Razak, another scream!"

The children flinched as Ahmad was shouting.

"We were confused and your dad had a feeling that I might not see all of you again..." He said with a saddened tone as he looked at his wife and children.

"The sea shook, trembling violently...gushing out of the water... a monster"

Even though they were still small during the calamity, growing up in the world mana has significantly increased the impact of the word "monster" in this world. Before, folk stories are often told to teach lessons to children or make them behave from doing dangerous and foolish things. Nowadays, every story has truth in it.

When they heard that their dad was helplessly hanging on a small wood while facing a monster in the middle of the sea, shivers pierce through their spine. The younger one got closer to her mother and grab her arm.

"A giant octopus with eight long tentacles that could send wriggle you to death. We could see crewmates who were vanished moment ago, struggling to get out of it. The monster opened its mouth showing lines of razor-sharp teeth. It let out a roar which almost made your dad fainted. Knowing I was in the sea I managed to stay awake! Good thing the sea suddenly turned cold"

"D-did..did dad die?"

Ahmad gave a slight cough and continued to tell the story.

"The monster was about to eat my friends when suddenly the tentacles holding them were cleanly cut by a flying a sword!"

When the children heard about a flying sword, their eyes flickered with excitement. Seems like their worries about their father has gone just like that. Ahmad was a bit disappointed but seeing how their mother smiled and nodded to him, he decided to continue.

"Yes flying sword wen whoosh and the tentacles were cut off. But, instead of falling into the sea they fell on a solid floor of ice!"

"The sea froze?!"

"Yes, the sea froze!"

---

A spine chilling sensation pierce through his bone due to the drastic drop of the sea temperature. To his shock, the seawater around him has turned to ice. Whilst in a state of confusion, a voice of a young man came to him.

"Uncle! Are you okay?"

Ahmad looked behind him and saw two young people, a boy and a girl was standing on the ice. Both of them was wearing black robes with a hoodie that cover their head and their entire body. On the girl"s shoulder, a small blackbird was perching comfortably. Even though they look young, Ahmad somehow can feel an overwhelming presence from all of them, including the bird.

The boy lent his hand toward Ahmad and pulled him out of the water.

"It must be cold in the water"

"Master look, an octopus. It looks delicious..."

The girl said it while licking her lips.

"We haven"t eaten for a while since we started crossing the sea. How do you like your seafood? Should we just boil it or burn it?"

Ahmad, unable to comprehend the conversation between those two couldn"t utter a single word. Then suddenly, the monster roared and released its mana pressure. He and his crewmates couldn"t bare the power and had their body stuck to the floor.

It seems that the monster was angered from having its meal interrupted by those two. Ahmad used the last of his to speak to them.

"Thank you for saving me...no us just now. But I heard the monsters in the sea are at least superior. Please run while you still can"

Instead of replying, the two of them continued with their conversation. Just by the look, they were way into it that they didn"t even hear a single word from Ahmad.

"Master, how about both? And we could share with them as well?"

The girl made a single gesture with her hand and in a flash, the giant octopus was cut into pieces. The boy then put his forward, shooting flames toward almost half of the pieces, while others fell into the sea. The girl then made another gesture sending dozens of needles which pierce into each of the pieces. The pierce flesh of octopus then flew toward her. She then had a big chomp.

"Oh, master! This is well cooked"

Ahmad couldn"t agree more as he could smell the nice scent of cooked octopus lingering in the air. Not just him, but everyone there could smell the nicely cooked octopus.

"I"ll go boil the rest of it. You go check if anyone is injured. Hey, stop munching!"

"Ohkay masher" *Nyam *Nyam

The girl finished the octopus in her mouth and went toward Ahmad.

"Are you okay uncle?"

---

"That"s how I survived from getting eaten by the giant octopus-like monster. We were lucky. If both of them were a second too late, most of us would be eaten alive or get our bones crushed!"

After he finished saying that, he took a sip of hot milo from the cup that lay on the floor in front of him. His children who were getting excited from listening ask their dad with glistening eyes.

"Those two must be strong!"

"Yes. They are both young, but very strong. Stronger than any people I ever met before. And..."

"And?"

"...you both have them before..."

The children looked at each other feeling confused from their father"s statement as if they were trying to find answers from each other face. "When did we ever met people as strong as that?" Much less two, even finding one is close to impossible. There"s only a hand of people who could easily kill a superior rank monster by themselves. Among them, the number of people who could one-shot a superior monster can be count with ten fingers. Most of them are currently in the city of Kuala Lumpur now.

"Dad, tell us, tell us! Who"s the two of them are?"

"Ah, time for dinner!"

At that crucial moment, their mother has started to serve food for dinner as if it was planned all along. The children pout their cheek feeling dissatisfied. Little do they know that Ahmad wasn"t planning to end his story here. Ahmad took another sip and told his children

"They asked me to not spread anything about them but...one thing I can tell both of you"

The children still making a pouting face pretending to not having any interest in what their father was going to tell them when in fact their heart earn for an answer. Or even a clue! But Ahmad who was cheery a moment suddenly show a very serious expression as if they did something wrong.

"When I asked them how they got here, they said that they walked. Just walked on the sea. They didn"t tell me their destination but..."

The children heart beat faster and faster as they get close to knowing the ident.i.ty of a strong person who they might have met before.

"They said, they came from Sarawak"

Again another question mark appeared on top of their heads as they are trying to figure out where they heard of a place name Sarawak. If they are strong people there then it should be a popular place. The answer they get however was more surprising than what they expected as their father slowly whispered to them the most taboo word in the earth right now.

"Sarawak...is a part of Borneo. Both of them walked there from the forbidden land Borneo"

----

"Master *nyam* *nyam* do we have more of the fried squid?"

"What fried squid? *nyam* *nyam* it"s an octopus *nyam* nyam*"

"Master! What"s that in your mouth?! You told me we only have the boil one left!"

"Well, yes. After I ate we only have boiled octopus"

The two of them continued to much the fried octopus they got in the last fight. Even though they prepared both fried and boiled octopus, the fried ones taste much better. The fishermen whom they shared their food also had the same opinion.

After killing the lord of Chimaera, the barrier which separated Borneo from outside has finally opened. When both of them getting ready to leave Borneo, Rentap and his men have already decided to stay with the ambition of rebuilding Borneo due to the request of Enggang.

It took them almost a week just to cross the South China Sea to Malaysia peninsular. Since the earth has been growing since its awakened, it would take them both shorter time if they were crossing the original distance of Borneo to Malaysia peninsular. Nevertheless, they had reached their first destination by living off eating what they call seafood monsters along the way.

The sixth day of the week, they sensed the presence of human which caused their heart to beat with excitement. After living their lives in constant risk of death within a land full of monster, they finally could see another human beside the warriors.

Good thing they were managed to sense those fishermen as they might get eaten if they didn"t rush to the scene after sensing the presence of a monster.

As grat.i.tude, the people in the fishermen invited to the village and welcome them with a feast. It was fun as they greet more and more people and shared how the world has changed since the calamity. Momo also went to play with the other children, accompanied by Enggang whom all the children called "Blackie".

Even though they were asked to stay for a while, but Kim has already decided to depart as soon as he can after hearing some stories from the villagers about the hero from another world who came to rescue the people of earth.
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Momo understood her master decision and decided to follow. The villagers offered them a lot of food for their journey, but they could only bring what they could hold. Now with a determined look on his face, Kim looked at Momo with a serious expression on his face.

"Momo"

"Yes, master?"

"Let"s get ourselves some money!"

"Yes, master!"

With flickering eyes, they walk toward the sunset with burning pa.s.sion

One voice silently whispered to himself

"Hah these kids"