The Astral soul system-Chapter 232: Boss?!

[New quest line received]

[Quest 1/2]

[When you cut down one...]

[Quest objective: Conquer hydra]

’That is an... interesting quest’

Though Zen was more than certain he couldn’t complete it . The quest wasn’t his main objective anyway,it was Maximilian.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t curious though. What was quest two then? He tried looking but it said he either had to complete quest one or trigger it

He looked down at the card in his hand. He’d been fiddling with it for a while, spinning and flipping it between his fingers like some performer, he hadn’t even been reacting to the others conversation

"Zen, what do you think?"

Sable finally called him out

"Huh? Oh, maybe his family?"

Sable had asked why they would have taken Max and that seemed to be the common consensus between them. It was no secret they were out to kill him

"Still, they’d be far too proud to openly hire a gang"

"Maybe they just hid their identities

Sable shook her head

"But,there’s no way anyone would agree to kidnap a Hunter if it was just some random nobody who hired them "

Zen suddenly spoke up

"You might be right "

But his eyes weren’t on any of them,it was on the coin Crowley had given him

’Could it be? But how would a hunter get a hold of such a thing ’

"Zen?"

Sable called him

"I’m fine "

By now they’d left the woods and were in the city. Zen looked up at the night sky at a shadow that was circling above them

"Go,find out as much as you can"

A faint screech sounded in reply as it took off in the direction they were heading

"Stay as far as you can from any street lights or cameras, and avoid people as much as possible"

Sable said to Xavier and Neo. She and Zen/Zaine/Zyro had already done this before and were at least a bit more experienced.

A few minutes passed in complete silence, even Xavier had piped down, making as little noise as possible. Sable looked in front at Zen who still looked like he was thinking about something. Her gaze stayed on his back for a second before she sped up to get to his side.

"Is something wrong?"

Zen didn’t react to the sudden proximity, eye on the coin, but replied

"Other than you sneaking out every night to beat up gangsters?"

Sable froze for a second, almost getting left behind before speeding up again and catching up with him

"I didn’t -"

"You don’t need to explain"

She sighed

"You knew? "

"..."

"I didn’t get into any big fights, and I don’t kill them. Just knocking off the ones I find skulking around and causing trouble"

"You’ve also been helping out that family. The old man and his grandkids"

"..."

Sable looked like she’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. It was true. She hadn’t been making any big moves and she hadn’t let them see her face but she just visited them every once in a while to see how they were doing, maybe give them a hand.

"You’re quite the little hero. I used to know someone like that"

"It’s..."

She sighed, exasperated. It truly was stupid but she just couldn’t stand idly by.

"Just be careful "

Zen finally said

"..."

"Uh, guys?"

They looked back, hearing Neo

"How are we still sure Max is...you know?"

"Alive? I’m sure "

The quest to protect him was still active, meaning he was definitely still alive, though he couldn’t exactly say that

"I hope you’re right, because we’re entering their territory"

Zen looked around. "Downtown" was a huge part of the already huge city. This was going to take a while, unfortunately they didn’t have that much time, and Maximilian certainly didn’t.

"Neo,do you know where their base of operations is?"

He nodded firmly before shaking his head,an uncertain expression on his face

"Hydra is... difficult . Yes there’s a building which serves as the face of it all but the actual heart is either unknown or..."

"Or what?"

Neo sighed.

"I’ve heard a lot, growing up. Some said that they didn’t have a base and just multiple branches, some claimed that it was somewhere near the sea,heck, some dudes have said it was somewhere underwater. I thought you’d have known where to go"

Zen barely thought for a second

"Fine then, let’s go"

"What, where?"

"The place you do know they’ll be. Someone there should be able to give us directions"

At this point they’d all put on their masks and outfits, making sure they were unrecognizable.

Sable put her hands over the two scabbards resting horizontally on her lower back ,held up by a special belt around her waist, pulling out two small blades about twenty inches long each.

Zen had made it clear that nothing could give them away in this fight. The slightest slip up and they were finished so he’d gotten her these from the system shop.

Neo still wasn’t good at armed combat but his physical stats were higher than most so he didn’t ask for a weapon he wouldn’t be able to use, Xavier ... just preferred using his fists

"What did you call these things again?"

She asked, looking at the smaller versions of her katana

"Wakizashi. "

"They’re beautiful "

She said, running her hand over the hilts, covered in black cloth, admiring them for a bit before returning them.

They were nothing special, but fighting wasn’t the aim of this mission so they’d have to suffice

Going into the most dangerous place yet with the least amount of gear, how promising

Under Neo’s lead they made it to the place. It was completely different from the one Zen and Sable had gone to last time. It was... interesting to say the least

"A nightclub?"

"So what now?"

Zen walked up to the door before gently knocking

Looking up he saw the neon sign for the bar. It was an image of a snake or a dragon with three heads

That’s a bit on the nose

Theia mused

A few seconds passed and someone opened the door. It was a tall skinny man with sharp eyes

"You lost?"

Zen didn’t say anything, staring right at him.

Everyone else behind him stood still, waiting for him to make the first move.

"Depends,are you with hydra?"

The man’s eyes suddenly grew cold arrogance practically oozing off this guy

"You trying to die, bitch?"

The man reached out to grab Zen but before he could even touch him, Zen had grabbed his head and neatly snapped his neck

The lifeless body peacefully dropped to the ground

He sighed, looking back at them

"Remember, these guys are trying to kill Hunter, and us,no mercy "

Sable shrugged. The sight hadn’t affected her and the moment she saw him, she could already tell he was a bad guy.

Picking up the body, Zen found a trashcan and looked like he was about to stuff it in. When he noticed he wasn’t being watched he placed his hand on it and transformed it. This was something he hadn’t gotten the chance to try yet

[Extracting soul]

[Failed]

He sighed. He’d barely even started before it failed, but it was expected

"Void touch, that’s what the system called it. Still can’t find a use for it"

He sighed before stuffing the body in and rejoining the others.

"Alright, let’s go"

He said, stepping in first. The others followed, closing the door behind them

After a breif walk through the corridor they reached the main area. The joint’s chaos had successfully kept them relatively hidden but they wouldn’t remain so for long.

Zen took a quick look around with his read skill

"Some of these guys have abilities"

"Do you spot Max?"

He shook his head

Dozens of different stat pages appeared in front of him as he looked through the bar but there was no sign of him

"Maybe VIP? He is a rich kid after all"

Sable rolled her eyes

"Okay,lets-"

Someone suddenly walked up to them, this time he was large and burly, wearing a simple shirt and jeans. This time, Zen could clearly see the a tatoo similar to the sign outside

"Who’re you?"

"We’re new"

Zen answered trying to walk past him but he moved in his way

"Nobody comes her who i don’t know about. You shouldn’t be here. Wait a minute, where’s tony?"

He asked, looking behind them at the empty corridor

Zen sighed and out of the corner of his eye looked at the black raven perched silently in a corner

’i have searched the building. He isn’t here’

"We tried. Sable?"

She immediately understood what he meant and responded accordingly,before anyone could say anything else she unsheathed her blade briefly before immediately sheathing it again, this time in his heart before grabbing him and throwing him into a random wall.

The carefree vibe of the club immediately halted as everyone turned to look at them

"Hmm,no one’s screaming and running "

"Guess it was members only night "

Everyone in the club immediately stopped whatever they were previously doing, grabbing a weapon before attacking.

The first person they reached was Sable who was the only one with a weapon. She immediately dismembered one, cutting them down as swiftly as possible before jamming a blade directly into another’s throat. At first she moved with agility, avoiding unnecessary hits but after a while she just stopped caring. These puny humans couldn’t do any lasting damage to her anyway, even the one with abilities

Xavier had put up his anti-ability barrier but he did it far enough to avoid bothering the others and without abilities no one who got close could match him

Neo was unnaturally tough and strong due to his body going through a pseudo evolution after being close to Zen’s evolution , plus he’d been cultivating more diligently than Zen and it seemed to be affecting his physical strength as well. Although he wasn’t used to a huge battle like this involving humans,soft was the last thing he was

Strangely enough, Zen was in the toughest position as he didn’t really excel in anything but he still managed to remain unharmed

In the end only Xavier ended up using his ability

After a few minutes it looked like t they’d won, bodies riddled the floor and the entire club was wrecked from the aftermath

"That was..."

Neo didn’t know what to say, he’d been expecting more. A few bruises, maybe a broken bone or too but...

Zen didn’t reply and looked up

"Let’s pay the boss a visit"

They were about to get on the stairs when they suddenly heard a grunt.

Looking back they saw the first guy who Sable had stabbed. His skin had turned grey, resembling rock and the wound in his chest had closed

"Sable?"

"I got this,you guys go"

Zen nodded. He could already see it in her eyes. She was going to feed on this guy

"Let’s go"

The boys got onto the stairs, heading towards the boss’s office.

Zen held the doorknob and tried opening it but it was locked. Seeing as they were done being subtle, he simply ripped it off its hinges

They walked into the office expecting to find someone in there but it was empty, only a few documents laid messily over a desk remained

"It’s empty"

Zen wasn’t so sure

"That door was locked from the inside"

"The window’s open, and if he had an ability he could’ve made the jump"

*Bang*

The ground shook from whatever was happening downstairs. Poor guy

"Let’s just go, maybe we’ll find another clue"

Zen looked around intensely before turning around.

As they turned to leave a strange ripple appeared in the air and out of nowhere a humanoid beast appeared, faintly glowing scales riddling it’s body and a huge mouth filled with rows of teeth

It immediately pounced, it’s jaws aiming straight for Xavie-

*Bang!*

Xavier and Neo suddenly flinched, turning back to see Zen pointing his guns right at the attacker. They looked at the body with a smoking hole in its head.

[Level up!!!]

It slowly transformed back into a regular person, taking the form of a man in a suit with slicked back hair and a hydra tatoo on his arm

"I’m guessing this is the boss. There goes our chances of questioning somebody "

Neo and Xavier suddenly exchanged glances, realizing there was still one person alive. They immediately ran out and down the stairs, yelling

"Sable, wait!"

"Don’t kill him yet!"

Zen didn’t move,a curious look in his eye as he stared at his boss. He decided to look at his stats and his stats

"That-"

Zen didn’t know what to say, but he knew this was probably important,a shadow portal suddenly appeared under the body with tendrils wrapping around it and pulling it in

"Hmm, that works."

He looked around at everything in the room and. Files, documents, possible evidence. He didn’t have time to deal with it now but

An even larger shadow portal opened up with tendrils whipping left and right, grabbing and pulling in every until the place was bare.

With that he finally left

As he got down, he saw everyone waiting with the beat up guy from before looking like he was on the verge of death while Sable stood to the side,her face red from embarrassment.

Noticing his curious look, she whispered in his ear

"They almost caught me"

He looked down at the guy and grabbed him

"Alright,tell us what we need to know"

"...fuck you... I’d... I’d rather die"

He said, exhausted

"Oh you’re still gonna"

Zen said before looking at Sable

"Do your thing"

"What?"

He turned to the other two

"You guys go look upstairs to see if there’s anything important. I’ve already taken most of the things there but I might have missed something"

They looked a bit skeptical but didn’t refuse, going upstairs.

Zen gestured to her eyes and as she realized what she wanted, she quickly shot it down

"I-i can’t"

"???"

"I don’t know how, okay?"

"You’ve done it before"

"Yeah, when I was angry"

"Well you better get angry because this guy is our only lead to Maximilian"

The guy suddenly burst out laughing

"Oh, that’s what you want. I know where the package is. Like hell I’ll tell you fuckers"

Zen looked at Sable, with an encouraging nod, gesturing for her to give it a go

She sighed,stepping up to the prisoner. Her eyes closed shut and she took a deep breath, opening them ,a crimson lightning up her face

*******

"So this is the place?"

They said, standing in front of a seafood restaurant

"It is close to the sea"

As they stepped closer, Zen suddenly felt a tremor, before he could react a pillar of rocks suddenly rose out of the ground, slamming into Sable and knocking her into a building.

"Fall back!"

A large wall of rocks suddenly rose out of the ground before shattering into a thousand tiny shards and flying towards Zen

He quickly raised his hands, protecting his head as they slammed into him for a good few seconds before stopping

With the wall gone, they could finally see a silhouette in the dust.

It looked large and menacing as it slowly stepped towards them

"Who’s come to die?

Zen slowly dropped his hands, his eyes intensely glowing.

The moment he did, something shifted. The figure suddenly stopped moving like it had frozen completely, staring dead ahead

"B-b-b-BOSSS?!"