Chapter 24: Symbiote’s Fight

Rebecca rushed to Marissa's house, banging on the door in desperation. It was the middle of the night, and she knew how rude it was to disturb her at such an hour, but she couldn't wait—she didn't know when Jeremy would strike. She knew he was a symbiote user, but she was so estranged from her family that she had no idea how powerful he really was.

"Rebecca? What happened? Why are you knocking in the middle of the night?" Marissa opened the door. Hiro had moved her just in time to answer the door before the knock was heard. At first, Marissa was confused, but she understood quickly once she saw the urgency in Rebecca's eyes.

"My brother… my father sent my brother to kill me and take Hiro! He's a symbiote holder! He planned to kill Cecile and Nana too!"

"Hm? Your brother?"

"You're from House Evesys, right? The symbiote holder from that family… if I remember correctly, his name is Jeremy?" Clarissa said. Hiro was surprised at how much she knew. Were symbiote holders such renowned figures that even knights from neighboring villages remembered them?

"Yes!" Rebecca nodded, taking a deep breath.

"We should wake everyone. Clarissa, please get Cecile and Nana too."

"Yes, ma'am."

And so, everyone gathered in the meeting room. Luna, the beastkin princess, Anastasia, a vice-captain, and John, a captain of the royal guards, joined the meeting. John opened with a question for Rebecca.

"So, how do you know that Jeremy was sent to kill you?" John asked.

"Um… I went to Latvin last night, and I saw people from my house camped on the border. I snuck up on my father while he was talking with my brother. He talked about killing us and taking Hiro," Rebecca said. The captain and vice-captain frowned.

"You mean you snuck into their camp alone? Dressed like that? Why?"

"I mean… there was a letter… I thought I could…" Rebecca trailed off, unable to explain herself further. Hiro tilted his head.

"Are we guarding you for nothing? Are you planning on going back there again?"

"No! I don't want to go back! I just thought I could make amends somehow… I mean… he's still my father… I thought I could leave them without worry... I want to leave with blessings...."

"What do you mean by amends?"

"John, stop with the interrogation. The important information here is whether or not a symbiote user is after our lives," Marissa said.

"Moving a symbiote user is a big deal, Lady Marissa. I need to verify whether she is trustworthy or not. If she is, we should move your brother here. However, if she isn't, then we would risk the border and the village your brother is guarding," John replied.

"Do we have to call for a symbiote user? I mean, we already have four symbiote users here, right?" Luna asked. However, John and Anastasia shook their heads.

"Hiro is certainly a symbiote, but he's too low-level. Maybe it's because he was a wild specimen, but a typical symbiote user would be much stronger than Nana or Cecile. We couldn't hold a candle to a real symbiote user. Moreover, Jeremy is known as 'the Reaper.' He specializes in stealth and assassination. Your brother might not be enough."

"Then we should call on my brother and another symbiote user…" Marissa said. "Maroon, could you deliver a letter to the adventurer's guild for express delivery to my house? Tell them that Marissa needs help."

"On it." Maroon saluted and left. The royal guards, however, frowned.

"If we summon a symbiote user so near the border, it could be seen as an act of aggression."

"Come on, John. What about them summoning a symbiote near our border?" Luna countered.

"Uh…" John was taken aback. Hiro was surprised that Luna managed to silence him and wondered about Litmus Kingdom's mentality.

The truth was, Litmus Kingdom hadn't been in a war for twenty years. They were a small kingdom and tried to rely on diplomacy. That's why their knights, despite being competent and high-level, were timid. They often engaged with monsters instead of other people. Nevertheless, when Luna pointed it out, they realized their mistake and quickly got ready.

The guards began rotating more frequently. Marissa also rallied all of Hiro's hosts and gathered them at her house, making it easier to guard them. Of course, Jeremy didn't come that night or even the day after. Hiro wondered if Jeremy would come at all. However, by the third night, Hiro sensed someone opening the door to Marissa's house.

Hiro had been enhancing the house's defenses in his own way, extending his tentacles to the outside of the door and masking his flesh with a wooden exterior. He could feel the vibrations and the creaking sound of the wooden floor. As he extended a tentacle to investigate, he was surprised to see nothing there, though the creaking continued. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a silhouette—Jeremy was already inside.

Hiro grabbed a vase and a chair, throwing them haphazardly where he believed Jeremy was. When Jeremy made a sudden movement, his stealth broke, revealing a figure in a black skintight suit. The noise alerted the royal knights, who began gathering.

"Who are you? Argh!!"

"Damn it." Jeremy cursed as he slit the throat of an unlucky royal knight. Cecile quickly donned her leather armor, while Nana, who had been distracted and massaging herself with Hiro's tentacle, was slapped in the face by Hiro to wake her up. After forcefully handing her the bow and spear, Hiro made Nana understand what was going on, and she was battle-ready moments after Cecile.

"Enemy attack! Jeremy is here!" one of the soldiers screamed. Jeremy was about to kill him but changed his direction, aiming for the room where Hiro was located. With a single jump, he reached the second floor, where most of Hiro's hosts were.

As he encountered Nana and Cecile, he dashed toward them. Hiro quickly used his tentacles to pull Nana and Cecile away when they tried to lunge at Jeremy. He knew they couldn't win. The iron sword Hiro had given them was cut in half as Jeremy's sword sliced through it like butter. If Hiro hadn't intervened, the blade would have reached Cecile and Nana's necks. Hiro was shocked by how large the gap in strength was between a fully experienced symbiote user and his hosts.

Desperate, Hiro tried mitosis, scrambling his tentacles to attack Jeremy. But Jeremy effortlessly bisected the tentacles. However, he hesitated when he saw the core among them.

Jeremy tilted his head but continued to chase them. Hiro immediately threw Nana and Cecile out of the window. The scene reminded him of their escape from the Evesys mansion. Unlike the soldiers from the mansion, however, Jeremy jumped after them in pursuit. Hiro used his tentacle as an anchor to help divert Cecile and Nana's fall, narrowly avoiding Jeremy's blade as it landed just an inch from them while Hiro pulled Nana back toward the window.

Jeremy threw a knife, slicing Hiro's tentacle and causing Cecile and Nana to fall to the ground.

"Two down! One more to go," Jeremy whispered as if announcing the execution of Cecile and Nana.

"Kyaa!!" Cecile and Nana screamed, and Hiro tried to protect them. Suddenly, Jeremy moved to the side, and the reason became clear—a pillar of flame shot down between Cecile and Nana.

"Damn. I thought It was a perfect ambush attack there. Did he have some kind of detection skills?" a hooded man whispered from a distance. Hiro silently thanked him.

"Annoyance!" Jeremy hissed, materializing a dagger from his suit. He threw it at the man, but the hooded man swatted it away with his gauntlet as if it were nothing.

"Damn you!" Jeremy charged toward the man with another of his prized dagger.

"Oi oi. Are you sure you want to charge me head-on?" The man smirked, unfazed by Jeremy's bloodlust. Hiro wondered why the man was so calm. The reason was clear moments later—suddenly, the man glowed as he materialized swords made of flame. Jeremy, whose head was covered in tentacles, realized he had made a mistake and tried to evade. However, the man was faster than he appeared. He swung his sword, and an explosion erupted across the field.

The blast shattered windows and damaged the house Marissa was in. Hiro silently thanked the heavens that this flaming man hadn't used such a technique when Jeremy was closer to his girls. Even Hiro's tentacles could feel the intense heat emanating from the scorched field. Hiro was weak to fire, so he retracted his tentacle back into his host.

"Damn it. The Sun Knight Seraphine... why are you here?" Jeremy groaned as he stood up. His skin was badly burned, and he had even lost an arm. The royal knights surrounded him instantly.

"Surrender! You have trespassed into the Kingdom of Litmus! Any act of aggression will be seen as a declaration of war!" John shouted, readying his lance.

"Shut up and surround him! He's not getting out of here alive! Phoenix!" Seraphine commanded, and a flaming tentacle extended from his body. It undulated and then spewed a flaming bird that chased after Jeremy, who dodged and fled the scene as waves of fire and heat pursued him. Hiro watched in horror as the village began to burn. Flames were everywhere as Seraphine's symbiote fired fireball after fireball like artillery.

Nevertheless, Jeremy evaded them all with the agility that only a symbiote user could muster. Growing frustrated, Seraphine materialized a horse made of flames. Like a battering ram, he plowed through random houses, charging toward Jeremy in the shortest possible distance. Still, Jeremy was faster.

A few minutes later, Seraphine returned empty-handed.

"Damn it, I almost had him!" Seraphine cursed. "Well, at least I got his hand."

"Brother! Thank you for believing in me!" Marissa approached and bowed to him.

"Thank you for saving our lives," Cecile and the girls, including Rebecca, also bowed. Hiro extended himself from his girls and bowed his tentacle to him.

"So this is our little new symbiote? You certainly are cute... and weak, aren't you?" Seraphine teased, poking Hiro's tentacle playfully.

Hiro wanted to retaliate, but after seeing how real symbiotes fought, he had to accept that he was still weak compared to these two monsters.

"Brother... I'm grateful you saved us, but did you have to destroy the village? You even burned part of the forest, too..." Marissa whined. John and the rest of the royal guards winced as they assessed the damage. Ten royal knights had been killed, and the damage to Marissa's village was severe. Ten houses were utterly destroyed because of Seraphine and his artillery fire.

Jeremy's severed hand was found, badly burned. Considering the outcome, it seemed Litmus was at a disadvantage. However, they managed to protect what was most important: Hiro. Hiro had the potential to transform the economy of a nation into a powerhouse.

Litmus tried to lodge a complaint and accused Latvin of attempting to expand its territory. However, it was unlikely that the Latvin kingdom would acknowledge such accusations. It was even questionable if Litmus would seriously pursue the accusation. Bringing this attack to light would mean revealing Hiro's true identity, after all. Seraphine explained this to Hiro and Marissa during a meeting after Hiro presented him with pure orichalcum extracted from a dragon scale brought by Seraphine. it was only a nugget, but it was orichalcum, nevertheless.

A symbiote capable of producing ores, multiplying, and being compatible with any female host.

Such rumors would make the Litmus kingdom the target of envy from all directions. That was why the kingdom decided to lay low, making it seem like Latvin was disorganized and that their "bandits" had attempted to plunder a rural village in Litmus's countryside.

Hiro decided to leave the political matters for later. For now, he wanted to spend some quality time with his hosts.