Chapter 31 - A town in trouble

*Whistles*

"Looks like various things have been happening."

While everyone was busy looking at a small real time replica of Castle town created by some dude's magic, Grim stood at a nearby window and watched the explosions from a distance.

'First the nobles and now the town, what an interesting day this has been so far.'

"Hey! Why are we all waiting here!? People are in trouble and need help. I'm going to help them!" After saying that Asta charged straight through the door.

"Wait! You can't even sense mana, how do you know where to go?!" Klaus yelled.

"I'll go to where its noisiest!"

'Well it beats waiting around here.'

Jumping down from the upper area, Grim smiled to the others and started running after him.

"I'm gonna go to, contact me if anyone strong shows up!"

"Grim wait!!" Klaus shouted in vain as Grim was already gone.

"Pftt- As expected of my rival!" Leopold suddenly said before running after Grim and Asta. "But I'm not gonna let you show me up!!"

'Why do people keep leaving?'

Waiting another minute to see if anyone else was going to leave, Fuegoleon and the rest finally breathed a bit easier and focused back on the topic at hand.

"Ahem, now that we've all calmed down a bit, lets talk strategy."

---

"Are these... zombies?"

Taking a look at the wreckage of Castle Town, Grim was somewhat surprised by the zombies that were patrolling the area.

From his memories of earth (a lot of them seem to be useless) zombies were dead bodies brought back to life through some supernatural or scientific means and are able to infect others with their bite. For ordinary people facing a zombie would be quite the task, but for a mage...

[Breath of Thunder - Third Form: Thunder Swarm]

It was no big deal.

'Dammit! Todays been full of nothing but disappointments, first the nobles trash talk me but turn out to be really weak, then I almost get to fight a captain only to have it cut short, then I almost get to watch a fight between two captains only for them to be interrupted! And now the big enemy that I thought I'd be facing is nothing more than a bunch of zombies that are unable to use magic!'

*Sigh*

'And to make it worse I've lost Asta. Dammit! I wish he had some mana so I could track him. The only good thing I managed to do was escape from that Leopold guy, the dude's obssessed.'

*Sigh*

'Fuck it, I'll go find that Yuno guy, at least I'm familiar with his mana signature'

---

While Grim was off searching for Yuno, Asta was busy defending against an army of zombies while protecting a small child that had been ȧssaulted by some weird looking guy wearing rags and green ornament covering his left eye.

---

[Breath of Thunder - Third Form: Thunder Swarm]

[Breath of Thunder - Third Form: Thunder Swarm]

*Sigh*

'This is so boring.'

Walking through the streets and spamming his AOE spell, the zombies approaching him fell one by one like puppets that had their strings cut.

'Actually... Wouldn't this be the perfect time to try that out?'

A couple days after fighting that Heath guy and his henchmen back at Sosshi Village, Grim tried meditating in his room in hopes of recalling the feeling that he felt after battling Luck in the hopes of furthering his Breath of Thunder abilities and unlocking new spells. But to his surprise, instead of recalling the pain he felt after getting hit by Luck's lightning, his mind was always pulled back to the time he was hit by that mist attack. While the power of the attack wasn't anything special or memorable at all, his body seemed to recall the sensation and his grimoire replied in kind by unlocking a new breath style.

[Breath of Mist - 2nd Form: Eight Layered Mist]

Due to the power of the attack, Grim suspected that the reason it took so long for it to unlock itself was due to the damage being near non-existent.

Manifesting in his hand, a blade with a rectangular shaped handguard and hollowed rectangles at each corner appeared.

Taking a look at a couple of wondering zombies, Grim clutched his blade and slashed at the air eight times in rapid succession of each other. And to his delight, a flurry of 8 arc shaped mist attacks tore through the battlefield and bisected a couple of zombies like they were nothing.

'Hmm... Not as powerful as [Rengoku] but it doesn't use as much mana.'

Swinging the blade a couple more times, Grim decided to refine the spell by using it on the zombies.

---

-Elsewhere-

"Hehehehehe, is the spell ready?"

"Yes."

"Then activate it."

While the magic knights in Castle town were busy dealing with the fodder zombies and receiving the praise of the town's residents, a sudden inky black substance appeared beneath their feet.

'What the hell!'

"Oh no!"

"...They got us..."

[Teleportation Magic: BLACKOUT]

All around the city, various eruptions of black exploded out as a large number of magic knights were encapsulated and teleported away.

"T-The magic knights... They're gone..." A towns man stuttered.

And as if on cue, a new wave of zombies suddenly appeared in the areas the magic knights had dissapeared from.

---

"To think that they all fell for it, how pathetic."

Sitting on a broom, a woman dressed in a black dress with fluffy skirt and black witch-like hat appeared among the masses with a weirdly sadistic smile on her face.

"Well, it'd be a shame if the zombie ate all of you, so why not do me a favor and give me all of that delicious young mana you have?" Licking her lips, the woman raised her hands and started suċkɨnġ the mana out of their bodies.

"More... GIVE ME MORE MANA!!"

"Huh!!"

Jumping back in time, the woman somehow managed to avoid getting hit by a small tornado.

'Someone attacked me!'

Shocked at the fact that someone managed to escape the mass teleportation, the witch prepared to go on the offensive but was taken aback by the person who attacked her.

Seeing Yuno standing there looking all majestic-like, the previous malice emanating from the witch seemed to vanish into thin air.

'He's GORGEOUS!!'

"Ahem. Now what would a strapping young man like yourself be doing in a place like this? How about we go somewhere private and have a bit of fun."

"Shut up hag, get away from those people."

'Hag...'

"....You're DEAD." And just like that, her malice returned.