****(POV)

In a clearing, there is a fight happening.

The young man Zero is getting ganged upon.

The boar king charges at him, yet he elegantly evades it.

That is the moment the snake decides to strike, trying to swallow his target whole.

The would-be victim simply swings his sword sending the creature flying.

*TING*

How?!

The mantis teleports behind the target only for him to flick his sword backward.

*TING*

His will is strong enough to protect the sword from any damage.

They all come again for another assault.

At the same time.

He rotates on himself somehow pushing back every one of them easily.

However, he is huffing and panting.

This short fight already took a toll on him.

That is when he grumbles.

"One more."

The deer enters the fray.

A ton of tentacles

A few seconds later the young man is defeated.

"*Sigh* I'm still too weak."

I come closer.

"The way I see it you are strong enough. How many 12 years old can fight 3 beast kings to a standstill?"

"Perhaps, but I'm far from my goal. I need to become strong enough to stand at his side!"

I feel like the youngster has some misconceptions about our king.

One could say he is extremely powerful.

I mean he has managed to defeat one of the oldest true guardians.

Except he was sleeping at the time.

Whenever he is awake, he somehow seems…pathetic?

Yet at the same time, he would be able to take a beating from all of us without batting an eye.

He is a nonsensical existence.

One that seems undefeatable yet useless.

Then again, the representative is following him.

I wonder if she has understood who and what he truly is yet?

Then there is the whole thing with the trees.

I remember that time the king tried making a weapon clearly.

With it turning to dust in his hands somehow.

I know for a fact it wasn't any power related to swordsmanship.

At all!

I have no clue how he did it, but he managed to easily cut through.

Then the kid saw the remnants of this destruction.

Since then, he has been diligently learning.

By himself, somehow.

Learning swordsmanship from something that has no relation to the discipline.

At first, I was convinced it was a useless endeavor.

I was thinking that he'd realize that soon and give up.

I still have no clue how, but he succeeded.

He somehow managed to quickly achieve sword will.

Then he also became a rank 3 not long afterward.

There are many rank 2 and 3 beasts here.

Hunting a few is not an issue.

With increased nourishment, his growth accelerated.

I was expecting him to stall at that level for a while.

Nope.

He kept improving his swordsmanship.

We have no way to test for skills right now, but he probably gained a key new one.

Weirdly he seems to be on a different path than one to achieve sword spirit.

It doesn't make much sense.

In any case, I am but a fox.

Spying on humans won't make me understand.

I can't even wield a sword myself.

Any other would have been ecstatic with such progress.

Any other would have become arrogant.

Not him.

He started to ask for combat training.

Saying stuff about how hacking trees all day was useless.

I mean the king himself did so many things that looked completely useless.

The more it goes the more I feel like all members of this sect are insane.

I still remember the beggar-looking man that the king once came into the forest with.

Somehow, he seemed to be able to use all magic types in the world.

He gave me a weird feeling too.

Like I wouldn't be able to best him no matter what.

That simple-looking man.

Now the kid that is showing such fighting spirit against us.

We are supposed to be scary!

We are supposed to be powerful!

Yet now here we are.

Not able to beat him in a duel.

This is laughable.

I wonder how the people out there would react if they knew?

I know people at the Border Town fear us very much.

Yep, we are getting our asses kicked by a rank 3 kid.

I feel bad for whoever will become his enemy in the future.

There is only one thing to do with super-geniuses like him.

That is to kill them before they become stronger.

After that they become unstoppable.

It is too late for that.

We are all here for him, even the Ant Queen that is often grumbling.

She keeps saying she won't babysit, yet I've seen her subordinates keeping tabs on us.

On his progress.

She is the type to badmouth people often, but she is loyal.

She simply likes to act indifferent.

She thinks that a Queen should act like so.

To show prestige or something.

I think she heard that a long time ago.

Sometimes I become afraid.

Afraid of how it could have ended.

What if we didn't accept the king?

What if we were his enemy?

He seems to have the talent to recruit monsters.

That is coming from me, a shadow fox.

A creature recognized as deadly.

One that can assassinate anyone easily.

Or so the legend goes…

Frankly, I believe the king to be invincible.

"I have rested enough. Let's resume!"

You have rested enough?!

What an obvious lie!

The only thing keeping you going is your strong will!

What about our side?!

We are still tired!

Ah, whatever.

This is a good thing.

I'm just glad we are numerous.

We can rotate easily to share the burden.

Should I join this time?

I wait until the fight gets heated.

I shadow blink behind his back and…what?!

Just as I get to backstabbing him I see his sword enlarging in front of me.

This is bad!

I narrowly dodge but I feel some of my fur getting cut.

Me, the one in shadow form.

Me the one that cannot be harmed by physical attacks.

Yes, I'm being screwed over by a sword.

Yep.

At this point, I feel like the sword he is using is more of a decoration.

It is his will that…oh god.

I just had a sad thought.

Normally it would be a ridiculous one…

But knowing the king did something similar too…

How long before the youngster beats us up with sticks?!

Tell me it won't happen!

My dignity!