"Let's see, the most recent meeting I had with the martial hero was not too long ago, so I'll tell you my thoughts from that, ok?" Keiko asked.

"Sure." s.h.i.+ro nodded as she crossed her legs. Grabbing a cup from the table, she filled it with some juice that she always kept in her inventory and waited patiently.

"If I had to use a few words, I would say he's protective. He hardly ventures out of China if possible, unless it truly demands his attention. I'd say it's due to the nature of having so many high-level monsters within the country that his presence is required to keep the people safe. Should there ever be a monster horde, he'll be the first to try to stop it." Keiko said while leaning back a little.

"Heh~? Sounds like he'll be overworking himself. Das.h.i.+ng across the country to keep everyone safe and fend off the monsters." s.h.i.+ro replied as Keiko nodded.

"Yeah, if you see him, you'll notice that despite his long lifespan and level, he always looks as if he's one foot in the grave due to exhaustion."

"To actually exhaust a hero to this extent, how many years has he been guarding this place again?" s.h.i.+ro asked curiously as a hero's stamina should be monstrous.

"I think he's been protecting China for around 20 to 25 years now though I'm not too sure. When he first became the martial hero, he was still protecting China, and no one knew when he had started." Keiko shook her head.

"d.a.m.n, 20 to 25 years huh?" s.h.i.+ro muttered. During her time in the hero's party in Aria, it was a bit more relaxed despite working for quite a few years as well. If anything, the most stressful time was when she was stuck inside a mutated dungeon for 3 years.

Thinking back, she understood that it was highly abnormal since within the three years, she was left to wander a desert-like area where she had to resort to eating everything she could find within the three years.

Not only that, but there were no boundaries either, so it was hard to get a grasp on where she was.

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'd.a.m.n, if Feris didn't force open a portal back then, I might have been caught in the dungeon for much longer than 3 years.' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself.

{Who's Feris?} Nimue asked curiously.

'Oh, it's just a friend of mine that was also in the hero's party. To be honest, I never knew what really happened to her since I was you know, killed. She was one of the mages within the party and she taught me a few tricks. Not that I really needed it back then as I had my Nanomancer cla.s.s.' s.h.i.+ro replied with a shrug.

When she recalled the group the hero party, it was almost like an organisation if anything. Lots of people wanted to be in the same party as the hero and they were all very talented. To resolve the problem of lots of people wanting to join, he made it so that there were a few key members and sub members that would join in depending on the situation and their skill set.

s.h.i.+ro and Isilia were naturally part of the main group while Feris started as a sub member but became part of the main group after quite a few impressive feats.

Shaking her head, s.h.i.+ro dismissed her thoughts since she was no longer part of the hero's party and she had no way to get back to Aria. Not that she wanted to of course. She had a family and a group of trusted friends in this life, why would she want to abandon that?

Before s.h.i.+ro could ask some questions about the martial hero, she suddenly stood up and ran outside, confusing Keiko, Keomi and Nan Tian as she would normally say what she was going to do unless it was urgent.

Quickly following behind her, they saw a giant rift open up as it was quite similar to the rift that s.h.i.+ro would open up.

'How many people are going to use the rift ah?! I thought it was a phoenix thing!' s.h.i.+ro cried out in her mind as she felt an ominous presence within the rift.

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Glancing around her, she could already see the panicked faces of the civilians as they scrambled to run away.

"Tch, are you able to help me close that portal or move whatever is in it away from this village?" s.h.i.+ro called out to Nan Tian who nodded his head.

"Of course." He smiled.

Jumping up into the air, a tier 4 magic circle erupted out beneath him as he tried to tamper with the portal.

However, his spell did nothing as a pulse of magic exploded out in retaliation.

"Was that supposed to happen?" s.h.i.+ro raised her eyebrows.

*cough!

"Not quite. Let me put some back into it." Nan Tian replied in embarra.s.sment as he stared daggers at the portal.

'd.a.m.n, how dare you embarra.s.s me in front of s.h.i.+ro.' He thought with a frown as his mana surged.

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A tier 5 magic circle erupted out of him as he tried to forcefully move the portal once more.

Unfortunately for him, his intervention seemed to have caused the rift to grow larger. With this, a scaled hand reached out from the rift and ripped it open, allowing the main body to fall down and crash into several houses.

[Gorgon – LVL 350 (Weakened)]

HP: 420,951,500/???

MP: ???/???

Seeing the gorgon, Nan Tian immediately recognised it to be one of the three major monsters that roamed China. However, compared to its original appearance, the gorgon he's looking at was nothing alike. Scales were ripped out as blood oozed from every part of her.

Most of her tail was shredded with the bone clearly visible to any onlooker. If one were to tug the flesh, it would peel off the bone easily due to the few thin strands of flesh that held everything together.

Suddenly, more rifts opened up under Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi as the gravity pulled them down.

"Sh*t!" Cursing out in shock, Nan Tian's body was engulfed into the rift before he could even try to move.

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"DON'T LET HER SEE YOUR BODY!" He shouted out to s.h.i.+ro since he could see that she was the only one who wasn't affected by the rift.

Seeing her three companions disappear into a different dimension, s.h.i.+ro tried to activate her own rift in order to catch up to them but felt a resistance that stopped the portal from opening. Understanding that this was clearly the doing of a powerful ent.i.ty, she tried to think of ways to save the three that were taken away.

However, before she could do that, she had to deal with the gorgon in front of her.

Quickly rolling behind some cover so that the gorgon could not see her, s.h.i.+ro knew that she had to be extremely careful.

Even without Nan Tian's warning, she knew that the moment the gorgon laid eyes on her body, she would be petrified. Sure, she could use her skills to reverse the injuries taken but how long could she keep that up?

Taking a deep breath, she created a small drone to peek around the corner in her steed.

Checking the camera, s.h.i.+ro saw the hate filled eyes of the gorgon that looked towards her general location.

"Queen… You shall be my meal… Once I consume you, I can get my revenge." The gorgon hissed as her body lashed towards her at blinding speeds.

'HOLY SH*T!' Crying out in shock at her approach, she immediately activated her berserk skill, Frenzied Incarnation EX and produced a layer of nanotech amour over her body. 

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A deep murderous aura erupted from her body black and silver metallic particles swarmed her body before forming into a set of armour.

Activating the thrusters behind her, s.h.i.+ro dashed out of her cover. Creating a grenade in her hands, she immediately infused it with her Star element in order to create a flash bang.

Throwing it towards the gorgon's face, she hoped that it would be able to blind her for a split moment.

Unfortunately, the gorgon turned her head away the moment she saw something fly towards her face.

Within a single second, light filled the area as s.h.i.+ro felt relieved to see that her armour was still normal. This meant that a mere glance would not petrify her as long as the gaze does not linger on her.

Quickly stomping down, four thick metal walls erupted out from the ground and surrounded the gorgon. s.h.i.+ro was going to use the moment it takes for the gorgon to break through the wall to create a few weapons along with seeing if she could detect the culprit behind this.