This small town is always rather peaceful, and so silent at night it feels almost creepy. This creepiness intensified even more after arriving here and sensing the presence of Hollows nearby. We sneaked around using the magic that Blackie conjured over us, and slowly made our ways into the origin of this presence.
Hollows made a particularly annoying presence; their bodies are made up of corrupted mana and negative energy exuded from people's everyday lives. According to the Great Spirit, people let out every day a tiny amount of "Negative Energy" which is the concentrated essence of our life force, which comes out naturally due to stress, exhaustion, and more.
Once this energy gathers in a certain point, merging that of many people at the same time, a Hollow is made, and they can grow stronger by absorbing more of this or by absorbing Mana, which will help them evolve even quickly.
They were extremely rare, the Great Spirit said that before the "First Contact" there weren't more than twenty in the whole city, and they often dissipated into thin air naturally or were hunted by… mysterious supernatural people.
But now that there's Mana everywhere, and its quantities will only continue to intensify, Hollows are being born faster, much faster than before. Due to being made of negative energy and corrupted mana, they generate a very strong and nasty smell that only people with Mana can detect though.
"There's a few of them, this smell is way too strong." Mark pointed out.
"We better be careful." I nodded, sneaking closer to a small plaza in the town, where there were still some people around.
"Wait, what's going on over there?" Rita pointed out.
"OOOOOHHHH…"
A large hollow was near a young woman drinking in the plaza, she seemed lost and slightly drunk, and the Hollow was behind her, slowly absorbing the negative energy coming from her.
"Hah… Life fucking sucks… I am so tired of being indebted… I want to die…" The girl seemed rather sad.
"Suffering… Oooohhh…"
The muddy tentacles of the Hollow slowly began sneaking around the woman, and then reaching her body, and touching it. They started to wrap around her slowly, she was too drunk to notice and then…
"Hm?"
When she finally noticed, she looked behind her.
And although she couldn't truly see the Hollow, its distorting face generated a shadow in the night, so big and terrifying it terrified her.
"W-Wha…? G-GHOST?! UWAAAAH!"
She quickly tried to run away but the Hollow began dragging her towards its enormous jaws. Was this thing trying to eat her?! But I thought hollows left normal people alone!
"HELP! HELP MEEEEE! SOMEONE! S-SOMETHING'S DRAGGING MY LEEEEEGG…! AAAAAGHHH!"
I can't stand here looking at this! I quickly began running into the scene, Mark and Rita were a bit too slow but they quickly followed me from behind. I brought out my Shovel and my Shield and began calling the Hollow's attention by hitting the shield with the shovel and generating a sound.
"HEY! Over here!" I said, quickly emanating some mana from my hand.
"M-MAANAAAAAA!" The Hollow quickly let go of the girl, as she suddenly began running away without even giving us a glance.
"We've got his attention, that's for sure! But what with this abnormally big size?!" Mark asked.
"T-That's not certainly a normal one, isn't it?" Rita asked. "I haven't fought one yet so I don't really know but are they supposed to be like six meters tall?!"
"That's not a normal Hollow!" The Great Spirit said. "This is probably an amalgamation of many Hollows mixed together! I-It usually happens very rarely, but there's some sort of strange power inside of it that forcefully merged several Hollows into one… It is probably as strong as a D Rank monster, a Hollow Legion!"
"A-A D Rank Monster already?!" I asked in surprise. "We aren't possibly ready for this!"
"Yes you are! Just think as it as a bunch of F Rank Monsters stuck together and it should be fine! It is pretty big and slow, so take advantage of that!" The Great Spirit said. "Use your [Spirit Eyes] for heaven's sake!"
"GRUOOOOHHHH! MANAAAAAAA!"
The enormous mass of black mud slowly began approaching, albeit its muddy tentacles were way faster than the rest of its body quickly aiming at us!
BAAAM! BAAAM!
They began hitting the ground as they failed to hit us. I swung my shovel furiously, activating the weapon's [Explosive Blow] Ability and generating explosions of spiritual energy and mana around the tentacles, blowing them into pieces!
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM!
"Your weapon's ability is way too OP! Not fair! Uwaah!" Rita cried, running away from many tentacles at the same time, and shooting Mana Bullets charged with her Dark Magic at them. "Uggh, this better fucking works! [Darkness Bullets]!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The bullets that came out were smaller, but grew larger the more they reached their target, in just four bullets, Rita filled several tentacles with gigantic holes all over them, making them explode into pieces over the floor.
"How about some inflammable, essential oils?" Mark wondered, smartly using his Nature Magic to turn his blood into an inflammable plant oil and spraying it over the tentacles, and then imbuing flames into his knife and swinging it furiously.
SLAAAASH!
The slash of flames quickly reacted with the oil, generating a blazing explosion!
BOOOOOOOMMMM!
Not only that helped him save Mana, but it used both of his attributes pretty well, amazingly done!
And about me? The Great Spirit said I had to use my [Spirit Eyes]. She probably meant the [Spiritual Gaze] Spell I have!
"[Spiritual Gaze]!"
FLASH!
My eyes shone brightly, for a moment it felt like I couldn't see anything due to my own light, but I quickly realized this spell's amazing ability.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
I was able to see strange red spots moving around the Hollow's main body as it slowly moved towards us. Those red spots were not just for show, it seemed to be the areas that connected the many Hollows stuck together.
If I can hit them really hard, they're sure to blow up one by one and eventually kill the Hollow Legion. I guess that's why she told me to use them!
