Monster Integration

"Fuck, its hard!"

Cursed the Grimms behind me; nearly 70% of the road had been crossed, and less than of people could be seen walking out on the road that half an hour ago, despite new people coming every few minutes.

Like the Grimm had said, the pressure had become very hard; not all could bear it. Even I, who was still walking, had to reduce the pace as the pressure had become crushing.

"This challenge is not easy, Grandmaster," said Lord Remus, the old man who acted as my bodyguard not long ago. "It is not Lord Remus, but we have to finish it," I replied, to which the old man smiled tiredly before once again wiping his temple.

Even the experience people like himself are feeling extreme pressure; some cannot even bear it and collapse on the road. It is happening and more right now; Lady Veronica had nearly got crushed by the weight of the Grimm, who had fallen unconscious by this pressure.

Hun!

Some time passed, and I had crossed a few hundred meters when I suddenly saw someone coming from the connecting road. Her figure was blurry, but I could still see this particular shade of fiery-red hair which is shining brightly under the radiant sun.

Only one person has hair in this shade of red, Sofia.

Since I entered this place, I had not seen her, but I knew she was doing fine, better than fine with all the memories I had checked. She is alone; her twin Raina does not seem to be with her, and this place rarely keeps the two people together.

It took her a few minutes to cross the road, and I had even waited for her; I could afford to do that for my dear friend. "How nice that you have waited for me," she said; this time, she did not hug, nor would I have returned it, given how sweaty we were.

"It is the least I could do for a friend, who does not have time for me," I said back, but soon regretted seeing the guilt flashing in her eyes.

"I am just joking," I added, but that did not change anything. "I wanted to come to meet you, but there was too much to do, and there was that secrecy and all," she replied.

"I know; it was inconsiderate for me to say that," I said, to which she shook her head and began to walk beside me.

"How were the challenges?" I asked, wanting to change this depressing mood, "Difficult, but fulfilling; each one had helped me tremendously," she replied with a soft smile on her face.

"So, have you leveled up?" I asked; it was quite a personal question, but I wanted to ask it reason other than satiate my curiosity. "No," she replied with a shake of her head.

"I am close, and if I pushed, I am confident that I will be able to make a breakthrough, but I wanted to wait till I am fully able to harness the power my core could offer me before leveling up," she replied before turning to me with eyes filled with the question.

"Am I making a mistake? Sometimes, I felt like I should level up as soon as possible to help with the war," she asked, to which I shook my head.

"No, you are not making a mistake; you should only level up when you feel confident. As for joining the war, have some confidence in your teacher and others; they will be able to handle things till we are ready," I said. Hearing worry on her face eased, and she nodded.

A couple of minutes passed into silence; the talking itself takes quite a lot of effort with the pressure, which increases with every second.

As time passed and more people joined through the different routes, but soon many of them slowly fell behind; the pressure was too much that even those with a strong will, had to stop to relax; some even took steps back to relieve some of the pressure on them.

"I have met your girlfriend, I mean ex-girlfriend; she had become quite powerful that even you might not be able to beat her," Sarah said with mirth hiding in her eyes.

"Who?" I asked, to which she rolled her eyes, but from me, it was a fair question considering both of my ex-girlfriends are pretty powerful.

"Mira. She had become terrifying," she replied with a smile. "It is not surprising. She has one of most powerful bloodlines in the world and the will to accomplish anything," I said with a smile, to which she glared at me.

She wanted to get a rise out of me, but she will have to do better to do that.

Another hours passed, but we crossed a little distance; our speed had slowed down a lot, and now, we were walking even slower than the children.

It is this time we are showing the advantage of our small size; unlike Grimm, the pressure on us increases little by little with our small bodies and feet; it is not the same case with Grimms and giant bodies; with every step they take, the pressure on them would spike, and not all the Grimms could bear it.

Bang!

The Grimms are falling, with more than twice the number as us; most of the humans got away from them, and some tried to chase, but seeing the hazard, the Grimms decided to focus on their will.

Not all the Grimms are with weak hearts; just like humans, there are some who are moving steadily, and I took note of these bastards.

I wish I had my powers with me; I would have definitely tried to finish these bastards.

Those with strong will are more dangerous than those with talent and powerful bloodline/inheritance, as these bastards have the ability to acquire them all with their will.

Things are hard, and they are becoming harder.

It is not just people around me that are beginning to have trouble; I, too, am having a huge difficulty. Taking each step had become a challenge itself. I am pushing myself hard with each step, not to be bested by the people around me, especially the Grimms.

There are a lot of things on the line, but the thing that is most important is the reward; people want a boost, and it is a thing that could increase their strength immediately.

They would not get such an opportunity like this.

I also want the boost, but what I want the most is to stop the Grimms from having it, which is nearly impossible, but I hope our people will be able to get the biggest boosts; a powerful Grimm is not a good thing for us.

Time passed, and we pressed ahead despite the increase in press.

Bang!

Suddenly, there is a change appears in the Grimms; their pace begins to increase out of sudden. They began to push themselves harder and harder, which made some of them collapse, but that did not stop them.

"The Gate!"

It took us a while before we saw what was the thing that was making them run faster; it was none other than the gate. The Grimm was able to see it first due to its giant size, but now we can see it too.

As the humans saw it, it seemed like someone had injected artificial adrenaline in them, as we also began to push ourselves harder without caring for the consequence that might fall on us for doing that.