Extra's Re-awakening: System Errors Made Me Too OP-Chapter 37: The Five Core Formation

"What was that!?" Elene gasped, her eyes fixed on the shattered wall.

"Huh?" She whispered as her eyes caught the outline of two shadows emerging through the cloud of dust that rose up.

"Damn, I ended up breaking the walls." A familiar voice echoed out, and two shadow figure stepped fully through the broken wall.

"Captain Hiro!"

It was Hiro and Livinus.

"Huh." Hiro glanced to his side, and saw Elene and Xander on the ground. "You are..." He immediately recognized them as candidates of the Soul-Hunter’s examination, especially Xander who was one of the most promising candidates they got this year.

"What the hell are you all doing here!?" He shouted, and his anger flared. Entering into an unauthorized dungeon was a grievous offence, but putting themselves in unprecedented danger was another.

Not even Livinus was safe from his anger.

"Forgive me captain!" He fell to his knees, and put his forehead on the ground. "I saw these kids running into the orange Gate, there was no time to call for reinforcements, and I couldn’t possibly let them go on their own!"

"Um..." Elene chose her words carefully. "We came here to save Rai, but we ended up in a bit of trouble." Hiro might have been tolerant and ignorant for some things, but not this.

"Rai’s here too!?" He gritted his teeth, and his brows narrowed. "What the hell were you all thinking!? This is an unidentified gate for crying out loud!"

He took a deep breath, then almost immediately, a soft smile curled up the side of his lips. He didn’t approve of their recklessness, but at the same time, he never thought they’d risk their lives just to save their friends, or at least others they considered an acquaintance, especially Elene who is a renowned member of the Castle family.

’Going against the rules to save their comrades despite the dangers lurking... I can’t hold it in." He tried pulling himself together as tears almost left his eyes, for him, youth was passion and courage, giving it your all no matter small or big the task is, and no matter how dangerous.

"Hm?" From the cloud of dust, they heard heavy metallic footsteps drawing closer. The sound was loud, almost like a giant was walking toward them.

"Ah... Shit." Hiro dropped his hands as his eyes met with that of a twelve foot tall black knight. The two knights which he took down merged, increasing their combat abilities, strength and durability.

The Soul-Energy they emanated was strong enough to paralyze an average Soul-Hunter. Individually, each knights were on a level close to that of Hiro’s strength. However now that they combined, they attained a level of strength that far supercedes his, given it to the Soul-Energy of the first Soul-King.

Without a moment to waste, the merged knights dashed forward at them, each step it took sent a series of shockwaves that destroyed the grounds of the sanctuary as they ran.

As the merged knight approached the three Soul-Hunters, Hiro chuckled softly, then placed his arms together like an "X"

"We’ll deal with your mistakes later, right now... I have to take care of that thing." Hiro said as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As he did so, an orange aura slowly engulfed his whole body before exploding like wildfire.

"Observe, kids." He said softly, clenching his fist tightly. "This is the climax my passion can obtain!"

He dashed straight at the merged knight, who reacted quickly by swinging its massive sword the moment Hiro entered its attack range. The force behind the strike was so immense that it created a violent gust of wind, scattering everything around them in close range. However, with the concentrated Soul-Energy enveloping his body, Hiro managed to cut straight through the knight’s wind pressure without slowing down.

"That won’t work on me!" He exclaimed as he got into range.

He jumped high above the merged knights and twisted his body sideways at an incredible speed. Spinning like a raging vortex, he whirled downward with ferocious force toward the merged knights.

"Roar! My Youth!"

BOOM!

With a fierce battle cry, his right leg slammed into the side of the merged knight’s neck, and the impact unleashed a violent burst of force that sent it crashing through a wall.

"W—Whoa." Elene mumbled under her breath, as the dense, merged suit of armor of the knights shattered to pieces as it hit the ground.

"W—What..." Xander’s eyes wavered as he stared at Hiro, with steam escaping his body. It wasn’t just the power behind his attacks that could even shatter the merged knights, it was the raw and dense energy that surrounded Hiro’s body.

He had never sensed anything like it.

"W—What is that Soul-Technique..."

"It’s not a Soul-Technique." Livinus said with a smile as he glanced at his captain. "Soul-Techniques are abilities created from the energy of a Soul-Core to slay Soul-Beasts, and unfortunately for Captain Hiro, his Soul-Technique wasn’t enough to activate a Soul-Core."

"What!?" They both shouted in sync.

"Impossible... Captain Hiro is an S-rank Soul-Hunter... It’s not possible to become a captain without a Soul-Core. That would mean..." It went against everything she was taught. In this world, Soul-Hunter’s stood on hierarchy.

"That’s right, Captain Hiro was once a D-rank Soul-Hunter like that kid who reawakened, and his existence proves that even the strongest starts out as the weakest. And his passion created something that no Soul-Hunter could comprehend and he became the Souless captain."

As the steam wore off from Hiro’s body, a momentary silence ensued. Then Livinus broke it.

"The Five Core Formation."

The Five Core Formation was a unique technique that combined hand to hand combat with the use of minimal Soul-Energy. Essentially, it was hand-to-hand combat using the Soul-Energy that flowed through the five cores.

"Alright then." Hiro took a deep breath, then turned to face them. "Now why don’t you all tell me what you’re doing here?"

"Right." Livinus stood to his feet, tapping the side of his clothes softly to get rid of the dust particles.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat.

"Official report from the vice captain of the 11th Soul-Squad, during the emergence of the orange gate, I spotted two candidates racing into the dungeon. With no time to alert the association for backup, I followed them into the gate and discovered they came here to rescue Rai Voltia. Then we discovered something bigger."

He turned his attention to the Soul Stone that somehow wasn’t affected by all the fighting. Hiro’s eyes followed his head, and he glanced at the Soul Stone.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he felt the raw, primal energy emanating from the stone on the podium.

"Is that..."

Livinus stepped forward in front of the stone, but was careful not to touch it and risk setting off another booby trap. "There’s no mistake captain... This is it, the lost object we’ve searched for dozen years ago and thought was destroyed. The legend of the Soul-King, the Soul Stone."

Hiro’s demeanor changed, he was shocked, but at the same time, he seemed heavily concerned.

"Captain Hiro? What is it?" Elene noticed it immediately.

Hiro sighed, then turned around to face them. "If this is really the Soul Stone, then there might be a problem."

"What do you mean?" Xander asked.

"During the emergence of the orange gate, the association immediately called for a stage two lockdown. Now that we were fully aware of the existence of the orange gate, the intelligence unit analyzed the gate immediately. And they discovered that this wasn’t a dungeon."

"We know captain." Elene spoke up, even they managed to figure it out. "We think it’s a portal created by someone or something who is aware of the location of the Soul Stone."

"Ah, so you figured that much out? That’s good. The association thinks that whatever it was that came out of the first orange gate, there were many more like it. So the moment the gate appeared, they designated several Soul-Hunters to different parts of the kingdom to prepare for the worse, then they sent me ahead to survey the gate." Hiro explained.

"Leave it to the members 11th Soul-Squad, I guess the second seat Zarek Veyl wasn’t joking when he said they were the strongest combat type hunters in the association." Xander muttered under his breath, recalling Zarek’s words as he laid waste to his squad members.

"What do you mean?" Hiro’s brows jerked.

"Vice captain Livinus also said that he was sent on the Head commander’s orders. The head commander must really put a lot of faith in the 11th Soul-Squad."

"What?" Hiro couldn’t believe his ears. "The head commander never gave out such an order till after the analysis was complete thirty minutes ago."

"Huh?"

Hiro turned to face his vice, confused as hell. "What’s the meaning of this Livinus?" He demanded answers, why would he say such a lie?

Livinus remained silent, his gaze fixed directly at the Soul Stone.

"Answer me Livinus." Hiro’s voice became colder, and his demeanor changed.

Livinus chuckled softly, before he turned around and faced them with a wide and evil grin that stretched across his lips.

"You caught me."