The Rising of The Masked Hero - The Flames of Ares

Country of Mercenaries - Chapter 10

On the ranch where all the monsters were kept, Marius watched Filo guiding Aquilla who have grown to half the size of an adult filolial.

"Aquilla have grown quite alot." said Marius.

"Kue!" Aquilla responded. The bird rubbed his head against Mariu's hand.

"Filo wants to be pet too!" Filo leaned her head closer to Marius.

"Of course." Marius kissed Filo's beak and pet her head.

"Oh, so this is the rumored holy bird." said an unfamiliar voice of a woman with tanned skin and platinum blonde hair, as she probed Filo's body, causing the filolial queen to shrieked.

"Marius! This weird woman is touching me!' said Filo.

"She understands human language? So this must be the legendary Filolial Queen species variant." said the woman.

"What are you doing?" said Marius.

But the woman ignored him and continued to studied Filo, "Her plumage is quite thick. I wonder how her internal organs are?"

She then forcibly opened Filo's mouth and took her tongue out. Filo shook the woman off and took a stepped backwards.

"I can't examined you if you struggle, so you leave me with no choice." the woman took put a full syringe out of nowhere and before she could threw it Marius grabbed her arm.

"What do you think you're doing!" 

"Unhand me! I must conduct an examination on this creature!" the woman struggled to escape Marius's grip.

"You will do no such thing!" Marius pulled her arm higher.

"What's going on here!" said Naofumi as he walked towards them with Eclair followed him behind.

"Oh, so you might be the Hero of the Shield." said the woman as she tried pulling her arm.

"Marius, just let her go."

Marius took the syringe off the woman's hand before dropping it on the ground and shattered it under his foot before letting the woman's arm go.

"And who might you be?" said Naofumi.

"I am Ratotille Anthreya, but my friends call me Rato." she said, rubbing her arm, "This man here was too protective of the bird and he's in the way of my research."

"You would be wise to-" 

"Marius, how about you take Filo somewhere else." said Naofumi.

"Fine." Marius turned and place his hand on Filo then led her away.

"Marius, are you okay?" said Filo.

"Yes." Marius felt Aquilla rubbing on his leg, "I hope Naofumi kicked her out."

_______________________________________

"You what?!" Marius exclaimed.

"I made her my slave. And she accepted it pretty quickly." said Naofumi.

"What will she gain from all this?"

"An opportunity to create stronger monsters to help us." said Rato.

"You stay your hands from Filo."

"You're quite protective of the filolial queen. Why?"

"It is not of your concern."

"She won't lay her hands on Filo, okay? I make sure of that." said Naofumi.

"Which is a shame. Just imagine the possibilites if I experimented on her. Maybe add another eye on her stomach for increase perception, and maybe several tentacles to-"