AbyssRaven The song for today is "Black Rover", the 3rd opening of Black Clover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ac9IpjukdQ
[“See, Rajah? Once you know you can go for the kill, then just do it. Of course, make sure that you aren’t being stalked yourself, ok?”]
“Mreow!”
[“Good boy! Now, show me how strong your fangs are, bite into its neck as best as you can, and show me your strength!”] I ordered Rajah while holding onto a paralyzed monster on the brink of death.
Listening obediently, he vigorously dug his fangs right into the monster’s throat, but it sadly wasn’t a killing blow with his Strength compared to the Skorr’s Vitality. The monster struggled against him my venom, but any strength it had left in its body disappeared as it slowly bled to death.
When I helped Saori kill stuff, most of the things I paralyzed where F or G ranks. Less Vitality and defensive skills made them easy pickings. Sadly, the lowest-ranked monsters in this area were E ranks, outside of a few low ranked insects. Unless I needed to eat them, I would rather avoid them if possible.
Rajah looked dejected at the motionless corpse for a second until he began feeling the effects of leveling up, brightening his mood in no time.
[“You did well, don’t worry. Just keep on trying and you’ll eventually have the stats to do all of this yourself.”] I grinned, widening my arms as if to tell him he could grow super large.
The area was littered with the corpses of a monster herd I detected while I was searching for the lost lizardmen. Since Caszcur admitted wanted to avoid the group, I told him “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” before dashing forward with [Haste] and [Swift Winds] as I tore through the monsters like a tornado of claws and tail slashes.
Figuring that it was an opportunity to power level Rajah, I paralyzed the strongest looking one among them to give him kill credit. It certainly helped as it pushed him three levels up, bringing him to level nine.
“H-How are you this strong… you made it look so easy.” Hearing a stuttering voice, I turned around to see the lizardmen trembling. Aksmias, who blurted that out, had his tail instinctively between his legs — a display of submission.
“Were you not a mage? I thought you were a mage, so how were you able to kill all these monsters bare-handed?” Caszcur had his maul agape, showing his sharp teeths, looking nowhere close as intimidating as a crocodile.
Looking at all the blood on my claws and tail, barely hidden by my crimson scales, anybody would question if I was a pure mage or not. Well, with my Job being [None], it wasn’t as if I had to keep up appearances, right? Frankly, these monsters were only E ranks and their stats were completely outclassed by mine, despite my handicap, so wasting too much mana on them would be ridiculous.
Two spells, [Haste] and [Swift Winds], was all I needed to claw my way through everything. There was no need for tricks when pure strength was all that was needed.
[“Status board difference,”] I said with a shrug. [“Anyways, who cares about this. Were you guys able to find the tracks?”]
“Huh? Oh yeah, we found some clothing and metal scraps lying around,” Caszcur answered, guiding us to them.
If Saori were here, then she would probably be able to track down the lost lizardmen, easily. We had to rely on the lizardmen’s keen smell and my [Tracking] and [Detection Sensor] skills to pursue whatever leads we could find.
After the lizardmen group got separated, various monsters had wandered through this area. Too many tracks. The only way we could continue was to use other clues, like the stuff the other group dropped or left behind.
Caszcur mentioned a few days ago a large wave of monsters rampaged through the rainforest, keeping their group on their tails as they had to avoid and flee from them. It really seemed like their group couldn’t get a single break since they started traveling through the Belzac forest.
Remembering how I nearly died thrice, how Saori nearly bit the dust once, and how we had to rescue Tasianna from a group of trolls using her as a battery to fuel a mana cannon that nearly killed me… Yeah, gotta say, this forest is a huge middle finger to people.
You either got overwhelmed by stats alone or by monster groups using their devious skill combinations to kill you. Either way, you wouldn’t have a good time if you weren’t strong.
[“Hey, Tasianna, was what I did really that weird?”] I asked my fairy companion while our group followed the lizardmen after I quickly stored the motherload of monster meat inside my storage.
[“With common sense? Yes, that was quite extraordinary, however, they also don’t know that you’re a genuine dragon. If they knew then they wouldn’t be so surprised anymore, just like me when I learned what you could do, Lady Hestia,”] Tasianna explained while sitting on my shoulder.
[“Seriously? Well, I guess being a C rank is pretty high,”] I blurted out, still unsure how all this ranking stuff worked and where I actually stood compared to the world’s strongest.
[“I apologize, but learning about how the System and monster ranks work wasn’t interesting to me. However, I can assure you, possessing the blood of Kargryxmor, the God of Dragons, isn’t exactly ‘normal.’ Do you remember what I told you about subordinate gods, Lady Hestia?”]
Tasianna had been teaching Saori and me about the world’s religion and the six elemental pantheons. The Origin Gods were the leaders of them, and under them were the subordinate gods, once mortals turned into gods.
I nodded to Tasianna's question, prompting her to continue, [“Good, because Kargryxmor was once the strongest dragon known in the elven history books, my lady. The ‘Black Tyrant of the Skies,’ the terror of all airborne monster until he became Goddess Aurena’s subordinate. The tales about him were quite phenomenal, but it has been like five decades since I read them. I sadly cannot recall and recount them for you.”] Her shoulders slumped, frowning as she couldn’t “perform her duty as a maid.” I told her it was okay.
Still, so that is my bloodline, huh? I guess I can’t function under “common sense” with such a boon. Hmm, really wonder who my dragon parents are now…
Weirdly, my chest felt kinda heavy from that thought. I could have asked Tasianna if she knew about them, but it felt like if I asked her about it, I would betray my parents on Earth. It felt childish, I felt like I wasn’t doing the correct thing, but at the same time, not learning about them felt right with a small part of me.
Shaking those thoughts away, I hurried my steps. Once we regrouped with the lizardmen, we continued following any leads we could find. Even with my [Tracking], it was impossible to find any lizardmen like footprints. It took us a long time, as we had to scour every nook and cranny for whatever, really.
To be honest, this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was exactly like how the wyverns hadn’t found me yet. This forest was just too large, and despite our reduced search area due to Caszcur knowing where they were attacked, it still took us ages to make any progress.
It was even worse knowing the attack happened four days ago. We could only hope the other group was able to survive until now.
It made me feel anxious. I did kinda promise the lizardmen kids I would do it for them. They were so adamant about coming with us that it required the adults to hold them back from leaving the camp.
Thankfully, they hadn't followed us as Rajah did, but that just meant they were putting all their hope on us. We had to find their friends and also take revenge on the monsters who killed their parents — that was their wish to me. Couldn’t say no, eh?
Nevertheless, I could admit it wasn’t going too well. Besides some random monsters and bits of clothing, the day ended eventless. Due to the coming winter, the shorter days were coming to bite our butts, or tails, like how the lizardmen like to say it.
Regardless of how much energy we still had, the night was dangerous, and it would be smarter to just rest. I could keep everybody safe even when it was nighttime, but our progression would be hindered as the lizardmen couldn’t navigate through the dark forest as efficiently as I could.
[“Haaaa… this is harder than I thought,”] I sighed once my cooking station was set up.
“Huh?” Caszcur knocked his head to the side. “Little lady, it seems you never did an actual hunt before. Finding, tracking, and then forming a plan. I wasn’t a hunter by trade, but every young scale learns how to use a spear and hunt for food, even the females.”
Thinking back, the only real tracking I’d done in my life was when I tried to find some kobolds, otherwise, I would only follow tracks to find monsters. Just random hunting; find whatever you could and kill it if it was worth it. Which was a far cry compared to the multiple days I needed to find some kobolds as an F rank [Young Dragon].
It all changed when Saori became responsible for finding prey. Our two most successful strategies — the idol concert and the mobile Hestia gun — didn’t need me to track anything.
[“I might have been too proud of my abilities, yeah, sorry for complaining.”] I pouted while cutting the meat for today’s meal.
“Ha, don’t worry about it too much. We are searching for an unknown amount of scalekins in this large forest after four days. I never expected it to be easy. We just have to focus and continue,” Caszcur reassured me.
[“Yeah, you’re right, Caszcur.”] I nodded energetically. ["Everybody at camp is waiting for us to come back with the rest of your friends, so I guess we shouldn't lose hope this early. Especially the kids, so I have to make sure I follow up."]
"Good! That's the spirit of a warrior, little lady! We won't make any progress at today's pace, so make sure to wake up at dawn. We need to hurry up, otherwise ain’t no scales left for us to rescue."
With that settled, our rescue party increased our effort once morning came. We were walking at a higher speed, while I would deal with any monster that could threaten us, trying my best to intimidate most of them away using my [Terror Aura].
It took us another full day until we finally found an actual useful clue… a bit too useful, unfortunately…
[“Scheiße…”] I cursed, grimacing.
[“Were we too late?”] Tasianna let out as she held her mouth with her hands.
What our group was gawking at was the bloody body of a lizardman. His soulless eyes were staring back at us. [Identify] proved he was dead so I told Caszcur I couldn’t do anything anymore. I could have healed him if he was on the edge, but no amount of healing spells was enough to bring back the life of a deceased person.
At a time like this, I was glad I’d gotten used to seeing corpses. I was disappointed we came too late but nobody needed a squeamish girl, crying and shouting. Tasianna was keeping it together but the sight of the maimed body still affected her. I caressed her back.
“Kraagh, fishrot… you just had to wait for a few more minutes, you idiot,” Caszcur sorrowfully muttered as he inspected the corpse. The body was still warm.
[“Is he one of the people we were looking for? I’m sorry, you should have the time to grieve, but we need to hurry. Does he have anything that could lead us to the others.”] Knowing what this meant, I had to rush my lizardmen companion for information. Time was of the essence right now, if we wanted to save more lives!
Caszcur gritted his teeth before closing the lizardman’s eyes. “You’re right. This guy is from the same tribe I came from, he worked under me. Damn… unlucky bastard… The blood is fresh, which means that he just died, although considering the size of those wounds, I guess he must have died from the attack, not from bleeding out."
The urgency was clear. With this small bit of information, we knew the perpetrators were close by, which meant the other lizardmen had to be either hiding from them or were currently being chased. There were plenty of other clues, so it was time for me to dial my search engine up.
Parallel minds, get on the detection sensor and find them!
After giving them a moment to work with, they told me that a cluster of monsters was moving in different directions. Focusing on this lead, my parallel minds further inspected it to find out the largest clusters were in the north, west, and south, while only a small amount was in the east.
Honestly, it looked too suspicious to be a coincidence. Five dots quickly advancing towards a cluster of many., it was far too suspicious.
[“To the east, follow me!”] I shouted, waking everybody out of their delirium.
Picking Rajah up, I rushed through the rainforest as I pinpointed the location of my targets. At the speed they were running, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time before they started tearing into the fleeing dots. I had to buy some time!
“Kraaaaaahhhhh!” shouting, I announced my presence to the monster, hoping it would provoke them to direct their attention to me.
Noticing they stopped for a second before resuming their chase, I made my parallel minds use [Aerokinesis] to amplify my voice while also playing something catchy… something that could pump up your blood. Something, that made it clear I was issuing a challenge — a taunt.
“A simple request
A simple challenge to you
Are you too afraid to fight?
I’m here, so come at me you fucks
Try to pick on someone your own size
Or can you only fight against the weak?
So, prove yourself, oh
How can you call yourself strong
If you won’t even take me on
Stop your feet now and turn your bodies around! Let’s go!
Explosion!
Let our claws slice and dice
Can you bring me down
Right now, let’s get on the ground,
Fight or flight!
Let’s see, can you face my magic
Show me, a dragon, how to fight
Come on, don’t disappoint me now!
Fight or flight! ”
Singing while running at high speeds wasn't good for your stamina as you would throw your breathing rhythm in disarray. Regardless, the moment those five large dots stopped once again, I knew it was fully worth it. The distance between the fleeing signals and them was increasing.
I also stopped running, letting my breathing calm down, to let the pursuers know I wasn’t going anywhere. It seemed they were contemplating about it. Eventually, they sent three of their members at me while the rest continued the chase.
That’s good enough!
Noticing the lizardmen finally caught up to me, I turned around to see them breathing heavily. Thankfully, they weren’t exhausted. That was the mark of a group of people who were used to running and traveling.
Scowling from all that running, Caszcur confronted me for suddenly running. “Huff, huff… hey, how can you run so fast… bwuh!”
I knew what he wanted to say but there wasn't any time left so I gave him a couple of my poison bombs and three of my newest firebombs. “I found the rest of the group. I managed to provoke three of them but two continued the chase. I’ll keep these three at bay for now, but you have to catch up! Those bombs are dangerous, extremely dangerous, ok?! Pull the sticks out with absolute caution but I can promise you that they can blast away anything they touch. I made them after all!”
They were one of my newer versions. When I heard about the concept of mana batteries from Tasianna, I thought I could figure it out on my own and make one. Turns out, you had to be an artificer — a manatechnician — to create one yourself. Kinda made my efforts pointless, but whatever.
So, instead, I kept with the basics of magic and how I had been making bombs until now. I needed a bomb which could be used without my mana, so I simply told the magic circle inside those bombs to activate once it gets in contact with a very specific gas I could make with [Toxic Secretion].
If I could make extremely hazardous toxins, then shouldn't I be able to do the polar opposite of it? Pulling the sticks out of them released this non-lethal toxic gas into the other chamber with the magic circle. Just like a normal grenade, after a few seconds it would go kaboom.
“… Got it! You can count on us, so you better hurry up, Hestia!” Caszcur announced, only needing a few seconds to think it through..
Saying “Got it!” I then enveloped all of the lizardmen into air capsules using [Air Shield] and [Aerokinesis]. To make sure that they had the necessary power, I rapidly cast all my buff spells onto myself to then transfer them onto them with [Synergist’s Oath].
Considering I had to do this individually to all five lizardmen, I had to accelerate my casting speed to an abnormal rate, quickly consuming 25% of my total mana as I focused on speed instead of mana usage efficiency.
There has to be a faster and more efficient way to do this! Casting all my buffing spells is already tedious and doing that for six people just takes way too much time!
That also meant the beast had enough time to catch up to me, while the lizardmen couldn’t move at all.
Can’t help it…
[“Hold on tight!”] I announced, clearly unnerving the lizardmen.
Pouring in even more mana than was needed, I strengthened the [Air Shield]s even more while casting another spell, constructing a large green magic circle behind the lizardmen.
More mana! Give it more mana! Blast through trees, break through the barrier! Wind Blast!
With a sound similar to that of a rocket blastoff, an ear piercing explosion launched the lizardmen forward, shooting them through the rainforest like a bullet. As they were protected by my [Air Shield], and their bodies had [Featherfall] on them, I was optimistic they wouldn’t die even if the shield somehow broke.
I gave them all they needed to catch up, now it was their turn to show me their conviction and determination. I didn’t think they could win the battle but all they needed to do was buy me some time… lose the battle but win the war. That was why I gave them my bombs.
With everything settled, I told Tasianna and Rajah to get ready. I knew bringing Rajah into this battle would be dangerous for him, but he would be safer with me.
I technically also didn’t have to win this battle. I only needed to somehow trap them, and make sure they couldn’t follow me. I could outmaneuver them and join Caszcur but that all depended on what type of monsters I would fight.
If it was strong then I couldn’t allow them to join with the other two, otherwise, even I would have trouble against all five monsters. It was two, and Rajah, against three. An acceptable amount.
Three large monsters appeared from behind the trees. They were covered in scales and fur — just like what I was told — and had an iguana’s head with a tiger’s tail. Their legs were completely covered in scales, perfect for the rainforest setting, while their backs were a mix between scale ridges and brown tiger fur.
Just looking at how they were the sizes of horses and their sharp claws and massive teeth would have been enough to scare away any normal person. If tigers and bears were scary, then these things would make any normal man soil their pants from how freakish they looked.
Identify.
Rank C, huh? Hehehehehe… EXPERIENCE FODDER!
AbyssRaven You know, this song was made two years ago. Gotta say, looking back at my old songs feels kinda nostalgic. I had so much trouble writing it despite it being so little.
If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr
For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters for the whole month! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.
Thank you for reading this chapter.
AbyssRaven The song for today is "Black Rover", the 3rd opening of Black Clover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ac9IpjukdQ
[“See, Rajah? Once you know you can go for the kill, then just do it. Of course, make sure that you aren’t being stalked yourself, ok?”]
“Mreow!”
[“Good boy! Now, show me how strong your fangs are, bite into its neck as best as you can, and show me your strength!”] I ordered Rajah while holding onto a paralyzed monster on the brink of death.
Listening obediently, he vigorously dug his fangs right into the monster’s throat, but it sadly wasn’t a killing blow with his Strength compared to the Skorr’s Vitality. The monster struggled against him my venom, but any strength it had left in its body disappeared as it slowly bled to death.
When I helped Saori kill stuff, most of the things I paralyzed where F or G ranks. Less Vitality and defensive skills made them easy pickings. Sadly, the lowest-ranked monsters in this area were E ranks, outside of a few low ranked insects. Unless I needed to eat them, I would rather avoid them if possible.
Rajah looked dejected at the motionless corpse for a second until he began feeling the effects of leveling up, brightening his mood in no time.
[“You did well, don’t worry. Just keep on trying and you’ll eventually have the stats to do all of this yourself.”] I grinned, widening my arms as if to tell him he could grow super large.
The area was littered with the corpses of a monster herd I detected while I was searching for the lost lizardmen. Since Caszcur admitted wanted to avoid the group, I told him “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” before dashing forward with [Haste] and [Swift Winds] as I tore through the monsters like a tornado of claws and tail slashes.
Figuring that it was an opportunity to power level Rajah, I paralyzed the strongest looking one among them to give him kill credit. It certainly helped as it pushed him three levels up, bringing him to level nine.
“H-How are you this strong… you made it look so easy.” Hearing a stuttering voice, I turned around to see the lizardmen trembling. Aksmias, who blurted that out, had his tail instinctively between his legs — a display of submission.
“Were you not a mage? I thought you were a mage, so how were you able to kill all these monsters bare-handed?” Caszcur had his maul agape, showing his sharp teeths, looking nowhere close as intimidating as a crocodile.
Looking at all the blood on my claws and tail, barely hidden by my crimson scales, anybody would question if I was a pure mage or not. Well, with my Job being [None], it wasn’t as if I had to keep up appearances, right? Frankly, these monsters were only E ranks and their stats were completely outclassed by mine, despite my handicap, so wasting too much mana on them would be ridiculous.
Two spells, [Haste] and [Swift Winds], was all I needed to claw my way through everything. There was no need for tricks when pure strength was all that was needed.
[“Status board difference,”] I said with a shrug. [“Anyways, who cares about this. Were you guys able to find the tracks?”]
“Huh? Oh yeah, we found some clothing and metal scraps lying around,” Caszcur answered, guiding us to them.
If Saori were here, then she would probably be able to track down the lost lizardmen, easily. We had to rely on the lizardmen’s keen smell and my [Tracking] and [Detection Sensor] skills to pursue whatever leads we could find.
After the lizardmen group got separated, various monsters had wandered through this area. Too many tracks. The only way we could continue was to use other clues, like the stuff the other group dropped or left behind.
Caszcur mentioned a few days ago a large wave of monsters rampaged through the rainforest, keeping their group on their tails as they had to avoid and flee from them. It really seemed like their group couldn’t get a single break since they started traveling through the Belzac forest.
Remembering how I nearly died thrice, how Saori nearly bit the dust once, and how we had to rescue Tasianna from a group of trolls using her as a battery to fuel a mana cannon that nearly killed me… Yeah, gotta say, this forest is a huge middle finger to people.
You either got overwhelmed by stats alone or by monster groups using their devious skill combinations to kill you. Either way, you wouldn’t have a good time if you weren’t strong.
[“Hey, Tasianna, was what I did really that weird?”] I asked my fairy companion while our group followed the lizardmen after I quickly stored the motherload of monster meat inside my storage.
[“With common sense? Yes, that was quite extraordinary, however, they also don’t know that you’re a genuine dragon. If they knew then they wouldn’t be so surprised anymore, just like me when I learned what you could do, Lady Hestia,”] Tasianna explained while sitting on my shoulder.
[“Seriously? Well, I guess being a C rank is pretty high,”] I blurted out, still unsure how all this ranking stuff worked and where I actually stood compared to the world’s strongest.
[“I apologize, but learning about how the System and monster ranks work wasn’t interesting to me. However, I can assure you, possessing the blood of Kargryxmor, the God of Dragons, isn’t exactly ‘normal.’ Do you remember what I told you about subordinate gods, Lady Hestia?”]
Tasianna had been teaching Saori and me about the world’s religion and the six elemental pantheons. The Origin Gods were the leaders of them, and under them were the subordinate gods, once mortals turned into gods.
I nodded to Tasianna's question, prompting her to continue, [“Good, because Kargryxmor was once the strongest dragon known in the elven history books, my lady. The ‘Black Tyrant of the Skies,’ the terror of all airborne monster until he became Goddess Aurena’s subordinate. The tales about him were quite phenomenal, but it has been like five decades since I read them. I sadly cannot recall and recount them for you.”] Her shoulders slumped, frowning as she couldn’t “perform her duty as a maid.” I told her it was okay.
Still, so that is my bloodline, huh? I guess I can’t function under “common sense” with such a boon. Hmm, really wonder who my dragon parents are now…
Weirdly, my chest felt kinda heavy from that thought. I could have asked Tasianna if she knew about them, but it felt like if I asked her about it, I would betray my parents on Earth. It felt childish, I felt like I wasn’t doing the correct thing, but at the same time, not learning about them felt right with a small part of me.
Shaking those thoughts away, I hurried my steps. Once we regrouped with the lizardmen, we continued following any leads we could find. Even with my [Tracking], it was impossible to find any lizardmen like footprints. It took us a long time, as we had to scour every nook and cranny for whatever, really.
To be honest, this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was exactly like how the wyverns hadn’t found me yet. This forest was just too large, and despite our reduced search area due to Caszcur knowing where they were attacked, it still took us ages to make any progress.
It was even worse knowing the attack happened four days ago. We could only hope the other group was able to survive until now.
It made me feel anxious. I did kinda promise the lizardmen kids I would do it for them. They were so adamant about coming with us that it required the adults to hold them back from leaving the camp.
Thankfully, they hadn't followed us as Rajah did, but that just meant they were putting all their hope on us. We had to find their friends and also take revenge on the monsters who killed their parents — that was their wish to me. Couldn’t say no, eh?
Nevertheless, I could admit it wasn’t going too well. Besides some random monsters and bits of clothing, the day ended eventless. Due to the coming winter, the shorter days were coming to bite our butts, or tails, like how the lizardmen like to say it.
Regardless of how much energy we still had, the night was dangerous, and it would be smarter to just rest. I could keep everybody safe even when it was nighttime, but our progression would be hindered as the lizardmen couldn’t navigate through the dark forest as efficiently as I could.
[“Haaaa… this is harder than I thought,”] I sighed once my cooking station was set up.
“Huh?” Caszcur knocked his head to the side. “Little lady, it seems you never did an actual hunt before. Finding, tracking, and then forming a plan. I wasn’t a hunter by trade, but every young scale learns how to use a spear and hunt for food, even the females.”
Thinking back, the only real tracking I’d done in my life was when I tried to find some kobolds, otherwise, I would only follow tracks to find monsters. Just random hunting; find whatever you could and kill it if it was worth it. Which was a far cry compared to the multiple days I needed to find some kobolds as an F rank [Young Dragon].
It all changed when Saori became responsible for finding prey. Our two most successful strategies — the idol concert and the mobile Hestia gun — didn’t need me to track anything.
[“I might have been too proud of my abilities, yeah, sorry for complaining.”] I pouted while cutting the meat for today’s meal.
“Ha, don’t worry about it too much. We are searching for an unknown amount of scalekins in this large forest after four days. I never expected it to be easy. We just have to focus and continue,” Caszcur reassured me.
[“Yeah, you’re right, Caszcur.”] I nodded energetically. ["Everybody at camp is waiting for us to come back with the rest of your friends, so I guess we shouldn't lose hope this early. Especially the kids, so I have to make sure I follow up."]
"Good! That's the spirit of a warrior, little lady! We won't make any progress at today's pace, so make sure to wake up at dawn. We need to hurry up, otherwise ain’t no scales left for us to rescue."
With that settled, our rescue party increased our effort once morning came. We were walking at a higher speed, while I would deal with any monster that could threaten us, trying my best to intimidate most of them away using my [Terror Aura].
It took us another full day until we finally found an actual useful clue… a bit too useful, unfortunately…
[“Scheiße…”] I cursed, grimacing.
[“Were we too late?”] Tasianna let out as she held her mouth with her hands.
What our group was gawking at was the bloody body of a lizardman. His soulless eyes were staring back at us. [Identify] proved he was dead so I told Caszcur I couldn’t do anything anymore. I could have healed him if he was on the edge, but no amount of healing spells was enough to bring back the life of a deceased person.
At a time like this, I was glad I’d gotten used to seeing corpses. I was disappointed we came too late but nobody needed a squeamish girl, crying and shouting. Tasianna was keeping it together but the sight of the maimed body still affected her. I caressed her back.
“Kraagh, fishrot… you just had to wait for a few more minutes, you idiot,” Caszcur sorrowfully muttered as he inspected the corpse. The body was still warm.
[“Is he one of the people we were looking for? I’m sorry, you should have the time to grieve, but we need to hurry. Does he have anything that could lead us to the others.”] Knowing what this meant, I had to rush my lizardmen companion for information. Time was of the essence right now, if we wanted to save more lives!
Caszcur gritted his teeth before closing the lizardman’s eyes. “You’re right. This guy is from the same tribe I came from, he worked under me. Damn… unlucky bastard… The blood is fresh, which means that he just died, although considering the size of those wounds, I guess he must have died from the attack, not from bleeding out."
The urgency was clear. With this small bit of information, we knew the perpetrators were close by, which meant the other lizardmen had to be either hiding from them or were currently being chased. There were plenty of other clues, so it was time for me to dial my search engine up.
Parallel minds, get on the detection sensor and find them!
After giving them a moment to work with, they told me that a cluster of monsters was moving in different directions. Focusing on this lead, my parallel minds further inspected it to find out the largest clusters were in the north, west, and south, while only a small amount was in the east.
Honestly, it looked too suspicious to be a coincidence. Five dots quickly advancing towards a cluster of many., it was far too suspicious.
[“To the east, follow me!”] I shouted, waking everybody out of their delirium.
Picking Rajah up, I rushed through the rainforest as I pinpointed the location of my targets. At the speed they were running, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time before they started tearing into the fleeing dots. I had to buy some time!
“Kraaaaaahhhhh!” shouting, I announced my presence to the monster, hoping it would provoke them to direct their attention to me.
Noticing they stopped for a second before resuming their chase, I made my parallel minds use [Aerokinesis] to amplify my voice while also playing something catchy… something that could pump up your blood. Something, that made it clear I was issuing a challenge — a taunt.
“A simple request
A simple challenge to you
Are you too afraid to fight?
I’m here, so come at me you fucks
Try to pick on someone your own size
Or can you only fight against the weak?
So, prove yourself, oh
How can you call yourself strong
If you won’t even take me on
Stop your feet now and turn your bodies around! Let’s go!
Explosion!
Let our claws slice and dice
Can you bring me down
Right now, let’s get on the ground,
Fight or flight!
Let’s see, can you face my magic
Show me, a dragon, how to fight
Come on, don’t disappoint me now!
Fight or flight! ”
Singing while running at high speeds wasn't good for your stamina as you would throw your breathing rhythm in disarray. Regardless, the moment those five large dots stopped once again, I knew it was fully worth it. The distance between the fleeing signals and them was increasing.
I also stopped running, letting my breathing calm down, to let the pursuers know I wasn’t going anywhere. It seemed they were contemplating about it. Eventually, they sent three of their members at me while the rest continued the chase.
That’s good enough!
Noticing the lizardmen finally caught up to me, I turned around to see them breathing heavily. Thankfully, they weren’t exhausted. That was the mark of a group of people who were used to running and traveling.
Scowling from all that running, Caszcur confronted me for suddenly running. “Huff, huff… hey, how can you run so fast… bwuh!”
I knew what he wanted to say but there wasn't any time left so I gave him a couple of my poison bombs and three of my newest firebombs. “I found the rest of the group. I managed to provoke three of them but two continued the chase. I’ll keep these three at bay for now, but you have to catch up! Those bombs are dangerous, extremely dangerous, ok?! Pull the sticks out with absolute caution but I can promise you that they can blast away anything they touch. I made them after all!”
They were one of my newer versions. When I heard about the concept of mana batteries from Tasianna, I thought I could figure it out on my own and make one. Turns out, you had to be an artificer — a manatechnician — to create one yourself. Kinda made my efforts pointless, but whatever.
So, instead, I kept with the basics of magic and how I had been making bombs until now. I needed a bomb which could be used without my mana, so I simply told the magic circle inside those bombs to activate once it gets in contact with a very specific gas I could make with [Toxic Secretion].
If I could make extremely hazardous toxins, then shouldn't I be able to do the polar opposite of it? Pulling the sticks out of them released this non-lethal toxic gas into the other chamber with the magic circle. Just like a normal grenade, after a few seconds it would go kaboom.
“… Got it! You can count on us, so you better hurry up, Hestia!” Caszcur announced, only needing a few seconds to think it through..
Saying “Got it!” I then enveloped all of the lizardmen into air capsules using [Air Shield] and [Aerokinesis]. To make sure that they had the necessary power, I rapidly cast all my buff spells onto myself to then transfer them onto them with [Synergist’s Oath].
Considering I had to do this individually to all five lizardmen, I had to accelerate my casting speed to an abnormal rate, quickly consuming 25% of my total mana as I focused on speed instead of mana usage efficiency.
There has to be a faster and more efficient way to do this! Casting all my buffing spells is already tedious and doing that for six people just takes way too much time!
That also meant the beast had enough time to catch up to me, while the lizardmen couldn’t move at all.
Can’t help it…
[“Hold on tight!”] I announced, clearly unnerving the lizardmen.
Pouring in even more mana than was needed, I strengthened the [Air Shield]s even more while casting another spell, constructing a large green magic circle behind the lizardmen.
More mana! Give it more mana! Blast through trees, break through the barrier! Wind Blast!
With a sound similar to that of a rocket blastoff, an ear piercing explosion launched the lizardmen forward, shooting them through the rainforest like a bullet. As they were protected by my [Air Shield], and their bodies had [Featherfall] on them, I was optimistic they wouldn’t die even if the shield somehow broke.
I gave them all they needed to catch up, now it was their turn to show me their conviction and determination. I didn’t think they could win the battle but all they needed to do was buy me some time… lose the battle but win the war. That was why I gave them my bombs.
With everything settled, I told Tasianna and Rajah to get ready. I knew bringing Rajah into this battle would be dangerous for him, but he would be safer with me.
I technically also didn’t have to win this battle. I only needed to somehow trap them, and make sure they couldn’t follow me. I could outmaneuver them and join Caszcur but that all depended on what type of monsters I would fight.
If it was strong then I couldn’t allow them to join with the other two, otherwise, even I would have trouble against all five monsters. It was two, and Rajah, against three. An acceptable amount.
Three large monsters appeared from behind the trees. They were covered in scales and fur — just like what I was told — and had an iguana’s head with a tiger’s tail. Their legs were completely covered in scales, perfect for the rainforest setting, while their backs were a mix between scale ridges and brown tiger fur.
Just looking at how they were the sizes of horses and their sharp claws and massive teeth would have been enough to scare away any normal person. If tigers and bears were scary, then these things would make any normal man soil their pants from how freakish they looked.
Identify.
Rank C, huh? Hehehehehe… EXPERIENCE FODDER!
AbyssRaven You know, this song was made two years ago. Gotta say, looking back at my old songs feels kinda nostalgic. I had so much trouble writing it despite it being so little.
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