Art narrowly dodged the horns of a beast that charged at him.He had been hunting continuously without rest for the past four hours, so the time now was around midnight. During this period, he had successfully killed 5 D-rank, 72 E-rank, and hundreds of F-rank beasts, as well as harvested their cores. Adding D-rank cores to his collection was truly satisfying. He was currently fighting against a D-rank beast, which was a six-foot-tall deer with multiple sharp horns.He could be considered the bad guy here since the deer was sleeping peacefully when he picked up a fight, and honestly, he was regretting it as the exhaustion from all the continuous fighting was taking its toll.His movements were getting sloppier, and he had narrowly escaped getting stabbed several times. Since he had no sort of protective gear on, he couldn’t risk that happening. At a point, he tried making a run for it, but the furious beast relentlessly chased him, so there were no two ways about this. One of them
“Aura release!”The glowing mark on his eyes grew brighter as a powerful wave of aura burst from his body, destroying all the ice around him.“I’m under attack. Can’t I just have my peace?” Art muttered.Whatever was attacking him was strong as he had to put a lot of effort into destroying the ice.His dagger and sword appeared from his storage device into his hands.The particles of ice that were suspended mid-air due to the explosion morphed into very thin spikes, numbering several hundred, all aimed at him.Using both weapons in that split second, he sent out aura slashes, which destroyed nearly all the spikes, but the rest were strong enough to pass through his aura skin and pierce into his true skin.They were thinner than needles, so the pain was not more than what he could handle, but actual damage wasn’t done. Well, that’s what he thought at first, but he began feeling cold from within. He immediately realized that these thin ice needles were being used by the enemy to freeze
Asura was about to get serious as the mana she was exuding increased several times over.Even after thinking hard, he couldn’t remember anything that would make her want to kill him.He thought of the chance of her not seeing clearly, but that would make her coming here seem stupid.“Look, I don’t know what I did to make you harbor ill intents, but I’m sure I didn’t mean it.” It felt weird saying this, but he needed to be clear of her reason.The intimidating mana she was giving off nearly disappeared as she stared at him in shock and confusion. ‘Wait, that voice…, could it be him, or is the beast playing mind games?’ She was hesitant for some time as Art patiently waited for her response.“Art? Is that really you, because if not…” From the change in atmosphere, it was obvious that she hated being manipulated.The unnerving feeling made even him shortly doubt if he was the real Art.‘What’s wrong with her? I mean, can’t she see…’It was then that he came to a realization, which mad
*Flicker*The blue eyes of a girl slowly opened with, at first, a blurry vision, which gradually got clearer.She stared at the ceiling for several seconds, sorting out her memories.After turning her head to look around the place she was, she concluded that she had been brought back to camp.‘What happened? The last thing I remember was the group getting attacked by a D-rank beast. I blacked out during the attack, I guess.’The image of a person flashed in her thoughts. “Art!” She sat up despite the exhaustion she was feeling. “I hope he’s alright, as well as the others.”She was currently alone in the room but could hear voices coming from outside.She was glad to see her teddy bear unharmed beside her.Grabbing it, she came down from the bed before walking out of the room.The rays from the sun were very bright today with clear blue skies.She shielded her eyes with her hand as they adapted to the brightness. Taking it off, her gaze fell on the people making the noise, who were n
“Sonra, Caitlyn, and Art are no longer with us, so we should take on lesser amounts of E-rank beasts,” Rhea said as the group of five used the exposed roots of trees to cross the swamp below them.They hopped from root to root, having been at this for the past 20 minutes. “How the hell did we even get here,” Scry spat in annoyance after landing before leaping again.“Yeah! The way I see it, getting out of this swamp if you fall in would be very difficult. It works like quicksand,” Rhea frowned slightly. “Not just that, the bones hovering above seemed to have had their flesh absorbed. Try not to fall in.”Ave's eyes drifted shortly to Rhea.“The roots don’t seem to be harmed, tho,” Joe pointed out.“It’s either they have adapted to becoming strong enough to withstand the environment, or it's harmless to plants, only consuming animals, beasts, and, of course, humans.” Rhea accessed all this, having displayed good leadership qualities so far. “This is dangerous. We don’t know how long
During the tracking, the group noticed a few battles along the way. What they observed was quite shocking.Art had fought multiple beasts more than once. All in the middle of the night.Looking around, this was the biggest scale of damage that they had encountered, so the fight here was definitely extreme. The bodies of E-rank beasts were littered around; some were whole, while others weren’t.‘I can see how he was able to rack up so many points. Just who is this guy? I could learn a thing or two from him,’ Scry looked around in thought.Rhea observed the corpses of the beasts as well as the environment, and from the time she spent watching him, she already knew his fighting style to an extent. “It’s definitely him. We’re on the right track,” she looked at Ramond with a smile.A smile also appeared on his face as he felt more confident of himself than before. “This way,” he said, dashing away as the group followed after.It wasn’t before long that they found themselves at a stream.
“Caitlyn! Get down!” a voice was heard, followed by flesh being torn apart. A beast fell to the ground, completely ripped in half.“Are you alright?” Sonra, who was responsible for this, hurried towards Caitlyn, who had fallen with a pained expression on her face.“It’s only a scratch,” she replied, trying to stand up while staring at the cut on her elbow, where blood was beginning to escape from.‘To think that we would encounter this type of beast.’ Sonra looked around. Surrounding them were five plant-type beasts shaped like a mushroom. Two were already dead, tho.They were camouflaged as normal plants since this place had several actual mushroom plants, all about seven feet tall.She and Caitlyn were attacked all of a sudden while they were passing. If anything, these types of beasts had very limited mobility but possessed body extensions, which helped to cover for this.If you’re able to get out of the range of these body extensions, then there is no need to worry. She manage
Sonra instinctively pushed Caitlyn back to protect her, just in case of anything, while glaring warily at the rest. “What’s going on here?”She was most definitely ready to defend both of them.Normally, she would most likely not have attempted this for someone she didn’t know well, especially if someone strong like the professor were to get involved, as this could turn out badly for her.But here she was.Maybe it was the weird feeling of admiration she got when Art stood up for the unconscious Caitlyn against Vlarth.A smile formed on the face of Professor Verone. “I like the way you reacted, but there’s no need for that. Be at ease…”Sonra’s eyes widened slightly as Verone moved from her seat, placing a hand on her shoulder. During this time, Sonra was only able to raise her hand halfway.“Come closer,” she said as Sonra and Caitlyn walked towards her, standing just a meter away from the other group.“You see,” Professor Verone started to explain the situation. “This party over he