“Is something wrong?” Lin asked.
“I feel like we are being watched,” Kari said.
“That’s because we are being watched.”
“What?”
Kari whipped her head over to look at Lin, who was nodding as she spoke like nothing was wrong. “There is a large group of Werecats watching us from higher up. They have been following us ever since you killed that first one.”
“And you didn’t think to say anything?” Kari asked, now annoyed.
Lin paused. “Should this princess have said something? She assumed you already knew about them.”
“That’s… no, it’s fine. This is my fault. Sorry for snapping at you.”
Lin accepted her apology but still looked wary of another tongue lashing. Meanwhile, Kari called Catalyna up to her and informed the woman of what Lin had discovered. She spoke softly so the others wouldn’t hear. She didn’t want to cause a panic right now.
“These Werecats must be under the command of a Mabeast,” Catalyna said. “Mabeasts are the evolutionary form of Werecats. They’re a B-Rank Demon Beast about two times larger than the average Werecat, several times stronger, and a lot more cunning. They form packs to help them hunt. If there’s a Mabeast here, we could be in a lot of trouble.”
“What should we do?” asked Kari.
Catalyna bit her lip as her brow furrowed. “We keep going like this. It sounds like they are currently just watching us, so if we don’t give away that we know they are watching, we should be able to travel a bit further before they attack. The only thing we need to be wary of are traps. I’ve heard that Mabeasts like creating landslides to catch the unwary.”
That sounded dangerous, but there wasn’t anything else they could do. They continued moving.
“Lin, can you point out exactly where they are?” asked Kari.
“Up ahead on our right,” Lin said.
Being as discreet as possible, Kari glanced up. She couldn’t see anything at first, but as she continued to stare, it looked like the environment began moving. But it wasn’t, she realized. What moved was actually the body of a Werecat. Its tan fur was allowing it to blend in with the cliffs. Once she knew what to look for, Kari discovered not one, two, or even three Werecats. It looked like there were at least a dozen.
“I think we should make a break for it,” Kari stated.
Catalyna frowned. “Why do you say that?”
“Because if they are planning to create a landslide to trap us, then running right now would mean they won’t have time to trigger it.”
A man-made—or in this case, Demon Beast-made—landslide was not something that could just happen in an instant. It required either building up a lot of loose debris or finding areas in the cliff that were naturally weak and destroying them with explosive force. A B-Rank Demon Beast could probably cause a big enough explosion. But if they moved before it could use a Spiritual Attack, they could avoid being swept away by a landslide. Those were her thoughts on the matter.
“I guess we’ve no choice.” Catalyna sighed before turning back to the others. “Everybody! We’re running now! Pick up the pace!”
Despite the obvious confusion everyone present exuded, they didn’t complain even though they were exhausted. The group picked up their pace into a quick run. At that exact moment, as if realizing their prey was onto them, a massive roar shook the entire mountainside. Lin covered her ears as the sound pierced them. Even Kari stumbled as the sonic wave of sound affected her balance. When the roar vanished into a fading echo, the loud sound of something breaking, of something cracking, echoed around them. Then several tons of rocks, boulders, and dust began falling.
Everyone panicked and ran faster. With Kari and Lin in the lead, they managed to mostly outrun the falling debris, but not all of them made it to safety. One older man in his thirties was struck on the head by a stray rock. He stumbled backward, and the falling debris overtook him. The last thing Kari saw was his hand before he was completely buried and swept over the mountainside.
“Keep running!” Catalyna commanded.
The group did run. While Kari and Lin were up front, Catalyna, Marko, and Finn remained directly behind them, and the other Spiritualists were even further behind. As they ran, several Werecats leapt down from the cliffs. They unleashed ferocious roars as they made to attack.
Lin hissed as she opened her mouth and spat out several fast-moving globs of purple poison. Her aim was impeccable. She struck the eyes of the four Werecats in the lead, blinding and hurting them at the same time. Unable to see, the Werecats crashed into each other and tumbled down the cliff, striking several hard rocks on their way down, rolling across the path everyone was running along, and falling over the other side, where they disappeared and fell to their deaths.
The rest of the Werecats managed to leap onto the path. Two came from behind, three from the front. Walking out from between the three up ahead of them was a Demon Beast that looked like a Werecat—except it was nearly two times bigger. Its sturdy frame blocked almost the entire mountain path. Rippling muscles covered every inch of its body. Snarling lips were peeled back to reveal massive fangs behind its two tusks. The yellow glow of its eyes contained a vicious cunning that made even Kari and Lin back away from it.
“W-we’re surrounded!” Finn shouted in shock. “What should we do?!”
“We should remain calm,” Catalyna snapped before turning to Kari. “What do you think we should do?”
Why are you asking me?!
Had circumstances been different, she might have appreciated someone of Catalyna’s experience and status looking to her for advice, but right now, she really didn’t feel that way at all. She didn’t have much experience in this matter. This was only her second time coming to the Demon Beast Mountain Range. That said, she also knew someone had to do something.
“Lin and I will take care of the Mabeast,” Kari declared. “You, Marko, Fin, and the others deal with the Werecats. Also, please hand me some of those alchemy pills.”
“Okay.”
Catalyna didn’t hesitate to place several pills in Kari’s outstretched hand. She popped them all into her mouth, ignored the bitter taste of mixing medicinal ingredients, and swallowed the spirit’s awful concoction. It tasted foul but energy swiftly rushed through her body. She felt lighter. Spiritual Power and energy were flowing through her like a rushing hurricane thanks to the Spiritual Booster Pill and Endurance Pill, and the Clarity Pill allowed her to focus better.
“Give this princess some pills too, please,” Lin said. Catalyna handed several pills to her, and the Lamia didn’t hesitate to pop them into her mouth, though she did make a face. “Blegh. These taste horrible.”
Kari snorted, but that amused sound was all she could make before the Werecats and Mabeast attacked them. Since her job was to take care of the Mabeast with Lin, she ignored the Werecats, trusting Catalyna, Marko, Finn, and the others to keep them away. She rushed past them and attacked the Mabeast head-on.
Since it looked like they were nearing their destination, Kari held nothing back. She spun her ranseur around her body. Each swipe created a brilliant golden trident in the air. With another twirl of her weapon, she launched the projectiles forward. While she didn’t expect them to do much damage—this was only a C-Rank Spiritual Technique—she didn’t expect them to just bounce off as they did.
“Crap!”
Kari was forced to dodge as the Mabeast nearly barreled into her. She backpedaled to avoid its claw swipe, then ducked when it tried to bite her head off. Now close enough to this creature’s mouth that she could smell its putrid breath, Kari thrust her ranseur forward, striking the Mabeast underneath its jaw.
Clang!
Sparks flew as her ranseur slid away from the Mabeast, showing her that its fur was tougher than even her weapon. She grimaced and quickly scrambled out from underneath the Demon Beast as it tried to squash her flat with a massive paw. As she leapt backward several times, Lin rushed between its legs
, spitting poison from her mouth. It must have been acidic. The poison hissed as it struck the fur, steam emitting from each spot struck as it melted through, and it was harmful enough that the Mabeast screeched in pain.
Using the Mabeast’s distracted state, Kari used the Flash Step to appear on top of its head. It tried to knock her off. However, Kari leapt into the air to avoid its thrashing, then came back down and impaled the tip of her glowing ranseur into its right eye.
“GGGGGGRRRAA!!!”
Gritting her teeth as the Mabeast roared in agony and rage, she clung to its back as it tried to throw her off again, keeping her ranseur firmly impaled through its eye socket. During this time, Lin used the tip of her tail to pierce the areas where her poison had weakened the Mabeast’s durable fur. Her attacks were so fast it appeared as if multiple tails were attacking at the same time. Dark ichor blasted from holes that appeared along the Demon Beast’s body.
As the creature’s enraged roars turned into cries of agony, Kari removed her ranseur and stabbed its other eye out. She ignored the stench of blood as the eye burst like overripe fruit and stained her boots in gore. The Mabeast was panicking now. Completely blinded by her attacks, it stumbled along. Kari kept a careful eye on her surroundings as she bent her knees to keep her balance, and when her foe was near the edge of the cliff, she leapt off and landed on the ground. The Mabeast kept going and fell off the cliff with a loud cry. The thunderous sound of something striking the ground echoed up to her as it continued falling, until at last, countless meters below, the sounds disappeared.
“Are you okay, Big Sister?” asked Lin as she slithered up to her.
“I’m fine.” Kari smiled as she glanced at Lin, checking the girl for injuries. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere, but she had a lot of bruises. “How about you?”
“This princess is fine,” Lin said. “She did not get injured this time.”
Kari expressed her relief with a sigh before turning to look at the others. It appeared that Catalyna and Marko had managed to defeat two of the three Werecats on their own. Finn had required the help of three other Spiritualists to take down one. While all five of the Werecats were dead, she grimaced upon catching sight of the two Spiritualist corpses lying in the dirt. Their group had consisted of twenty starting out, but now they only had twelve, not including Eryk and Fay.
“Catalyna,” Kari called. “We should hurry up and keep moving before more Demon Beasts come.”
Catalyna looked up, her shoulders and chest heaving. Blood ran down her forehead, her armor had dings and scratches on it, and her sword was coated in thick, black blood. Despite looking terrible, she wore a strong and determined expression.
“Yes. Let’s keep going.”
Kari faced the front as the group of exhausted Spiritualists began moving again. She hoped they would reach those ruins soon.
The veins in my arm bulged as I swung the Dragon’s Tail Ruler. It wasn’t very heavy, about 120 kilograms all told, but the increased length when I unlocked the segments and used my Spiritual Power to tether each segment together like a line of thread put a strain on my tired body. Despite my trembling muscles, the Dragon’s Tail Ruler rushed forward to pierce one, two, three, four Pteranodons as if they were made of butter. Blood splattered the already bloodstained ground as the creatures shrieked and thrashed.
“Hng!”
As I swung the handle, causing the lightning within my ruler to tear through the bodies of the Demon Beasts I had impaled, Fay darted to and fro along the ground. She appeared above a Lizalfo—a giant bipedal reptile with spikes all over its body—and slammed the back of her heel against its head. Her Spiritual Aura was powerful enough that the spikes along its body melted into slag. Her foot caused its skull to break as it slammed into the ground, which collapsed to form a small crater.
Currents in the air shifted behind me as I retracted my blade. The segments locked back into place, and I turned on the balls of my feet to swing, unleashing a crescent blade of water. My attack sliced into a Lizalfo attempting to sneak up on me from behind. The Demon Beast shrieked as blood ran down its face, though the shrieking only lasted until I thrust my ruler forward with a single hand and impaled it through the head.
My shoulders heaved as I pulled my weapon from the Lizalfo’s head. Blood spurted along the ground, but I ignored it and extended my senses. The air whistled in my ear; my eyes grew sharp while scanning the skies, and I sensed the shifting of gravel underneath my feet.
I couldn’t detect any danger, which gave me a quick moment of reprieve. I used this chance to take a look around.
The ground was covered in corpses. There were so many bodies I couldn’t even see the dirt anymore. What parts of the earth were uncovered by the dead had been dyed red. The thick scent of blood caused me to wrinkle my nose.
Amidst this massacre was Fay, the girl who’d been fighting by my side for the past however many hours it had been since we split ways with Kari, Lin, and the others. Her clothing, like mine, was littered with tears. Most of those tears had been near misses, but I could see several cuts dripping with blood. We would need to get those healed soon.
“I think we’re good for now,” I said as Fay wiped some sweat from her forehead. “We should keep moving. I’m sure more will be coming, and I’d like to find a place where we can lay low so I can heal your injuries.”
Fay walked over to me, stepping around several bodies, though she didn’t bother avoiding the puddles of blood—there was already so much dried blood on our clothes that a little more didn’t matter. She stopped in front of me and placed her hands on her hips.
“You don’t need to worry about me. I already told you these small scratches are nothing,” she said, but I could tell from the way her shoulders drooped that she was tired despite the brave front she put up.
I smiled and shook my head. “Even if they are, I’d prefer not to let those injuries remain. Cuts can get infected and become worse if they aren’t treated, and besides, telling the man who loves you not to worry is kind of an exercise in futility. I’ll always worry about you even though I know how capable you are.”
“That… uh… oh… well, th-thank you.” Fay looked down at the blood-stained ground and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. The self-conscious gesture was awfully cute even though I knew it stemmed from her inferiority complex.
“I’ve noticed this before, but you really are all attack and no defense, huh?” I said as I picked my way around the corpses, leading Fay away from the current area of destruction. “Despite so confidently stating you would win my affection back before I started courting you, you’re surprisingly weak to having other people give you affection.”
“I-it’s not like that is completely true,” Fay defended herself. “I just… have to mentally prepare myself first.”
I gave her an amused smile before cocking my head to the side, listening for the sound of Demon Beasts. I also activated Spiritual Perception. The world around me turned gray, save for the red flame beside me. That meant there were no B-Rank and above Demon Beasts in this vicinity. That was good.
“Anyway, let’s head this way.” I pointed off toward the northwest. “There aren’t as many Demon Beasts over there.”
“Wait! Why are you changing the subject?!” Fay asked, her face suddenly lighting up like a bonfire. It seemed she was still embarrassed.
“Because there are more Demon Beasts coming our way. Can’t you feel it?”
When Fay heard my words, a brief moment of confusion flashed through her eyes, but then she realized what I meant when she felt the ground rumbling underneath her feet. Her eyes widened.
“There has to be over a hundred of them for the ground to shake like this,” she whispered in horror.
“That, or a really big Demon Beast is coming this way,” I affirmed with a nod. “Either way, now isn’t the time for this conversation. Let’s keep moving.”
We didn’t use the Flash Step to travel since, while it could indeed be used to t
ravel long distances, Fay needed to conserve her Spiritual Power. I had some pretty monstrous reserves if I did say so myself, and even I felt the need to lessen the amount I was using. Neither of us wanted to become overly reliant on alchemy pills, since they would only be useful short term but hurt us in the long run.
After leaving the jungle, Fay and I had traveled across a vast, nearly empty plain several kilometers away from a tall mountain. The journey had been treacherous. Numerous Demon Beasts attacked in droves. It didn’t matter where we ran. Even after I stopped sending my Spiritual Pressure out to draw the Demon Beasts’ attention to us instead of Kari’s group, the amount of Demon Beasts attacking only seemed to increase. It was like they had been whipped up into a frenzy.
The reason definitely had something to do with that strange ritual Dyr had been used in. I recognized some of the runes, but I hadn’t been able to properly memorize all of them. I didn’t know exactly what the ritual was meant for. However, I could tell it had been the reason for the Demon Beasts’ current craziness. Not only had we been attacked nearly nonstop since that moment, but the Demon Beasts were trespassing into the territory of other Demon Beasts, something that had only happened during the Demon Beast Invasion of Nevaria.
“Still,” Fay began, panting beside me as she ran, “I wonder why the Demon Beasts are acting this way?”
“I have a theory on that.” A large boulder appeared before us, forcing us to split up and run around it before hooking back up again. “I’ll tell you about it when we have a moment to rest.”
As if to deny us any chance at rest, the ground suddenly shook beneath our feet, and it wasn’t a small shaking either. Fay released a startled squawk as she was nearly sent to the ground. I stumbled forward a few steps before righting myself and eyeing our surroundings.
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