[See, Rajah? Once you know you can go for the kill, then just do it. Of course, make sure that you arent being stalked yourself, ok?]
Mreow!
[Good boy! Now, show how strong your fangs are, bite into its neck as best as you can and show 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 monsters throat, but he still didnt have the power to imdiately kill it, struggling as the monster slowly bled out. Well, it was to be expected when I rember when he tried to kill that Skorr, that monster boar.
When I helped Saori kill stuff, we were lucky as kobolds seed to have softer bones, but the monsters surrounding this location were all high leveled E ranks.
After a couple of seconds, the monster died from blood loss. Rajah looked dejected for a second until he began feeling the effects of leveling up, brightening his mood in no ti.
[You did well, dont worry. Just keep on trying and youll eventually have the strength to do all of this yourself,] I said with a grin, spreading my arms out to show that he could do the sa thing as I just did.
The area was littered with the corpses of a monster herd that I detected while I was searching for the lost lizardn. Hearing that Caszcur wasnt too sure if our rescue party could take it, I just said Dont worry, Ill take care of it, accelerated myself with [Haste] and [Swift Winds] and then began a tornado of claws and tail, ripping through the monster herd.
Figuring that it was an opportunity, I paralyzed the strongest looking one and gave Rajah the kill credit. It certainly helped as it pushed him three levels up, helping him reach level nine.
H-How are you this strongyou made it look so easy, hearing a stuttering voice, I turned around to see the lizardn shivering.
Were you not a mage? I thought you were a mage, so how were you able to kill all these monsters bare-handed? Caszcur asked.
Looking at all the blood on my claws and tail, it would make anybody wonder if I were a mage at all but thats why my Job was still filled with [None], he. 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], is all I needed to claw my way through everything. I wouldnt even consider [Toxic Secretion], as I didnt need the paralyzing venom to kill the last one.
[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 so clothing and tal scraps lying around, Caszcur answered, guiding us again.
If Saori were here, then she would probably be able to track down the lost lizardn, easily. We had to rely on the lizardns keen sll, and my [Tracking] and [Detection Sensor] skills to navigate and pursue whatever leads we could find.
It seems like after they were separated, the surrounding monsters began spreading around the area, ruining the tracks left by the fleeing lizardn and the monsters that attacked them.
Caszcur ntioned that a few days ago, a large wave of monsters entered the rainforest, keeping their group on their tails as they had to avoid and flee all of them. It really seems like their group couldnt get a single break in since they started traveling through the Belzac forest.
Rembering 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 ; I have to say that this place is pretty hostile towards everything.
You either get overwheld by stats alone or by monster groups using their devious skill combinations to kill you. Either way, you wont have a good ti if you arent strong.
[Hey, Tasianna, was that really that weird that I was able to do that?] I asked my fairy companion as we and Rajah followed the lizardn after I quickly stored the motherload of monster at inside my storage.
[With common sense? Yes, that was quite extraordinary, however, they dont know that youre a genuine dragon. If they knew then they wouldnt be so surprised anymore, just like when I learned what you could do, Lady Hestia,] Tasianna said, sitting on my shoulder.
[Seriously? Well, I guess being a C rank is pretty high,] I said, still unsure how all this ranking stuff worked.
[I apologize but I cant answer anything about the rank system of the world. It wasnt a very interesting topic for , but I do know that you possessing the blood of a god dragon must an that you are strong, Lady Hestia,] Tasianna said, puffing up her chest as she started taking pride in .
Once we regrouped with the rest, we continued following any leads we could find, as the chaos of the forest seed to have destroyed most of the tracks. Even with my [Tracking], it was impossible to find any lizardn like footprints. We only managed to find our way due to how the skill was directing my attention towards a certain direction.
To be honest, this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was exactly like how the wyverns havent found yet. This forest is just too large, and despite our reduced search area due to Caszcur knowing where they were, they were attacked. However, that doesnt change the fact that it has been four days since this happened.
We could only hope that the other group was able to survive until now.
I an, I did tell those lizardn kids that 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 haven't followed us as Rajah did, but that just ant that they were putting all their hope into us, that we could find their friends and maybe get revenge on the monster that attacked them.
Well, I can only say that it wasnt going too well. Besides so random monsters and bits of clothing, the day ended eventless. Due to the coming winter, the shorter days are coming to bite our butts, or tails, like how the lizardn said it.
Regardless of how much energy we still had, the night was dangerous, and it would be smarter to just rest. I can keep everybody safe even whens nightti, but our progression would be hindered as the lizardn couldnt navigate through the dark forest as efficiently as I could.
[Sighthis is harder than I thought,] I said 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 wasnt 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 that Ive done in my life was when I tried to find so kobolds, otherwise, Ive only followed tracks to find monsters. Just random hunting; find whatever you could and kill it if it was worth it.
But that changed when Saori ca in, where she was responsible for finding prey. Our two most successful strategies: the idol concert and the mobile Hestia gun, didnt need to track anything.
[I might have been too proud of my abilities, yeah, sorry for complaining,] I said while cutting the at of todays ga.
Ha, dont worry about it too much. We are searching for an unknown amount of scale-kins in this large forest after four days. I never expected it to be easy. We just have to focus and continue, Caszcur reassured .
[Yeah, youre right, Caszcur,] I said with an energetic nod. ["Everybody at camp is waiting for us to co back with the rest of your friends, so I guess we shouldn't lose hope this early. I kinda did promise those kids, so I have to make sure I follow up."]
"Ha, 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 early tomorrow. We need to hurry up, otherwise, our chances will lower even more."
With that settled, our rescue party increased our effort. 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 cluea bit too useful, unfortunately
[Scheie] I said with slight disappointnt.
[Oh goddess] Tasianna let out as she held her mouth with her hands.
What our group was gawking at was the bloody body of lizardn, his soulless eyes staring back at us. [Identify] proved that he was dead so I told Caszcur that I couldnt 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 ti like this, I was glad that Ive gotten used to seeing corpses. I was disappointed that we ca too late but nobody needed a squeamish girl, crying and shouting. Tasianna was keeping it together but the sight of the maid body still affected her.
Fuckyou just had to wait for a few more minutes, you idiot, Caszcur sorrowfully muttered as he inspected the corpse.
[Is he one of the people we are looking for? Does he have anything that could lead us to the others,] I asked to confirm my conclusion.
Caszcur waited for a second before letting out a sigh, Yeah, this guy is from the sa tribe that I ca from, he worked under . Damnunlucky bastard
Understanding that he needed ti to mourn, I allowed him to do it. Maybe its cause he knew this could happen but after a few more seconds, he closed the dead lizardmans eyes and spoke, The blood is fresh, which ans that he just died, although considering the size of those wounds, I guess he must have died from the attack, not from bleeding out."
It was only a tiny difference, but it was detailed enough to give us a lot of information. If he died from blood loss then the ones who did this could be gone already, but if he died from whatever caused those large gashes, then chances are high that those perps are still in the vicinity.
Parallel minds, get on the detection sensor and find so clues!
After giving them a mont to work with, they told that a cluster of monsters was moving in different directions. Focusing on this lead, my parallel minds further inspected it to find out that the largest cluster 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.
[To the east, follow !] I shouted, waking everybody out of their delirium.
Picking Rajah up, I speeded through the rainforest as I have pinpointed the location of my targetand experience bags.
At the speed that they were running, I wouldnt be able to make it in ti, before they started tearing through the fleeing dots. I need to buy so ti!
Kraaaaaahhhhh! shouting, I announced my presence to the monster, hoping that it would provoke them to direct their attention to .
Noticing that they stopped for a second before resuming, I made my parallel minds use [Aerokinesis] to amplify my voice while also playing sothing catchysothing that can pump up your blood.
.
A simple request
A simple challenge to you
Are you too afraid to fight?
Im here, so co at you fucks
Try to pick on soone your own size
Or can you only fight against the weak?
So, prove yourself, oh
.
How can you call yourself strong
If you wont even take on
Stop your feet now and turn your bodies around! Lets go!
,
Explosion!
Let our claws slice and dice
Can you bring down
Right now, lets get on the ground,
Fight or flight!
.
Lets see, can you face my magic
Show , a dragon, how to fight
Co on, dont disappoint now!
Fight or flight!
,
Singing while running at high speeds isnt good for your stamina as you would throw your breathing rhythm in disarray, however, it seems it worked we adequately as the five chasing dots stopped their advances long enough for the other cluster of dots to make so distance.
I also stopped running, letting my breathing calm down, to let the pursuers know that I wont go anywhere. It seems they were contemplating about it. Eventually, they sent three of their mbers at while the rest continued the chase.
Thats good enough!
Noticing that the lizardn finally caught up to , I turned around to see that they were breathing heavily but that they werent exhausted.
That was the mark of a group of people who are used to running and traveling. I internally praised them, as Caszcur started speaking, Huff, huffhey, how can you run so fastbwuh!
I know what he wanted to say but there wasn't any ti left so I gave them 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. Ill keep these three at bay for now, but you have to catch up! Those bombs are dangerous, extrely 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, I thought I could figure it out on my own, but I didn't even know how an electric battery worked so why did I even try.
So, instead, I kept with the basics of magic and how I have been making bombs until now. I needed a bomb that 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 that I can make with [Toxic Secretion].
If I could make extrely hazardous toxins, then shouldn't I be able to do the polar opposite of it? Pulling the sticks out of them releases this non-lethal toxic gas into the other chamber with the magic circle. Just like a normal grenade, after a few seconds it will go kaboom.
Got it! You can count on us, so you better hurry up, Hestia! Caszcur said, only needing a few seconds to think about it.
Saying Got it!, I then enveloped all of the lizardn 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 [Synergists Oath].
Considering that I had to do this individually to all five lizardn, 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.
Proficiency requirents fulfilled. [Synergists Oath Lv. 4] evolved into [Synergists Oath Lv. 5]
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 ti!
That also ant that the beast had enough ti to catch up to , while the lizardn couldnt move at all.
Cant help it
[Hold on tight!] I announced, clearly unnerving the lizardn.
Pouring in even more mana than was needed, I strengthened the [Air Shield]s even more while beginning casting another spell, constructing a large green magic circle behind the lizardn.
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 lizardn 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 that they wouldnt die even if the shield sohow broke.
I gave them all they needed, now it was their turn to show their conviction and determination. I dont think they can win the battle but all they needed to do was buy so tilose the battle but win the war.
With everything settled, I told Tasianna and Rajah to get ready. I know bringing Rajah into this battle would be dangerous for him, but he would be safer with .
I technically also dont have to win this battle. I only needed to sohow trap them, and make sure that they couldnt follow . I could outmaneuver them and join Caszcur but that all depended on what type of monster I would fight.
If it was strong then I cant allow it to join with the other two, otherwise, even I will have trouble against all five monsters. It was two, and Rajah, against three. An acceptable amount.
Confidently appearing out of the trees were three large monsters. They were covered in scales and fur, just like what I was told, had an iguanas head and a tigers 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 their size, which was about horse size, and their sharp claws and massive teeth would have been enough to scare away any normal person. While they pissed their pants, these predators would eviscerate their backs the mont they turned around.
Identify.
Panguana
A giant monster covered in both scales and fur, to protect it from attacks and from the environnt. Using their muscular front legs, these monsters would crush any prey using this brute force. They use their incredible defensive abilities in conjunction with their agility to hunt down prey and predator in the swamps and marshlands that they inhabit. Works well in groups, especially before they hibernate due to winter. Rank C
Heso, to dragon or dragonewt. Which will it be?
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