"That's…a level 5 mutated beast!" Pearl shouted.
Everyone turned to stare at her in bewilderment.
"What the fuck is a mutated beast?!" Craig growled, annoyed. "Are you in the wrong world or something?"
"And that's a Rank C monster, not level 5. We don't use levels and numbers to categorize monsters." Theodore was calmer, but he still looked just as bewildered as the rest of us. Pearl shrank back sheepishly.
"Sorry. My mind is not in the right place."
"I hope you didn't go into a battle frenzy or something," I muttered. "It's not as if a group of criminals hired by Lin Zhan Long came and provoked the mutated beasts into attacking us in an attempt to murder us."
"What does Lin Zhan Long have to do with anything?" Dong Fang Yue Chu asked, confused. "He's not here. And surely even he wouldn't try something as stupid as that."
"I won't be too sure of that. Stupid people exists no matter which world you're in." Craig shrugged. "But in this case, you're right. Lin Zhan Long has nothing to do with this. This is just a normal monster. Every Crimson Spider nest has a king. I'm more surprised that he didn't show up while we were destroying his lackeys earlier."
"He was probably busy with something else," I suggested with a shrug. "Maybe he was feeding or something."
"By the way…if there is a Crimson Spider King, is there a Crimson Spider Queen?" Pearl asked, somewhat concerned. "The one that lays all the eggs? Will she come out and attack us too?"
"No," I assured her. "The smaller Crimson Spiders are the ones who lay the eggs. The king gets to fertilize all of them by itself…so he basically has a harem of female Crimson Spiders who serve as both his concubines and servants at the same time."
"You know an awful lot about monsters," Craig remarked as he dodged a torrent of fire that washed out from the Crimson Spider's mandibles. Just like Dong Fang Yue Chu's spell, it scorched the earth and left blackened soil in its wake. "Whoa! That's pretty hot!"
"Let me! Firebolt!" mirroring a certain adventurer with white hair and an overpowered ability, Dong Fang Yue Chu raised his hand and unleashed a gigantic blast of flames toward the Crimson Spider. The stream of fire washed over the gigantic monster, but to no avail. Clacking its mandible ferociously, the screeching Crimson Spider King strode out of the flames.
"It's a fire-type monster! Your flames aren't going to work on it!" Craig hollered as he ducked a sharp, spike-like leg that lashed out at him, and countered with his spear. The Crimson Spider King raised another of his eight legs to parry the blow, and with an immense strength that belied his flimsy shape, knocked Craig several steps backward.
But Craig had bought more than enough time. While the Crimson Spider King's attention was focused on him, Theodore descended from above, his Thunder Hammer swinging downward to crash against its ruby exoskeleton.
"Mjolnir!" Theodore roared as he unleashed his most powerful technique. He had already activated his Berserker mode, which further augmented his strength and magic. Lightning stormed around him, bolts of electricity lancing into the flailing Crimson Spider King.
Even so, the monster survived the onslaught. With a shrill screech, he thrashed about, flames erupting from his back to incinerate Theodore. The berserk mage continued hammering away, heedless of the flames that roasted him, until Craig tackled him to the side.
"Pearl! Sedate and heal him!" he ordered. Pearl nodded as she ran to the snarling Theodore's side. He was about to lash out at her, but she raised a hand and cast a soothing spell to quell his mindless fury.
Kneeling beside the tranquilized Theodore, Pearl began to assess his injuries. She glanced up, her expression grim.
"These are some severe burns," she reported, her voice fraught with tension. "It'll take me a while to treat and heal him. Can you guys hold the Crimson Spider King off by yourselves until then?"
"Do we look like we have a choice?!" Craig hollered as he parried another one of the sharp blade-like legs from the Crimson Spider King. "Just heal him!"
"We'll do our best."
Dong Fang Yue Chu was already launching himself at the Crimson Spider King, taking Theodore's position in the vanguard. Even though his flames weren't effective against the Crimson Spider King, the reverse was true as well. The Crimson Spider King wouldn't be able to hurt the fire mage with his fire spells.
"Fire Punch!"
His fists wreathed in flames, Dong Fang Yue Chu dodged the sword-like legs and struck the Crimson Spider King from the side. The monster screeched and turned about to face him, flames erupting from his body. But even as the blazing fire washed over Dong Fang Yue Chu, the Ultimate Outcast president didn't flinch. Instead, his own flames seemed to power up, the fire mage drawing power from his opponent's fire spells to boost himself.
"Hah!"
With a powerful palm strike, he actually sent the Crimson Spider King skidding several steps back.
"Excellent!"
Craig charged forward, making use of the opening that Dong Fang Yue Chu had just produced, and thrust his spear forward. It pierced through the ruby exoskeleton, causing the Crimson Spider King to shriek in pain.
"!!"
An explosion of flames erupted defensively from the Crimson Spider King, forcing Craig to jump back and distance himself. Dong Fang Yue Chu remained in close combat, continuing to engage the Crimson Spider King, as the flames washed over him. As I thought, he wasn't affected by the flames too much, and was even using it to fuel his own attacks.
Unfortunately, the Crimson Spider King possessed a much higher heat tolerance than his Minions and mates, which rendered Dong Fang Yue Chu's attacks slightly ineffective.
While the vanguard was occupying the Crimson Spider King's attention, Pearl set to treating Theodore's injuries. A blue glow suffused her hands and enveloped the lying Theodore, and his burns began to slowly but surely fade away. His skin mended, knitting over the exposed raw muscles, and regenerating.
Readers were probably complaining about why Theodore wasn't fighting while Pearl healed him. Dudes, this isn't a game, you know? This is reality. It's not like a game where your character or avatar automatically and immediately heals when a healer casts a recovery spell on you, and you can continue fighting. Healing spells required a lot of time. Even the best ones, performed by the renowned Teacher Mary Cure, took hours to completely restore a patient to full health. Why do you think I spend hours in the infirmary? It wasn't because Teacher Cure was a lousy healer. It was simply that even the best healing spells require that much time to restore a patient to his best.
Perspiration poured down Pearl's face as she cast her healing spells. I stood over her, with my bow drawn, to ensure no monster attacked her while she was in the process of healing. This was basically the mage version of a field medic treating a downed soldier in a battlefield, with bullets whizzing over your head even as you struggled to perform emergency first aid under tremendous pressure. I couldn't imagine what sort of weight Pearl was currently shouldering.
I could try and share it by helping to end the battle as quickly as possible, but I was currently casting a big spell of my own. Fortunately, Dong Fang Yue Chu and Craig were distracting the monster for now.
"This bastard is so tough!" Craig growled as his spear was deflected off his armored exoskeleton. Flames billowed out, causing the agile fighter to quickly dash away before he got burned badly like Theodore. From a short distance, he threw his spear, which pierced through the Crimson Spider King like a drill.
KREEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The Crimson Spider King wailed loudly as Craig's spear penetrated his armored carapace and exited through the other way. Despite the grievous injury, he seemed more incensed than before than dying. Snarling with his mandibles, the Crimson Spider King batted away Dong Fang Yue Chu, who was still pounding him with his fists, and spun toward Craig, who had just retrieved his demonic spear.
His mandibles yawned and a torrent of flames rushed headlong toward Craig. Despite his speed, even the spearman was barely able to escape. Dashing through the forest, he came away a little scorched.
"Kuh!"
Around him, the forest burned. The flames were so thorough and hot they literally incinerated the surroundings to the point where there was nothing but ash and soot left. Thanks to that, there wasn't a forest fire. The flames died away before they could spread, leaving nothing but blackened soil and gray ash behind.
"This bastard is really tough!" Craig cursed, coughing as he stumbled out of the flames. Pearl rose to her feet to run toward his position, but the Crimson Spear Society president held out a hand to stop her. "I'm fine. Just a little singed. I can still continue fighting."
"Same here!" Dong Fang Yue Chu called out as he continued to pummel the Crimson Spider King, only for the latter to retaliated with a swing of a few of his blade-like legs. Dong Fang Yue Chu managed to deflect them away before he could be cut into pieces, but the momentum behind the monster's assault sent him skidding a way. "We're chipping away at him bit by bit. Just a few more attacks and we'll bring him down!"
"That's not need for that." I had finally finish casting my spell. My Rigel arrow was already notched to my Orion bow and I was taking aim and steadying my arms in the manner Dad taught me. "The both of you, get clear!"
Dong Fang Yue Chu's eyes widened when he saw my glowing arrow, and he dove to the side, scrambling to get as far away as he could. The Crimson Spider King mistook his retreat for cowardice, and launched a torrent of flames at what he thought was fleeing prey. Dong Fang Yue Chu dodged that, even though he probably could withstand the heat because of his affinity with fire.
Better safe than sorry, after all.
The flames washed over the clearing, scorching the earth, but the Crimson Spider King was so occupied with incinerating Dong Fang Yue Chu (never mind he was failing to do so because of elemental affinity) that he didn't notice that I had him in my sights.
Rigel streaked forward like a comet and slammed into the Crimson Spider King, detonating like a nuke. The entire surroundings, already razed by the Crimson King Spider's flames, was obliterated. My shot had carved a scorched crater into the earth and left little remains but ash and pieces of shredded exoskeleton.
"Whoa." Craig shook his head as he watched the devastation, then glanced at me. "You're as crazy as ever."
"Isn't that overkill?" Dong Fang Yue Chu asked with a scowl. He had been the closest to the site of explosion, and now looked pretty…comical, covered in singed mud and blackened soil. I lowered my head in apology.
"Our opponent was a rank C monster, an Elemental-class. I'm not taking any chances."
"I agree." Pearl nodded in agreement when she heard my statement. She had continued tending to the severely injured Theodore after checking up on Craig. Fortunately, Craig only suffered light burns, and a simple healing spell was enough to rejuvenate him. "Better safe than sorry."
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one fighting on the frontlines." Craig snorted. Pearl shrugged.
"Even if I was, I still would have asked Richard to nuke the Crimson Spider King. You know how powerful those rank C monsters are."
"Yeah, we just received a taste." Dong Fang Yue Chu grimaced. "If Richard hadn't blown him up, we would have taken quite a while to fight that thing."
"Hey, the only reason why I was able to nuke him was because you guys bought me enough time to finish casting my spell," I pointed out. One did not simply conjure Rigel on the spot and fire it off immediately, after all. Otherwise it would be too overpowered. The casting time for Rigel was relatively long.
"Not a problem." Craig leaned on his spear as he hobbled back toward us. He glanced at Pearl. "But this battle had better be worth it. Tell me you still have the mission token."
"Yup." After finishing up her healing spell, Pearl retrieved the mission token and displayed it for all of us to see. "We've accomplished the mission. If Instructor Feng Hai was telling the truth during the briefing, then a military team will come to pick us up momentarily."
"I thought we were supposed to navigate our way out of the forest?" I asked, puzzled by the sudden change in plans.
"Yeah, we still have to go and meet them." Pearl checked her smartphone. "The closest meeting point should be that way…a couple of kilometers southwest of where we are. If we don't run into any other monsters, then we should reach there in three hours."
"That long?" Craig asked.
I rolled my eyes. The guy had forgotten that traversing through a dense forest inhabited by monsters would take up a significant amount of time. Much more than if you were going through a straight, empty road. Even with a compass and a holographic map to lead us, navigating through the thick cluster of trees and vegetation was difficult.
We had already experienced that over the last few days, but Craig evidently forgot all about the ordeals we went through. Or perhaps he just didn't want to remember them. I also wasn't very enthusiastic about recalling what we suffered.
Taking a deep breath, I forced a smile. Positive thinking. That was what was important right now. I couldn't afford to lower the morale of our group by complaining. Especially since we should be elated after slaying such a formidable rank C opponent, we should capitalize on that lift in morale and make haste for the endpoint.
"Well, let's go," I suggested, and then glanced at Theodore, who was stirring and staggering to his feet. He wasn't completely healed, but he had recovered just enough to walk. It was unfortunate, but we couldn't afford to sit around and wait for his injuries to fully recover. "Let's get the hell out of this goddamned forest."