The pain around his waist grew stronger with each passing second. The feelers that caught him were trying to crush his ribs in. He forced himself to take shallow breaths as he desperately tried to reach the hilt of his tachi. The tips of his fingers could just barely touch it.
Being suspended upside down like this, he couldn't do anything. Blood rushed to his face as the grip of the monster tightened.
"Hold on!" Persephone's voice sounded. He barely heard her from all the screeching and roaring of the monster. She ran towards him, ignoring the feelers attempting to catch her. Her mana formed at the tip of her blade as she leapt up into the air. With a swift, smooth strike she cut the feelers holding on to the young man. He fell on the monsters back and rolled to lessen the blow.
The noble girl landed right beside him. "Thanks," He said, once again grabbing the hilt of his tachi. The long, slightly curved blade was still stuck in the monster. "Cover me, it's almost done."
She nodded as her mana formed a fairly powerful barrier around them. While hers was much stronger than that of princess Iris, it didn't seem to provide them with clean air. He could still smell the intoxicating sweetness.
"Hurry!" She shouted as feelers struck her barrier, causing small cracks to appear.
Ren gritted his teeth and pushed the tachi his all his might. As it slowly cut through the protective layers of the monster, the creature screeched. Black smoke started to rise from beneath the layers of root and hardened resin.
"Ren!" Princess Iris shouted as the monster tried to shake them off its back. Ren tightly held on to the tachi and twisted it as much as he could. "Persephone, burn it!" He shouted. The young noble held on to his shoulder for balance as flames burst from the tip of her sword. They followed the tachi's blade, finally reaching the monster's core.
It screeched and wailed desperately trying to shake them off. The black smoke grew thicker as both Ren and Persephone jumped off the creature's back. Soon, the creature fell on the ground as the flames slowly consumed it.
"Sis!" Ophelia ran up to Persephone. "Are you alright? Do you have any wounds?" She asked in a panic, looking all over her sister's body. Persephone smiled and shook her head as she tried to calm her sister down.
"You got hurt." Princess Iris' voice sounded. Ren flinched; his waist did hurt, though he didn't think he had any cracked ribs.
"I'll be fine in a bit." He said, glancing at the corpse. "I didn't get wounded." A wind blew the smoke towards him. He coughed and looked away. His mind was still fuzzy.
"Are you fit to fight?" She asked.
"I am." He said, slowly approaching the corpse. "I'll remove the core." He fixed the cloth covering mouth and nose and knelt beside the massive body of the monster. Using his tachi to chop a way through the defensive layers, he slowly made his way to the core of the monster.
Princess Iris doused the waves for him as he finally reached the actual body of the creature. Not much was left of it – just a bunch of burnt wood-like lumps and a shining green crystal. He carefully reached inside the creature's body and grasped the core. It was cool, he could see the wildmagic inside it.
"It's a big one." Princess Iris commented as he crawled out of the corpse. Ren nodded as all four of them looked at the green crystal. It was about as large as its palm.
"This shouldn't have been here." Persephone said after a moment of silence. "They should have purged anything nearly as powerful as this." She glanced around. "Is it safe to continue?" She asked.
"We'll be fine." Ophelia said, sheathing her sword. "We have Princess Iris with us," She glanced at Ren. "And he's pretty good with that sword, I have to admit."
"We need to be careful." Ren said, glancing at the princess. "Your highness, if something like this happens again, I will not hesitate to send a flare."
"You will not send a flare unless I tell you to." Princess Iris said, glaring at him. "We will move carefully and deliberately, am I clear?"
Ren didn't avert his gaze. "If any one of our life is at risk, I will send a flare."
"Even if I order you not to?" She asked with a cold voice. Ren nodded. "Your order can not overrule that of the Prince's."
They glared at each other for a short while. Then, Princess Iris sighed. "Fine." She said, clearly annoyed.
"Should we get going?" Persephone asked hesitantly. "It's past midnight."
Princess Iris nodded. "Ren, how many cores do we have?"
Ren took the four smaller cores from his pocket. "Five." He hesitated. "I shouldn't be the one carrying them. I move around too much – would you mind?"
"I'll carry them." Persephone took the cores from him and placed them in a pouch hanging from her belt.
"Let's be on our way." Princess Iris said. "Ren, we're counting on you to spot anything weird."
The young man nodded, and they set off again. "We still need fifteen more cores." Princess Iris quietly said as they passed through the greenery.
Ren didn't pay much attention her words as they walked. The weird ringing sound had returned. He had never heard mana before – was this something unique to wildmagic? If it was, did it mean there was a source of wildmagic nearby? Was he supposed to expect more creatures to show up?
As his gaze scoured their surroundings, he noticed something.
"Princess, mask your mana!" He said with a whisper.
He couldn't quite see them, but he could sense a lot of small sources of wildmagic ahead. "There are creatures – I think – and they're not as weak as the crawlers we just killed."
Silence followed his words. Princess Iris took a deep breath. "How many?" She asked.
"I can feel eight of them." Ren replied. "But there could be more."
A smile appeared on princess Iris' lips.
"Let's go!"