Hunters were not all equal. Seneos for example was at the lowest rank possible and was nothing more than an ant. The hunters he had entered the dungeon with though, were strong.
They didn't stand at the pinnacle, but they could put up a more decent fight than Seneos with his barely above average abilities and his dagger.
He believed those people could easily overpower anything they encountered. Oh, how naive he had been. They did not stand at the pinnacle, hence there was something beyond them, something beyond what Seneos could imagine.
The power shown by the tank, the speed of the Team Leader, the raging fire that was the fiery mage Hojosa. They were forces of nature to Seneos. His world view shattered as said fire mage faced the gigantic beast that had appeared in the room. Or rather the beast that had uncovered itself given that it was already in the room with them.
Hojosa shot a string of fireballs directly at the beast's throat, but his smile was wiped off his face as an enormous hand encompassed his entire body and sent him flying straight to the ceiling. He had been swatted away like a fly.
Meanwhile, the other members of the team were able to shake away the terrifying feeling that had washed over them. They all instantly snapped into positions. The healers all pointed their staves at Hojosa who was sticking out of the ceiling like some sort of splinter.
The shadow mage crossed her fingers and chanted something as a small dark purple cloud appeared over her head. She spoke to it as though it was alive.
"Hit and Run." As soon as those words left her mouth, the cloud expanded and flew towards the legs of the giant beast. One could imagine that something as small as that cloud couldn't do much damage to such a huge monster. However, as soon as it got close enough to the legs, several dark tendrils lashed out on them and produced many cuts.
"You really believe this will do serious damage to this damn serpent-human-moose thing ?! " The distressed healer exclaimed as he poured all of his energy onto the fiery mage.
A faint blue current of energy had appeared and had surrounded the body of the fiery mage who was trying to slip away from the stones that made up the ceiling. The monster's previous destruction of the ceiling didn't help since he had caused the less resistant rocks to fall down while the hardest ones remained. Hojosa was of course encased in those stones.
The shadow mage went back to her teammates and touched each of their backs successively. A dark aura spread over them, strengthening them, and they all braced themselves as they continued to heal Hojosa. Meanwhile, the tank had already run towards the monster and was trying to dodge his attacks. It's immense hands could crush him at any second if his reflexes didn't follow. He wasn't even a tank at the moment, just a hunter analyzing the rhythm of the attacks and moving his body in accordance. The mere pressure released by the blows was enough to send him tumbling back a bit each time, and he was starting to doubt his ability to continue on.
"One of you guys, be prepared to heal me ! I can't tank that damn thing ! I need to dodge constantly and he is going to break my body in one go if he hits me, I can feel it !" The tank's desperate plea for help sent shivers down their spines. The tank was the pillar of the team, they needed to be able to leave everything to him. If he was going down with only one attack, the situation was devoid of any hope.
"Hojosa, you moron ! Get out of here quickly!" The party leader screamed.
Looking up, Seneos saw the only part of Hojosa sticking out, his left leg, burning. A pillar of fire so tall it nearly reached the floor appeared. It went down and then up, and it repeated that process multiple times. The pillar grew in size every time it went back and forth and finally, it shoot up towards the ceiling.
Seneos immediately shielded his eyes as a blinding light covered the entirety of said ceiling.
'Damn it ! I knew he was strong, but this is just ridiculous. He has to be at least a rank over those guys.' Seneos couldn't help but think as Hojosa hit the ground. The rubbles produced by his escape showered him, but only for a few seconds.
The monster stopped trying to grab the tank and looked at Hojosa. The unnerving thing about that monster was it's complete lack of expressions, it was like a robot to the hunters.
But contrarily to the tank who trembled at the sight of that big unexpressive face, hojosa merely glared at the monster while lifting his arm.
A fiery beam bigger than the monster's head was fired and reduced the rubbles to ashes. The light produced by the fire cast a shadow over Hojosa, but his eyes still shone. They were the same fiery orange as the monster's own burning orbs. Plumes of smoke once again escaped his mouth as he took a huge intake of air.
"Porter ! Give me some potions !" Hojosa roared at Seneos who winced. He couldn't see the mage's expression, but he could hear how pissed off the man was. Or perhaps he wasn't angry, perhaps he was simply excited beyond measures. No one could tell, but himself.
Seneos grabbed his haversack and searched through the potion whilst the monster made his way towards Hojosa. He was slow, slower than when he had been attacking the tank. This was something the leader of the team remarked.
"Why is it walking so slowly ? Is it giving Hojosa and the porter some time ?" The man wondered, his azure eyes moving frantically between his fiery subordinate and the abomination that was stalking towards him. Even though it's face held no emotions, he just knew it was having fun. Perhaps it was unable to express it's feelings, but all of the hunters knew it would have had a sickening smile if it could.
As the fire produced by Hojosa disappeared, the mage caught the potions Seneos threw at him and drank them one at a time. Once he was finished, he wiped off some remains of the blue and purple liquids from his lips and caressed his long red hair with his hand. Small wisps of fire crackled all around his body, sparks of his red aura flashing every now and then due to his emotional state.
"I am not going to let you attack first this time." The mage tried to keep his emotions in check, but the trembling of his pupils and his clenched burning fists didn't lie. " This time, I won't fuck around like a moron, I'm going all out at once."
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