Iris couldn't help but be shocked by what she saw before her, it was completely different from what she had expected. This kid that saved her was at least 5 years younger than her yet he didn't hesitate to jump in and hold off two 2nd stage monsters at the same time. This of course wouldn't have been possible if she didn't seriously injure them but it was still an incredible feat and something most humans would never do, because of their fear of death.
Despite how astonishing the fight looked to Iris it was still clear that Druak couldn't hold out for long. Instantly after Druak had saved Iris he realised that he hadn't planned anything other than telling Isaac to prepare a powerful attack to distract the monsters. This meant Druak had to improvise everything he did, which was something most people would never do against two 2nd stage monsters.
As Druak dashed in he summoned his ice mist, stopping the vision of the gorillas. As he did so he began to compress as much ice magic as possible as quickly as he could and when he was only a few feet away from the gorilla he blasted it straight toward one of the gorillas.
The ball of ice collided with the gorilla forming a layer of ice where it landed, the only problem was that the gorilla seemed to see exactly where Druak was and was able to use its arm to block the ice from hitting anywhere vital. Luckily the damage was more than enough to cause the gorilla to fumble backwards and gave Druak a chance to gain some distance.
As he dashed backwards Druak dispelled his ice mist spell as he realised that it wasn't nearly effective enough against these two gorillas that probably had enhanced vision which allowed them to see through the mist.
Druak knew he had no time to think and started to dash around using his ice bolts to slow the gorillas as much as possible and whenever they went in for a strike he would use his mana and ice blast to strike their eyes, interrupting their attacks. This was something Druak thought of as he fought and it seemed to be working rather well until suddenly it didn't, and Druak was far too slow to notice this.
*Swoosh*
The gigantic arm of one of the gorillas came thundering down towards Druak. Using the same tactic as before Druak launched an ice and mana bolt at the gorilla's eyes. Shards of ice flew everywhere.
"Lucky I interrupted that or id be…" The mist dispersed revealing the giant arm of the gorilla that was still thundering towards Druaks head. The second gorilla had intercepted the spell Druak cast and allowed the first gorilla to continue its assault.
*Clang*
The sound of two solid objects hitting resounded in Druak's ears. Iris leapt forward after seeing Druak's bravery, managing to save him by deflecting the gorilla's arm in a different direction.
"What are you doing. If you want to save someone you should at least be able to save yourself, you idiot." Despite the annoyed tone of her voice a smile grew on Iris's face as she spoke.
Isaac shouted at the top of his lungs. "IT'S READY!!! MOVE!!!"
Both Iris and Druak dashed as fast as possible to the side, as a devastating tsunami of flames flew past them and towards the gorillas.
*Bang*
The sound of something hitting the group resounded around them as an earthquake like feeling travelled through the ground.
Looking towards Iris Druak said. "We need to hide until you heal. Let's get out of here while they're distracted."
She nodded her head, realising what Druak meant. All three of them sprinted deeper into the mount in unison.
The place they had been fighting in was covered in debris and had boulders, ice, and fire scattered everywhere. A giant boulder began to fall revealing the enraged expression of two gorillas that were covered in burns and cuts and generally looked as if they were going to die any moment. Despite their physical look, their eyes showed something completely different, a rage that could not be satiated till those three humans died.
The gorilla hit by Druaks giant ice blast grabbed hold of the ice that was attached to its arm and tore the ice straight off, causing blood to spray out of its arm as the blood fell a sizzling sound and smoke could be heard and seen from the places it landed.
After a few seconds, the blood stopped spraying out and both gorilla's wounds began to heal. This was a special ability these kinds of gorillas learned after constantly fighting within the mountain. The ability was called [Soul Drain Regeneration] and it would heal their wounds at the cost of becoming incredibly weak after 24 hours after the use of the ability.
This gave the gorillas 24 hours to hunt Druak party down and go into hiding till they recovered and due to the vengeful personality of these kinds of gorillas, they were more than willing to take that kind of gamble for revenge.
After finally healing back up both of them began to sniff around and after a few seconds began bulldozing threw the forest in the same direction the three humans they had fought went.
*Huff*
*Huff*
*Huff*
All three of them were panting hysterically as they ran away as fast as they could from the gorillas.
"I think we've lost them… We should be safe for now." Isaac muttered as he tried to catch his breath.
"No, we have to find some aged sting weed, and quickly. It's a white and green vine that grows near the trees so it shouldn't be too hard to find." Druak said as he began scrounging around, seemingly trying to find what he had just spoken about.
Isaac didn't even ask why he needed to look for the aged sting weed and simply began searching for it around the trees. Iris on the other hand wasn't nearly as cooperative, especially since being betrayed had made her a much less trusting person.
Before the gorillas arrived
"Guess it's about time for me to go and wake up Tiran." Iris said as she began to approach her companion's tent, but when she entered there was no one inside and a hole seemed to be cut in the back of the tent.
After realising her companion was missing she began looking around before turning to the armoured nobles' tent. "He wouldn't." She muttered as she approached the noble's tent, which was in the exact same state as the healers.
"Damn it. Those as*holes are working for them."
Not long after she realised what had happened both the noble and Tiran had appeared from the forest and following them were two giant great arm gorillas, which seemed to be in a state of rage due to something which the two of them had done.
Passing through Iris they chuckled as the noble yelled. "Ha ha ha. That's what you get for not working for the yellow claw syndicate and messing with our business."
Hearing those words confirmed her suspicions but for now, she had to deal with these two gorillas and shouldn't even think about revenge until she gets out of the situation she was currently in.
Back to present
After listening to Druak's fearful tone Iris knew that there must be an important reason they needed the aged sting weed but she couldn't get two things out of her head. 'Can I trust him. And why did he save me. I felt the mana that he released and it couldnt be past the first stage yet he still risked his life. Why.'
Druak looked towards Iris who was doing nothing and seemed to be spacing out. Knowing they didn't have much time he shouted. "What are you doing!!! We need to be quick before those poisonous great arm gorillas find us."
It seemed to work as Iris quickly snapped out of her trance-like state, even if she didn't trust them she knew that if she didn't act it would only lead to death. "I guess I'll have to trust these two a little bit for now." She muttered as she began helping in the search for the aged sting weed.
The forest was covered in wildlife despite it being a mountain, this was both good for Druak and bad. The good thing was this meant there were a lot of plants that could be incredibly valuable, the bad thing however was that right now it made it incredibly difficult to find what he was after.
Luck was on their side, as Iris shouted. "Over here. I think I've found some."
Druak rushed over a smile appearing on his face as he saw what Iris had been speaking about. "Yes!!! This is it. We need to spread it over our body as quickly as possible."
Both Isaac and Iris looked at Druak and in unison said. "WHAT!"