"Hey don't pay too much attention to me. There's still another Metal Monkey."
Startled, Hiromi turned back to the monkey she thought she killed and her eyes widened in disbelief.
'It's still alive.'
The injured monkey was less than 5 metres away from the distracted Hiromi who quickly backed away while nocking 2 more arrows.
*twang!*
She shot the arrows at the monkey once again. Due to its already limited mobility, the monkey was unable to dodge the arrows that easily pierced its neck and heart.
"Phew…thanks for the warning Vasari. I let my guard down."
"Don't let it happen again. I can't be left blind in a place like this." Vasari said while flicking the small forehead of Hiromi.
"Let's go deeper."
"Vasari wait…what about the corpses of these metal monkeys. They could fetch a decent sum of gold coins if we sell it."
"If that's what you want to do, I'll wait."
Hiromi thanked Vasari before storing the corpses of the 3 metal monkeys in her storage bag. She would store more but most of the monkeys had their bodies exploded into tiny bits and she only had so much space available in her storage bag.
"Okay, we can leave."
Vasari nodded and stood up from the rock he was seated on. The tall handsome man and the short petite beauty traversed the treacherous mountain range together, side by side.
They faced many beasts together, some were just adolescent-stage beasts while many were adult-stage beasts, however, they were yet to come across a beta-stage beast.
"Why don't we find a place to rest for a while," Vasari suggested, he could hear the exhausted and uneven breathing of the girl walking next to him.
"Sorry…"
Vasari patted her head before bending down in front of her. "There's no need to apologise. We've been fighting almost nonstop for a few hours now so it's natural to be tired. Come climb on my back I'll carry you for a while."
Hiromi wanted to argue that she was fine to walk further but decided to act on her womanly instincts and jump on the handsome man's back. Hiromi wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
'This brings back some memories' Thinking this, his thoughts drifted to the blonde haired feisty young lady and what she could be doing right now. He could only hope she wasn't causing too much trouble.
"There are a few caves at the base of this mountain, we can rest there. It will be nighttime in less than 30 minutes so we should hurry."
"Aye aye, captain."
The superior Qi inside Vasari's body started rapidly churning as he performed his movement technique.
'Eagle soaring river and sea.'
It was the first time Vasari used a technique since breaking through to the Superior Qi stage and from his rough estimation he was moving at least double the speed of what he could previously when using his movement technique.
The poor girl on his back got the fright of her life when he started moving at rapid speeds. Her black hair flapped wildly behind her and she subconsciously closed her eyes and tightened her grip around Vasari.
As if gliding slightly above the ground, Vasari quickly made his way to the base of the first mountain they were currently on when suddenly…
HREE!!
Vasari instinctively tilted his head up and Hiromi's eyes shot open and looked up to see a huge creature casting a dark shadow over them as it flew over them. Hiromi saw the contempt in the creature's eyes when it saw her before not giving them another glance. Hiromi's gaze followed the creature with trembling pupils until it disappeared behind one of the many mountains.
"Va…Vasari I think…we should go back."
He could feel her body trembling in fear and hear the quivering of her voice.
"What type of beast was it? It seemed pretty strong."
"It was a Black Firedrake. Records say that it is a late rank Beta stage beast, but that was last recorded 50 years ago."
"What else can you tell me about this Drake?"
Hiromi had a bad feeling after he asked this question. "You…you're not thinking what I think you're thinking right…right?"
"If you are thinking that I would like to fight against this Drake, then you would be correct-ow ow ow why are you biting me?!"
"Because you are crazy. How are you going to fight a beast that not even 3 peak Nebula realm cultivators working together would struggle to survive against it, never mind actually fight it on even terms."
"I don't expect to kill it, maybe just exchange a few moves before running-ow ow ow stop biting me! Okay, I won't fight it but you still have to tell me about it once we find a cave for the night."
After spending 10 mins looking for a suitable cave and evicting the previous owners, the two made themselves comfortable. Hiromi made a small fire and watched with unconcealed interest as Vasari cooked the adult stage goat they killed earlier in the day.
"So…about that drake. Tell me more." Vasari's deep voice echoed throughout the small cave, not at all worried about attracting attention from any beasts lurking outside.
"Sigh…there's not a lot known about the Black Firedrake except that it's able to release a devastating attack, spewing black fire from its mouth with the destructive power to decimate a small hill instantly. Not only that, but its fire contains eroding properties. Its physical strength and defence is also no joke, their scales are said to be practically impenetrable."
"Sounds like a nice punching bag, hahaha…sorry."
"…with that being said, it's not an aggressive beast and would much rather sleep in its hideout than pick a fight."
"Here, eat this and go to sleep. You sound tired, so I'll take the first watch." Vasari gave Hiromi a plate of cooked meat, some vegetables and fruit she picked while they were hiking.
"Thank you, Vasari."
"Anything for my cute guide."
Hiromi felt a bubbly sensation in her chest after hearing his words and to stop herself from doing anything that might ruin her new friendship, she stuffed her face with food.
–––––
A week passed and Vasari along with Hiromi managed to cross 3 of the 16 mountains in the Draynora mountain range.
As time passed Vasari was getting more and more frustrated.
"Why can't we find a beta-stage beast? It's been a week already and we searched 3 mountains top to bottom yet found nothing."
It was not often you would hear Vasari complain about something and normally he would consider himself a patient and reasonable person but he was itching to get into a real fight to the death.
"Hehehe"
"Why are you giggling like that?"
"Because when you get annoyed you look cute…and your grip on my thighs tightens. Do you like it that much?"
Hiromi teased and whispered her last sentence into his ear.
After spending a week fighting, sleeping and spending every minute of every day together, the duo got much closer to each other. It was not for no reason that the phrase 'True friends are formed on the battlefield' was so widely spoken.
"Hmm it's decent but I've felt better."
"Who's? Your 'girlfriend' Witney that you mentioned before. Although I'm not the thickest girl out there I'm very proud of my smooth skin."
If Vasari could, he definitely would be rolling his eyes. Throughout the week he learnt that Hiromi was quite the narcissist although she would never openly admit it.
"Shit!" Vasari suddenly cursed before throwing Hiromi off his back and crossing his arms in front of his body.
*BAM!*
Vasari felt like he just got hit by a mountain and went flying 20 metres back before regaining his balance.
"VASARI BEHIND YOU!"
He heard Hiromi's desperate screams and unhesitatingly turned around before punching with every ounce of his strength while simultaneously performing the Art of Sun and Moon to boost his strength even further.
His fist crashed into what felt like a solid wall that wouldn't budge an inch.
*Twang!*
The once foreign, now familiar sound of the Yumi bow being shot sounded from his side. Unfortunately, Hiromi's arrows proved ineffective against this beast as it just bounced off its skin.
Vasari quickly backed away from the beast and moved in front of Hiromi.
"What type of beast is this thing?!" He asked before a grim smile formed on Hiromi's dusty face.
"Your wish has come true. It's a Rock Orc, an early rank Beta-stage beast."