Upon reaching a close enough distance, Ignis and Ethyn were able to observe the situation. They witnessed a group of individuals engaging in a fierce battle against a massive creature, with Ignis utilizing his appraisal skills to gather information about the creature.
Ignis was able to perceive that this creature was somewhat similar to the one he encountered in his previous life. However, he was unable to discern what made this creature different from the previous one, though he felt that both creatures were the same.
And it was at that moment that he completed his appraisal of the creature.
His heart started to race at an uneven pace, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"What the..."
There was no fear written on his face; rather, it was a look of confusion.
When Ethyn saw his reaction, she asked what was wrong with him.
He unconsciously answered the question.
"It's a gold-ranked monster, and level 10 at that."
Upon completion of his sentence, Ethyn reacted with an audible gasp of surprise. The reason for her astonishment was the revelation that they had been searching for monsters for the past four days, above bronze rank, yet had not yet encountered a silver-ranked monster. Instead, they had directly encountered a monster of gold rank.
Ethyn, who had realised how much experience they could gain by defeating this gold-ranked creature, spoke in an excited and somewhat longing tone. "Why don't we help them and share experience and loot ?"
Ignis, who still couldn't believe his eyes and checked the creature again and still found it to be of gold rank, was starting to doubt his memory.
'Wasn't this guardian of the silver rank last time when we all fought ?'
'Is my memory wrong...'
As he was thinking about how wrong his memory was, he heard Ethyn's question.
He could see the greed in her eyes—greed for experience and loot.
He sighed internally and replied to her question.
"Those four are doing a pretty good job till now, but they still won't be able to defeat that monster. Do you really want to jump into this mess ?"
"Won't we win if we help them?"
Upon hearing the reply to his question, which was clearly not an answer at all but instead yet another question, he let out another sigh. But before he could continue speaking, Ethyn interrupted him in an urgent tone.
"Look! look! "That monster is using some sort of skill."
As soon as Ignis caught a glimpse of the guardian monster, he knew something was off. The creature was using the exact same skill it had used before, which only served to confirm his suspicions about it.
'It's the same guardian, and this skill was what made us run, tugging our tails between our legs last time, but now its rank has risen'. Igis was sure he was right; his instincts were telling him so.
A very Ignis-type smile appeared on his face, and soon he made the decision,' Even if its rank has risen, it's not like I'm also the same person who knew nothing about fighting.'
Ignis rose to his feet, his voice resonating as he declared, "Let it on and kick it peaches and win, there is not a shred of doubt in my mind."
Listening to him, Ethyn also stood up in the excitement and said while giggling, "Its right leg is injured, and if we attack that, hehe "
They both started moving to get even closer, and soon they reached a distance from which Ethyn could shoot her arrows perfectly.
"Use your [Precision Scream] skill first on its back, and then I'll strike." As Ignis said this, he started rushing towards the back of the guardian.
He could see the ripping of the earth moving towards the group, and that strange energy that the guardian used was also nothing new to Ignis as he had already used it in his previous life.
Similar to mana but still different, it was an aura, but what elemental it was he still couldn't determine.
He swiftly made the hand gesture, and in no time, an arrow was shot towards the back of the guardian, unbeknownst to it. Just as the arrow was about to hit its target, another skill was utilised, and this time an iron ball that resembled a small ball of lava was launched towards the leg of the guardian.
The group of individuals, who were waiting for their impending doom, saw a miniature sun hurtling towards the guardian's leg. They also saw the earth was ripped apart and just a second away from them. However, before it could happen, they heard a deafening noise.
BOOM!
The arrow shot struck the guardian, and when the skill [Precision Scream] took effect, the guardian's defence was rendered useless for two seconds. At the same time, a lava ball struck the guardian's leg, releasing concentrated lava.
BOOM!
The guardian did not anticipate any attack and was consequently caught off guard, resulting in a heavy toll. The flow of its aura was disrupted, and the ripping earth came to a halt only a few millimetres from the group. In addition, the guardian's leg began to break down.
It peered down towards its broken leg, and then a ball made of iron that was attached to chains was retrieved from its broken leg. After that, it turned its head to face the person responsible for this.
The guardian could see that the individual responsible for the situation had a smirk on their face. The smirk seemed to be an expression of ridicule and provocation towards it. However, before any action could be taken against the taunting individual, an intense wave of pain rushed over the guardian like a tide.
A shrill and piercing noise erupted from the guardian's mouth, causing those around it to cover their ears in discomfort.
Ignis covered his ears and cursed this guardian in his mind: 'Eh! How the fuck can it scream like that?'
'It'll fucking make my ears bleed.'
'I think the mental damage took effect, eh?'
Both Ethyn and Ignis knew the cause of the scream as they had experienced it the past few days, They were both happy and somewhat irritated due to the noise it was making, as this was the first time anyone could withstand the mental damage and stay alive.
However, even though the guardian's HP was less than a thousand, the combo attack from Ignis and Ethyn was powerful enough to take almost three thousand HP from the guardian.
The guardian, who was incapable of enduring the damage to its leg and the mental agony that followed, began to stumble, but by clutching the sword, it managed to maintain its balance. However, this was all in vain, as the agony persisted and could not find any relief.
It ceased its vocal outburst and started to restore its equilibrium, while tiny particles of grime and detritus filled the atmosphere.
Seeing this, Ignis started to laugh like a madman and rushed straight towards the kneeling guardian while shouting at the group.
"Hey, you guys!"
The group, still in a state of confusion, turned their gaze towards the voice, and their eyes seemed to say, 'Are you talking to us?'
Seeing this while running, he called out again
"Yes, you guys of the sexy lady team, come on, let's kick this peach together."
Hearing this, the group woke from their stupor and looked towards the sexy lady that the running manic was pointing to: Kate.
Kate, who also woke from her stupor, not minding the running guys words, looked towards the group, and her gaze landed on Zen. As if to understand what Kate wanted to know, Zen replied quickly.
"17 seconds."
Hearing Zen's reply, Kate nodded and told the group, "Its HP is significantly down; let's go; there's no time to die."
Upon hearing the spoken words, the entire group was left feeling a deep sense of embarrassment. Had it not been for the timely intervention of the individual in question, the group would have been doomed to a most certain demise. They were struck with a complete lack of knowledge and understanding, leaving their minds in a state of total and utter emptiness, as though they had fully accepted their fate.
The individual who was most agitated by those particular utterances was Kate, herself; how could she not be? It was her personal decision to engage in battle with this creature. It was she, whom the rest of the group followed. It is her fault that she was not able to deliver on her promise.
Due to all of the reasons she had failed to deliver, she made the conscious decision not to run away from the situation. Instead, she was fully prepared to confront the challenge once this fight had ended. Therefore, her first order of business was to eliminate the guardian in question.
She also had to thank that guy who just saved them, but this also made her vigilant because the guy was more powerful than her group, and if he decided to harm them, they would be in danger again.
'No, focus. He just helped us; let's have faith.'
Removing all the distracting thoughts from her mind, she and her group rushed towards the group.
No one had discovered an archer who was pouting her mouth so that she could not insta kill the guardian, but her eyes were shining as she thought about the loot from the gold-ranked guardian.
As Ignis beheld the group that had just encountered death, and had now started running towards the guardian, he was somewhat surprised. He thought to himself that they were not entirely useless, but rather a bit weak.
The guardian, who was still in excruciating pain from the loss of its leg and the pain that seemed to come from its very soul, was having a difficult time staying upright and conscious.
The pain of a destroyed leg was still tolerable; however, the mental agony was unbearable; it was like being ripped from within.
It wasn't able to notice the group and a lunatic running towards it, and that was coming to end its life.
When Ignis approached the guardian, who was standing about 6 meters away, he began to twirl his kusarigama weapon in a vertical motion. He then proceeded to strike the guardian with three consecutive attacks. The next attack was accompanied by a flash of vertical arc, which caused three times more damage than the previous attacks. However, before Ignis could land the final blow, something unexpected happened.
He gazed upon the sexy lady, who was making her way by stepping on a number of small shields and jumping towards the guardian.
A guardian did not respond to the damage done or its imminent death, as if it was not cognizant of the harm or had already prepared for its end.
A sword covered in a lethal greyish-orange flame struck the guardian.
BOOM
A deafening explosion ensued, and soon the HP of the guardian reached zero.
The guardian's body started crumbling and converting into rocks, which fell to the ground.
Kate and the group looked at each other; happiness, tiredness, and excitement were written all over their faces.
"Sis, you did it!" Hannah ran towards Kate and hugged her.
Kate was also happy that they did it and said, "Not me alone; we all did together."
Hearing those, everyone was giggling that they even forgot to look for the notification, or did it even come as they 'killed' the guardian?
Ethyn ran towards Ignis excitedly and asked, "Let's go and meet them and ask what they got from the kill and ask for compensation."
As Ethyn was about to leave, Ignis said, "I think something's not right; if we had assisted in killing it, we too would have gotten the notification, but we didn't."
"They look happy; it might be that they got it." Ethyn said so in a somewhat less excited tone as she noticed the anomaly.
Ignis and Ethyn then walked towards the celebrating group.
Seeing two people coming towards them, the group became serious, as earlier they thought that there was only one person.
As they got closer, Kate was the first to speak in her angelic voice. "Thank you for saving us..."
But before she could continue on anything or introduce herself, Igniss interrupted her.
"You are welcome, did you guys get the notification for killing the guardian?"
The moment the group heard this, a surprised voice said, "Sheeet, there's no notification; is Tower's messaging system laggy?"
Hearing this remark, Ignis frowned and looked around. The whole area was destroyed and showed signs of intense battle, but when he looked towards the guardian's crumbled body, he could see that some parts were missing.
The moment he saw this, a sudden realisation dawned on him, and he yelled, "RUUNN!"
"DAMMN IT!"
"RUUNNN!"