Krrrr, krrrr….
The stones rolled on the ground under the monster's feet. It pushed and pulled the stones over and over, and licked itself every now and then. It was, without a doubt, a cat.
A cat with a leopard-like pattern across its fur.
Jin had never heard of a monster that looked like a cat. Many different monsters existed in the world, but he had never heard of a cat-like one.
'Kill that thing…? It looks more like an animal than a monster.'
The monster didn't notice Jin yet.
Jin comfortably observed it from afar, and soon learned that the forest was its food source.
Crunch, crunch!
The thorny branches broke apart like bamboo.
The monster had resided here for the past thousand years. Whenever all of the trees in an area were devoured, it played around with the rocks until the trees grew back.
The monster swiped its front paw, and a rock bounced into the air.
Before the rock could touch the ground, it lost its bumpy structure and became perfectly round. Satisfied with the clean work, the monster meowed again.
'I should be careful of those claws.'
He vaguely caught sight of the revealed claws. Cutting those rocks like butter didn't look too good for Jin.
Could he approach it without it noticing him?
He lifted his foot to move, but the monster quickly glanced around. Jin didn't think he'd succeed in an ambush in the first place. The thickness of the toxic fumes forced him to create an aura field around him.
The glistening aura field caught the monster's attention, its eyes locking onto Jin.
Kyaaaak!
The monster shrieked. His eardrums felt as if they were being ripped apart, but it was nothing compared to the Illustrious Legends.
Sigmund gathered lightning. Standard Bolt was still great against big monsters.
'I wonder how strong it is… Hm?"
Tip-tap-tip-tap.
The monster fled deeper into the forest. He wasn't even ready to chase it before it disappeared. Jin just watched its silhouette become smaller and smaller.
"It escaped? With that body, it escaped?"
Jin felt a little surprised.
'No, it probably already met a Dark Knight before, so it's probably just scared of humans. But given that the knights didn't kill it, and instead detained it for experiments… it probably should've left by now.'
He felt a little pity as well. It looked peaceful in the forest, but Jin had disturbed the tranquility.
'I guess I'll chase it.'
Either way, taking down the monster was his Father's and Vanessa's test. He couldn't just stop because he felt sorry.
Kzzzt— Boom!
The monster's front paw swung towards him as soon as he entered the forest. Even with its massive body, the monster hid itself among the trees.
The front paw swept through the trees like weeds, and it charged towards Jin. He frantically parried the attack, but he couldn't resist the impact and got flown into the air.
Another paw swung towards him as he fell.
"Urgh!"
Since he couldn't block the second attack, he improvised a parry. He used the lightning to stun the paw, causing him to fly towards the thorny trees.
Before he fell, he slashed his blade in all directions. Unfortunately, he couldn't evade getting scraped and scratched all over. Myulta's Rune and the Black Light Cuirass prevented a lot of severe injuries.
Jin was already down from the start. He took a deep breath. Blood dribbled from all of his limbs, and his coat had now become a scarf.
The poison penetrated all of his wounds, and every part of his body stung. The Antidote didn't really rid his body of pain.
The monster didn't continue, and just fled into the forest.
'Yeah, I was out of my mind for a moment there. How could I feel bad for killing a monster? I guess it planned out how to kill me from the very beginning.'
The monster never escaped. It just chose a more efficient and effective method to fight Jin. It was the best decision in the given situation.
However, Jin fell for its facade. Mindlessly following a monster and being ambushed by it, batted around and left bloody. No one saw it all happen, but Jin felt very embarrassed.
The fact that he fought a black cat—with the image of Nabi Runcandel in his mind—and the fact that he didn't want to hurt it. He didn't know why he felt these things.
'I'll take you on. For real this time.'
Jin gritted his teeth and gathered his mana.
He decided to summon Tess and burn down the entire forest—the enemy's advantage. No forest, no advantage.
However, no matter how many times he chanted the spell to open the portal, it didn't open.
'…Haaah, this isn't good. I don't think it's because of the poison, and I have enough mana. Maybe this is a Dead Dimension like Lafrarosa?'
He remembered that he couldn't summon Tess in a Dead Dimension, leading him to the conclusion that this place was similar to Lafrarosa.
However, just because he couldn't summon Tess didn't mean that he couldn't burn down the forest.
A crimson color coated Jin's left hand.
Fire Orb.
The 7-star Fire Orb filled with explosive mana flew towards the forest. As soon as it came into contact with the trees, the fire exploded upwards and rained down on the forest. The flickering lights swallowed the forest whole.
Additionally, he continuously cast wind spells. He remembered efficiently burning down a forest like this during his cadet days.
However, compared to then, Jin had significantly more mana now. The winds and bright fire felt more powerful than before.
The forest instantly became a sea of fire. Still unsatisfied, Jin walked past the falling branches and prepared another Fire Orb.
Surprisingly, the poisonous gas surrounding him didn't recede with the vegetation. In fact, the poison got thicker with the dying plants.
His breath became a little more hoarse. It wouldn't be detrimental to his combat, but he assumed that the poison would have the same effect on the monster.
"If you don't come out now, I'll burn the entire forest down!"
Whether the monster understood him or not, Jin shouted into the fire.
He prepared to throw another Fire Orb.
Hisss…!
The monster surrendered, lifelessly trudging out of the fire.
'Such a strange lifeform. It looks like it doesn't want this to happen.'
With its two pointed ears now flopped down, and its eyes slightly frowning, the cat expressed great despair. Jin felt somewhat regretful.
As he watched everything burn down, he immediately realized that the thorny forest had been the monster's home and sustenance.
However, he couldn't make the same mistake twice. With the use of another distraction, the monster would bite his neck off or bat him to the moon.
"Don't look so pitiful."
The moment Jin said this, the monster's glare changed.
It knew that its trick didn't work anymore.
At the same time, Jin felt mana gathering in the monster's eyes.
'Magic?!'
Magic Iris. Jin never thought the monster could use magic, so he couldn't look away from the pumpkin-colored eyes.
Ancient dark magic spells had a category known as 'mind spells', which made the victim go insane. The monster used that exact spell, and Jin began seeing hallucinations.
Starting with his body being stabbed with daggers and showing him his life's most depressing moment. Within a second, Jin experienced dozens of hallucinations at the same time.
Seeing his eyes lose their life, the monster cracked a big smile. Trapped in his own mind, Jin couldn't see the monster anymore.
All that was left was for the monster to rip Jin apart and stop the fire so that it could continue its peaceful life.
Meeeooow…
The monster let out a low meow and took a step towards Jin.
Yet suddenly, it got confused.
"You know, I really hate hallucinations."
The monster couldn't understand. Even after being exposed to Magic Iris, Jin suddenly regained consciousness.
Jin glared at the monster with an ice-cold gaze. He had overcome the three mirages at the Great Mythra Desert, and trained his mind with the Illustrious Legends in Lafrarosa. Everything that supported him from here was not his talent, but his own will.
As he faced the third mirage, Jin still swung his sword against Temar Runcandel. A monster's mere mind game wouldn't work against him.
With his willpower, he broke through the hallucinations, shattering each and every vision.
Jin knew it was as easy as breathing.
"Hold on a second. You should've ended it while you could. And you… You can understand human words, can't you?"
This time, Jin smiled. The monster froze in place and rolled its eyes.
Thud, thud, thud!
Among the falling trees, Sigmund conjured a blue flickering light once more.
Illustrious Bladeworks, Divine Onslaught.
Conviction.
Without hesitation, Jin chose that attack.
"Whether you understand me or not. No one will hear your screams. So just shut up and show me your claws."