"Alright." Karasaki warmed up her muscles with a cheeky grin. "I'm the Vanguard of the team, does that mean I can fight things now?"
"... What's there to fight though?" Jingo said, after being silent for quite a while.
Just as they said that, a silhouette entered the field of the hill they were at, eclipsing both Jingo and Karasaki with its huge stature.
Greyish hard-skinned animal of quadrupedal structure, possessing a big circular head with its visible neck coated in segregated skin armor. A couple of gill-like organs could be seen on the side of its torso, as air was entering and exiting the vents. Its feet were as wide as an elephant, yet the length of their limbs were closer to that of a hippo in contrast to their size.
The animal shifted the front of its face toward the expedition team, revealing a rather creepy visage with its uncaring gaze, triangular mouth, and the lack of a nose. For quite a while, it loomed its curious blank gaze over them.
"If I got a rock for meeting something with a punchable face, I would have two," Hopscotch muttered.
There was one thing that Nagan noticed.
What appeared to be the eyes, the three abyss black slits of pupils on its head, all of them were facing forward, instead of positioned on the sides of its head like an animal of prey would.
There was a high chance that this animal might be a predator within this ecosystem. Not to mention, it was stealthy and fast enough to enter the usalians and Nagan's range like a passing breeze.
The reason why it was not facing them hurriedly might as well because of how it didn't see the expedition group as a threat, as it was sniffing through the gill-like organ to determine whether the usalians were food or not.
"Well…" Jingo gulped. "We can fight that…"
Immediately after, an ear-piercing shriek erupted from the chunky animal's triangular mouth. The beast turned around and raised its forelegs before jolting them back forward for a stomp.
The two usalian quickly side-stepped as they simultaneously swung their shovel horizontally towards the beast's forelegs in retaliation, leaving a surprising amount of cuts on the skin surface.
Just as the counterattack was prompted, the rest usalian followed suit.
Some of them catapulted their shovels from afar, aiming for the beast's head to confuse, irritate, and stagger the beast further. Some lunged and attacked the front side of the beast, forcefully using the blunt side of the shovel to hit its head and knee joint, and the edge to pierce or cut the skin.
Some of them encircled the troubled mammoth and aimed toward the gill-like organs, while the Vanguard that were already at the front kept up their flurry of attacks, snatched the thrown shovels from the backlines, then dual wielded, and even triple wielded their weapons for further aggression, all while they were maintaining distance and dodging the retaliation made by the beast.
The shovel-less demanded their shovel back after a certain duration.
"... Should I take my hand into this matter? Or gave them the needed experience to evolve, just like what the queen intended?"
Nagan was menacingly tightening his grip while the whole thing unfolded, trying to assess the capability of the usalians, while amplifying his wariness if there were any mishaps where he needed to dash into the frontline.
It was Nagan's first time watching the equivalent of his children battle against something other than themselves, and it was painfully nerve wracking at best.
"Supervise… letting them acquire the experience they need…"
An inkish red began to spill into reality within the surrounding of his hand, trying to contain itself out of logical respect for his role and the nature of usalian's growth if all that Owen said was the truth.
In the middle of the fight, Karasaki hurriedly approached Nagan with a big grin on her face, before saying something into the telepathic link.
"With much obligation, I want to try it!!"
Welp, Nagan couldn't help but laugh.
Nagan shook away his anxious clutch and gave Karasaki a toothy smile, alongside a thumbs up.
The red taint dispersed as if it wasn't there.
"Jingo!!" Hopscotch shouted after she bashed the ever living consciousness of the beast out of its body.
With a quick aerial maneuver, Jingo firmly landed on the beast's head, deep rooting her shovel onto the beast skull. The black pupils of the beast could be seen being pushed out from the inside.
"Idiot Hopscotch, everyone, Make a waaaaaaayyyyy!!"
Perfectly aligned in front of the beast's direction, a sudden event prompted began to gather the attention of every usalian peon in the field. It was Nagan, throwing Karasaki forward into the air, high enough where she was able to spin vertically to increase her momentum-
"Orrraaaa!!"
Before unleashing all of the inertia onto a back-hammer kick, pushing the shovel that was planted by Jingo to dig even further. The beast staggered still, motionless. Seeing that there was nothing to do, Karasaki somersaulted onto the ground.
"Wooooo!!"
"Marvelous!"
"We did it!"
"Let's goooooo!!"
That beast should be instantly dead by now. However, despite most of its organic structure on its head being messed up, the powerhouse was still standing in four limbs, in which it began moving rather frantically.
Nagan immediately knew what was up, and so were some usalians who retracted their joyous celebration.
Nagan however, was quicker to act. He dashed toward the front line just in time where the beast instinctively moved backward with its head leaning to the ground. He then grabbed the planted shovel and pulled himself onto the top of the beast.
With one hand still attached to the handle grip, he kicked the shaft of the shovel with force, horrifyingly removing the front section of the head as the bodily liquid and organs were drooping and dragged by gravity.
Now, with the shovel removed from the beast, he balanced himself as the beast movement became even more frenzied. Waiting for a couple seconds, in an intense rodeo ride, he held before a perfect timing, in which the beast slowed down from its mindless rhythm, where he could comfortably grip the shovel with both hands.
Before shoving the end of the shovel deeper into the neck, the part of the body that was protected the most.
Just like a deer that had been shot on the head, the beast went limp and fell to the soil.
It was quite a gamble, who knew that the beast's brain equivalent of an organ was located on the neck? There was a great concern that it would still be able to move without its head, but that's not seemed to be the case.
"Let's gooooo!"
"We killed it for real this time!"
"Uhm actually, it was the Patriarch who killed it-"
"Fufufu, no need to thank me. For I, the great Immortal Dragon Overlord, have slain the ugly faced beast!"
"You barely do anything after throwing your shovel."
"Alright, everyone!" Nagan clapped to gain every usalian immediate attention, before pulling out the Wayward Crystal out of his pocket, hurriedly deploying the portal to the Unnamed Kingdom. "Check up your shovel and holster them away, we will be giving the logistic team some early work to do at home."
"Wooo! Giving the wimpy logistic team some work! Our language overlaps with each other, Patriarch!" Karasaki celebrated.
"Why the hurry though?" Hopscotch inquired.