Far away from Kaido and the Silver Wolf Den, a group of three 3rd Star students were fighting against a Medium-Mid Class Fiery Boar, it's entire body constantly on fire as it attacked them. The team of three moved well, indicating this wasn't their first time working together.
Suddenly, the Fiery Boar opened it's mouth and shot out a stream of fire, forcing all three of them back. Then it turned towards one of them and charged, it's head turned downward with it's tusks up. They glistened with a sharp light, able to do lethal damage.
"Watch out Melissa! He's coming for you!" Melissa quipped back as she waited for the Boar to get closer. At the same time, a bit of wind could be seen swirling around her legs
"I can see that you moron!" When it was about to reach her, she jumped up high and soared through the air like a bird, eventually landing on the branch of a tree some distance away.
As for the Fiery Boar, it wasn't able to stop it's momentum and smashed into a tree. It charged straight through the tree and sent the ones behind it tumbling to the ground as well, all on fire. Shaking it's head, it turned around and focused it's sight on the new target.
"Come on you weak bastard! Or are you afraid of me?!" A large and muscular bulky man yelled out, slapping his mace against his shield in a provoking manner.
Seeing this, the Boar snorted angrily as a few veins bulged out of it's head. Smoke exited it's nostrils as it charged forwards like a bull. It was enraged by the taunt of this pathetic weakling, unable to hold it's temper from overriding it's senses.
The muscular man in full metal and tanky armor, named Dave, stood his ground and grinned wickedly. He placed his shield in front of him in a defensive manner. Suddenly, multiple arrows whizzed past his face harmlessly and struck the Boar several times in the legs.
It roared out in pain and it's pace slowed, but it didn't stop. Not until the pest with the shield was flattened underneath it's unstoppable power. Meanwhile, the swordsman who had been holding back until now finally joined the fight once more.
He moved swiftly for the Boar and slashed with his sword horizontally at it's leg to further slow it down. However, the cut wasn't as deep as he hoped. Clicking his tongue, he disappeared inside his own shadow, leaving behind some words.
"Melissa, power up a killing shot! Dave, you need to stop him in place! Get ready!" They nodded their heads at his order.
Just before Dave and the Boar collided, the swordsman, Evan, popped out from the shadow of the Boar. He jumped onto it's back and thrust his sword downward, pushing it as far it could go before stopping due to it's fat. However, this strike connected him to the Boar and allowed him to control it's own shadow to work against it.
Little pitch black tendrils emerged from it's shadow and wrapped themselves around the Boar's legs. Taking this opportunity when the Fiery Boar's speed was at it's slowest, Dave threw away his mace and shield. Both of his hands gripped onto the tusks about to impale him.
However, despite being slowed to a third of it's original speed, the sheer power and momentum of the Boar made Dave slide back for almost ten meters. He roared out, using all his strength as a Yellow Aura erupted from his body. Finally, the two stopped sliding in the dirt and halted in place.
His muscles rippled powerfully as he held the Boar in place. Grunts came from the both of them as they tried to one up the other. Meanwhile, while Dave and Evan held the Boar down, Melissa was still on the same branch.
She had an arrow locked and loaded, her fingers pulling it towards her cheek. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she concentrated as hard as possible. Surrounding the arrow and swirling madly were white cloudy pieces of Wind.
As more and more popped up she continued fusing them into the arrow, making it glow with the same color as the wind. With gritted teeth and shaking arms due to the power of her arrow, she carefully aimed it at the Boar's eye.
"I'm ready!" She managed to get that out before shutting her mouth.
Hearing that, the Aura around Dave increased nearly twicefold as he held the Boar back with a loud roar. As for Evan, he sent the sword in deeper, increasing the power of the shadow tendrils. Suddenly, Melissa finally let loose the arrow.
A massive amount of force was produced, sending her flying off the tree. Luckily, she was able to land without harm. As for the arrow, it was so fast not a single one of the people there could see it coming except for the Boar who could barely catch it's movements.
It wanted to get away, but the two humans were keeping it locked in place. Fueled by it's rage and unwillingness, the fire around it's body burned brighter and hotter, causing the already burnt Evan to fly off. Dave on the other hand simply grit his teeth and stayed put, suffering massive burns along his arms.
Within just a second, the arrow arrived and struck the Boar directly in the eye. It rampaged through it's body and came out the other side, crashing through multiple trees before stopping. One last sad wail came from the Boar as the flames around it died off and it collapsed to the ground.
Meanwhile, the power of the arrow threw Dave away from the Boar, sending him flying into a tree. He grunted in pain, lying there with labored breaths. Hissing, he raised his hands to check out the damage. His palms were burned badly, the skin ripped off from being sent flying off the tusks abruptly.
His arms were pretty bad off themselves, but luckily his Aura protected him from any serious and permanent damage. As long as he could get to a healer fast enough, he would be fine. Suddenly, he saw Melissa come into view, a burned and bleeding Evan behind her. There was a massive gash on the side of his forehead.
"Here, drink this." She handed him a red potion and gently fed it to him. When he gulped down the rest of it, he sighed in relief as a soothing feeling washed over him.
The minor wounds on his body healed, a light green glow coming from them. However, the more major burns would have be healed by either a stronger potion, or an actual Healer. Though, this was enough to get him back on his feet. Once he did so, Evan patted him on the shoulder, a smile on his face as he laughed.
"Good work at keeping that bastard held down!" Dave couldn't help but join him as he rolled his neck, seeming nonchalant about the deed.
"Not a problem. If it wasn't for you slowing him down, I would have been turned into meat paste. Your use of shadows has increased tenfold."
"Eh, not too shabby. You though-" Seeing them constantly compliment each other while keeping a humble attitude, Melissa smiled and shook her head.
Leaving the two fools to themselves, she walked over to the Fiery Boar to gut it. But as soon as she got the Core out, she paused. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she looked around the surroundings.
'Something's out there…' She had felt this exact feeling once before, when she was on a hunt with her father.
Melissa had been five at the time of the incident. Her father had hunted and killed a deer, standing over top it with a contemplative look to his face. She remembered asking him later on what he was thinking about so deeply. He had said it was way more exhausted than it should have been, almost as if it had been running for a long time.
Meanwhile, while her father was by the deer, she felt like something was staring at her. Like the naïve kid she was, she didn't find it weird and wandered around curiously. Suddenly, a massive wolf had jumped out of the bushes and was just about to kill her.
Luckily, her dad had figured it out and rushed back quick enough to save her. Despite being a normal man, he was able to fight against and kill the wolf with his bare hands, strangling it to death. However, he had lost an eye to the wolf's claws and suffered some other wounds as well. Ever since then, she always had a supernatural sixth sense.
"We've got trouble." Hearing Melissa's serious voice as she backed up away from the corpse, the duo stopped their fooling around and became solemn.
Despite their wounds, they gathered their gear and stood next to her. Their trust in her senses was absolute as she had saved their lives a few times before. A cold wind blew on their skin, making them shiver slightly. Out of nowhere, the hair on the back of their neck stood up in fear.
Their faces went pale, a cold sweat going down their back as they stared at the inhuman and giant pair of pupils hidden inside the trees ahead of them. With slow movements, the mystery creature moved forwards without knocking down a single tree.
Suddenly, it's full body emerged and scared the trio out of their wits. They were frozen in fear, the pressure radiating off this 30 meter snake keeping them stuck in place. From the moment it arrived, they knew they had no chance. Only death awaited them.
The Jagged Snake's eyes glanced at the dead Fiery Boar before looking back at the humans. Hatred oozed out of his very pores as he locked onto the Storage Bag on their waists. A snarl came from him as his mouth opened to speak.
"Despicable humans. You dare steal from me?! The Great World Serpent?!" He dashed towards them, his large body containing far more speed than it suggested.
Dave immediately raised his shield, barely able to see the tail swinging their way. Both Evan and Melissa jumped away as the hit landed. But unlike every other time before, Dave was immediately blasted into pieces, blood and guts thrown everywhere as the area behind him was completely destroyed by the wind generated by the tail.
"Dave!" Both of them called our at the same time, tears in their eyes watching one of their best friends die.
Gritting his teeth in rage, Evan gripped the sword of his hilt and charged forwards with killing intent. The Jagged Snake didn't move or even dodge, staying in the same place after killing Dave and looking at them with an arrogant gaze. As for Melissa, she nocked and released four arrow at once, each one aiming at the Snake's weak spots.
Evan screamed loudly as he swung with all his power, a shadowy energy wrapping itself around his blade. At the same time, he unconsciously unlocked his Blue Aura to further strengthen his attack by seamlessly fusing with the shadow energy. But when it struck the Jagged Snake's scales, the sword snapped in half.
"W-What...?" Evan stared at the broken sword in his bloody palms, split open from the backlash. A dumbfounded expression was on his face as he looked at the scales he hit. Completely uninjured, besides the tiniest of cracks on one scale.
He turned towards the stunned Melissa, whose arrows had broken on contact. A sad smile was on his face as tears ran down his face.
"Run-" The Jagged Snake stopped him mid sentence by opening his mouth and swallowing Evan's entire body whole.
Unlike inferior snakes, the Jagged Snake had a row of sharp pointy teeth dripping in poison. Using them, he slowly chewed up the human's body, making sure Melissa watched it horror.
"Bleh, tastes awful!" He spit out the mangled and blackened corpse of Evan, then used his tail to grab the Storage Bags. Swiftly looking through them, he was disappointed to find nothing but junk inside.
Sadness rocked Melissa's heart, but she knew attacking the monster further was useless. Instead, she followed Evan's last wishes and ran away towards the Academy. She needed to hurry and get help from the teachers and warn them of this High Class Monster.
The Jagged Snake chuckled darkly and slithered after her, no concern on his face. Scaring and killing these filthy humans was always a favorite past time of his. It was what these horrid monsters deserved. After a minute however, he eventually got bored of her terror and decided to end things. It was her own fault for not changing things up and being more interesting.
Melissa could hear the Snake getting closer to her and commanded her body to move despite it's protests. She wrapped Wind around her legs, making her far faster than what should be capable from her Rank. But it wasn't even close to enough.
Just as the Jagged Snake was about to gulp her up, a twenty foot spear made of Ice came out of nowhere and struck him in the side. He halted in place as a groan came from his throat. A couple of his scales had broken open and the area of impact was almost frozen solid.
Melissa was shocked at the sudden turn of events and looked at the origin of the spear. Walking towards her was an older student, his face solemn as he locked onto the Jagged Snake. An armored robe surrounded his body as he clutched a diamond studded Mage's Staff in one of his hands.
"Are you alright miss?" He grabbed her shoulder and locked eyes with her, warmth in his eyes as he spoke gently. He could see she was in pain and comforted her.
The concern from the older student warmed Melissa's heart. Unable to hold in what happened, she broke down in tears and spoke about what had taken place. While she did that, the Jagged Snake had already healed from it's small wound and glared at the one who dared to hit one as great as him.
With rage flowing within him, he hissed at his new enemy and shot out a blob of green glistening liquid from his mouth. The older student never took his attention of the Snake and immediately put up a five meter wall of ice to block the attack.
When the green liquid landed, it melted a large chunk of the ice wall and was about to reach them. With a serious look on his face, the older student pushed Melissa away with one hand and used the other to strengthen the wall.
"Hurry and return to the Academy! Find a teacher and bring them here! I'll hold him off as long as I can!" He immediately started casting spells at the Snake, sending a flurry of icicles at him. Melissa was startled and fled into the trees.
She wasn't an idiot and knew what he was really saying. 'This monster is too strong for me. Go get help'. At least, that's what she took from it. Melissa ran as hard and as fast as she could, pushing her already exhausted body to it's limits. Occasionally, she could feel the ground beneath her feet rumble and see the trees tremble due to the power of their battle.
She turned her head and saw a colorful blue light shine brightly, before being suppressed by a very dark green. Suddenly, she was swept off her feet by a powerful wind, sending her crashing into a tree due to the collision of the two attacks. Shaking her head and getting up, she looked at the direction of the battle before running once more.
Eventually, she soon saw the Market within her view. Her breaths were ragged and her vision was blurry as her broken feet carried her forwards. Stumbling, she walked into the Market, catching everyone's attention at her pitiful form.
"Hey?! You okay there?! What happened?!" Someone appeared in front of her, holding her shoulders and keeping her upright. For some reason, a comfortable warmth spread to every corner of her body.
Looking up, she was barely able to recognize his face. The Professor of Fire and Lava, Farsi. Her dry lips opened, able to spit out a few words.
"Monster… snake... hurry..." With that, her tired body shut down and she lost consciousness.
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"Junk, junk, junk. Ooh! This is good." Kaido, blissfully ignorant of the consequences of his actions, was sweeping through the Silver Wolf Den cave. Silva walked behind him, completely emotionless as her new Master rummaged around like a Treasure Goblin.
And yet, she found it incredulous how he still kept his noble aura despite his shameful actions of looting. Suddenly, she saw him pause as he carefully inspected a glowing blue rock. Silva remembered finding it during one of her hunts. She didn't think it was anything important and only picked it up because of how pretty it was. Out of nowhere, she heard her Master exclaim lightly.
"Oh my! Kitanite, a great material for an Artificer. This'll be useful later. Shame the size is a little small though." He quickly stuffed the blue and somewhat grey rock into his Storage Room and started looking around once more.
However, Kaido didn't find anything useful except some Monster Cores. But he left them here, as a monster could grow stronger by consuming them. Sighing, he shook his head and walked out of the cave. As he watched all the wolves move around, he frowned a bit.
"Too weak. I'll have to beef them up through some… other means." Silva, who was behind him, heard his muttering and for some reason felt a chill go down her spine. She had a feeling his intentions were anything but kind.
'Maybe... I made a mistake.'