It was the most dangerous situation Leon ever experienced since the reincarnation. The size, the level, the nature, and the overall ability of that monster were something that caused a veteran like Titus to grow desperate and lose his cool when he realized the monster he is facing.
In a world like Agartha, size matters in every sense of the word, especially with monsters.
Leon managed to make a name for himself by hunting a large number of Red-Eyed Centipedes the other day, which was a worthy feat, but against such a monster as the Assassin Bison, things were bound to get complicated.
The Red-Eyed Centipedes are classified in the Monster Manual as Small to Medium Beasts. The Assassin Bull, on the other hand, is a Large Beast. Being Large changes the situation into a very different kind of hunt and so Leon started acting upon that fact.
What did the Monster Manual say about this Assassin Bison again? Large, dangerous when faced ahead, quiet walker, stealthy, and most certainly infamous for its deadly charge and how it always remembers his grudges. But like all things, it has a weakness and that is Fire.
Seeing the burn marks on the monster, Leon realized that this thing must have faced some Mercenaries lately and got burns marks from the confrontation thus it started running wild attacking any bipedal creature it sees. Nothing like the grudge of a bull on a rampage.
Leon could only think of sticking out his spear and while Titus was trying to take position, he prepared out a few bottles of cocktail just in case. On the other side, the Assassin Bison was growling and hitting the ground with its right foreleg as it lowered its head and flexed its muscles in a terrible show of anger.
"Leo, it's coming." Titus shouted.
"EeeeAWOOOOOOO!"
As if responding to the sound humans make, the Bull let out an angry bellow that is nothing like an ordinary bull but something akin to the horns of war. It struck fear and shock into the hearts of those who heard it and as they were stunned, the Bull rushed forward with its horns aiming to mince its enemies with them.
"Snap out of it!"
Unlike Titus who felt the pressure of the monster, Leon wasn't affected thanks to his Mental Resistance skill and immediately kicked Titus out of the way facing the monster on his own and here when his acrobatic skills came to shine.
A moment he was standing in the aim of the Bull, the next he was up in the air after he stuck the spear to the ground and launched himself up. With absolute finesse, Leon rotated mid-air and with the spear still in his hand, Leon delivered a strike beneath him directly towards the bull which ran by.
< [Polearm Technique] Level Up (Lv.1 → Lv.2) >
The spear's tip met the thick hide of the and went in an inch deep with all the power Leon could muster in this weird position. Despite the unsatisfying result, Leon landed safely and took a distance as he turned around to face the monster.
But… there was nothing.
"Shit! It disappears like that?"
Calling it a Bull is rather not fitting anymore. An animal known for its temper and bad anger is not cool-headed or cunning enough to take such measures of indirect warfare.
"Aero Detection!"
Leon immediately cast the spell and tried gaining feedback on the position of the Assassin Bison but it was all too quiet and quiet save for Titus whose back was to a boulder and his spear held up.
"Leo, cover your back, it tends to attack from behind." Titus said.
Leon nodded but he didn't take the advice right away but rather exposed his back even more as he walked a little bit far from Titus.
His surroundings were still quiet but felt an anomaly regarding the air in a certain area where there seemed to be someone or something breathing calmly.
The Bison.
This monster needs a straight line to rush rather than a road full of hurdles thus Leon provided it just that.
"Hmph!"
And it moved.
At first, there was no change in the surroundings but as the Bull approached closer, the shape of green around its fur started standing out with its movement. Its bright eyes became focused on Leon and it took the charge without thinking.
Leon felt it this time. It was easier to pick up and in an instant. Leon stabbed backward with two spears at the same time both of them were fresh from his Storage.
Despite being aimed from a blindspot, the two spears were steady and the Assassin Bison found no leeway out of their range except to try to minimize the damage and drive its horn into Leon's back either way.
It was a risk for a risk situation and the Bull was indeed tactful but foolhardy enough to take the risk. At that moment, both man and monster clashed the Bull taking the grazes of the spears to its sides as its horns were driven into the back of the human with the sound of something breaking… then nothing at all.
The cloak which the human wore simply felt empty and the human that should have few covered with it was not there. What broke just now was the sound of something wooden.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*
An arrow followed by two crossbow bolts found themselves resting in the side of the Assassin Bison which bellowed from pain and started running away from the unseen assaults.
Besides that scene, Leon jumped down from a tree after storing the two crossbows he used to shoot at the Bull then notched an arrow to his bow and aimed it towards the Bull looking for a weakness.
With his eyes on the prize, all that Leon needed to do is to release the arrow towards the Bull yet at that moment, the situation wildly shifted with the appearance of an unexpected third party.
As both Leon and the Assassin Bison were busy with each other in addition to Titus who was a bit injured, a series of noises started coming towards them as the three finally took note of it almost too late.
And something jumped from the bushes.
It was too jumped to be a human, too skinny to be a dwarf, too feral to be a member of the main races.
It was but a small humanoid with green skin, long and unsightly nose and ears, disgusting face, and short limbs.
A textbook goblin but with a slight change.
It was running madly wailing from pain from a fire that was set to its body. It didn't even begin to try to look around and simply tried to wallow on the ground while escaping to put down the fire yet that simply seemed to have irritated the Assassin Bison which kicked the goblin flying into a tree before snarling at it.
The Bison seemed angry towards the sight of fire, its natural weakness, but as it tried to focus on Leon again, three more burning goblins appeared, one of them even died from the fire.
Both Leon and the Bull felt a lot of danger coming out from what is happening deep inside the forest even though they never dropped guard against each other. Strange enough, the Bison was the first to retreat as the fires kept just spreading.
Between the retreating Bison and the Goblins that kept appearing and running around madly, Leon recognized the end of his battle with the Bull and collected his gear before trying to run in Titus's direction only to bump into him a moment after.
Titus was occupied with fighting a goblin that didn't seem as burnt as the others so Leon went into the fight right away.
Goblins are short, fierce in tough situations, utilize pack tactics, able to use weapons, and prioritize physical strength over everything else even though they are great ambushers with agile bodies. These crazed small fighters were out for madness all of a damn sudden with their bodies either sustaining up to 3rd degree burn wounds or quite literally running around screaming with fire eating them.
"That is no natural fire!" Titus shouted as he bashed a goblin that was about to bump into him.
"Magic?" Leon asked.
"I don't know… maybe! Something's not right with this."
"Titus… this direction they come from…"
Leon merely mentioned the direction from which the goblins were flowing, whether they started to fight with the humans they saw or kept running away, these goblins came from one direction all bearing the burning marks. This direction in particular was where the rest of the team is.
"We'll regroup! NOW!"
Without even thinking, Titus rushed through the stream of Goblins right to where the rest of the team was supposed to be. In a sense, both Titus and Leon were running blind against a sea of raging beasts.
"Hold up! You can't just rush through."
Even though Leon tried to warn him, Titus blindly charged into danger and kept running whenever he wasn't facing a goblin. He managed to kill two of them and cripple a few others which Leon kept killing on his way behind not wasting any ounce of EXP.
< [Polearm Technique] Level Up (Lv.2 → Lv.3) >
And soon they caught up with the rest of the team confirming the worst-case scenario that was running wild in Titus's head.
Edrick was lying on the ground with Cenric over him trying to give him first aid.
"Brother! Wake up! Stay with me." Cenric tried to slap Edrick who had an arrow stuck to his shoulder. The moment Cenric realized the presence of Leon and Titus and immediately tried to warn them.
"Duck!" He shouted.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh*
Titus fell prone but Leon didn't get the urgency of the situation and a couple of arrows flew by one missing Titus and the next almost in front of Leon's head.
"Rush!"
Instantly, Leon bashed the arrow and moved aside before breaking into a charge towards the sources of the arrows with his spear stabbing ahead.
*ARGH!"
As the stab went through the bushes, it landed on a soft target and a scream was heard. Where Leon expected to see a Goblin was but a man… a Deadman, to be more specific.
"No!"
Leon immediately heard the voice of another man gasping as they were countered and didn't give him the chance to live. With the existence of lurking danger, Leon couldn't just ignore the assailants and maximize his chance of survival.
With the same speed, he leaped towards the next target and took him down by a single attack.
Two attacks, two kills, one problem
"These were hunters." Leon thought to himself after seeing their belts but he soon retreated to the rest of the team.
"These arrows were from other hunters." Leon said as he returned to the other three. None of them replied and kept a terrifying look on their faces.
He looked around and saw one person missing.
Huxley wasn't around.
"It is Pearl. It must be Pearl." Cedric said.
Titus had a grim look on his face. This time it was no joke. A Rival has kidnapped one of their members.
First that assassin bull, now a horde of goblins and a human schemer behind it. Good luck, Leon!
The enemies list keeps growing, yet still none are being killed. I'm starting to wonder if this guy is really an assassin.
Thanks for the chapter!
met the thick hide of the and went in
Bull
Blob Neutral