The green buffalo charged towards the ranks of the new warriors, and the former farmers scattered aimlessly, while Akilla's body still remembered how to dodge the attacks of the beasts and instinctively dodged two steps back when the ghuast's horn nearly hit her neck.

'Don't waste energy and stay calm' Akilla reminded herself, 'let the creature tire on its own and then kill it in one hit'.

He had to admit that this barricade of wooden pegs was well made, high enough if the goal was to keep the ghuast inside while being made short enough for the panicking crowd to climb up.

Around him the cowards started running here and there, panicking as if they were a group of ants whose nest had been damaged. Meanwhile, the strong-hearted began to take up arms and try to attack the monsters with bronze, stone or just a wooden stick.

"Come here you damn creature!" Shouted one of the participants holding a bamboo spear with obsidian eyes while trying to stab it right between the heads of the prey, obsidian is rare in the north so Akilla is sure this black-haired youth is an Easterner.

Obsidian spear had been cut off by the green buffalo horn, the man's body was unable to withstand the monster's full strength so he was blown away when the pair of horns hit his chest. His thin body fell on the ground and was trampled by those who panicked, Akilla just looked at him in pity without any intention of helping.

"The field where he stands is not wide enough to maneuver" Akilla muttered, "I will fight the creature only when the participants are few for easy lightning steps". Akilla realized that the hustle and bustle of humans would only make them vulnerable to the ultimate attack.

He just stood where he was while occasionally dodging the beast's header as well as the tip of the guns of the idiots who were running around and were too panicked to just carry their weapons safely. With a dagger held in his left hand which he threw a little in the air to relieve boredom but his eyes were still on alert looking for an opening to use it.

"Wo...hoo! Take this hit!" His blue irises were now looking for the source of the scream and there he saw someone hitting a ghuast with a stone hammer and had a happy face. His strange weapon was in the form of an egg-shaped round stone tied to a bamboo stick with rattan woven as its capital, 'Can that be classified as a mace?' Akilla thought in his heart.

"Huh, it turns out that there are people with guts here too" Akilla commented when he saw the young man who had an enthusiastic smile etched on his lips when the ghuast roared when the mace kissed his cheek.

"Grah!" Ghuast glared and roared louder and louder, his breathing getting more irregular as he headbutted here and there trying to hit the attacker.

"I'm here stupid cow!...gah!" As if he understood the youth's words, the more vicious the ghuast was, the young man was able to dodge but around, but he was surrounded by the victims who fell due to being rammed by the monster. When he was about to jump back but unlucky his bare feet accidentally stepped on another participant's body and he slipped.

The young man is now trying to sit down with the support of the club while rubbing his brown-haired head, but when he opens his eyes, his gray irises meet the ghuast's bruised eyes and Akilla bets the young man can now feel the creature's breath on his cheeks.

'If he is lucky, maybe he will only be disabled and not die' but remembering the courage and recklessness he showed made Akilla smile and decide to help. 'It's a shame that someone like him dies so quickly, although he could die while hunting'.

"Okay, maybe it's time for me to show myself." Akilla was now tightly gripping her dagger, but the 'dagger' was actually just a spear blade that had been broken and left a small wooden handle. It didn't look convincing but its sharpness was still enough to just kill a wild animal.

Stretching his shoulders Akilla then made a stance with his left foot behind him. Focusing his mind, he could now feel his heart beating blood flowing to his feet, the soles of his feet could feel the ground crumbling and he couldn't hold his strength.

Then he slid forward.

The 'lightning slash' he recited the name of the move in the depths of his heart tried to focus his mind on the target in front of him and shot as fast as lightning that shot from the sky to the earth, attacking the ghuast from behind.

He closed his eyes as he drove and when he opened them again he saw the shocked face of someone sitting with a club in his hand.

Akilla glanced back and his eyes stared at the ghuast who now had a line of slashing wounds from his left eyelid across to the tail.

"Ah damn, the wound is too shallow" he complained when the creature was already bleeding from Akilla's slash, the blood wasn't flowing as fast as it was intended. The ghuast was now following his instincts and staying away from Akilla.

Swinging the dagger in his left hand, he intended to clean the blood there but Akilla accidentally hit the face of the young man sitting in front of him.

Their eyes met.

"Hey, bring your hand" offered his right hand, then when they shook hands he also pulled the young man to stand, not a difficult thing because the young man is very light. Akilla wondered why he was helping this young man, 'his behavior is similar to Rou'. Akilla nodded in understanding when he realized that the young man reminded him of his brother.

Both childish and noisy.

 

"Hey why are you looking at me like that?" asked Akilla who was disturbed by the young man who was actually dumbfounded, he also looked around him which he felt was too quiet. And he realized that the other participants even the officials who were watching from the balcony also had the same expression as the young man earlier.

Now he realized that they were surprised at the running speed he showed, a young man who seemed to have teleported from the side of the field fenced with pegs to the ghuast in the middle of the field.

The distance of thirty steps was reached in three seconds, some of the other participants saw the footprints imprinted on the ground as if they were silent witnesses that Akilla ran instead of teleporting.

“The ghuast!” Then the silence was broken as someone tried to warn Akilla of the ghuast who was now roaring with rage, his slightly slashed eyes were now red from his own blood and making it hard to see.

But as if he could feel the perpetrator who had cut a wound across his body, suddenly an arrow pierced the right side of his body.

"Hey, get out of there quickly!" shouted a man holding a bow, he who had shot three arrows but only one managed to pierce the ghuast's skin. Akilla looked at the arrow that fell on the ground and looked at it, 'Oh his eyes are made of a grindstone, he deserves to go deep'

"By the way, my name is Guemwyn." His attention shifted from the arrow to his hand which Guemwyn shook in a handshake, Akilla realized that their hands had not been separated since a while ago.

"Oh right, my name is Killa" replied Guemwyn's introduction he quickly unlinked their hands.

'We won't be able to win if we continue like this' racked his brain finally he decided to make a plan

“Hey Guem, hear what I have to say” he pointed at the ghuast, “that creature is too difficult for us, let's get the others to cooperate”

"Eh... can't you attack like that again?"

 "My horses were disturbed by the mud, so I'm having a hard time using that move again"

Guemwyn nodded and he heard Akilla's plan, they then separated and Guem headed towards the archers.

“We have to work together!” Akilla shouted, inviting the attention of other participants, "You guys who have spears, quickly surround and hold the creature." At first, the other participants were hesitant to follow his words but seeing his prowess they immediately followed.

The majority of the participants used spears from the start considering how simple but efficient they were for commoners. Then immediately a line of spears formed, they weren't large enough to make a circle, just enough to form a crescent-like line.

"Push! keep pushing until the wooden fence!" Ghuast started to notice my lineup

When the ghuast wanted to go to the right, the line followed, when he went left they immediately moved to hold back. The creature seemed to be showing its intelligence as it moved to try to escape from the right side but when the line of spears moved in its way but-

-he immediately changed direction and ran to the left!

"Don't let it get away!" he shrieked as the ghuast nearly fled but the creature roared and stopped when an arrow pierced its eye.

The more he roared as his forelegs were attacked by the spears from the left row.

"Killa! I brought the archers with me” exclaimed Guem.

Akilla felt her lips form into a smile, “Archer! Shoot your arrows from behind the line.”

“Then they moved in a spear and arrow formation, Akilla and Guem picked up the spears from the participants who fled at the beginning and joined the formation, the archers easily took aim at the trapped creatures. And they finally managed to push the ghuast into the wooden peg fence.

Ghuast who was trapped between the fence and the line of heroes began to look as if he had given up and his body was also covered in wounds from dozens of pierced arrows.

"You are dead!" Guem's rebuke was followed by expletives from other members.

But as if his survival instincts were leading him, the ghuast jumped up at the head of the line of heroes as a final form of resistance. “Spear up!” Then the buffalo's body was pierced by dozens of spears, but he kept moving 'this creature is trying to hit us! I have to kill him immediately.

Akilla took off the spear that he had, 'it's too difficult to use it in this crowd', quickly his right hand stroked the green creature's neck from below as if looking for something. Then Akilla slashed the point on the neck and cut off the feeding, breathing and al passages

The creature's blood rushed to his face before a few moments later he rolled down. “Throw it forward!” he pleaded, and soon the others obeyed and the creature's body fell to the ground.

 "Finally you died," said Akilla whose face was covered in blood.

“W-we won? We won!" Akilla's hands covered her ears when Guem screamed but it made him unable to dodge when Guem put his arm around his shoulders.

Then the other participants came closer to them, and Akilla had to hold her breath so as not to smell the sweat of them who were now hugging her and Guem. He also heard the officials on the balcony applaud congratulating the participants for killing their first prey.

“To our champion!” one of them started to hold Akilla's body and then shouted a stance.

"Hip! Hips!”

Akilla started breaking out in cold sweat.

“HOW!!!” Then his body was flown into the air

Akilla restrained herself from screaming as her body slowly began to be pulled by the earth's gravity.

"Hip! Hips!”

"E-eh gosh Hey!" Akilla tried to fight back when she felt she was going to be flown again but she was too late.

“HOW!!!”

They didn't listen to his complaints and were immersed in the euphoria of the celebration, 'Why are the commoners happy with the celebration? do they need a diversion for their life's difficulties?' Akilla was philosophizing when her body was flown into the air.

"Hip...! Hip...!”

Akilla, who has never received such great praise when carrying out his duties, 'Maybe I need this', Akilla's heart began to dissolve in euphoria and he quickly laughed with his new colleagues.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

“Ahahaha” His chuckle was inaudible but those who touched him could feel the sincerity of his laughter.

.

EoG

.

The celebration ended and they followed the orders of the guild employees to return to the lineup neatly like the beginning of entering the field.

Their attention shifted when the wooden pegs were lowered and now stared into the entourage of the higher-ups of the guild even Akilla was surprised to find Ensi and Vizier of the city of Taraw among them.

They stood on a wooden podium as if they didn't want to stain the soles of their shoes with mud and blood, then took turns to congratulate the other participants.

“In the line in front of me… LEFT FACE….GRAK!” commanded the head of the hero guild, when carrying out the order the views of the participants were now filled with rows of gloomy-looking people. 'Those who fled from the wooden pegs'.

“Look at them! They are failures who even run away from fake ghuasts, don't be afraid of fakes, let alone the real ones?” The leader of the line said then he chuckled with the higher-ups beside him.

“What will happen to those who fail?” asked Guem who was tugging at Akilla's clothes.

“They'll try next season if they're lucky they can help with wheat farming.” Given that the north of Agmus has the most fertile land, it's only natural that agriculture is highly developed.

“They're all just like us, coming from different villages across Agmus to be successful,” said a person beside Guem's right, his skin bruised. “Everyone expects land, gold, and recognition from the Empire”

Akilla seemed to know who he was, then when he saw the obsidian spear in his hand he immediately remembered.

"Weren't you the one who was trampled on earlier?" asked Guem to represent his curiosity.

"Eh yes, my name is Tiamasa," he said while scratching his cheek which was stained with dry blood.

'He is physically strong too' Akilla nodded in admiration, aware that he too might find it difficult to stand up after being gored by a buffalo and being trampled by many people.

They continued to talk to themselves and ignored the guild leader's words, but what was asked next brought back Akilla's attention.

 "Is there any question?" said the old man.

“This creature isn’t a ghuast is it?” said Akilla who raised his right hand which had a spot of green paint, "It's actually just an ordinary buffalo." The same paint coats the entire body of the corpse of the animal he killed earlier.

"Yes, that's right, actually it's just a sick buffalo and we painted the skin in such a way to make it look like ghuast," said the guild head, a tone of satisfaction could be heard from the way he spoke.

"May I know why you are deceiving us?" Akilla asked trying to be polite.

"We didn't mean to deceive you" he replied with a wry smile as if trying to convince, then he looked at the lump of meat that was being beaten up by the participants, "The creatures in the forest there are more dangerous than this, so you just assume we give you a clue how to do it. how to beat them at least have experience facing them so you guys are more careful"

The new heroes raised their eyebrows as if they still didn't understand, the leader was now breathing in boredom and then taking a deep breath as if preparing to give a longer explanation.

"Those who are fighting wild animals for the first time are always afraid and stay where they are, humans are afraid of something they have never met" explained the man took a breath before continuing. "But now that you know the dangers of ghuast, now with that experience you go to their dens and hurry, liberate this land from those beasts"

The new heroes listened carefully and carved these words in their hearts also remembering that they finally survived and won after working together.

 “Finally, may the sunshine on your path!!!” the higher-ups on the podium said in unison.

“HAIL MAGHARY!!!” reply to everyone there both employees, new heroes, and failed participants.

The sun had not yet reached its highest horizon and now the heroes were ordered to depart for the most cursed place in all the land of Agmus, walking merrily as if enthusiastically welcoming their death except for one person.

Akilla just sighed in line towards the Emerald Naraka, he didn't expect to make friends because he realized that friendship would be short, 'they could both die after a few steps into the forest' he thought looking at Guemwyn and Tiamasa.

And their hunt begins.