A conflict ensued between two angry beasts.
The slippery dog pounced while the goat-faced monster widened its long arms to welcome him. The monster bared an eerie grin, anticipating how effortless it would be to crush Roa with one hand—using two? Obviously that would ensure that the small human that gave it a wound would not escape its grasp.
“Void Strike!” Roa performed this technique once more. Again, his blade failed to near an inch of Gruff’s leather. However, utilizing his footwork, he quickly closed the distance between him and Gruff, evading the threat of its long arms.
Aura rolled all the way down to the tip of his blade.
Gruff spotted this on the corner of its eye. Seeing the blade emit a dangerously sharp luster—for the first time in its life, the goat-faced monster felt a heavy chill frizzing the fur on its back. The foreign feeling inadvertently had it turn its head away from the blade, just in the nick of time.
Roa leapt upwards—a bright afterimage of his blade formed a curtain of red light and severed one of the horns of the big monster.
The monster Gruff uttered a pained howl; there, on its chest, sunk an inch-deep line of blood going straight up to its neck. —Any slower, it would’ve ended up way worse than only having one side of its head heavier than the other.
But of course, Roa didn’t plan on ending it there.
Another curtain of light fell down upon the monster and pruned the second of its pair of horns. Now it had two large stubbles on its head—oddly resembling the ones on a certain other unusual creature that dwelled within the area—and another red line going down the opposite side of the earlier one.
“Hah!” Roa laughed, admiring his handiwork. “Would you look at that! A fairy wearing red suspenders!”
The monster, Gruff, faltered a few steps backward. It couldn’t understand what Roa said, but knew it was being mocked. It let out an angry bellow, hair-raisingly louder than before.
As if in coordination with Gruff’s anger, a faint whistle sounded from within the surrounding mist, closing in on Roa's position. Roa could hear its approach, but ignored it and held his ground, keeping his attention focused towards the monster.
When a wooden spear came piercing through the white mist and threatened his life, the flat face of a jet-black ruler interjected; and like an egg smashing against the hard surface of a rock, the wooden stake was splintered into countless debris.
"Hmph!" Ariene stomped with a dissatisfied expression. “Couldn’t you at least dodge it!?”
Roa flashed his usual dumb-looking smile in response.
Ariene furrowed her brow, making it obvious that she wanted a more active role. Sadly, she was delegated to fly swatting duty. Roa wasn’t disadvantaged against his opponent from the looks of it, however, she recalled him warning her that there was more than one enemy.
“If either one of us got into a fight, the other shouldn’t jump in to immediately help, but be vigilant of the surroundings in case of another attack,” he said.
While Ariene recalled, her long ears twitched to the sound of another faint whistle. Mana coursed swiftly throughout her slender limbs as she waved the jet-black ruler sideways, smashing another wooden spear into smithereens.
'My mind shouldn’t wander,' she thought, admitting to herself that she was quite suited to the defensive role.
Unconscious with a dazed, dumbstruck face—meanwhile, it seemed the young noble Novis’ exhaustion had finally overtaken his willpower, and had fainted with the memory of Roa drawing on the monster’s body with a curtain of aura. Along with Yuria, Ariene left the two to rest within a distance she could easily cover, as there was no knowing when a spear would come flying to attack them.
“He—Hey!!?” Facing off against the large, bipedal goat–suddenly, Roa let out a shout full of indignance. “Y-You!? Don’t tell me you’re running away!?
The monster had its fox-tail facing him and it turned its head to briefly look back. It spat scornfully with regards to Roa’s question before reaching out to the surrounding mist, grabbing onto a portion and wrapping it around itself like a blanket.
Not a second had passed when its white fur blended in perfectly and it had fully disappeared.
“Ugly goat bastard! I can’t believe you! —Little runt! Where are you hiding?! Come out! We’re going to hunt that ugly goat bastard!” Roa roared.
Snap! Thud! Something made a loud sound as it hit the ground. Roa looked over to see what it was, only to witness the head of the unconscious Novis being devoured by a bush—or so someone uninformed would think.
A pair of beady crimson eyes gleamed within the rustling bush. With a furrowed brow, out it came after being called—the infant chalk pygmy, swinging around a handful of Novis’ hair. —Interrupted in the middle of its standard routine, and accused of fleeing when Roa was the one that tossed it to the side, there was no wonder why it was flaring its nostrils so aggressively.
“Pff—You’re angry?!” Roa scoffed. “I can finally take revenge! Don’t tell me you pity that older brother of yours!?”
Pity? The chalk pygmy spat on the floor demeaningly with one eye squinted. “You know it’s pointless to chase after him, why do you try?” It seemed to imply.
Roa gasped exaggeratedly, “How dare you!? Take that spit back in your mouth! Ridiculous! To think this little runt looks down on me!”
He couldn’t stomach it. Coming back to this place brought up some harsh memories, making Roa all the more indignant with letting the goat-faced monster go. He was unwilling to relent.
Roa and the chalk pygmy continued to argue, like they were children involved in nonsensical bickering. Witnessing their interaction, Ariene swatted another wooden spear before marching over and locking his jaw between her fingers and pulling his face close to hers. “Now isn’t the time for this!” she growled.
Roa felt the walls of his inner cheeks painfully rub against his teeth and calmed down instantly. He groaned. —Indeed, now wasn’t the time for this.
In this place, there was great difficulty in waking up once one lost consciousness while deprived of mana. Yuria and Novis were out of commission; the two potato sacks needed to be brought to a safe place, lest they become targets for the more troublesome guy lurking deeper within the woods.
Roa replied, “Ah, Ariene—Y-You’re right! Let’s stuff these two back at the cave.”
It was a short, but tiring trip back to the bald man’s head. The little runt led the way while Roa followed, heaving potato sacks on both his shoulders. Ariene trailed behind them, wary of projectiles hurtling in from the sky.
Once they arrived, they all let out a long sigh of relief.
“Ariene—” Roa spoke while catching his breath. He laid the two unconscious people over on one corner. “Look after them for a bit. I’ll head back outside with shortstuff over there and look for a way out of here.”
“No. ” Ariene immediately refused. “—You’re not planning on leaving us here, are you?”
It appeared Ariene was still unsure of his character. Regardless of how purely and sincere he expressed himself for the past few days, trust wasn’t something she was willing to give easily. And besides, Roa knew she could tell that he was lying.
Ariene would suggest for them to move together, however, he had other plans.
This was hardly the time for a group excursion—anyone could tell that Ariene and the other two were going to be a burden. Roa fished out Luminous Crowns from his inner shirt pocket and tossed a few over to the woodland princess.
“You’re breathing quite heavily—I’m currently the only one that can move unhindered,” he said, not giving her a chance to speak up.
”Don’t worry, it’s not that I won’t come back… I told you, I’m going to look for a way out of here. Once we’re back safe in the academy—remember, we’re still going to form a party, aren’t we?”
“—Huh? But I don’t recall ever agreeing!?” Ariene was taken aback.
Eventually, she turned her head to the side and reluctantly conceded. “Haa…” she sighed and waved her hand, catching the Luminous Crown and biting off its cap. “Do what you want. I’ll stay and guard these two.”
Roa smiled warmly at the hint of bashfulness showing on the tip of Ariene’s long ears, before beckoning the chalk pygmy to take its place on his head. Together, they left the cave and started walking towards a certain direction.
“I don’t need to ask, but… Little runt, you know the way, right?” Roa intended to close this region of the Spirit Domain on his own—if this was his first time here, then he would have taken a longer time to figure out how to—fortunately, he only had to retrace his steps… But first–
Only a few meters away from the cave, the chalk pygmy snorted before suddenly slapping Roa’s head. It quickly jumped down and disappeared into a bush.
“Ah, of course—” Roa showed no anger at being hit in the back of the head. He unhitched his weapon from his waist, and quickly manifested aura to sharpen the dull blade.
“We should take care of Gruff here first, yeah? Or now should I call him, red suspenders?” Roa bared a wide grin and swept his blade upwards toward his back, spraying glittering red fairy blood into the air.
The goat monster Gruff stood there emerged from the mist, shocked—faltering a few steps backward and grabbing a now limp arm with an expression of grimace. Its eyes seemed to ask, ‘How did you know? What was it that gave me away?’
“Hah! ” Roa scoffed, immediately displaying a powerful kick off the ground. “To think you’d miss me so soon! —You see, I’m quite familiar with your annoying methods!”
This time, Gruff wouldn’t be given a chance to run away.
“—Void Strike!” Roa flew forward and pierced Gruff’s stomach with his blade, continuing this momentum until the monster goat was pushed up against a dead tree.
Consequently, a strong force slammed Roa’s back from above, forcing him to almost cough up a mouthful of blood. Gruff was struggling fiercely, however, Roa held his blade firm.
He was not about to allow the beast the chance to break free.
Along the cracks of his rusty blade, the thrashing fairy’s vibrant blood was seeping through. The blade grew excited from the sudden blessing it was given and it began to emit an ethereal hue.
Roa was pleased. “I’ve been looking forward to feeding this blade! Little runt, I hope this doesn’t come out as cursed as the other one!”
Fairy blood was the necessary ingredient to awaken the dormant weapon. Together with Roa’s aura as a catalyst, the blade entered a state of metamorphosis, shedding its ancient appearance and taking on a new form.
—End of Chapter 14
