After the duo travelled for a surprising amount of time and distance, the towering trees once commonly intertwined and interconnected now resemble a more traditional rainforest, allowing the light rays to break through the once obstructive leaf canopy. Sitting on Solus' shoulders, Kara watched the spots on the canopy where the sunlight broke through, noting the repetitive pattern of the spots in the trees' canopy being oddly intentional but otherwise finding the matter disinteresting.

"Mind getting off me?" Solus requested as he felt Kara press The Chronicle Codex's base harder into his skull, her focus on reading its content so strong it distracted her from realising the amount of pressure she was applying to Solus with the CC.

"One can't read and fly at the same time," Kara retorted while flicking to the next page of The CC. Solus rolled his eyes at Kara's disregard and slowly lowered his head making sure not to alert Kara, not that she'd notice even if Solus moved sporadically or aggressively. Solus remained quiet, contemplating his next course of action and whether he should knock Kara into a tree or the ground. As he came close to enacting his Knocking Kara Down A Peg Plan, Solus shook his head deeming a stroppy Kara to be more of a hassle than an absently annoying one and decided to let her be as he corrected his posture. Kara stared at Solus with a mild smirk on her face, her eagerness to divulge the info she discovered from The Chronicle Codex making her mannerisms resemble one of a normal kid.

"Word of note, one noticed The Codex mentioned there were humans up ahead, so mostly likely they are by the spirit energy you sensed," Kara explained before slamming The Chronicle Codex shut. She raised The Codex above her head and brought it down on Solus, smacking him in the back of the dome. Kara remained still for a second, the impact of her book hit reverberating back through her, travelling up through her bones, and making her antennae spring up into the shape of zig-zags.

"What was that?" Solus asked, not realising the thing which hit him was Kara. Despite being overwhelmed by the recoil, Kara remained strong, continuing to act in her usual aloof and emotionless way, by angrily huffing and stating it must have been a bug, even if her voice was jittery. Solus couldn't help but snicker aloud at hearing Kara's voice addition, his snickering only going to make Kara pout more and lightly pound her fists against Solus.

"Would it be considered racist for you to be scared of bugs?" Solus asked jokingly; despite trying to antagonise Kara and much to his surprise, the abrupt onslaught of quiet mumbling from Kara caught Solus completely off guard, causing him to meekly sigh at triggering one of Kara's self-discussion incidents, wondering why it had to happen now of all times.

As he covered his eyes to hide from Kara's rambling, Solus inadvertently walked straight into a clearing, his mind so preoccupied with drowning out Kara that he was completely unaware of the battle between some humans and a larger monster he had cut to a halt by walking between the two parties. One of the humans dressed in an academic-looking uniform, a teenaged human female stood in front of the injured students also wearing the same uniform as her, her arms up in front of her with her hands primed to conjure a spell.

(The girl is a sixteen-year-old slightly short teenaged human; she has faded black fluffy and woolly hair tied into one large pompom, a dark blue right eye, a dark purple left eye, and dark tanned skin with obvious tan lines)

(She is wearing golden bracelets with silver studs, a white tailored button-up shirt, grey suit trousers with two thin lines on the sides of each leg, black shoes, and a dark purple elbow-low cloak with yellow trims)

The girl's gaze followed Solus, her expression a mix of confusion and bewilderment as she watched him walk right between her and the monster. Along with her companions, she was at a loss for words at the absurd sight of a guy in a snake-theme hoodie and a girl with moth-themed accessories.

"Oi! Girl with the staring problem," Kara barked, snapping the girl out of her bewilderment-fuelled state.

"Huh?" the girl mumbled before quickly raising a hand to her chest as she regained a hint of her composure, even if the looming silhouette of the burly monster standing behind Solus made that composure fickle at best.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Ahem... what might it be, little one?" the girl asked with a semi-noble and dignified tone of voice. Kara mildly flinched, finding the particular use of adjective for her insulting but decided to overlook it on the sole fact she was referred to as one, and wanted to bask in the novelty of it for a bit.

"Is this thing someone you know's pet or something?" Solus asked as he raised a hand and pointed a thumb at the monster behind him.

"Only a maniac would have a xilophae as a pet!" a battered guy exclaimed with his face in the dirt. As Kara hopped off his shoulder and glided to the ground using The Chronicle Codex like a paraglider, Solus raised a hand to his side, his fist clenched as his pale blue mana swirled from him and coiled around his hand with a vice-like grip with any part of the mana that splits off from him instantly turning to dust.

"Then I'll get to saving you then," Solus remarked as the torrent of voices from the spirits inside his mind stumbled over each other to get his attention, hoping to be chosen to help deal with the monster. However, they were instantly silenced by the simple huff from Nebula followed by her stating it should be her, mentioning this is an unknown monster so it's best if Solus uses the spirit weapon he is most familiar with. After letting her explanation sink in, the other spirits gradually got on board and reluctantly agreed, not knowing Nebula's true intentions were simply to monopolise Solus for herself at any chance she could.

Knowing what she was up to, Solus could only pessimistically sigh at the situation, reluctantly going along with Nebula's antics to save himself the headache of listening to the spirits bicker on who gets to help him. Solus raised his gaze to the tall monster, towering over him at double his height, its overall shape being mostly humanoid save for its deer-shaped legs, turtlehead, and the metalic knight-armour turtle shell chunks covering its body.

The monster reeled its head into the air, snapping its jaw open, and unleashed a guttural roar, sending bone-tingling shivers through the girl's companions while she remained mostly unfazed by it. As she watched from a distance, the girl gritted her teeth, an undeniable and overbearing sense of shame overcoming her as the recollection of the group's escorts getting killed by the monster played in her mind, the shame only being compounded now that a stranger was currently defending them.

However, despite Solus' relaxed demeanour, the girl could not help the uneasy sensation in her chest as she couldn't get over the glaring issue of Solus being seemingly unarmed. Clutching at her forearm, the girl felt her growing guilt pang to her limit, goading her to take action and try to stop Solus. But as she took a step forward, Kara's small hand appeared before her face, stopping the girl in her tracks as Kara sat on the floating Chronicle Codex with a smug bounce in its swaying.

"No need, Keuikae, those lot can handle it," Kara explained while rocking her hand from side to side. Keuikae paused momentarily before lightly itching her head, finding the right words to say hard to come by from the two puzzling parts of Kara's statement.

The monster continued to howl, drumming and bashing Solus' ears with its ferocity, and mildly causing Solus some pain. Solus raised his mana-less hand, balling up his fist as he reinforced his body with chakra, before reeling his fist back. Solus slammed his foot into the ground, mildly cracking the ground and catching the monster's attention causing it to halt its howling sharply.

A split second later, a metalic bang exploded through the forest, startling the nearby birds from the roof of the forest, and the monster's entire body jolted. Keuikae stood on the spot, her eyes wide like a deer in headlights with her mouth on the cusp of dropping from pure shock but she managed to catch herself before it happened. Solus stood firm, despite the faint shock on his face, as his fist pierced smoothly through the monster. The monster briefly writhed on the spot before its body went limp, collapsing to its knees as Solus felt a sudo increase in weight from the monster.

"Seems someone altered the amount of chakra I made...," Solus remarked mentally, his voice laced with dread as he heard the pouty murmuring of an angered Nebula ringing in his mind. The faint sound of smug snickering danced through Solus' Pulling his arm free, the monster corpse wobbled and slinked backwards, collapsing like a crumbling building or stack of cards, before slamming against the ground.

"Oooh~ you've gone and done it now Solus, I can't believe you went and upset Nebi-gah!?" Eusia's telepathic voice asked cheekily before the sound of her getting strangled rippled through Solus' mind. Immediately knowing Nebula was the one doing the strangling, even without the pleading from Eusia saying she was only doing a little trolling, Solus raised a hand to his forehead and itched it.

"Nebi, if you don't stop, I'll have to revoke your access to-.". Suddenly, a loud distant splash boomed in Solus' head and he could only sigh in mild amusement as Nebula stated she let go of Eusia and wouldn't be having her favourite pass time taken from her.