A giant shard of ice flew straight through the head of a solitary Elk. Its brain matter splattered in all directions, painting the surroundings red.
It was Refrigerator's third Elk today, a seventh if counting from the beginning of the mission. They had an easy time while fighting these in comparison to the rest of the beasts. Elks weren't as observant as lynxes and didn't travel in groups like wolves, so one powerful spell, from a considerable distance was everything required to kill one.
It was the third day of the hunt, the last one. They didn't encounter any problems throughout these days. The injury Kyll got on the first day was the only one they got as a whole.
They got him checked by a physician just after returning to the base each day, and his injury was healing nicely, it wasn't anything serious after all, only a few bruises and scratches. His armour took the bulk of the damage.
Currently, they searched the forest for the second time today, the first being before lunch.
Adam was the one to kill elks, as his magic had the best offensive potential if given enough time. Monica, on the other hand, dealt with lynxes, as these little bastards were too sharp not to notice Adam before he neared them. With wolves and different, unexpected creatures, they dealt as a team. It simply was the safest and most efficient way.
"Whew, if only dealing with wolves was this easy." Commented Adam.
"The hunt would lose all its charm, and become a slaughter." Said Monica.
Adam walked over to the elk and created a thin layer of ice on its skin, preventing the odour of a dead body from spreading around and preserving it until servants from the mansion came to gather it.
It was something he persuaded the butler to do, as he couldn't watch as the beasts they hunted were wasted, killed in vain only to rot in the empty forest.
"Iler, note another elk. About four kilometres northwest from the mansion." Ordered Adam, watching the sky in search of the sun.
Iler got a role in gathering the carcasses, he noted how many were of each kind, and where they were for servants to find more easily.
After noting it down, the team killed another three lynxes and an awakened deer. Why a deer you ask, wasn't it a normal animal? Well, the classification of monsters at lower realms is confusing, what differentiates a monster, a beast from a normal animal is mana. When the normal animal starts having mana it starts being called a beast.
Don't mistake a beast for a magic beast or aura beast thou, as the second and third are far more dangerous and powerful. It's like with intelligent creatures such as humans, if a beast is a boy who turned fifteen and now has some mana in his body, a magic beast is the same boy but, he is a mage now, the same goes with aura. Although aura beasts appear relatively later in realms than magic ones, the magic beasts are the far rarer ones. It's once again like with humans and their cores, magic beasts have mana from the start and aura ones acquire it later.
The Refrigerators surveyed the area once more and travelled back to the mansion afterwards.
There, someone waited for them.
A group of four armoured men and a woman in a cloak sat under one of the patios scattered around the mansion. They sat there around the table, drinking something hot.
It was Captain Garry and Brad, alongside the rest of their team.
The team was composed of two swordsmen, Garry and another man, An archer who was a woman in a cloak, Brad as a spearman and another guy clad in heavy armour, a main defender.
Captain Garry came to them with a question, after they noticed the arrivals.
"Hello, let's get straight to the point. So, where is the monster you were talking about? And, did you notice what kind of beast was it?" He questioned.
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"We found its tracks in the southeast, about 7 kilometres from the mansion. Adam will tell you more about it, as he was the one to notice its tracks." Answered Max, turning his head in Adam's direction and showing him to speak.
"It was presumably a big wolf." He said.
"What made you think so?" Asked Garry in return, with a straight face.
"Well, there were many paw marks on the snow, looking like the ones that wolves leave, but much bigger. Like three times normal. Another thing that pointed in the direction of a big wolf was the number of peed-on trees. The guy didn't do it in one big swoop but marked many trees with as little amount as possible. It could also be a dog, but I don't know if it changes anything." Adam ended his tirade in the most serious tone he could muster.
"Okay, that explains your thoughts." Commented the captain. "So, do you want to watch us as we kill it? It can't be stronger than the intermediate realm, the apex predator is known and observed all the time, and it is a bear that wouldn't tolerate such a powerful wolf in its forest. But it will still be dangerous as it could be an aura or magical beast, so you would have to take care of yourselves. Any eager?"
A moment of silence ensued, as everyone from Adam's team considered the decision. Sure, seeing the fight would be epic, like a glimpse into their possible future. But is it worth it? Is it worth risking their lives for a show?
"We will all go." Ordered Max. "We have Adam and Watt as a defence, I am sure that if they combined their efforts, they will protect us from an Intermediate beast for a while." His reasoning was valid but unchecked.
The Refrigerators, having nothing to say, complied with his order.
The whole group left to hunt the beast, towards the southeast.
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The huntress, a woman from Captain's team was searching the peeing site where Adam first spotted the traces of the monster.
"He sure was a big one and certainly a wolf. Do you see these claw marks? They couldn't belong to any dog, and their symmetry also points towards a wolf." She said, pointing to some decently preserved pawprints with a stick.
"How long ago did you spot these?" Huntress asked while looking at Adam.
"Yesterday around noon." He answered.
The huntress stayed still for a second or two, thinking.
"We will go with its trail, hoping it isn't lost. You should also look around as we go. He doesn't walk in this area very often, according to these tracks.
And they did, a large Elk lay further southeast, its head ripped from its body, bloody trail was the only thing that was left of the rest of its body.
"It may have been rage hunting, or it has cubs. Thou the second possibility is slimmer. It was probably becoming a wild beast, if it was advancing to the fourth realm, it wouldn't bother itself for with any part of a Feeble beast's body apart from its heart." She definitely had a lot of expertise on the matter.
About the Wild Beast thing, it is the beast's counterpart of the intermediate realm. The equivalent of the Basic realm is the Feeble Beast, and for Elementary is the Ordinary Beast. The Advanced realm correlates with a beast Warrior and the Master realm beast would be called a Lord.
The way people name the real is quite confusing, but the worst is the second one. You see, the rank as a whole is called 'Elementary', but no one is called elementary warrior, or elementary beast. Mages and warriors use 'beginner' instead of 'elementary' and beasts are called 'ordinary'.
A similar situation happens in the first, basic, realm, where beasts are called 'feeble' and humans 'aspiring'
Whoever decided on the naming of the first two realms has been definitely thrown off the cliff as a child, and fell on his head. After all, all other realms use the official realm rank for humans. Beasts still have different names, but that is inevitable, no one would want to be called the same as an animal.
They travelled another few kilometres, before finding the wolf. And it was monstrous.
The wolf lay on a small hill, which was covered in remains of his meals. The spot wasn't very open but gave him a nice advantage when spotting animals in the vicinity. The weird thing was the absence of its brethren around him.
Adam observed the beast, it had light grey fur all over its body, thou it was currently painted red with blood in some places. Those red spots were the main reason they noticed the beast from afar. The wolf was huge, over a meter tall while lying down on the ground.
"Okay, Haga, you will shoot at it from this tree as we approach it, shoot when it notices us, or I raise my arm above my head." Captain told the huntress, who was apparently called Haga.
"You guys stay here, and listen to her if anything out of ordinary happens." He ordered the newbies.
Garry, Brad, the defender and the swordsman left towards the beast. They walked in short intervals from each other. Side to side, so if the beast attacked unexpectedly, they could circle it quickly.
They stepped carefully, trying to soften the characteristic crunch of snow under their boots and not to step on some unfortunate twig.
When they were about forty metres from the hill, Garry raised his arm.
Haga, who situated herself on a branch of a big tree, raised her weapon, drew her bow and shot.
The arrow glowed slightly just as it left Haga's vicinity, it flew through the air towards the beast while making no noise.
The wolf was hit in the eye, to which it responded by roaring and raising itself above the ground angryly.
Its head turned slowly in their direction, noticing Adam's group, but it quickly turned towards Garry and the others.
The beast grinned ferociously, staring at its attackers.
It growled and charged towards humans.