A freakishly tall man with a weirdly bony body that had tattoo-like scars running across his body was running at full speed through the forest, his face was covered in worry, “Greta! Greta! Where are you, Greta!” His shouts shook the surrounding trees as they came from the depths of his soul, his desperation evident.
Isaiah was following behind the tall man, despite being right next to the tall man, the tall man didn’t feel his presence. Isaiah examined the man’s body, his light element let him see even during the wake of night.
“Seems like Veridians are alive and well”, knowing this put a smile on his face. This meant his goal of acquiring the hilt was still plausible. He had finally found them after weeks spent in the desert.
The tall man tripped on a branch, his feet broke the branch but this didn’t prevent his fall. He prevented falling face flat by catching the ground with his hands, anger evident on his face, “Greta! Please come out!” It wasn’t certain if his fury was towards himself or Greta.
Isaiah had long lost interest in the actions of the man he long deemed pathetic, “Sigh, letting anger take over his rational. How pitiful, how truly pitiful.” His hands grabbed at a tall tree, and with each move of his arms, he ascended toward its top.
Once atop, his mana spread to observe from a high altitude. Here he possessed an advantage over the tall man as a light mage. He could see distance much further than any other element’s mage.
His sharp gaze quickly picked up movement in the distance, the trees were ruffled ever so slightly in a path. He could occasionally see a young tall woman running from a giant azure salamander through the gaps in the leaves.
…
Greta ran for her life, tears running down her face, “Fath-”, her shout was cut short by a claw that headed her way which she barely managed to dodge by leaping towards the side. Another claw soon followed before she could even fall to the ground which she couldn’t dodge.
She launched towards a tree far away, her tall body flying through the air aking to paper, THUCK! Being only at Rank 0, she lost consciousness as a result of the impact, “D..a.d”, he uttered those words with all her resolve as strength started leaving her body, a chilling cold replacing it.
The giant salamander approached, its sharp fangs glistened under the moonlight, signaling the end of Greta's short life. Its wide-open fangs positioned itself over her head.
Just as the fangs were about to close, SLICE, SPLAT, the salamander’s head hit the ground, soon followed by its body as it fell limp, becoming a corpse. The blinding light sword in Isaiah's hand turned into light particles, vanishing. He had finished the Rank 0 Peak monster in a single clean slice.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He kicked the corpse aside, not even bothering himself with it, “Let’s see what we have in our hands.” His Aura rushed towards her head to make sure her sleep wouldn’t be interrupted any time soon.
He then took what little clothes she had left on, off. Isaiah couldn’t help but appreciate it despite the blood covering it, her tall height wasn’t an obstruction to her beauty as her proportions were still sublime. His hands traced over the tattoo-like scars on her body, which turned out to be engraved lines going over her body. His main purpose was medical assession but he still admired her beauty while at it.
He put his hand on her stomach and let his mana invade her body for inspection, “Let’s see if my guess was right.” His smile turned wider when he observed her internals. Her insides nearly matched that of humans, affirming his suspicion that Veridians had evolved from humans and weren’t a separate species entirely.
After taking the few differences between her body and a human’s, he checked the severity of her injuries, “She will live.” He let go of her body, and didn’t bother healing her since her injuries weren’t fatal.
He went to a tree on the side, his legs lifted as he kicked out a devastating blow that broke the tree in half, producing a sound that reverberated through the silent forest.
He didn’t hide, instead simply turned back invisible as he waited while leaning on a tree on the side. After a few minutes, ruffling sounds were heard, the tall man from before rushed out of the tall bushes.
“Greta!” Worry took over his face as he saw his daughter in this condition. He directly rushed next to her to check her injuries. Relief replaced worry as he assessed her condition to be stable. His gaze only now falls upon the huge salamander corpse near them.
He could see the single clean slice that had taken the salamander’s life. In his long life of hunting, he had never seen such an occurrence, no animal produced such clean slashes at least none that habited this forest.
“I have to report back to Elder” He was already acting on behalf of Elder’s orders, he would have done it either way but Elder still had ordered him to return with Greta after finding her. Greta was special within the village as despite being 22 this year, she was the youngest member of the tribe.
He grabbed her carefully, paying great attention to not further her injuries. The journey back took a long time, the heat started to radiate once more as the sun shined its bright face, signaling the arrival of the morning.
After hours’ worth of walking, the surrounding trees turned sparse till there were none. The forest led up to a large opening with a tribe in the middle of it, numerous large tents of various colors were lined side by side leading up to the largest white tent with yellow accents at the furthest back of the tribe. There was no walls separating the tribe from the forest nor any other forms of proactive barriers, instead, the forest seemed to merge with the tribe, vines had taken over each tent decorating them with exotic flowers.
Isaiah had been following them the entire journey for hours on end, each step he took led Isaiah to their tribe. He had stopped paying attention to the father and daughter duo the moment the tribe appeared in front of him.
His gaze sharpened toward the largest tent, knowing full well where his first destination was within the tribe, “Let’s pay The Veridian Elder a visit, shall we?”