Noah stood alongside Pillow. Peering through a dense bush just above the coastline, they listened grimly to the loud sound of chomping. A crack followed by chomping. And slurping.

Blood stains marred the beach, leading to a wide cave entrance that Noah couldn’t see because of the sheer drop below. Beyond the beach, the ocean had turned red. A line was created, like a border that couldn’t be crossed.

It was because of the monster hiding in the cave that the fish refused to move. They weren’t willing to cross that border.

It was Noah’s job to take out whatever resided in the cave. As to how he would accomplish that… Well, a pointed metal pole usually did the trick. This wouldn’t be any different.

However, someone had reservations.

“Are you fucking insane?” Pillow looked at Noah as if he was crazy. Maybe he was. “There’s a damned reason the fish refuse to go beyond that bloody border. Besides, why the hell did I come along?”

“What’s the matter?” Noah smiled. “You go in first, take all of its attention. I’ll flank and kill it. Easy.”

Pillow said in a dry tone. “That’s not funny.”

Noah laughed and pet him on the shoulder. “Relax.” Noah looked down at the bloodied beach. “We need to lure it away. Maybe we don’t have to kill it. If we can do that, then we don’t have to risk injury.”

“You mean death.”

“Yeah,” Noah replied. “Any ideas?”

“Why did you bring me along?” Pillow asked. “Seems like you’ve got everything figured out.”

“I can’t seem to find my dragonborn friend.” Noah shrugged.

Truthfully, he didn’t have a clue where Thraz was. He had tried looking for him before he left for this mission. But there was no sight of him. Not even a smell. And by all accounts, that was quite worrying. He could smell Thraz from a mile away, after all.

No. He had disappeared somewhere. First defeat the monster, then worry about what Thraz was up to. No way he would get himself in trouble. Right?

“Let’s just hope he didn’t venture deeper into the city.” Pillow scoffed.

“What if he did?”

“Then you’d have to scrape his scales off the walls,” Pillow said. “I’ve seen numerous beasts travel there with curiosity. But none have returned.”

Noah nodded. “Let’s just hope he’s smarter than I think he is.”

“Good luck,” Pillow said. “Well, what’s the plan then? For one, we don’t know how fast the monster is. For all we know its main strength could be speed. If that was the case, we’d be better off signing the death warrant right now.”

“For now we just need to watch.” Noah kept his attention on the beach. “We need to know its habits. What does it enjoy eating? Where does it shit? How long before it goes back into the ocean? To defeat it, we need to know all of that and more.”

“So you’re not as reckless as I thought.”

“Yeah–”

If only Pillow knew half of it.

***

Hours passed by as Noah, Pillow, Krall, and Gluttony watched the beach. They were like patient detectives. Waiting for the suspect to reveal its true motive. They had managed to pry a lot of information on the beast as it finally reared its savage head from its hidey hole.

And it was a gruesome sight.

Its body was enormous. It reminded Noah of a giant from the broadcast. Only this giant had dorsals atop its head and gills crafted onto its ribcage like a venting system in a low quality hotel. Its feet followed the rule of size. Each toe was bigger than Noah’s head, and in between them, was a thin sheet of webbed flesh,

Noah was too far up to use [Identify]. So he decided to name it Giant for now. Just like he had hoped, Giant had habits just like every beast did. Just like every human did. When something was brave enough to enter the red border, he would dash out with surprising speed. Then, he would dive straight in, catch it, then eat it.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It didn’t matter what it was, the Giant would dive in time after time to hunt. Like it was obsessed. It reminded Noah of a territorial goose. Those things were like beasts birthed from hell. Total assholes that would attack anything in sight.

And every time, Giant would eat them without fail. That was the weakness Noah had studied. And it was the weakness he attended to attack.

All that was left was to put the plan into action. Brought forward by the promise of a reward, Pillow followed Noah’s descent down to the beach. If the cave was on one side of the beach, then they had stepped right into the middle.

The golden grains stretched far. It covered miles of land. Stretching from one side of the island, to the other. And Noah and his group were right bang in the middle. Of course he decided not to descend right into the beast's jaws.

During the time spent watching the beast. Noah had prepared what he needed. Poison and fish food. He had obtained the toxic substance from the Grace Shop. And judging by the price of the item, he sure hoped it worked.

Next up was finding the fish, but that wasn’t difficult. Since he was on the other side of the red border, there were plenty of fish to go around. It seemed like this side of the island was a safehaven of all sorts of life. Fish swam unperturbed by what was happening beyond the gargantuan wall of grey-green fog.

Even beasts travelled to the coast line to feed. Because of the large monsters locked behind the wall of fog, it was a risk-free eating ground. Well, apart from the other monsters that contested them. Then all hell broke loose.

Noah spotted areas in the sand that were gouged out. Holes the size of six of him had been dug out of the sand from the fighting monsters. Dried blood matted the sand. From a golden yellow, to dark brown. It wasn’t a good sight.

A crackling of a bush made Noah’s heart twang.

He and his group dashed into one of the nearby holes dug into the sand. Noah peered over. A beast emerged from the jungle.

Level ??? - Gillsnatch Crawler.

The sight of the three question marks made Noah wary.

It was a quadruped. Long dense fur covered the majority of its body. It had a long thin snout lined with razor-sharp teeth. Noah guessed it was for catching fish. Along with bulky claws that were even larger than two-handed swords, and thicker than hammers, it flicked up the sand as it approached the waters.

Now and then it would scout out the surrounding area. Searching for any prey that may disturb its feeding time. It didn’t seem to find Noah and his team hiding in the sand. Whether it was the salt spray of the ocean, the fishy smell of the beach, or whatever other reason there may be, the monster didn’t sense them.

Thank goodness. The last thing Noah wanted right now was a battle. This place was a haven for monsters and he didn’t plan on staying very long. But he had to wait.

The monster, realising that it was alone, dipped its claws in the water. There wasn’t a single splash. It didn’t even create a little wave. It was completely different to how it walked on the sand. It was effortless, seamless. It looked like it was gliding atop the water.

Clearly exceptionally adept at hunting in the ocean, it wasn’t long before the Gillsnatch… snatched out more than a handful of fish from the water. THey wriggled for a second, before they were swallowed.

It looked at the water once more, as if hesitating. But it decided to leave. Noah was surprised. The monster didn’t let its hunger consume it. Instead, it realised the situation it was in, and the danger of the island. And retreated the moment it had taken a bite.

Not overstaying its welcome, it retreated back into the jungle. Not many beings had the capability to so easily overcome their hunger. And for a monster of that size, it must need to eat a lot. Despite that, it would rather eat less, and come back tomorrow, rather than die.

Not only was the monster more intelligent than the crab he had faced in the city. But with how perfectly it hunted its prey, Noah was given a stark reminder that now all level one hundred were the same. Who knows, maybe it was a higher level than the legion crab.

With the Crawler gone, it was time to act.

Noah ran over to the shallow waters of the ocean. However, he quickly realised the problem. Once he neared, the fish darted further into the waters.

“We scared them,” Noah whispered.

“Yeah, no doubt because of that ugly face,” Pillow said.

“Hey, I’m above average looking.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Pillow continued. “Well, what do we do now?”

“Want me to hold your hand as well?” Noah chuckled as he watched the panda’s face contort to anger. “Everyone back off. I’ll do this part on my own.”

Pillow, along with Krall and Gluttony backed all the way back into one of the deep sand holes. Technically he could enact his plan with Glutton by his side, but his hungry eyes were piercing. Even if he could mask their presence, there was nothing he could do about the killer instinct of a wolf-bat.

Thanks to the massive wall of fog, the entire island was a lot darker than it should be. Because of that, Noah was able to hide in the shadows like an experienced rogue. With Shadowed Presence activated, he disappeared from sight.

When the fish returned, Noah took out the pouch of already poisoned fish flakes. Grabbing a hand full, he scattered it above the water's surface.

At first the fish swam away, scared of what had just struck the water. But their hunger got the best of them. Thanks to the unique properties of the poison, it was odourless. And tasteless. Brought forward by the promise of a risk-free meal, they nibbled away at the water's surface.

Noah grinned. It was time. Noah gave the signal, and Gluttony bolted from the side. He splashed in the water, and made sure that the fish were being pushed to the border.

The fish approached the red line.

Noah rubbed his hands together. Everything was going to plan.