Deep inside of Savagery Forest. Mateo and Beltrand froze in fear. Sweat dripping on their face as the two stare eye to eye on creature in front of them. Barely even blinking just to ensure that they would see any movement.
In front of Mateo and Beltrand is a Devourer. The same apex monster they watch devour a cockratrice days ago. The Devourer observe the two human who stiff like a statue, waiting for them to make any movememt.
For Mateo and Beltrand, if they have their gear and the others. They can fight the devourer in equal footing. But with only their ragged clothes, Elven Ironwood logs and a single butcher's machete. They want to escape, but as the monster's gaze locked on them, Mateo and Beltrand knows there's now way for them to escape and the only option is to fight back.
For the Devourer which is a female according to its gargantuan size compared to males, she only see the two humans as snacks before she proceeds to hunt bigger prey scattered away by the recent deluge of Flood Crabs.
"Can we win this Mateo?" Beltrand whispers. Avoiding to provoke the Devourer.
"We can only try. Besides, we already have experience fighting that thing."
"But we don't have our weapons and gear."
"We still have these." Mateo's answer as he point his eyes to the Elven Ironwood he carried on his shoulder.
Beltrand gives a deep sigh.
"I hope this would work. So what's the plan."
"Provoke and absorb its attack. Use your log to block. I'm going to make a counter-attack."
"Ok."
Beltrand moves and grips the Ironwood tightly.
"Come one you bitch! Eat me!"
Mateo slowly moves away to give space after seeing the Devourer focusing its attention on Beltrand.
And just like what Beltrand wanted, the Devourer strikes and eager to devour Beltrand. Beltrand on the otherhand use the Ironwood as he quickly planted it to the ground vertically and use his body as support his makeshift shield. The Ironwood doesn't even bend as the Devourer's face strike the wood itself. But she continues to push her hand, moving Beltrand and the wood."
"Mateo! I can't hold this forever!"
Seeing that the Devourer is deadset of eating Beltrand, Mateo leaps as he still carrying his ironwood. He hold the and using the momentum and gravity to strike the Devourer's head downwards using hard and solid Elven Ironwood.
BLAG!
Mateo successfully hit the head of the snake, slaming her head hard to the ground.
The Devourer was clearly feel that attack but she recovers and looked at the source of the pain.
Mateo still in mid-air. The devourer use her tail to slam Mateo and send him flying, hitting and breaking few trees in the process.
"MATEO!" Beltrand screams. But his concern quickly switch to his survival as the Devourer rushes and surround Beltrand with her body. Preparing to constrict him to death
Within the rubble, Mateo slowly stand while holding his head. Still dizzy due to the violent attack.
But he recovers quickly. Mateo watch the Devourer contricts her body swiftly to kill Beltrand. But before Beltrand even touch the snake's body, Beltrand lifted the log and place it horizantilly thus preventing the snake of completely engulfing and squashing him to death.
Beltrand leaves the pit before the Devourer makes a follow-up attack, that's where he see something flying towards him. Beltrand recognize the object and catch it.
Without wasting time, Beltrand spins and amplifies the force of the log thrown by Mateo and after few more spins, he throws the log to the Devourer. The log pierces the Devourer's eye, lodging itself deep on the eye socket.
The Devourer gives a screeching scream followed by a franctic movement, clearly showing the pain she dealing with.
Mateo and Beltrand group up and hides as they watch the Devourer wrecks the place. But whatever she do, the log is still stucked in her eye. Clearly distress, the Devourer runs away in panic.
"Let's follow it!" Mateo scream.
The two run and follows the Devourer's trail. Beltrand notices his Ironwood log and picks it before catching up with Mateo.
"Why you seems not concerned that your log is stucked on that thing's eye?" Beltrand asked.
"I'm worried of course. But it's also a good opporunity."
"And why is that?"
Instead of talking. Mateo just make a hand gesture of hammer hitting a nail.
"Oooooohhhhhhhhh...." Beltrand understands the objective.
"Damn. That snake is surely fast. We already lost sight on it."
"Not really, with this huge mess she make. There's no way that we can't follow her." Beltrand refers to the path of fallen trees and flattened vegetation left behind by the escaping Devourer.
After few minutes. Mateo and Beltrand hears some sort of fighting from a distant.
"It's seems coming from the direction of Devourer's escape path."
The closer they got, the louder the battle is to the point that they see the voices coming from a group of girls. Behind them is a tall wall of a cliff as the Devourer cornered them.
"Shit shit shit! After surviving those Flood Crabs, of all things we can encounter. Why it's a Devourer!?" A muscled buff lady holding an axe screams
"But why it looks injured? There's something stucked on its left eye." The Priestess says.
"No wonder its very agitated!" The swordsman lady shouts as they continue to dodge the thrashing of the Devourer.
"Whoever fight this Devourer is surely don't know how to finish a job." A young Spearwoman says as she leap backwards because her consecutive stabs doesn't even leave a scratch.
"And so we are! There's no way for us to defeat this monster!" The Axe lady screams.
The axe lady tries to smash the Devourer's body but her axe only bounce back as the scales of the Devourer are absurdly tough.
"!!!"
The Axe lady got hit by a tail swipe, sending her flying and crashing to a nearby rock, destroying it.
"AUGH!"
Her friends distract and lure the Devourer far away from the Axe lady. The priestess runs towards her and starts to tend her injuries.
With power, toughness, speed and ferocity all packed on a sheer size. Devourer is feared by newer Gold Ranked adventurers and veteran Golds considered it as a test if someone really have the guts to further climb the Ranks.
The group of ladies, with their priestess and swordswoman just recently reach gold rank have no way to defeat the Devourer.
"Do you think we can escape?" The swordswoman asked her comrades. The spearwoman gulps after hearing the question.
"No. The moment the devourer focus its gaze on us, we're already dead. The best we can do is to wish for a miracle." The spearwoman says as in her 2 years of being a gold rank, she heared numerous stories about the Devourer.
The swordswoman eyes dilated after hearing her friend's words. But she retains composure and smirks.
In the tall grass. Mateo and Beltrand watch carefully as the Spearwoman and Swordswoman dodges the attacks of the Devourer. But it slowly wears them down as their movement becomes slower.
"Should we interfere?" Beltrand asked as he can't stomach to watch the ladies to get murdeted one-by-one.
"Of course. But we need to wait for the opportunity. How about you slowly creep on the Axe lady and Priestess then borrow her axe?"
"And you?"
"I'm going to hammer down the log."
Beltrand nods. He leaves his log and carefully crawls away. Mateo grabs Beltrand's Ironwold log.
The two ladies are already reaching their limit. The Devourer strikes again by prepering to devour the Swordswoman entirely.
"!!!" The Swordswoman is shocked as her legs are now given up and she can't even walk a single step.
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The Spearwoman screams as she run towards to the Swordswoman who just looked at her, accepting her incoming death.
SWOOSH!
The Spearwoman almost got hit by a fast moving projectile.
"Huh?"
She watch as the projectile hits the log lodged to the Devourer's eye. Pushing it deeper inside its skull. That moment she realized that the projectile is another log of wood as if falls to the ground.
The Devourer gives a defeaning screech as the pain of getting stab to the eye returns. It thrashes the surroundings out of blind rage.
The Spearwoman grabs the Swordsman away from the range of rampaging monster.
"I don't know what just happened but thanks for that!"
Mateo reveals himself. Slowly walking to the log he recently thrown.
"Oy... You're supposed to be an the strongest on this forest yet you dare to escape from us?"
Mateo grabs the log and he leaps high in the air. The Devourer just recovered but it's already too late for her as Mateo already prepared to strike her head.
SLAM!
With a circular downward strike of ironwood to the head. Mateo slams the Devourer to the ground. Creating a crater.
Mateo toes touch the ground but he waste no time as Mateo prepared to hammer the lodged Ironwood again. He strike it down using his ironwood, planting it deeper to the Devourer's skull.
The Devourer rampages again. Mateo leap backwards.
"Tsk!"
From the distant. The Priestess and Axe Lady just watch in awe as the unknown man suddenly appears and fights the Devourer on his own.
"Who the hell is that guy?! Aughh!" The Axe Lady is still not recovering from her injury.
"He doesn't have any weapon except for those logs. He must be the one that injured the Devourer before we encountered it." The Priestess explains.
The two are too fixated on the fight that they didn't noticed Beltrand is already on their side as he picked the axe to the ground. Then walks to the direction of the Devourer.
"Ha?! My axe! Give it back!" The Axe Lady screams as Beltrand shows on her line of vision, watching as he holds the two-handed axe by just one hand.
"Miss! Let me borrow this for a moment!" Beltrand screams as he lift the axe on the air while still walking.
"You bastard!"
"Calm down. He must be related to the guy fighting the Devourer." The Priestess assures her friend. Still regaining her composure.
The Devourer recovers but she clearly injured and delirious. She can see the man that causes her pain.
"Hello Swordlady."
"Y-Yes?"
"Can I borrow your sword?"
Without hesistation, the Swordswoman throws her sword to Mateo.
"Thanks."
Mateo is not used to the sword which is a rapier but still he tries to adapt. He infused his mana on his new weapon.
"Ok bring it on." Mateo says as he taunts the Devourer with a confident smile.
The Devourer is engulfed by wrath as she watch the man taunt her. She rushes in reckless abanddon.
The moment the Devourer strikes a bite, Mateo just sidesteps. The devourer follow-up her attack with a tail slam but Mateo just brace and wait...
And wait... with focus.
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SLASH!
Mateo cleanly slash the tail of the Devourer who roars in pain.
Mateo then rush to the still panicking Devourer, jumps to its body and runs on the entire lenght while also leaving consecutive slashes.
The Devourer rampages in attempt to shake out the human that slashing her entire body. When Mateo reach the top of her head, the Devourer shakes more aggressively until she finally get rid of Mateo who jumps away.
"A-Amazing..." The Swordwoman watch with amazement.
Mateo leaps forward and prepares to thrust the sword to what he thinks is where the Devourer's heart is located. The monster didn't notice the fast approaching Mateo who already on the striking distance.
Mateo put all of his power and mana on the rapier and thrust it.
SNAP
To Mateo's horror. The rapier snaps in two as it fails to handle Mateo's mana. The tip of the sword flies in front of the Swordswoman.
"MY PRECIOUS SWORD!!! NOOOO!!!" The Swordswoman screams.
Meanwhole, Mateo stops on his track as he watch the the Devourer look at him with murderous intent.
"Well well welll... What a turn tables."
The Devourer tries to bite him but Mateo leaps away and run. The Devourer quickly goes for a chase.
As Mateo run, he see Beltrand running towards him holding the axe she borrowed.
"Damn! You destroyed the fair lady's sword! So ruthless!"
"Shut up! Just help me!"
"Yes sir!"
Beltrand leaps to the air. Because the Devourer is too fixated on chasing Mateo, she didn't see Beltrand already on the air, holding the axe.
"Up here!" Beltrand screams.
The Devourer finally noticed Beltrand but it's already too late for her. She tries to locate Beltrand the the glare of the daylight behind him blinds the remaining eye of the Devourer.
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.
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SLAM!
Beltrand slams the axe to the ground with tremendous force. Creating an impact crater. The Devourer just stands motionless, still staring on the sky.
But it only takes a moment before everyone notices that the head of the Devourer slowly opens vertically. The result of Beltrand grand slam that effortlessly cut the head of the monster.
When the Devourer's head grotesquely opens up, showing its brains and flesh. The devourer finally falls to the ground with a lound thud.
The female party takes a moment before they managed to process what just happaned.
"W-we're safe?" The Axe Lady's question as she still can't believe that all of them are still alive. She slowly stand up, the Priestess still on alert for further injury.
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.
.
"YEAHHHHHHHH!!!"
The Axe Lady gives a proud scream. Glad to see another day.
"It's truly a miracle that someone saves us. Thank you so much Goddess Vivvily." Priestess' gratitude as she prays.
Everyone regroups near the carcass of the Devourer.
"Is everyone ok?" Mateo asked.
"Besides some injuries, all of us are fine. We can't thank you enough for saving our lives." The Spearwoman bows followed by others except for the Swordswoman who just holding the other half of the sword Mateo broke. She looks at it with sad expression on her face.
"Hey." The Axe lady's barely audible call. The Swordwoman comes back on her senses and bows quickly.
"I'm so sorry! Please forgive my rudeness!"
"It's fine. In fact I should be the one that apologize for breaking your sword. It seems that your sword is precious to you."
The Swordswoman looks at Mateo and she gives a bitter and nostalgic smile.
"Yes... This sword is a gift from my father."
"I understand the sentimentality but to be honest, that's just a hunk of iron." The Spearwoman's honest opinion.
"How dare you to say that?!" The Swordwonan pouts.
"Is your father still alive?" Beltrand asked.
"Yes. But he's senile now."
"Hmmm... I think your father is more happy to know that his sword manages to save the life of his precious daughter." Beltrand's honest thought.
The Swordswoman looks again on her sword. The same sword that always on her side since she starts adventuring and climb the ranks. Inspired by the adventures of her father, she followed his path with the same sword he used in the past.
The Swordswoman is sad to see the state of the sword but in her mind, but she can't deny that the Sword is truely save her and her friends' lives. She give a pained smile to Beltrand.
"Yes."
"Good. Anyway, here's your axe." Beltrand gives the axe to the Axe Lady.
Mateo meanwhile is pulling the Ironwood stucked inside the Devourer's corpse. Everyone walks closer to the corpse and gawked at it with curiousity. Except the Priestess who still stare to Mateo and Beltrand.
"Sir. What you gonna do with this corpse?" The Spearwoman asked as she poked it with her spear.
Beltrand and Mateo looked at each other. Well it makes sense that the party asked that as they're the one that kills the Devourer.
But killing the Devourer is not their focus right now. It's just that the circumstances requires them to kill the monster.
"What do you think Bro Mateo?" Beltrand asked.
Mateo makes up his mind.
"We just gonna leave that to you."
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.
"EHHHHHH!" The girls are shocked.
"Why?" Mateo asked as he was curious on the girls' reaction.
"B-b-but we can's absolutely do that!" The Swordswoman says in shock.
"Yes that's right! Not only you saved our lives but also you're the one that defeated it. We have no rights to claim the Devourer!"
"Besides. There's no way for us to sell the materials on the guild. No one would believe us that a single gold ranked party like us would defeat a Devourer." The Axe Lady added.
Mateo agrees on the the Axe Lady. Not only that they can't sell the loot of a very powerful monster that requires 2 experienced party to defeat, it might also put suspicion on their party.
"How about sell the materials to a merchant? They might buy it lower than the Guild's price but it's a Devourer's material's so it still fetch a fortune."
Everyone looked a Beltrand with dissapointment.
"Beltrand, you know that's illegal right?"
"If you got caught." Beltrand smirks. Mateo sighs.
"I guess that's the only way. You hear him." Mateo gives up and accepts Beltrand
"W-w-we appreaciate the gesture but why you give us this just like that?" The Swordswoman asked as she was confused on why the two just casually give such prized drop.
"Just consider it as my apology for breaking your sword. Also, I want for you to have a proper weapon suitable for your rank." Mateo gives a gentle smile which makes the Swordswoman blush.
"T-thanks for consideration."
"But still, it just feel bad for us if you don't get anything on this." The Axe Lady said.
"If that's the only problem now. Well, I have an idea." Beltrand have an idea.
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The girls wave their hands and shouts their gratitudes and farewells as they watch the two man walks away also waving their hand. Each holding their logs and a huge cut of meat from the Devourer which is now a skinned carcassed, with it's fangs and other valuable parts both outside and inside removed. They finally lost vision of Mateo and Beltrand so they prepare themselves for their departure.
"Phew! This day is surely a huge one." The Spearwoman says with ethusiasm.
"Agree. Well, all is right and we going to have a feast once we sold this materials... Hehe..." The Axe Lady is drooling as she imagine the delicious foods she can eat.
"If you that hungry. We can also eat some of the Devourer meat you know? Anyways. Missus, you seems dreamy huh?" The Spearwoman referring to the Swordswoman who just staring on the sky with a huge smile on her face.
"Ah... Are you talking to me?"
"Of course! Why you look so happy?"
"Because I'm excited for my new sword."
"Good grief." The Spearwoman gives a gentle smile. "Be sure to pick a sword that fits to you.
Meanwhile, the Priestess is still on deep thoughts as she try to remember where she seen the two guys. As she feels that she see them before. Until...
"AHHHHHHH!"
"HUH! WAIT!?" The Spearwoman is surprised to hear their Priestess' sudden scream.
"AN ENEMY?! WHERE?!" The Swordswoman is alert as she unsheath a non-existent sword.
"Ahhh!" The Swordwoman screams in annoyance.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" The Axe Lady visibly annoyed as she watch the Priestess sudden surprised reaction.
"S-s-sorry guys! It's just that, I finally remember who are those two guys are!"
"Ara? Then tell us what you remember." The Spearwoman asked.
"I finally remember after repeating their names! Those two are members of Grand Ecstasy!"
Everyone is shocked on the revelation.
"G-g-grand Ecstasy? That party that fight and survives a fight with a Legendary Hero!?" Axe Lady's surprised reaction.
"W-wait are you sure?"
"Yes! I'm so focused on us surviving that I didn't noticed their appearance but I'm sure it's them that I see when I visit Nattunia!" The Priestess tells with excitement.
"Damn. Well that explains on how they manage to defeat this thing." The Axe Lady sigh deeply.
"But now I'm sad because Ms. Sophia is not with them." The Priestess' slight dissapointment as she has great admiration for Sophia after knowing her story during the Reverse Tower incident.
"Yeah. Isn't Grand Ecstasy have 5 members? Why we only see two? Not only that, they look so ragged and didn't bring their gears with them." The Swordsman's pondering as she re-imagined the appearance of Mateo and Beltrand.
"From what I can tell. It seems the two is doing a rigorous training." The Axe Lady ponders as she piece the observations told by her friends.
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Meanwhile, Mateo and Beltrand are walking away and they return on their training. There's an unusual silence between them for a while.
"Bro."
"Yes Bro?"
"Can you punch me in the face?" Mateo asked, there's seriousness on his face.
"Weird because I also want to ask you the same. But we don't need to do that." Beltrand show the bundle of Devourer meat he's lifting.
"So... WE REALLY DEFEAT A DEVOURER WITH ONLY TWO OF US?"
"There's no denying it Bro Mateo. We managed to kill an powerful gold monster that in the past required us to team up with Wanderer just to defeat."
Mateo remembers what Gilmore said before they start the survival training.
"Phase 2 out 3 of your training."
If the Phase 1 manages to make them this powerful, Mateo have a mix of fear and curiousity on what Phase 2 entails.
"Mateo?" Beltrand asked as he noticed the silence of his friend.
"Beltrand. We need to finish this challenge quickly. I feel that we surpassed this forest already."