“So, anything in particular we’re looking for, or direction to go?” Rin asked her group with a carefree tone as she skipped along ahead.

Alissa was the one to answer, “Hmm, we’re pretty much just trying our luck so we’d be happy to hear any suggestions.”

“How about that way then? I have a good feeling.” Rin pointed towards a patch of forest that looked the same as any other, seemingly without thought or purpose.

Adrest was skeptical, but Alissa just shrugged, “It's as good a place to start as any.”

With that decided, the party marched through the snow towards the unknown. Only a few minutes into their walk off path they ran into a D rank Rending Ant. It was about the size of a housecat, maybe a little smaller. And as the name implies, the creature's main weapons were a set of razor sharp mandibles constantly snapping and clamping the air as its grotesque head moved.

One D rank was no problem, but like normal ants, they lived in giant hives and had queens constantly laying eggs. A normal hive would contain at most a few hundred ants which though annoying still wouldn't be anything to fret over. However, queen rending ants had the potential to reach B rank They were categorically different from the rank and file and would be a tedious fight even ignoring the hundreds of drones.

Thankfully, the ant was alone which meant one of two things. Either the ant was exiled from its original hive, or it was a scout. Both were manageable, but one meant far fewer problems later. Stopping a few dozen feet away and crouching to stay hidden, Rin whispered to Belle.

“How about we start by you showing me how you usually fight, think you can handle it?”

Belle casually nodded, having already fought these several times. She stood up from the hiding spot and walked quickly towards the ant. As she charged over two swords, fitted specifically for her, came out of their sheathes.

The Rending Ant saw the bundled up Belle approaching and a hissing growl escaped the creature’s mouth. Its six legs scurried and stabbed through the leaves and dirt charging towards Belle. As it closed in to only a dozen or so feet away, its limbs tensed and released as it propelled itself through the air.

The large knife-like mandibles closed in on Belle’s face, but she wasn’t the slightest bit flustered and raised her swords in an “X” towards the incoming hazard.

“Clang” “Clang”

The sound of metal on metal rang out in the collision, Belle taking a half step back to steady herself through the impact. She only stilled for a second though, as she tightened the grip on her twin blades and pushed forward.

The ant was on the receiving of a bite for the first time as it was unable to escape the blades forcing open its trusty weapon and was thrown onto it’s back and pinned there. Rin was about to cheer for the girl and help her kill it before Belle got herself stabbed or cut finishing it, but before she could act she saw Belle take a step back while maintaining her blade's position.

Belle took a breath of preparation and threw her foot back before flinging forward right into the ant's head, sitting between her blades. With a series of deep cracking noises that even the three in the back could hear, there was only a fraction of a second's worth of resistance before the entire thing came clean off and went crashing through the trees.

Belle cleaned and sheathed her swords, smiling back at Adrest and Alissa who were clapping at her performance and the half standing Rin who was shocked by the brutality displayed by the little white rabbit.

Sure, Rin knew this was the best way to take care of monsters like that, but how many teenage girls can actually do it, whether its raw strength or the mental fortitude, even a lot of D rank Adventurers couldn’t do it. Yet, here was a 14 year old little girl that kicked a monster's head off then bowed to her guardians like she’d put on a show.

Belle walked back over to the group saying, “How was that? I did it just like you taught me Big sis Ali.”

Rin finally recovered and stood up straight trying hide her shock. Inside though she was even more surprised to hear Alissa had bee the one to teach her that. Her impression was a kind older sister, Alissa knew she was somewhat capable since she had a C rank at the guild, but Rin didn’t think she would be up close and personal when fighting.

Alissa patted the rabbit’s head, “Very well done, however you lose a few points for getting blood on your boot.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Adrest couldn’t help but chuckle at the harsh critic, and Belle pouted to her teacher who relented under the pressure of it in just a few seconds.

“Fine, sometime I’ll show you the trick to it.”

“Thanks Bis sis!”

Rin was a little disturbed hearing the morbid conversation, but was also feeling particularly useless at this moment and desperately wanted to show off to the trio. As Rin stayed silent and was lost in her own thoughts, Adrest asked, “Is everything okay Rin?”

Rin’s instincts told her to head to her left and she’d have her chance, so she replied, “Everything’s great! Good job Belle, that was really smooth. Lets try over here next.”

Rin charged off in the direction her instincts were telling her. Adrest and company were wondering why she was in such a hurry but followed along. They walked for another hour or so with nothing happening, not seeing a single other monster. Until they reached a small clearing and they were stopped by Rin in the lead, who shushed them.

As they got to where she saw standing, they could see what Rin had found. It was a a lumbering grey giant. The thing appeared humanoid in shape, but was about 4 times larger, and it appeared to be carved from stone.

Rin was excited in her heart, a Stone Crusher is a perfect chance to show off. It might C rank, but it’s toughness was on another level, unfortunately for it, Rin could be considered it’s natural enemy though.

Rin turned around and said, “I’ll handle this big guy, pay attention to how I move Belle. Normal swordsmen couldn’t even leave a mark on his skin, but my swords specialize in cutting.”

All three of the group were curious hearing this, wondering how the small girl was planning to cut through the tough hide. They didn’t have to wait long as Rin pulled out her two swords that were twice the length of Belle’s and she stepped so hard the ground under her feet deformed as she shot off towards the lumbering giant. It didn’t even notice her until Rin was a few feet away and she sliced into the monster’s shoulder, driving deep into the flesh.

The way Rin moved and handled her weapon was expert, Belle was having a hard time figuring it out, but Alissa could clearly see Rin was moving the air around the blade itself, removing all resistance. She also enhanced her body to an unnatural level leading to a startlingly powerful blade.

The giant roared in pain and swung an arm towards the annoying bug. Rin pulled out her blade and ducked below the incoming fist. Taking advantage of it’s slow nature, Rin closed into the guard of the stone man and stabbed both of her blades up through it’s chest with no resistance, completely sheathing the twin swords in the body of the monster.

It could only give a short final roar of pain before slumping forward and crashing into Rin. She let out a startled “Ah!” and quickly pushed the huge corpse, where it crashed loudly to her side rumbling the nearby ground.

Rin felt she’d sufficiently showed off and ran back to the group, “Did you see Belle? Was I cool?”

Belle’s eye’s were lit up seeing what Alissa meant now, Rin really was the ideal future of her fighting style, the pinnacle to aim for.

“It was super cool! Can you teach me how to move like that when you have time Big sis Rin?”

“Hehe, I’d be happy to. We’ll walk around some more and I’ll explain the tricks.”

Adrest and Alissa were silent and followed along as the two in the front talked. They spent the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon wandering and Belle learning from Rin. Adrest was a little bored with nothing to do, but he was happy to sit back and watch Belle make a new friend.

It was well past noon when it happened. They were walking along the mountain side and out of nowhere, Alissa tugged on Adrest’s coat and motioned with her eyes that something was about to happen.

Just a dozen or so seconds later, Rin’s eyes grew wide and she stared at a section of mountain that a crack running through it. Rin stopped and stared at it, her jovial attitude disappearing. As the others stopped alongside Rin, Belle asked, “What’s wrong Big sis Rin? Is there something hiding over there?”

Rin slowly looked away from the large crack and put her hand on Belle’s head, “Remember how you promised to listen to me if we run into trouble? Well Belle, I need you to stay here for a bit.”

Moving her attention from the rabbit who still wasn’t quite sure what was going on, Rin focuses on Adrest and Alissa who looked calm as ever.

“You two can handle a few D and C ranks for a while, right? If you taught Belle how to fight like that, you should be fine holding your own.”

Adrest didn’t have to fake his confusion as he had no idea the details of what was actually inside the large crevice. “What do you mean Rin? What's hiding over there?”

She nodded looking annoyed, “It's hard to make out details from here but I see a huge spider web deep inside and some movements dashing around. I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with a Mantula, and to make that big of a web, it has to be an established colony.”

Adrest matched Rin’s annoyed expression. Mantulas were black and white spider-like monsters. Their bodies grew as large as a warhorse and their legs were each razor sharp and devilishly barbed to inflict the most possible pain, fully grown the colony leader will be around B rank and start to develop intelligence unlike it’s smaller drones which Rin had most likely seen moving.

The only saving grace was that Mantulas were not venomous, but still they were nauseating to look at, a pain to fight, and there could be dozens of the little bastards. For a moment Adrest considered pleading with Alissa to forget about their cover and blow the entire thing up, consequences be damned, but common sense won in the end.

“A few won’t be a problem, but you’ll still have one hell of a time finding the big one even with us to distract the drones.” Adrest reminded her, even if they weren’t acting Adrest was still only C rank himself, there’s a limit to what he could do.

Rin was happy that her friends agreed so easily and brushed off the concern, “Just take what you can handle and I’ll do the rest. Just keeping a few more of those little bastards will help, its not like they could stop me but those damned barbs hurt too much!”