The Ace Adventurer

That morning, Hero, Vi and Dee bid Soul farewell after setting him off in the direction of Dawn’s Rock.

“When we meet again, I’ll be a powerful swordsman,” Soul said to Hero as the carriage he rode in was pulled away by a horse.

Hero smiled and waved him farewell. That someone could understand monster language was in itself a great feat, but for it to be a child as well had struck the group as both impressive and terrifying. If there was one thing Vi knew, having seen many swordsmen who were sometimes twice or even thrice her age, it was that not everyone had the ability to learn efficiently.

The boy had a gift for language, there was no doubt about it. But whatever misfortunes had left him needing to use it to abet such haunting crimes in order to survive would certainly follow him for a long time. Vi hoped that he would find a way to navigate through that darkness, as she recognized that Hero had grown fond of the boy in their short meeting, something which rarely happened to the absent-minded adventurer.

Once they’d parted ways, they joined up with the traveling merchant who they came to know as Mekk, and who seemed to hold a small grudge over the incident in the alley. This resulted in a stream of bickering between Vi and him whenever the two had the opportunity to go at one another’s throats. The man’s unwarranted pride had irked her. He certainly wasn’t weak, especially for a travelling merchant, but his condescension from earlier had still rubbed her the wrong way. Dee pretended not to be a part of it, and Hero’s head was in the clouds as it always was.

The four of them departed at the western end of Egelhorn. The Land of the Sword, which encompasses every settlement east of Peregrine City, is Hero’s home. Vi had come to learn that since mastering the blade, he’d made it his purpose to do whatever it took to create a net of safety within this land, a land that many considered to be the most impoverished within The Baening.

This involved working as an Adventurer, a warrior profession not beholden to a single political or organizational entity. His freedom granted him the ability to help even those who couldn’t afford to pay exorbitant fees so long as he was willing to accept the quest. This happened to include smaller towns such as Egelhorn, where the people had suffered the most since the monster invasion of the continent.

The three adventurers traversed the barren lands by foot alongside Mekk until they happened to arrive near a land of sparse, yellow grass and large hills that betrayed the plains of earlier. The three hours of walking it had taken them to arrive appeared harsh on the merchant despite his attempt at hiding it, since he normally opted to travel by carriage. His heavy breathing irritated Vi to no end and she found herself complaining during most of the trip, which only appeared to pile onto his fatigue.

Dee reminded Vi not to use up too much energy on pointless tantrums when she would in all likeliness require it for both the battle and the return trip. Hero, on the other hand, was the silent vanguard of their party. He had easily cleared through a gathering of goblins that had attempted to ambush them halfway into their journey. When the merchant saw Hero’s speed and precision in action, he heaved a sigh of relief upon the realization that he had, in fact, made the correct choice in journeying with this party, an acknowledgement that Vi thought was much overdue.

But what had greeted them when they arrived at their destination had in all seriousness caused him to rethink that decision.

The bloodied, unmoving remains of bikers from Fort Dusk littering the ground…

And the sound of bone being crushed and grated echoing from behind one of the hills.

The three adventurers, Hero, Vi and Dee, had all lowered their stances in response. How many monsters would it take to successfully ambush such a large and well-organized group of bandits? Perhaps it was just a single Orc like before, they thought. It was difficult to think rationally over the crunch of bones being smothered and torn apart and smashed to pieces.

Perhaps they should just leave. After all, the bikers were taken care of. That’s what the sisters were thinking at the time. They both turned to face Mekk as if beckoning him for his decision.

Still holding an aloof stance, the man sighed. “Whatever it is, we need to clear it out so I can collect my…”

“Shhh!”

Vi hushed the now pale merchant, whose hand scrambled over his mouth at her hiss.

The sounds stopped.

Whatever it was that was behind that large mound had ceased its desecration of the corpse.

That he hadn’t whispered angered her, but there was no time to dwell on that.

The wind whistled as if desperate to scrape away at the heavy tension clinging to the skins of the four travelers.

Hero gripped the twin daggers beneath his flowing cloak, and the two sisters had each slit their palms with a knife, causing thick, red liquids to pour out. Before splashing onto the ground uselessly, however, the blood drifted up into the air slowly and coalesced into the shape of multiple sharp daggers the size of fingers.

When the merchant took notice of it, he backed away from the two of them in a panic.

“B-blood magic? That’s how you got me earlier? Then… you two… you’re…”

“Will you shut-“

Vi’s warning had been interrupted this time.

Now, even the wind held its silence.

After all, that thing…

That thing wasn’t there just a second ago.

Its sudden appearance had changed everything and had caused Vi to question everything she had ever known leading up to that moment.

The creature’s movement made the orc from the day before seem like a clumsy child. It had phased into their visions before she could even realize it. And judging by how frozen her sister was, she was probably in the same boat.

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The two girls were used to Hero’s speed. There wasn’t a single warrior or monster that could match him in a battle of agility.

And it was that presumption, naïve as it was, that had caused them such grave mental damage when that thing appeared without even the slightest sign of movement.

It was a growl deeper than the ocean floor. The monster, eyes undiscernible, tilted its head as it furled open like the petals of a flower, twisting and turning in search of its prey. The creature appeared to stand at about fourteen heads tall while slouching, a stature that Vi realized from the corner of her eye had caused tears to come pouring out of the eyes of the merchant. The circular mouth on the inside of its flappy face, a thin, translucent liquid leaking out slowly, boasted teeth whose sizes were each near that of an adult’s opened palm.

Its body was sporadically covered in thick bundles of white fur that were present on about fifty percent of its mass, particularly its forearms, which hung down near the ground as a gorilla’s would, its neck, torso, its lower legs, as well as near the end of the large scorpion-shaped tail that came complete with a sharp, pointed stinger at the end that hovered above its head. The creature’s otherwise exposed reddish flesh had the sheen of raw chicken.

Vi had recognized the threat level of this creature immediately. It was far more terrifying than something like an Orc Champion. If they didn’t disable this thing immediately, then their party might end up wiped out in an instant.

“K-kill it…”

When the merchant uttered those words, the creature’s head, which had been turning and twisting as if searching for something, had suddenly stopped.

Vi held her breath.

She heard Dee swallow next to her.

“H-hurry up…. You guys are diamond-rank adventurers, right?! THEN HURRY UP AND KILL-“

When goopy red liquids splashed over Vi’s body, who had been the closest to what was once the travelling merchant, she found that only Hero had been barely able to turn his head in response. Even his eyes had found it troublesome to catch a glimpse of the movements between its leap and its attack.

Neither Vi nor Dee had even processed the movement. Their eyes were still trained on the spot that the creature had been standing at just half a second ago. In that split moment, she recognized that they might have just missed the ship towards victory.

When the girls finally turned to the sound of the merchant’s body being pulverized by the scorpion’s tail, Hero had already leapt to engage it in combat. With the body still hanging punctured by its tail, as the last spasms of life finally left the body of Mekk the travelling merchant, the creature used its furry arms to easily block out the barrage of slashes thrown its way with ease. Hero springboarded off its arms and tossed one of his daggers at the creature’s exposed thigh. For whatever reason, it seemed to recognize the action the second the blade left his grasp and lifted its hairy shin up to deflect the blow. Hero tugged on the invisible line connected to his dagger and drew it back into his grasp as he landed.

Vi was barely able to follow any of what had been going on. The creature’s speed and reflexes had surprised her, as she had never met something capable of matching the anomaly that was Hero. But from what she had seen, she believed that he still may have had the slightest edge in both departments.

The real issue appeared to be the thick hairs attached to its body that served as makeshift armor. There was a huge difference in their ability to damage one another that a small difference in speed could not make up for. That’s why the best thing he could do was keep up the pressure while the merchant’s body served as a cork in the creature’s deadliest weapon.

“Hero, we’ve got your back!”

Vi yelled the words out and rotated her hands in a horizontal circular motion. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, as the whites of her eyes slowly became bloodshot.

Despite the fact that the creature had caught wind of her voice, it hadn’t moved from its spot. That’s because the blood pouring down its body from the many corpses it had been bathed in had crystalized due to Vi’s magic, holding it in place.

“Dee! Aim for its skin!”

“All right!”

Dee followed Vi’s signal and unleashed the blood daggers hovering around the two of them. The barrage of crystalized red was launched off into the direction of the creature like canon fire. The clumped-up weapons were all swirling towards its unprotected face at a speed that gave that thing’s own mad dash from earlier a run for its money.

It was growing closer to breaking free from the trap of blood that the corpse had made.

Success and failure were but a breath apart as cracks began to form in the makeshift restraints.

“Yes!!”

But its struggles were for naught.

Vi’s scream signaled the win as the daggers struck its head before it could break free.

The collision came with a thunderous roar as the creature was blown back, falling flat onto the ground from the sheer magnitude of force behind the high-speed daggers, its restraints crumbling from the force of the blow. A cloud of dust sprouted up into the air at its large thud as the crystalized blood melted over its body.

“Did we get it…?” Dee asked.

Vi was weary, but she had been confident in their attack. Even the tough muscles of an orc like the one Hero had fought yesterday wouldn’t have been able to withstand such a blow unscathed.

She turned her head when she noticed Hero rushing at the creature as it lay on its front, daggers spinning along his fingers like windmills. Was he aiming to land the finishing blow? He took a wide swing at the creature’s neck…

But was blocked by its tail emerging from the cloud of dust.

“Seriously?!” Vi yelled.

The creature quickly regained its footing as if it had only taken a light tumble, shoving Hero’s modest figure away effortlessly with its tail. What surprised her wasn’t that the creature had survived the blow, but the fact that it appeared both unarmed and unperturbed by the heavy blow they had dealt it.

Powerful, dexterous, and seemingly invincible. Even its hairless red flesh was going to be a problem to penetrate.

“Vi! Use the other corpses!” Dee yelled.

“I’m trying! It’s hard to…”

As Vi swirled her wrists around in an attempt to conjure up more blood for the next attack, the creature’s head twisted in her direction.

“Hii-“

The blood she had been manipulating suddenly splattered to the ground as her fear stifled her concentration.

Fwoop.

Vi’s eyes couldn’t follow it. The movement was too quick for her.

“VIII!!!”

“Ack-“

The creature had grabbed hold of the girl’s head.

It was a scene reminiscent of the day before when the swordsman was caught; the same moment she’d known that she had lost her bet.

It lifted her in its hand that was the size of a motorbike’s wheel. She felt its uncomfortable grip as the fingers dug into the back of her head. Its large thumb stifled her breathing as it coiled around her neck, the slimy liquid coating its skin crawling down her face.

“H—Hero… help me…” Vi cried.

The ace adventurer, whose expression that she could barely make out in the wake of her fright had grown increasingly exasperated, dashed at the creature with every ounce of strength that he could muster. He led a rash assault of swings at the creature’s inner elbow, below its glutes, at its tail, and at everything red or fleshy that wasn’t covered in the armor-like hair.

And yet, the attacks all glided off the soft, slimy skin. More and more of the thick liquid coating covering its body clung to Hero’s clothes as he desperately attempted to do inflict some form of damage to the creature. No matter what sort of method of attack he utilized, the creature would neither flinch nor return its attention to Hero.

“Hold on Vi, let me conjure up more blood!” Dee yelled.

The creature’s bizarre constitution had left them at a loss. How were they supposed to defeat such a thing? However, Vi never gave up hope. She believed that the two of them could save her.

“H-help…. Me…”

She continued to believe even as the creature dropped her as if letting go of a piece of garbage.

And she continued to believe when, in the next instant, despite Hero’s attempt to run over to catch her, it spun with all the force of a whirlwind, and its thick, heavy tail slammed into her abdomen, creating an audible boom as if another canon had gone off.

Vi’s body was flung into the side of a large mound and had crashed with so much force that she thought every bone in her body had been smashed into a million pieces.

And even as her consciousness faded away like the sun on the horizon, she continued to believe that her companions would save her from her dire predicament.