[ One more chapter to go for today!]

*******

I still remember how I met him. I was walking into the guild, tired after finishing another gold ranked request with Air walkers. Even today, I was forbidden from fighting, and to do menial tasks. As I walked in to report the success, I saw him.

A boy, about my age, maybe younger. His hair was short, and black as the night. His eyes were the same, black. It was like staring into a chasm. He wore a normal white shirt, and a black pant, with a sword at his side. Behind him, stood a cute little elf girl, with dark green hair and with the tips of her ears peeking out of her hair. She watched fearfully at the three men before her. Marco. Geez, he’s not trying to court her right? I’ll have to solve this one then.

***

‘Crap!’

I could only think that after intimidating him. Father taught me this whenever someone tried to dominate over me, and i reflexively did it on him. No wonder i got called as unladylike! I stormed out, half in anger and half in fear. I got another scolding for not even reporting the quest completion…

***

Huh? Zwert is bringing a magician into the party?

I could only think that as Zwert reported the news. We were about to head out to finish the Dortoh subjugation and become platinum ranked. Honestly, I don’t deserve to become platinum rank, but Aura won’t even let me leave, so I feel like I’m some kind of a parasite, sucking all the credit from them. It doesn’t feel good in the end.

He said it was a magician who was the escort for some kid, and that we’ll have to bring him along to the quest, since the magician refused to come unless the kid could come with them.

Why is he here?!

The same boy I punched was standing before us, introducing himself to our party, smiling, as if unperturbed by the displeased stares they were sending. When he saw me, his eyes widened, and I looked away, as if fascinated by the butterfly that was not there.

Suddenly, he apologized to me, saying stuff like how he shouldn’t have called me unladylike. I was surprised by this and could only stutter, since we were with my party members too.

****

Today is a bit weird. We’re walking in the death claw, and not even a single Curas, much less an ambush has been seen till now. This is like the fortress of the Curas. And there’s not even a single one here. Then, from the woods, a familiar party emerges. I-It’s the Wolf dragons!

Those guys, they always used to bully me. For being an archer…

I backed away, slowly. When I looked to the side, I saw Yuuya moving back too. Did he have some skirmish with them? Probably. He sneaks back, and hides his face by showing his back to them. I imitate him, by quickly backing off and standing behind the tree that was thick enough to hide me.

They got to gold rank by exterminating the Curas? Impossible. These guys were way too weak, and the best they could be was Silver rank. The last time fought against a Curas was a week ago, and we witnessed it. If we hadn’t intervened, they would already be mincemeat.

Even Yuuya looks a bit mad from their statement. I wonder what happened between them.

*****

I saw it. He was really strong, without doubt. Dad always told me that I had the special skill, All seeing eyes, partially awakened. With it, I could see all sorts of lights and flows, which were energies according to my dad.

I used my eyes as I saw Aura chanting, seeing the orange energy, symbolizing the Flame type mana welling up from her, and surrounding Zwert. All the Nores were covered with a pale white light, and white arcs were fired with a swing of the Nores ‘s hand.

That guy, Yuuya, he wasn’t even taking part in the fight, and stayed back, observing us. Does he want to kill us? No. Impossible. We’re only a minor gold ranked party, and we didn’t make any bigshots our enemies. He must be learning party play. And then, he suddenly diverted his gaze to me. I immediately understood the reason for his gaze. Why am I standing without doing anything?

In order respond to my junior adventurer’s wish, I immediately nocked an arrow and fired it, straight into the head of a Nores. A clean kill. It was my mistake.

Zwert yelled at me, and everyone was mad at me. I messed up… And, as if waiting for such a moment, the variant between them suddenly fired a Wind Blast, throwing us off balance. Damn. We’re gonna die aren’t we?

Then, my All seeing eyes reacted. A violent surge of emerald green energy burst forth, like a wave. It had the presence of a proud monster, and its overwhelming killing intent.

All the Nores stiffened, unable to move. The epicenter of this energy was none other than Yuuya. Kai got up, and roared, attracting the attention of the Nores. Useless. The variant immediately sensed that Yuuya was a threat, and ordered the others to attack him. But he vanished, as if he was never there. Suddenly, one of the lights from the forest got shut. Almost immediately, two more were shut down. Before they were cut, I saw a ray of the same green energy, and the white energies flickered. Then, they died. Just a second before the last light got snuffed; an arc of white light flew at me. Then, as if by cue, the same energy, like a fountain burst forth, and started getting compressed. I fired an arrow and dispelled the wind blade, and at that second, the fountain extinguished. The next second, Yuuya was back in the place he was standing.

Strong, without a doubt. We underestimated him, severely. I was suspicious of his strength when I saw the elf chan, since she was really young. No doubt, it was his strength that allowed them to finish those quests.

*****

Yuuya came to visit me that night, and I was grateful to him for it. Since, like every night, I was alone, and secluded in my own campsite. He gave me some meat strips. Tasty.

He talked to me about strength and what not, and I didn’t really understand him. But he listened patiently when I told him about myself. I guess that made me a bit happy.

Then all of a sudden, he started spouting ideas for archers, on how to become strong as an archer and stuff. His ideas were wild and inconceivable for any sane person, but somehow, I believed him. He told me that he would train me on how to fight with any stance and improve my mobility on the field.

Really, I’m thankful to Yuuya san.

*****

“Yuuya san!”

I yelled out to him, worried.

Right now, we were fighting against a Guars, a four legged monster with dagger like canines. It tried to slash Yuuya to ribbons with its huge claws and pressed him, trying to finish him off.

Yuuya kept parrying and dodging, but never let the Guars move too much.

“Don’t worry about me Maria san! Fire your arrows! Now! Keep moving and firing!”

He yelled out advice to me, all the while dancing around the 2.5 meter large beast. It couldn’t get a clear swipe at him, and it kept turning around, trying to kill him.

I did the same, running around the Guars, trying to aim and fire at the Guars. It’s not good. The ground is littered with arrows, all of them mine. The few that reached it were deflected by its metal like fur with a clink sound.

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Yuuya kept at it, giving it short cuts from time to time.

“Fuuuu..”

I breathed out, and took a deep breath. Right. Yuuya is my comrade. Right now, I have to trust him, and do my role. I run out, with my bow on my arms and the arrow nocked on it. I kept moving, waiting for an opening. Right, It’s just like normal archery. Only the target matters.

I stretch the string of the hunting bow my father gifted me, praying to him as I let loose the arrow.

Perfect hit. It hit the Guars square in the eye, and it roared in pain. Without giving it a second of respite, I fired two more arrows, running close to it, piercing it diagonally upwards, through the roof of its mouth and into its brain. It fell to the side, dead.

“See? Told you that you could do it.”

Yuuya came to me, brushing off the dust raised from the falling Guars. This was the thirteenth time we fought, and all of the times, I got scared for him and didn’t fire the arrow perfectly.

He walked off, in search of newer prey. I collected the arrows and quickly followed him.

Whenever we saw a flying monster, he ordered me to shoot it down with only 3 arrows as my limit. I missed most of the time, but recently I got better at it. Truly, Yuuya sensei is a great teacher.

We walked a bit behind the main party, hunting for training. We were nearing the Dortoh base, and I had to get better at this quick.

“Just focus on the target Maria san. Everything else will work out”

“B-but what if Yuuya san got hit? Then?”

“I trust Maria san. Don’t you trust me? Of course I won’t get hit”

He puffed out his chest with pride. Ufufu. He’s cute when he’s like this. No no! What am I thinking?!

“By the way Maria san, please call me Yuuya”

I was surprised at his non chalant words. Does he even know the significance of not using honorifics?! This meant, that…we-we were friends!

“Then, Yuuya san should too…”

My voice trailed off, embarrassed to say any further.

“Eh? What?”

Before I could repeat, I looked behind Yuuya, and saw something strange. The other party members were running out from the forest, screaming, and the reason for their fear was evident.

Behind them, the wall of woods was ripped apart, as a 6 meter tall boar, with tusks almost the size of an entire Guars rushed out. A fat brown boar, with tufts of hair on its head, charged at us, with its fat little legs gouging the ground with its every step.

A Dortoh.

A Dortoh was a charging type beast, and the reason for it being platinum rank was its enormous size and its rushing speed. It never stopped charging until the fight was over, got stopped forcefully, or unless it got tired out. And it won’t be tired out any time soon.

I immediately fired an arrow, right into one of the six yellow beady eyes behind its huge tusks.

It hit, and the Dortoh diverted its course, narrowly missing the others. Zwert regained composure, and immediately readied himself.

Aura started chanting, and Kai and Zwert acted as the vanguard. They didn’t have time to order me to not fire arrows, and I wasn’t going to stop even if they told me to. The lives of my friends were more important. I started rapid fire, and as if by instinct, it swung its head, perfectly deflecting the pinprick like arrows, stopping them from getting its eyes.

“Zwe, the high fall!”

“Ou!”

Zwert bent down, exposing his back.

Kai used Zwert’s back as a foothold and jumped off, high into the sky, and swung his great hammer down on the Dortoh.

The Dortoh, sensing danger, raised its head, trying to deflect the blow from Kai’s hammer.

“Dumbass”

I couldn’t help but mutter that, since the Dortoh exposed its eyes to me. I rushed in, and dived when I was near the head of the big boar. I turned mid air in the stunt, and rapid fired the arrows, a trick Yuuya taught me. Three of its eyes were hit, and it roared in pain, unable to bear the pain. It stopped its charge, and couldn’t block Kai’s hammer perfectly. The hammer sent shockwaves on its face, creating a huge depression on its cheek, sending it sprawling on the ground.

I panted, since that experience was really scary.

“Nice, Maria!”

Kai yelled that as he landed, and showed me a thumbs up. Ah~! It felt a bit good.

Speaking of which, where’s Yuuya?

I look back, and find him dawdling near Aura, not even feeling the slightest hint of anxiety at this platinum rank monster.

Is he really that strong? I know he is strong, but his strength, I don’t know his true limit.

The Dortoh got back up, but Zwert had already thrown his secondary weapon, the Javelin at its flank. His special skill, Pierce Javelin.

Blood spurted out of its side as the Javelin pierced through the thick hide of the monster. With four bloody eyes, a huge crater on its face and a Javelin on its side, it was in a really pitiful state.

But, like a final hurrah, it rushed at us, with speed surpassing the speed from before. Its eyes were red, and it started gushing out a fierce red aura.

“Berserk state?! Why now?”

Suddenly, my eyes saw brown colored bands surge through the ground, causing the ground to tremble, sending us all off balance. Aura, who was finishing her Restraint type spell’s chant, got disturbed and the chant got cancelled.

“Earthquake?! Damn it!”

I could only curse at my fate, as the Dortoh charged at Zwert, with eyes full of rage. It ignored me and Kai, and set Zwert as its sole target.

Then, I saw him.

He got up, seemingly bored. His eyes were closed, and he stretched his limbs. Yuuya, it’s not the time to play around! Run!

Then, like a geyser, an enormous amount of the same emerald green energy gushed out, like a Tsunami. It made the previous surges feel like child’s play. He opened his eyes, and they were the same emerald green as the energy. His hair changed color to the same beautiful emerald green, and his body bulged.

The weak looking boy suddenly underwent a total change, as his body became like that of a monsters, a silvery sheen surrounding his white skin, and canines in his mouth. He drew his sword, and he vanished.

Too fast!

The last time, he was next to a thicket, so it wasn’t so surprising, but in this clearing, he vanished without a trace.

But I followed the track of the emerald energy, and saw, just in time, him standing right behind the Dortoh. His sword perfectly pierced through the Dortoh’s hind legs, and as if its tendons were cut, it crashed on to the ground, unable to run. The emerald energy vanished, and he was back where he was before, right behind Aura, bored as before. He had perfectly moved in such a way that none of us would spot him. If it weren’t for  my All seeing eyes, even I would have missed him.

The Dortoh crashed right in front of Zwert, who had opened his eyes wide from the sight of the huge monster groaning pitifully in front of him.

Yuuya, just how strong is he?

I could only watch in wonder as he yawned.

Like that, we completed the Dortoh subjugation quest.