Chapter 204. Under their Noses (3)
The dense forest of trees, dense enough to conceal the sky, was damaged beyond recognition. Fire raged as far as the eye could see. The trees and grass had been reduced to charcoal, ash, and stone dust; a large portion of the debris had already been swept away by the fierce winds. It was chaos.
The flames spread as far as possible, threatening to consume the entire mountain, but were quickly contained to the battlefield. A large chill had begun to enclose the area, combating the fire’s spread.
In a few mere moments, Adjest’s ice magic assuaged the flames and the battle ended. “We won.”
Strewn amongst the center of devastation, near the Starling Party, were the remains of a group of giant basilisks. Each of their bodies had been mutilated in a different way: turned into pitch-black like lumps of charcoal, heads pierced, or their body falling apart as chunks of ice.
Basilisks were extremely powerful monsters, but the Starling Party was able to achieve victory without injury.
During the battle, Ronde performed his role admirably. Although it was his first actual fight, a life-threatening one at that, he held his nerve and did not betray Desir’s expectations.
Desir spoke to Ronde.
“Considering this is your first battle, you responded well in a calm manner.” “Th-Thank you, brother.”
A smile was plastered on the now breathless Ronde’s face. He was struggling terribly, but Desir’s compliment resuscitated him. He appeared to be deeply moved.
“Let’s endure this a little longer.”
Despite the damage dealt to their surroundings, the battle wasn’t entirely over; two of the basilisks had managed to escape while their pack was slaughtered. “We need to chase them down immediately.”
Everyone nodded.
Only two of them escaped, but each and every basilisk was a threatening monster. It was necessary to chase after them and kill them in order to prevent further damage. Fortunately, they had invoked a tracking spell on them right before they escaped.
Romantica closed her eyes and focused on the trail of mana left behind by the tracking spells on the basilisks.
“One is escaping towards the west and the other is escaping towards the north-east.”
“Let’s split up and chase them. Romantica, Adjest, and Ronde, you guys head to the west. Pram, you and I will head north-east.”
Desir believed that this was the most well-balanced combination. “Yes, sir!”
“Leave it to me!”
The Starling Party divided themselves in an organized manner, under the leadership and instruction of Desir.
Desir and Pram headed towards the north-east.
Chasing after a basilisk was not a particularly difficult task. Not only were the tracking spells already placed, but clear trails had been left behind by their enormous bodies.
“They’re escaping faster than we thought, but we’ll catch them soon.” Desir arranged acceleration spells while explaining the situation to Pram. Tracking was easy, but there was one point that stuck out.
‘This direction is… ’
When the Starling Party had set out towards the basilisks’ habitat, they had gone south-west. Between the trees in this dense forest, a castle was soon visible in the distance.
‘But they’re not heading towards the city… They’re heading to the base of the cliff.’
Once Desir realized that the basilisk was heading towards the bottom of the cliff, he once again recalled what the old man said. Ever since a powerful monster had taken residence under the cliff, no self-preserving monster dared to approach the Nordin Territory.
‘… This basilisk must be truly desperate. It’s completely lost its mind trying to flee from us, and in its desperation is throwing itself into the territory of a strong monster.’
If it was as the old man said, the basilisk would be dealt with by the monster beneath the cliff, even if they didn’t follow it further. However, they couldn’t count on that. If they left it alone now, it could still swerve towards town and wreak havoc.
“Let’s keep chasing.” “Yes, sir!”
Pram nodded while hurrying his steps.
Even though basilisks were agile, this one would not be able to accelerate any more with its injured body.
The distance between them and the basilisk gradually decreased.
They had been relying on a combination of the basilisk’s trail and their tracking magic before, but they were now close enough that they could see the basilisk before them. Trees fell and clouds of dust billowed up.
“Desir, over there!” “I see it as well!”
Pram drew his sword and prepared to dart forward.
However, the tremors caused by the fleeing basilisk suddenly ceased. It appeared to have stopped moving.
‘Is it exhausted?’ ‘No way.’ *Flick* *Flick*
They could hear the sound of a basilisk flicking its tongue. It must have given up on running away and had steeled itself to fight.
‘All the better for us.’ Desir looked at Pram.
“Let’s suppress it in the one go.”
Desir and Pram were on high alert as they slowly approached the basilisk. “Keeyyyyeeek!”
The basilisk’s scream filled the area. That wasn’t the only sound though. *Thud*
*Thuddd*
*Baaang*
The ground shook and a hideous sound spilled out.
The basilisk was in the midst of fighting against something else. ‘It wasn’t trying to fight with us.’
They quickened their paces. The trembling of the ground became more severe as they drew closer.
*Thuddd*
They arrived at the sight of the basilisk falling down. “… … ”
When Desir and Pram arrived there, they couldn’t hide their perplexion.
It hadn’t even been a minute since the battle started. However, the scene that greeted them was too grand to conclude that it was a short battle, by any stretch of the imagination.
Pram frowned while sheathing his rapier. “What in the world… ”
It was disastrous. The basilisk’s body was thoroughly damaged. Its head had been ruptured and giblets of meat had been scattered everywhere.
Even though the basilisk already had injuries after facing the Starling Party, it was not a monster that could easily be suppressed within a minute or two.
“Did it manage to suppress the basilisk without suffering any injuries… ?” Desir examined the blood that was splashed everywhere.
The green blood turned everything it touched into stone. Of course, it belonged to the basilisk. In fact, the copious amounts of blood that painted the ground belonged entirely to the basilisk. The monster that had dealt with the basilisk was nowhere to be found. It seemed as though it left the place immediately after the battle.
“I wonder what kind of monster it is?” “We’ll know once we check it out.”
When Desir first heard about the monster from that old man, he judged that slaying it was not an urgent task.
However, with power on this level, it was a different story entirely. It was impossible to know how the monster would act. The risk this monster carried far outweighed any protection it brought the territory.
Desir approached the basilisk’s corpse to examine it further.
He faced countless monsters in his ten years in the Shadow Labyrinth.
With such an impressive display of wounds left, it would be a simple task for him to figure out what had attacked the basilisk.
However, Desir couldn’t help but feel disconcerted. “This… ”
“What is it, Desir?”
Desir pointed at all the lacerations on the basilisk’s body.
“Look at this, Pram. The skin here was cut in a neat manner. It surely carries something sharp.”
Then, Desir pointed at another area of its body. This area was clearly crushed by something, unlike the other injury.
“And if you look at this mark, you’ll know that it collided with something extremely strong.” Desir pulled out something that was lodged between the basilisk’s scales. It was a golden feather.
“A monster that has a sharp weapon with an extremely hard, golden feather… ”
Desir knew a considerable number of monsters, but he drew a blank when faced with these set of clues. He had no idea what kind of monster they could be dealing with here.
“Desir, this… ”
Smoke rose from one part of the basilisk’s body.
A monster with a powerful weapon and a strong body that lurks in a mountain cave.
Monsters usually have their own distinct strengths. However, it wasn’t possible to define this monster with just one characteristic.
The Starling Party had experienced monsters created by human hands in the Shadow World. Monsters created by combining the strengths of many different monsters.
“… … Chimera.”
After finally reaching a conclusion based on the presented evidence, Desir casually invoked a spell towards an empty area.
*Craasshh*
Thick smoke billowed up.
After a while, when the smoke finally cleared, a previously concealed entity had been revealed.
Its figure took the form of a multitude of monsters mashed together.
Its appearance was strange, alien even, incomparable to any living creature that obeyed the laws of nature.
“… … !”
The monster leaped, approaching Desir and Pram with incredible speed.
Pram moved just a fraction of a second behind it.
Using the newly acquired Cloud Striders, his body faded before appearing in front of Desir within the blink of an eye. He then struck forward with his rapier.
*Claaaaannng*
Sparks flew out as claw and sword clashed against one another.
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