Chapter 273 Clara’s Suspicion
“Strange…” a beautiful lady with long black hair muttered. “I’ve triple-checked the Deathseeker Forest, but no matter what I do, I can’t find any traces of the Ancient Wendigo.”
“How is that possible, Lady Clara?” Cedric asked. “Are you implying that the Ancient Wendigo is dead?”
Clara shook her head. “If a Wendigo dies, their corpse will corrupt the land, making it mutate. And if an Ancient Wendigo dies, an entire forest will definitely turn into a devilish hellscape, turning all the trees into Corrupted Treants.
“Also, even if it doesn’t turn in that direction, it is simply impossible to not sense the overflowing miasma that will escape its body. Since all of you present during the battle didn’t see such a phenomenon, then it means that the Ancient Wendigo is not yet dead.”
If Henry was the Team Leader of Brynhildr Academy, Clara was the Team Leader of Nightfall Academy.
Her Origin Magic was a bit special since it was infused with the magic of the East.
She used paper talismans to channel her magic, allowing her to summon, bind, weaken, and restrain any kind of Creature.
In short, she was the only one capable of capturing the Ancient Wendigo in their team with her Origin Magic.
“Then, since you can’t sense the Ancient Wendigo in this forest, does it mean that it fled somewhere else?” Lilian inquired.
Clara pondered for a bit before reluctantly nodding her head.
“There are only two explanations that I can think of as to why I can’t sense the Ancient Wendigo here,” Clara stated as she held up her fingers. “The first one is that it left Deathseeker Forest after suffering serious injuries.
“The second one is that it might have been captured by others. Since there are no traces that it died, these are the only potential scenarios I can come up with.”
Cedric, Lilian, and the Third Year who belonged to Nightfall Academy during the battle exchanged glances with each other.
“During the battle, the only ones fighting against the Ancient Wendigo were us and the members of Brynhildr Academy,” Cedric reported. “Everyone was doing their best to deal as much damage as they could to that monster before it summoned a Blizzard. I believe that it did that in order to escape.
“When the Blizzard receded, everyone was standing near each other with defensive stances, since there was a chance that we might receive a sneak attack from the Ancient Wendigo with it using the blizzard as its cover.”
Clara narrowed her eyes as she looked at the battlefield, looking for traces of clues that might have been left behind during the fight.
Cedric had already reported everything to her, so she knew that the members of Brynhildr Academy arrived at the scene just in time to save one of their teammates from being eaten by the Ancient Wendigo.
“Before the blizzard appeared, who was the person nearest the Ancient Wendigo?” Clara inquired.
“That…” Cedric paused for a bit. During the battle, everyone was simply casting spells left and right and attacking the vile creature at close range to prevent it from effectively mounting a counterattack.
If they were talking about those who were fighting toe-to-toe with the Ancient Wendigo, there were three people who came to mind.
One was Henry, the Mage Slayer.
The other was Nicole, the Magic Fencer.
Last, but not the least, was Ethan.
The person who had defeated Cedric in the duel.
“It was Henry, Nicole, and Ethan,” Cedric replied. “The three of them were fighting the Ancient Wendigo at close range.”
“The Mage Slayer…,” Clara muttered. “If it’s him, then there certainly is a possibility that he might have been given an artifact by the Headmaster of Brynhildr Academy that can capture the Ancient Wendigo on the condition that it was seriously injured and too weak to resist capture.”
Even Clara couldn’t possibly capture the Ancient Wendigo at its peak strength.
They even asked some of their allied academies to help them boost their numbers and capture the beast by gradually weakening it.
“I think the Ancient Wendigo escaping is more probable than it being captured by the students of Brynhildr Academy,” Lilian interjected. “While I do not doubt that the possibility exists, such a strong monster cannot be defeated easily. Also, after the blizzard disappeared, the Bronze Giant Snake had also escaped the scene. I think these two Monsters retreated together.”
Cedric and the Third Year named Marco nodded their heads in agreement.
Marco was fighting against the Bronze Giant Snake, alongside Rowan and the students from the other academies.
The moment the Blizzard appeared, the Boss Monster vanished, making them breathe a sigh of relief.
“Well, I’m just listing possibilities.” Clara smiled. “As Lilian said, there is a higher chance that the Ancient Wendigo has left the Deathseeker Forest in order to recover from its injuries.”
Clara then scanned the faces of her teammates. All of them were looking at her and waiting for her orders.
“We have two choices,” Clara said. “The first one is that we continue to search for the Ancient Wendigo while it’s still injured. The only downside with this choice is that we don’t know where it is.
“We have a little more than two weeks before the Gate closes, and traveling between the different regions is troublesome. If the Ancient Wendigo chose to escape to the Harrowing Desert in order to hide with the Bronze Giant Snake, it would be very hard to find them.
“Since flying magic doesn’t work in the desert, we will not be able to do a detailed search of its surroundings. At the very least, we will need to spend a week or more, merely crossing the desert to reach the Ymir Mountains.
“The Stone Golems up there is not very hospitable, and with the desert at our backs and the mountains in front of us, we would be trapped between a rock and a hard place.”
Cedric sighed because he had already thought of this possibility as well.
“Then, what should we do?” Lilian asked. “Should we risk going to the Harrowing Desert in search of the Ancient Wendigo? I’m not really comfortable traveling to places that restrict flying magic.”
Clara shook her head. “Although there is a possibility that the Ancient Wendigo might be hiding in the Harrowing Desert since the Bronze Giant Snake is there, fighting in that environment is not ideal.
“We won’t have to contend with just two Boss Monsters, but we would also have to fight those troublesome Sand Wurms. It would be very bad if we were surrounded by those things while fighting against the Ancient Wendigo and that Giant Snake. So, I propose a different plan.”
Clara looked towards the North East where the other Boss Monster of the Domain was last sighted.
“We will head to the Northern Edges of the Abel Plains and hunt the King Manticore,” Clara declared. “It might not be our main target, but it isn’t a bad thing to bring back to the academy. The Headmaster will certainly give me a good nagging if we return empty-handed.”
Cedric and the others all nodded at the same time.
The black-haired beauty was their Team Leader and was also one of the strongest Witches in Nightfall Academy.
Since she had been nominated by the Headmaster himself, none of them would question her orders and authority.
“Let’s go, everyone,” Clara said as she summoned her flying broom. “We have a King Manticore to catch.”
A few minutes later, dozens of Wizards and Witches flew above the trees of the Deathseeker Forest and headed North East.
Clara was in the lead of the formation, guiding everyone as their leader.
‘It’s a shame that Ethan Gremory was already gone when I arrived,’ Clara thought. ‘I wish I could have seen him fight against the Ancient Wendigo.’
Clara had been there when the handsome young man fought against Cedric.
Her interest was piqued when he saw him use Fae Magic.
Just like her, Fae Magic wasn’t something that ordinary Humans could use. She even thought that Ethan might have Fairy Blood in his veins.
Of course, this was just a conjecture since she couldn’t possibly kidnap the handsome young man and draw some of his blood to solidify her assumption.
Doing so would sour the relationship between Brynhildr Academy and Nightfall Academy.
Also, she didn’t dare mess with someone who was a team member of the Mage Slayer.
Henry had a bad reputation among Wizards and Witches.
Even the adults were very wary of him because he was the perfect killing machine when it came to hunting Renegade Magicians who used their magic to do nefarious things.
‘I just hope that my guess is wrong,’ Clara thought. ‘If Brynhildr Academy really captured the Ancient Wendigo, then they would have another Guardian Level Beast with infinite potential.’
Although Nightfall Academy and Brynhildr Academy were not considered rival academies, that didn’t mean that their relationship wouldn’t turn sour if they discovered that their target was stolen by them.
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