•••

-Outside the Sealing Cube-

Of the twenty-three teams that had ventured into the Lochxen Forest, Kaya, Eloise, and Aylin had run into six thus far. And that was obviously excluding their team and Caius's.

Every team they met since leaving Caius, Delia, and Aurelius within the Sealing Cube, had been under assault from corrupted Magical Beasts and while quite a bit of them had been able to hold their own, the layer of red—demonic—energy around the Beasts rendered practically every attack useless.

As such, Kaya and the others always had to lend a hand. By now the trio had lost count of how many Beasts they had had to put down because it was the only way they knew to pacify the Beasts permanently.

Killing some Beasts came easy—emotionally and physically—and killing others didn't come as easily.

"If we meet corrupted Wind-puffing Rabbits, I didn't think my heart could take putting them down," Aylin said with a hand placed atop her large breasts.

But they never met Wind-Puffing Rabbits. And for all her talk—which Kaya agreed with—of dreading having to kill cute bunnies, Aylin had to admit that would likely be an easier battle than what they had had to contend with thus far.

The Fire-Cracking Lizards seemed like nothing now with so many battles in hindsight. Still, they had developed a workable strategy;

Suppose they were facing off against multiple Beasts. In that case, they'd herd them to get them as close together as possible during which Aylin would work up a vial of the Mana-disrupter Potion which would release its orange fumes and render the Beasts momentarily magic-less and make them easier to handle.

This didn't always work out as well as it had with the Fire-Cracking Lizards though. For one, herding the Beasts was almost always a difficult task. And for another, being magic-less didn't make all Beasts defenseless. The ones with considerable physical might could still fight on. Even if they couldn't muster their Mana and didn't have the protection of the Red— the Demonic energy layer around them.

The most notable reason Kaya and the others had managed thus far was their Fourth Circle Magic. Especially with Kaya who could draw on the energy of Nature and practically never run out of Mana. Although the effort did wear on her mind.

Anyway, after sending yet another team off, the Team headed on even deeper into the Forest. They found that the red vapor had gotten even thicker. It was now a light fog.

It didn't take long before the team heard the telltale sounds of combat and was steered towards yet another situation. Only this time, when someone cried out, Aylin paused and her expression was one of familiarity.

She moved faster then, going right past Kaya to lead the team to a clearing where there were three First-Years. Two girls and one boy.

One of the girls was lying against a tree trunk, eyes closed, unconscious. The other girl stood in front of the unconscious one, her hands thrust forward to support a spell circle that seemed primed at the ready for defense should the Beast turn its sight on her and her unconscious teammate.

"Marianne," Aylin called to the girl.

Marianne looked up and at Aylin as a smile of elation and relief crept into her serious expression.

"Aylin!" She answered the call and there was a flavor of reverence to her tone.

At the same time, Kaya recognized the third member of the team— The Boy who was keeping the attention of the corrupted Beast to himself with two spell circles stamped against his knuckles as he controlled two fists of earth.

"Doran," Kaya called.

Doran reacted almost instinctively to the call of his name, raising his head to look in Kaya's direction. That was a mistake.

The Beast he had been fighting against got past the guard he had made with his conjured Earthen fists and struck two quick-fire blows to his mid-section. Connecting a third against his jaw to send him five feet into the air.

While he was still in the air, the Beast leaped and spun around to connect a kick into Doran's ribs, sending him flying fast as lightning into a tree trunk.

"Doran!" Marianne cried out and began to shift her attention from defense to attack.

Alas, before the thought could even be fully formed in her head, the Beast had gotten closer with a kick directed at her head.

An icy blue spell circle appeared then and became a wall of ice that the Beast's kick connected with. The wall of ice shattered as the Beast's kick connected but before the attack could continue and connect with Marianne's still-defensive spell, Aylin frowned.

"Get back here!" she said through gritted teeth.

She had both hands thrust forward and clenched them into fists as a spell circle appeared and took control of the shattered pieces of the ice wall causing them to slam into the Beast, giving her a hold on its body so she could pull it away from Marianne.

Marianne's eyes were wide, realizing how close she had been to getting kicked in the head. There was a gash in the side of her head already and it bled quite a bit. Another hit and she just might die.

*Bang!*

The Beast broke free of the icy hold with annoying ease and stood to its feet in a move so fast, it blurred. The good news though was that it didn't turn its attacking intent back on Marianne. It seemed to consider Aylin a far more appealing opponent.

This had been the case a lot in the fights the team had been in with corrupted Beasts thus far. The Beasts always gave them a focus that no longer felt random.

Only now did Aylin get a good look at the Beast.

"A Kangaroo?" She said and it sounded like a question.

The thing before her was indeed a kangaroo. A very muscular one in fact. Its abdomen was segmented with abs and veins popped out along its limbs like a constant exertion to unleash the greatest feat of explosive force.

It had the tell-tale layer of Demonic energy around its body, granting it a defense against attacks while also boosting its strength. From the feel of its corrupted energy, Aylin surmised the Beast had started as a Four-Star Beast. Now it edged close to Five-Star thanks to the demonic energy boost.

"A Martial-Roo," Eloise clarified,

"They possess incredible explosive speed and reflexes. No Elemental Affinities. Their Mana simply courses through them in a constant augmentation of their physical abilities. It makes them one of nature's naturally occurring cases of Mage-Knight Techniques; Abandon all magic and embrace muscles."

There was a jokiness to Eloise's words. Especially at the end, but she sounded very grave. The words were light and jokey because that was how Professor Lea Gilligan had talked about the Martial-Roo once in class. Eloise remembered that the Professor had even laughed at the name of the Beast, saying it added to the comedy of its existence.

Eloise didn't find anything funny about the Beast now though.

Nothing funny about its dead-looking eyes behind which there seemed to be only a desire to cause as much pain as it could. There was no desire for a quick kill coming off the Beast. It only sought the fun of combat.

Hell, if it could, Eloise was sure the Martial-Roo would give a wicked smirk.

"What Star is it?" Kaya asked. Perceptive as she was, she had definitely sensed what Aylin had. Still, she wanted confirmation.

"It's classified as a Four-Star Beast by the Adventurer's Guild Bestiary. It's one of those Beasts Professor Gilligan talked about in passing. Like the Bullcroc…" Eloise said, her voice getting faint toward the end.

The Martial-Roo let them talk. It was as though it could sense the dread setting in with them and wanted that moment to last a while. Almost like tenderizing their flesh with the sheer terror of what it was capable of. Of what was coming.

"Why would Professor Gilligan put this here…?" Aylin asked, an accusation in her tone.

Every Beast they had faced thus far, no matter how troublesome, had started as a Three-Star and been boosted to Four-Star. This was a departure from the norm. A norm that had already put their lives at risk!

"To be fair, she did tell us she would. And how was she to know the already substantial threat would get worse by a Demonic presence?" Kaya said and she even managed a little laugh. But it wasn't one of amusement.

The Martial-Roo snorted then and the look in its eyes got even deader and deadlier. It began to bounce in place, throwing out light jabs at the air like a boxer getting psyched up for a fight.

It looked at the ladies one at a time and then settled on Aylin. Charging at her in a second.

Aylin already had a spell ready. But before it took shape, Eloise was suddenly in front of her.

Eloise had both her wands out already and she swished one at Aylin, releasing just a bit of sonic pressure to push her back at least five feet.

"Prepare the Mana-disrupter Potion. I'm pretty sure we're going to need it!" She yelled, "I'll hold it off!"

Even as she said that, Eloise was already pointing her other wand at the Martial-Roo, conjuring her most expansive defensive spell yet. One that came with powerful, groundshakingly tremulous music…

… Music which the Beast met with unflinching dead black eyes.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.