Trudging through the forest, the boys were well-equipped with their boons.
Rowan, having lost his father's axe due to being sent into a dungeon prematurely, simply wielded an already-enchanted dagger, blessed solely to work against tough monster flesh. In regards to armor, he was very lacking.
David, meanwhile, the star of the group, was adorned in fairly fancy armor, decorated in scratches from prior encounters that showed off the effectiveness of its protection. Although, notably, instead of carrying any weapons, he instead took up a pair of brass knuckles, meant to serve his Ability.
"When're we gonna fight something? Pansy-ass monsters, afraid to fight a bunch of C and B ranks. If I were them, I'd be scared, so I can't blame them too much. Still, a bunch of pussies."
Slinging a spear over his shoulder, Schwartz complained like a child on a roadtrip. Well, a child with a bit of a potty-mouth, perhaps.
"Just give it time, jeez," Kira mumbled. Distinct from everyone else there, Kira was completely unarmed and armorless.
"You sure you don't want some of my armor?" Rowan asked, moving to walk closer next to him. "It's kind of chilly, after all."
"Nah, I'm good. Dude, we're both mages—we both sit in the back while the others fight up close. Besides, of the two of us, you're a Healer, meaning you having the armor makes the most sense. If push comes to shove, we need you alive more than anyone else."
Hearing Kira's kind words, Rowan blushed—no, he did not. Well, his face was perhaps burning with a small semblance of heat, even if it was due to embarrassment. After all, it was as he said earlier—there was nothing more embarrassing than being taken care of.
It's just wrong… Blegh! Leaves a sour taste in my mouth!
"You sure? I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm always fine, after all."
A statement born of two truths. One, that he lived a very easy life with minimal consequence. And two, that the monsters always seemed to go after David and Schwartz first, and then Kira, and finally him.
Though, it was due to the monsters being dumb enough to not focus on the Healer that resulted in such an outcome.
But we're C and B rank at best, so we reeaally shouldn't be fighting any monsters that possess an above-average intellect.
"Yeah, I'm sure. You're most useful when you're alive, after all."
"Oh."
His gaze lingering down, Rowan scoffed so quietly that he was the only one who could hear it. With a tiny smile creeping up on his lips, he hurriedly shoved his thoughts away, believing them worthless.
"Thank you."
Kira raised an eyebrow, looking at Rowan, whose eyes remained on the ground. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, letting out a dumb noise, his foot pressed onto the ground—a satisfying crunch filled the air.
Truly, that was the best part of Autumn.
But, following the best, came something less-enjoyable.
"Oh! I see something!" David exclaimed, pointing ahead. The group quickly turned their eyes before them, spotting a large serpent.
"Almost as big as mine," Kira mumbled under his breath. Then, without even a hint of hesitation, drew his hand from his pockets and drew a circle with his fingers. Of course, this had absolutely nothing to do with magic—he just figured it'd look cool, as he then summoned a fireball the size of a dresser before launching it through the air.
Whizzing through the air as the sound of roaring flames made itself known to everyone nearby, the ball struck the green serpent, exploding in a great ball of fire. The snake hissed violently, leaving Rowan to click his tongue.
Right. That was explosive fire.
Following the first move, both David and Schwartz kicked off the ground, leaving small clouds of dirt blowing from the bottom of their feet as they closed the gap. Rowan suddenly felt left behind, taking a step forward as Kira launched attack after attack at the monster, which was around thirty yards away.
Crud, what do I do!? Usually, I just sit back and focus on healing when one of them gets injured, but this is just…
A stirring discontentment would not let his heart rest.
Using the efficiency of a spear's range to stab into the B rank serpent, Schwartz' Ability worked wonders—Bloodloss. With each puncture, more and more blood began to pour onto the dirt. Meanwhile, David unleashed a combination of punches, using the elegant footwork of a boxer to sink and weave through every lunge and attack the serpent could muster.
And, of course, Kira himself continued prodding with his masterful fire, contributing his share to the battle. Meanwhile, Rowan did nothing.
This sucks… I even went Hunting on my own so that I could get strong enough for this to not happen.
And yet, it still is.
It wasn't as though they made a habit of leaving him out. By all means, when he was required, they vigorously called out for his help. But yet, it was still embarrassing to not be needed. To sit back while everyone else earnestly put in their work—it was the most humiliating experience he knew of.
However, that distance had its advantages.
After all, while Kira was focused on aiming his fireballs to strike the serpent without hitting either David or Schwartz, and while both up-close fighters gave it their all, they did not notice a rapidly approaching monster.
—Far more dangerous than that meaningless B rank, an abominable beast known as the Monkey Wraith closed in, unleashing torrents of logs at them.
"Guys, watch out—!"
His cries fell on deaf ears. Almost literally as well, considering the sound of cascading wooden logs storming the forest was so deafening as to literally blot out Rowan's pitiful attempts.
Sent hurling backwards, both upfront combatants were assailed violently by the giant barrels of wood. In the distance, Rowan and Kira were the only ones who could watch, helpless to do anything.
What the?! This is a low-danger forest—why would an A rank monster be here!?
"Oh my gosh," Kira weakly whispered with fear and trembling. Really, that was about all he could say in response, shocked into his most basic of speech patterns.
And, without even a moment of consideration, Rowan performed a similar leap forward. This time, however, Mana Empowerment boosted his legs forward. Like a spring, they launched through the air, Rowan himself barely keeping his grip over his knife.
Rapidly approaching the Monkey Wraith, which took the form of a translucent chimpanzee the side of a tree inside this dense forest, Rowan plunged his meager knife into its eye. It was about the same as shoving a small pin into the eyeball of a human—small but mighty, so to speak.
Of course, in response, it roared and grabbed him with both hands. One hand on his legs, another on his torso. It was a peculiar feeling, being blanketed by such a massive creature.
It wasn't a feeling Rowan experienced for long, before he was ripped in two and tossed down fifty feet through the air.
His body—or rather, everything above his waist, crashed into dirt, blowing clouds and creating a crunch. Not the crunching of leaves, but of bone, as Rowan's arm had landed at a bad angle.
Rowan remained utterly still, feeling as though he had already died. But the pain of his body clued him in quickly, as he wailed in agony.
His pink, steamy entrails slid from his lower parts, crawling onto the dirt as though making a mad dash for the earth. The ropes that were his body, the little meaty balls that were his various organs, they were on the outside now.
Quickly, without time to wallow in his agony, Rowan fixed up his body. He created new organs, as the current ones had been exposed to the bacteria-infected dirt, alongside a new pair of legs. Standing up, looking at the colossal ape, Rowan hurriedly gathered his clothes, cautiously watching it as it stood still.
What the heck? All of a sudden, it just launched onto the scene, used Earth Magic to launch tree trunks at us, and then it just stands there?
The monkey's eyes glanced down, seeing the battered bodies of the surprised Hunters, who meagerly got to their feet with great difficulty. Even at a glance, various injuries were apparent—Schwarz had been clocked with such force that his jaw dangled from his skull, not torn off but by no means attached to the bone.
David, meanwhile, was bleeding from his arm, bone protruding from the skin.
Shit, shit…
Unable to do anything but watch and grit his teeth, Rowan's worried face grew more intense. This had been brought on by the ape suddenly turning its head, finding the only human it hadn't hurt.
A red-haired man with a terrified expression took a step back on the dirt, swallowing his saliva to satisfy the gnawing discomfort in his entire body.
Of the four, only David was considered a B rank. He was the only one capable of taking on a B rank monster in a fair fight. The others, all of them, needed certain advantages like distance and prep time.
Yet, judging by the catastrophic barging in of the monster, in which its storm of Earth Magic had crushed even a B rank monster to death with instant force, Kira knew instantly that this was the work of an A rank—a monster two whole grades above himself.
And the sight of his friend being torn in half as though tissue paper did not ease his horror in the slightest.
Ultimately, he had two choices. Either run, or die.
His gaze was stuck perpetually on the monkey's lifeless stare, not even noticing his friend at its feet. And as well, the sheer disaster the initial attack rang down on his party was more than enough to believe both David and Schwartz dead.
Run or die.
Run, or die.
Run, or, die.
Run. Or. Die.
Run.
A deep despair and terror clinging to Kira's heart, he did as any normal person would do. He turned his back, and began to sprint as far away as he could.
Ultimately, just what could he even do with his magic? Yes, it was stronger than Rowan's, but so what? Unlike Rowan, he didn't have a grand supply of mana—with just his six shots, he was already a third of the way empty—and all of those were used against a B rank of all things.
Naturally, with the giant gap in strength between B and A ranks, he was completely powerless.
So, with all of his friends dead, Kira sprinted through the forest.
"Kira, wait!!" Rowan shouted with such visceral intensity that his throat hurt afterwards.
Hearing Rowan's cries, Kira turned his head back, seeing his friend at the feet of the monster.
"H-huh?" The man meaninglessly gasped, slowing down as the continuation of Rowan's desire reached his ears.
"——Take them and run, I'll hold it off!!!"
…
"You're so dumb!"
Shouting with utmost belligerence, Kira launched a fireball at the monkey's eyes, aiming to ride off the opening created by Rowan's knife. Of course, the ape simply blocked the fireball, not caught off guard this time around, to which Rowan saw both David and Schwartz sprinting over to Kira.
They'd gotten quite the start, on top of having better physical attributes than he did.
So, in other words, Rowan was the only one left near the monkey. Thus, the only one in harm's way, once more.
As expected, he was left behind—
"Don't say that nonsense! Come on, run with us!" Kira shouted, running towards him of all things. Of course, the close-range fighters saw this, seeing their destination suddenly shift.
From there, they had to make a decision. Either keep running to safety, or be idiots and go back to support their friends.
The logical answer was, of course, to run to safety.
But instead, they chose the third option. Instead, they stood still and used their grade-schooler level magic, with Schwartz instead opting to launch his spear at the ape's leg, piercing it and causing the ape to roar with pain, glaring at them all with intense, burning hatred.
Having stood still, Rowan was easily grabbed and forced away from the monster. Finally regaining a semblance of intelligence, Rowan began to sprint away as well.
The ape, no longer dealing with the equivalent of a fly buzzing around its head, noticed the boys as they moved their comparatively small legs as quickly as they could through the forest. It let out a shriek, and used Earth Magic, sending cascades of logs towards them from behind as each and every one of them went all-out in their sprints, even using Mana Empowerment to boost themselves further.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
So the youths collectively shouted, fleeing from the monster.
Yet, suddenly, Kira let out a snicker. Yes, a small, uncouth, breathy and hardly audible laugh, all the while trying to evade imminent death.
And once the others caught wind of it, they too shared.
"Pfft!"
Leaping over logs, tripping and rolling along the dirt to not lose too much speed, karate-chopping the wind for peak performance, they snorted with laughter as their lungs burned from the sudden exertion.
…
In the end, they were still fairly helpless against even the stronger monsters of the world, not even the strongest.
Yet,
"Pfft… R-Row… ah, shit, I'm… guh, huff, fuck, oh… R-Rowa… Rowan… wah… What… What was wrong with you!!?"
Leaning against a tree for support, Kira barely managed to spit his words out.
"W-wha? I just… hah… I just wanted to hit it in the eye, to… agh… at least do some damage…"
"No, not that! Haha, you just… you got ripped in half, then you say something stupid like, 'I'll hold it off!' Dude, what could you have even done? It was so dramatic for no reason, I couldn't take it! I had to save you—I didn't want that embarrassing line to be your final words!"
His face was sweaty, a pink color being added to it. Rowan covered his face up with his shirt, feigning just wiping the sweat.
Hey now… So mean. I was just trying to say to make sure everyone was safe, dang it!
Though, Kira did have a point. If Rowan was a B or A rank, those words would have some weight. Yet, when a C rank said them, it was so blatantly a bluff that it was sad. Not because of the tragedy, but because of the embarrassing nature of it.
It was akin to an ant claiming they'd protect the colony by holding off a human being.
"Ughh… Fine, I'm sorry… I'm sorry for being an idiot," Rowan mumbled, looking back at the forest with an acquired disdain.
Seriously, nothing good happens in this place.
"You're forgiven. Even if it was corny, unfounded, and dumb, it was kinda cool. But also, you were the healer—don't just attack the monkey, fail, and then stand around! You should've healed everyone and then we all could've ran, no problem."
Rowan's head held low in shame, as he quietly nodded along.
"To be honest, I wasn't really thinking straight. I mean, you saw me get ripped in half… It was like a total reset for my brain. I got up, and everything just went blank… I just said the only words I could think of. And, you were also dumb! Yeah sure, run towards the giant ape just to get one friend—idiot."
"Shut up, I saved your life. That aside… Well, dang, what a shame. You didn't even manage to test out whatever it was you wanted to test! Whoops!"
Rowan's face scrunched, remembering that he'd wanted to test an idea out with a knife. Yet, he had neither the knife or the opponent.
Dang it.
He sighed.
"That's right… Whatever. It's getting late, anyways—I'm going home."
Getting a feel for the group atmosphere, Rowan assumed that would be the brightest decision. After all, everyone was sweaty, exhausted, and a few were absolutely covered in blood and wood chips.
Thus, it only made the most sense to call it a day.
However, despite his nonchalant attitude, Rowan was deeply glad that everyone was okay.
Plus, this wasn't as bad as the dungeon. Besides, I got to laugh like crazy, even though we were all about to die… I mean, it was just pretty funny. Running from a giant monkey ghost like it's some kind of crappy mobile game…
All in all, outside of being ripped in half and nearly getting everyone killed, it was a good day.