The jungle inhabitants were restless; many small creatures vacated the area called the 'Trees' Graveyard' located within the Cloudy Jungle as a battle ensued. The fog began to slither its way into the vegetation, creating an eerie atmosphere for both Aria and Catherine.
"The fog is setting in. This is going to be a difficult fight. My name is Catherine by the way."
"I am Aria. The fog can be both an advantage and a disadvantage."
"What? Do you mean that beast will not be able to see-" Before she could finish her sentence, Catherine was kicked by Aria and pushed out of the way. Similarly, using the momentum, Aria jumped back with a flip. Both managed to avoid Tobi-Kadachi's tail slam attack.
"Pay attention! It does not care if we are in a middle of a conversation or not!"
"Ouchie, what a rude guy..." Catherine recovered quickly and climbed up a nearby tree to reach a higher ground. "I will shoot it from up here! When the fog gets thick enough, we will make our escape!"
"It will chase use even if the fog is obscuring its vision! It can pick up our scent!" Aria slid around to avoid the attacks from Tobi-Kadachi while countering when openings presented itself. "We need to inflict enough injuries until it retreat or just outright kill it!"
"Yeah, I guess that make sense; knowing that it almost wiped out the remnants of the high ranked adventurers' expedition force." Catherine shot several arrows before changing location to avoid Tobi-Kadachi's attacks. "What can 2 low ranking adventurers even do to repel that?"
"First of all, this is not the monsters that wiped out the expedition force." Aria jumped up to higher ground to avoid Tobi-Kadachi's tail spin and lunged towards its back, stabbing it in the process. Aria tried to ride the beast by holding onto its fur, but the electricity running across its back numbed her body and she was thrown off.
"What!? Then, what is this monster?! Another new species?!" Catherine was in disbelief. "And how do you know about this monster?"
"Leave that for later! For now, we will need to take down this monster." Aria got back on her feet as Catherine distracted Tobi-Kadachi with her arrows. "The second thing is that this monster is weak against water attack, so the fog is beneficial for us in reducing its attack potency. Can you execute any water magic?"
"Fortunately, I can. Unfortunately, I am only at level 2 and I am terrible at controlling it."
"That is good enough. Just try to soak this monster whenever you have the chance."
"Easier said than done."
As the fog got thicker, it became harder to target their opponent, but Aria managed to land several critical hits on its tail. After several intense scuffles, Tobi-Kadachi slowed down, showcasing its fatigue through the saliva dripping out from its mouth. Taking their chance, Aria and Catherine chanted their water spells.
"Water. Coalesce in the air and bludgeon my enemy. Waterfall!"
"Water. Flow through my body and coat my weapon. Water blade!"
A huge blob of water formed above Aria and rushed towards Tobi-Kadachi with great vigor, completely drenching it with powerful impact of the waterfall. It flailed amidst the onslaught of rushing water until its feet left the ground and slammed onto a nearby rock.
Still stunned from the attack, Tobi-Kadachi remained in place as arrows coated with spheres of water punched into its head and back. One of the arrow struck its jaw, critically damaging Tobi-Kadachi's head, resulting in visible scars.
Without missing a beat, Aria sneakily approached from behind and slashed at Tobi-Kadachi's tail, breaking it in process as it lost its rigidity. The beast flinched from the searing pain of its prized tail being wounded and fell on its side, sliding down the muddy soil into the lower recesses of the forest. With the amount of water drenching it, Tobi-Kadachi had lost its potent static electricity as the fur on its body shriveled down with no trace of its original wild vibrancy.
"The beast is down!" Catherine was eager to pursue it to the lower level, but Aria was totally exhausted from overexertion. Catherine noticed Aria's state and halted her pursuit. "Hey, umm, are you alright? Take it easy and sit down for a while."
Aria dropped down on her bottom and took rapid breaths to regain her stamina. Worried, Catherine knelt beside her and took out her water canteen made out of leather; she was feeding Aria with water in hope to aid her recovery. As the water entered her throat, refreshing sensation swept upon Aria's body, invigorating her.
"My water is special because I added a little bit of rock salt into it. It is a trick I learn from my late big sister."
"Thank you and sorry for your loss. What about the monster? We need to take it down."
"The monster seems to have escaped. Do you have a grudge against it?"
"No, but I want its carcass to craft weapon for my target." Aria took out several pieces of bacon that she took from the tavern where she held a meeting with Rutio. It was, unfortunately, soaked and chewy, but Aria quickly took several bites of the salty mess to regain her stamina.
"If I may be so bold, what is this target of yours? Is it to take down the monsters that decimate the expedition force into this dingy jungle?"
"Only the original target. I would assume that your sister died in that expedition; do I stand corrected?"
"Yes! She was able to escape with the remaining adventurers from the initial slaughter! However, that red-eyed monster just had to do the cowardly thing and ambushed the helpless! My sister died trying to buy time for the rest to escape!" Catherine looked straight at Aria with sadness, anger and resentment. "Miss, will you share that carcass with me, so that I can wield a powerful gear to take down that red-eyed monster?!"
"I do not mind sharing, but you should forget about taking revenge. Right now, you will be killed before you even realize its presence."
"Is it stronger than that lightning monster?"
"Way stronger." The curt reply from Aria sent shiver down Catherine's spine. "Anyway, we should start tracking down that Tobi-Kadachi."
***
"A monster was seen in the valley region of the forest!" Granzial was alarmed from the sudden news. "To think it managed to get out into the middle layer. There is not much barrier separating the middle to the outer layer of the forest; this will create problems to the locals who rely on the forest's gift."
"There is more sir." Raymond spoke up with a worried expression. "According to the adventurers who managed to retreat into safety, they were saved by a girl with silver hair, but was told to leave the fight to her and to get out of the way."
"Sigh... that girl is quite the character." Granzial immediately gave out the order to put on an urgent quest to chase away the invading beast or, at the very least, keeping it off from venturing closer into the outer layer. Within the next few minutes, the guild was working in full speed in recruiting the high ranking adventurers to partake on the quest in collaboration with the knight orders.
"Why would the pouncing shadow get out of the heart of the jungle? The inner layer of the Cloudy Jungle should have sufficient food and space for several creatures of that size." Granzial pondered with the available information. "Aria is the cautious type, so she will never take on a challenge that she knows cannot be won... Unless, it is a different creature..."
***
Following down the muddy wreckage from the previous attack, Aria and Catherine both tracked down the paw prints of Tobi-Kadachi. When the print stopped, they deduced that it might have climbed up the trees and started searching for any sign of the beast.
"Hey, there are several claw marks on this particular tree." Catherine noticed the irregular markings on the giant tree and from there, slowly traced on the path that Tobi-Kadachi had taken. "Based on the path it had taken, it seems to be heading northeast."
"That is not good. It may be heading into the outer layer where it may endanger the civilians." Aria began to worry and urged Catherine to hasten their chase.
"The fog had set in. I doubt that the civilians will stick around the jungle."
"We are in the middle layer, the valley area of this mountainous jungle, the fog will slither its way into this area before spilling over to the outer layer. They are still unaware of the incoming danger." Aria and Catherine followed the marking on the trees as it led them out of the Trees' Graveyard area and towards one of the first checkpoint post. "The fog seems to have thinned out a little the more we go uphill."
Along the way, Aria noticed the local creatures fleeing in the same general direction towards the outer layer. It might not be an impressive mass migration, but it was noticeable enough for Aria to feel uneasy.
Soon, they reached a large patch of fallen trees undulating around with vines anchoring them to each other in equilibrium. An area known for being the home of many species for its natural shape that resembled caves with many holes for animals to hide. However, the usual buzz of activities were absent, with the exception of a singular creature standing atop the structure consuming several green wyrms.
"It is eating that unusually strong predator of this jungle." Catherine muttered with fear and awe.
"The green wyrms you found in the middle layer are generally smaller than the one you will find the inner layer and flying monsters are generally a bad match against Tobi-Kadachi." Aria unsheathed her blades and instructed Catherine to shoot at Tobi-Kadachi in order to lure it down. "Fighting on that maze-like structure will make us an easy target for its agile attacks and silent ambushes."
Chanting and drawing her bow, Catherine shot her water coated arrow at the monster's broken tail. Wailing in agony, Tobi-Kadachi turned furious at the 2 adventurers and lunged down to bite them. It had recovered enough from the meal and was moving around faster than both Aria and Catherine had anticipated. Although both were able to get in some hit, none were damaging enough to hurt the beast and within a few minutes, its furs stood up.
"This is not good! It is going into that lightning form again- kyaa!" Catherine narrowly avoided Tobi-Kadachi's tail spin attack; due to its broken tail, the swing was slower, allowing Catherine to process and dodged. "It does not give me any chance to chant!"
"Just keep up the pressure, it will tire out after a while." Aria looked around for anything that could help with the hunt, but was distracted by the relentless attacks from Tobi-Kadachi. Due to the lapse of focus for a moment, Aria was struck by its body slam and that similar sensation that Aria felt before resurfaced. Her vision was disoriented with numbness electrifying her entire body.
"Thunderblight." Aria stared at Tobi-Kadachi, whose body was now brimming with electricity.
"Watch out!" Catherine shot several arrows in order to get the beast's attention away from Aria, but it was ignored as Tobi-Kadachi lunged repeatedly at the injured Aria. Aria tried to avoid and gained distance from the monster, but was overwhelmed with its speed as it spun its tail and launched Aria into the nearby structure. Aria luckily landed on the accumulated foliage within one of the openings of the intricate structure, but the electrifying sensation was amplified within her head. Aria felt her vision of the world spun around into a blur and several illusory flashes of light appeared within her view as she tried to keep her balance. She was stunned within her body, unable to move or coordinate her motor neurons.
Without a pause, Catherine rushed to aid Aria, but Tobi-Kadachi came into her view and attacked her, seemingly having switched target. Catherine was caught off-guard and slipped down the moss-covered rock, sliding down into the undergrowth right by the buttress root of a giant tree. Tobi-Kadachi followed suit by gliding down and performing a tail slam which missed Catherine as she scrambled into the hollow space of the convoluted roots system. Relentless, Tobi-Kadachi clawed its way into the crevices to pursue Catherine who was desperately running away until she got out of the constricting space and climbed up onto higher ground.
Aria could not moved due to the dizzying sensation in her head and the injuries she sustained from the attacks were crippling her fighting prowess. Nevertheless, Aria tried to steady herself and slapped her face in order to restart her disoriented senses. Slowly, it returned as the flashes stopped and Aria could visualise the battlefield in clarity, allowing her to absorb the current situation where Catherine was running away from the pursuer. Aria readied her blades to assist Catherine, but noticed the carcasses of the slain green wyrms and began to cut off their tails.
"Hey Catherine!"
"What?! I am kind of busy! Help!"
"Bait it here, we will poison it with the tail spikes from these green wyrms!"
"Easier said than done- whoaaa!" Catherine began to climb frantically to get to Aria's position while Aria descended onto a more stable platform.
Tobi-Kadachi leapt towards the girls, lunging forward to deliver its deadly bite. Aria, however, was prepared as she jumped aside while stabbing the beast with the tail spike of the green wyrms she had collected. With her continuous momentum, Aria proceeded to pierce Tobi-Kadachi with the poisonous spikes of the green wyrms by sticking close to her target. Eventually, Tobi-Kadachi flinched from the searing pain as the poison made its way into its system. Aria drew her blades and unleashed her demonic flurry of slashes, breaking Tobi-Kadachi's back and reducing its electric potential.
The poison slowly ate away at Tobi-Kadachi's health as it rampaged inside its body, causing pain to flare up as time passed. Catherine and Aria unleashed their attacks to further crippled the beast, finally soaking it enough to disperse its static electricity entirely. Its instinct went into escaping again to recuperate, but it limped as it navigated through the dense vegetation.
"It is weakened!" Catherine began to chant her magic and shot her water enchanted arrows on the fleeing Tobi-Kadachi. However, it proved naught in halting the movement of the beast as it burrowed into the intricate web of vegetations. It continued by climbing and hopping from one tree to another, hoping to find a safe haven within this unknown environment. Unbeknownst to the monster, Aria was in hot pursuit with her magic: Air Walk.
Tobi-Kadachi reached one of the rare clearings within the jungle where the sun ray could reached the undergrowth. As it traversed across the open field, Aria leapt out from the shadow and delivered a devastating double downward slash upon its injured tail, causing the beast to flinch as it fell. Aria took this opportunity to mount on the beast while it trashed around as expected. Aria held on tight while stabbing with her spare knife only to break midway, but without a pause, Aria switched to her Jaggid Shotel and unleashed several slashes. However, in a flash, Aria was slammed on the ground as Tobi-Kadachi rolled sideway and landed its back on the ground.
The entire weight of the beast pressed hard upon Aria's entire body as she spewed out some blood from the sudden force. The situation got worse as her Jaggid Shotel broke from the impact, causing part of the blades to be lodged within Tobi-Kadachi's skin. The beast, despite suffering from the poison and injuries, had enough energy to retaliate and was angry at its attacker. It focused on the injured Aria and lunged before an arrow struck its left eye causing it to collapse on its side. Catherine managed to barely caught up and saved Aria.
"Hey! Get up!"
Aria took the chance and crawled away from the battlefield, bleeding with several broken ribs and in excruciating pain. Catherine approached Aria and let her drank a healing potion before being interrupted by Tobi-Kadachi who had risen up and was about to bite Catherine. Without hesitation, Catherine drew her bow and shot an arrow towards the gaping maw at close range, piercing the upper jaw of the beast.
Tobi-Kadachi wobbled and collapsed as life departed from its body.
Catherine too collapsed on her knees; her hands quivered from almost witnessing her own death. It took her several seconds to process the situation before returning to tend for Aria who had recovered enough to escape danger.
Some commotion could be heard coming from the northeast direction of the forest and several figures popped out of the shadow into the clearing. Seeing the state of Aria, the rangers, knights and adventurers rushed to provide aid while some questioned Catherine about the situation.
Catherine tried her best to regurgitate the event from her perspective, but getting the complete story would require Aria's input. They were escorted out of the dreaded jungle as the fog crept up from the valley trying to swallow the entire vegetation. The knights, rangers and adventurers worked together to bring the foreign carcass out and displayed it in the warehouse of the adventurer's guild.
"What kind of creature is this?" Granzial stood in awe and fear from witnessing the bizarre biology of Tobi-Kadachi. "And it took down several green wyrms in the middle layer of the jungle. Even though they are smaller and weaker than those wyrms found the the heart of the jungle, they are still formidable foes and to easily take them down..."
"I know right! I thought I was going to die over and over again while facing that thing!" Catherine grumbled out to the guild master, recounting the moments where her life flashed before her eyes. "And to think that little girl was going to face that thing alone! It can even produce some kind of lightning that run along its body! Thanks to the Lord that it did not hit me!"
"Alright, alright, calm down. The sun has begun to set and I believe that it is best to continue this conversation tomorrow, once you have rested." Granzial was about to dismissed everybody when the door to the warehouse opened and Aria, still bloodied from the battle, entered.
"Guild master, I would like to discuss with you about the handling of that creature."
"Miss, please, you need to rest." Raymond could be seen following her from behind and apologise to Granzial for not stopping her, though it looked like he had given up on doing so.
"You ought to rest. The handling can be done after you have recovered."
"Indeed, miss. With that new monster, you can auction it off or sell it to obtained the money you need." Raymond pitched in, seemingly happy for Aria, but was met with a blank look from both Aria and Granzial.
"It is not that simple, but this is not the place to discuss everything. Let us proceed to my office."
Within the office, several stack of papers and scrolls could be seen piling up more than Aria had expected; the highest probable reason would be due to the recent encounter with Tobi-Kadachi. Aria sat down and proceeded to write down information about Tobi-Kadachi.
"I would prefer it if you rest for the day, but since you insist, please tell me everything from the beginning. Catherine, please fill in the details whenever you see fit."
Aria began to recount the event while jotting down information about the beast and after the full story was laid out, Granzial began to questioned Aria's motive in taking down the beast. In response, Aria mentioned about crafting weapons effective against the Rathian and that she promised Catherine to craft one for her as well.
"It seems that the beast that killed my sister is weak against the weapon from this monster. I swear to defeat it for the sake of my sister and mother. No matter how long it will take me."
"As I have explained to you, right now, you will be killed even if you have an effective weapon against it." Aria finished writing and handed the scroll over to Granzial. "You will need to train for years, investigate its behaviour and preferably hunt in a group. Do not let your emotion and sense of justice cloud your decision, or you are just going to throw your life away."
"Says the girl who risked her life trying to protect strangers."
"Risking your life and throwing away your life are 2 very distinct state of mind: one is of bravery while the other is of recklessness." Aria returned to her seat while downing some water provided for her while Catherine stayed silent. "However, I do owe you my life and for that I give you my sincerest gratitude; thank you for coming to my aid."
"Ehe, if missy put it as such, I will accept it." Catherine looked away with a hint of blush. "Anyway, it is time to proceed to the blacksmith and craft the needed equipment."
"Indeed, but it is getting late, I will head to the blacksmith with the materials I need while the rest can be used by the guild to pay for any services and damages that I may have caused. Guild master, will it be fine to discuss the finer details with you at this time?"
"You can sleep in here if you so desire, but I am drowning in paper work. Thus I would appreciate it if you help me survive through the night, and only then, we will discuss about the finer details."
"I have no problem with that, but are you sure about letting me survey sensitive information?"
"I trust you enough. Besides, you are the primary character in this incident."
"Umm, in that case I will excuse myself." Catherine stood up and headed to the door. "See you again guild master and umm, little miss."
"Wait." Aria stopped Catherine which caused the latter to face the former. "This is just a guess, but do you happen to forget my name?"
"Eh! Umm... no..."
"I did introduce myself back when we first met."
"Yes, you totally do."
"So, what is my name?"
"...Kadachi?"
"..."