Taria opened her mouth to speak, but Kaedros quickly turned, clamped a hand over her lips, and dragged her behind a thick tree, all without making a sound.
"Shhh," he whispered, low and urgent.
Taria's heart pounded. She hadn't seen him this serious before.
"There's a monster ahead," Kaedros said quietly.
"I saw it!" Taria hissed when he released her. "What kind of monster is that?"
Kaedros peeked past the tree, his brows furrowing. He didn't recognize it, and that alone unsettled him. "I don't know," he muttered In admission.
The creature in question was enormous, the size of two horses. It had the unmistakable skeletal frame of a Scabber, but with drastic mutations.
Its snout was longer, ending into fangs like sabers. Its eyes were glowing blood-red, and its claws looked like they could shred metal. What made Kaedros weary was the aura he was feeling from it, an oppressive kind of energy.
"That's a Scabber?" Taria whispered as she peered around him. "I didn't know they got this big."
"They don't," Kaedros replied flatly. "And this one doesn't even smell like a Scabber. It stinks of chemicals… and dry heat."
He tried to place the scent, it tickled the back of his mind like a memory he couldn't catch, making his nose itch.
"Well, at least we found their nest," Taria murmured. The creature was feasting on the remains of smaller Scabbers, tearing through flesh like paper. Behind it, a wide hole gaped in the earth. The nest.
"If don't Scabber grow that big, then why is that here?" Taria's voice trembled slightly as the creature raised its head and let out a low, guttural growl.
Kaedros watched the monster go back to its gruesome meal before speaking. "I don't think it's just a Scabber anymore."
"What do we do?" Taria asked.
Kaedros turned to her with a smile that made her stomach twist. "You're going to fight it."
She stared at him like he'd gone insane. "What?! You want me to fight that thing? We don't even know its name, or its rank!"
Kaedros shrugged. "Call it an overgrownScabber. I can sense its rank, probably around stage four, rank one at most."
"Probably?" she hissed. "I'm stage one Kaedros! It could eat me alive!"
"It's half-starved," he said, nodding toward its gaunt ribs. "You have a weapon, it's distracted and weak. It's good training."
Taria looked unconvinced.
"Ready?" he asked.
She sighed, then pulled her spear free from her back. Its familiar weight steadied her nerves a little, he had made her swung it in the past few days that she was so used to it now. "Fine."
Kaedros stepped out and cupped his hands. "Hey, ugly rat!"
The creature froze mid-bite, a Scabber leg still hanging from its jaw. It turned slowly, eyes locking on them. Its fur bristled.
Taria cursed as it charged.
It moved faster than she expected, slashing with one massive claw. She rolled aside and struck with her spear, jabbing its side. The beast let out a howl and leapt back, surprised.
They circled each other. Taria had expected a monstrous force, but now that she was facing it, she could see the weakness. Its ribs jutted through its skin, and its movements were erratic.
It was clearly not at its strongest point.
She moved her body first technique of the Seraphic Warden spear technique. The first rank of the cultivating method has five technique and she's already on her way to mastering the first one, called. "Warpierce Drive"
The image of the wooden spear appeared in her mind, this time bursting with light. Her strength surged and her muscles tightened.
The Scabber lunged again.
This time, Taria was ready. She swung down hard with her spear like a hammer. It slammed into the Scabber's face with a loud crack, blood exploding from its nostrils as it shrieked and stumbled back.
"Yes!" she shouted, adrenaline surging.
The Scabber hissed, then lunged again, but instead of claws, it spun and lashed out with its tail.
Taria barely registered it in time.
Crack!
The tail caught her midsection and sent her flying, hard, she crashed to the ground with a painful thud, her breath knocked out of her lungs.
She groaned, forcing herself up as the beast charged again. Fangs descended.
She screamed and thrust her spear upward with all her strength. The tip pierced through the Scabber's lower jaw and rammed into its skull.
It spasmed violently, blood gushing from its mouth and eyes, then fell limp.
Taria panted as the mana flooded her mind.
Kaedros stepped forward, a proud smile curling on his lips.
His little warrior was growing, fast. It seems the mana cultivation method he chose wasn't that simple. It seems to be powerful. What also affects Ascendant power is the type of mana cultivation method they chose.
Seraphic Warden spear technique seems to be high quality for what Kaedros picked casually from all the one In his head.
Meanwhile, Taria's arms trembled. She had done it. She had killed a monster by herself. Her thoughts flickered to her father, would he be proud? Maybe. Her mother, though… she was probably cursing her from the afterlife.
She slumped against the monster's corpse. "I did it, Dad," she whispered softly.
Kaedros tilted his head. That tone… he'd never heard her sound like that before. Was this sorrow? Melancholy? Humans were so confusing after victory.
He knelt beside the corpse, inspecting the body.
"Something's not right," he muttered. "It doesn't just look mutated. It smells wrong too. Even the blood…"
He leaned closer. The blood wasn't the deep red of life, it was black, tinged with sickly green. A stench like alchemical waste and smoke made him recoil.
Taria yanked her spear free, and the body rolled, revealing its belly.
Something shimmered beneath its mangy fur.
"Kaedros," she said, eyes narrowing. "What is that?"