Chapter 204

RMSBS – Episode 204 . Under their Noses (3)

The dense forest of trees, dense enough to conceal the sky, was damaged beyond recognition .

Fire raged as far as the eye could see . The trees and grass had been reduced to charcoal, ash, and stone dust; a large portion of the debris had already been swept away by the fierce winds .

It was chaos .

The flames spread as far as possible, threatening to consume the entire mountain, but were quickly contained to the battlefield . A large chill had begun to enclose the area, combating the fire’s spread .

In a few mere moments, Adjest’s ice magic assuaged the flames and the battle ended .

“We won . ”

Strewn amongst the center of devastation, near the Starling Party, were the remains of a group of giant basilisks . Each of their bodies had been mutilated in a different way: turned into pitch-black like lumps of charcoal, heads pierced, or their body falling apart as chunks of ice .

Basilisks were extremely powerful monsters, but the Starling Party was able to achieve victory without injury .

During the battle, Ronde performed his role admirably . Although it was his first actual fight, a life-threatening one at that, he held his nerve and did not betray Desir’s expectations .

Desir spoke to Ronde .

“Considering this is your first battle, you responded well in a calm manner . ”

“Th-Thank you, brother . ”

A smile was plastered on the now breathless Ronde’s face . He was struggling terribly, but Desir’s compliment resuscitated him . He appeared to be deeply moved .

“Let’s endure this a little longer . ”

Despite the damage dealt to their surroundings, the battle wasn’t entirely over; two of the basilisks had managed to escape while their pack was slaughtered .

“We need to chase them down immediately . ”

Everyone nodded .

Only two of them escaped, but each and every basilisk was a threatening monster . It was necessary to chase after them and kill them in order to prevent further damage . Fortunately, they had invoked a tracking spell on them right before they escaped .

Romantica closed her eyes and focused on the trail of mana left behind by the tracking spells on the basilisks .

“One is escaping towards the west and the other is escaping towards the north-east . ”

“Let’s split up and chase them . Romantica, Adjest, and Ronde, you guys head to the west . Pram, you and I will head north-east . ”

Desir believed that this was the most well-balanced combination .

“Yes, sir!”

“Leave it to me!”

The Starling Party divided themselves in an organized manner, under the leadership and instruction of Desir .

Desir and Pram headed towards the north-east .

Chasing after a basilisk was not a particularly difficult task . Not only were the tracking spells already placed, but clear trails had been left behind by their enormous bodies .

“They’re escaping faster than we thought, but we’ll catch them soon . ”

Desir arranged acceleration spells while explaining the situation to Pram .

Tracking was easy, but there was one point that stuck out .

‘This direction is… ’

When the Starling Party had set out towards the basilisks’ habitat, they had gone south-west .

Between the trees in this dense forest, a castle was soon visible in the distance .

‘But they’re not heading towards the city… They’re heading to the base of the cliff . ’

Once Desir realized that the basilisk was heading towards the bottom of the cliff, he once again recalled what the old man said . Ever since a powerful monster had taken residence under the cliff, no self-preserving monster dared to approach the Nordin Territory .

‘… This basilisk must be truly desperate . It’s completely lost its mind trying to flee from us, and in its desperation is throwing itself into the territory of a strong monster . ’

If it was as the old man said, the basilisk would be dealt with by the monster beneath the cliff, even if they didn’t follow it further . However, they couldn’t count on that . If they left it alone now, it could still swerve towards town and wreak havoc .

“Let’s keep chasing . ”

“Yes, sir!”

Pram nodded while hurrying his steps .

Even though basilisks were agile, this one would not be able to accelerate any more with its injured body .

The distance between them and the basilisk gradually decreased .

They had been relying on a combination of the basilisk’s trail and their tracking magic before, but they were now close enough that they could see the basilisk before them . Trees fell and clouds of dust billowed up .

“Desir, over there!”

“I see it as well!”

Pram drew his sword and prepared to dart forward .

However, the tremors caused by the fleeing basilisk suddenly ceased . It appeared to have stopped moving .

‘Is it exhausted?’

‘No way . ’

*Flick*

*Flick*

They could hear the sound of a basilisk flicking its tongue . It must have given up on running away and had steeled itself to fight .

‘All the better for us . ’

Desir looked at Pram .

“Let’s suppress it in the one go . ”

Desir and Pram were on high alert as they slowly approached the basilisk .

“Keeyyyyeeek!”

The basilisk’s scream filled the area .

That wasn’t the only sound though .

*Thud*

*Thuddd*

*Baaang*

The ground shook and a hideous sound spilled out .

The basilisk was in the midst of fighting against something else .

‘It wasn’t trying to fight with us . ’

They quickened their paces . The trembling of the ground became more severe as they drew closer .

*Thuddd*

They arrived at the sight of the basilisk falling down .

“… … ”

When Desir and Pram arrived there, they couldn’t hide their perplexion .

It hadn’t even been a minute since the battle started . However, the scene that greeted them was too grand to conclude that it was a short battle, by any stretch of the imagination .

Pram frowned while sheathing his rapier .

“What in the world… ”

It was disastrous . The basilisk’s body was thoroughly damaged . Its head had been ruptured and giblets of meat had been scattered everywhere .

Even though the basilisk already had injuries after facing the Starling Party, it was not a monster that could easily be suppressed within a minute or two .

“Did it manage to suppress the basilisk without suffering any injuries… ?”

Desir examined the blood that was splashed everywhere .

The green blood turned everything it touched into stone . Of course, it belonged to the basilisk . In fact, the copious amounts of blood that painted the ground belonged entirely to the basilisk .

The monster that had dealt with the basilisk was nowhere to be found . It seemed as though it left the place immediately after the battle .

“I wonder what kind of monster it is?”

“We’ll know once we check it out . ”

When Desir first heard about the monster from that old man, he judged that slaying it was not an urgent task .

However, with power on this level, it was a different story entirely . It was impossible to know how the monster would act . The risk this monster carried far outweighed any protection it brought the territory .

Desir approached the basilisk’s corpse to examine it further .

He faced countless monsters in his ten years in the Shadow Labyrinth .

With such an impressive display of wounds left, it would be a simple task for him to figure out what had attacked the basilisk .

However, Desir couldn’t help but feel disconcerted .

“This… ”

“What is it, Desir?”

Desir pointed at all the lacerations on the basilisk’s body .

“Look at this, Pram . The skin here was cut in a neat manner . It surely carries something sharp . ”

Then, Desir pointed at another area of its body . This area was clearly crushed by something, unlike the other injury .

“And if you look at this mark, you’ll know that it collided with something extremely strong . ”

Desir pulled out something that was lodged between the basilisk’s scales . It was a golden feather .

“A monster that has a sharp weapon with an extremely hard, golden feather… ”

Desir knew a considerable number of monsters, but he drew a blank when faced with these set of clues . He had no idea what kind of monster they could be dealing with here .

“Desir, this… ”

Smoke rose from one part of the basilisk’s body .

A monster with a powerful weapon and a strong body that lurks in a mountain cave .

Monsters usually have their own distinct strengths . However, it wasn’t possible to define this monster with just one characteristic .

The Starling Party had experienced monsters created by human hands in the Shadow World . Monsters created by combining the strengths of many different monsters .

“… … Chimera . ”

After finally reaching a conclusion based on the presented evidence, Desir casually invoked a spell towards an empty area .

*Craasshh*

Thick smoke billowed up .

After a while, when the smoke finally cleared, a previously concealed entity had been revealed .

Its figure took the form of a multitude of monsters mashed together .

Its appearance was strange, alien even, incomparable to any living creature that obeyed the laws of nature .

“… … !”

The monster leaped, approaching Desir and Pram with incredible speed .

Pram moved just a fraction of a second behind it .

Using the newly acquired Cloud Striders, his body faded before appearing in front of Desir within the blink of an eye . He then struck forward with his rapier .

*Claaaaannng*

Sparks flew out as claw and sword clashed against one another .

—-

Chapter brought to you by The Patrons .

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ED: Purplemen101

TLC: N/A

QC: Dr Lock