[“See, Rajah? Once you know you can go for the kill, then just do it. Of course, make sure that you aren’t being stalked yourself, ok?”]

“Mreow!”

[“Good boy! Now, show me how strong your fangs are, bite into its neck as best as you can and show me your strength!”] I ordered Rajah while holding onto a paralyzed monster on the brink of death.

Listening obediently, he vigorously dug his fangs right into the monster’s throat, but he still didn’t have the power to immediately kill it, struggling as the monster slowly bled out. Well, it was to be expected when I remember when he tried to kill that Skorr, that monster boar.

When I helped Saori kill stuff, we were lucky as kobolds seemed to have softer bones, but the monsters surrounding this location were all high leveled E ranks.

After a couple of seconds, the monster died from blood loss. Rajah looked dejected for a second until he began feeling the effects of leveling up, brightening his mood in no time.

[“You did well, don’t worry. Just keep on trying and you’ll eventually have the strength to do all of this yourself,”] I said with a grin, spreading my arms out to show that he could do the same thing as I just did.

The area was littered with the corpses of a monster herd that I detected while I was searching for the lost lizardmen. Hearing that Caszcur wasn’t too sure if our rescue party could take it, I just said “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it”, accelerated myself with [Haste] and [Swift Winds] and then began a tornado of claws and tail, ripping through the monster herd.

Figuring that it was an opportunity, I paralyzed the strongest looking one and gave Rajah the kill credit. It certainly helped as it pushed him three levels up, helping him reach level nine.

“H-How are you this strong…you made it look so easy,” hearing a stuttering voice, I turned around to see the lizardmen shivering.

“Were you not a mage? I thought you were a mage, so how were you able to kill all these monsters bare-handed?” Caszcur asked.

Looking at all the blood on my claws and tail, it would make anybody wonder if I were a mage at all but that’s why my Job was still filled with [None], he. Frankly, these monsters were only E ranks and their stats were completely outclassed by mine, despite my handicap, so wasting too much mana on them would be ridiculous.

Two spells, [Haste] and [Swift Winds], is all I needed to claw my way through everything. I wouldn’t even consider [Toxic Secretion], as I didn’t need the paralyzing venom to kill the last one.

[“Status board difference,”] I said with a shrug. [“Anyways, who cares about this. Were you guys able to find the tracks?”]

“Huh? Oh yeah, we found some clothing and metal scraps lying around,” Caszcur answered, guiding us again.

If Saori were here, then she would probably be able to track down the lost lizardmen, easily. We had to rely on the lizardmen’s keen smell, and my [Tracking] and [Detection Sensor] skills to navigate and pursue whatever leads we could find.

It seems like after they were separated, the surrounding monsters began spreading around the area, ruining the tracks left by the fleeing lizardmen and the monsters that attacked them.

Caszcur mentioned that a few days ago, a large wave of monsters entered the rainforest, keeping their group on their tails as they had to avoid and flee all of them. It really seems like their group couldn’t get a single break in since they started traveling through the Belzac forest.

Remembering how I nearly died thrice, how Saori nearly bit the dust once, and how we had to rescue Tasianna from a group of trolls using her as a battery to fuel a mana cannon that nearly killed me; I have to say that this place is pretty hostile towards everything.

You either get overwhelmed by stats alone or by monster groups using their devious skill combinations to kill you. Either way, you won’t have a good time if you aren’t strong.

[“Hey, Tasianna, was that really that weird that I was able to do that?”] I asked my fairy companion as we and Rajah followed the lizardmen after I quickly stored the motherload of monster meat inside my storage.

[“With common sense? Yes, that was quite extraordinary, however, they don’t know that you’re a genuine dragon. If they knew then they wouldn’t be so surprised anymore, just like me when I learned what you could do, Lady Hestia,”] Tasianna said, sitting on my shoulder.

[“Seriously? Well, I guess being a C rank is pretty high,”] I said, still unsure how all this ranking stuff worked.

[“I apologize but I can’t answer anything about the rank system of the world. It wasn’t a very interesting topic for me, but I do know that you possessing the blood of a god dragon must mean that you are strong, Lady Hestia,”] Tasianna said, puffing up her chest as she started taking pride in me.

Once we regrouped with the rest, we continued following any leads we could find, as the chaos of the forest seemed to have destroyed most of the tracks. Even with my [Tracking], it was impossible to find any lizardmen like footprints. We only managed to find our way due to how the skill was directing my attention towards a certain direction.

To be honest, this was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was exactly like how the wyverns haven’t found me yet. This forest is just too large, and despite our reduced search area due to Caszcur knowing where they were, they were attacked. However, that doesn’t change the fact that it has been four days since this happened.

We could only hope that the other group was able to survive until now.

I mean, I did tell those lizardmen kids that I would do it for them. They were so adamant about coming with us that it required the adults to hold them back from leaving the camp.

Thankfully, they haven't followed us as Rajah did, but that just meant that they were putting all their hope into us, that we could find their friends and maybe get revenge on the monster that attacked them.

Well, I can only say that it wasn’t going too well. Besides some random monsters and bits of clothing, the day ended eventless. Due to the coming winter, the shorter days are coming to bite our butts, or tails, like how the lizardmen said it.

Regardless of how much energy we still had, the night was dangerous, and it would be smarter to just rest. I can keep everybody safe even when’s nighttime, but our progression would be hindered as the lizardmen couldn’t navigate through the dark forest as efficiently as I could.

[“Sigh…this is harder than I thought,”] I said once my cooking station was set up.

“Huh?” Caszcur knocked his head to the side. “Little lady, it seems you never did an actual hunt before. Finding, tracking, and then forming a plan. I wasn’t a hunter by trade, but every young scale learns how to use a spear and hunt for food, even the females.”

Thinking back, the only real tracking that I’ve done in my life was when I tried to find some kobolds, otherwise, I’ve only followed tracks to find monsters. Just random hunting; find whatever you could and kill it if it was worth it.

But that changed when Saori came in, where she was responsible for finding prey. Our two most successful strategies: the idol concert and the mobile Hestia gun, didn’t need me to track anything.

[“I might have been too proud of my abilities, yeah, sorry for complaining,”] I said while cutting the meat of today’s game.

“Ha, don’t worry about it too much. We are searching for an unknown amount of scale-kins in this large forest after four days. I never expected it to be easy. We just have to focus and continue,” Caszcur reassured me.

[“Yeah, you’re right, Caszcur,”] I said with an energetic nod. ["Everybody at camp is waiting for us to come back with the rest of your friends, so I guess we shouldn't lose hope this early. I kinda did promise those kids, so I have to make sure I follow up."]

"Ha, that's the spirit of a warrior, little lady! We won't make any progress at today's pace, so make sure to wake up early tomorrow. We need to hurry up, otherwise, our chances will lower even more."

With that settled, our rescue party increased our effort. We were walking at a higher speed, while I would deal with any monster that could threaten us, trying my best to intimidate most of them away using my [Terror Aura].

It took us another full day until we finally found an actual useful clue…a bit too useful, unfortunately…

[“Scheiße…”] I said with slight disappointment.

[“Oh goddess…”] Tasianna let out as she held her mouth with her hands.

What our group was gawking at was the bloody body of lizardmen, his soulless eyes staring back at us. [Identify] proved that he was dead so I told Caszcur that I couldn’t do anything anymore. I could have healed him if he was on the edge, but no amount of healing spells was enough to bring back the life of a deceased person.

At a time like this, I was glad that I’ve gotten used to seeing corpses. I was disappointed that we came too late but nobody needed a squeamish girl, crying and shouting. Tasianna was keeping it together but the sight of the maimed body still affected her.

“Fuck…you just had to wait for a few more minutes, you idiot,” Caszcur sorrowfully muttered as he inspected the corpse.

[“Is he one of the people we are looking for? Does he have anything that could lead us to the others,”] I asked to confirm my conclusion.

Caszcur waited for a second before letting out a sigh, “Yeah, this guy is from the same tribe that I came from, he worked under me. Damn…unlucky bastard…”

Understanding that he needed time to mourn, I allowed him to do it. Maybe it’s ‘cause he knew this could happen but after a few more seconds, he closed the dead lizardman’s eyes and spoke, “The blood is fresh, which means that he just died, although considering the size of those wounds, I guess he must have died from the attack, not from bleeding out."

It was only a tiny difference, but it was detailed enough to give us a lot of information. If he died from blood loss then the ones who did this could be gone already, but if he died from whatever caused those large gashes, then chances are high that those perps are still in the vicinity.

Parallel minds, get on the detection sensor and find some clues!

After giving them a moment to work with, they told me that a cluster of monsters was moving in different directions. Focusing on this lead, my parallel minds further inspected it to find out that the largest cluster were in the north, west, and south, while only a small amount was in the east.

Honestly, it looked too suspicious to be a coincidence. Five dots quickly advancing towards a cluster of many.

[“To the east, follow me!”] I shouted, waking everybody out of their delirium.

Picking Rajah up, I speeded through the rainforest as I have pinpointed the location of my target…and experience bags.

At the speed that they were running, I wouldn’t be able to make it in time, before they started tearing through the fleeing dots. I need to buy some time!

“Kraaaaaahhhhh!” shouting, I announced my presence to the monster, hoping that it would provoke them to direct their attention to me.

Noticing that they stopped for a second before resuming, I made my parallel minds use [Aerokinesis] to amplify my voice while also playing something catchy…something that can pump up your blood.

.

“A simple request ♫

A simple challenge to you ♫

Are you too afraid to fight? ♫

I’m here, so come at me you fucks ♫

Try to pick on someone your own size ♫

Or can you only fight against the weak? ♫

So, prove yourself, oh ♫

.

How can you call yourself strong ♫

If you won’t even take me on ♫

Stop your feet now and turn your bodies around! Let’s go! ♫

,

Explosion! ♫

Let our claws slice and dice ♫

Can you bring me down ♫

Right now, let’s get on the ground, ♫

Fight or flight! ♫

.

Let’s see, can you face my magic ♫

Show me, a dragon, how to fight ♫

Come on, don’t disappoint me now! ♫

Fight or flight! ♫”

,

Singing while running at high speeds isn’t good for your stamina as you would throw your breathing rhythm in disarray, however, it seems it worked we adequately as the five chasing dots stopped their advances long enough for the other cluster of dots to make some distance.

I also stopped running, letting my breathing calm down, to let the pursuers know that I won’t go anywhere. It seems they were contemplating about it. Eventually, they sent three of their members at me while the rest continued the chase.

That’s good enough!

Noticing that the lizardmen finally caught up to me, I turned around to see that they were breathing heavily but that they weren’t exhausted.

That was the mark of a group of people who are used to running and traveling. I internally praised them, as Caszcur started speaking, “Huff, huff…hey, how can you run so fast…bwuh!”

I know what he wanted to say but there wasn't any time left so I gave them a couple of my poison bombs and three of my newest firebombs, “I found the rest of the group. I managed to provoke three of them but two continued the chase. I’ll keep these three at bay for now, but you have to catch up! Those bombs are dangerous, extremely dangerous, ok?! Pull the sticks out with absolute caution but I can promise you that they can blast away anything they touch. I made them after all!”

They were one of my newer versions. When I heard about the concept of mana batteries, I thought I could figure it out on my own, but I didn't even know how an electric battery worked so why did I even try.

So, instead, I kept with the basics of magic and how I have been making bombs until now. I needed a bomb that could be used without my mana, so I simply told the magic circle inside those bombs to activate once it gets in contact with a very specific gas that I can make with [Toxic Secretion].

If I could make extremely hazardous toxins, then shouldn't I be able to do the polar opposite of it? Pulling the sticks out of them releases this non-lethal toxic gas into the other chamber with the magic circle. Just like a normal grenade, after a few seconds it will go kaboom.

“…Got it! You can count on us, so you better hurry up, Hestia!” Caszcur said, only needing a few seconds to think about it.

Saying “Got it!”, I then enveloped all of the lizardmen into air capsules using [Air Shield] and [Aerokinesis]. To make sure that they had the necessary power, I rapidly cast all my buff spells onto myself to then transfer them onto them with [Synergist’s Oath].

Considering that I had to do this individually to all five lizardmen, I had to accelerate my casting speed to an abnormal rate, quickly consuming 25% of my total mana as I focused on speed instead of mana usage efficiency.

Proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Synergist’s Oath Lv. 4] evolved into [Synergist’s Oath Lv. 5]

There has to be a faster and more efficient way to do this! Casting all my buffing spells is already tedious and doing that for six people just takes way too much time!

That also meant that the beast had enough time to catch up to me, while the lizardmen couldn’t move at all.

Can’t help it…

[“Hold on tight!”] I announced, clearly unnerving the lizardmen.

Pouring in even more mana than was needed, I strengthened the [Air Shield]s even more while beginning casting another spell, constructing a large green magic circle behind the lizardmen.

More mana! Give it more mana! Blast through trees, break through the barrier! Wind Blast!

With a sound similar to that of a rocket blastoff, an ear piercing explosion launched the lizardmen forward, shooting them through the rainforest like a bullet. As they were protected by my [Air Shield], and their bodies had [Featherfall] on them, I was optimistic that they wouldn’t die even if the shield somehow broke.

I gave them all they needed, now it was their turn to show me their conviction and determination. I don’t think they can win the battle but all they needed to do was buy me some time…lose the battle but win the war.

With everything settled, I told Tasianna and Rajah to get ready. I know bringing Rajah into this battle would be dangerous for him, but he would be safer with me.

I technically also don’t have to win this battle. I only needed to somehow trap them, and make sure that they couldn’t follow me. I could outmaneuver them and join Caszcur but that all depended on what type of monster I would fight.

If it was strong then I can’t allow it to join with the other two, otherwise, even I will have trouble against all five monsters. It was two, and Rajah, against three. An acceptable amount.

Confidently appearing out of the trees were three large monsters. They were covered in scales and fur, just like what I was told, had an iguana’s head and a tiger’s tail. Their legs were completely covered in scales, perfect for the rainforest setting, while their backs were a mix between scale ridges and brown tiger fur.

Just looking at their size, which was about horse size, and their sharp claws and massive teeth would have been enough to scare away any normal person. While they pissed their pants, these predators would eviscerate their backs the moment they turned around.

Identify.

Panguana A giant monster covered in both scales and fur, to protect it from attacks and from the environment. Using their muscular front legs, these monsters would crush any prey using this brute force. They use their incredible defensive abilities in conjunction with their agility to hunt down prey and predator in the swamps and marshlands that they inhabit. Works well in groups, especially before they hibernate due to winter. Rank C

He…so, to dragon or dragonewt. Which will it be?