Running across the forest, a nimble figure dashes among the trees, leaping and spinning at times, climbing a tree one second and jumping high into the air the next.

Her impulse was such she didn’t even use her hands to climb, she just kept running, as if gravity was a mere option that she could choose to ignore at times.

50 meters in front of her, a distance she could cross in seconds, 3 wolves stood together.

Aina unsheathed a dagger and jumped off a tree branch, electricity coursed through the blade and she threw it towards a wolf, piercing its side.

The wolf yelped upon feeling the sharp blade penetrating its skin, but convulsed and fell to the ground a second later, the electricity inside the blade scorching its insides and stopping its heart.

The other 2 wolves reacted lunging at her with their fangs bared.

Aina ran between the two, easily avoiding their bites and put a hand on each wolf’s side.

“Ha!”

One exhalation later, lightning surged forth, claiming the lives of the 2 beasts.

Aina closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, guiding the life force absorbed from the wolves into her core, where it turned into a current of energy that spread through her body, filling her with vitality.

“Nice, 3 wolves for a barbeque, all set.”

She stretched her fingers a bit, feeling the ambient energy, her Master had told her to avoid using her special lightning when hunting these beasts, so she had used what he called ‘natural lightning’ which was simply using the mana in the air to form electricity.

The cost for using normal electricity was vastly lower than that of using her unique lightning; using that bluish purple lightning got her tired as doing a lot of exercises, like running at top speed, while using normal lightning felt as if jogging lightly.

The difference was huge.

She raised her hand and extended tendrils of Qi around the 3 dead wolves, and with a mental command made them enter her Spatial Ring.

It was a wonderful artifact she got from her Master this morning.

He had stayed back at their moving home near the beach accompanying her mom who wanted to do the laundry; he had offered to wash the clothes himself, probably cleaning them with magic, but her mom wanted to do it and asked to be taught the ways of magical cleaning.

So Aina had come alone to the forest to explore and hunt, she had her magic and the artifacts her Master had given her, so nothing could really hurt her.

She had left over two hours ago, and if she was honest with herself, she was lost. But all was well, her Master would find her if she took too long to return, she had no doubts of that.

She briefly wondered if maybe her mother and Master would be having what people called ‘adult conversations’ that older people had when children were not around or when they thought children were not listening.

She internally debated whether to return or to stay hunting for a bit more; she got the dagger she used to kill the first wolf of the trio out of her Spatial Ring, it was clean despite the fact that the blade was deep inside the wolf’s body until a second ago.

She put it back into its sheath and her stomach growled, making the decision for her, running and using her magic made her hungry.

“Master, I’m lost, can you show me the way back?”

She spoke to the empty air around her, but she was confident that he could hear her.

“This way.”

Her Master’s voice was heard, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. A line appeared in her vision signaling the way back to the Traveler’s Cabin.

Sure enough, her Master was all-powerful.

“Thanks, Master!”

She happily started to run following the path her Master marked for her when a scream startled her.

It was a female scream, coming from the opposite direction than the way back.

“Master, what was that?”

“Hmm, a group of hunters in the forest fighting a monster bear, the girl who screamed saw one of her friends get wounded by the beast.”

Aina didn’t doubt his words even for a second, if her Master said so, it must be so.

“Are they… in danger?”

“Yes, the bear is stronger than them, if they don’t retreat they will only get more wounds.”

“Is it stronger than me?”

Aina was already running towards the place where she heard the scream.

“Physically, yes. But you don’t fight only with your physical strength, right?”

“A good hunter has more than one tool always ready.”

“Hahaha, that’s a good saying, and indeed you have another weapon besides your hands and dagger.”

Aina raised her hand, electricity coursing through it.

“Yeah. Ah, Master, tell mom I’m sorry for the delay.”

“She says there’s no problem, just be careful.”

“Okay~”

“Alright, go. If you have problems, I’ll handle things.”

“Thanks, Master.”

Feeling the lightning coursing through her body, Aina accelerated and enhanced her senses, moving at a higher speed than before.

Tina was scared, she knew they shouldn’t have chosen this quest, even with their numbers they couldn’t do it.

What difference did it make if they were 5 or 15 in front of a monster far stronger than them?

There had been reports of a fire-type bear roaming around this area and a bounty had been offered to kill it since such beasts were a source of wealth for their meat and pelt; besides, if they were left in the area it would mess with the environment and could get near villages, endangering the people.

So her 5-member team had joined with other 2 teams and form a 15-member joint party and came from Buri City to this place tracking it down.

Unfortunately, the monster had found them first.

If it was just a fire-type bear, even her team alone could handle it somehow, but this… this was a freaking Firestone Direbear, a fire-and-earth-attuned monster who excelled on physical strength and had high defense.

They were doomed to fail here.

Their arrows could not pierce its skin.

Their swords and spears broke against its rock-like muscles.

Their few spells did nothing but annoy it.

One swipe was all it took for one of their strongest melee fighters to be gravely wounded.

Another swipe raised fire and burned them all in varying degrees.

Some of them had already pissed their pants, Tina was sure she would have done the same if she hadn’t gone to the bathroom right before coming here.

“Come on! Fight!”

“We can do it if we coordinate!”

Two of the idiotic team leaders that brought them here shouted in an attempt to raise their morale, but to no avail.

In front of such a beast, you ignore the screaming idiot and just run for your life, that was the only way to survive that Tina could think of.

But even running away was not easy, they had their backs to a rocky formation, burning bits of forest to the left, a lake full of aquatic monsters to the right, and an angry beast to the front; the Firestone Direbear had cornered them.

Turns out this beast was smarter than their team leaders. Who would have known?

The beast growled, showing the rows of fangs inside its mouth.

Her team leader, a spearman named Tom, attacked the beast together with the other 2 team leaders, a magician called Rual, and a mace wielder called Bok.

The archers, Tina included, shot arrows to the monster hoping to distract it enough to not turn their teammates into mush.

It didn’t even dodge Bok’s strike, it just swatted him aside, making him crash into Rual, stopping his spell casting.

“Take this, you beast! [Triple Thrust]!”

Tom managed to get close enough to land a direct hit with his skill, but it was just too weak, either by Tom’s strength or the quality of his spear, his attack didn’t do more than scratches.

Tom was hit by a fireball at point blank range on the chest, sending him flying to the lake’s border, maybe luckily for him, since the flames extinguished immediately, minimizing the burns.

“Tom! Noooo!”

Lana, the healer from their team screamed upon seeing Tom flying through the air, she ran to tend his wounds, disregarding the bit of formation they had.

Tina always suspected those two had something going on between them. That would also explain why Tom had rejected any advance and insinuations she made to him.

Lana got Tom out of the water, despite the fact she was unprotected and incapable of dealing with any monster that might come from the lake.

Well, it’s not like they were much safer near the Direbear anyways.

The breastplate protecting Tom’s torso had taken most of the damage, but he had still been hit hard, he could barely stand using his spear as a support.

Lana was using her healing magic to alleviate his wounds, but there was little she could do in the middle of battle.

“Fuck, are we gonna die here!?”

One of the hunters of Bok’s team yelled in frustration.

Rual stood up again and cast multiple icicles around him, he launched the magic attack with a shout, hitting the monster.

It appeared to stun the beast for a moment, it was a fire-type beast after all, even if only partially.

But he failed to do enough damage, the Firestone Direbear was enraged and stood on two legs, with a savage roar it covered itself in flames.

Every adventurer present could feel death coming for them.

At that moment, Tina saw a flash.

A literal lightning out of the blue struck the monster.

The beast roared in pain and fell to four legs again, the flames that covered it extinguished, revealing charred skin where the lightning struck it.

Something blurred from behind the burning ground on the adventurers' left and approached the Firestone Direbear in only a second, dashing past the Direbear’s face and leaving two deep wounds across on the beast’s eyes.

The blur took distance as the beast rolled on the ground swiping blindly around it.

Only then could Tina make out the blurring figure that came to their rescue.

It was a girl with smooth jet-black hair wearing purple clothes and brown leather boots, she was beautiful and looked no older than 14.

On her hand, she held a sharp black dagger of far better quality than any of their weapons.

Once the beast stopped attacking wildly, the girl charged to it surrounded by electricity.

Maybe guided by its hearing, sense of smell, instinct or a combination of the three, the Direbear shot fireballs at her, but could not pinpoint her exact position.

She threw her dagger, now charged with lightning bolts, into the wounded eye of the monster. The dagger pierced deeply and released its electric charge inside the beast.

It shook violently as the lightning rampaged inside its body, paralyzing it completely, the perfect chance for the girl to strike.

Utilizing all the force of her charge, the girl jumped and raised her right leg above her head, then slammed it down to the beast’s head.

“Huo!”

Her shout was like roaring thunder, her kick moved fast as lightning.

With a violent explosion of power that defied her size, her axe kick not only made the Direbear’s head hit the ground but squashed it.

The loud boom resounded in the area and made the adventurers’ bodies tremble a bit.

The battle was over; this strong, ferocious, and dangerous Firestone Direbear was dead, killed by a girl younger than any of them.

And she killed it completely unharmed.

Their rescuer sat next to the beast’s body, huffing lightly. She must have used a lot of power in those attacks.

The group of adventurers was still stunned by what happened, they just stared at her, then started to check for the injured.

“Thank you for helping us, miss.”

Rual took a few steps towards the girl and thanked her.

He was 30 years old, and a competent mage who knew spells of 3 different elements. He was B rank adventurer, leading a team of C ranks called Frost Fang.

“Are you guys ok?”

The girl looked at Rual and then to the rest of the adventurers, they were certainly in a bad shape, but at least everyone was alive.

And with the money they would get from the Firestone Direbear’s Subjugation Quest, they could tend all their wounds and even get better equipment…

“Oh, no.”

Tina just came to a realization: They hadn’t killed the Direbear, this girl had, she was definitely stronger than them and could take all the reward money for herself.

Maybe they could convince her to share the reward?

Or, maybe she was just passing by and would leave now without taking the beast’s body with her?

That would be the ideal situation for the adventurers, otherwise, this whole endeavor would be for nothing.

“Yes, we are a bit roughed up, but we’ll survive.”

Rual answered her question with a bitter smile, they had almost died, underestimating a monster could cost the lives of the whole party, he really regretted accepting this quest.

“That’s good.”

The girl nodded and pulled her dagger out of the eye socket of the beast, it was still lustrous black without any blood stain on it, definitely a magic weapon.

She checked the blade before sheathing it; she turned to the monster’s corpse and placed a hand on it.

Tina thought maybe the girl wanted to take part of the beast as a souvenir, but the whole beast vanished before their eyes.

“Wha!? What happened!?”

All of the adventurers were surprised at the sudden disappearance of the monster.

“Well, then. Take care and don’t run into another monster on your way back.”

The girl waved at them and jogged towards the forest, away from the adventurers.

“Wait a second, please!”

The mace wielder, Bok, called out.

“What happened to the monster’s corpse?”

He asked with a pale face, seems he had been wounded badly by the Direbear’s swipe from before, he might have some fractured ribs.

“I took it.” was the simple answer provided by the girl.

“How did you do it?” Bok continued.

“Secret.”

“Then what about the Skills used to kill it?”

One of the swordsmen in Bok’s team asked.

“Secret.”

The girl replied again.

“Sorry, miss, but we really need that Firestone Direbear’s body. Could you give it to us?”

Rual spoke bowing his head, he did not think they could take it by force. Who knows what other ‘secrets’ this girl might have?

“I killed it, so I’m taking it.”

“Yes, but we really need it and- “

“Who cares! We were about to kill it when you interrupted and stole the kill!”

Rual was interrupted by one of Rual’s own teammates, an archer named Bob that obviously did not know the meaning of diplomacy and had a screw loose if he actually thought they had a chance against such monster.

Everyone present looked at him as if he were an idiot, that empty boast in their situation would bring no help.

“Look for something else to hunt, this time something of your level. Even I know that one can’t hunt a beast that strong without equipment and strong team.”

The girl admonished them and turned around, this time she kept jogging despite the adventurers’ pleas.

She quickly disappeared into the forest, out of their sight.

Tina helped in giving first aid to the wounded, they decided to return to Buri City first, since they could not continue hunting for anything else in their current state, they would think about reporting to the Guild and about getting another quest later.

No matter how disheartened or angry they might be, they were still alive, and it was thanks to that mysterious girl.

They should have given her something for saving them, the beast’s body was hers by right.

Tina then realized they hadn’t even asked for the girl’s name.

She imagined no one in the Adventurers’ Guild would believe them when they told this story.

But it didn’t matter, it was the truth.