Valkus smashed the ground with his foot and readied his short spear and battle knife, intent on piercing through the red monstrosity. The beast saw his actions and opened its mouth, swallowing down the air to make its body expand three times over.

The action caused Valkus to sense danger so without any hesitation he yelled back to the hunters, “RUN!”

The moment the word left his mouth, he kicked off the ground and pushed himself to the right, away from the creature. Reaver reacted first and ordered her tigers and scale wolves to pick up her teammates, then leapt onto Rex and rushed away from the area. Before the hunters managed to leave the area the red monster expelled the air in his lungs, firing a conical wave of white gas after the fleeing dwarfs.

Emu noticed the rapidly approaching smoke and began chanting from the back of a wolf. Before the fog reached the slowest moving wolf, he cast a blast of wind that forced the smoke back towards the monster. His spell succeeded in pushing the gas back but before he could celebrate, he saw the mist hit some of the trees and bamboo they passed moments before.

The greenery melted rapidly, and within moments turned from lush plants to a revolting, foul-smelling sludge. Emu trembled at the sight of the smoke's effect, instantly deciding to tweak his spell a bit to contain the gas within the affected area.

As he tried to funnel the gas towards the sludge the vile red creature rushed out of the smoke, grinning wildly as the beast made its way right towards unlucky him. The red monster shot out like a cannon, brushing against the wolf Emu rode.

The scales from the wolf's right side scattered in the air as a large gash appeared on Emu's right leg. In deep pain, the wolf tripped over a rock, knocking Emu off its back launching him into a tree. A crack could be heard as Emu’s right arm took the brunt of the force, instantly causing his forearm to break.

The pain made his vision go white for a moment. Then he started to scream, clutching his broken arm and forcing himself into a sitting position. He would've kept screaming if he didn’t hear the tree branches snap in front of him.

Emu grew silent as his eyes focused on the red creature creeping towards him on all eight appendages. Instead of blasting forth, the beast moved on at a leisurely pace, seemingly intent on playing with its food. Emu watched in pure horror as the red monster opened its mouth, revealing its fanged teeth. Teeth that slowly ripped apart and exposed the terrors inside. Teeth that were opening wider and wider as they stretched towards his face.

Emu sputtered, fear clawing at his mind as he tried to form and cast a spell with his unbroken arm. No matter how he tried, his spell refused to from within his shaking fingers. A yellow stain gradually appeared between his legs.

I-I-I d-don’t w-want t-to die. I h-haven’t even g-gotten a g-girlfriend.

As the jaw of death was about to rip into him, scale wolves and tigers descended upon the red beast with a fury. They dug their teeth into the creature’s limbs, pulling in all directions. With its immense strength, the beast attempted to pry its limbs out of their mouths, almost succeeding when a shadow appeared upon the creature’s back.

Emu looked up to see Valkus descend with a battle knife in hand. The giant dwarf ruthlessly smashed his feet into the monster’s spine, breaking the beast's bones with an ease you wouldn't suspect from its large frame. Not wasting any time, Valkus’ knife glowed a faint green as he swiped forth, cutting through the monster's limbs like butter. Purple blood gushed out as the creature screamed hysterically, its horrifying fangs wiggling in pain.

The tigers and scale wolves began to devour the creature's severed limbs in a fever, some of the more courageous ones even going for the beast’s main body. Valkus walked from the limbless monster, avoiding the beasts making a meal of it, and strode over to Emu. He held out his hand, “Stand. Up.”

Dazed, Emu grabbed Valkus' hand with his unbroken one. Shakily, he gathered his will and stood up, gritting his teeth in pain. When he was on his feet Valkus released his hand and walked over to the dismembered monster struggling to crawl away from the wolves and tigers like a slug.

Valkus grabbed the beast by the scruff of its neck, pulling the monster away from the tigers and wolves gnawing at it, and turned to Emu, causing him to tremble. Seeing the fear on the mage's face, Valkus motioned again and said, “Kill. It.”

“W-what?”

Being questioned made the hunter leader scowl, “Kill. It. Now. Or. Leave. Forever.”

Emu, who was confused by the pain and the wetness of his pants, took a bit to comprehend what Valkus was trying to get across. When it all clicked together, his pain seemed to fade away, gracing him with a moment of clarity.

‘If I don’t kill this thing I’ll always live in fear because of it. If I live in fear what use am I to the hunters who need to face such creatures every day? Letting this beast ruin my life isn’t something I can allow. People now respect me, look up to me, and are proud of me. Losing my position as a hunter means that I’ll lose all of that and the chance to finally hook up with a girl because of where I stand.’

“Fuck that. Not dying a virgin.” As the words left his mouth Emu held up his hand and chanted a simple spell, “Wind shot.”

A spear of wind formed and sliced into the red creature, making it scream like a pig, but for Emu, it was music to his ears. He kept chanting. One after another he chanted, “Wind. shot. Wind shot. Wind shot.”

With each spell cast, Emu’s voice grew louder and the beast’s screams grew quieter.

“Wind shot. Wind shot. Wind shot! Wind shot! WIND SHOT! WINDDDDD SHOTTTTTT!!!”

By the third wind shot, Valkus released the red creature and watched on the side as Emu drilled holes into its wiggling form. At the height of his scream, Emu was breathing heavily and emptied of all his mana. He had a pounding headache, a swollen arm, and a bleeding leg, yet he was smiling happily with tears streaking down his face as he gazed down at the bloody mess of flesh that was the monster. Feeling drained, Emu lost the willpower to stand and collapsed sideways.

Instead of hitting the ground as he expected, Valkus caught him with ease. With the last of his strength, Emu forced his eyes open and mumbled, “T-thanks leader…”

Valkus just returned him a grin, “Sleep. Well. Hunter.”

As Emu lost consciousness, Valkus turned to the waiting hunters and his eyes met with Reaver.

“Tigers. Carry. Healers.”

Reaver nodded and looked over to her tiger, Rama, who came over and sat down next to Valkus. He laid Emu’s body on top of the tiger, and a few hunters grabbed some rope out of their backpacks and tied him onto her. Although the rider would chafe a bit, it was the fastest method on hand. The wounded scaled wolf also headed back home without any help needed as its wound wasn’t life-threatening.

After tying up Emu and sending him on his way, Valkus turned to his hunters.

“Let’s. Keep. Hunting.”