The trio trekked through the pleasant forest, none of them saying a word. Baby was chewing on what was left of the biggest chicken Dylan had ever seen. It'd been literally cooked the moment he punched it with his fist on fire, and the young man had discovered exactly why Alice was known as the Butcher, although how she managed to cut so precisely with just her claws was unclear.

A branch snapped underneath Dylan's foot and the other two spun to him instantly, claws and fists raised. He cowered behind his raised arms, not entirely sure that it was him that caused the disturbance. They sighed in annoyance, and then kept going.

Somewhat nervously, Dylan asked, "Are... are we going to talk about it? I mean," he added hastily, seeing their expressions, "we don't know what we're getting into! I don't even know exactly what we're looking for, only that it has something to do with Noah, and that we have to get rid of it."

Alice sighed again, then spoke. "Noah was pretty obvious in his opinion that we shouldn't become a problem for him. Or have you forgotten what happened yesterday?" Dylan shivered. He was likely going to remember that for the rest of his life. Alice continued. "I thought not. If we destroy whatever he's been working on, I have no doubt that he will consider us to be a problem, and wipe both us and our respective countries off the face of the planet. So no, we will not be destroying it."

They both stared at her for a moment, and she looked forward again. She'd barely said ten words during the whole trip, so her break of silence was a little unexpected. Baby continued for her, in his surprisingly high-pitched voice. Perhaps that was why he was called Baby, Dylan mused. "We're going to try and find it, whatever it is. If it's got a hundredth of Noah's power then it shouldn't be too difficult to look for."

Dylan thought about it for a moment, placing a finger on his chin. "He's been around for tens of thousands of years, but we barely know anything about his abilities or the spells he uses. How would we know if he's affected something if we don't even know what to look for?"

They paused for a moment, considering. "Well," Baby started, "I guess we'll know when we-"

A blur of yellow launched out of the trees and slammed into the Bruiser with a meaty crunch. Alice began spinning around, her claws sliding out, but another one smashed into her, and she was launched into a tree. Dylan shrieked in panic, not helping either of them much, and as he tripped over backward, another blur pounced directly onto the spot he'd just been standing, skidding to a stop.

It was a lion. A lion about four feet tall and maybe seven from tip to tail, with crags of rock decorating its shoulders and a thick plate of stone protecting the top of its skull. Dylan recognized it immediately, as he'd taken several classes in identifying monsters. "They're stucats!"

One of them was launched past him, a punch from the Bruiser sending him flying. Unfortunately, he'd been taken completely by surprise, and had been hit hard. His suit was torn in several places and there was a thin cut on his forehead bleeding profusely. Head wounds tended to look much worse than they actually were, but the blood was getting in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Alice was exchanging fierce claw-to-claw combat against her opponent and hissing just as loud. The fight seemed to be fairly even, at least until the third stucat growled, shards of stone coming from its shoulders.

Dylan could only stare in shock. He knew nothing about combat magic, and as a result, was totally useless in a fight like this. Sprinting over to Baby, he grabbed his shoulder and heaved, trying to help him to his feet. However, the Bruiser was built like a horse and probably had just as much muscle.

Thankfully, he still managed to get to his feet, trying to stem the flow of blood with one hand. It had already gotten in his eyes, and he couldn't clean it away fast enough. "ALICE!" he roared with unexpected volume. The stucats were startled, and the Butcher paused mid-claw. "What? I'm in the middle of a fight!"

"These aren't people! They don't fight honorably and we need to finish our mission! Get your tail over here and let's get out of here!"

Alice nodded, annoyed, and ducked underneath her enemy, grabbing it and heaving it towards the others. The stucats jumped away, snarling as their companion got up, shaking its head. Helping it back to its feet, they turned, ready to fight and saw...

...the three humans sprinting away. They were somewhat stunned by the unexpected retreat, hesitating.

Dylan and Baby were running as fast as they could, Baby crashing into trees as he tried to wipe his eyes. Alice practically growled at him, easily leaping over the rough terrain. "Who told you about my tail?" The Bruiser tripped over a root and stumbled for a moment, almost bringing Dylan down with him. "It was an expression! I didn't know you actually had a tail!"

They came into a small clearing and Dylan spotted a hole in the ground. He pointed at it, letting go of Baby in the process, and the man promptly crashed onto his face. Ignoring the stream of insults coming from him, Dylan shouted, "Get in there! We can defend better from there than out here!" Alice looked at it doubtfully. "What if there's something worse inside?" A loud snarl came from the trees behind them. The stucats were catching up.

Dylan panicked. "We have to take that chance! Let's go!" He grabbed Baby by the tie and ran for the hole, jumping in and tumbling down. As he came to a rolling stop, he realized to his relief that it was indeed empty, if not spacious. Alice dove in with much more grace, spinning around as she reached the bottom, ready for the first thing to come through the entrance.

They could hear the stucats circling the hole, snarling down into it before another sound interrupted. It was a strange clattering sound, like two rocks slamming against each other.

Alice stared at Dylan and mouthed, "What is that?" He just shrugged. Baby managed to get the blood out of his eyes and looked around blearily. "Are we in a dirt hole?" Alice nodded at him curtly, her ears straining upwards to listen more closely.

They could hear the stucats roaring, and then a slicing sound. One of the roars went quiet, and then another one.

Baby raised his fists, standing. Whatever it was that was killing the stucats was much more powerful than they were, based on the speed at which it was defeating them.

They heard a much louder roar, which was shortly followed by the ground shaking. Dust rained down on them from the ceiling, and Dylan looked at Alice, wide-eyed. "That's definitely a stucat Ruler. They're a lot tougher than the average monster - they're A-rank on Barabar listings."

The two hunters looked at each other and cursed. A-rank was quite a lot out of their paygrade, even working together. Combined, the two were probably a Superior B-rank. In other words, they didn't stand much of a chance.

The Ruler snarled loudly and then... went quiet.

They prepared their weapons, ready to go out fighting if the unknown creature went down their entrance.

A slight amount of dirt rolled down the entrance, and they tensed. A creature poked its head in, and Dylan blinked, confused.

"Is that an ant?"