(Nov 15)

From my slap, Mika was sent flying through the air.

It was almost comedic how her body twirled around before she landed on the ground.

Her body fell to the ground with a thud as the room went silent.

Elder Vindal rushed over to Mika’s side and helped her up.

Mika’s face was slightly swollen, and she was holding back tears.

I felt a little bad, but it was a duel so minor injuries were to be expected.

“I apologize for my grand daughter’s ungraceful behavior. It seems I’ve spoiled her too much and she’s become arrogant. She only recently become A ranked and she’s only 17, so I hope you understand that she’s still immature.” Elder Vindal explained with a sigh.

This immediately caught my attention.

“Wait, she’s only 17?” I blurted out.

I do realize that it’s quite rude to abruptly ask for someone’s age, but I was quite surprised at the time upon hearing her age because when I was 17, I was busy slacking off and trying not to fall asleep in school!

“Yes. She’s very immature, but since she’s quite strong for her age, she tends to act like she owns the world.”

Elder Vindal said he lightly bonked Mika on her head with his fist.

Mika just sniffled as she rubbed her swollen cheek.

I was quite shocked to find out she was so young. She wasn’t even an adult yet and she already has the strength of an A ranker; talent that’s extremely rare to see.

Even within the city, the A rankers you would see are usually middle-aged or older.

The fact she’s already at this level for her age is nothing short of impressive, though it would also explain why she was inexperienced during the fight.

“I think that’s enough sparring. We are thoroughly convinced of your strength. Your strength will greatly help in the battle against Agora,” Vindal said.

“So when will we hunt Agora?”

“As soon as possible. In fact, we can go right now. Mika’s a little bruised, but she’s fine,” Connor, the wolf beastkin, spoke up.

I nodded.

“Lead the way.”

And so, we left the village: me, Sven, and the three A ranked beastkins. Elder Vindal didn’t come with us and stayed in the village, but he gave us some supplies like potions and essentials.

On our way through the forest, we discussed our plan in detail.

“I’m not a fighter, but I can use my abilities to telepathically speak to you guys. Through my mental network, we can relay information to each other in an instant via our thoughts even during battle. I’ll probably be hiding somewhere nearby,” Sven explained.

“Sounds good. All 3 of us are warriors, so we lack the diversity of a full subjugation team. However, Mika focuses mainly on speed, Branden over there is more of a pure brute power guy while I use a spear.”

As Connor was in the middle of talking, I felt some very faint vibrations.

I stopped walking and focused.

The others turned to me, asking what’s the hold up, but then they began to feel it to.

The ground was shaking.

Connor pulled out his spear, Mika raised her claws, Branden readied his stance, and I unsheathed my sword.

We stood in silence while the shaking intensified…

Until suddenly, the shaking stopped.

We all stared at each other.

But before we could say anything, the ground under us erupted as a massive snake head shot up from the ground.

“GARAWWWRRR!!!”

Agora somehow let out a roar as it flew out from a hole in the ground with its mouth wide open from below us.

There were a few things I thought during this moment.

One, I don’t think snakes are supposed to roar, and two, since when were snakes able to burrow underground and shoot up from the ground?!?!

With its mouth wide open, it tried to swallow us, but we were all A rankers and managed to jump away (aside from Sven, whom I dragged along with me).

We dispersed as the snake thrashed around.

Sven ran off to go hide somewhere as we prepared for battle.

Agora’s snake head flew into the air revealing its long body.

Despite half of its body still being underground, it still reached high into the sky, looming over us like we were ants.

It was told it was big, but I didn’t think it was this big.

The radius of its girth must’ve been at least a few meter, easily big enough to swallow a person whole, not to even mention its length.

Agora charged at me with its open mouth, but I swung my sword, knocking it’s face away.

Its scales were extremely tough, and my attack only left a shallow cut.

“Hey! It’s me Sven, I’m talking to you through your mind right now. I have a message from Connor: cover Agora’s right side, Mika, Branden, and I will cover the other sides. Also, aim for the cracks in between the scales to do maximum damage.”

I nodded mentally, verifying that I have received the message.

I injected magic in my sword causing it to glow as I jumped straight into battle.

However instead of attacking me again, Agora changed targets and tried biting Mika, who was the second closest to it.

At first, it looked like Mika was about to get swallowed whole, when I suddenly felt the air freeze around us.

My dragon’s mind instinctively activated, slowing time down as a reaction.

Mika’s eyes were glowing white, and she swiftly jumped out of the snake’s way.

Apparently, Mika has a similar ability to my dragon’s mind where she can slow her perception of the world around her down, which somehow caused my dragon’s mind to activate in response.

Mika flashed her claws and swung at Agora, tearing apart its scales and flesh like a raccoon clawing at a trash bag.

The strength that she was displaying against Agora was far greater than when she was fighting me.

Mika also seemed angry and almost like she was frustrated, probably because of the slap earlier and likely fueled her desire to just tear something apart.

Agora became enraged that mere bugs like us were injuring it, so it pulled it’s tail out of the ground and swung it in a full 360, destroying every single tree around us in a circle.

Mika, Connor, and I were able to dodge out of the way by dropping onto the ground, but Brandan (the lion guy) got launched away after taking a direct hit.

I launched some dragon missiles at its head, but despite its massive size, it was agile and weaved its body to avoid all the missiles.

Suddenly, Agora’s long body extended and tried to coil around to trap us.

With my magic sword, I swung down with explosive might, cutting off a large chunk of its flesh, sending bits and pieces of its scales flying.

Agora retracted its tail in pain and retreated.

This was when I felt my sword was heavier then usual and I realized that this was one of the magical effects that Mona had imbued onto this sword.

Weight manipulation.

Depending on how I manipulate the magic inside of my sword, it could exponentially increase or decrease its weight.

However, that wasn’t the only ability the sword had.

As I continued swinging my sword around, slashing apart Agora’s scales, I noticed that the cuts and wounds I inflicted were slightly burnt.

My sword has some sort of burning effect; the more I use the sword, the more it heats up to the point where it can potentially become scorching hot.

Once I stop fighting though, it cools back down to its original temperature.

I’m not sure if there the sword has any more abilities but weight manipulation and burning are extremely useful as is.

I could deal much more damage with heavier attacks, inflicting both burning and cutting damage while swinging the sword with more ease by decreasing its weight.

Of course, I still need some training to use these abilities to their maximum potential.

At first, it felt a little bit uncomfortable since I had to time when to increase or decrease the swords weight, but as the fight went on, I started to get the hang of it.

My sword became as light as a dagger when I was swinging, but also as heavy as a greatsword when I was attacking.

Connor, Mika and I continued bombarding Agora from all sides. Branden who was knocked away earlier, was nearly uninjured and rushed back into battle to aid us.

Although our attacks were somewhat insignificant compared to Agora’s overall massive size, the damage was slowly accumulating, and it started growing tired.

Agora realized this was a dangerous situation.

It once again swung its tail and while we were dodging out of the way, Agora immediately turned and slithered away.

I wasn’t just going to let it run away, so I jumped onto a nearby tree and chased after it.

Even with its massive body, it moved quickly through the forest at a speed surpassing even trains.

Agora smashed apart small trees and weaved around bigger trees, moving at a consistent speed as I followed close behind.

Then, I got a mental transmission from Sven.

“Message from Connor again: retreat, don’t chase after it. It’s too quick. We won’t be able to follow it through this forest. We need to regroup and plan our next attack.”

I was confused. Why would we not pursue it when it was injured?

I jumped back down from the trees and met up with the others, where Connor explained his reasoning.

“There’s no point. When Agora is moving, it’ll continuously get faster. It’s very difficult to catch up while having to navigate through thick trees. Not only that but attacking it when it’s in motion will deflect almost all damage due to its momentum and dense scales. The only way we could defeat it is while it’s stationary, which is why we wanted to prevent Agora from running.

It's also the reason we requested aid from the city. Us three A rankers are all close combat warriors; we alone couldn’t contain it, so we wanted long ranged support or some soldiers to surround Agora to discourage it from fleeing. We’ll have to try again another day when it heals and returns.”

“Wait for it to return? Why don’t we just follow it to where it’s hiding?”

Connor shook his head.

“By now, Agora must’ve travelled a super long distant and it also probably burrowed underground, collapsing the dirt behind it and making it harder for us to track. Agora comes and goes like the wind.”

I grinned.

“You sure about that?” I said as I raised my hand, which had a glob of my web essence on it.

Connor looked at me, then at my web essence, and then at the trail of web essence leading into the distance.

“Is that…?”

I nodded.

“I attached my web essence onto Agora while we were fighting, it’s still attached to Agora. We can just follow the trail of web essence to where it’s hiding!”

I grinned again.

Man, I sure do love surprising people with my abilities.