Chapter 7

The young demon beast, following the movements of its parent, moved its head from side to side, desperately watching.

Without a moment's hesitation, it stared intently.

Zangoro also gazed in the same manner.

However, he was being confronted with a question he couldn't answer.

Even though he didn't understand the situation, he found himself not even considering intervening in the battle.

Even though he didn't understand the situation, he lamented his powerlessness.

Even though he felt affection for the demon beasts, he was intensely watching, hoping to learn something about how humans and demon beasts fought.

Because he felt affection for the demon beasts, he was also shouting why they had to fight.

The continuous lack of understanding from last night to today had become a burden, intensifying his confusion without him even realizing it.

As if searching for an answer, Zangoro let his gaze wander.

The parent demon beast, called Ilneek, leaped, charged, and slashed, freezing everything in its path.

The group of white-armored men, centered around the large man, shot arrows, chopped with axes, and burned with flames.

The battle continued like a painting from a myth.

Zangoro doubted if it was all just a fantasy.

It seemed like a dream.

"Meow!"

The young demon beast, sounding angry, hit Zangoro's arm with its tail, inherited from its parent, without looking at him.

So, this wasn't a dream.

Even if he wished it were a dream, this was

a continuation of the same old "reality" that had started from Japan, no, from the garbage dump.

He just needed to face reality. If he did, he would understand something, he hoped.

While looking at the young demon beast's back, Zangoro gazed at the ongoing battle once more.

The sun revealed itself, and a cloudless blue sky spread out.

Beneath it, the parent demon beast dodged six fiery lines that pierced through its body, even with spears and arrows stuck in it, and blew away the surrounding shields with its tail.

The snow cloak that covered its massive body had melted, and its regeneration rate had slowed.

Without waiting for the reconstruction of the snow cloak, the parent demon beast, aiming at the prey with the red staff, gathered strength in its hind legs.

The muscles bulged, but the knees dropped with a thud.

"Now!"

At the loud voice of the large man, the remaining people around him threw the maces hanging from their waists at the parent demon beast's feet, scattering and retreating without looking back.

At the same time, the mages, who had surrounded the area, moved forward, immediately discarding their red staves and picking up the ones they had carried on their backs. They thrust their staves into the ground in unison, signaled by the large man throwing a spear directly above the parent demon beast.

A white-purple light exploded.

The deafening blast sounded like the scream of a thunder spirit.

Even Zangoro, on the opposite mountain, felt the shock.

No thunder spirits from the surroundings were used in this battle. The thunder spirits were inside the staves.

The parent demon beast's judgment was slightly delayed because it couldn't detect the movements of the surrounding thunder spirits, but its next decision was quick.

As the white-purple lightning was about to be released, it tried to break through one point of the encirclement, kicking the ground with its hind legs this time.

It was entangled. Chains had wrapped around its limbs.

Then, it tried to jump up, but the reflex action, along with the piercing lightning, disappeared.

Even after the light faded, no one moved.

The front-line fighters with shields were already in position, guarding against the parent demon beast.

The parent demon beast stood still, facing upward in the steam and smoldering smoke.

Then, it slowly turned its head toward the opposite mountain, with a distant look in its eyes.

【Roar】

The roar pierced the sky.

The voice, which seemed to plead and pity, was not at all mighty, but it carried no pain or sorrow.

The exhausted demon beast collapsed with a thud.

The large man acknowledged that it was a close call and a stroke of luck.

The continuous minor delays, exploiting the slight openings, finally stopped the parent demon beast and pierced its body.

The lightning from the thunder spirits brought by the magic staves, without leaving any traces of thunder spirits around, must have been overwhelming. Before that, the thin ice-like removal of the snow cloak, a physical and magical barrier, was a critical step.

Four people were completely out of the fight. The four who remained standing, including the large man and the four front-line fighters, were barely standing from exhaustion.

Without those openings, one or two more would have been taken down, he was certain.

Still, we won, the large man smiled.

Before the sun reached its zenith, the eight people who could still move began preparing to carry the prey.

Ilneek, known as the "Frost Leopard" and the "White Phantom of the Alleduria Mountains," became an unprecedented catch. It was estimated to be three times the size of any previously hunted individuals, and its age was immeasurable.

The large man, listening to the mage's analysis absentmindedly, thought that perhaps old age had created the openings. However, if it had been younger, it might not have appeared at all.

As the large man was lost in thought, Ilneek's corpse had turned into a block of ice.

"Alright, let's throw it."

The large man, who had somehow stripped to the waist, lifted the massive body, the size of a house, and threw it straight toward the grassland beyond the foot of the distant mountain.

The four mages adjusted and accelerated the ice block, which had been launched up the mountain.

The plan was to have comrades waiting at the impact site. It would likely work.

A "nightmare" would occur three days after the blizzard cleared. This was the method they thought would avoid that, given the current state.

They had various plans based on the size of the prey, but no one had expected to use this one, which they had created half-jokingly.

It was a wild move that was only possible with the presence of the many ice spirits after the blizzard, the four skilled mages, and the large man, a giant with excellent enhancement capabilities.

The large man, still bare-chested, laughed like a mischievous child.