Chapter 73: Area 3
Reinhard, Marie, and Joseph stepped into Colin Forest Area 3.
Here, the landscape was a vast grassy plain stretching in all directions, broken only by multiple cliff faces rising up. Some cliffs stood isolated and rose towards the sky, while others formed connected chains that created natural corridors between them.
The grass here grew wild and uneven, with patches alternating between tall and shorter stretches where the wind had beaten it down.
Joseph’s eyes swept across the terrain. "In this area, there are multiple paths which will lead to either the inner part or the other side of the forest." His hand gestured toward the far distance, where cliff faces created several visible gaps. "The one we need to take is the last one at the top left."
Reinhard and Marie both nodded, their gazes following his indication to spot the distant opening between two tall cliff walls.
They began moving forward while the wind picked up in the open space, pressing against their faces and tugging at their clothes with invisible hands.
After a bit of walking, a screeching sound came without warning.
Nine Cheronos burst from behind a nearby cliff face, their two-legged forms eating distance with frightening speed. Their yellow eyes as they spread out while rushing towards the trio.
Zenuken materialized in Reinhard’s grip, the black-blue blade humming with barely contained energy. Beside him, Longinus appeared in Marie’s hands, its crimson-gold surface catching the sunlight. Joseph’s grey lance Arondight formed with a shimmer of displaced air.
Mimir launched from Reinhard’s shoulder, his black wings spreading wide as he climbed rapidly into the sky above them.
Then they moved.
Reinhard rushed to the right as the first Cheronos lunged at him with claws extended and wind wrapped around it. He sidestepped the attack before Zenuken slashed upward in a diagonal cut that split the beast from hip to shoulder.
Blood sprayed as it fell.
The second and third rushed to his position simultaneously. Reinhard spun as his blade became a blur. The first cut took the second Cheronos across the throat, and he continued with a horizontal slash that bisected the third at the waist.
Marie’s spear flashed through the air as it pierced through one Cheronos, continued through a second, and caught a third in the shoulder. All three creatures staggered and their screeches cut short.
Longinus dispersed and reformed in Marie’s hand instantly, and she was already moving forward, the spear sweeping in wide arcs that kept two more Cheronos at bay.
Joseph thrust Arondight forward, the grey lance punctured through a Cheronos’s chest and out its back. He withdrew and spun, using the lance’s shaft to deflect a wind-claw attack and kicking it away before reversing his grip and stabbing backward without looking. The lance pierced through flesh, and another Cheronos collapsed.
Reinhard hacked through another attacker, his blade cutting cleanly through flesh and bone. He chopped down on the next, splitting it from crown to chest while he continued moving.
His movements flowed seamlessly, each attack setting up the next as he hacked and cut through the approaching Cheronos.
The ninth Cheronos tried to flee, its survival instinct finally overriding its aggression. But Marie hurled her spear towards it, and Longinus caught it in the back before it managed three steps, pinning it to the ground.
Then a different sound cut through the air.
A terrifying screech, pitched higher than the Cheronos.
Reinhard slightly frowned as he looked past the fallen Cheronos bodies to see small figures rushing toward them.
They stood perhaps waist-high, their bodies covered in orange-colored scales that caught the light.
Their faces were bull-like with flat snouts, crimson eyes, and short horns protruding from their skulls. In their hands, they carried bone axes and blades that looked crude but sharp.
"What are those?" Reinhard muttered, his grip tightening on Zenuken.
Mimir’s voice carried down from above, clear despite the distance. "They are Kabbanas. Tier E."
Reinhard blinked, processing the information.
Marie’s eyes lit up in recognition and excitement. "So these are the little manic hunters!"
Joseph sighed. "And we just attacked their prey. Damn it."
Reinhard glanced between his companions and saw their expressions. He sighed, the sound carrying resignation and understanding. "Don’t tell me they’re the type to attack the ones who hurt their prey?"
Marie beamed at him, her grin wide and unapologetic, while Joseph glanced to the side, his silence confirming everything.
Reinhard shook his head, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite the situation.
The last two Cheronos remaining standing had stopped running and were now backing away with their yellow eyes wide.
The two nearest Kabbanas screeched and rushed forward. Their bone blades flashed, driving into the Cheronos before they stabbed repeatedly into the Cheronos without pausing. The Cheronos collapsed under the assault, and their bodies were punctured by dozens of wounds.
The two Kabbanas threw their heads back and screeched again.
Then more screeches answered back to them.
Fourteen other Kabbanas rushed over the nearby rise, their forms suddenly visible as they crested the hill. Their orange scales were covered with the yellow blood of Cheronos and green blood from something else.
They carried their bone weapons high, and their bull-faces twisted with aggressive intent.
Sixteen total now, all focused on the three humans who had dared interfere with their hunt.
Reinhard sighed at this before glancing down at Zenuken. The blade was glowing in a full, brilliant illumination that made the engravings along its length stand out in stark relief. Wisps of black-blue energy trailed from the edges more intensely.
The Kabbanas charged as a wave, their bone weapons raised and their screeches forming a battle cry.
Reinhard simply swung.
"Ragnarok."
Zenuken blurred through the air faster than the eye could follow.
Instantly, fifteen separate sword slashes appeared around the incoming Kabbanas, and cuts appeared from thin air.
The attacks came from impossible angles. Some descended from above, such as vertical cuts that should have required Reinhard to be flying. Others swept horizontally from the sides, originating from positions where no one stood.
Others seemed to emerge from within the creatures themselves, slashes appearing at their centers and expanding outward.
The Kabbanas rushing toward Reinhard were caught in the web of cuts. Their orange scales provided no protection against the sharp blade and attacks that didn’t follow the normal rules of physical space.
The Phantasm Beasts were slashed, chopped, and hacked into pieces before they even understood what was happening.
Their screeches rose in pitch, no longer aggressive but confused and in pain. Bodies fell in sections, cleanly severed by cuts that had existed and not existed simultaneously.
Blood splashed out!
Fourteen Kabbanas fell from Reinhard’s single swing, and all of their bodies dropped to the ground.
Only the two who had trailed behind had survived, their rush to join the charge delayed by mere seconds. Yet it was those seconds that saved their lives from Reinhard’s single swing.
But only briefly.
A crimson-gold spear rushed through the air and punctured through the first Kabbana’s chest with enough force to lift it off its feet. A grey lance appeared simultaneously, driving through the second Kabbana’s skull with precision.
Both creatures collapsed instantly, their bone weapons clattering against the grass.
Reinhard sighed as his eyes scanned the surrounding area carefully. He glanced at Joseph, who was also looking around, and after ten seconds, Joseph smiled at him.
"I don’t hear anything else. We are good."
"That’s good then." Reinhard said with a smile.
Marie rolled her shoulders, working out tension that had built during the brief fight and their weapons dispersed in glittering lights.
Mimir descended from above, and his wings spread wide to slow his descent before he landed gracefully on Reinhard’s shoulder.
The crow opened its beak.
Silver streaks rushed toward him, the souls were pulled from the fallen Phantasm Beasts. The streaks poured into Mimir’s mouth like water, and each one was absorbed in an instant. The crow’s feathers seemed to shimmer slightly with each soul consumed.
"Let’s keep moving," Joseph said, already turning toward their destination.
They continued forward through Area 3, their path taking them between cliff faces and across stretches of open ground. The wind continued its constant presence and pushed against them with varying intensity.
Then Marie slowed and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight ahead.
Ahead were more bodies littering the ground. Reinhard saw, scattered across a patch of trampled grass, the corpse of the Cheronos and Tonothus.
The Cheronos showed puncture wounds and cuts, while the thick leathery grey skin of the Tonothus.
It had been breached by bone weapons, and their black armor-like plating showed cracks where impacts had been concentrated.
There was a puddle of green blood around the Tonothus corpses that mixed with the yellow blood of the Cheronos.
Marie’s expression shifts to a slight frown. "That explains where the green blood on the Kabbanas came from."
Reinhard studied the carnage, noting the number of bodies and their wounds.
The Kabbanas had clearly been hunting systematically, taking down prey much larger than themselves through coordination and persistence.