Cain needed his full concentration to keep his meat to himself while they were in the bath. He wanted to get it over quickly so they can resume the trip.
After finishing the bath, they immediately set off again. This wasn’t the time to sit idly. After running for a while, Cain spotted Gracie’s opponent, it was a simple weak monster.
“Gracie, Can you take care of that?” He pointed down, a single rooster was pecking worms underneath a tree.
It looked just like a regular rooster, just being black and green.
—————————————————–
[Peck]
[Talon]
[Cock-a-doodle-do]
[Blink step]
—————————————————–
“How do you want it prepared?” Gracie asked pulling one of her knives.
Cain giggled a bit, “I hope that was a joke.” His laughter worried Sofia about what that rooster was.
“Cain, is that thing by any chance dangerous?” Sofia asked with a worried face. Unlike them Gracie was mostly a normal girl, fighting monsters like this might not be the best option.
“That’s a dark rooster, it’s a real menace. It’s not that strong but fighting it is tedious and annoying.” Cain pointed out toward the rooster.
“I will give you a challenge, try to kill it without getting pecked more than five times!” Cain gave Gracie a challenge, he wanted to see her potential as an assassin so this was a stealth mission.
Gracie nodded in agreement as she took Cain’s words seriously.
‘A regular rooster, our launch. Hope it’s tender.’ Cain couldn’t resist the urge to smile when he heard her thoughts through the link. She was still treating the monster as food.
‘But master said to not get pecked, i must be careful.’ Gracie pulled two of her throwing knives and prepared for a short fight.
Immediately using [Shadow cover] to close to the rooster, She intended to finish him with a single knife throw.
Gracie threw the knife the moment she emerged from the shadows. As she waited for her blade to stab the rooster, the monster suddenly disappeared.
COCOOO! The roster appeared beside her leg and pecked her thigh. Realizing that her plan failed, Gracie swung her knife down at the rooster. COCOOO! It disappeared again and appeared beside Gracie’s face and scratched her cheek with it’s sharp claws.
Gracie immediately jumped into the shadow and appeared behind the rooster swinging her knife.
COCOO! The rooster disappeared for a moment and reappeared after her slash had passed. The monster swung it’s beak toward Gracie’s wrist in attempt to peck it.
Being surprised at the rooster’s incredible reactions she dropped a nail from her skirt and kicked it toward the monster. The rooster parried the nail with it’s talon and stared at grace menacingly.
“That’s not a normal chicken-nya!” Selena couldn’t believe what she was seeing, that flight less walking lump of meat was putting a fight, no he was having the advantage.
“I said it before, it’s a dark rooster and as you see, they are no joke. Gracie is good as well, despite being a bit luck with that first hit.” Cain said with a bitter smile, it didn’t feel good seeing his murder maid struggle against such a monster.
“What do you mean?” Alice asked, trying to know if she missed something.
“At his first strike, that roster aimed for the big Saphenous vein at her thighs but missed. He probably pecked the nails she is strapping on her legs. On his second attack he was aiming for her jugular vein but ended up hitting her cheek when turned her head.” Cain explained, “That rooster has an ability called [Cock-a-doodle-do] (It’s literally spelled how a rooster would sound so Cain just imitated the monster’s voice) With it’s voice, it can determine the vein location in the body and then attack them!”
The rooster was a weak monster, his peck wouldn’t be able to penetrate Selena’s skin, neither it will get past Alice’s 20 wisdom. Sofia could just set her body on flames and cook the thing. But Gracie didn’t have any of those she has to fight him hand on hand.
Cain watched the battle unfold, it was quickly picking up pace.
Gracie slashed at the rooster but it disappeared and appeared behind her. COCOO! Gracie did the same and and slashed back. The rooster deflected her knife with its talon and used the momentum to try and peck her eye.
Before it’s beak could get close to Gracie, the monster noticed a thin thread in front of him. The rooster flapped it’s wings and shifted his body mid-air, surviving with only one of his claws being chopped off by Gracie’s metallic wire.
The rooster landed a few feet away from her and inspected his talon as if counting his own claws, he then stared at Gracie with his eye glowing dark green. COO! COOOO! COCO! IT growled, in anger.
Gracie stood they with her empty face, staring at his as if not interested in his loss. The metallic wire dangled from her left wrist and a knife in her right hand. She took one step and the blades in her talons appeared. On her second step she used the shadows to move directly in-front of the rooster swinging her wire, the rooster used his [Blink spell] and teleported to her side, they exchanged blows. Gracie strike, the rooster block it and counter. Gracie counter his counter with a swift kick just for him to teleport to her other side to start the his attack.
“That’s not a rooster, it can’t be!” Alice cried seeing the two teleporting down there like it was nothing, who knows such a monster existed.
“Won’t he run out of MP?” Sofia knew that Cain was providing Gracie with MP, but where was that roster getting his power? It didn’t make sense for him to be able to teleport this many times.
“He won’t, the rooster haven’t used his magic yet!” Cain said in an ominous voice. “What he used until now was the natural version of his ability, just like how basilisk will never run out of MP while using their petrifying breath. That rooster can use [Blink step] at will!”
“You should have mentioned that for her!” Sofia screamed, “what if Gracie was going for a battle of attrition?” She yelled.
“She isn’t, Gracie is trying to kill him. She know that she already lost the fight, and so does the rooster!” Cain declared.
“What do you meant?” Alice asked but before Cain could explain, the rooster crowed like there was no tomorrow. His eyes glimmered with eldritch magic as the monster gathered his strength.
Gracie tried to teleport to him again, just as the shadows were about to engulf her, they disappeared. The rooster appeared in front of her swinging his beak toward her neck. COCA!
Thud! Gracie using all her flexibility to wist her upper torso to the side and avoid the lethal attack. Countering with a swift slash.
The rooster landed behind her and stared at her back for a moment. He admired the wounded he managed to leave on her neck and said, “COCA!”His head fell off and the glimmer in his eyes faded.
Alice flew immediately to heal her while Cain landed to pick the rooster’s corpse. “As tough as I remembered them, rest in peace, fellow warrior.” For a moment, Cain mourned the fallen warrior.