After hearing Dolrig’s explanation. They went back to gather what they needed, this was going to be a long mission.
Camping tools were provided by Dolrig, all they needed to bring were a change of clothing, extra weapons, or things that they will personally need. They quickly packed everything in the bags they got from the Crimson Cobra.
Dolrig was awaiting them at the city gate with the wagon, It was empty so the girls got a ride. Cain sat beside him in the driver’s seat.
After just a few minutes, Alice admired the city that they are leaving. To her, this was the first time she was traveling for longer than a day. She could see the city and the snow peaks behind it fade into the distance as they entered the forest road.
“Selena, high alert. We might encounter monsters in the forest.” Cain stated the obvious. Out of them, Selena had the sharpest senses, followed by Cain, Alice, and lastly Sofia. Alice could be better than Cain if she managed to learn how to use her senses well.
Selena quickly jumped from the carriage door, climbing to the top as if it was nothing. “I will sit here and inform you if I saw anything-nya!” Selena shouted as she rood on top.
Just as they expected, the first hours were quiet. Bandits rarely attack close to the city and monsters only approach the road when necessary.
Even though peaceful, the ride wasn’t pleasant for how bad the road was. The wagon kept shaking enough to make anyone sore.
“I like the breeze, it’s nothing like in the smithy,” Dolrig said, appreciating the fresh air. His workshop is constantly heated by the forge, smoke and dust were what he mostly breathed.
“Don’t you mean: Damn it, my arse gonna burst!” Cain poked fun at him, he knew well Dolrig loved his forge. Talking about the breeze was just him trying a family-friendly topic. If it was just him and Cain, he would have been swearing all the time.
“You little rascal…” Punching Cain in the shoulder, “How is your sword performing, is it holding well?” Dolrig changed the topic.
Cain drew his sword, it was in a good shape and holding well.
Weapons and armors are an adventurer’s lifeline, having them break would mean death.
The two of them kept talking for a while.
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! A faint whistle-like sound can be heard from the distance.
It was getting closer and closer, Dolrig noticed Cain’s face sweat nervously.
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! It was getting closer, “Selena, get ready to fight. A big one is coming.” She could hear the sound but didn’t know to whom it belonged. There weren’t a lot of monsters that whistle.
Cain looked up, generating a Firelance in his hand and getting ready to attack. They all looked to see what kind of monster is supposedly coming from the sky.
“It’s a bird?” Dolrig tried to make it what it is.
The small dot was getting bigger and bigger quickly as the monster dove from the blue sky at an incredible speed.
“No, It’s a Griffon!” [Firelance] Cain hit the monster with the spell just before it could snatch one of the horses, forcing it to land in front of the carriage.
Tightening the leash, Dolrig stopped the freaked horses before they could start running away. Cain jumped to face the beast with Selena to his side.
“Cain, what is that?” Sofia screamed as she rushed out of the wagon, followed by Alice.
“You two support us from the rear, we will take care of it!” Cain shouted before turning to Dolrig, “It’s after the horses, let them stay close so it won’t follow.” Cain meant that if Dolrig took the wagon and backed away, the griffon will ignore the fight and follow the horses.
Cain had already drawn his sword, [Fireblade] Cain’s sword extended with a fiery blade.
A griffon is a ferocious avian carnivore with the muscular body of a lion and the head, forelegs, and wings of an eagle. Yet it was considerably larger than a lion in size, being a bit larger than a cow.
The monster roared as its feathers were set on flame by Cain’s firelance, [Scorching rays] Sofia wasn’t going to give it anytime, attacking directly after seeing Cain and Selena attack.
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“Selena, The monster is stronger and faster than you. Be careful when getting close!” Cain shouted as he slashed at the griffon. The extended reach of his bade is giving him more time to see the griffon attack and evade. The fire on his blade is catching to the griffon’s feathers, burning them away and setting the monster ablaze.
Thud, The griffon lunged at the wagon, his aim to snatch a horse and get out.
“Stop-Gaw!” Selena took the chance to take a bite of it’s wing. With a single flap, she was flung to nearby tree as she was weaker and lighter than the griffon.
[Firelance] Sofia shot another spell at the griffon, as it was just busy recovering from Selena’s bite. It couldn’t heal, the monster was just trying to get back to his stance after trowing Selena.
“Alice, heal her!” Cain shouted as he prepared another spell, [Firelance], [Enchanting], [Enchanting]. “I’m already working on it!” Alice replied.
With how sturdy and strong Selena was, Alice didn’t expect to see her sustaining a big hit, yet she was bleeding a lot. Cain already noticed she took a big hit, Her 16 constitution couldn’t defend against a 20 strength throw, she also didn’t have ground support to block with her 19 strength.
Cain unleashed his magic on the griffon, setting it ablaze with a mimicked [Fireburst].
Seeing it was on fire, the griffon tried to run away. “Don’t let it escape, It will either cause wildfire or come attack us back at night!” Cain charged with his sword, in hand.
“Move away-gaw!” Selena pushed Alice away before she could finish healing her.
Thud! Thud! Thud! She rushed on all four, grabbing the griffon’s Still-on-flame tail. “ROAAAAAR!” She roared, pulling with her full strength.
The griffon didn’t turn around to face her, it was just focused on running. Selena’s body quickly caught on flames as well, she was hugging a burning tail after all.
Selena’s 19 strength and the griffon’s 20 strength, It was clear that she was being slowly dragged along the monster steps. As her claws dug into the beast’s tail, something that Cain easily predicted happened.
The griffon’s tail wasn’t going to hold out with just 16 constitutions and being that thin. POP! It was pulled right out.
QWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! The pain from it’s tail being torn apart stopped the griffon in it’s tracks for a second, enough for Cain to jump in and behead the monster.
[First-tier spell added to the system [Create water]] Cain splashed Selena with cold water. Quickly after that, he put the griffon’s burning corpse out as well.
Alice rushed in to heal the burned Selena, to her surprise, the fire didn’t hurt her that much.
“It was my flames, I couldn’t completely stop it but I was able to decrease the damage she sustained!” Cain seems to have controlled his flames to protect Selena as much as he Can.
Dolrig who was watching had his mouth open, he expected Cain and his girls to be strong but not like that. That was a griffon, a monster know of it’s strength and speed yet they took it down. He was already untying one of the horses to sacrifice it.
“Holy f**k, You took that bastard down!” He screamed, It was years since he saw Adventurer in action up front.
Cain’s blade was clean as the fire already burned the blood, he put it back into its sheath with a single slick move.
“Dolrig, What do we take as a prof-of-kill?” Cain asked, they couldn’t just take the griffon’s head as a trophy, It’s too large and heavy. Cain still didn’t have access to storage magic so he was in a pickle.
“J-just one finger of it’s front talons in enough.” Dolrig was hardy able to speak, feeling his heart race from the Adrenalin.
“Cain, Can we take some meat-nya?” Selena asked. Be it a monster, from her view it was still a prey and she wanted to eat.
“Why not? Griffon meat is tough and gamy like hell, but it’s still edible!” Cain agreed, pulling out one of his daggers to start cutting.
What he did was simple, slicing one of the griffon’s front legs whole and leaving the rest.
After defeathering the leg, it looked closer to that of a chicken. A chicken thigh that is bigger than that of a human.
Selena seemed to be hungry so Cain took the second front leg out as well,
~Alice, when we are leaving use you’re [Cursed Decay] on the corpse. We don’t want other people claiming the kill after us.~
As they were riding the carriage, Selena was sitting on top enjoying her meal, eating the thing raw. The other leg was stored for dinner.
And without anymore trouble, the night fell!