Monster Hunting

The next day arrived and Mateo’s party now stood at the edge of a massive forest. While the other parties were nowhere in sight, they too were stationed somewhere around this same forest. Today’s task was to enter the forest and gain combat experience by hunting down the Monsters that could be found within.

They also had a chaperone to both ensure their safety and give tips during their hunt. The person was actually someone Mateo was familiar with, Knight Captain Belle.

“Clearing the Monsters of this forest is usually something that the Knights are tasked to do. However, recently we have not been able to spare any Knights since they are all occupied with fighting Demons.”

Glenn stepped forward and raised his hand.

“What’s the difference between Monsters and Demons?”

“Monsters and Demons are pretty similar in nature, both are born unnaturally. Monsters are entities that spawn in areas where Mana is concentrated. Demons on the other hand are created from the Demon King’s Demonic Energy. Living beings can also turn into Demons if they become corrupted by Demonic Energy, like the Dragon and Angel Demon General.”

"How do you tell if something is a Monster?"

"Think of a Monster as something built off the template of an animal, but with an unnatural and freakish appearance.  Also, since they are made from mana, you can easily differentiate them from normal animals due to sensing the mana they release."

“Can humans also become demons then?”

“No, in actuality Demonic Energy is poisonous to Humans. Although the reason is unknown, it is believed that this is because the first humans were created by the Gods using Divine Energy. The only reason the Angel Demon General became corrupted was because its Divine Nature was suppressed by the Seal, allowing it to be turned into a Demon.

This lesson can be set aside for the future, it is now time to enter the forest. Your main goal today is to hunt down flying monsters. The only aid I will give you is to step in if you’re in any true danger and to point out any mistakes you make after the hunt.”

Glenn seemed to be a little miffed at having his questioning session interrupted, but conceded as there was another matter of higher priority. The six of them entered the forest with Kyle taking the Lead and Alicia covering the rear. Noah and Helen were being flanked by Mateo and Glenn.

Of everyone here, it was Mateo’s role to be on the lookout for any flying monsters due to his enhanced senses. At some point Belle had hid her presence, truly making them feel alone. Not even Mateo’s enhanced senses allowed him to find her.

About fifteen minutes into the forest they finally found some activity. There were two monsters clashing. One looked to be some type of Boar, except it was at least twice the size of any Boar they had seen before. The other was some type of feline. Let alone sharing the strange growth seen in the boar, it even looked smaller than some of the large cats found on their planet.

Mateo did a quick scan and discovered two things. The first was the reason for the fight. Huddled together were a few baby Boars. More than likely the feline had tried to eat one of the babies while the parent was away, only for the parent to return.

The second thing that he had noticed was far more enticing. While the two monsters were fighting it out, there was something watching. Up in the trees was a large bird, their target.

Mateo quickly motioned for everyone to hide, he then pointed out the hidden predator to his party. All they had to do now was watch and wait until a victor was decided.

After a couple minutes the Feline Monster looked like it was ready to cut its losses and scamper off. As it fled the Boar Monster did not give chase and instead returned to its babies. The group saw that while the Feline Monster ran away, the Bird Monster gave flight and stalked it.

After creating enough distance between itself and the Boar, it stopped and started to lick its wounds. It was at this moment the flying raptor dove down and struck the other monster's head. The strike dazed it and gave the flying predator the chance for another ascent for another dive.

Before the second dive could hit, its flight path was intercepted by an Arrow. With quick thinking it spread its wings to evade the arrow, only for it to be struck by lightning. It lost control of its body and crashed into the ground.

Before the lightning bolt had hit Alicia was already in motion. The moment it crashed she pierced it with her long sword. What none of them expected was this did not finish it off. While its body was skewered on her sword it lashed out with its talon, scoring a hit on her sword arm.

She lost her grip on her sword and the bird spread its wings, ready to take off only for an arrow to pierce its head. Noah quickly rushed over to Alicia’s side and cast a Cure on her arm. The other four made their way over while Mateo observed the injured Feline Monster which was still partially dazed.

As he watched it skulk away from them slowly he considered finishing it off before giving up on the idea. It was not their target, there was no meaning to such pointless killing. As for it following an ambushing them? He wasn’t too worried as its current injuries made it too weak to do such a thing.

As the five of them gathered around Alicia, Belle made her presence known and came out from behind a tree.

“Your start was great, not so much for the finisher though. Staggering the Arrow and Lightning was a good idea, but do you know what your biggest flaw was?”

“I underestimated its vitality. I thought such a wound would be enough and I let my guard down. Even before I stabbed it I had been treating it like easy prey after it was struck by Glenn’s Lightning.”

“I didn’t shoot at the most opportune time. If I had been patient, a chance to hit it with my arrow in a single try would have appeared, leaving it no room to dodge.”

After the two of us spoke Belle turned her gaze towards Noah.

“You also shouldn’t have left yourself so vulnerable with zero protection when you ran over to Alicia. Kyle, you need to keep track of your more fragile teammates. Helen, you were right not to open with a curse and give away your sneak attack, but the moment it became aware of you all you should have used the Sloth Curse.”

The three of them looked down at the ground after the admonishment. The only one who looked smug about the situation was Glenn, until Mateo gave a pointed stare at him.

“Um, the only reason I attacked then wasn’t because I was waiting for such an opportunity, but because I couldn’t track it during its dive.”

Belle gave them all one last look before nodding.

“Making mistakes isn’t bad, especially now when you have someone looking out for you. No, the wrong thing you could do is not learn from these mistakes; or even worse, ignore them.”

After Alicia was fully healed the party once again went out to search for more prey. Over the next few hours they fought against a few more, trying several different take down methods. They also gave Glenn some opportunities to practice trying to hit flying enemies on his own to enhance his targeting skills.

There were also times when they took down some non-flying monsters that showed hostility to them. For these ones they took a more standard approach of having Kyle hold them off while everyone else whittled them down. Everyone also made sure to show off their different Arts and Spells so their teammates could get a visual representation of what they could do.

It was only once the exhaustion from hours of hunting started to kick in that they decided to take a break.

“Instructor Belle, you can come out now we’re gonna take a break you can join us if you want.”

Rather than receiving an answer Mateo saw an arrow shoot out. Kyle, alarmed, raised his shield in front of them, only for the arrow to go past them and fly into a bush. Mateo’s eyes went wide when he heard a grunt come from where the arrow had hit. How could this be, he hadn’t sensed anything.

The next second Belle jumped from the direction the arrow had flown from and landed in front of them. She stood guard with her bow raised, arrow nocked, and a ferocious look on her face.

“Demon, show yourself. Speak, how have you gotten this close to the capital.”

Their heads snapped from Belle back to the bush. Demons? Here? Have they already found themselves at the forefront of this war already?

Out from the bushes came bipedal canine looking creatures, all of them had some type of weaponry in their hands. Or was it Paws?

“Haha, smelly human, you're going to die all the same so why must you do this the hard way. If you had just pretended to not notice then at least your deaths would be quick and painless.”

Behind the other Demons came out a much larger bipedal bull creature. This demon was even taller than Kyle.

“Impossible! A Demon Lieutenant!? What is the Demon King's Army planning to do by sending a Demon Lieutenant here?”