Chapter 11: Colored Fox

Near the peak of Mt. Kinos, amid a sea of conifers, the Third Branch B-rank party ‘Gold Helm’ was facing off against the tri-serpent.

Gold Helm consisted of four members, two men in their forties and a man and woman in their twenties, and they had many achievements, surprising for a party that had only been together for three years. The front line was Dol, who wielded a shield, the swordsman Gaul, and the lance wielder Yuna. The leader Felm was skilled with lightning magic and was the finisher.

They had a certain pattern for battle. The three in the front line kept their opponents busy as well as exhaust them, and Felm delivered a powerful spell to finish them off. They climbed all the way to B-rank using this method. Hearing that the tri-serpent was a formidable foe but thinking there would be no problem—that was their mistake.

“Whoa.”

“So hot!?”

“Ahh…!”

The three front liners weren’t functioning properly at all…n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Cold sweat ran down Felm’s forehead as he watched the three of them from behind.

First, their opponent, the snake monster, was a variant species. It had one tail, but it split from its torso into three necks and with a head on each of them. Although it was taller than a human, it was barely three meters high, and wasn’t enough to dampen their spirits. But the three heads, which could be considered its main characteristic, was the most troublesome part.

Each head had different skills, and on top of showing moves such as breathing fire, spitting poison, and shooting sticky liquid, its scales were so hard that Gaul and Yuna’s weapons couldn’t penetrate them.

“It’s not like we were underestimating the variant species…”

Some species of monsters had strong individuals and variant species, and while the former could be considered a higher version of the original species, with similar actions and ways of fighting, but the latter were almost always unique.

The tri-serpent was certainly a powerful foe. It was on a level that required the members of Gold Helm to be coordinated at their best in order to defeat it.

But currently the party had a problem.

“Hey Gaul, don’t run into me!”

“You were standing where I was going to dodge to. Do you want to kill me that bad?”

“What did you just say!”

“What do you want!”

“Give me a break, both of you!”

Felm wanted to scream as he watched the three of them while shaping his mana into a powerful spell.

The two young members, Gaul and Yuna, were lovers, but yesterday Yuna found out that Gaul was having an affair, so an awkward rift had erupted between them.

They were skilled and capable, but their mentalities were still quite immature, being young, so Felm and Dol, who were older, had always kept them under control.

But this time, the cut was deep.

“Focus on fighting for now, you idiots! Keep it busy for thirty more seconds, I’ll finish it.”

As Felm shouted out, not being able to keep his agitation in anymore, the pair’s movements returned to normal. But their hands were still full just trying to dodge the serpent’s attacks. Dol blocked the searing flames from one head with his shield, but another head immediately sprayed liquid everywhere.

It was aiming for their feet, so they had to continue moving around. The liquid was sticky, so if they got caught, they wouldn’t be able to move.

“You ready yet leader?”

“Hurry up, we won’t last any longer!”

“How is it Felm? You ready?”

“—Yeah, I’m ready. Thanks for waiting.”

The three’s expressions lightened at Felm’s firm answer.

They scattered, convinced that it was the gospel of victory, and as soon as they did, Felm unleashed the most powerful spell in his arsenal, >.

Not a single opponent had been able to dodge the lightning that raced down from the clouds. That was Felm’s pride, and the record still stood.

The yellow lightning struck the tri-serpent, followed up by another strike by a blue one. The second one had a strong paralysis effect, so the fight came to an end—

“Crrrrruu!”

—the members of Gold Helm made a grave misunderstanding. The sound coming from the tri-serpent wasn’t a scream of pain, but a laugh of disdain.

“Ga, augh…”

“What’s wrong!?”

The three in front all sank to their knees and started to spasm. It was difficult for them to even reply, and Felm looked around for the cause…and recalled that one of the serpent’s heads had its mouth open the whole time.

“…It spat out a neurotoxin, damn it.”

It wasn’t a problem of noticing or not noticing. Even if they knew what it was trying to do, they wouldn’t have been able to deal with it and would’ve ended up in the same situation.

And Felm currently faced one of the most difficult choices he had to make in his whole career as an adventurer. His body still moved since he was standing in the back. How to make use of this fact was the decision he had to make.

Leave his companions and run away, or go try to save them, knowing he could lose his life. He knew what his answer was.

(I’d rather die than leave them here)

The belief that forming a party meant they were in the same boat existed in Felm’s heart. So he would fight—but he shook. No matter how many times he tried to brace himself, his instincts complained that he didn’t want to die, so all he could do was stand there with his knees shaking uncontrollably.

“Pathetic…”

Even so, he tried shaping his mana through all the embarrassment, but it didn’t go well. His fear was getting in the way of activating his spell. When he glanced in front of him, he saw that the tri-serpent was trembling slightly.

At first, he thought it was making fun of them, but that didn’t seem to be the case. In the direction of where all the heads were looking at, stood a monster that he had never seen before.

It was a magical beast with brilliant yellow fur, and electric discharges erupted from its enormous body intermittently.

“Magic wolf…no, a magic fox?”

Felm concluded, even though he was confused at how large it was. Its overwhelming presence wasn’t something a normal monster could emit, and it appeared on the trembling tri-serpent as well.

‘Do you mind if I defeat this?’

Felm took a step back in surprise as it spoke to him.

“O-of course. I would rather have you defeat it for us.”

‘Okay, then.’

Before it even finished talking, a few bolts of lightning shot out from the yellow fox’s body. The bolts, at a speed that made it difficult for human eyes to follow, all hit the tri-serpent, and although Felm could see that they were powerful, he couldn’t help but shout out.

“It’s no good. It has lightning resistance! It won’t have any effect!”

‘… It did, didn’t it?’

“Huh?”

The tri-serpent collapsed and didn’t move an inch, making it obvious that it was either dead or unconscious.

The yellow fox walked next to it to confirm and said in a happy voice.

‘It’s dead, after all. I’ll be taking this~’

The yellow fox picked the monster in its jaws and ran off, with a lightness that even the wind couldn’t follow it.

For a while, Felm was stunned, even forgetting to help his companions. Although it was a different species, he couldn’t help but admire its beautiful fur and posture, and its overwhelming strength.