Chapter 47: Always My Bad Luck
Alden stared at the notification. Then at the Frost Bear in front of him.
"...A-Rank?"
Nearly twice his height. Dark fur that absorbed the light instead of catching it. Cyan frostfire burning around its neck and rolling backward across its shoulders in slow, steady waves. The same fire at its ears, its back, its jaw — cold mist and burning light sitting together.
Alden slowly looked up at its face.
"...You’re huge." He rubbed his chin. "Okay, let’s decide a name for you."
He looked the beast over. Dark fur, frost, blue fire everywhere.
"Glacius." He snapped his fingers.
The Frost Bear stared at him.
"GROOOAAR!"
The roar hit the mountain air like a physical thing. Glacius dropped its massive head forward in a bow, the frostfire at its neck flaring briefly with the motion.
Alden’s eyes lit up.
"Oh?" A grin spread across his face. He raised his fist.
"Alright, Glacius." He looked at it with genuine enthusiasm.
"Let’s see what you can do. Want to help me hunt some beasts?"
Glacius raised its enormous paw.
BAM!
Fist met fist.
Alden’s entire arm shook from the impact. He pulled it back slowly and looked at his hand.
’Damn. This thing hits hard.’
The grin came back wider.
"Alright then." He turned toward the wilderness. "Want to meet a friend? I mean similar kind of yo—?"
ROOOOOAAAAAR!
The sound hit him before he’d finished the sentence. From somewhere down the slope.
Alden’s words stopped working. The ground trembled.
Glacius raised its head immediately.
Another roar followed.
ROOOOOOOOAR.
A flock of birds burst from the treeline in the distance, the sound carrying across the whole mountainside.
Alden swallowed and followed the sound, Glacius beside him, until they reached the edge of a rocky slope and looked down.
His entire body went still.
Below them, two monsters were tearing into each other.
One was a Dragon. Even bigger than the one he extracted. Its wings beat the air with every movement, sending shockwaves across the slope. Flames erupted from its jaws in violent bursts. Scales caught the light in flashes between the smoke.
The other creature was not less.
A Thunder Ape which was enormous, body crackling with violent lightning that moved across its skin in constant arcing chains. It slammed one massive fist into the Dragon’s chest.
BOOOOM.
The impact threw snow and rock in every direction. The Dragon staggered back several meters, feet gouging trenches through the slope.
Alden’s pupils shrank.
His body moved backward without him deciding to.
’Wha—? What kind of monsters are those.’ His heart was doing something loud and uncomfortable.
The Dragon he’d fought in the underground chamber had taken everything they had to bring down.
This Dragon was bigger.
And the Thunder Ape was matching it blow for blow.
Lightning exploded across the battlefield. The Dragon roared. The Thunder Ape roared back. The whole mountain seemed to shift slightly under the sound of it.
Alden’s legs felt distinctly unreliable.
’Nope. Absolutely not.
I came here to hunt strong beasts, not watch two natural disasters beat each other into the ground.’
He took another step backward. Then stopped, his eyes narrowed slowly.
The fear was still there, he wasn’t pretending it wasn’t.
But another thought had arrived underneath it, which was very interested in what he was looking at.
’Wait.’ He looked at the Dragon. Then at the Thunder Ape.
’If one of them kills the other...’ His eyes started to gleam.
’...I can extract the dead one. A Dragon soul or a Thunder Ape soul. Either one without fighting it. Just walk in after the winner is done and put my hand on the loser.’
His heartbeat had changed quality entirely, still fast but for a completely different reason.
’That’s actually a brilliant plan.’
The two beasts collided again.
BOOOOM.
Fire and lightning detonated across the slope simultaneously, the shockwave rolling outward and hitting Alden hard enough to make him stagger.
He caught himself and stared at the aftermath.
"Absolute monsters..."
He summoned Pyrion.
A burst of light, and the white fire wolf appeared beside him, flames dancing at its ears, tail swaying once before it took in the scene and went completely still.
Alden crouched slightly.
"Listen. Both of you." He looked between Pyrion and Glacius. "Once one of them kills the other, we go in. I extract the soul while you two keep the survivor off me if it decides to be difficult."
Both beasts looked at him.
Then at the Dragon and Thunder Ape destroying everything in their immediate vicinity.
Then back at him.
Their expressions communicated something very clearly without any sound.
’You want us to protect you from THOSE?’ An imaginary bead of sweat seemed to form at both their temples simultaneously.
"Hey, hey." Alden raised both hands. "I’m not asking you to fight them! Just distract the survivor if it comes at me, you guys don’t have to beat it. Just enough to keep it away from me for a few seconds. That’s all."
Glacius and Pyrion exchanged a look. Neither seemed particularly convinced. But eventually they both nodded.
"Good." Alden smiled. "See? Perfectly safe plan."
BOOOOOOM.
The Thunder Ape’s fist, completely wrapped in violent crackling lightning, hit the Dragon square in the chest.
The Dragon’s enormous body launched backward, slid across the slope, and collapsed.
CRAAASH!
Snow and debris exploded in every direction. The impact shook the ground under Alden’s feet.
He stared. Then his eyes lit up.
’It fell close to us!’ He looked at the enormous Dragon lying maybe a hundred meters away, not moving, smoke rising from the wounds across its body.
’Even bigger than the one before. The soul fragments alone—’ He could almost feel the Blueprint ticking upward already. He started walking towards it, no longer able to wait anymore.
The Dragon’s eye moved.
Alden stopped. "..."
The enormous golden eye rotated slowly in its socket, and found Alden.
Alden’s smile disappeared.
’It’s still alive.’
The Dragon pushed itself off the ground.
Alden instinctively stepped back.
Glacius moved to his left.
Pyrion’s flames intensified, the white fire running higher up its back.
The Dragon raised its head and drew in a breath.
ROOOOOOOOAR.
The roar blasted across the mountain so hard Alden’s hair and clothes bent backward from the force of it.
Then, the Thunder Ape stopped. The crackling lightning across its body steadied.
Its head turned from the Dragon and followed the Dragon’s line of sight to Alden.
Alden looked at both beasts whose eyes were on him. He took the smallest possible step backward.
’Wow, two enormous monsters are in the middle of a fight and somehow I’m the thing that made them both stop. What a great luck of mine.’
The Dragon’s eyes hadn’t moved from him.
The Thunder Ape’s hadn’t either.
The frostfire on Glacius flickered, Pyrion pressed slightly closer to Alden’s leg.
Alden’s face turned pale as he finally understood the situation and realized just how bad it really was.
"...I should’ve backed away when I had the chance."