8 Pseudo Forest Wyvern

"You did it!!"

As appreciative as he was, Emery had a lot of questions on his mind.

"Yeah," he responded, still trying to internalize the various events that had just happened.

"Emery so strong!" Elyn said again, smile still as wide as before.

She was learning at an incredible pace. Did her learning speed of the language depend on how strong he was at any certain point in time? It seemed like her use of words got better after every single exp gain.

That would explain a lot of things now.

'Since that settles it, no point mulling over it at this point.'

"It's all thanks to you, Elyn." he replied, "Now come on, we still have to get two more beasts before we go back to the city."

"Oki-okay!"

'She's cute.'

But he didn't let himself forget the primary purpose of their coming to the forest to kill these beasts. The first was to kill and deliver the corpses to earn money and the second was killing them for the purpose of completing the mission.

Just two more and they would be able to go back to the city.

Emery walked back to his designated spot after picking up his knife from the bunny's skull. It was the only one of his tools that he couldn't afford to leave in that place.

He was feeling much more confident this time. Perhaps he would even take care of one beast alone while allowing Elyn to take care of the other one.

That would be nice. It meant that he would no longer have to rely on her for even the weakest of Class 10 threats..

'Come on beasts, just show up already.'

He waited and waited… and waited.

Time was passing by quickly. And the mission timer quickly came down to only an hour remaining and counting.

Clearly, something was wrong.

"Elyn," He called out to the girl behind, "Come over here!"

She got there quickly enough and Emery decisively ventured forward.

"Come on, let's go see what's wrong. No beasts have come here after so long, something must have happened,"

"Did we scare them?" she asked.

Emery continued moving and talking, having gotten used to the continuous improvement in her speech.

His brows furrowed as that possibility came to mind. "Maybe so."

Well, they were about to find out.

They made it past that initial boundary just before the clear blue lake in the centre of the small forest.

No Class 10 beast appeared in sight, so he assumed they had to go further before finding anything.

And so they did.

A few minutes later, they did find something. 

HISSS~!

The large snake reared its head at the intruders, baring its fangs at the same time. It had glistening green scales that allowed it to blend into the lush trees quite easily, and its body looked easily the length of a car.

Several other beasts lay in front of it. Parts of their bodies were a sickening purple colour that swelled up and undulated from time to time.

It was disturbing but he found himself going back to the gigantic snake in front of him. No matter how Emery looked at it, that creature wasn't a Class 10 beast.

'Status!'

[Ding!]

[Name: Pseudo Forest Wyvern]

[Race: Beast]

[Threat rank: Pseudo-Class 8 Threat]

[Attributes:

STR- Class Nine

AGI- Class Nine

INT- Class Eight

DEF- Class Ten

DEX- Class Eight]

[Skills: Poison, Venom Spit, Puncture, Constrict, Coiling Snake Attack, Metamorphosis]

[Remark: A class 9 beast on the verge of advancing to Class Eight]

His first instinct upon seeing the creature's stats was to run. Run as far as he could with Elyn.

And that was what he tried to do.

"Elyn, run!"

Despite being quicker on the uptake of the situation, Elyn reacted faster than he did. She ran behind and dashed past the lake faster than he could even react.

'Fuck!'

Emery reacted slower but he still tried to run as well. It looked like this new opponent wouldnt let that happen.

As soon as he turned his back to run, a hissing sound emerged from behind him. The blood in his body went cold for a brief second as he saw the snake in front of him now.

"Damn it!"

'Stupid mission, I should have just stayed back!'

It was too late for any of that regretful thinking. This monster was far stronger than any of the beasts they'd killed so far.

"But that doesn't mean I'll be going down without a fight you green bastard!" He yelled, pointing the cooking knife at his predator, "I heard snake meat tastes good!"

Odd. Those were the last words that would have come out of his mouth a few days ago. Again, no point in thinking about that any longer.

Emery dashed forward, clumsily holding the knife in the only way he knew how.

The long snake hissed in what almost seemed like mockery. It slithered to the side, easily dodging his first attack. Emery cursed inwardly, following up with a quick kick to the snake's side.

A fatal miscalculation on his part.

It caught his leg with the end of its tail and squeezed.

All the blood in his body stopped flowing into that leg as soon as that happened.

'Is this that Constriction skill?' he thought hazily.

'Did Elyn abandon me?''

'Why are Hemp and Carlos fighting?'

'What ever was that new skill that Elyn learnt?'

None were questions he should have been asking at the moment, but his mind didn't allow him to stop.

Soon enough the snake wrapped the rest of its body around him, tightening its grip slowly but excruciating at the same time.

Dark spots appeared everywhere, leaving him with a half-completed picture of the world before he died.

Consciousness slipped from his mind and with every single second that passed it became evident that he didn't have the power…

Power.

'Did I ever actually stop being weak?'

'Why did I ever start playing the hero?'

'I'm only a chef…'

'A mere chef…'

And just when he felt the fangs about to sink into him, something massive struck his predator.