20 Out in the Wild

They have yet to face the problem Phill had prepared for. In only three hours, they had spotted four such monsters, and they snuck away from them safely without needing to rely on the rats.

The cart smashed all the popsicle weeds into mush as the donkeys vigorously dragged it. There were trees, but scarce, mostly clustered around the cliffs. Cliffs were massive enough as if chunks of a broken mountain. The Alka plains were scattered through them all over. Most parts of the plains were filled with men-height bushes. When it was plain ground, like popsicle ice-creams, different weeds decorated its span along with pink-hued green grass. Constant whistles of insects wheezed, but no animals nor low-level monsters were there to be spotted.

It was the white-dwarf Quro in the sky today, fulfilling its duty to light up the day. The small star's luminosity far surpassed that of its big brother from yesterday. The white shine from it graced the scenery with a bloom effect which the cliffs laid out.

Xahi no longer sat in one place as she peered and leaned all over the cart to fill her eyes with nature's beauty. Trino took sneak peeks at her once in a while, marveling at her cherry presence, which added to the shine of Quro.

If not for the monsters they had to avoid, their journey seemed as though a picnic. A joy-ride with all the time in the world at hand. But to the mature Chrono, it still gave off the same ominous feeling as when they were traveling with Hugo. Only the element of its source was not Trino this time.

"Make sure to reel in your mana-presence. About 18bronkias away, there are two monsters ahead, 3bronkias space between them. We'd be passing in the midst of them." His warning evidently unraveled the source of it.

The first thing Xahi did was to get close to Merino and sit holding her hand. Merino did her best to not let her mana go haywire, Xahi had negligible, and Trino's control far surpassed that of those mindless monsters out there.

'A bronkias is the closest we can get to the right one.' He gulped and looked at the left side. None of the monsters were visible yet, but he estimated by their auras and was pretty sure he didn't want to get close anywhere near the other monstrosity.

There were dense trees and bushes which wouldn't let them through a roundabout path. With no choice at hand, Trino whipped the left donkey a little intensely. It changed their wake to the right. They would be passing close to the right one.

"Worry not, it will be all okay. We will pass these too, just like all the other ones." He whipped the bridle, increasing the donkeys' speed.

'This time would be the same.' Merino consoled herself, but only till they reached close enough to actually see the atrocities. When Merino's naked eye took upon the giant leach clinging on a cliff to the left, her breathing became erratic.

Of course, it was the farther one on the left, almost three km away. But it was a brown Crander, which she had heard and seen in the images as the vilest monster that lurks in Alka plains. With a texture of burned skin, it had a color of ghastly red over its 70m length with blackened skin. The leach slowly wriggled on the cliff's edge like a caterpillar on a leaf.

Just a small, only a small fluctuation in mana around them, and the Crander would come like a crashing train with a squeal to swallow them whole.

"Merino.G keep your calm. We are far away from it. Our target is to avoid the thing on the right, not to get intimidated by it and get lumped into the other one." He had said so, but only he knew how freaked out he was inside.

Xahi had already buried her face into Merino's lapse. Trying to forget the image she had just seen. The heinous colors of the Crander were vivid enough to paint it as a horrifying existence even to a Quro's bright day. At night, it would be an unforgivable nightmare.

They had still to find out what lurks at the right, and their struggle to inch away started. Yes, inching, compared to the speed of the monsters, they were surely inching.

Then it came to the view when they cleared the bushes. Six or few tentacles were wriggling, like worms tied together in a nod. The black and oily lump of worms crawled on the grassy plain. It made Merino squirm and cringe, her fingers curled at the sight of it. Xahi was still hiding her face.

'A Molopus', she cried out inwardly.

"Merino.G don't let its looks scare you. We are almost past them," It seemed to be the case as both the monsters seemed too busy in their sunbaths.

And that moment, a wild rodent jumped out of the bushes towards Xahi. Trino sensed its presence at the last moment and jerked the cart with the donkeys' help, seemingly trying to avoid it. But Merino had already decapitated its head using her racication in a split second.

Instead of confirming Xahi's well-being, Trino's head snapped back to the Molopus. Because he was sure. She was alright, but Merino shouldn't have used racication. It stirred the mana, enough to gain the Molopus' attention.

The eight tentacles protruding from a sphere in the middle slithered towards them like sliding on air. It was as if an octopus on the ground, just with the speed of a supercar.

The Molopus was small compared to the Crander and only was at level 358, but its heads were anacondas for the passengers on the carriage.

"I had to-" She tried to explain.

"Don't panic. I have still got it." Trino cut her short while picking a rat. He had only a few seconds on hand.

Mana surged around the rat in his hand, and it attracted more than Molopus' attention. The Crander was crooking its head-end towards them, then flipped itself, not bothering to climb down as it directly fell on the ground.

Before the leach could squeak and announce its presence, the Molopus was already upon Trino and others.

He threw the rat towards the leach with all his might and with impeccable timing. To his expectations, the Molopus changed the trajectory of its maw which was hanging above Merino's head.

"Ahhh…" She cried out in pain when the acidic saliva spilled on her shoulder melted her skin.

Noise or flesh, nothing seemed to interest it. The Molopus jumped towards the rat. It would've almost killed them with one fell swoop. Now, unaware of the Crander's presence, the warm-ball paced fast towards its death.

Trino did not tend her just yet and whipped the donkeys hard to escape faster, making them use Madness Dash.

"Xahi, come here fast," Trino yelled at her to make her snap out of her panic state.

She barely managed to crawl to him as the ride was bumpy due to the unstable speed. Her mother's cry made her aware that she was hurt. Xahi could hear the squealing and shrieking of the monsters behind who were fighting, still giving her a scare. But she steadied herself by grasping the space between the wooden planks and got close to him. She held out her hand, and Trino placed the blue vial onto it.

While both prey and the hunter were busy with each other, he unfurled his Manafield to check out other monsters in the vicinity. Fortunately, there were none. Before the Crander finishes that Molopus, they would be far away from its reach.

Xahi forced her mother to drink the potion. She had to as the purple Chrono was wincing in pain and had lost composure. Once the blue liquid entered her metabolism, that instance, it showed effects with its usual warm sensation.

After a few minutes, the Crander was no longer in their vision.

"Sorry, it was my fault. I should've been faster." Trino said, slumping on the seat.

"Don't be. You were fast enough, I shouldn't have used raciation. You had it in control. Either way, how could you have known that its saliva was acidic? It couldn't do anything to us physically, it's your win." Merino consoled, but the pain on her face still lingered.

"I will find some way for the journey to be safer." He said.

'I need a way to attack.'

The Antels were proven to be baggage, if not for her better comprehension so did Xahi. She was too scared to utter a word.

Trino reached her hand and said, "It's okay, I won't let this happen twice."

"I will help all I can." She uttered with much difficulty. A level 18 existence was surely in the wrong place of the world. What of her, even both the above 80 sane persons on that carriage were out of place.