Cloak and Talons

I was shoveling rice into my mouth while flipping through the monster encyclopedia. Reizo is most likely going to make us fight new monsters after our break so I need to prepare for anything.

I searched through the book for monsters that can be found in feilo fields and memorized their information. I also had to think of ways to exploit their weaknesses. This is beginning to feel like I'm studying for a test,

I only managed to memorize the information of about half the total monsters in Feilo Forest before break ends.

When we arrived at Feilo Forest, all the honey was gone. How did Reizo get rid of honey splattered all across the area in such a short time? Is it a result of his lv and stats? I don't have time to think about that right now, I need to be alert and watch out for any monsters that might appear.

We need to be extra careful since I've used up all my skill usage and all the bushes in this area have probably been replaced with a type of monster called vintac. They are monsters that look like plants and they will attack anyone who touches them with vines. They have a delicate core inside of them that gathers mana from their surroundings to keep it alive.

"Keep your eyes peeled for anything." We readied our weapons and looked around for any signs of monsters. We didn't see anything for a while, but we heard soft footsteps.

We couldn't properly pinpoint where the footsteps were coming from. It sounded as if it was coming from all around us. I began thinking of possible monsters that were making the footsteps, and remembered reading a monster that could be the one.

I summoned a degar bee and listened closely to the footsteps and realized that there was a pattern. "Is there a monster nearby?" Serith saw my bee and wanted to know why I summoned it. I told him to focus on where I was going to send my bee and also make sure Saliza doesn't immediately charge at the first monster she sees.

I kept listening to the pattern of the footsteps and made my bee charge towards where the monster would take its next step with its stinger pointed in the direction.

My bee stopped in mid-air and blood started flowing out of where my bee's stinger was. The monster that has been making all the footsteps revealed itself.

The monster that we just encountered is called a gendion. It was a four-legged monster the size of a tiger with a green hide and two long needle-like tails tipped with paralyzing poison. It's not very strong or fast, but it can camouflage itself and it's quite smart.

It was making all those footsteps to get us to split up and investigate the noise so that it could paralyze and kill each of us one by one.

The gendion impaled my bee with one of its tails and wiped off the blood using its other tail. It backed away from us and camouflaged itself.

"Keep an eye out for that monster, if it stabs you with its tail, you'll be paralyzed." We stood close together with our backs facing each other, trying to find a hint of where the gendion is or what it's trying to do.

Soon, a large shadow began circling us. I looked up to see a large blue eagle the size of two full-grown men hovering above us. It was a monster called radive. It was circling around us to see if any monsters are a threat to it nearby.

It then began diving towards us at high speed and tried to grab one of us using its talons. "Look out!" I yelled. We managed to avoid the radive and it flew back up and observed us for a few seconds before diving back down to grab one of us.

The radive is fast, so avoiding its attacks isn't easy. It also immediately flew back up into the air when its attack missed to prevent us from attacking it. What's worse is that the gendion is still lurking around here and it will definitely take advantage of the radive's attacks to paralyze us.

We can't do what we did last time and try to distract one of the monsters while we fight the other one since the gendion might end up using it against us.

I can't think of a way to beat these monsters while being forced to dodge attacks from the radive and constantly look around for the gendion at the same time.

After several attacks, the radive started ignoring Saliza and began focusing its attacks more on me and Serith. It took me some time but I figured out why the radive was focusing more on me and Serith.

Saliza was the fastest one among us, so dodging attacks from the radive would be easier for her. The radive knows this so it targeted me and Serith since we were slower and easier to attack. Knowing this, I will at least have a way to get the radive to target who I want it to target.

The problem was that even with that in mind, we can't keep dodging these attacks forever. We're getting tired after constantly dodging attack after attack, and failing to dodge one attack would mean death.

I tried to think of something, and I saw a bush nearby. I had an idea, but it might be risky. I told Saliza and Serith to stick together and watch out for the radive before sprinting at full speed towards the bush. I had to make sure that I was faster than Serith so that I wouldn't be targeted by the radive. "Where are you going?" Saliza asked. I told her that I had a plan and that I didn't want her or Serith to follow me. After seeing some of the things I came up with, she decided to trust me.

I drove my sword into the center of the bush, and luckily for me, the bush was a vintac. I quickly scanned it after it died.

Before I could finish scanning it, I heard something running towards me. It must be the gendion. I'm no longer with Saliza and Serith so it's planning to kill me now that I'm alone.

It leapt at me and tried to stab me with its tail. I tried to dodge it, but the gendion managed to cut me across my arm. The poison slowly started to take effect and my body began to feel numb, but I was able to scan the vintac before I was fully paralyzed.

*Scan completed, D rank monster added.*

I summoned the vintac and crawled into it. The gendion triumphantly approached the vintac, thinking that I have no way of escaping and that I'm trying to hide in some sort of bush. I used this chance to catch it off guard and made the vintac wrap vines around the gendion. The gendion couldn't escape the vines and tried to attack the vintac with both tails. It didn't know about the vintac's core so it couldn't kill it, but just in case, I guarded the core with my sword.

Once the gendion was immobilized by the vines, I used every last ounce of strength I had left and stabbed the gendion in the neck three times. The gendion was now dead, but I was fully paralyzed.

The radive saw me laying motionlessly on the floor and dived towards me. Saliza and Serith

saw the radive targeting me and tried to get to me before the radive did. Unfortunately, the radive was faster and reached me within seconds.

The radive used its talons to pick me up by my shoulders. I wrapped vines around myself and tried to stop the radive from flying off with me.

The vines couldn't stop the radive and snapped after a few seconds, but it was able to give Saliza and Serith a few more seconds to get closer before the bird flew off.

"Zeigel!" Saliza shouted. The two of them couldn't reach the radive who carried me off the ground and into the air. Serith thought of something and summoned a grus rat. He threw the grus rat at me and managed to get it to grab onto my leg.

He made the grus rat climb up my body and onto the radive. Then he made the grus rat sink its long fangs into the radive's wings, causing it to fall out of the air and release me.

Saliza saw this and the two of them summoned degar bees to catch me. The bees weren't able to give me a safe landing, but it was able to break my fall.

The radive survived its fall, but it was severely injured. Saliza and Serith finished it off with a good beating.

Hopefully that's the last of them. If there were anymore monsters still lurking around this area then I would be in trouble. I felt a sting on my arm.

"That's it for training. You three are free to go." Reizo appeared beside me and injected me with an antidote, allowing me to be able to feel my body again and move.

Normally training would end at night and we would go back to our room to sleep, but since our training has changed, we finally have some free time.

I didn't get many opportunities to explore this town, so I think I'll ask Saliza to show me around the town. But first, I should scan the bodies of the gendion and radive.

*Scan completed, 2 rank C monsters added.*