Chapter 48: Looking For A Red Komodo

They wanted her to help them take down a particular master-tier beast and Claudia seemed to have said yes to that because now they were outside in front of one of the entrances leading into the forest.

They were all in their uniforms now because there was no way they were going to the forest to fight beasts the way they were dressed earlier.

Claudia found it a bit strange that they were dressed like they were going somewhere and now they were here ready to go fight the beast but she later wrote it off with the conclusion; 'I guess they weren't going to do it until they found me.'

The blonde girl with brown eyes who had the number 26 displayed on her watch was a level four student just like Claudia and she went by the name Elsa Moon.

The one with long dark hair and green eyes seemed to be the tallest of the three reaching six foot two in height, she was a level three student with the number seventy-eight displayed on her watch who went by the name Flora Nantes.

Finally, the one with dark short hair and black eyes seemed to be a bit chubby compared to her friends but not chubby enough to be called fat, she was also a level three and had the number seventy-two and her watch's screen. Lastly, she went by the name Erika Gol.

Their ranks all being even numbers meant that they were all in class A and that was the reason Claudia wasn't that familiar with their faces.

At the moment, Claudia was standing in front of the crystal barrier by the left with her gaze on it and her hand on the sword she had shared on her waist.

"This is a master tier beast so using this will provide better results." She muttered.

'I just hope it isn't as crazy as that peacock.' She said subconsciously before turning to the three who were behind her.

"So, I know you guys need the crystal because you want to trade it for something but do you mind me asking why it has to be this particular beast?" She inquired.

"Well, he said that if we get the crystal core for him he'll make Unique Tier weapons for all three of us," Elsa responded before tapping the hilt of the sword sheathed on her waist.

"Three Unique Tier weapons?"

She was quite baffled to hear that after all, the only thing they got for taking down the peacock was intermediary-tier weapons.

'This sounds way too familiar.'

"Yeah," Erika responded with a nod.

While Elsa went with a longsword as her weapon of choice, she had a mace in her hand but Flora didn't seem to have anything on her.

"Okay. I looked up the beast you told me about so we know everything there is to know about it, I hope."

She tapped her watch at that moment and a projection of a huge lizard quickly popped.

It looked like a komodo dragon but it was definitely bigger and had little shades of red on its body.

"The Red Komodo dragon, apparently it's the only beast that can infuse poison into its ability so if its flames touch you, the affected area will start corroding until the poison is removed so be careful." She disclosed before lowering her hand.

That was the most critical information they had on the beast and now that everyone knew what to look out for, they started their search inside the forest.

The Red Komodo Dragon was said to be located toward the northwest of the forest and that was where they were heading right now.

They encountered a couple of basic tier and intermediary tier beasts on the way and Claudia didn't have any trouble dealing with those easily.

They walked through the forest for about twenty-five minutes without encountering even a lower-ranked version of the beast and now that they had gotten to a canyon, a very huge canyon that seemed to be one of the boundaries between the good lands and the corrupted lands, Claudia was starting to wonder whether they were going to actually find one.

"A dead end." She muttered as she moved closer to the edge of the canyon. "We don't want to go over there, I'm sure of that."

"So, what do we do now?" Erika asked moving closer to her.

"Well, we could always….."

She wasn't able to finish that statement as she suddenly felt something pierce through her skin from behind.

It was an excruciatingly stinging pain and out of instinct she grabbed the hand of the person responsible for stabbing that into her skin but Erika was fast enough to pull her hand and quickly jump back.

"What did you do?" She asked with a look of terror on her face as she slowly pulled out the syringe stuck on her back and crashed to her knees.

She could definitely feel it, she had just been injected with some sort of poison but she was still confused.

"I was going to push you off but you react fast even when you're poisoned," Erika remarked with an evil grin on her face.

"Well her ability is lightning." Elsa chuckled with a condescending smile on her face.

"Why?...."

Claudia was trying to collect her words here but the more the poison spread the heavier all parts of her body got including her throat.

"Why are you doing this?" She finally managed to force out amidst her heavy breathing.

She was trying her best to keep her head up but she knew it was only a matter of time before she crashed and the thoughts of what would happen to her after that terrified her.

'Today was supposed to be a fun Saturday so how did I get here?'

"You're asking why we're doing this?" Elsa uttered before bursting into a feat of laughter.

She laughed for quite a while before taking two steps toward her.

"Why don't you take a guess?" She grinned. "However, I'll tell you this much, you see everything we've told you so far, take it and flip it upside down and you'll get the truth.

"I despise you with every fiber of my being, I've wished you death a lot of times and now I finally have the opportunity to do it myself and cover it up with a nice story worthy of your legacy of course."

She wasn't joking and Claudia knew that, she had seen that look in the eyes of some of her classmates, she reeked of pure hatred for her and if it was possible she would have already shot her dead with her eyes by now.

"Fine, I understand but I'd appreciate it if you told me why you hate me so much?" She asked, still hanging in there.

"I told you to take a guess." Elsa snapped before she quickly launched a pebble toward her hitting her straight in the forehead.

She didn't want to get too close and that was quite smart of her considering who she was dealing with.

"And if you can't guess why I hate you so much then you'll just die without knowing why you died." She grinned. "Any moment now that poison will completely shut down your system and after that, I can either push you down there or…."

She wasn't able to finish that as she suddenly heard the two behind her screaming.

"Huh?"

She quickly turned to them at that moment and the first thing she saw sent shivers running down her spine forcing a gulp out of her.

She was terrified and who wouldn't be at the sight of a huge bear holding up the heads of both of her friends ripped off their bodies?

"Erika, Flora, no."

She fell short of words and before she knew it, the bear was right in front of her.

"Teleportation," Claudia muttered.

Elsa wasn't given the time to react as the bear quickly punched a hole through her body from one side to the other.

"No." She groaned as blood slipped out from her mouth and gut down to the bear's hand.

"You see, things wouldn't end this way if you actually tried to communicate with me."

That message was passed on to no one as the beast quickly flung her lifeless body to the side and now it had its gaze on the helpless girl in front of her.

"I guess it's my turn now." She muttered.

It looked like she was about to give up but then she suddenly folded her left hand into a fist before gritting her teeth with a desperate look on her face.

"You're not going to take me that easily, not if I can just."

Lightning sparks suddenly began to build around her body at that moment as she slowly got off her feet.

She was trying to get up on her feet with the help of her ability but before she could stand properly, the lightning around her body disappeared and she came crashing to the ground.

"Yeah, it's over, no one's coming to my rescue out here." She muttered accepting her fate as the bear happened to be towering over her now.

The beast raised its right leg and was just about to turn her into mush on the floor when a very familiar voice whispered into her ear.

"Are you sure about that?"

The next thing she heard was a loud slam as the beast was quickly knocked back by a powerful force and while it was trying to regain its balance it was quickly slammed down from above.

Claudia looked ahead at that moment to see Arsha standing over the beast with his right leg on its head.

"Hey, this was what you were about to do to her, right?" He remarked before pressing down his foot on the bear's head, crushing its skull and everything beneath in the process.

"Arsha." She muttered as her face subtly lit up with a smile of relief.

"I'd like to tell you that you're going to be safe now, but that doesn't seem to be the case." He said as he slowly made his way to her. "In the current situation, you might still end up dying."

The current situation was that they had two Red Komodo Dragons coming toward them from both sides and he could tell they were both Master Tier beasts.