17 The Duo

Jerouch walked alongside the roc as they proceeded to hunt small monsters that the roc needed. 

The sun was at its zenith and Jerouch would occasionally wipe off the sweat lingering on his forehead. 

He kept on glancing at the roc who was marching forward, his talons leaving scratch marks on the soft ground, and his wings wide open. 

They had not encountered any threat yet, despite walking randomly for about an hour. 

The hot dried ground with rocky shards pressed hard on Jerouch's feet, which made him wince frequently. 

'' Just what's with this glaring sun? '' Hissing, he stretched his hands forward to pull a hanging leafy branch on his path. 

Woosh!

The roc suddenly jumped forward and twisted his body in mid-air. 

His talons that were initially scribbling on the ground twirled in a one eighty degree motion and hit a particular spot close to where Jerouch just touched around the leafy branch. 

Jerouch didn't see this coming, and such sudden ferociousness sent a ringing alarm in his head. 

His first line of thought was that the roc had lost decorum with him, and he was going to chunk him. 

However, an explosive force spread out, and its ripple hit jerouch who was still rooted to the spot. 

'' Arghh! ''

A loud grunt left his mouth, and it echoed throughout the forest. 

Bam!

His body was sent flying like a rag doll before he crashed on a giant tree with a red stem that was a couple of meters away. 

Jerouch squinted his eyes, and his face contorted in excruciating pain. 

'' The hell is happening? '' he blurted out, as he watched the roc press his large wing around a monster. 

His head and the other wing stretched upward and looked down at his prey before the roc suddenly brought his head down, chopping off the prey's head

The whole event was so fast that Jerouch didn't have enough time to process it. 

By the time he regained the strength to stand up after staggering a couple of times, the battle was already over, and the roc had eaten the entire prey without leaving a chunk. 

Jerouch swallowed a thick saliva as his eyes dilated. His heart was constantly racing, and his jaw drew downward. 

' D-dangerous,' that was all he could say. 

' That creature… I couldn't sense its presence at all, yet it was eaten in one goal.' Jerouch reprocessed the complete scene in his head, which sent him cold chills. 

He was sure that for the beast to be able to evade his perception, it must be a high ranking monster. Yet…

' This walking time bomb shouldn't be messed up with. ' He concluded in his head.

They had to wait for another hour for the roc to digest what he just ate and utilized that energy efficiently. 

Jerouch had given more distance from the roc, and he made sure to always be behind. 

' Being turned to a meat paste by a supposed contracted familiar is pretty laughable.'' He gasped softly as they continued their journey. 

Since they didn't have any particular destination. They were just walking randomly based on Instinct. 

Jerouch wasn't familiar with the forest, and he had asked the roc if he does, but the answer was negative. 

Jerouch was quite surprised that such a creature didn't know the forest well either, despite how powerful it was. 

However, if Jerouch had good knowledge of monsters, he would've realized that such a creature wasn't something that should be seen anywhere around this region, either far or nearby. 

Moreover, with the size of the roc compared to his kin, someone very familiar with the monster would've known that he was still at his infant stage. 

The sun had gone down at the moment, and its dim, soft glow in the far distance horizon radiated a beautiful amber light on the whole forest and beyond. 

' It's evening already, eh? ' Jerouch looked far ahead in the sky, as he got lost in deep thought while enjoying the soft breeze that cooled down his body. 

They had been hunting throughout the day, and before evening reached, the roc had finished six monsters. 

To avoid injury or any unexpected precarious event, Jerouch had given the roc a fifty-meter distance. 

Surviving as long as he could, was his lifelong goal. He wasn't ready to walk too close to something that could reduce him to smithereens with a casual flap of his wings.  

The fight, though, always ended as quickly as it started, so Jerouch was spared from the powerful auras, and remnant attacks that the monsters would've released. 

Since it was getting dark, Jerouch felt they should take a break and find a place to rest for the night. 

Fortunately, the roc agreed, and they soon began searching for a suitable location where they could camp overnight. 

As though luck were favouring them, .it didn't take them a long time to soon find an uninhabited cave. 

The cave was bigger than the one they were previously. And small hills stood erect close to it, forming a natural fortress. 

The duo tiptoed into the cave, and after a triple-check, Jerouch was finally satisfied, and he slurped to the ground heavily as he finally gave in to all the accumulated exhaustion. 

He started munching on the fruits he picked up while walking in the day before gulping down water from a broken monster horn. 

' I hope I won't get poisoned to death one day with these random fruits I keep on picking. ' He laughed and watched the roc who had stayed quiet adjacent to where he was sitting. 

' At least be useful and guard me while I sleep, you damn big eagle of a thing,' Jerouch cursed under his breaths. 

As if he could read Jerouch's mind, the roc turned his head in Jerouch's direction for a couple of seconds before turning away. 

'' Hmph. '' Jerouch harrumphed. 

' Just wait as you play a crucial part in my plan, tomorrow. ' Jerouch fell to the ground with heavy eyelids as tiredness washed over him, while thinking of how he could turn this to an advantage. 

' Tomorrow it is…'