Episode 6: Vacation (3)

"Monsters?" Upon hearing the words that were coming out from Orelia's mouth, Damian discretely unsheathed his two blades as he became wary of the situation. "—all gathering up in one place like that? That's unusual..."

Bang!

"From the looks of it..." Xander tilted his head in thought as he heard the loud commotion that was resounding in the area. "It seems like they're all gathered up in one area due to the sound of a magic pistol?"

While the two men were discussing, a certain male's voice could be heard by the distance. "Are you serious right now? How did you attract that many monsters?!"

"Ack... A mistake was made! A grave mistake!" In reply, another voice protruded out. "How was I supposed to know that there were this many monsters in the area?!"

"...hey, should we help them?" Fei asked as she squinted her eyes over to the direction of the noise. "They sound like they're in trouble!"

"Mm... The commotion isn't that far from here," Orelia muttered out whilst turning her head towards the sky, where black clouds began to appear. "But, it's starting to drizzle. We might get caught up in the rain if we go."

"Well, if that's so, is there even a need to hesitate then?" Fei blurted out as she quickly took out the spearham that was behind her back. "I'll be going in first!" In the next moment, her leg pushed forward as she made her way over to the ruckus.

"H-Hey, wait! Fei!" Xander cried out.

...

Yumin Forest—Northwestern Region [8:16 AM].

"Hah... Hah..." Within the area where a pack of monsters gathered in one place, two young men, one black-haired and the other brown could be seen standing by in the middle of the encirclement. "You said you didn't know? I literally warned you!"

"U-Ugh... Come on, Zack... Have a little mercy on me, will ya?" The black-haired man mumbled out as he shot out a few bullets made of mana-energy over towards the monsters at the front. "We can sweep through them just fine, right?"

"Grr...!" Angered by the piercing sound of the pistol, the monsters pounced forward towards the man.

"Just fine my ass!" Zack clicked his tongue as he swung his sword in an arc, swiftly pushing the mobs back. "If not for your bloody pistol, this wouldn't be a problem!"

"Cough... I just wanted to test this thing out! What better than a forest where there are monsters?" The young man replied. "I-I mean... You're also here with me! So, it's 100% safe!"

"God..." Zack ruffled his hair as he took a long deep sigh. "Ugh... Let's just talk later!"

Thrusting his silver blade forward, a jut of wind began aggressively flowing from behind him, where it soon collided against the pack of monsters—quickly turning their encirclement into a mess.

In the next instance, Zack leapt forward in a zig-zag, soon slashing at every monster that was on the ground and turned them into grey ash. "...tch, the amount of monsters you attracted is no joke."

Silently complaining, he gazed around the area to count the remaining enemies in the vicinity, but, just as he did so, countless flutters of petals flung towards him. It wasn't just any petals however, they were like bullets being shot out rapidly.

"...!!" Taking note of the rapid-fire of attacks, Zack swayed to the side to dodge. "Damnit... There's more..." he frowned at the situation. "Just how many monsters did this guy attract?"

Steadying himself back into a combative state, Zack's ear slightly tingled as he heard a loud voice by the distance. "Hey! Watch out, behind you!"

"...?!" Turning his head back upon hearing the voice, he saw that a large bear-like monster had silently approached him from behind whilst he was distracted from the attacks. "...damn!" With little to no time to evade the big paws of the bear, the young man hurriedly held up his sword to parry. However, in the nick of time, a large hammer slammed down against the monster—swiftly sending it back into a tree.

"Aha!" Appearing before the man was that of a brown-haired girl, Fei. "Just in time!"

"...a traveller?" he raised his brow in question at the sight of the young girl in front of him. However, he couldn't stop to question the matter as following up with the appearance of Fei, the rapid-fire of bullets averted their direction over to her.

"E-Eep!" Fei cried out, attempting to dodge the attacks.

"Hah..." from the direction of where the attacks came from, a black-haired man silently appeared from behind the two dandelion-like plant monsters and slashed at them. "I got you, I guess."

Meanwhile, droplets of water began forming in the area as it shaped into that of a bubble. "My, Fei..." Slowly walking out of the forest and into the area, Orelia, whose hands were busily manipulating the bubbles of water in the vicinity, uttered out. "You couldn't wait and just rushed in like that, huh?"

Then, her fingers snapped as all the bubbles burst open—soon flowing out an intense stream of water over towards the monsters as it quickly forced them into a small cluster.

"Ah... Oops, sorry, Orelia..." Fei muttered out as she leapt towards the grouped up enemies and slammed down her spearham onto the ground of where they lied on, finally turning them into grey ash. "I didn't expect for the monsters to suddenly shift their attacks to me..."

"Hoh?" Amazed by the sight of the sudden waves that protruded out in the battlefield, the black-haired man stopped to admire it. "It seems like we have guests!"

"Hah... Hah... You guys..." Xander fumbled about as he finally arrived at the wrapped-up battle with all the belongings of the group in hand. "Did you just leave me back there to carry all of this??"

"One too many..." Zack sighed as he sheathed his sword. Then, he slowly made his way over to the black-haired man and stood by the side of him "Well... That's done with."

"Hoho!" Overjoyed by the arrival of guests, the man clapped his hands. "That's a wonderful showcase of battle! It was beautiful!"

"Hey, are you two alright?" Finishing up with collecting all the mana crystals dropped by the monsters, Fei scurried over to the two men and asked. "With the way, you guys were surrounded earlier... You're not injured, are you?"

"It is fine! We're both okay!" the man smiled. "Thank you for your wonderous assistance, miss! If not for you guys, we might've gotten into a sticky predicament. How can we repay you?"

"It's fine, sir," from behind Fei, Damian spoke up. "We were just passing by and happened to stumble upon you guys. We just lent a hand, that's all."

"I see, I see! But I insist on repaying you guys for your help!" The man nodded his head. "Might I ask where you're headed for? If we're going in the same direction, I can treat you to lunch as thanks!"

"...Daryl," Zack glared at the cheerful man. "It's nice that you want to repay them, but perhaps this discussion should be another time? We should be heading back to Brime now. Do you really want to get caught in the rain?"

"Ah... Is it drizzling?" Daryl's head moved up towards the sky as he noted the black clouds. "My... Will our fateful encounter be cut short?"

While the two men were conversing with one another, Xander whispered over to the group. "H-Hey... Is it just me... Or is this guy weird?"

"...so it's not just me?" Damian thought to himself. "What do you want to do?"

"Should we let them go first before we continue back to Brime?" Xander questioned.

"Hmm... We're all going in the same direction anyway, right?" Fei answered. "So, why can't we go with them? It's about to rain too, so... If we wait out, we'll get caught in the rain, won't we?"

"Well... These two just give me the iffy feeling," Damian frowned. "Let's not mix with them."

"..." As if Zack was discretely looking over towards the direction of the quiet group, he sighed. "Hah... It is unfortunate indeed. But, it can't be helped. Daryl, shall we get going now?"

"...alright, alright," Daryl shook his head helplessly as he then turned towards the direction of the group. "As it is about to rain, I, unfortunately, would have to go first. As such, would there be any means to contact your group later? Will you perhaps visit Brime sometime later?"

"Well, on that note," walking towards the two men in a casual manner, Orelia stretched her arms and replied to Daryl's question. "If you want to repay us, then sure!" she smiled. "We just so happen to be heading towards Brime too!"

"O-Orelia...?" Damian raised his brow in a bewildered manner.

"R-Really?!" Daryl's eyes shone in excitement. "That is great news!"

"Hah..." Zack silently cursed.