The red arena

Ester felt burdened by the guilt of being the weakest one in the group. She stuttered with her trembling lips, "D-don't m-mind me. L-let's go. Maybe w-we can find help."

Vincent understood the fear haunting her thoughts quite well. It was her actions that made him realize something was wrong with him.

Vincent should be as terrified as Ester, yet his heart raced with overwhelming curiosity to know how a Demonic Beast looked like. A feeling he didn't know from where it was growing from.

"Stay behind us and be ready to run at a moment's notice." Vincent turned around and started walking in the direction Lupa pointed.

Lupa walked beside Vincent with her ears raised to pick up more sounds. Ester quietly trailed behind them, forcing her body to move with every step while they slowly headed to the source of this horrifying situation.

"ARGH... "

"NO!... "

*CLANG!

"DIE!... "

The closer they approached, the more numerous voices and noise rang in the forest. Their surroundings felt strangely damp with the stench of death and rot becoming more pungent by every step.

The color red made them think it wasn't a forest, but hell instead. Multiple victims' blood covered the ground their feet stepped upon. A few trees possessed claw marks, deep dents, and broken pieces displaying various struggles that occurred.

The Demonic Beast killed every living being it met on its the way, leaving their corpse as a display to mark its territory. Most were crushed to death, revealing the possibility of awakening into the earth element even further.

[Vincent, I think we are getting closer to the source. I can feel a disturbing powerful magical signal up ahead... it feels distorted and oppressing. It might be what Ester call Devouring.]

[Be careful, five trees ahead of you is a bush. Hide and take a peek.]

"Let's hide in that bush. We are close to check what monster has painted the ground red." Vincent whispered while pointing at the bush.

"Are we going to help them? Isn't it the job of a Hero to save others? What will we do?" Ester was terrified of what they could face. But she wanted to know what Vincent was thinking. She had enough of dangerous situations and surprises.

"I am your Hero, not theirs. A Hero means to do feats of sacrifice for others, but I will only sacrifice myself for what is dear to me, like the two of you." Vincent said with a frown. His resolution didn't wane as he said these words with a straight face.

[Hehe, Mr.Harem Hero looks cool. You are my hero.]

Kazumi said, a sarcastic joke to make Vincent feel at ease. She could notice his body acting strangely. It was as if trembling from excitement, or the wish to fight instead of gathering information on the current situation.

These words caused Ester and Lupa to lose some of their anxiety. Vincent told them how he valued their safety above all others, even his. How he also wasn't about to charge into danger blindly.

Shortly, three heads peeked out of the large bush. The view left the four of them to stare in shock, both speechless from awe and fear at the sight their eyes laid upon.

A wide-open field filled with grass painted red from blood was the first thing that welcomed their curious gaze. It was like an art piece with most of the color green replaced with red.

The ground had a few animal skeletons and corpses ranging from boars, dears to even two more bears. The red grass was long enough to hide small critters, hiding them from sight.

The wind wasn't forgiving either. Vincent could barely feel a slight breeze brushing against his hair. This seemed the reason why the pungent smell of death stayed for weeks.

In the middle of all this red grass stood a large towering tree around fifty meters or higher. It possessed a tree trunk as wide as a van.

Strangely, this red grassy open field seemed to be around a thirty-meter radius from the massive tree. Only around nine dried trees could be seen. As if their nutrients were absorbed by something, leaving them unable to grow any further.

The massive tree seemed to be why the wind and the rays of sunlight had difficulty entering the circular red-painted field. It almost resembled a bloody arena by how it appeared.

Vincent stopped gazing at his surroundings and spotted three entities besides the tree at the center of all this. Two soldiers in shiny armor and what seemed to be a large moving statue in front of them.

"My Inspection isn't working at this distance." Vincent felt surprised how Inspection ability had the limitation of range.

A mysterious urge to approach suddenly coursed through his body, making him momentarily fearless. The thoughts of curiosity filled his mind.

'Is a Demonic Beast stronger than an Adult Mudcrab?'

'Can I defeat it with my new power? '

'Are those soldiers strong?'

'Will those soldiers help us?'

Multiple thoughts coursed through Vincent's mind. He had a small taste of power, and it seemed to have made him overestimate himself in the worst possible time.

"I want to see how strong the Demonic Beast is. Let's use the long grass to cover our approach." Vincent said as he crouched on the red grass. It felt wet, and a bit slippery, but the blood on the grass seemed to be entirely absorbed by the plants as his clothes didn't get stained.

Ester and Lupa gulped, unable to ask why not run away. Both of them couldn't stop him fearlessly and silently crawling towards the danger under cover of the red grass.

Lupa "I will follow him."

Ester "R-right... "

Both whispered. They quickly nodded at each other with a frown and followed in the same way, crawling without making a sound.

The more they approached the center, the less the pungent smell became. A new delightful sweet aroma started intertwining with the pungent smell allowing Lupa to relax and stop covering her nose.

[Why are you looking for danger? Please don't be rash and run away instead of inspecting the monster. You're not strong enough to fight against this thing. Back away before its too late.]

-I know, but... I feel like I can run away if anything happens with the cooked mudcrab meat. I have a gut feeling I'm strong enough.-

[Has the mutation changed your personality? You are usually shy and a scaredy-cat, this isn't you. Weren't you cautious a few moments ago? Didn't you feel scared at the blood sight the Demonic Beast left behind?]

Vincent stopped answering. He kept crawling while ignoring her plea to run away as his curiosity and adrenaline pumping through his veins overwhelmed his sense of fright.

Vincent stopped when he could notice a long brown hair dangling on a feminine figure wearing soldier armor. The other figure appeared to be a man with a large build. On his back was a white cape with a golden lion's head embroidery flapping along with his every action.

Vincent promptly used Inspection to see what their next course of action should be. If was too much for them to handle as Kazumi warned and crawl back from where they came from, leaving the two soldiers to their death. Or help in the fight.

.

[Name] Kass

[Condition] Injured, Tired, Enraged

[Class] Berserker

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[Class Berserker]

*[Inspection level too low.]

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[Name] Tula

[Condition] Injured, Winded, Terrified

.

Vincent then set his gaze on what Ester called a Demonic Beast. It stood eight feet tall while resembling a bulky ape. Apart from its mouth, chest, and stomach, the Demonic Beast was covered by rocks. As if rocks grew from its body like scales.

The monster almost resembled the stone golems in multiple fantasy games he played on Earth. Rocks covered even its tail as it violently swung it at the male soldier.

The soldier raised his shield. He managed to block the attack, but he got pushed a few meters from the strong blow.

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[Name] Nok Ape (Earth Demonic Beast)

[Condition] Healthy, Enraged, Frenzy, Devouring (Stage ten)

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[Detail]

A once tame Nok Ape corrupted by an incompatible element. It follows its primal desire until consumed by the corruption turning into stone.

.

Ester quickly crawled beside Vincent and whispered, "We should leave. Demonic Beasts only have six months to a year before they get consumed and die.

"The longer they live, the harder they are to kill. Magical Beasts awaken to Mature Stage after around five years. They grow around triple or more the average size. But Demonic Beasts grow to that size in less than a week."

"Inspection says it has Devouring condition of stage ten." Vincent notified. He quickly concluded it was a mistake to approach based on his impulse that he has grown stronger.

Ester began trembling enough for Vincent and Lupa to notice stage ten was the maximum it could reach.

Vincent decided it was best to turn back and escape immediately. The Demonic Beast is too much for them to handle without a tragedy or a complete one-sided massacre.

"I'll take my revenge!" Shouted Kass, the male Berserker classed soldier.

Kass stood up after he was forced to kneel on one knee from the strong tail swing. He held his sword and shield with a firm tight grip, ready to continue.

Kass swung his sword, filled with anger at the Demonic Beast. However, it didn't seem to have any effect. The rocks appeared to be very hard, similar to the mudcrab's legs carapace or shell.

Tula, the female soldier, noticed a fluffy white tail curiously wagging over the tall red grass. She turned her gaze, placing full attention to detect if an animal was preparing to ambush them. However, to her surprise, the pair of brown eyes noticed two humans and a beastman instead.

"Help us!" Tula shouted with a hoarse feminine voice from all her crying and screaming. She shouted her lungs out for help after seeing three people standing a few good meters behind them.

Kass and the Demonic Beast turned their gaze on Tula. Their eyes soon noticed a white frozen fluffy tail from getting discovered.

The Demonic Beast noticed new prey had entered its area and roared in anger. Then it charged towards Tula and swung its arm at the unsuspecting female soldier with violent brute force.

In the blink of an eye, Tula disappeared from Vincent's sight. She was flung high in the air at a tremendous speed as if her body momentarily lost the world's gravity pull.

Tula fell, tumbled, and slid on the damp red bloody grass until she ended up leaving the thirty-meter open area. The chance of survival seemed to be zero.

[We need to run away now!]

Vincent quickly patted the shoulders of Ester and Lupa to leave. He stood up, and the two girls swiftly followed. Then he urgently said, "Let's run away."