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Early Morning - Mid Summer : South of Deepcross, Southern Holy Kingdom

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- Rhanes Ravenna ~

"tsss-" *crack-CRACK* Slamming my hammer down into the head of the basilisk as it lunged at me, its head exploded, and a web of cracks spread through the dry soil.

"Sir Templar! There are too many of them!"

-Tch...- Tightening the grip on my hammer, I gritted my teeth and whipped it around. "I.. KNOW!" *CRACKLE* The hammer smashed through the jaw of a drake behind me with ease before I lunged forward to throw a punch that would cave in its chest.

*WHAM-FWOOOSH* In an instant, the massive body of the drake was hurled through the forest, quickly clearing a path through countless weak monsters and giving the knights a second or two to resituate themselves.

-They are already in bad condition...- "Everyone!

Work to thin their numbers as much as you can!

Don't be afraid to fall back!" Quickly shifting my grip up below the head of the hammer, I darted forward onto the basilisk's body and threw myself in the air.

"Hyup!" -I need to clear out the stronger monsters if I want these young brats to live. ..-

Quickly scanning over the horde of monsters in front of me, I quickly spotted several more large drakes with a shell dragon behind them, a 25-meter-tall, 6-legged behemoth reaching well into the Cleric rank. -Sh*t...-

It was nothing I couldn't handle, especially in a one-on-one since the hammer was a perfect counter, but the fact it was here meant the monster that displaced it from the dungeon must have been at least priest rank, if not higher.

-Even the big names in Deepcross can barely fend off Bishop ranks.

.. If it leaves the dungeon and comes this way. . we are f*cked...-

*CRUNCH* Finally landing, crushing an ogre beneath my feet, I cleared my mind and charged through the horde, hastily clearing a path to the closest group of smaller drakes at the beginning of A rank.

*tap-tap-tap-crunch* *tap-tap-crack* I mercilessly slaughtered dozens of monsters who attempted to grab me as I passed, before I eventually got to the front-most drake and raised my hammer.

*crackle* A fire grew in my eyes as a bright orange glow formed in the drake's throat. "Now stay away.. FROM MY TOWN!" *WHAAAAM*

That was the swing that started it. The brawl that would last an eternity. *Ding-CRUNCH* With every swing, I could feel my muscles tearing.

*FWOOOSH-WHAMMM* But I continued pushing forward, leaving a pile of mutilated bodies wherever I walked.

But even after what felt like several days, the sun was still high in the sky.

-When.. will it.. END?!- *Ding-CRACK-WHAAM* Every single moment after that first swing, I had been fighting with my life on the line, brawling against monsters dozens of times my size in a hopeless struggle to prevent the destruction of my hometown, and the deaths of my friends and loved ones.

I believed that if I killed the strongest among the horde, the knights that were with me, numbering almost 200, would be able to stop the rest or at least thin them out enough for the adventurers in the town to be able to clean up.

But after killing countless monsters and letting even more run past me, I knew how futile those odds were.

-This really is.. a monster wave of everything in the dungeon.

..- *Crunch* The ground cracked as I finally dropped my half-broken hammer next to me.

"Hah... Hah..." My mind and body had finally reached their absolute limits.

-But I..- "Hah..." -..can't stop here... -

Slowly looking up, I found myself staring into the cold, lifeless eyes of a nearly fifteen-meter-tall arachnid called a hell spider, a monster that, at that size, was likely around the peak of A rank or entry to cleric.

-To think the bast*rds who never leave the bottom of the dungeon are here as well. ..-

It was a monster I could normally kill with ease, especially in a one-on-one, but my condition was far from normal.

*cough* "Huek..." Falling to my knees, I held my stomach where a monster's claw had pierced me and threw up blood. -Shit... Of all the monsters I could die to.. why is it a single hell spider...-

After another moment, my vision started to blur further, and with the feeling of the ground shaking, I thought I was dead. *thump*

But the noise that followed wasn't my bones cracking. *CRRRRACKLE* It was the sound of the spider's exoskeleton being blown to bits.

Slowly looking toward the noise, I saw the huge spider's green flesh and blood covering the ground with its detached legs and head still twitching. -W..what?- The strength required to create such a scene was entirely out of my realm. "W..who.. is there?"

Just as I asked that however, a glistening figure entered my vision and came running up to me.

"S... S..r... Sir... SIR!"

The initially distant voice got louder and louder as the figure approached before finally getting close enough for me to make out a golden symbol on their armor. -Other.. t..templars?-

The unfamiliar voice was laced with worry as he finally made it to my side and pressed an artifact called a plug into the wound on my stomach. "Sir, we weren't aware a fellow Templar would be around here! I will bring you to my division's medics! Please hold on for a moment!"

I was on the verge of losing consciousness as he finally picked me up and started running, but while we ran, there was something I couldn't help but question. -W..why are we.. running toward the dungeon?-

But it was only a moment later that I saw a huge outstanding shadow in the middle of the clearing left by the monster flood, and looked up to see a behemoth standing nearly 50 meters tall looking down on us.

I felt as if time stopped as my vision suddenly sharpened to reveal the being's cold, uncaring gaze aimed right at me.

Then, the moment I blinked, I found myself staring at the sky, laying at the base of a towering obelisk I knew all too well. -W..what am I doing.. at the southern dungeon?-

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- Astren Ravenna ~

"M-miss! We should head back to the tavern and come up with a plan! There is no reason to throw your life away by charging in alone!" I called out to the robed figure again while chasing after her at full speed.

But even though I said she was throwing her life away, her strength was far beyond what I could ever gauge.

*fwip-CRACK-BAAAAANG* With each swing, she drew a beautiful white line through the air like a string of yarn before having it instantaneously expand to mercilessly obliterate every creature in her vicinity.

It was truly a sight so horrifying that it was beautiful.

But as she continued dashing through the forest while cleaving huge swaths of monsters like cutting blades of grass, the monsters only grew stronger.

Eventually, some even started to survive her swings.

*BAAAANG-CRACK* The first monster to survive the blast of air from one of her swings was a huge basilisk around 5 meters in diameter; a monster that could easily be a high B, if not A, rank.

But the robed girl didn't even slow down to pay it mind.

*CRRRRRACCKKK* The moment it moved after taking the first swing, an opaque white cone completely engulfed it.

*FWOOOOOSH* The shockwave from the swing was enough to turn the basilisk's brain to mush before continuing through the trampled forest.

-W..what the hell...- Seeing the huge trees that were uprooted by the monster wave get thrown like twigs in the wind was a scene I could barely wrap my head around. -H..how strong is she?-

As we zipped past the squirming basilisk, we continued further and further through the monster wave, decimating nearly everything in our path and making quick work of even low-cleric rank monsters.

But the monsters only continued to get stronger.

Before long, the monsters the girl was killing were ones I would surely die in a fight against, and the girl had to start slowing down to deal with them.

But.. truth be told, none of the monsters lasted more than a few swings. *fwip-CR-R-R-RAAACK* Even a group of several hell spiders was turned into a cloud of green blood before they could hardly move.

But it wasn't long after that, that we made it out of the back of the wave, and finally came into a large clearing of trampled trees left in the wave's wake.

The ground was completely littered with bodies, both monster and human, but thankfully, none of the armor on the mangled human corpses looked like Fathers. -He must be up ahead still...-

But the longer we ran through the clearing, the fewer monster corpses there were, and the fewer traces of Father I could see.

At least that was initially the case.

Looking ahead of us, I saw a mutilated hell spider and noticed something white and gold glistening on the green-blood-soaked ground.

At that moment, time stopped, and although I thought I was already sprinting at my top speed, the moment I saw the object, my legs gained strength I couldn't have imagined. *CRACK-FWOOOOSH*

Hurling myself up to the object, I immediately recognized it.

It was Father's hammer.

For a moment, my heart felt like it turned into a stone, but after looking more closely at it, I noticed it was on the verge of breaking. -He treats this hammer like his best friend... Could he have dropped it because.. he didn't want to break it?-

I hurriedly tried to convince myself everything was fine, but after another moment I saw a small fragment of broken armor laying under a monster's flesh.

In an instant, my mind was clouded in doubt and despair. -What if.. he's really dead...-

But just as tears started to well in my eyes, I heard a voice; a voice that met my ears like that of a goddess. "He isn't dead."

-H..huh?- My eyes went wide as I looked up to see the robed girl pointing at the ground. -What is she...-

She was pointing at footprints, too small to be Fathers, but too deep to be someone alone, even for the mushy, bloodied ground.

-Did someone pick him up?- I hastily wiped away several tears before looking down the trail of footprints.

-They lead toward the dungeon, but.. they look like they were left by someone in templar armor. ..-

A cloud of confusion started to grow in my mind before finally gripping the nonsensically heavy hammer and standing up, grasping at the thin string of hope laid out in front of me.

"Hooh..." I let out a deep breath as I steeled my will. -If a templar picked him up, that must mean there is a division here... They must have been sent to kill whatever monster started the wave...-

It was quite an assumption, but the presence of another templar gave me hope. -The fact someone carried Father must mean he must be alive...-

The possibility of Father having already passed quickly became an afterthought as the robed girl and I started running again, quickly making our way toward the dungeon through the slowly thinning clearing.

Once we started getting close, however, we were stopped by a deep inhuman voice that sounded like it came from every direction. "Turn around and leave."

It was a voice so cold that sent a chill down my spine.

But I was the only one to slow down because of it.

*FWOOSH* In an instant, the robed girl increased speed before coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the clearing. -W..what is she doing?-

She was looking up, seemingly at nothing, before I heard the same deep voice coming from her direction. "To think a demihuman child would see through my magic..."

I stared wide-eyed at the girl as the light around her started to warp.

After what felt like an eternity, a nearly 50-meter tall, dark green-scaled behemoth revealed itself.

It was a dragon that looked like something out of an ancient tale, a monster of myths.

As it lowered its head next to the tiny girl with a cold gaze, I worried it would eat her, but I was simply frozen in place. My instinct wouldn't let me get any closer.

But it's not like I was strong enough to help her anyway.

"State your name." The dragon seemed to speak in a human language I couldn't understand.

But I wasn't the recipient anyway.

Without hesitation, the robed girl reached up and pulled off her hood, revealing two tall, white fox ears and beautiful white hair.

It was a sight that left me speechless. -Who.. is she?-

"My name is Katherine. Katherine Whyte."