PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

587 Chapter 587 Primeval Forest

Desmond was quite used to appearing unannounced somewhere in the middle of nature. Something similar happened every time he visited a new world. Still, Claire, Sasha, Revna, and Cecilia couldn’t be said to be used to such stuff.

To top it off, the place where they appeared didn’t seem to be just a random grassland but rather a primeval forest. No more than five seconds after their arrival, the girls could already hear the beast fight in the distance. For a moment, no one knew what to do. Only now they realized that no one had any experience in the wild.

Although she was not used to taking the lead, Cecilia was the first to say something. “For now, we should take things easy, we don’t know anything about this world, and it would be better to be cautious to avoid getting into trouble. For now, scan the area around us.”

No one had any problem agreeing with Cecilia’s approach. Unlike Desmond, who went around quelling problems with violence, the girls preferred a much less bloody approach. Besides, they needed to learn about the place, so it was best to wait for Cecilia to scan it with her light mana mastery.

Cecilia’s eyes shone as if hundreds of stars were contained in them. Although not in the traditional sense of the word, Cecilia could see everything around them, covering almost half a mile of distance. Unfortunately, Cecilia was bound to end up disappointed, as she couldn’t find a trace of civilization.

“What do you see, Cecilia?” Seeing Cecilia lost in thought of her, Claire asked.

Cecilia slowly shook her head and answered somewhat helplessly. “I’m afraid I immediately found no trace of human activity in the area. There are a lot of dangerous beasts hanging around this forest; it will be better to be cautious.”

Revna was about to comment on something when she felt movement in the nearby shadows. Revna took Sasha’s hand without saying a word and made her stand behind her. Only then did Revna speak to her as she pulled out a pair of knives. “I didn’t think that would be an option now.”

As soon as Revna finished speaking, she covered the knives with a thick mana of darkness. Then, she threw it into what seemed like an empty space in front of her. The rest looked at her actions in confusion, but they quickly understood what was happening when they saw the knives stuck in something in the air and heard a grunt of pain.

.....

Then the air distorted, revealing what looked like a combination of a Hercules beetle and a chameleon. The beast snarled in pain and anger as it felt its flesh torn by Revna’s knives, letting the dark mana enter from her wounds and further damaging her flesh.

The huge beast believed it had found a good meal when he saw the group of human girls appear out of nowhere in its territory. Obviously, the beast wasn’t expecting one of them to stab it even before it revealed itself.

Enraged, the beast planned to unleash its fury on the human woman, quite a nice thought; too bad it wasn’t meant to follow through. Claire, Sasha, Revna, and Cecilia seemed pretty clueless overall. Still, they weren’t weak at all, at least not by the standards of the beast attacking them.

God himself would have to descend from heaven to review what was left of the beast and know exactly that he killed it because, after the combined attack of the four women, it was impossible to tell.

Claire’s telekinetic energy knives and Cecilia’s bolt of radiant light were one thing. But Sasha’s needlessly huge tower of fire and Revna’s shadow tendril dance left almost nothing of the beast behind.

Sasha and Revna were quite calm when it was all over; they were both used to dealing with beasts. Claire only got a little upset, mainly due to the suddenness of the encounter, but Cecilia didn’t look so good.

Unlike the rest of the girls, the amount of blood that Cecilia had seen in her life was not very little; she was not used to violence at all. According to what she had told them, Cecilia had zero fighting experience. As the most experienced Revna noted, she could make future plans for Cecilia’s improvement.

Claire genuinely didn’t have any experience when it came to leading or scouting a forest, so she didn’t try to pretend otherwise and asked honestly. “What do you think we should do?”

Sasha responded as she removed the residual fire to prevent a forest fire. “The best thing would be to look for a high point where we have a better range of vision, so we can more easily find a place with a population. As strange as Myrilla is, I doubt she sent us to attend a wedding among forest animals, so our target shouldn’t be around here.”

Claire and the rest agreed to what was proposed, leaving immediately in the direction of a mountain Cecilia had seen to the south when she checked the area.

Along the way, the roles were distributed as follows: Cecilia was in charge of surveillance, Revna was in charge of scouting, Claire brought up the rear, and Sasha was the supervisor.

The girls could avoid confrontation with many forest beasts thanks to Cecilia’s ability to scan her surroundings. As she slipped into the shadows, Revna constantly checked the best route in advance. Sasha warned the girls of less obvious dangers, like poisonous plants. Lastly, Claire always kept her arcane energy ready for combat while she also helped carry the girls’ things with telekinesis.

Truth be told, the forest turned out not to be much of a challenge for the girls, at least for now, filling them with a false sense of pride and confidence that was soon crushed.

GRAAWL*

A roar that seemed to rip through the sky shook the ground under the girls’ feet. Claire, Revna, Cecilia, and Sasha instantly paled at how terrifyingly intense the energy fluctuations emitted in that roar were.

Without even thinking, Sasha took Cecilia and Claire by the hand and dragged them into the shade of a huge tree. Revna quickly reacted by following the other girls and using her darkness mana domain to denser the shadows around her to strengthen her concealment.

Claire, Cecilia, and Sasha felt a chill as the cloak of shadows covered them, but none made a single sound; they were too busy watching the battle in the sky, or rather, the end of a battle in the sky.

A pillar of iridescent light streaked across the sky, not fading until it had crossed a couple of miles away. The pillar of light seemed very high in the sky, but Claire and the rest could clearly see it. A second later, the girls were hit with a searing heat that made all but Sasha uncomfortable.

When the pillar of light faded, all left behind was a dark spot in the sky that grew larger with each passing second. Claire and the rest thanked god that thing wasn’t falling in their direction, as that would be too much bad luck. Desmond would probably have told them they were too young to know what true bad luck meant.

Eventually, the girls could see a vague shadow of what that thing was falling from the sky. “He thought it was some kind of giant flying lion.” Claire commented with a strange expression on her face since. Even with the rise of the mutant beasts on earth, she had not seen anything so weird.

As the girl with the best observation skills, Cecilia nodded and added. “A purple flying lion; I wonder who he messed with to get like that?”

Being much more accustomed to the violence of nature, Sasha only shrugged once the tension passed, and she responded. “Not really our business; all we have to do is avoid messing with whatever killed that thing.”

The rest of the girls nodded vigorously; all of them would rather never know what did that to that beast. An instinctive feeling told them all when they heard that roar that this now-dead lion was far stronger than any of them. One could imagine how powerful the creature that killed it would be.

Not wanting to stay to find out, the girls kept moving in the direction of the mountain, this time with much more caution and seriousness. It had become clear that this place was far from safe, so no one dared to take things lightly again.

The girls managed to avoid conflict thanks to teamwork and soon found themselves at the mountain’s base. Keeping their guard up, the girls climbed the mountain, checking their surroundings for any threat.

It was here where the inexperience showed itself; finding no threat, the girls continued advancing, believing that it was safe. A more experienced Desmond would have withdrawn. He would know full well that in a place fraught with danger, the places that seemed abnormally quiet were the most dangerous; It was too bad Desmond wasn’t there.

After climbing for half an hour, the girls overcame exhaustion and reached a high point on the mountain, only to find a massive cave. As a bad feeling went up the spine of all the girls, a lazy and sensual voice reverberated through the cave. “Who dares disturb this goddess’s rest?”