“It could burst out from under the ground at any moment.”
“Here at least Lifa and I have time to react.”
With danger ahead, Isis’s choice was indeed the most correct one, prioritizing safety.
“Alright.”
Placed atop a large tree, Ron understood this and didn’t overthink it.
“Take care of Lifa for me, and protect yourself well.”
The encounter deep in the Magic Beast Forest had raised Lifa’s opponents to a level far above her own.
Even though the girl was exceptionally talented and now had a good weapon, it was still a very difficult battle.
Isis looked at Ron with a thoughtful gaze, then acknowledged him and cleanly stepped off the tree trunk, performing a beautiful leap and backflip before landing.
“Sister Isis!”
Lifa and Isis leaned back to back, their golden and white hair blending together. The two women, each with their own unique beauty, stood with their swords drawn.
“Lifa, it wants to keep us stuck here.”
Isis closed her eyes. The forest surface was eerily quiet. But beneath the sea of trees, the underground demonic beasts were stirring, and the group still approaching was drawing nearer.
“Th-then what do we do?”
Lifa was still far behind Isis in experience and judgment in this area.
“Why don’t you take Teacher and leave first, Sister Isis?”
The person fighting alongside her now was not just a companion, but also the idol she had always admired.
Even though it had been a while since she learned Isis’s identity, Lifa still found it unbelievable whenever she thought about it.
Isis shook her head. The hero’s sword in her hand had silently changed its direction.
“The two of us together, wait for him…”
Before Isis could finish outlining her plan, both of them felt the ground beneath their feet trembling violently.
BOOM!!!
Lawn, trees, soil.
With the spot where Lifa and Isis stood as the center, an area with a radius of over a dozen meters collapsed downward like an inverted hourglass.
‘It’s a cunning beast.’
Ron slammed a fist against a tree branch.
If Isis and Lifa worked together, they should be able to instantly kill this fifth-tier demonic beast the moment it showed itself.
But that scorpion was truly cunning, not only hiding underground, but also hollowing out the surrounding underground space to create a collapse trap for this moment.
‘No, the smart one probably isn’t this guy.’
Feeling powerless, Ron could only hope that Isis had a way to handle this. The excitement he’d felt earlier from mastering the spirit-type skill had completely vanished.
“Lifa, give me your hand!”
A dozen meters of collapsing ground with no foothold.
As Lifa panicked in confusion, Isis reached out her hand to her.
“Sister Isis—”
Their fingers interlaced. Lifa felt her body like an arrow on a drawn crossbow, flung forcefully toward the area outside the collapse.
“I’ll be fine.”
Isis gave Lifa a reassuring smile, but she herself sank into the ground along with the dirt, rocks, and trees.
“No!”
Lifa reversed her Thorn Blade, hooking herself to the edge of the collapse zone.
In Lifa’s eyes, this choice meant Isis was putting herself in danger to ensure Lifa’s safety.
Even a hero…
clatter clatter clatter
Just as Lifa was wondering how to go back and help Isis, the scorpion demonic beast that had been hiding underground finally burst out of the earth.
click click
At that moment, the fangs on either side of its mouthparts kept contracting and twitching inward, letting out a painful cry.
And stuck right in the center was Isis’s hero’s sword.
“Huh?!”
Lifa’s sorrow turned to joy as she quickly looked for Isis, and immediately she spotted the calm and composed hero on the back of the giant scorpion that had fully emerged from the ground.
“Return.”
She softly uttered a single syllable, and the hero’s sword, as if hearing its master’s call, arced through the air and flew back into Isis’s hand.
“Die.”
Using herself as bait, Isis had lured the beast. As she fell underground, the demonic beast couldn’t resist attacking, trying to swallow her in one gulp.
And the price of that impulse…
“As cool as ever.”
Ron marveled from the tree.
Turning sideways, she cleanly drove the sword blade diagonally into the core of the demonic beast, killing it in one blow.
‘Back then, Isis really held back quite a bit…’
Ron watched Isis, who was now at the same tier as the scorpion beast. Her performance reminded him of the sparring match with Lifa earlier.
“Amazing! As expected of the hero!”
Isis returned to Lifa’s side. The girl’s warm hug and praise left Isis a little at a loss.
“It’s fine. Let’s hurry.”
Isis turned toward the tree where Ron was. As she looked over, Lifa suddenly grabbed her hand again.
“Hm?”
Isis was puzzled.
“C-could I go fetch Teacher? Is that okay?”
Isis saw that Lifa’s face had suddenly turned much redder than before.
“Sure.”
Her blood-red eyes blinked. After answering, she fixed her gaze on the direction of the lake where they had been earlier.
‘Strange. At the speed of those demonic beasts, they should have caught up by now.’
“Teacher, please, let me carry you down.”
While Isis was pondering the anomaly of the demonic beasts, Lifa climbed up through the alternating trees and had already reached Ron’s side.
Ron hadn’t been prepared when Isis suddenly picked him up earlier, but now with Lifa, he naturally didn’t want to go down like that.
“Lifa.”
“Don’t think of me as so frail. Just keep an eye on me, and I’ll get down on my own.”
Climbing a tree requires a lot of energy and skill to go up, but going down—Ron simply slid down using his hands and feet.
Lifa on the tree was a bit disappointed. She kept her arms in the same pose until Ron was down, then jumped off.
‘Why can Sister Isis do that?’
Even though this was still a critical moment, Isis’s identity and her recent performance had given Lifa the leisure to ponder these little things.
“Isis, something’s wrong.”
Ron immediately went to meet Isis and stated his judgment.
“Exactly. It depends on our choice.”
The two of them not only exchanged glances, their opinions also aligned perfectly.
The demonic beasts’ actions against the three of them had started as an encirclement, but when they broke through in this direction, the beasts vanished.
Then the more likely scenario was that there was an obstacle on the path ahead.
“If we continue in this direction, we’ll most likely encounter the guardian beast of the Origin Crystal.”
“We have to treat it like a cunning human.”
Ron didn’t dare be overconfident; he warned Isis to be careful of the guardian beast’s intelligence and strength.
He understood the situation better. Although Isis’s kill earlier was impressive, the fact that she chose such a risky method showed that her usable power was very limited—she had to do it to win.
“I know.”
“Which way to go—you decide, Isis.”
“We don’t need to go.”
“We don’t need to go?”
Ron glanced at Lifa standing beside him, who also looked confused, and asked back.
“Yes.”
Isis nodded and thrust the hero’s sword into the ground.
“It’s coming…”
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