"Has everyone reported their findings"

"Yes Master, we got a total of seven fire beasts that match the level of power and flame energy purity you put forth, two of whom were brought back by Ellis already"

​​

"Even if we are going by the minimum number of only nine beasts I set temporarily it's still not enough, you need to find and capture two more within a day, in case Sa gets overwhelmed faster than anticipated"

"Yes Master"

They already let him down with how slow their seek and capture was, not to mention they still needed to build more secret chambers under each erect building and capture more fire beasts for those as well

"Is there any need for me to intervene in any of the captures?"

"I believe not Master, the most troublesome two is a fiery owl since it can fly and something like an octopus with eyes that's even more annoying since sneak attacks and direct confrontations are both hard to manage, they can be curbed however with team effort"

He nodded for a moment before suddenly flinching

"An octopus with eyes? Does it really look like an octopus? Describe it for me"

"Umm, it's a round rock with a mouth in the middle and five tentacles dotted with eyes of different sizes"

"Can it float?"

"I believe not"

YuJu gave a relieved sigh, he was stressed at the mere possibility of the creature's existence

"Good, if it can't float and its body is so different then it shouldn't be a Witness, perhaps a devolved version of one"

"What is a Witness Master? Whats wrong with it"

"Quite frankly everything, from their personality to their power, now isn't the time to talk about them however, recall everyone and let's head toward this creature at once"

"We are halting the fire beast search?"

"No, we just finished it"

He smiled, finally something good came about

A few hours later he and his entourage met near a small hill, one of hardened black earth

"There is an entrance on the top"

Ika, who found the creature, lead them toward a small hole atop the hill, sliding into It without hesitation

Everyone followed without question, going down this unusually smooth hole to land in an entirely dark cave

"No one split, we all search together"

He ordered, the dark environment not being a problem with their unique vampire vision, even Ellis could now see I'm such terrain after the last semi evolution

Walking through the cave they found it to be extremely small, only another hole, this one large, present in the ground

"Let's climb down"

Using knives they punctured the wall and started to climb through this seemingly endless hole

"There is a floor here my Lord"

Ika reported as the ground came in sight, the hole however continuing downward

"I can see that, we won't stop on any floor until we sense fire energy"

Going for the fastest most practical approach he wasted no time exploring, directly focusing on the surroundings for any intense energy as they made their descent

"Speaking of which how did you find this place to begin with?"

Asked Mia, with a combination of curiosity and boredom

"It's due to my secondary class, Fire Tracer is sort of made exactly for this type of mission"

"Oh? Then can't you just trace the fire to the creature rather than us looking for it?"

"I tried when we came here, but can't sense it for some reason, it's so strange since the fire energy was practically radiating off the hill when I first visited"

She had an awkward smile on her face as she replied, somewhat nervous that the creature left its abode making this a wasted trip

Listing to their conversation YuJu started to get skeptical

'This is clearly a layer made by that thing, Witnesses are known to carve vertical underground structures for themselves, the charred smooth walls were also a testament to that'

He was sure it lived here at some point, but maybe no more?

'Well I never heard of a creature like this to begin within our land, perhaps something happened and it died'

He thought, right when a gaze landed in his back, then another, and another, by the time his movement halted there were about forty eyes resting on his back

The others kept climbing down but slowed sensing his stop, turning their head to look at him only to notice he was nowhere in sight

"Scatter!"

His commanding voice came not a second later, along with it rays of blazing flames that bore into the walls, just where everyone had been a moment ago

Ika and Mia took to stealth while Ellis was ready to attract the creature's attention

Before her there were tens of shining eyes packed together, swinging through the air as the body carrying them slowly lit up from its dormant state, taking on the form of a round ball with a huge toothy mouth and five tentacles that both supported its movement and held the many eyes

The creature stared at Ellis, but not with all its eyeballs, using some of the others to track Mia and Ika even though they were supposedly in stealth while sparing a few to search the area for YuJu whom it couldn't find

Ellis saw this and got ready to make a move, aiming toward the most obvious weak point, its eyes

"Don't blind the eyes, they are what we're here for, plus they are harder than its"

A fiery beam blasted where his voice came from, missing him entirely

Angered by its inability to seek the hidden foe the creature started to charge up energy in its eyes before firing at the three it could see

"Ku!"

Ellis grunted as the shield she pulled out was burned right through, the fire landing on her armor which was made using the hairpin which sent her flying with a new scar on her belly

Mia transformed into a bat, avoiding the beams entirely while Ika somehow dodged hers without problem

"How do we capture it then my Lord"

"Ellis must approach it close enough for the maw to be used, then we will bombard its mouth with every sleeping and paralysis poison we have"

He needn't say no more, Ellis already did a black flip to stand back up, armor repaired by aura, rushing once more at the creature

Since the bat and the dodging woman proved to be difficult targets the creatures switched most of its eyes toward her, charging up for another barrage

"Not this time"

Came the sound of the hidden YuJu, along with smoke that blocked its vision

Seeing nothing but darkness sent the creature into confusion, firing its beams about in hopes of hitting anything, the smoke dispersed not however making it smash the tentacles on the ground, launching itself forward in a bid to escape

And escape it did, right into the armored woman's spear, surrounded by a poisonous aura

Time seemed to slow for the creature at that moment, counterattacks it could make speeding through its mind, fire beams were out of the question as they needed to be charged, swinging its limbs to bash her was possible but it might be too slow, the only other actions left would be…

The wide maw opened, chomping at Ellis with thick sharp teeth

Expecting this already Ellis was quick to turn the spear into a pillar, one that held the maw open for a second while she gripped around the upper teeth and stepped on the lower ones, holding them in place

"Now!"

YuJu, Mia, and Ika bombarded the open mouth with every sleep inducing or paralyzing poison they had

"Ah!"

Ellis screamed at that point, the creatures copying her comrades and sending shortly charged fire beams at her back, burning many holes in the previously pristine skin

"Enough, retreat"

More than happy to oblige Ellis let go in order to back off, only to see the remaining eyes aiming at her, charged and ready to char

Beams of fire shot out, perforating the sudden smoke that enveloped the creature once more

Angered and dismayed it launched itself out of the smoke again, this time ready to meet anything head on

What met it however was silence, an eerie silence that spoke of the prey's absence, in their place was smoke filling the edges of this floor

Looking toward the area where its fire blasted it saw no sign of flesh, the strong woman must have dodged it one way or another

So far the battle seemed to go in its favor, though they had struck its mouth with something one of them was injured already

At the same time however it felt unease by the hidden person whom it couldn't find no matter what, its tongue was numbing out as well, thus while somewhat reluctant the creature turned to make its way toward the descending hole that would lead it back into its natural habitat

Well, at least that was the plan, but where was the hole? Smoke was everywhere and the walls looked more or less the same, its eyes were also getting somewhat blurry, mind filling up with random thoughts, it felt like…

The creature slowly stilled, eyes closing as the multitude of poisons did its job, sending it into forced slumber

That's when YuJu came out carrying Ellis in his hands after the timely rescue

"Good riddance, that felt like it would be a tough battle, how do we get it back to the settlement Master?"

"Go call for Zero and replace here in guarding duty, she will blast a hole wide enough for this thing to be carried out, we will check for any valuables here while we wait"

Mia acknowledged before taking her bat form and flying out to call for the strong and perhaps much too bored white haired vampire