As we got closer, in a distance we saw a group of adventurers fighting against two formidas. Well, retreat or holding them back should be more accurate. There were four, no, two corpses lying even further ahead .. It was hard to tell their exact number even with enhanced sight, body parts were scattered all over the place. From a severed hand still holding a staff, I was sure that at least one of them was a mage.

As for other adventurers ... there was five of them. Two were keeping the attention of one formida. As all their attacks did zero damage, keeping her attention was all they could do. One was a male cat beastkin, while another a female fox beastkin. Not far from them a wounded elf mage was struggling to free himself from a fallen tree. Those two were probably trying to buy him time.

A distance away from them, a human mage was running from another formida, his friend minotaur was chasing a bit behind them. He was trying to get her attention by yelling and hitting his shield with a sword.

Formida ignored him completely and rushed after the mage with madness. With enhanced sight, I noticed smoke rising from her body, and if burned trees not far from corpses can be an indicator, I think she had a taste of a spell similar to wildfire.

Suddenly the minotaur increased his speed twofold and caught up to formida. The moment he did so, he knocked her with a shield. Since he didn't use such speed from the start, probably activated some ability or skill.

Formida quickly got up and swept at him with her two left arms, as the minotaur was still suffering from side effect of his skill, he barely avoided it by jumping to the side, when the monster attacked with another pair of hands, he was forced to block it with his shield. From the hit, minotaur was sent flying almost six meters to the side, and only a tree stopped his flight. At the moment of impact, blood sprayed from his mouth.

I could see that his shield was now bent, and I have no doubt that his hand is broken. Just as I thought, her strength was monstrous.

Formida looked for the mage who was still fleeing and charged at him again.

"By the tits of goddess! Did you see that?!" shouted Jack while we were approaching them. "Now that's what I call overpowered. Are we really going to face those things?"

I looked at Darson and his eyes were sparkling when he saw the power of monster. I wonder what price he would offer if our deal was made now?

"Hah! You simply weren't there during the ranking test. I am sure that if Melissa was serious, only a puddle of blood would be left on that tree." said Elmor and Tia nodded in agreement.

"That's right! If only you had seen the look those girls had when she sent monster flying into a barrier. It's not everyday that a monster goes 'poop' just ten foots away from you."

I just smiled when I heard that. It was just a coincidence that those were the same girls stealing glances at my Phoenix. Just coincidence ...

When I noticed that the mage was almost done for, I summoned my gun and shot formida into one of her front legs. Even with the power of 'Silver Thunder', all the bullet managed to do is to make her trip from impact, but other than that there was no damage.

I somehow expected this, but still... I will definitely get my hands on her DNA!

The shot gave the mage some time to flee. As for minotaur, he was already standing up while leaning on the tree, I doubt that as he is now, he will be of any help.

"Please help him!!" shouted fox girl when noticed our group and pointed at the fleeing mage.

There was this unwritten rule among adventurers: you can't kill a monster another party is already hunting .. unless they ask for aid themselves. Now that they did, there shouldn't be any problem.

"I need to be closer to cast my spell." said Darson while looking at formida.

"I will get her attention. It might be dangerous if that mage leads her too far from another group." said Phoenix and then vanished.

"Try to not kill another while we are busy." I said to others and then charged forward.

Darson quickly gave commands for his slaves and rushed after me. He was .. fast! I thought that his spider legs might slow him down, but he was able to keep up with me.

Phoenix appeared seven meters above the ground between mage and formida, and just after a moment, a large boulder (five meters in diameter) materialized under his feet. As the boulder with Phoenix standing on top, landed on the ground, formida still chasing after the mage was late to react and crashed head on.

This could be used as a weapon, just imagine if this landed on top of you .. but there was a risk her skin would be damaged or even worse .. what if by some miracle it was enough to kill her? .. to lose hundred gold coins Darson has promised would be terrible!

I now know that Phoenix has a large number of various boulders in his dimension .. almost enough to build a castle. So far I have only three in my, and only two of them I found myself outside the city when we trained, the largest among them I got from Phoenix. It can't be helped, I got this magic only recently. At least I have few tons of pebbles.

"Tr Tra !!"

As the monster recovered from the collision, she angrily looked at Phoenix. After a moment she stabbed one of her legs into the stone, then another, then the third. At first, she climbed slowly, but with each step, her speed increased. When she reached the top, Phoenix vanished from her sight.

"Looking for someone?" he mocked her from behind.

He was now standing between her and us who were still rushing to them. Formida looked back and when saw him, jumped from the boulder to attack. Phoenix vanished again and appeared even closer to us.

The monster became even angrier and charged again. Phoenix vanished again at it was finally my turn. As I rushed through the location Phoenix was just a moment ago, I leaned to the side to avoid her strike and with one hand, using phantom claws, grabbed her by the waist, then while using the momentum from our charge in opposite directions, spun and tossed her into the boulder.

"All yours, Kitty. I will go help the others." said Phoenix and after a moment teleported again.

"Start your spell." I said to Darson, with my eyes still on formida.

Darson intensively stared at formida and I could feel mana fluctuations in the air. Can he use the spell even in this form? Well, I guess it would be dangerous to hunt stronger monsters if he has to do that in his real body.

Strange markings were glowing on his body and similar markings started to appear on formida as well.

"Tr Tra Trr!!"

When she saw no sight of Phoenix, the monster looked at me angrily, and then charged to attack. I dodged her attacks with a sidestep and following attacks with a lean of body, when I found an opening, I grabbed her by the waist and tossed again at the boulder.

"Done!" shouted Darson.

Ok, play time is over. Unlike my previous assumptions, I knew from books that eyes of formida weren't a weakness and are some kind of crystals with almost the same hardness as the rest of her body. It was time to put my special set of movements to the test.

After dodging another attack of formida I hit her few times to chest with my palms, jumped to the side and added few more to her side. While avoiding her following attacks, I placed my palm on her body to feel the echo of my previous hits.

"Hey! Stop playing around. My spell has a limited time! I can cast it only once more." I heard Darson getting nervous.

I guess because I didn't use my phantom claws, it looked as if I was going easy on her. But for the technique I am about to use, they would be useless. Hmm, her body absorbs a lot of force .. will need way more hits than I thought.

I withdrew my hand from her body, activated thought acceleration, so I don't miss the timing, and started hit her with my palms from all sides.

"Trr Tra Tr!"

As I managed to easily dodge her every hit, formida was getting restless. Her power is impressive and all, but it's useless if you can't hit the target. I danced around her like a wind and one attack after another continuously rained on her body. With one final hit to the chest, I stopped my movements and waited for the effect to kick in.

Her body froze, and yellow blood started dripping from her mouth, after standing still for a little longer she fell to the ground dead. As other members of our party were still 'fighting' another formida, we couldn't receive any experience from the kill yet.

Unknown Martial Arts reached level 8. Unknown Martial Arts reached level 9.

What I just used was a special technique, it was part of my martial arts. With precise strikes, It creates resonating waves inside the body and once all of them meet, it creates a burst of force tearing organs apart. It was intended against targets with armor, but I rarely had a chance to use it in my old world.

The downside of this technique is that you have to know the composition of armor well, timing and attack pattern change a lot depending on what you deal with. But it's nothing a few testing hits can't reveal. While I didn't bother to use this technique against targets with bulletproof vests (they don't cover the whole body, so there was no point), there was a time when I had to fight against a fatty weighing almost three hundred kilos. I have to say it's a bit easier to create resonating waves when armor is 'solid'.

"That .. was impressive." said Darson with wide eyes, for a moment markings on his body started to glow even brighter and then slowly faded away. "If only I had met you sooner. Instead of wasting gold with those fools, I would probably have this summon ready by now... Let's go, we have one more left!"

*

With powerful swings, Elmor sent formida flying three meters back and when she landed with wrong angle on her legs, she rolled a bit on the ground.

"I can't believe it! Just one day .. just one day and you already did it!" shouted Jack while looking at weapons in the hands of minotaur.

One of his swords was broken in half and calling another 'dull' would be an understatement. Yep, you can't expect weapons to fare well if a minotaur on steroids smash them without holding back. Especially when his target is formida. While sending her flying might look impressive, It didn't even hurt her.

"Oh. They are here!" shouted Tia when noticed us returning with the mage we saved and wounded minotaur.

"Didn't I tell you? There is no way a formida can be her opponent. My Kitty is so much stronger now." said Phoenix with a proud smile.