After the adventurer skinned the wolf and took anything valuables, we moved away from the spot and started walking again. While I was looking at my surrounding, a voice called me from behind.

“Hey, fox kid.”

A human walked to the same pace as me, I tilted my head up and found it was the bald guy before. I raised one of my eyebrows, wandering what he wanted from me. Because of the height difference, he had to look down when he was talking to me. He scratched his head awkwardly, as if not accustomed of what he was about to do next.

“err, it’s about before. I’m sorry, for underestimating you." He stuttered a bit as he apologized to me.

I raised one of my eyebrows, I was surprised by his apology, I never would have thought that he would apologized to me, it just didn’t suited him at all. I looked behind me and found the group of adventure was waving awkwardly at me. They had a wry smile plastered on their face. I stared at them for a bit and turned my face back to the bald guy beside me.

"It was fine, it was a normal reaction after all, if a kid told me that he was going to the monster infested forest, I would had stopped him too." I shrugged my shoulder and accepted his apology. The bald guy widened his eyes and hit my shoulder while he laughed out loud.

"Ha ha hahaha! What's this? You talk like you aren't a kid yourself!" He grinned and patted my head roughly which somehow annoyed me.

"My name is Brey, a swordsman and a D rank adventurer, nice to meet you kid! And these guys behind me are my comrades." He introduced himself while patting the broadsword hanging at his waist, then he pointed to the people walking behind us.

"Oh oh, it's my turn to introduce myself! My name is Tina! My rank is the same as Brey, and close combat is my specialty!" An energetic woman suddenly waved both of her hand and introduced herself, she had a short red hair and wore short pants with a sturdy looking vest. Steel bracer tied to her knees and elbow. She smiled and stopped walking, she punched the air with her heavy looking gauntlet, an invisible force pushed out from her punch and hit a nearby trees, leaving a deep circular dent in it.

"Woaa, calm down Ti. I know you want to brag your new weapon and all that, but don't waste your Mana in something like this." A tall but skinny looking man scoffed at Tina, his eyelid narrowed and his golden-brown pupil stared at her. He wore a long grey robe which enveloped all of his body, only leaving his head and feet on sight. Tina blushed and glared at him dissatisfied.

"Shut up, stop nagging me. That's why you never had any lover. I bet they are all fed up with your rotten personality and ran away, Gil." Tina responded him with an annoyed tone. Her face is beet red, whether by embarrassment or her fury. In contrast with her taunting words, Gil only smirked and looked at her calmly.

“Oh? How did you know that I didn’t had any lover before? I didn’t know that you would pay attention to my love life so closely. Yo-- gfhuu!” Gil didn’t able to evade in time and his side rib received the full brunt of a gauntlet cladded punch. A strange glass cracking sound picked up by my ears.

His body bend to the left and a groan left his mouth. He moved a few inches from his position and managed to stand despite the force he received from Tina. He glared at her with his hand clutched at his side. Tina had a smug face formed at her still red face.

“Are you out of your mind? If I didn’t put up a barrier on time, my rib would be broken to pieces!” Gil shouted to Tina angrily.

“Hmph, you did come out unscathed didn’t you? Stop complaining like a kid.” Tina scoffed at him and walked away before Gil managed to open his mouth to retort at her. She walked past the other who was gawking at the commotion. I looked at Brey, he only facepalmed at his party antics.

"You guys..., never mind." Brey shook his head helplessly and walked away, deeper into the forest.

Gil had a flabbergasted expression plastered on his face. He sighed as if giving up, an elf walked beside him and put his hand on his shoulder. He had a wry smile and his yellow eyes is full of pity.

“Just let it go buddy, you know her short temper. And we need to move now before it gets dark.” The elf patted his shoulder a few times and offered a few consoling words before walked past him. He stopped walking when he was in front of me.

“Heya, my name is Elva, and as you can see, I’m an elf-“ He pointed at his long ears. “-and i would like to say that you are really amazing there, I had never saw a child with a battle composure like you. And you are quite exceptional in controlling Mana at your age, make one wonder if you really are a kid, ha ha ha.” He was smiling and laughing while praising me, but I could see that underneath his friendly eyes was laced with suspicion.

The elf really is a distrustful bunch huh?

“Well, it was because of those exceptional people around me. Cirdan taught me a lot about magic, and Tulgan taught me battle techniques.” I shrugged my shoulder and explained to him. I can feel that he wasn’t satisfied with my short answer and opened his mouth to ask more, but interrupted by a voice.

“Wa ha ha ha ha! Anyone able to endure Tulgan training should at least able to do this much!” A hoarse and heavy voice entered my ears and a dwarf entered my line of sight.

The dwarf wore a steel helmet and armor around his body, his heavy leather boots stomped the dirt and his axe clanking behind him with each step. He had the same height as me. Our eyes meet and he grinned at me.

“My name is Gordg! When Tulgan said there will be one more person to join us, I would never though it was a child! Imagined how shocked I am. You did well to impress us kid!” His voice was loud and noisy, his grey beard swayed as he laughed out loud. Elva frowned, and looked annoyed by the dwarf beside him. He opened his mouth again but was interrupted for the second time.

"Uh..., I, I think we should get going, we are falling behind them now..." A short young man spoke to us softly, his body was thin and small. He wore a white robe with blue lining and his almond shaped eyes gazed at us. His body was rigid and both his hand clasped in front of him. His body posture screamed with nervousness.

"Haa.., you are right, Vil, let's get going." Elva sighed and walked away, following the other. Gordg patted my shoulder a few times before followed just behind Elva, leaving me and Vil alone. I stared at him for a few seconds and I could feel that he was uncomfortable with my gaze.

"Err.., your name is Hiiro, right? Uhm, My name is Villaren, I think we need to go too.." Vil smiled and nodded awkwardly at me, then quickly walked away in hurry, as if afraid of me. I too, didn’t felt the need to dawdle in here any longer and moved on.

After twenty minutes of walking or so, we arrived at our destination, a small circular clearing with a small cave in front of us. Two of the adventurer went inside the cave to investigate while the rest of us surrounded and watched the place. Somehow this place felt familiar, I turned my head left and right, observing this place, when my eyes rested on a red patch of grass near the cave, my memory jolted, I remembered. This is the place where I was kidnapped on the first day I lost into this world.

This expedition started because a treasure hunter reported to the guild a week ago. Apparently, the person ran back to the town and immediately went to the guild with his body painted red with dried blood. He was in a state of shock, the lone treasure hunter cried and sobbed about how it was eating his partner and blabbered incoherently about a man-eating monster to the guild staffs. The staff took quite considerable of time to calm him down and found out about this monster in fact is a rank C monster, a Lesser Nightmare.

The guild immediately posted a request of monster extermination on the bulletin board, which accepted by Brey party's. And when Tulgan heard about it, he thought it’s a good idea for me to engage in a real battle with monster instead of practicing in a mock battle with him, leading to this situation now.

To think the supposed treasure hunter would be that two-bandit looking kidnapper..., they sure didn't look like it.

While I was mulling around, a hand tapped me in the shoulder, I turned my body and found out it was Tina. Her eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"Hey, what are you looking at? You had been staring at the ground for a long time." She questioned me and looked down to see the object I had been staring. She raised one of her eyebrows and crouched down to look at the red patch of grass more closely.

"Is... that blood?" Her tone sounds a little surprised. She moved her arm and touched the dried blood.

"Yeah, the blood is dried, I think it's already been here for at least for a week. Maybe it’s the blood of the Nightmare victim." I lied with a deadpan face. I already know that this was the blood from the severed limb.

The monster I saw before must be the Nightmare, then it should be still in this vicinity...

BOOOOMMMM

A loud sound echoed and all of us turned our head in sync. Two people ran outside from the cave, it was Gil and Tulgan. They glared at the cave intensely and we all ready ourselves at the incoming enemy. Slowly, the monster revealed itself. It crawled slowly with its black centipede like legs, its body was pulsating and squirming like a worm, the monster had no eyes or any facial feature, only big gaping mouth with sharp teeth protruding, even at the inside of its jaw, layering into rows of shark like teeth. The monster was two meters in height, maybe more, its skin gleamed with black sheen and looked strangely impenetrable.

“SCRREEEEEEEECCHHHHHH!”

It screeched with a high pitch scream, it was like an infant cry combined with a squealing pig, in short, it was horrible, especially on my ears. I winced and squinted my eyes from pain. I glared at the monstrosity in front of me. The monster, Nightmare, had finally appeared upon us, and immediately attacked us with speed unbefitting with its huge body. It sprang into Elva’s direction with its sudden burst of speed.

"Tch!" The elf clicked its tongue and evaded the monster attack by jumping impossibly high, straight in front of him.

He was just above of the monster, with his nimble hands, he immediately fired an arrow with his bow straight to the monster body, the arrow glowed with greenish light. With eerily precision, the arrow lodged deep in between the monster body. The Nightmare howled, and turned his body to intercept the landing Elva.

But before the monster managed to attack the defenseless elf, a sudden heavy blow pushed the monster body to the right, it was Tina, the monster diverted its attention to the elf and didn't noticed her. The Nightmare was pushed one meter away, Tina didn't continue her attack and fall back to us, Elva too, using this chance to ran back to group with us.

The monster recovered from Tina attack and stood up, its gaping mouth faced us, it screeched again, and black spikes suddenly protruded from all of its body, making the previous grotesque body even more horrible. Then with burst of speed, the monster sprang upon us. When the Nightmare was two meters far between us, a bluish colored barrier form into existence, its was three meters in wide and height. I could see Gil mouth moving nonstop, chanting the magic spells. As if the monster can sense it, the Nightmare changed its trajectory and ran around the barrier.

But it was a mistake.

When the Nightmare stepped into an inconspicuous patch of land, a magic circle appeared, the ground suddenly shook and earth spikes protruded from the ground, intending to pierce through its target. The monster barely managed to evade it, raising its head and body up, but this action exposed its underbelly which was free from its black spikes.

Using this chance, the combatant moved in sync, Brey ran past the barrier and toward the monster. As he ran, his blade flashed and slashed the defenseless belly, but he didn't stop, continue running past the monster. Tina immediately continued the attack, her fist punched at the wound which Brey had inflicted, black blood gushed out from the wound. The monster screeched and its scorpion tail moved, intending to hit Tina.

I jumped in the air, my blade shone with red glow and using the momentum, I gripped the knife hilt tightly and slashed down, the blade slashed deep into its flesh and bone, and the tail completely severed from its main body. When the deed was done, I immediately put some distance between myself and the monster. The Nightmare was howling in pain.

“Move out!!” A shout called out from behind and Tina immediately fell back to behind the barrier.

Behind the barrier stood Elva, his bowstring was pulled to the limit, I could feel Mana was rampaging around the arrow, a strong wind spell was casted on it. His eyes were focused on the monster, then he let go the arrow, brimming with Mana.

SWIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH

With a hissing sound, the arrow traveled with a speed comparable to a bullet. It pierced through the monster’s wound and punched through its flesh. The arrow momentum didn’t stop and continue to travel until it was out from the monster’s body, leaving a small gaping hole in its belly. The monster spits out black blood, the Nightmare was nearing its limit.

It fell down back to the ground, squirming in pain. All of the combatants started to attack the heavily injured monster fervently. Villarean and Gil are the only ones stayed behind the barrier. Vil chanted his healing spell when the combatants were injured by the spike. Tulgan fist punched through the steel like spike and crushed its flesh, I slashed at the monster centipede legs, to prevent the Nightmare to flee, now its fate was sealed.

Bordg raised his heavy axe, intending to dealt the last kill at its head. When the axe was just an inch before the monster. A black blur flashed through and went to Bordg. It was sudden, and nobody anticipates it. Bordg could only watched the black blur with widened eyes.

It's a second Nightmare monster.

"Wha-"

His surprised voice was cut short, and his defenseless body immediately hauled up by the new monster. All of us was shocked by the new monster, before we could save him, a scream attracted our attention. I turned my head toward the scream, and found the situation is getting worsened as time goes. A bloodied Villaren, one of his arm are gone and he was bleeding profusely. Gil was struggling to keep the third Nightmare on bay. His face was pale and panting, the monster across of him had a deep gash on its head.

Shit!!

I immediately ran toward the mage and the healer duo, since my position is the nearest, I thought it was the right thing to do. The third Nightmare gaping mouth sprang upon the them, intending to swallow them whole. I jumped, and my feet landed at its head in the nick of time. I kicked it using all of my strength, and the heavy blow turned the monster injured head to the side, landed to the ground while screeching in pain. I jumped backward and positioned myself in front of Gil and the wounded Vil.

"Can you still stand?!" I shouted at both of them. Gil looked surprised by my entrance, he nodded his head to answer my question. He glared at the monster in front of us.

"Shit, we were taken by surprises, the Nightmare was supposed to be a lone monster, DAMN IT!!" Gil treated his comrade wound with a basic healing spell, not enough to heal it completely, but at least enough to stop the bleeding.

Vil lost his conscious, probably because of the pain of losing an arm. Gil stood beside him, protecting him from any incoming danger. I faced the monster struggling to get up in front of us and I could hear battle was ensuing behind me, so that's mean Brey and the other won’t be able to help us here, at least for a while.

"Ha.., isn't this pretty?" I sighed and scoffed at the situation I found myself in it. I raised my head and glared at the monster, which is ready to attack me in any moment.

"I can cast at least three more spells before I'm completely out, the last spell I casted used too much of my Mana" Gil informed me his Mana pool and I frowned. I stared at the deep wound at the monster head, its black blood keep pouring down from the wound. it seemed that Gil had managed to hit it with a spell when the Nightmare attacked them, which somehow used a lot of his Mana.

The Monster screeched, and decided to attack, I readied my knife in front of me, ready to intercept the monster in front of me.

My battle with the Nightmare have started.