Kuahel watched Maxi carefully descend before continuing.
He couldn't help but admire his agility.
While she slowly turned into a snowman after several falls in the snow, the paladin kept herself surprisingly well-groomed.
They advanced with the descent until they came across an imposing rock wall blocking the path.
“Could you use your tracking spell here?” Kuahel said, turning to her.
Panting, Maxi nodded slowly.
She touched the ground and infused her mana into it to get a rough idea of where they were.
“I think we’re… on the opposite side of the mountain that we were investigating yesterday.”
“Can you locate the others?”
She considered, then shook her head.
"I would have to...
weave a very tight net.
Such a vast area would require an immense amount of mana."
“Then we can only hope they can find us,” Kuahel muttered with a sigh before heading along the rock wall.
Maxi followed him in silence, a little wounded in her pride.
Ruth was with the others; he would certainly be able to locate them without much difficulty.
After all, wind-based search magic was much more efficient at locating specific targets.
As she trudged through the snow, she prayed with all her heart that Ruth would find them as soon as possible.
It was then that Kuahel drew his sword.
"Monster ahead.
Be prepared to cast a barrier."
Maxi kept his eyes on the sharp stone along the path as he quickly gathered his mana.
He was conjuring a barrier when a head appeared from behind the top of the stone.
She froze.
Over the years, he had seen his share of scary things.
Nothing compared to the horrifying sight before her.
She stared at the spectral ogre in horror.
Dark red blood dripped from the monster's face.
Pressed between its thick lips was a dismembered green arm, and the limp corpse of a goblin dangled from its short hand.
The ogre sucked the arm into its mouth, swallowing it whole.
When Maxi grimaced and took a step back, the action seemed to provoke the giant creature.
Until now, she just stared at them distractedly.
He tossed the corpse into his hand and approached her.
In almost the same breath, Kuahel threw his hook and chain, which wrapped themselves around the ogre's arm.
With a single pull, the nearly forty-pound giant of the mountain turned over powerlessly.
A blue flash pierced the air, severing the monster's arm.
Maxi screamed as blood splashed around them.
The ogre grabbed the open wound in his side and let out a terrible roar.
Kuahel repositioned his dripping sword and muttered irritably, “Should have gone for the head first.”
There wasn't a hint of panic in his voice.
He took his chain from his severed arm and threw it at the charging creature.
The steel chain wrapped around the ogre's leg and sent him back.
Maxi could only watch with his mouth open.
It was hard to believe that this man was handling a monster the size of a house as if it were a child.
As Maxi stood stunned, something caught her gaze.
She stretched and looked into the distance.
A goblin was watching Kuahel and the ogre from a crevice in the rock wall.
She immediately understood the situation.
Some of the goblins managed to survive the ogre's attack.
The goblin shrank further into the crevice, and Maxi hurriedly chased after him.
If they let this creature escape, it would alert the monsters to their investigation.
The goblin made a strange sound as a wall of earth rose to block its path.
His bright eyes looked around until they landed on her.
A second later, he moved forward.
Maxi conjured a fist-sized fireball at the goblin's head, causing him to scream and throw his ax aside to hit his face.
Seizing the opportunity, she grabbed the dagger at her waist and approached the goblin from behind.
She thrust the weapon between the monster's neck and collarbone, feeling the blade cut into the tough flesh.
Grimacing, she pushed the dagger to the hilt and turned sharply as Ursuline had taught her.
Hot blood splashed onto his face.
She screamed, covering her face with her hands.
“My lady!” shouted a familiar voice.
Maxi turned his head to the speaker, wiping the blood from his eyes.
Elliot was standing at the top of the cliff.
He jumped down and ran towards her.
"My God!
Are you hurt, my lady?"“N-No, I’m not hurt,” she reassured him with tears in her eyes.
“That’s… goblin blood.”
Elliot swept his eyes over his bloodstained face and clothes before spotting the goblin lying on the ground.
His eyes widened.
“Did you kill him, my lady?”
Hearing his disbelief, Maxi said proudly, "I-I did.
Sir Ursuline taught me how to use a dagger."
His arrogance was brief.
The smell of blood assaulted her nose as she spoke, bringing a wave of nausea with it.
She muttered with a touch of resentment, “But… he didn’t warn me that there would be so much blood.”
“What else did you expect from puncturing a carotid artery?”, Kuahel commented, approaching her.
Maxi looked at the man with a displeased expression.
“I-If you were watching, didn’t it occur to you to help?”
“You didn’t look like you needed help,” the Temple Knight replied flatly.
He reached out his hand, engulfing the goblin's corpse in flames in a matter of seconds.
With that out of the way, he turned his head to look at the still dazed Elliot.
“You found us much faster than I expected.”
“We ran here after hearing the ogre scream,” Elliot replied, regaining his composure.
“The noise could attract other monsters nearby.”
Kuahel frowned and looked back.
Maxi followed his gaze and saw the ogre's decapitated body through the crack opening.
It wasn't the only corpse.
Five or six goblins lay scattered in blood-soaked pools of snow.
“It will be difficult to cover our tracks,” said Kuahel, sighing.
Maxi looked up at him, eyes full of apprehension.
“S-So, what should we do?”
“We should make it look like they were killed by another gigantic monster,” said a voice.
Ruth and one of the Temple Knights were on the cliff that Elliot had climbed down.
From the sorcerer's exhausted appearance, it was evident that he had suffered just as much as Maxi.
He came down and said before she could even ask how he was, "We found a hibernating worm on the way here.
If we wake it up and lure it here, it should erase our tracks."
“I can’t say I approve,” Kuahel said with a frown, clearly unhappy with the idea of them providing food for a monster.
“We don't exactly have the luxury of choice,” Ruth said with a grumble.
“You should be grateful that we found a worm in an area that has almost no big monsters.”
Kuahel's eyebrow rose at Ruth's insolence, but in the end he nodded resignedly.
“Let’s do it then.”
He looked back the way they had come.
"We may have made too much noise.
We must hurry, or we will have monsters on our tail."
They left immediately.
Even though Maxi felt exhausted to the bone, she didn't ask to rest.
She mustered all the energy she could to keep up with the knights.
The monsters of the Ayin race were intelligent, and it was a real possibility that they would sense something wrong and chase them.
“We can't continue with the investigation,” Elliot said once they were a safe distance from the scene of the monster attack.
“We need to stop and return to the agreed meeting place.”
This time, not even Kuahel objected.
Opening a map, he marked something meticulously and nodded.
“I would like to explore the north too… but that will be difficult.”
Intense relief washed over Maxi.
She feared that the ruthless clergyman would pressure them to continue.
The group found a cave to take shelter for the night and soon set out again the next day.
They were heading to the cave where they had hidden the cart and horses.
Maxi's fatigue had accumulated over days of arduous hiking in the mountains, in extreme conditions, with minimal sustenance.
However, the prospect of reuniting with Riftan made her move with renewed vigor.
After traveling for more than a day, the group arrived at the meeting point half a day in advance.
"Max!
You made it back!", Nevin rushed to greet them as they entered the cave, a bright smile lighting up his round face.
Maxi dropped her bag on the floor and sat down next to her.
“I was on the verge of madness waiting for you guys to come back,” Nevin said, helping her get up and sit by the fire.
"I realized I'd made a mistake“waiting here with these shadowy men in silence was much more harrowing.
Honestly, I found myself talking to the horses!"Without the energy to respond, Maxi just shook his head.
His teeth were chattering from the cold, and his limbs were as rigid as iron.
She must have cut a sorry figure as Nevin clicked his tongue and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
After a few minutes, she found the strength to speak.
“D-Are the others back?”
Nevin was near the entrance at that point.
His eyes widened at her question.
“They didn’t come back with you?”
“We decided to separate,” Kuahel replied, looking thoughtfully at the cave entrance.
“We agreed to meet here in five days, but it looks like they haven’t returned yet.”
A strange feeling of apprehension settled over Maxi.
Did something happen to them?