The Hunt (Haretsa-B Rank exam)

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

     ”The hell is this?” the young Dragon Slayer asked as she approached the door to her room. On the door was a note from her Guild Master, Ardere, explaining that it was time for her exam to see if she was worthy enough to be considered a B rank mage. The letter also explained where she was to head in order to meet her Guild Master for the exam; exactly 2km west of the guild hall into the nearby forest to some kind of strange gate. Haretsa had no clue what this gate was or where it was going to be taking her, but the excitement of finally being recognized as a more powerful mage overwhelmed her thoughts. ”Alright, let’s not waste any freakin time then!!” Haretsa exclaimed to herself, bursting into her room to grab Scisara and head out on her way.

     Swimming through the shadows of the forest, Haretsa destroyed those 2km in no time at all. When she emerged from the shadow’s, her eyes beheld the strange gate that Ardere had mentioned in his note. This gate was clearly far beyond any technology that existed in Earthland, at least that Haretsa had seen. It’s design was incredibly elaborate, but all the young mage had her eyes focused on was the console that Ardere mentioned as well. ”Of all the times to leave my tools at home… Oh well. Once I’m done my exam, I’m comin’ back here to figure out what the hell you are!” Haretsa promised the gate, slamming her hand down on the console. A brilliant blue light engulfed the gate and without any hesitation, Haretsa stepped forward to find out where exactly this thing was going to bring her.

      When she could finally see again, Haretsa’s eyes were greeted to the most beautiful view of an untouched land that she could have possibly imagined. Haretsa may have been one who loved technology, but she always appreciated and respected the beauty and innocence of nature. Wherever she was, this green paradise of nature seemed almost too good to be true. Noticing her Guild Master standing nearby, she walked up to him as she continued to look at their surroundings in amazement. ”Ok, now I’m REALLY gonna tear that damn console apart when this whole exam thing is over… Where the hell are we, Ardvark?”

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

     Haretsa listened carefully as her Guild Master began to explain to her where they were and the details of her exam. The way he explained it made it seem as if they were on a completely different planet. Before Haretsa could question this at all, Ardere pointed over to the forest not too far off in the distance. This forest was far from ordinary however, as the trees were hundreds of meters tall and denser than any forest Haretsa had ever encountered before. Ardere continued to explain that within this Forest of Giants dwelled the beast that Haretsa was to hunt; the Terazaku Beast. The best description that the cream haired mage’s Guild Master could offer her was that the beast was slightly orange and had poisonous spikes protruding from it’s whole body. Ardere’s finally piece of advice warned that the beast was incredibly powerful and intelligent, so Haretsa should use any means necessary to make it back alive. Before she could even ask so much as a single question, Ardere entered the portal and wished her good luck; vanishing within a flash of brilliant blue light.

      ”Well then, this is gonna be… interesting, I guess.” Haretsa sighed, turning her hazel gaze back towards the Forest of Giants. This was going to be one hell of a journey and it was one that she intended on completing without failure. The Dragon Slayer set off for the forest with determination burning in her eyes. Whatever this Terazaku Beast was, it was about to get its sorry ass kicked. While it did sound terrifying and Haretsa was admittedly a little scared, she had overcome quite a few difficult challenges in the past few months that she had confidence in her ability to complete her objective. Ardere had placed his trust in Haretsa’s skills to be able to defeat this beast, so that’s exactly what she was going to do.

      However, she would soon find out that this was going to be much harder than she had initially intended. The very moment that she set foot in the forest, vines lashed out at her from above her in the shape of a large fist. ”THE HELL!?” was all she could exclaim as she barely managed to dodge out of the way of the attack. When she looked up to see where the attack had come from, all Haretsa saw was something rather large in the shape of a human with vines coming out of its freaking head descending upon her. The moment the silver… thing had landed, its vines lashed out towards the Dragon Slayer and wrapped themselves around her body; pulling her towards the creature as it prepared a fist for her face. As much as she struggled, Haretsa couldn’t break free in time as she then felt the beings punch impact her face. It was… surprisingly weak compared to most of the thing’s that the young mage had been hit by in recent memory. On top of this, the punch had triggered Haretsa’s little self defense mechanism that she called her Blazing Scales; letting off a small explosion from her face that lit the being’s hand aflame and soon it’s entire body. As the fire and pain spread, the being retracted its vines from the young girl as it flailed about in agony. This gave Haretsa a perfect opportunity to strike. She lit her right hand on fire as she pulled it back with her palm facing towards the strange creature. ”FIRE DRAGON’S RIFLE PALM!” she yelled, lunging forward and planting her flaming palm straight into the creature’s head. At the moment of impact, the flames from her palm burst through the being’s head; causing it to drop to the ground motionless as the flames proceeded to burn its entire body to ashes. ”Ok note to self… This place is incredibly freaking HOSTILE! This is gonna be more annoying than I thought…” she thought aloud, stomping out the flames to prevent a wildfire before heading deeper into the forest.

       Remaining on full alert as she navigated between the incredibly large trees, Haretsa journeyed on for about half an hour without anything lunging out to try and murder her. While it was somewhat dark due to the incredible height of the surrounding trees, Haretsa was still able to see reasonably well all things considered. Her ears remained perked up constantly at the constant sounds of wildlife ringing throughout the forest; unsure of what was hostile and what was peaceful. ”This would be a bit easier if I had any semblance of a clue what the hell I was actually trying to track… Well, something other than just a visual description anyway.” Haretsa sighed, leaning up against a nearby tree with her arms folded. As she remained with her back against the tree, Haretsa noticed that this tree felt rather… odd. For some reason, the tree felt as if it was moving, but that couldn’t be right. However, once she decided to look up, she realized that the tree was in fact beginning to stir and move. Naturally a little freaked out by this, Haretsa hauled ass away from that tree towards another that then began moving as she approached. Coming to a screeching halt, the moment Haretsa turned to run again she noticed the tree she was looking at beginning to come alive as well. ”THE FUCK IS WITH THIS FOREST!?!”

     Managing to get a good enough distance away from all three of the freaky trees, Haretsa turned to examine what the hell was going. It was then that she realized that those things were trees, but weren’t at the same time. They almost resembled people in a sense, but with the body of a tree; and boy were they freaking tall! Haretsa reasoned that these bloody thing’s were at least as tall as Ragna was on his hind legs or even taller. ”So they’re like giants… and they’re trees… so… Treants I guess would be the best thing to call them. I wonder if they’re friendly?” Haretsa pondered. Her question would soon be answered as the treants began to stomp their way towards her with rather displeased looks on their faces. ”Nope, everything in this damn forest wants to kill me! Fine then!!” Haretsa exclaimed, withdrawing her trusty gun scythe from its holster about the back of her waist and unfolded the contraption into its full weapon mode. ”Alright Scisara, TIME TO PLAY LUMBERJACK!!” she shouted as the weapon’s blade hummed to life with a brilliant orange glow. ”With pleasure, my dear.”

      The young Dragon Slayer then charged towards all three of the treants at full sprint. She took note of their incredibly slow movement as she approached the hulking beasts. ”Alright, they’re slow, but if I get hit by anything of theirs then I’m in for a world of pain…” Haretsa thought as she came within striking distance of the nearest treant’s legs. While the behemoth was taking the time to turn its head down to look at the young mage, Haretsa pulled Scisara back before slashing the weapon forward to carve through the bark of the monster’s ankle. There was a lot to tear through, but Scisara managed with ease due to being an energy weapon. With its foot and leg severed and Scisara setting both on fire, the treant began to lose its balance and toppled over backwards; letting out a loud groan of agony as it felt the flames begin to spread up its leg.

     With one treant down and being burned, Haretsa turned her attention towards the other two only to find her wrists being ensnared by vines. ”The hell!? Is it another one of those silver things?!” Haretsa wondered aloud; looking around frantically as she was swiftly lifted up into the air. Keeping her grip on Scisara as she was being hoisted up, Haretsa couldn’t see one of the thing’s that had attacked her earlier. Instead, the vines seemed to merely come from the trees themselves. What was weirder was it seemed as if the two treants knew that this would happen, as they both were preparing to punch Haretsa when she came to a sudden halt at just the right height for them. Watching as the two gigantic fists came her way, Haretsa knew that she needed to act fast. Lighting both of her hands on fire, the clever girl managed to burn away the vines just in time; dropping down to the ground below as the two massive punches collided with the tree she had been dangling from. With pieces of bark being scattered everywhere, Haretsa merged herself into the shadows as she was about to collide with the ground; dropping her safely in the Void instead.

       Not wanting to give the treants a chance to separate their fists, Haretsa quickly began to inhale and gather flames in her mouth as she reemerged from the shadows. ”FIRE DRAGON’S ROAR!” she shouted, letting loose the torrent of flames from her mouth directly upward at the meeting point of the two treant’s arms. Due to their slow speed, the treant’s were unable to pull away in time as the Roar blasted against both of their arms and set them ablaze; spreading much faster than the flames that Scisara’s cut had caused. All three of the treants were now burning away into nothing, but Haretsa was not allowed a moment to breathe. Vines once more lashed out towards the young mage, but Haretsa merely spun Scisara around rapidly as they approached; cutting the bloody annoyances to pieces. ”I guess this place really doesn’t like the fact that I’m killing its residents… Great, I’m stuck in a freaking sentient forest. What’s next, razor leaves?” Haretsa sighed, deactivating Scisara and putting her away as she watched the treants burn. This place seemed to possess a strange magical power, as once the treants had burned away, the fire just seemed to dissipate all together. As odd as this phenomena was, Haretsa at least didn’t have to worry about burning this whole place to the ground on accident.

     Journeying even further into the forest, Haretsa managed to come across a rather sizable lake as the forest began to grow even darker. It was going to be night rather soon, yet it felt like the middle of the afternoon to Haretsa. ”I guess this place just has a really weird day cycle… Great. Now I need to figure out how long the nights last… at this rate, I’m gonna end up losing track of how many days I’ve been here!” Haretsa groaned as she approached the large body of water. Ardere had given her four days to complete her task, so having to learn a new day/night cycle was going to throw her off completely. She’d worry about that later as now she had to deal with one of the basic human needs; thirst. When she knelt down, Haretsa could smell the terrible stench that the lake water was giving off and saw that it had a slight purple tint to its color. ”OF COURSE, BECAUSE WHY THE HELL WOULDN’T IT BE POISONOUS!?” she exclaimed, flailing her arms in the air as she fell backwards; staring up at the canopy above her. Haretsa knew that she could probably boil the water to get the poison out of it as it wasn’t that thick, but the problem was she didn’t exactly have a pot or anything to put the water in. ”Well, I guess I’ll just have to boil it in my hands…” she reasoned, getting back up and cupping some water in her hands before igniting them with flames.

      Fortunately for Haretsa, this method worked rather well, although she had to drink quickly once the poison had been boiled out otherwise she’d just be turning the water to complete steam. Unfortunately, Haretsa wouldn’t have much time to rest now as she heard a low, guttural growl coming from somewhere nearby. The cream haired mage quickly stood up and remained on her guard as she looked around for the source of the noise. The main problem she faced was that her surroundings were growing darker and darker by the minute, but she had a temporary answer to that problem. Quickly closing her eyes, hazel orbs turned to a burning orange when she reopened them allowing Haretsa to see the heat signatures in the surrounding area. There was only one other heat signature in the area and it was coming from a rather large, cat like creature hiding in the bushes. Whatever this thing was it was only about half the size of the treants that she had fought earlier. The beast also had several spikes adorning its body that were oddly also giving off body heat as well. ”Is this that Terazaku thingy?” Haretsa thought, unable to discern the beasts color from merely its heat signature. Shifting her eyes back to normal, Haretsa reached for Scisara and began to unfold the gun scythe just to be safe.

     The moment her scythe hummed to life, the hulking creature leapt forth from the bushes and began to charge Haretsa; letting out a loud roar in the process. From what Haretsa could make out due to the glow given off by Scisara, this beast was in fact blue and its skin looked more like hardened armor than anything else. The creature was also relatively quick for its size; forcing Haretsa to roll out of the way as it slashed at her with one of its claws. This slash managed to graze her right arm, triggering her Blazing Scales which caught the beast off guard. What Haretsa was surprised about was the wound that she was left with. Haretsa’s skin was a lot tougher than most people, which made it difficult for her to be cut in most normal fashions. However, even though it was merely a graze, Haretsa’s arm bore a decent wound from the creature’s claws. Whatever this thing was, it was incredibly dangerous compared to the things that this forest had previously thrown at her.

       The beast turned and began to charge for her again, prompting the Dragon Slayer to dodge out of the way again. This time, she swung Scisara as she leapt out of the way, striking a blow against the creature's arm. While Haretsa clearly hit the beast, there was barely even a scratch where Scisara had made impact. ”No way… Scisara can rip through any kind of metal with ease since her blade is made of freaking plasma… So why the hell can’t she leave a dent on this thing’s arm!?” Haretsa thought as the creature charged forth once more; attempting to strike Haretsa from the side this time. Thankfully, Haretsa was limber enough to quickly backflip out of the way. When she landed, she noticed something odd about the creature’s attack method. ”He sure does enjoy keeping himself low to the ground… Why though? If its body is that durable, why would it need to keep itself low like it's protecting itself? Unless…. its underbelly isn’t hard at all!!” Haretsa realized. While she may have discovered this creature’s weak point, that didn’t make hitting it any easier. Haretsa did have one way of hitting the beast from underneath, but she’d have to time it well enough for it to work.

    When the beast began to charge at Haretsa once more, the cream haired mage patiently stood there, gathering up shadow flames around her foot as the beast approached her. Once she saw its claw begin to move, she jumped to the side; receiving yet another graze yet this time to her left arm. Her Blazing Scales triggered another small explosion, mildly annoying the beast but keeping it distracted long enough for her to work her plan. The moment that Haretsa landed on the ground, she sent the magic channeled into her foot out through the shadows towards the beast and its exposed underbelly. ”EAT MY REAPING TAIL, YA ARMORED BASTARD!!” Haretsa yelled at the creature, as a flaming scythe burst forth from the shadows underneath the beast; tearing through its weaker skin with ease. As the beast began to roll around and writhe with pain as its innards began to burn, Haretsa charged forward with Scisara gripped firmly. Narrowly dodging the beasts flailing spiked tail, Haretsa pulled the trigger of the gun scythe as she began her swing along the creature’s belly. The recoil from the shot aided in the power of Haretsa’s swing as she cleaved through the beasts insides with ease.

     ”Not so tough now, are ya jackass?” Haretsa exclaimed, deactivating Scisara as she sat down next to the beast. Dismissing the flames from completely burning the creature, Haretsa ripped off lower parts of her pant legs and wrapped them around the two wounds she had received as makeshift bandages. ”Well, at least I get something to eat for later now. I hope you taste good…” Haretsa mumbled aloud, drooling at the thought of what this creatures cooked meat would taste like.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

     After a long, comfortable night’s sleep whilst floating in the safety of the Void, Haretsa’s eyes awoke to the dim lighting of dawn poking through what it could into the Forest of Giants. Once she had cooked up and eaten the entirety of that strange blue creature, Haretsa stayed up for about five or six more hours before falling asleep in the Void. She could tell she had only been sleeping for about six hours, so that answered the question of whether or not this planet had a different cycle of day and night. Deciding to forego worrying about what time it was back home, Haretsa set about taking care of her needs before setting off once more into the deadly forest to find the Terazaku Beast.

     However, the Forest of Giants decided to be rather ornery this morning, as Haretsa was quickly greeted by another of the strange silver beings. Instead of attacking, the creature simply hung from one of the nearby tree branches and stared at the young Dragon Slayer. ”Awfully cautious this morning, are we? You must have learned from what happened to the other guy I fought yesterday, huh?” Haretsa asked rather curiously. If that was the reason that this being was acting so cautiously, then that could also mean that the treants she had encountered earlier were also somehow linked together and could communicate with one another. Considering how the forest had been acting up until this point, Haretsa didn’t think that this was honestly much of a stretch. However, it seemed that she wouldn’t get a concrete answer to her question as the Silver remained silent and motionless. ”You guys don’t talk much, do ya? Then again, you are kind of made out of wood… Come to think of it, I don’t even know if you can understand a word I’m saying! Anyway, if you’re not gonna try and kill me like the rest of this forsaken forest, I’ll just be on my way then. Cya Mr. Silver Tree!” she exclaimed with a smile, waving to the Silver before continuing on her way.

    The being had little intention of letting the mage pass as it suddenly elongated its entire body as it dropped down from the tree; throwing its fist at Haretsa’s feet to trip her up. ”Well that’s new! The other bastard didn’t show all of his tricks, huh?” Haretsa asked, pushing herself up off the ground and dashing towards the Silver. She threw several different combos of her capoeira and kickboxing towards the strange alien, but it managed to dodge them all by changing the curvature of its body like some kind of possessed rubber band. ”Dammit, why are you so damn stretchy!?! I’m gonna need to move faster if I wanna hit this bastard… I guess it's time to try out that new little technique I’ve been working on!” she thought to herself as she prepared to make her next attack. Flames began to build on the back side of the Dragon Slayer’s body as she threw a right cross straight towards the Silver’s face. The flames then burst out, propelling Haretsa’s fist forward faster than her target could react, causing the punch to connect without a problem. ”Too fast for ya?!” Haretsa taunted, throwing several punches and kicks propelled by flames straight into the Silver several times before coating her entire right arm in flames to form a scythe. ”Now eat this! FIRE DRAGONS…. Uhh….what did I call this one again?... Oh yeah! INFERNO WING!!” she yelled, slashing the scythe through the Silvers body and setting the being aflame. ”That whole Afterburner thing is working a lot better than the first time I tried it when Ardvark and I trained with Kite. Awesome! Now, lets go find this stupid Terathingy and get as far away from this place as possible.” Haretsa thought aloud, walking away from the burning Silver to continue her search.

     Several hours passed and Haretsa’s search had proven fairly fruitless. She had scaled several different trees, checked different bushes, and looked inside several different hollowed out trees; all the while keeping a lookout for those stealthy treant bastards along the way. It was at this moment that Haretsa stopped to wonder just how big this forest was anyway. Her surroundings were constantly different, yet they somehow managed to look incredibly similar to the point where she wondered if she was actually going around in circles. ”I’m beginning to think traversing this place in the Void is probably a much better idea. I can cover a lot of ground much quicker and the damn forest would leave me the crap alone, but… I kinda like fighting these things. It feels like this whole forest is my test to prove myself as B class mage. I guess that’s probably what Ardvark intended for me…” she thought to herself, kneeling down against a tree to take a quick break from her search.

     After five minutes, Haretsa gathered up a few berries from a nearby bush that didn’t smell like they were going to murder her and carried on with her mission. Strangely, several more hours passed until it got to the point where the sun was beginning to set yet again and nothing had jumped out to try and kill the Dragon Slayer. This was much stranger to her than the fact that she still had not found that damned beast yet. ”What, did the forest just give up or something?” Haretsa mumbled, standing still for a brief moment before continuing her thought. ”And the minute I say that and let my guard down…. SOMETHING APPEARS BEHIND ME!!” she shouted, spinning around in a combat ready stance only to find nothing there at all. ”Huh… I guess it really DID give up!”

     The moment that those words left the girl’s mouth, the ground beneath her feet began to quake and wildlife began to scatter from the surrounding area. Accompanying this quaking were the rage fueled roars that sounded remarkably similar to the blue creature that Haretsa had killed and had for dinner the night prior. ”...I had to open my mouth… Alright then, time to get to a better vantage point!” she exclaimed as she bent her knees down before jumping up and scaling the nearest tree as quickly as she could. This would not only get her a decent distance away from those blue things, but also grant her the ability to attack out of the treant’s reach.

      When she had climbed up about forty or so meters, Haretsa pulled out Scisara from her holster and unfolded the weapon into its rifle form as she perched up on one of the larger branches of the tree. ”Let’s see if your stupid skin can stop a sniper round, shall we?” Haretsa mumbled, taking aim through the rifle’s scope as she observed the treant’s approaching. Haretsa hoped that the penetrative nature of Scisara’s bullets would be enough to break through the blue creature’s skin. If not, then she was gonna have to seriously rebuild Scisara from the ground up when she got home. Haretsa then watched as the two treant’s approached her position; confirming that were in fact two of those blue creatures as she spotted them riding on the backs of the treant’s like they were children. ”What the hell… Th-those things are a lot bigger than the one from last night… so that must mean that… SHIT, THOSE ARE IT’S PARENTS!” she cussed, taking aim at the nearest blue bastard and squeezing down on the trigger. The bullet ripped through the air and hit its mark straight in between his eyes. Unfortunately, the bullet didn’t manage to go through the beast’s skull and only caused the beast to shake its head as it remained clung to the treant’s back. ”Oh great, it’s the big dudes from the Priory all over again… DAMMIT ALL!”

    With a heavy sigh, Haretsa stood up straight and began to run along the large tree branch towards her approaching opponents. The nearest treant began to reach back as if it was preparing to throw the giant blue creature towards Haretsa. The Dragon Slayer wasn’t going to have any of that nonsense; switching Scisara over to her scythe form whilst Haretsa gathered up flaming shadows in her free hand. Jumping off of the tree branch down towards her enemies, Haretsa utilized her new little trick to blast fire out of her back and propel herself downward at an alarming rate. When she was close enough to the treant, Haretsa thrust her free hand forward and sent the shadowy flames rocketing towards the sentient tree’s fingers as it gripped around the beast on its back. She then landed on the treant’s arm and quickly scaled it as the flames made impact on the fingers. Haretsa then spun Scisara around rapidly to create a sort of vortex to fan the flames, causing them to spread quickly not only across the treant’s hand, but also to the blue beast on its back. The monstrosity released its grip from the treant’s back and plummeted back down to the ground below as the flames began to spread. ”Two down, even if one’s only temporary. Now I just gotta deal with the other two…”

    As this thought was concluded, vines from a nearby tree lashed out and wrapped themselves around Haretsa’s arms yet again. The split second the vines pulled her up, the other treant threw the blue beast off its back and flying towards Haretsa. Fortunately for the Dragon Slayer, this treant was a decent enough distance away to give her just enough time to burn away the vines and free herself. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough time to completely avoid the assault as the beast was thrown lower than her current elevation in anticipation of her escape. Haretsa was able to maneuver herself to a degree mid fall, but it wasn’t enough to keep her leg from being grazed by the creature’s claw. Haretsa grit her teeth in pain as the explosion from her skin went off; though it barely seemed to even phase this much larger creature as it had the one from last night. The Dragon Slayer fell to the ground and merged with the shadows once more as the blue beast’s massive body collided with the nearby tree.

    ”Damn, those things are stupidly sharp!! I’m gonna run out of pants if this keeps up!” Haretsa exclaimed, letting Scisara float in the Void as she tore off another sizable chunk of her pants to wrap around the wound. With her wound tended to, Haretsa remained within the shadows and observed the situation happening in the world above. One of the treant’s was burning slowly but surely to a crisp and the blue monstrosity that was on his back was rolling around frantically; bumping into several trees in an effort to put itself out. This left the other treant and beast who seemed relatively confused as to where Haretsa had disappeared to. The beast that slashed her leg leapt down from the tree and slammed down onto the ground; sniffing the area where Haretsa had merged into the shadows. It then began to dig around furiously at the ground looking for the mage. ”He can’t sense me while I’m in the Void...That certainly makes my job a hell of alot easier!” Haretsa commented, popping out from the shadows underneath the beast and slicing open its underbelly with Scisara. While the blood splashing down onto her back was rather disgusting, it was something that she’d worry about later. For now, her main concern was dealing with her remaining two opponents.

      Dashing out from underneath the now dead beast, Haretsa sprinted towards the remaining treant with flames engulfing her left hand. Pulling back her hand and extending her palm out towards the treant, she thrusted her palm forward into the treant’s foot when she neared; the sound of a rifle shot echoing throughout the surrounding woods. Haretsa then spun Scisara around rapidly in front of her once more to fan the flames up the treant’s leg. Letting her fire do what it did best, Haretsa turned herself to the remaining blue beast who had managed to put himself out from her earlier attack on the other treant. Deciding to strike first, Haretsa aimed Scisara’s barrel at the creature as it stared her down and squeezed down on the trigger, sending another bullet straight into the one she had shot the beast with before. This round drove the other deeper into the skull, but it didn’t go all the way through yet and only seemed to enrage the beast as it began to charge her position. Pulling the bolt action back trying to keep her calm, Haretsa took aim and fired once more; the bullet tearing through the creature’s right eye this time. The beast came to a halt and let out a howl of agony whilst Haretsa pulled the bolt back and took aim once more. Keeping her aim on the earlier wound as best she could while the beast flailed about, Haretsa fired once more at the creature. The bullet miraculously hit its mark and finally drove the first round into the beast’s brain; causing it to collapse to the ground and fall deathly silent. ”Ok… pretty sure that was about 95% luck…” Haretsa sighed, lowering her weapon as she looked back at the other beast she had slain. She noticed the vines from the tree beginning to lash out at her again, but they were easily dealt with by a few lazy swings from the mage’s scythe. ”Well, on the bright side… I’m gonna eat like freaking royalty tonight!!”

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

     With yet another night of delicious cooked meat behind her, Haretsa set off for another day of adventuring through what she was now calling Death Forest. Unlike yesterday, this day started off remarkably peaceful for quite some time. Freaky alien birds sang out in their strange form of song, eight eyed squirrels frollicked amongst the tree’s searching for food, and Haretsa had even managed to catch a glimpse of a three headed deer. It was remarkable to the Dragon Slayer that even such a hostile place as this still held some sense of peacefulness and familiarity to that of most forests back on Earthland. This got Haretsa thinking about something she never had before. ”Is our planet really named Earthland? That really seems kinda silly and underwhelming when compared to…. uh… what did Ardvark say this place was again? Ter...Tesseract? No it was… Tensazangetsu? No that’s too long… Teriyaki? Nah... Ah fuck it, I’m calling this planet Teriyaki.” she thought aloud, her hazel orbs dancing about in order to take in the rather spectacular scenery she hadn’t really taken time to appreciate since arriving.

     Many hours had passed since she had set off this morning and still Haretsa found nothing. There was no sign of the Teriyaki Beast, of any of the Silvers, none of the treant’s, and none of those blue creatures that tasted better than half the steaks Haretsa had ever eaten back in Fiore. This was rather strange considering how the forest had been throwing things at her rather heavily with how things ended up last night. While it was somewhat unsettling to think that the forest could throw everything it had at her at any moment, Haretsa wasn’t necessarily complaining about being given a bit of a break. As much as Haretsa enjoyed training, she knew that it needed to be paired with an appropriate amount of rest as well; so she might as well enjoy this peace for as long as it was going to last. Knowing what this forest was capable of, Haretsa assumed that it wouldn’t last too much longer. In the meantime, the young mage was rather distracted by the snack she had found. ”These berries are friggin AMAZING. I don’t even like fruits and stuff, WHY ARE THESE SO DAMN GOOD!?!” she asked, shoving the delectable little fruits into her mouth rather furiously.

     As the Dragon Slayer enjoyed her munchies, her ears perked up when she heard movement in the trees above her. When she looked up, Haretsa saw two of the strange Silver beings standing on a relatively low branch on of the nearby tree’s. ”Hey, I was wondering when you guys were gonna show up!!” she called out to them before she felt the ground begin to quake under her feet. The cream haired mage quickly spun around to see two treant’s emerging from their hiding spots being camouflaged as trees that she had passed moments ago. ”Attacking me all at once, huh? At the very least, I don’t see any of those blue bastards anywhere, so dealing with four hunks of living tree bark should be easy!” Haretsa exclaimed, entering a combat ready stance. The Silver’s were the first ones to make a move, jumping down from the branch and stretching out their body’s to throw simultaneous punches. Haretsa quickly turned around to catch their punches with her hands and taking note of the increasingly large shadow that was being formed. The two treant’s were both bringing their feet down in an attempt to squish Haretsa while she was distracted by the Silvers. Increasing her grip on the two Silver’s fists, Haretsa jumped back and let a burst of flames emit from the front of her body; propelling her backwards and dragging the Silvers stretchy bodies with her. This caused the Silver’s to be underneath the treant’s feet as they collided with the ground and trapping the beings underneath. Letting go of their hands, Haretsa withdrew and activated Scisara before she began to slash her way through the treant’s ankles in order to topple them over again. Vine’s shot out of the treant’s body as Haretsa cleaved through its ankle with her scythe. The vine’s dragged her underneath the falling treant in an attempt to squish her underneath it. ”Damn forest, WHEN ARE YOU GONNA LEARN THIS DOESN’T WORK!?” she shouted at the vines, igniting her body in order to burn them away.

    Getting the hell out of the way of the falling behemoth, Haretsa ran as fast as she could towards the remaining treant. Anticipating her movement, the treant was already moving its leg to the side in order to kick Haretsa away. Stepping to the side, Haretsa allowed Scisara’s blade to catch on the giant’s foot; squeezing down on the trigger in order to use the recoil along with her own strength to cleave through the giant hunk of wood. Once it was slashed through, Haretsa got out of the behemoth’s path as it toppled over backwards. To make sure that they would burn away quicker, Haretsa jumped up on the fallen tree’s and slammed Scisara down into the bark; dragging the scythe along its body as she ran in order to the spread the flames quicker. Once that one was dealt with, she hopped over to the other and did the same thing; though this treant seemed more intent on fighting back. The giant tree swept its arm across its body in order to hit the young mage off. Seeing this coming due to the treant’s slow speed, Haretsa jumped up into the air over its arm and slashed through its wrist on the way back down. Landing on the treant’s body once more, the Dragon Slayer continued to rip her way through its tree bark until the treant began to burn away into ashes.  

   With that encounter behind her, Haretsa put Scisara away and continued on her search. She journeyed onward for several hours until it became dusk yet again. This time she hadn’t come across a single sign of any wildlife be it hostile or otherwise. The only thing she managed to come across was another lake that reeked of an even stronger poison than the last one she had found. However, this lake was incredibly large, making the other one seem like a pond in comparison. At the center of this lake was a tree about the same height as the others, but this tree was incredibly wide; stretching out to at least fifty meters in every direction. Leading out to the tree was a bridge of sorts that seemed to be made out of the tree’s roots. This tree was interesting as it seemed to be more like someone’s home than just a tree. While she was highly intrigued, Haretsa decided that she’d check it out in the morning. ”Who knows, maybe that’s the home of Mr. Teriyaki!” she jokingly laughed as she knelt down to the water's edge. Before she could take a drink, Haretsa’s hazel eyes caught something not too far off from where she was. It was another one of those blue creatures taking a drink from the poisonous water without much of a care in the world until it turned its head over to look at the Dragon Slayer. ”Of course, because why would I be allowed to drink in peace? I can walk through the damn woods for hours without a problem, but as SOON AS I WANNA JUST DRINK, ONE OF YOU JACKWAGONS SHOWS UP!!” she exclaimed in frustration, which prompted the beast to begin charging her position.

Clenching her right hand into a tight fist, Haretsa began gathering a large amount of flames into her right hand as she pulled it back. The flames began to form a two meter wide and ten meter long drill that started to rapidly spin as the blue creature set itself to pounce. ”Alright, time for this spell’s first real field test… I hope this freaking works. FIRE DRAGON’S SABER FANG!!” Haretsa shouted, thrusting the drill forward straight into the beast’s skull as it jumped towards her. The sheer power of the spell was enough to bring the creature’s momentum to a dead halt as the drill began to bore its way into the creature. Haretsa had developed this spell with the intent of piercing through armor, so what better test subject than a creature with incredibly hardened skin? The drill soon exploded after it had dug its way into the beast’s skull; setting its brain on fire and causing it to drop dead. ”It’s supposed to keep spinning for a while longer before exploding. I guess I still need to work on that one a little bit… but hey, at least it works! Thanks for being my test subject, you….uh… thing… whatever you are.... NOW GET IN MAH BELLAY!” Haretsa exclaimed, drooling as she made preparations for her dinner.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

     Another night of comfortable sleep had passed as the sun began to poke through the tree’s on Terakazu. Haretsa’s emergence from the shadow’s was accompanied by a loud yawn and stretching. How many days had it been since she first set foot on this planet? The completely different day and night cycle of the planet had thrown off the Dragon Slayer’s sense of time for the days back home in Fiore had been completely thrown off. Haretsa couldn’t remember whether or not today was the third or fourth day, but to be on the safe side, she decided to treat day as her last day to find the Terazaku Beast or she would fail the mission that her guild master set out for her. ”I’m gonna find you and drag your ass all the way back to Fiore, Mr. Teriyaki. You can count on that!!” she exclaimed, setting off to get ready for today’s hunt.

     However, things didn’t exactly start out the way Haretsa had intended them to. A head rattling roar echoed out from the tree at the center of the lake accompanied by a girl’s scream of terror. That roar was unlike anything Haretsa had heard in this forest up until now, so it was highly likely that its origin was from the beast that she had been looking for. The only thing that the mage was questioning was why a scream had accompanied that roar. Ardere had mentioned that this planet was barely touched by humanity, so why was there another human here? Was she from one of very little settlements that might exist on this planet? These were questions reserved for later as this person was clearly in trouble. Jumping back into the shadows, Haretsa blasted her way down the bridge made of roots and towards the lake’s tree.

    Once near, Haretsa could see that there was a rather large opening in the tree and the whole thing was hollow. When she made her way inside, the first thing that her hazel orbs locked onto was a strange, roughly twelve foot tall creature that had a somewhat orangish coloration to it as well as spikes protruding out from its back, arms, and head. Ardere had mentioned that the Terazaku Beast was orange and had spikes, so this was probably the beast that he was talking about. The creature was walking over towards a girl about the same age as Haretsa who was clad in some rather light armor with hints of chainmail strewn about for better protection. This black haired girl had her sword held out at the beast and was trembling in fear as it towered over her. ”You’re an elusive jackass, Mr. Teriyaki!” Haretsa shouted as she jumped out from the shadows, causing the beast to turn its head towards her. This caused Haretsa to be relatively shocked when she fully saw the beast’s full face. ”YOU ARE ONE UGLY SON OF A BITCH!! ARE THOSE YOUR EYES OR YOU FREAKING EARS!?!” she exclaimed as the beast seemed to lose interest in the other girl and began to cautiously approach Haretsa. As Haretsa went to draw Scisara to prepare for her fight with this thing, the Terazaku leapt forth at an incredible speed with its claws primed and ready to slash. ”The hell’s with that speed?!” was all Haretsa could say as her eyes changed to a flame red before the beast was on her, slashing one of its claws horizontally across the Dragon Slayer’s abs. The wound left by this slash was rather impressive and the sheer force of the attack sent Haretsa flying back into a nearby wall. The resulting explosion coming off of Haretsa’s skin didn’t even seem to phase the creature as it merely shook its claw rapidly at the small fire.

    ”Fucking… ow…” Haretsa muttered as she fell from the wall and down to the ground. This thing was not only fast, but incredibly strong. Just as Ardere had said, Haretsa would need to use any means necessary in order to stay alive and kill this thing. Reaching over to the bracelet adorned around her hand wrap, Haretsa tapped the gem on the center of the bracelet which caused an orange glow to envelope her entire body. She then reached back and drew Scisara out from her holster; fully unfolding the weapon as the blade came to life a violent hum. ”I’ve only got a few shots left and I didn’t bring any extra rounds with me… I’ve gotta be careful around that girl too. This tree seems big enough for me to fight in without putting her in any danger though. Now let’s dance, fugly…” Haretsa thought, firmly gripping Scisara’s handle as she stepped forward. The Terazaku walked slowly as if to circle around Haretsa, patiently awaiting the girl to make a move. Haretsa began to move in the opposite direction of the Terazaku; keeping her eyes locked on the beast and awaiting its move as the two circled around each other. The beast then lunged forth, wrapping its claw around Haretsa and dragging her along the ground before switching to the wall as it ascended the massive tree. Haretsa’s armor was taking the majority of the damage thankfully, which allowed the Dragon Slayer to slash at the beast’s side with Scisara. Luckily, it’s skin wasn’t as hard as the blue creatures that she had faced before, so Scisara managed to leave the Terazaku with a nasty gash. Letting out a howl of agony, the Terazaku released its grip of Haretsa and dropped the mage back down to the ground while it clung to the wall of the tree.  

    ”How’s that feel, Teriyaki bitch?!” Haretsa taunted, quickly pointing Scisara’s barrel at the Terazaku and taking aim. Just as she was about to take the shot, the Terazaku launched the spikes from its back flying straight towards Haretsa. With very little time to react, Haretsa had to roll to the side in order to dodge this onslaught and even that wasn’t enough as one of the larger spikes managed to pierce through her armor and dig itself into her right shoulder. ”GAH!! Son of a BITCH THAT HURTS!!” Haretsa shouted, gritting her teeth as she grabbed the spike and yanked it out of her shoulder. Oddly enough, Haretsa remembered that Ardere had mentioned the spikes of the Terazaku were highly poisonous right as her vision began to become incredibly blurred and she was starting to see double of everything. ”A poison meant to disorient prey instead of outright kill them… Just… lovely…. clever bitch.” she muttered, grabbing at her head with her left hand as she looked around for the Terazaku. The creature had dropped back down to the ground and was stalking Haretsa once more as prey. She could still see the beast, but she was seeing two of them now and it was difficult to tell which one was the real one. However, Haretsa did have one idea in mind to deal with this. She began inhaling deeply, gathering flames in her mouth right as the Terazaku decided to lunge forth yet again. When the two images of the beast had a brief overlap, Haretsa opened her mouth and let loose a torrent of flames exploding straight into the Terazaku’s face; the roar of a dragon echoing loudly throughout the hollowed tree. This caused the girl from earlier to cover her ears in terror. ”J-Just who the hell is this girl?!” she wondered as Haretsa followed up her attack by driving Scisara into the Terazaku’s left arm. Holding the scythe there as the beast howled in agony, Haretsa switched the grip of Scisara’s handle to her left hand as she gathered up a one meter ball of flames around her right fist. ”BE HAPPY, YOU GET TO BE THE TEST SUBJECT FOR ONE OF MY NEW SPELL IDEAS! FIRE DRAGON’S CANNON FIST!” she shouted, judging her aim on Scisara’s position and driving her fist right in between the Terazaku’s horns on its head. The ball of flames then blasted forth, carrying the Terazaku into the nearby wall as Scisara dragged through the beast’s arm. The ball of flames then expanded and erupted into a five meter explosion that completely engulfed the Terazaku’s body. ”Dammit… that was supposed to be… a lot bigger… This double vision shit is starting to get annoying…” Haretsa mumbled, keeping her gaze locked onto the explosion.

     Once the flames had settled, the Terazaku was lying on the ground with a badly burnt body and a grievous wound on its left arm. The beast appeared to be vanquished, but was that really enough to kill this deadly creature? Haretsa wasn’t entirely convinced, so she kept her eyes on the beast as best she could. The beast then began to stand up and dash towards Haretsa once more. While it was slower due the damage it had received, the beast was fast enough to catch Haretsa off guard as the poison began to make her vision worse by the second. Grabbing the Dragon Slayer with its right arm, the Terazaku began to slam Haretsa repeatedly into the ground. Her armor continued to take the brunt of it, but Haretsa wasn’t sure how much more it could take. ”Dammit… I can’t keep fighting with this damn poison affecting me like this. It’s starting to affect my ability to move too… If this keeps up this thing is gonna kill me…” Haretsa thought as she was being slammed into the ground repeatedly. It was in this moment that her left arm let out a bright blue glow and Haretsa snapped to her senses as a familiar pain shot up her arm. ”FUCK THAT!!” she shouted, driving a punch with her left arm as hard as she could into the Terazaku’s right arm. She heard bones cracking inside of the Terazaku’s arm when her punch connected, prompting the beast to drop her to the ground as it backed away in pain and slight confusion.

     Haretsa stood to her feet as she felt her body temperature strangely sky rocket; seeming to burn away the poison as her vision slowly began to return to normal. ”I… am a DRAGON SLAYER!! ”I’m meant to kill giant lizards ten times as strong as you… so I’m sure as hell not dying to some filthy, butt ugly looking PIECE OF ALIEN SHIT LIKE YOU!! Haretsa shouted at the beast, her voice changing as her magic aura spiked to a new level. Light blue tribal tattoos spread from her left arm all the way across her shoulder blades and down her right arm as she gave the Terazaku beast a surprisingly devilish grin. "You may be the king of this jungle, but allow me to show you the power of true royal blood as I destroy you!!" the darker voice yelled from Haretsa's mouth as she blasted forth towards the Terazaku; propelling herself with flames from the backside of her body. Haretsa delivered a series of rapid left and right punches into the beast's body; each one shattering a bone when it impacted thanks to the boost in strength her body was being given from the glowing tattoos stretching forth from her birthmark. There was no style or refinement to Haretsa's assault, only the rage and fury of a berserk brawler. After her assault was complete, Haretsa gripped the Terazaku by the throat and hoisted it up in front of her. "Enjoy your stay in hell, whelp." she said, pulling back her right hand and coating it in flames; holding her palm out towards the beast. She then thrust the palm against the beasts jaw, causing the flames to travel through its head and burst out the top. Releasing her grip entirely, the Dragon Slayer watched as the Terazaku's body fell lifelessly to the ground. Haretsa then began stomping repeatedly on its neck as she laughed rather maniacally. "I hope you learned your place in the pecking order before you died, beast. It would seem this body has grown quite powerful since I last visited to say hi to Lyell. Keep growing strong, brat of mine, and you'll be ready for my full return soon enough!" she laughed in that strange voice as the tattoo's receded back into her birthmark. "Stop...fucking calling me that... At least you didn't stick around very long this time..." Haretsa grumbled, her voice returning to normal as what was left of her armor faded away.

    Turning towards the girl in the corner, Haretsa picked up Scisara and returned the weapon to its inactive state as she approached the girl. "I uh... hope you're not scared of me because of all that... Its... just something that sort of happens..." Haretsa laughed nervously as she explained the situation to the girl. "Honestly, I don't care what the hell just happened,  I'm just glad you showed up when you did! I was almost dinner for that damn thing... I'm an idiot for thinking I could take that thing down. I came here from the Mountain Village of Fiore because I wanted to show everyone a piece of game they had never seen before. I heard the stories about that monster and just thought it would make a good trophy to my name..." the girl explained as Haretsa took note of the wound on the girls leg. Ripping off another piece of her pants which were practically shorts at this point, Haretsa wrapped the cloth around the girls wound and looked at her with a reassuring smile. "You're really lucky I was here to help... but no sense in worrying about that now. Also luckily for you, my guild is practically in the Mountain Village, so I'll be able to get you home without a single problem! Now hop on and make sure you hold on tight." Haretsa explained, turning herself so that the girl could piggyback off of the Dragon Slayer. Once she felt the girls arms wrapped snugly around her neck, Haretsa walked over and grabbed hold of one of the Terazaku's horns before dragging it down into the shadows with her and blasting off for the portal back home.

     It was early dawn in Fiore on the fourth with the sun barely beginning to rise over the mountains when Haretsa walked through the portal; dragging the Terazaku's corpse behind her and with the girl still piggybacking. Ardere was standing there waiting for her as she tossed the beast's corpse in front of his feet. No doubt he was able to sense the immensely powerful aura that Haretsa's magic signature was giving off. It was an aura significantly stronger than that of a normal mage, but that was due to the origin of such power which Haretsa was keeping a secret from everyone; even her guild master. "You wanted a spike, I present to you the Teriyaki's entire dead body. I even managed to save a hunter from the Mountain Village!" she exclaimed, setting the sleeping girl down on the ground next to her. She looked down at her torn up pants and slashed through tanktop before turning her gaze back towards Ardere with her eyelids half open. "Remind me to buy new clothes when I wake up..." Haretsa laughed before falling over flat on her face and entering a well deserved nap.