Chapter 115: Tapping into the Affinity

Inside a simple furnished room...

A man was looking through the shelves filled with various ingredients.

"1, 2, 3, 4..."

He pointed his hand at the shelves one by one as he softly counted.

Creak—

At this moment, the door opened as Old Warod entered the room.

Surprised, the man looked back and called out with a worried expression, "Father! Why did you come here? You know you’re already having a hard time breathing in enclosed spaces..."

"I’m fine, Harold. Don’t worry about me." Old Warod lightly waved his hand, rejecting his son’s attempt at supporting him.

Nevertheless, Harold still didn’t leave his side, afraid that his father might need support at any moment.

"Still, you didn’t need to come here. I told you that I can handle the inventory, right? Do you perhaps need something, Father?"

Seeing his son asking his son worrying about him, a guilty expression appeared on Old Warod’s face, "I just wanted to say sorry."

"Why, Father? You don’t need to feel sorry because of anything..."

"I know that I’ve been hard on you all these years. I just wanted to say that I’m glad to have a son like you."

"I’m glad, Father. But what brought this all of a sudden? This isn’t like you..."

"Harold, I shouldn’t have forced you to do the things that you liked. If it wasn’t for me, then you wouldn’t have to go through all that."

Old Warod spoke with a trembling voice as he looked at his son.

He was once one of the respected hunters of the village, whose predecessors had also been hunters.

It was one of the main reasons why their family was able to keep the mayoral position in the village for generations.

Therefore, it was natural for him to want his son to be a hunter as well.

However, Harold wasn’t interested in being a hunter at the very least. He was instead interested in becoming a bard.

Recording the stories of his travels and telling it to people.

That was what he wanted.

As a close minded traditional man, Warod was against it.

Instead, he forced his son to become a hunter like himself. After all, he only had one child and his wife had long died.

Thus, he was stuck on the idea of getting Harold to inherit his position and thereby continue the tradition of their family.

’It was because of me that he decided to accompany those hunters despite having little training...’

’...if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have encountered that monster...’

Although his son had survived, it was not without consequences.

Old Warod couldn’t forget the bloody figure of his son when he saw him return alone from the forest.

Harold’s body was filled with injuries from head to toe.

It was a miracle that he didn’t lose his limbs.

Old Warod looked at his son with worry and asked, "Does it still hurt?"

"Wha- Oh. Father, you don’t have to worry about that." Knowing what he meant, Harold smiled.

Old Warod pursed his lips before hugging his son and saying, "Don’t worry, I won’t force you to do anything again. I’ll support you in your dreams, so please be safe, okay?"

"Thank you, Father." Harold hugged his father back with a smile.

However, if one looked closer, they could see that a shade of crimson was gradually spreading in his pupils.

***

Deep within the Ikalo Jungle...

Regis and Killian still continued on with their assault without a break.

It had already been close to an hour since they started fighting the chimera-like monster.

However, they had grim expressions on their faces as they were currently at a deadend.

The monster’s regeneration seemed to have no end as it continuously recovered from their attacks.

’Crap! I don’t have any strong aura arts...’

Regis bit his lips as he racked his brain while slashing the monster’s back with his sword.

At the present, he didn’t have any offensive aura arts that were strong enough to deal serious damage to the monster.

Normally, the passive enhancement brought upon by aura and his swordsmanship skills would be enough to deal with any enemies.

Even if they weren’t, he still had his Bull Charge aura art and Weakpoint Creation gift.

However, both of them proved ineffective against the monster.

His Bull Charge didn’t provide enough speed to deal significant damage.

Meanwhile, his Weakpoint Creation, despite enhancing the attack three times and enabling it to bypass all defense, also was not enough to seriously injure the monster.

’We need to either deal enough damage to take it down in one go or our attacks need to surpass its rate of recovery...’

Numerous thoughts appeared inside Regis’s mind as he clicked his tongue, ’If I can only access that power I used against the count.’

Vaguely remembering the burst of foreign aura that circulated in his body, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

He had also tried asking Killian last night, but he told him that it was normal as his aura still needed to be further stimulated.

’Tsk, there’s no point in relying on something unpredictable.’

Regis soon shook his head as he continued striking the red dots that were appearing on the monster’s back.

Still, he was aware that he couldn’t continue it for long.

After all, activating a gift was not without consequences.

Even though Regis didn’t know what exactly the activation of his gift consumes, he already felt deeply exhausted mentally.

Therefore, knowing that his time was limited, he struck harder.

Glancing at Killian, who looked like he was also starting to get tired, he asked, "How are you holding up!?"

"I’m fine! I can do this for another hour... I think." Killian had an unsure smile on his face as he answered.

His figure that was covered with yellow lightning bounced around the area, dodging the monster’s attacks while also dealing slashes to it.

Killian was also aware that if the situation went on as it currently did, it would be fatal for all of them.

At this moment, a trail of mist suddenly shrouded both Regis and Killian’s heads.

[I’ll provide you with an opening. Make sure to seize it so we can end this once and for all.]

Hearing Pandora’s voice in their minds, they were both taken aback.

However, they still continued with what they were doing, not even sparing her as much as a glance.

This was in order to help Pandora in avoiding the monster’s attention.

Their onslaught continued for about ten more minutes which was only possible due to Regis and Killian’s excellent teamwork.

The monster’s human head, which was partially covered by its long black hair, looked like it was gritting its teeth angrily.

GRRRRRR—!!!!!!

As it adjusted to the two fly’s strategy, it decided to focus on the yellow fly first and ignored the white haired fly that took advantage of its open back.

Seeing this change, sweat trickled down Regis and Killian’s temple as anxiety enveloped their hearts.

After all, it was the first time that the monster seemed to have made a conscious decision.

It was also at this moment that Regis noticed the monster pawing the ground with its hooves as if...

Brrrr— Brrrr—

...it was a bull preparing to charge forward.

’Wait... when it was a hundred meters away from us earlier, it was able to close the distance instantly before we even had the time to react.’

Along with this thought, an overwhelming feeling of alarm engulfed his heart.

"Careful!!!" Regis immediately shouted.

Woosh—

Killian, who was currently in mid air, heard it and glanced at Regis, ’What does he mea–’

"Huh?"

However, the large black gorilla hand of the monster was already in front of his face.

In a span of a second, countless thoughts stormed in his mind, ’Wait, why did it suddenly become fast?’

Since the fight, the monster hadn’t demonstrated any outstanding speed.

It only showed its strength, defense, and rapid recovery.

’Could it be that... it was waiting to catch us off guard!?’ Killian couldn’t help but become nervous as it saw the large gorilla hand that was only centimeters away from his face.

’Shit! Shit! Shit! Am I a goner!?’

Grrrr?

The monster let out a confused growl as its attention was attracted to the ball of fire that had unknowingly appeared beside its face.

Pandora had made her move.

BOOM—!!!!

The fireball that seemed about five meters in radius exploded.

The shockwave was enough to affect the monster’s body which was still in mid air, causing its hand to only graze Killian.

THUD!!!

However, even that was enough to send his body flying. Killian’s body then disappeared as he flew into dense vegetation.

ROARRRRR!!!

The monster let out an enraged roar as it crashed onto the ground.

Regis didn’t let it recover its footing as strings made of mana instantly appeared all over its body and restricted its movement.

The monster thrashed wildly, causing some of the strings to instantly break.

"I won’t let you go anywhere!" Regis shouted as he landed on the monster’s shoulder.

However, the monster suddenly broke all the mana strings and stood up before he could stab it in the eyes.

"No!!!"

Regis shouted as he saw the monster already charging towards Pandora.

The pressure brought upon by the situation surged inside his mind as he instantly utilized all his aura.

At this moment, along with the enhancement brought upon by aura, a white glow also covered his body.

WUNG— BOOM!!!

A sonic boom then sounded...

...as his body shot towards the monster at a speed far faster than sound.