Chapter 64: Pyrtherapontes.

Karl looked toward the distant Sanctuary for another moment before turning away from the cliff.

"There’s no point wasting time."

He glanced at the objective still floating in front of him.

"We find whatever this Reaper’s Order is, finish the dungeon as quickly as possible and get out."

There was another reason Karl wanted to move quickly.

The Sun Knight’s evolution was still stuck at seventy percent, and every further increase required a ridiculous amount of Death Energy.

An Insane-grade wild dungeon should at least have stronger monsters than the repeatedly cleared dungeons around Ardent City.

With enough luck, he could finish the evolution here.

Leon walked to the edge and looked down the cliff.

"Tch, going around is going to take forever."

None of them suggested jumping.

They were strong for Level 99 professionals, not suicidal enough to throw themselves several hundred metres down a mountain and hope their Constitution handled the rest.

The three began making their way down the slope instead.

By the time they reached the lower ground, the distant Sanctuary had disappeared behind the thick forest covering the valley.

Karl looked ahead.

"Let’s keep moving."

As they entered the forest, for the first few minutes nothing happened.

The silence was strange for an Insane-grade dungeon, but none of them relaxed because of it. They continued forward cautiously until Karl suddenly slowed.

They had sensed something moving ahead, another faint rustle came from between the trees.

Then a different sound followed.

Crunch.

Wet tearing.

Gnashing.

It looked like something was eating..

The trio moved closer, keeping themselves behind the vegetation until a humanoid figure finally came into view.

It was crouched over something on the ground with its back toward them.

Both hands were buried deep inside the prey’s stomach, pulling out pieces of flesh before stuffing them into its mouth.

The creature shifted slightly and Karl’s eyes widened seeing it.

He immediately pushed Leon lower before they exposed themselves and activated Perception.

[Pyroar]

[Level: 103]

[Rank: Elite Beast]

[Status: ???]

Karl frowned.

Pyroar?

Pyroars were one of the more commonly documented intelligent humanoid races beyond Human Alliance territory.

Karl had seen enough records of them to immediately know that the creature in front of him looked completely wrong.

Normal Pyroars had leaner, almost monkey-like humanoid bodies and were usually associated with red-orange flames.

This one was enormous, its upper body was thick and heavy, with long muscular arms and a frame closer to a gorilla.

Even its coloration had changed into a strange greenish-grey instead of the warmer tones Karl remembered.

The Status: ??? only made it stranger, the creature shifted again while tearing another piece from the body beneath it.

Karl finally saw the corpse it was aother Pyroar, except this one looked completely normal.

Leon saw it at the same time and his earlier irritation disappeared.

Before any of them could make sense of the scene, something suddenly rustled through the bushes much closer to them.

Karl glanced down with a warning look in his eye but neither Leon nor Mira had moved.

A small mouse-like creature suddenly shot out from the vegetation and raced across the clearing.

The abnormal Pyroar reacted instantly and its head snapped toward the movement and then straight toward them.

"Shit."

Its mouth opened and a concentrated beam of flame erupted forward.

The mouse-like creature vanished almost instantly while Karl, Leon and Mira threw themselves in different directions.

The flames tore through the bushes behind them, burning away their cover and forcing all three into the clearing.

Before anyone could attack, a deep sound suddenly rolled through the forest.

It sounded like some enormous war shell or horn being blown between the mountains.

A few seconds later, movement appeared between the trees, one Pyroar emerged and then several more.

Karl could already see additional flickers of red-orange flame farther back in the forest.

More were coming.

"We should run."

Leon looked toward him.

"We can take them, can’t we?"

He pointed at Karl.

"You’re Alliance Rank One, bastard we can def deal with it togather."

Karl gave him a flat look.

"This isn’t a joke, if that signal called the whole tribe, we don’t know how many—"

Leon interrupted him as he said "It’s already too late anyway."

Karl looked around to find Leon was quite right Pyroars had appeared between the surrounding trees in every direction.

Dozens were already visible, with more arriving behind them, the clearing was completely surrounded.

Mira drew her weapons while Leon summoned the strange shifting mass he had spent the past few weeks strengthening by feeding different weapons into it.

Karl opened the Death Legion and aeveral skeletons appeared around him.

Then the surrounding Pyroars began shrieking and Karl braced himself for the attack.

He looked at Karl and Mira and said "Push in one direction with all your might."

But none of the pyroars attacked them and instead the entire tribe rushed straight past them.

Their target was the abnormal Pyroar in between the clearing exploded into chaos.

The mutated creature roared and smashed one Pyroar away with a heavy swing, only for several more to reach it immediately.

Flames flashed between bodies as the tribe attacked from every direction, the abnormal Pyroar was clearly stronger than any individual surrounding it but it was also badly outnumbered.

Several members of the tribe were injured within seconds, but the others never stopped.

They dragged the creature down, piled onto it and continued attacking until its resistance disappeared beneath them.

Leon slowly lowered his weapon.

"Seems like a pretty good time to escape."

Before they could move, the fight was already over.

The tribe pulled away and what remained of the abnormal Pyroar was little more than torn flesh scattered around the clearing.

Karl looked at the remains.

What the hell was that?

One of the Pyroars separated from the others.

It was larger and noticeably older than most of the tribe, though still completely normal compared to the creature they had just killed.

The elder approached Karl’s group and began speaking, they took a defensive posture at first but then it started speaking something.

Karl understood absolutely nothing, the language was rough and unfamiliar, but the elder’s posture did not seem openly hostile.

It gestured toward the dead Pyroar the mutant had been eating, then toward the mutant’s remains while continuing to speak.

Karl was still wondering what they were supposed to do when his summon space suddenly moved.

Seraphine emerged on her own and stretched llazily.

"Karl, I want snacks."

Karl looked toward her.

"We’re a little busy."

Seraphine barely paid attention but then she noticed the Pyroars and said damm weren’t you saying you are not going anywhere intresting anytime soon.

Her lazy expression disappeared as she looked across the tribe and muttered.

Pyrtherapontes

Karl was confused by what she meant but the elder pyroar reacted immediately.

Its previous caution vanished as it stepped forward and began speaking rapidly toward Seraphine.

Karl expected her to be just as confusd but she wasn’t.

Seraphine listened for a few seconds before answering fluently in the same unfamiliar language.

The elder became even more animated.

It gestured toward the dead Pyroars, then toward the direction of the distant Sanctuary while Seraphine occasionally replied and nodded.

Leon slowly turned toward Karl.

"You didn’t tell me your summon also knew monkey language."

Karl kept looking at Seraphine.

"I just found out too."