Chapter 22: Curious Beast
Jean and his group were in the elevator heading down to do their test. He was sitting in the corner with his heart beating quickly. Sasha was jumping up and down, getting her muscles ready for the hunt. Connie was breathing harder and sharper but he looked at Mikasa and she had her arms crossed staring at the floor.
"So, are you guys ready?" Petra broke the silence.
None of the teens replied to the instructor.
"I know you guys are scared. I was so scared when I was doing my test. My legs were shaking, I was hyperventilating, I was so scared and I was 18 when I did the exam. I know you guys could do it, you guys just have to take a deep breath and relax. Panicking will make the test even harder."
"How strong are the monsters?" Sasha asked.
"Hmm, I can't tell what monsters we have but I can tell you that the strongest tier of monsters that we have is 6."
"What's the strongest tier you have faced?"
"I have fought a tier 3 before. My team and I almost died facing it but my leader finally came and killed it so easily. Didn't even have a scratch on him but that's what I expect for a S-Rank Adventurer."
Mikasa lifted her head. "A S-rank?"
"Yeah, The Adventurer's Association has ranks from E to S depending on accomplishments and feats. There are many types of Adventurers that work for the association like Blacklist adventurers, Ruin adventurers and more that will be properly explained if you pass."
"Well, there are those who hunt monsters. My daddy was a Hunter-Adventurer."
Petra giggled.
Sasha cleared her throat. "I-I mean father. My father was a Hunter-Adventurer. He was an A-rank to be precise."
Jean, Connie, Mikasa and even Petra looked at her with wide eyes.
'She's the daughter of an A-rank hunter?!' Jean thought.
Petra smiled."Oh really? What's his name?"
"His name is Arthur Blouse," Sasha said.
"Oh, I heard that name before. Yeah, he was really good at hunting monsters. What happened to him?"
Sasha rubbed her arm. "He was…forced to retire."
"Oh…I'm sorry," Petra averted her eyes from the brunette.
"It's fine. He's still alive, that's what's important to me."
"He's a lucky one," Petra said, leaning on one of the walls of the elevator. "It's uncommon to see Adventurers return home alive, even rarer in one piece."
'That's impressive. She probably has the potential to surpass her father and become A-rank as well.'
"Yeah…I'm glad," Sasha said, growing a small smile.
Petra smiled back. "That's good. I'm happy for you."
"What rank are you?" Connie asked.
"I'm only B-rank. I recently hit it a year ago. When I told my dad about it, he was so proud of me. But I think he was happier that I was alive than my promotion."
A couple of minutes later, the doors opened as Petra stepped aside. Jean and the others walked out to the open field before Petra told them good luck and the doors closed. The holographic dome formed above, trapping him, his teammates and the monster in the area.
"The monster has been released," the voice announced.
Jean crossed his arms. "Where do we even start?"
Sasha closed her eyes briefly but when he opened them again. Her eyes turned bright orange with a starburst reticle in her irises.
"Let's start walking.It will be faster to go to the monster than let the monster come to us."
Sasha was leading the group with Mikasa standing a foot behind her. Jean was at the back so that if the monster did a surprise attack, It would most likely attack Sasha or Mikasa.
'But what if it comes from behind?'
Jean walked in front of Connie so he could be in the middle. It was quiet, too quiet. The only thing that was making noise was the crushing of the grass beneath their feet.
"So, is there a plan that you have, Sasha?" Jean asked.
"I need to know what the monster is first before I can even think of a plan," Sasha said, looking around.
Jean sighed. "So what? We just wait for the monster to come to us?"
He kicked a nearby rock, making it fly in the air and hitting it against a tree, making a bit of its bark break off.
"Anger isn't going to fix the issue, Jean," Mikasa said. "The only thing we can do is to look for it and hope to find it."
"Put a lot of emphasis on hope," Jean grumbled.
"Do you know any monsters that benefit in this habitat?" Mikasa asked Sasha.
"Hmm, there are plenty of beasts that prefer forest-like areas so they could have an advantage on their prey," Sasha began to wander a bit like a kid choosing what game to play, doing handstands and cartwheels.
Jean forgot that she tends to do that whenever she's thinking too much. He leaned on a tree, waiting for the girl to finish her thinking.
She stopped mid-cartwheel, now doing a handstand before she hopped back on her feet.
"Like the monster can camouflage or be a good climber," Sasha concluded.
Mikasa grabbed the handle of her katana. "Could the monster be around us right now?"
"I haven't seen any footprints in the area, so we're okay right now."
'What goes up, must come down.'
"So I guess we just keep walking?" Jean sighed.
"Yeah, there's not much we could do right now."
Jean walked behind Mikasa but he stayed in front of Connie like before for the same reason. Although, he hadn't encountered the monster yet, Jean's hands started to shake.
What if the monster was strong or maybe even poisonous? He saw those videos of the charred man and the woman with a hole in her midsection. He could be one of those people.
"You're nervous, Jean?" Connie asked.
"What?! No!"
"But your hands were shaking."
Jean stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well, you need to get your eyes checked."
"I was looking at your hands for a while. You were shaking like an old man," Connie said, shaking his own hands to give Jean a visual aid.
"Shut up! I wasn't scared!" Jean shouted at the shorter teen.
Jean barely heard a tree shake aggressively for a couple of seconds before stopping.
Jean stood frozen as he turned his head and Connie ran to Sasha.
"What was that?" Mikasa looked around, unsheathing a quarter of the blade.
"Must've been the monster," Connie said.
"The tree over there started to shake a bit," Sasha said, pointing at a tree. "A few dozen feet away."
The four teens looked at each other before nodding and walking slowly to the tree.
"What the hell do you think that was?" Connie asked.
"Let's hope that it's the monster," Mikasa said.
"Make sure you don't step on any branches unless you want to possibly get mauled by it," Sasha chuckled.
"Oh no, I stepped on a branch!" Connie whispered in a high-pitched voice.
"You have alerted me to your location, time to die!" Sasha whispered in a deep, raspy voice before grabbing Connie's arm and licking her lips.
"Noooo! Don't eat me!"
"Can you two stop it?!" Jean smacked the sides of Connie and Sasha's heads.
"What the hell?!" The two shouted at him.
"Stop fucking fooling around! Especially you, Sasha! You're the monster expert, so we have to rely on you!"
"I don't know what the monster is, so I'm in the dark just like you," Sasha rubbed her head.
"The tree is shaking again!" Mikasa said before a ball of transparent liquid shot out from the
tree.
Jean managed to react in time and created a barrier to protect his teammates from the incoming projectile.
The ball splattered over his barrier, coating it in some weird clear sludge.
Connie stuck his tongue out in disgust."Imagine if that stuff was on us."
Something flew from the tree and landed on his barrier. The lanky beast had slightly flabby blue skin with yellow and orange fur with very long arms and at the end of those arms were long hook-like claws but that wasn't only the thing that had hook-like claws but its tail had them too. It had big floppy ears with 3 spikes on each ear, a long trunk on its face and large light green eyes.
The monster tilted its head before slapping the barrier playfully.
"What the hell is that?!" Jean said as he tried to keep the barrier up.
"That's a Kecha Wacha. Very curious monsters that can climb and glide."
"Are they dangerous?" Mikasa said, unsheathing her sword.
"Well, their first option is usually to flee rather than to fight but they will if there's no choice," Sasha, grabbing her bow and an arrow.
The monster began to jump on the barrier, making cracks in it the more he jumped. The weight of the beast forced Jean to kneel on one knee on the ground.
"How heavy is this thing?! I thought this fucker would be lighter," Jean grunted, trying to expand his barrier.
Mikasa touched Jean's shoulder."Drop the barrier, Jean."
"Mikasa, are you serious?"
"Drop.It."
Jean closed his barrier, making the monster take a step back. Mikasa dashed at the monster but it hopped, grabbing a nearby tree branch and shooting another mucus ball at her but she created a black barrier to block the goo.
Sasha shot an arrow at the Kecha Wacha but it jumped to another branch. It leaped and wrapped its trunk around a thin branch before it snapped the branch off and threw it at them.
Mikasa sliced the branch in half while Connie turned into his hybrid form and grabbed one half while Jean made another barrier to block the other half.
"Do you have a plan now?"Jean asked Sasha.
"It's slowly coming together," she answered.
Connie crushed the half in his hand before leaping at the monster and swiping his claws, but it jumped back and spread its limbs to glide away.
"Come back here!" Connie shouted.
"Connie! Let me borrow your power!" Mikasa said, gesturing to the leopard hybrid to come to her.
Connie hopped back on the ground, standing in front of Mikasa, towering over her in his hybrid form before he extended his arm to Mikasa.
' Keep forgetting how big hybrids can get,' Jean thought, looking up at the hybrid while getting his hand touched by the raven-haired teen.
Connie grew a foot and a half with pale orange fur with black spots all over his lean body which was stretching out his white shirt, making most of his toned midsection visible. But the fur colour faded to white with spots on his midsection, chest, the front of his neck and chin and half of his arms, legs and tail. His legs were shaped like a typical leopard with his claws were dangerously sharp with a bit of curve on on them. His face was a mix of human and leopard, his nose, ears and mouth were those of a leopard but his green eyes remained the same and the buzz cut on his head was still there.
"There, it should work now," Mikasa let go of Connie's hand.
"How many abilities can you copy?" Sasha asked.
" I only do a maximum of 3," she answered before she turned into a leopard herself.
She looked very much like Connie except a couple of inches shorter.
"That monster smelled awful!" Connie said, pinching his nose. "It smelled like a wet dog."
"Keep that smell familiar, Connie. We need your nose to track it down!"Sasha exclaimed before jumping on the male hybrid's back.
Connie nodded before turning into his full leopard form and ran after the monster leaving Mikasa and Jean by themselves.He scratched his cheek before looking at the female hybrid.
"Can I-"
"No," Mikasa ran to catch up with Connie and Sasha.
Jean sighed before he ran to catch up with the others.