Chapter 455 - Rank 5
"Caria, tie down the one to the right first. Melissa, make your soldiers concentrate on the one on he left." Eisen said in a clear tone as he stood behind the group of monsters, holding his Sword in his hand just in case either of the two monsters was about to go out of control, while both of them quickly did as asked, before Sal shot off one of his attacks made with his thread-magic-circles, concentrating on the monster's legs.
This luckily did enough damage to the Monster to let Melissa slowly drain its health even more by focusing her soldiers on the areas specifically damaged by Sal's attack, while Sal created another magic-circle to attack the other monster that Caria was holding down, and once the attack hit, they simply quickly switched, and Caria started holding down the Monster on the left while Melissa's soldiers attacked the one on the right, and Sal shot another shot against the Monster's legs to make it harder for it to move, and the whole thing repeated itself over and over again until both of the monsters ended up completely dying.
Luckily, they had Kirisho's thick mist around them to make sure that these two monsters were the only opponents at this time.
And like this, they swiftly managed to cut down one of the Rank 6 Monsters' entourage, and could now face that monster alone. They had actually been down here in this large cave system for quite a while at this point, from what Eisen could tell, roughly a full day of continuosly hunting monsters. But soon, that would be over, considering that all three of the Monster Children had were only another level away from leveling up.
Even Eisen leveled up a little bit, despite not actually attacking anything for the most part, if he could avoid it. That was just how this system worked, so Eisen couldn't really do anything but grumble to himself about it.
"Is everyone ready to fight it?" Eisen asked the others, and everyone quickly nodded their head, as this time around, everyone had to make sure they could jump in, in case anything went wrong during the fight. The Rank 6 Monsters were still a little tough for the three monster kids to handle alone, even if they slowly got the hang of it tactic-wise.
"Alright then. Kirisho, can you lure it in?" The old man asked, and without an answer from the Mist-Spirit, she did just that and the wall of mist around them split open before a large monster came rushing into the area that the group had 'barricaded' themselves in.
Immediately when it got in range, Caria made roots grow from the ground, the seeds for which she had planted beforehand, that grabbed onto the monster's front-feet, making it fall down onto its face, and that chance was immediately used by the Myconid to try and tie it up even more, while Sal shot the first attack that he had prepared already, something that Eisen was actually the base for this time around, and even in his giant and demonic form, so that Sal could sling the web around his wings.
The moment that the enchantment activated, the air around Eisen's body froze as a large, sharp, circular blade of Ice shot out from the magic circle, and as it was flying around, Sal immediately shot some thin, translucent threads out of his fingers that connected to that circular blade, as Sal continued climbing around on the cave ceiling, where he had strategically positioned himself directly above the monster, using his Marionette Element to manipulate the blade around the monster, cutting into its skin numerous times in numerous places, while Caria tried to make sure that as little roots were in the way while that was happening.
But soon, the blade of ice had molten too much and simply shattered at the next impact with the monster's body, and then immediately some of Melissa's bees, ones with poison that was supposed to pacify and calm the monster down as much as possible, started attacking the open wounds that Sal had opened up, while the Spider himself started going into the area of assistance for now by pulling and pushing the bees around with his element to make sure they weren't somehow damaged by the monster's movements as it was trying to escape its capturers.
And soon enough, the Monster did just that, but at that point, something that Caria had been doing already took effect. She had been creating Mushroom-Soldier copies of this monster, that were all ready to be pulled off now, something that Sal now did.
Luckily, his Marionette Element perfectly interacted with his threads, as he was now able to manipulate them as if they were another limb, and just shot out some of the threads that he then slung around the base of the mushrooms to cut them off, and the moment they dropped to the ground, the thick stem split into four legs, as a dozen, Retriever-Dog sized mushrooms that looked like Boar-Horse hybrids stood up and surrounded the monster they grew off of, and immediately started running into its sides while Caria worked on the next mushroom right in front of the Monster, while Sal was creating the next magic circle using Eisen's wings as a base, while Melissa's bees continued attacking different weakpoints, such as eyes, nose, ears, as well as the already-open wounds, while the dozen mushrooms did their best to make the monster slow down.
"Ah, seems like they won't really need our help this time around." Sky said with a slight sigh as he closed his Grimoire down and just tiredly sighed, and Eisen chuckled in response, "Let's hope so, yeah." The old man said, as he watched Caria grow a special type of poisonous mushroom that she created using a poison that Eisen made through Alchemy.
Its stem alone was the size of a grown man and had multiple small holes in it connected to the hollow interior of the stem, and they slowly started to suck in air to push into the spherical mushroom-cap that was filled with numerous small beaded versions of the poison that would pop on impact with something hard.
Soon enough, the mushroom-cap was filled with enough air, and Caria quickly made roots grow around the bottom of the mushroom that soon covered it whole, with the exception of one of the airholes and a circular area facing the monster. She even made a small 'shaft' pointing at the monster, before the mushroom-cap simply popped and the poison-beads shot at the monster all at once, popping once they hit its face and body, seeping into the numerous wounds that were created by her own roots' spikes, Melissa's Bees, and Sal's ice blade.
And as the rest of the roots and the mushroom that Caria made started to wither away, Sal's magic Circle was finished and was quickly activated. This time around, it was a simple ice spear, that Sal still grabbed onto with his element to basically pull it into moving as fast as it possibly could.
That spear then quickly shot through the Monster's side, right into its heart, before it collapsed on the ground. They tried doing something like this before already, just that Sal's spear-attack was the opener, and when they tried that, the ice-spear was just stopped by the monster's muscles and shattered before reaching any vital organ at all.
Just if the monster was as weakened as it ended up being would it work well enough to literally shoot completely through the monster's body and open up a hole that one could basically look through, just like right now.
And basically at the exact same time to each other, the three monster children's bodies started to glow in a bright light as their bodies changed. Seemed like the experience that they got from this monster really was enough to push them over the edge and made them evolve, like Eisen had hoped it would.
First, there was Caria. She had physically grown a bit older again, and she looked like she was roughly 15 years old right now, although she was still relatively petite and short. Her Cap had basically turned into a literal Witches' Hat that she could even take off to reveal her bright red hair. While her skin was still pale, and her irises were still really dark, although everything in a range that could be seen as normal for a Human. She basically looked as if she was a regular teenage girl now. Luckily, her dress managed to grow with her pretty well, so Eisen wouldn't have to make a new one for her.
As for Melissa, she also grew in age quite a bit, and could be seen as maybe 12 or 13 now, and her bright yellow hair was still just shoulder-length somehow, although Caria's seemed to just grow longer and longer, as it now reached her h.i.p.s. Not much really changed about her other than that, with the exception of her Wings changing their size and shape a little bit more than Eisen would have expected. The Hoody she was wearing was still oversized on her and you still couldn't even see her hands.
The biggest change, however, happened to Sal. Physically, it seemed like Age-Wise he was at roughly the same age as Caria, so around 15, and was a little taller than her. His white hair was still relatively short and unkempt, and he had a quite thin build. The spider-like abdomen had disappeared from him completely, and his lower body now had regular, albeit pale, skin.
He still had some carapace around his the back of his arms and legs and his actual back, but for the most part, you wouldn't expect him to be a monster either.
Especially because his eyes changed a fair bit as well. He had two regular-sized eyes, and then three small eyes around the sides of those eyes that just seemed like small, barely noticeable wrinkles when they were closed.
And just when Eisen was thinking that this was a huge change for Sal, the boy just dropped backward onto the ground. "Erm… Having two legs is so… Weird." Sal muttered quietly as he laid there, his arms and legs stretched out to the side, and Melissa leaned above him with a nod. "Tell me about it." She said quietly. She experienced something similar as well, after all, going from six to two legs to walk on a few evolutions ago.
"Hmm, I think I can…" Sal muttered quietly as he pushed himself off of the ground and tried to stand there stable, before he pressed his palms onto his h.i.p.s, before numerous thick threads shot out of his hands that soon formed some fake spider legs that helped Sal stand up properly. "Still not perfect, but better, I guess…" The boy muttered quietly, before noticing something else that was pretty important.
"Erm, could I get some pants?"