The rolling river beneath the cloudy, almost dreamy bridge was cold and warm as it wasn't only located between two lands with contrasting environments but also affected by their temperature.
"Breakfast arrived just when I woke up. What luck!"
A deep, bestial voice echoed within the river, immediately suppressed and deafened by the sound of fast-moving waves.
Ripples appeared on the surface of the water.
While moving towards the bridge, Roy's sixth sense tingled, causing his hair to suddenly stand on end. He was overtaken by goosebumps, and his movements stiffened slightly.
'Am I never going to get used to this feeling?'
Roy thought as he narrowed his eyes, pushing his senses to the utmost limit, which resulted in him sensing the noticeable fluctuations taking place in the energy of the river.
'Something is creating fluctuations in the energy of the river just by existing. There has to be something ferocious there, and from the looks of it, it is planning to do us dirty. What is it waiting for?'
Roy's eyes lit up an instant later.
'Ah… it must be planning to catch us off guard when we reach close to the bridge. What a sneaky bastard!'
Roy cursed the monster in his mind, then smiled hideously.
'It's still unaware that I am aware of its presence. I better use this to my advantage and deal it a heavy blow.' Roy chuckled.
He hurried up to the front of the group, spread his left arm, and gestured something to the group using his thumb.
Amelia, Julian, and the twins blinked and looked at his back in bewilderment.
They didn't get his signal at all.
The good news is that Delilah and Arlo did.
Delilah grabbed Amelia by the wrist and, with a backward pull, nudged her closer, but this was all done too suddenly. Hence, Amelia stumbled over herself and ended up falling into Delilah's embrace. This resulted in her soft, small breasts crushing her round, big ones.
Her ears turned red as Delilah's sultry breath brushed against their tips.
She raised her head to look at her, "W-w-what?"
Delilah lowered her head and whispered in Amelia's ear. "Don't resist."
Both the maids were teleported away, reappearing behind a tree 77 meters away from the bridge.
Arlo, on the other hand, grabbed the bewildered twins using his hands and grabbed Julian using an invisible human-sized hand made of his colorless aura. Then, with a single leap, he dragged them behind the trees, 50 meters away from the cliff's edge.
The eyebrows of the three youngsters were raised, and they were looking at Arlo in visible confusion.
Julian: "???"
"Why did you drag us here?" Maya asked.
Arlo clarified, "There is danger ahead. Roy's planning to tackle it alone. It's good practice for him. Let's not bother him."
"Ahh... got it."
Danger lay ahead, but Roy wasn't afraid.
He moved forward with determined steps, ready to face it.
Plop!
Just when he reached three steps away from the edge of the cliff, something exploded out of the river and shot upwards like a rocket launched from a launcher and climbed the 335 meters high cliff in one leap.
A humongous monster appeared opposite Roy. It was 67 ft tall; its eyes with black vertical slit pupils were glowing blue. It was as wide as a calf, and its body was covered in blue scale, and two small bumps could be seen protruding out of its head. A horn that was mostly blue but had several silver lines drawn on it was in the middle of the two bumps. It was tall and wide enough to blanket the sun for its prey. A shadow was cast over the latter.
"Krraawwrgg!"
Roaring out menacingly, it lunged at Roy as the latter pushed himself off the ground, jumping to the side to avoid being pulled into its gaping mouth.
The horned serpent landed on the ground and immediately turned to him, but before it could lunge at him again, Roy blasted it away with a spell.
Bomb!
A fireball exploded on its ugly face, knocking it a few steps backward and wounding it.
『Ding! The horned serpent was struck by a fireball. It lost 40 HP. It is weak to fire-type damage. It lost an additional 40 HP.』
『Horned Serpent's remaining HP: 4320/4400』
Realizing its HP was ridiculously higher than any other monster he had ever faced, Roy's eyes thinned to the size of needles.
The horned serpent spewed out water to put out the fire and slithered its way to him. Its wound could be seen to be healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
'It's probably an aura monster. Maybe I can try bursting it out!'
Roy thought as he immediately blasted the approaching serpent with a myriad of spells, including greater fireballs, greater mana blasts, and dozens of black lightning bolts.
Boom! Bam! Bam! Zap! Zap! Zap!
Krraawwrgg!"
It was caught off guard and hit by all of them. Every single one of Roy's spells exploded upon its scaly flesh, blasting it away like a ragdoll as it roared out in pain.
『Ding! The Horned Serpent was struck by a myriad of spells. It lost 500 HP!』
『Horned Serpent's remaining HP: 3820/4400』
Roy summoned his thickest sword. Holding it in his hand, he advanced toward the horned serpent without hesitation. Silence orbited him, and killing intent, could be seen flashing in his eyes.
"You are nothing but my meal. How dare you go against me?"
The horned serpent squinted its large, bluish eyes at Roy, glaring at him as it suddenly rose and opened its maw wide. Waves of water manifested out of nowhere in its throat and swirled up to the tip of its tongue, where they combined into one large entity of water.
A great sense of danger assaulted Roy, and he immediately lowered his sword, bringing its tip close to his feet. Wisps after wisps of his black aura gushed out of his palms and twirled their way up the surface of Ghost Chaser, gathering at its tip.
Poof! The monster blasted the 17-meter-wide blue ball made of water out of its mouth. It wasn't only big but also so ridiculously dense that it was as hard as iron.
Whoosh! Just then, Roy swung the sword vertically upwards, and a thin arc of incredible sharpness burst out of its tip and shot forward, meeting the massive Water Ball in mid-air.
Shling!
Like a hot knife passing through butter, the physical manifestation of Ghost Chaser's roar sliced through the Massive Water Ball, splitting it into two perfect halves before dying out. Its two halves parted ways and flew past Roy, crashing into the trees several meters behind him, instantly exploding them, wooden splinters and whatnot bursting outwards.
The wind created as a result of the explosion ruffled Roy's hair and made the hem of his black leather coat flutter and dance, which was in complete contrast to his long, white, dazzling hair.
Under the rising sun, he looked like a valiant hero with unparalleled beauty. as he eyed the Horned Serpent, on alert.
