A few hours later, deeper inside Firestone Forest.
"You take the left, I'll head right!" Rohan shouted over to Elane, who was directly opposite him.
"Hup!"
Elane bolted in the direction Rohan pointed, aiming her dagger for the Firestone Ant closest to her.
Swish!
The blade was like an unstoppable force slicing through the air, reaching a crack in the ant's shell a moment later.
The beast screeched as the attack struck its weakest point but didn't slow its charge either. This trio of Firestone ants was much more fearsome than the first two they had encountered a few hours earlier; even in the face of death, they didn't falter so easily!
Still, blind bravery could only take them so far, as Elane smoothly sidestepped the incoming bite, pulling her dagger back out of the Ant's body in the process.
She raised her hand once more, going in for the final strike.
Thud!
The body of the ant struck the ground hard, no longer producing any movements of its own.
"Another one down for the count!" She remarked.
"Yeah, how many is that in total now?"
"I think that makes the 8th kill today. I'd say we're pretty above average compared to the other newbies who head out to hunt."
Of course, she was just speaking bullshit at that point, not knowing a damn thing about the average kill count of newbies in Erenhot. Though she remained confident in her words.
"Hoo! This one makes it nine!" Rohan finished off his Firestone Ant a short moment after, just a tick slower than Elane.
"Y'know, for someone who hasn't received any combat training before, you learn pretty quick."
Elane was secretly impressed with Rohan's progress. His sloppiest form was the very first battle against the two Firestone Ants, and he'd improved by quite a lot over the past few hours.
Sometimes thanks to her guidance here and there, though most of it was his own ingenuity and instincts.
The third Firestone Ant was already dealt with from a combination of her archery and Rohan's spearmanship. This was the first time they'd encountered a trio of them, so they played the start of the battle extra careful, only feeling confident enough to aim for the other two after having dealt with the first one.
With three more Origin Crystals pocketed, the duo felt quite pleased with that day's earnings.
Rohan looked up at the orange sky, unable to see any signs of the sun anymore.
"I think this is it for today, we should head back to the city now."
Elane agreed and began packing her things and cleaning her equipment of any ant residue.
Rustle! Rustle!
However, just as she was about to join Rohan on his walk back to the city, some nearby rustling caught both of their attention.
"Another Ant?" Rohan questioned, much more relaxed now with a few kills under his belt. "I guess we can take this last one down as well since it decided to offer itself up to us so conveniently!"
He summoned his Horned Rabbit Spear, not expecting to have to use it again.
"Wait!" Elane half-whispered, half-shouted at him.
Rohan looked over at her, confused, but stopped in his tracks when he noticed her expression.
Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated and breathing in a shallow but rapid pattern. All clear signs that she was panicked!
'What's wrong?' He mouthed at her, following the cues and not actually speaking it out.
'So…m…ing… W….ng' She mouthed back to him, but Rohan wasn't quite able to read her lips properly due to the darkness.
'Huh?' he shrugged his shoulders and indicated no with his head, showing her that he didn't understand.
Her eyes only grew even wider at that point, this time letting her panic flow openly. Rohan could tell that something was definitely off.
'She only looked this terrified when I first encountered her, thinking she was going to die.' Rohan, still unable to understand the situation fully, followed her gaze with his own.
Rustle!
His eyes landed on the rustling bushes nearby, where he presumed there was another ant lying in wait, like a lamb to the slaughter.
'That?' he mouthed and pointed at the bush.
'So…d..r.' He still couldn't understand what she was trying to say.
'Damn, still can't get it. Let's see. So…dr? Like, solder? Soldier?'
He took a moment to think.
'Wait, oh fuck, SOLDIER!?'
The last thing he ever expected to hear while out hunting in the weakest region of beasts…
A fucking Soldier Ant, also known as an Elite tier beast! Was Elane saying that the ant in the bush was a Soldier Ant!?
Okay, that made Rohan enter panic mode too. Now he could understand why she looked so petrified.
He scanned the area near those rustling bushes with an even more intense gaze but was unable to determine how Elane had come to that conclusion. Things were far too dark for him to make anything out by this point, with the sun already over the horizon now.
'But as an archer, her eyesight is bound to be leagues better than my own, even when we're both Awakened.'
Whatever the reason, there had to be a good one for Elane to look so terrified, and that's what Rohan trusted the most.
'Move. Back. Slowly.' He mouthed back to her, starting to walk backwards himself to indicate his intentions.
If there really was an Elite Beast lying just a few metres away from them, the best course of action was to get the hell out of there while they still could! There was no way in hell the two of them could take on an Elite.
They were as weak as Awakened could get right now, neither of them having cultivated their Origin Energy yet, so their physical strength was quite literally rock bottom amongst F rank Awakened, just like every other newbie in their batch.
An Elite was on a whole other level; it usually took groups of over 10 Awakened much stronger and more experienced than themselves, fully kitted out with Genes and Genetic Armaments to boot, to deal with a single Elite.
There were prodigies out there who were talented enough to face an Elite down alone, but that also came down to them having equally powerful Genes and Genetic Armaments. Those prodigies likely absorbed an Elite gene in order to have strength to rival an Elite beast.
Crack!
Rohan's heart dropped. Walking backwards was risky, he knew that. And his luck just had to prove it, having stepped on a twig and causing it to break.
Both he and Elane stopped on the spot, too scared to make any further movements.
Thud.
Thud.
However, it was too late.
The figure in the bushes finally revealed itself to the duo.
'Fuck…'
Elane was right; it was a Soldier Ant.