Without a word, Mirac and Carmen took their positions, their muscles tense, ready to face the imminent threat.
The three Rogthars, however, came to an abrupt halt.
Their heavy footsteps echoed for one final moment before stopping, their blazing eyes fixed on the red-haired woman.
For a moment, they seemed to hesitate.
They even took a few steps back, a gesture that made Mirac frown.
'What's going on?' he wondered, his mind racing. 'Why did they stop? Are they afraid of Carmen? Or perhaps, does it have something to do with her powers?'
The three monsters exchanged glances, emitting guttural roars as if debating among themselves.
Then, almost in unison, their eyes locked back onto the two humans, igniting with a renewed, primal ferocity, thirsting for blood.
With a scream that shook the earth, the three monsters launched their attack.
The first Rogthar lunged at them with a guttural roar, swinging its makeshift club.
Carmen darted to the side with feline agility, dodging the blow that crashed into the ground with a deep, dull thud.
The impact shattered the rock in a sharp explosion, raising a cloud of dust and shards that wove through the air like a thin veil.
Taking advantage of the debris cloud obscuring their view, Carmen moved quickly, positioning herself cleverly in the blind spot of the creature that had attacked her.
From there, with a swift gesture, she crouched to the right height and plunged her dagger into the monster's calf, striking multiple times at different points with deadly precision.
The creature staggered, letting out a howl of pain as splashes of its blood stained the arid ground.
Meanwhile, Mirac had charged at another Rogthar, channeling Mana into his legs to boost his speed and reach the monster in the blink of an eye.
Once close, he concentrated some of his Mana into the blade of his dagger, making it more durable and lethal against the monster's likely tough skin.
The Rogthar reacted, unleashing a devastating punch with its right arm, but Mirac, swift as the wind, sidestepped, letting the blow slice only through the air.
Right after, taking advantage of the opening, Mirac struck the monster's arm with a clean and precise cut, severing a chunk of flesh.
The Rogthar recoiled with a hoarse grunt, its massive body visibly shaken.
For a moment, a satisfied smirk curled on Mirac's lips, pleased with the effectiveness of his attack. 'Not bad, Mirac!'
The third Rogthar, however, seized the opportunity presented by the general distraction.
With a frenzied charge, it went after the young man who had emerged from the cave earlier and was now fleeing again in a panic, his cries for help lost in the heavy air. "Someone help me, please!!!"
The Rogthar, with its fangs bared and claws scraping the ground, quickly closed the distance, its hot breath almost grazing the boy's back.
'Damn it!' Mirac exclaimed inwardly.
Seeing the boy in danger, Mirac reacted instinctively: with a swift motion, he hid the dagger under his cloak, behind his back, out of sight from the frightened young man fleeing, and activated his ability "Multiplicative Touch".
'Multiply by three!'
In the blink of an eye, after easily calculating the required calculation—which turned out to be very simple given the small size of the weapon—the dagger tripled in his right hand, the perfect copies gleaming in the dim light.
By then, Mirac had already rushed towards the Rogthar, positioning himself between it and the boy.
With a precise flick of his wrist, he threw two of the dagger copies, aiming straight for the creature's eyes.
Zaphf!
The two blades darted through the air like arrows, embedding themselves exactly where Mirac had aimed, unleashing a double eruption of blood and fury within the beast.
The Rogthar, screaming in rage and pain, staggered backward as it frantically tried to tear the blades from its eyes—a wild roar bursting from its chest.
Carmen abandoned the horned Rogthar she had been facing for a moment, deciding to exploit the blinded creature's vulnerability to deliver the finishing blow.
She channeled Mana into her legs, enhancing every muscle with precision, and dashed forward like lightning, reaching the Rogthar in front of Mirac in the blink of an eye.
With the same speed, she channeled Mana into her dagger, concentrating it along the entire blade.
In a lightning-fast leap, the red-haired woman landed on the monster's shoulders and drove the dagger into the back of its neck with a swift, decisive strike.
Then, harnessing the full strength of the mana that had empowered her, Carmen managed to decapitate the beast with a single, fluid motion.
The Rogthar's head hit the ground, followed by its massive body crashing down with a thunderous boom, making the earth tremble on impact.
"One down…" Carmen muttered, her cold gaze shifting back to the remaining two Rogthars as she wiped the splattered blood from her face.
Mirac glanced for a moment at the panting boy, still trying to catch his breath after yet another sprint, then quickly turned his eyes to Carmen.
'Wow!' Mirac thought, deeply impressed by the surgical precision of her movements and her masterful use of Mana. 'I almost forgot how strong and fast she is…'
His mind was suddenly flooded with a vivid memory from seven years ago, when he had seen her face Klark.
In that duel, in fact, Carmen had moved with lethal grace, dancing between the slashes of her opponent's sword-tie without ever being touched.
The memory of that epic clash flashed through his mind like lightning, but there was no time to dwell on it: the battle with the red beasts was not over yet!
The two surviving Rogthars—the horned one and the one wounded in the arm—got back to their feet, their guttural growls tearing through the air.
Their bloodshot eyes fixed on the humans with a mix of fury and primal hunger.
The horned Rogthar, in particular, was pounding its club against the ground, sending small tremors through the earth beneath their feet.
"It's just as described in the books," Mirac said, his voice steady. "Combat Rogthars are strong, but their own body weight makes them slow. That makes it easier to dodge their attacks."
"True, but if they grab us or even land a single hit, we're dead," Carmen replied. "So let's stay sharp and always keep a safe distance from them."
Mirac nodded, his heart still pounding in his chest, but his mind now clearer as the fear he had felt earlier began to slowly dissipate.
A quick glance revealed that the young man, still shaken, had quietly moved a few steps away and crouched behind a tree, his wide eyes watching the scene from behind the bushes.
'Wow! He was so fast I didn't even realize…' Mirac thought inwardly.
Meanwhile, the two Rogthars, with fury boiling within their massive bodies, prepared to charge again.
The horned one let out a deep roar, while the one wounded in the arm moved with a limping gait but still threatening.
Carmen and Mirac exchanged a quick nod of understanding, then took their positions again, muscles tense, ready to continue the fight.
Without needing to say a word, they split up: Carmen lunged towards the Rogthar closest to her, the one Mirac had wounded in the arm, while he made a decisive move towards the horned beast, its two small black horns protruding from its head and the club gripped tightly in its stubby, clawed hands.
Mirac channeled the Mana into his legs, feeling the energy pulse through his muscles, and ran towards the creature.
The Rogthar raised its club with a roar, ready to strike, but something caught Mirac's attention as he approached.
The wound on its calf—the one Carmen had inflicted moments before with a precise, deep strike—was gone.
The beast's rough, red skin was intact, free of blood or scars, as if Carmen's blade had never even pierced it.
'How is that possible?!' Mirac wondered, his eyes wide in that split second as he drew closer to the monster. 'Does this Rogthar… have regenerative powers?'
His mind raced at a frantic pace, pulling fragments from old books on magical beasts: this horned monster, with its inexplicable regeneration, didn't quite match the description of the "classic" Rogthars—the more powerful ones capable of using magic.
It seemed more like a simple Combat Rogthar, or at most a Greater Rogthar, sturdier and with a higher mana reserve compared to the lower-tier breed.
Or so the ancient tomes on magical beasts that Mirac had studied exhaustively with Professor Warnock claimed.
But then, how could that instant healing be explained?
'It doesn't matter,' Mirac told himself, gritting his teeth with determination. 'If injuring it isn't enough, I'll just do like Carmen and cut off its head!'
With a clear plan in mind, Mirac prepared to act.
Seeing the human approaching, the horned Rogthar swung its club in a devastating strike, but Mirac dodged at the last moment with a leap backward, the splintered wood grazing his hood and sending a gust of air rushing by.
Using the Mana in his legs, Mirac launched into a mid-air pirouette, the dagger catching the sunlight in a brief, gleaming flash.
He landed with agility behind the creature, sprang up in an instant, and struck quickly, aiming for the base of its neck.
The blade sank in, but the thick, leathery skin offered unexpected resistance.
'Damn it!' Mirac cursed.
The Rogthar spun around with a fierce roar, trying to crush him with a powerful backhand swing of its arm.
Mirac rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding the blow, and quickly got back on his feet with a fluid motion, his breath short but controlled.
'I need to be faster!' he thought.
He infused all the Mana he could into his legs, feeling the muscles vibrate with energy.
Focusing, he repeated his earlier move: with a quick and subtle movement, he hid the dagger under his cloak, out of sight of the trembling boy who was watching the scene from behind the bushes.
Then, Mirac used his "Multiplicative Touch" ability again.
'Multiply by two…'
After quickly solving the mental calculation, the dagger duplicated in his right hand, a perfect copy gleaming identical to the original.
Without hesitation, Mirac threw the copy towards the Rogthar's chest with a quick and decisive movement, aiming to distract it.
The creature reacted instinctively, raising its club with a grunt and shattering the blade in mid-air in a shower of metallic fragments that scattered like sparks.
But Mirac was already in motion: with a final leap, he launched himself into the air, spinning on himself in a perfect arc.
In that brief suspended moment, he transferred all the Mana from the rest of his body to his right arm and the dagger's blade, concentrating it into a single, powerful surge.
The blade seemed to hum, surrounded by an imperceptible aura of pure magical energy.
Then, with a cry bursting from his throat, Mirac drove the dagger straight into the base of the Rogthar's neck.
The thick skin resisted for a moment, but the Mana amplified the strike's power: the blade sliced cleanly through muscle and tendons, delivering a precise and lethal cut.
With one final decisive yank, the creature's head detached from its body, flying in a macabre arc and landing with a dull thud, followed by a heavy silence.
The Rogthar's massive body swayed for a moment, as if unable to accept its end, before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Dark blood gushed in streams, soaking the arid earth and staining it a deep red that spread outward.
Panting, Mirac spun towards Carmen, his heart still racing from the battle's adrenaline.
But there was no need to worry: she had already finished her task.
The other Rogthar also lay decapitated, sprawled on the ground, with Carmen's dagger embedded in his skull up to the hilt.
The red-haired woman rose with a fluid and graceful movement, drawing the dagger from the Rogthar's head.
Calmly, she took a handkerchief from her pants pocket and wiped her face, rubbing away the blood splatters that had stained her soft skin during the confrontation.
The Rogthar's blood stained the fabric a vivid red, quickly spreading and dyeing it the same intense color as the splashes that dotted her black, form-fitting clothes beneath her cloak.
"Heh!" Mirac exclaimed, a tired but satisfied smile creasing his lips as he turned his gaze to the horned creature he had felled.
The massive body lay still at his feet, its severed head a few steps away, the eyes wide open in an expression of frozen fury.
"It seems that, in the end, all that training really did pay off…" he murmured, more to himself than to anyone else.
Mirac ran a hand through his hair, his breath slowing gradually as the heat of the battle dissipated from his body.
Carmen approached Mirac, her steps silent on the ground still soaked with the Rogthars' blood—her face as impassive as ever.
"Not bad," she finally said, her voice flat but with a tone that could almost be taken as approval. "You're stronger than I expected."
Mirac gave a small smile, unsure whether it was a compliment or just a simple observation.
"Thanks… I guess," he replied briefly.
At that moment, a rustling in the bushes caught their attention.
The boy who had hidden during the fight slowly emerged from the bushes, his eyes wide, still shaken by what he had just witnessed.
"I-Incredible!" he stammered, stepping forward, his eyes darting between the two warriors and the bodies of the fallen creatures.
Mirac turned toward him.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Y-Yes," the boy stammered, a grateful expression on his face, dirt smeared across his cheeks. "I-I don't know who you are, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving me from those monsters!"
"No problem," Mirac replied, with a half-smile that no one could see due to his mask.
Carmen, however, remained silent for a moment, her gaze fixed on the young man as if weighing every detail of his presence.
She tilted her head slightly to the side, her look growing more focused and intense, studying him as if she wanted to read his thoughts.
"Well, now that it's all over," Carmen began, breaking the brief silence that had formed, "can you explain why you were in that cave, chased by those monsters?"
The boy visibly flinched, caught off guard by the question.
He swallowed, then straightened up, trying to compose himself.
"Oh, right! I should introduce myself now…" he began, his voice still uncertain but growing steadier as he spoke. "My name is Blake. I'm part of the Mercenary and Hunter Association, and I'm an Adventurer, Explorer, and Dungeon Researcher. My job is to monitor the areas surrounding the city of Raerno to check for the presence of Dungeons and, if any are found, report them to the Association."
He paused, breathing deeply, while Mirac and Carmen listened in silence, attentive.
"I was just returning to the city after a long week of exploration and territory checks," Blake continued, gesturing slightly with his hands, as if mentally retracing his steps. "But then, suddenly, I heard a deep roar coming from that cave. I went in to make sure everything was normal—after all, it's my job. But shortly after entering, I found myself face to face with those red monsters. I tried to defend myself and fight them off, but the one with the wooden club destroyed my sword in the blink of an eye. Fighting them unarmed was out of the question, so I ran. And finally…" he concluded, lowering his gaze for a moment, "while I was running toward the exit, I saw you outside the cave. And you already know the rest…"
Carmen crossed her arms, her face thoughtful as she processed the boy's words.
"I see…" she murmured, her tone low and reflective.
Her eyes shifted toward the entrance of the cave, now silent, as if she were trying to mentally reconstruct the scene Blake had described.
A shadow of curiosity passed through her gaze.
"Do you know if there are more inside?" the red-haired woman asked.
"I suppose so," Blake replied. "When I went in, I found five of them. They seemed to be guarding the cave's entrance. Three of those things chased me, while the other two stayed inside. But if I had to guess… there could be many more in there. In fact, I'd bet this cave has become a full-fledged Dungeon by now, infested with those red monsters."
"Hmm… Probably so…" Carmen replied, her voice distant as her gaze lost itself for a moment in the void.
Without saying another word, the woman with the flaming hair turned and walked toward the body of the horned Rogthar that Mirac had brought down.
With a decisive movement, she drew the dagger from its sheath and crouched beside the creature.
She removed her black cloak, spreading it out on the ground next to her.
Then, she began to dissect the monster with precise movements, dismantling it with a methodical calmness: first, she cut through the thick skin along its torso, then carefully separated the horns from the severed head, placing them gently on the black cloak next to her.
Mirac watched her for a moment, puzzled.
But then, suddenly, he remembered the real reason they had decided to stop and fight those Rogthars. 'Oh, right: the organs!'
The air filled with the dull sound of the blade cutting through flesh and the acrid scent of blood, but Carmen didn't seem the least bit disturbed, focused entirely on her work.
"Are you planning to sell their organs?" Blake asked, watching Carmen as she continued working on the horned Rogthar with her dagger.
Mirac nodded, turning slightly toward him. "Exactly."
Then, with a confident tone and drawing on his knowledge, he tried to "justify" their actions by referencing the legal regulations he had studied some time ago with Professor Warnock:
"Considering that this Dungeon has not yet been registered at the Association—since, as you yourself said, you discovered it just a few minutes ago—it does not belong to either the Association or any Hunter or Adventurer Guild of Raerno. Therefore, everything we've obtained here, while defending ourselves, is rightfully ours, and we are free to sell it. And so, no law has been broken."
"O-Oh!" exclaimed Blake, struck by Mirac's flawless logic. With a quick motion, he placed the hilt and what remained of the broken blade into the sheath at his side. "W-Well… you're actually right."
Mirac said nothing more.
In silence, he moved toward the Rogthar he had initially wounded in the arm, ready to begin the dismemberment.
But Blake's voice stopped him abruptly:
"E-Ehmm, do you need help?" asked the boy, raising his hands in a sign of peace. "D-Don't get me wrong though! I don't intend to ask for a share of your loot in return. I just… thought it was only fair to return the favor, since you saved me from those monsters. Plus, if I help, you'll finish faster and avoid the risk of more of those monsters coming out of the cave and attacking you in larger groups."
Mirac didn't respond immediately.
With an imperceptible movement of his head, he slightly turned his gaze to meet Carmen's, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation while continuing to skillfully carve the meat of the horned Rogthar.
The woman, without stopping her work, lifted her eyes toward him and nodded slightly, silently giving her consent to accept the boy's offer.
"Alright, fine," said Mirac, turning toward Blake. "We'll accept your help."
"Great!" Blake exclaimed, visibly relieved. "And don't worry: I have some experience with dismembering monsters. I won't let you down, I promise!"
"…"
Silence.
Neither Mirac nor Carmen said a word in response to his enthusiasm.
'What creepy people!' Blake thought, raising a finger to point at the headless Rogthar—the one with eyes pierced by Mirac's blades, lying to his left. "A-Ah, ehm… S-So… I'll start with that one, okay?"
Without saying anything more, Blake headed toward the creature, while Mirac approached the Rogthar that Carmen had eliminated a short while ago by decapitating it and driving her dagger into its skull.
Carmen, meanwhile, continued her work on the horned monster, her bloodied hands moving with surgical precision.
The dismemberment process began in silence, each focused on their task.
Blake, armed with a small knife strapped to his belt, knelt beside the decapitated Rogthar.
Carefully, he began incising the rough skin around its torso, trying to separate the flesh from the bones.
The lack of a head made the task easier, but the eyes, pierced by Mirac's blades, had been reduced to an unusable mush.
He still tried to remove the two daggers lodged in the eye sockets, but the blades were too deeply embedded, driven all the way to the hilt into the flesh and bone.
The monster's eyes, therefore, were irreparably damaged.
Even if Blake had managed to free the daggers, what remained would have been worthless: no alchemist, no matter how desperate, would have paid a single coin for such a mangled mess.
'What a shame…' Blake thought, sighing and shaking his head slightly.
Pushing the regret to the corner of his mind, he decided to focus on the other internal organs.
With some effort, he shoved his hands into the chest cavity, his fingers sinking into the warm, slimy entrails, separating them from the walls of flesh with clean cuts and decisive movements.
Mirac, on the other side, set to work on the Rogthar Carmen had felled.
Enhancing the blade's sharpness with Mana, he sliced through the thick skin along the back, separating the flesh with precise cuts.
The monster's bones were sturdy, but he managed to sever the arms and remove the heart—a large, still-pulsing organ that he carefully set aside, knowing it would fetch a good price on the market.
Unlike the other Rogthar, the eyes of the creature Mirac was dissecting were intact.
So, with a swift motion, he slid the tip of his dagger beneath the socket and carefully extracted them, cutting them free from the flesh with a wet, dull sound.
While Blake and Mirac worked on their respective Rogthars, their hands buried in the warm, slimy guts, they shuttled back and forth, carrying the organs with cautious movements to the cloak spread beside Carmen.
Following the red-haired woman's example, they placed each piece carefully, contributing to the growing mountain of blood-dripping organs.
After a few minutes, having finished with his Rogthar before the other two, Blake wiped his bloodied hands on his pants and walked over to the masked boy.
He stopped a few steps away, observing him for a moment before speaking:
"Do you need a hand by any chance?" he asked, his tone light but sincere.
"…" Mirac didn't respond immediately.
At that moment, he was thinking about something else, but when he heard Blake's voice, he suddenly stopped with the dagger mid-air, quickly turning his gaze toward the boy. "What did you just say?"
The boy, realizing the possible ambiguity of his words, widened his eyes.
"Oh!" Blake exclaimed, waving his hands frantically. "Ehmm… Sorry, I didn't mean it literally…" he murmured, lowering his gaze to Mirac's missing arm.
'There was no need to clarify, genius!' Mirac thought, holding back from commenting aloud. 'I simply didn't hear you the first time…'
Mirac clenched his teeth to stop himself, a smile dancing at the corners of his mouth, hidden by his mask.
After a brief moment, he cleared his throat and replied:
"D-Don't worry, it's fine… I'd gladly accept your help."
Blake, with an embarrassed smile, crouched beside him and began assisting.
For a few minutes, they worked in silence, focused on the task.
Every now and then, Blake would stand up to bring the extracted organs to Carmen, who carefully piled them on the cloak spread out on the ground, adding them to the growing mountain of flesh and blood.
Mirac, on the other hand, focused on dismembering the monster and selecting the best parts to sell later at the Market of Raerno.
The two boys didn't exchange a word for quite a while, the sound of the cuts and the rustling of the wind the only noises filling the air.
But then, murmuring to himself, Blake broke the silence:
"This is the first time I've seen monsters like these…" he said, almost absentmindedly. "What the heck are they exactly?"
Mirac didn't hesitate to answer:
"They're Rogthars," he said, his voice steady as the dagger continued to slice the flesh.
"Rogthars? Never heard of them…" Blake replied, furrowing his brows in genuine perplexity.
"They are demonic monsters that lived in ancient times, over a thousand years ago," Mirac explained briefly. "It was believed that they went extinct during the Great Extermination… But apparently, that's not really the case…"
"Oh, really? Interesting…" Blake murmured, scratching his chin. "But tell me: what exactly was this 'Great Extermination'?"
Mirac flinched, pausing with the dagger for a moment.
"Huh?! Don't they teach that in school?" he asked, perplexed, turning to look at him.
"Maybe, but I never went to school," Blake replied, flashing a smile that lit up his face like a ray of sunshine, raising his thumb in a bold gesture.
'I don't think that's something to brag about…' Mirac thought, sighing to himself. "I see…" he said instead, his voice flat, dropping the topic.
After a brief pause, he continued explaining:
"Well, in simple terms, the Great Extermination was a bloody war between the so-called Sovereigns of Chaos and their armies of magical beasts. During that conflict, many human cities were destroyed, and most of the creatures involved were wiped out. Many scholars speculate that the battle took place in the Red Desert, of course. But in reality, there is no concrete evidence or written historical accounts to support what is now considered merely a theory. The only way to gather the necessary evidence would be to venture into the Red Desert and explore it thoroughly, a feat that no one dares to attempt anymore. However, thanks to the texts of the Seven Gospels, there is one thing we still know about the Great Extermination, and of which we are absolutely certain: the war lasted less than a day."
"What?!" Blake exclaimed, his eyes widening. "Less than a day?!"
"Exactly," Mirac confirmed. "And no one knows who won in the end."
Blake remained shocked for a few seconds, the knife still in his hand as he absorbed Mirac's words.
"H-Heh! A fascinating yet unsettling story…" he muttered, trying to mask the tremble in his voice with a nervous laugh.
Mirac said nothing and returned to his work, letting Blake assist in silence.
As he sank the dagger into the Rogthar's flesh, his green eyes were fixed on the red monster's remains in front of him.
'Something's off though…'
When the Rogthars had emerged from the cave, his abilities "Instant Knowledge of Dimensions" and "Instant Knowledge of Mass" had immediately informed him of the creatures' measurements and weight.
But what had struck him most was the information from "Instant Knowledge of Age."
In fact, he had been thinking exactly about this earlier, but then he had been distracted by Blake's arrival.
But now, with the tension of the fight behind him and nothing else to distract him, Mirac could finally pause and reflect on it again:
'The Rogthars are supposed to be creatures with a growth process similar to humans… But then, why do these specimens all have less than 3 months of life?'