Tomato

Eric woke up to a splitting headache. There was an annoying pounding in his head, at first he thought it was just his alarming clock. Turns out, it was Lithana thumping on his goddamn door, the insistent banging on his door was tilting him.

"Shut the fuck up! Don't make me go over there and lob your head off."

The banging stopped and peace returned.

But peace was never an option, after 5 minutes of not getting a reaction from Eric, Lithana pounded the door with renewed might, one might even think she was trying to break it down.

Like a tortured beast, Eric moved his weight off the bed and and proceeded to punch a hole straight through the door, his fist missing inches from her face.

"Shit, look what you made me do."

Massaging his head, Eric went to the bathroom to get freshened up. What was seen from the newly created hole was Lithana's puffed up red face and narrowed eyes.

Excusing herself into my room, she poured herself coffee and sat on my chair.

"Hey, didn't we agree to meet at the guild, why in God's name are you causing a ruckus at my house five in the goddamn morning." Eric spoke, angrily shaking his towel in her face.

"Well, early bird gets the wor- manticore, do you not know the first thing to hunting one? They will only appear in the morning and afternoon, so the first thing we need to do is to come up with a plan which we didn't do yesterday. Are you absolutely sure we don't need additional help?"

"Yes, we can easily accomplish this, you just have to listen to my instructions and follow whatever i say."

Even with Eric's weakened strength, the reason why he was so confident in taking down the manticore was because he knows its weakness, but the same cannot be said for other A-ranked beasts. With Lithana's help, he was sure it'll be a breeze.

Getting ready, Eric materialized his black and red armor and departed to the Devil's Stomping Ground with Lithana.

--

"So, do you know where the manticore is located? I could use my seismic sense but that'll take too long."

"I do know where the manticore would frequent, we'll just have to wait at one place."

Setting up camp on the treetops deep into the forest, they waited.

The manticore is known to be a very cautious creature, so they had to cover their tracks. While waiting, Eric took the time to explain its weakness to Lithana.

"While everyone knows that crushing its tail will incapacitate it, its true weakness is in its balls. You got to trust me on this."

"And... how did you figure this out?"

"I urm, stumbled upon it."

Long ago when Eric was traveling the continent in his human form, a manticore attacked him. Accidentally stepping on it's manhood, he killed it instantly. It was an interesting discovery.

Not long after the explanation, the manticore arrived in the clearing. It has a body shaped like a lion with an almost human-like face and long beard flowing down its face. The razor sharp teeth and red glowing eyes complimented its scorpion barbed tail that's dripping with greenish acid.

"Tomato, you go from the back and try to cut off the tail."

"What did you call me?"

"You heard me, go."

Eric created a boulder and threw it at the manticore, seeing it coming, it move out of the way and growled at him. Agitating it further, he tried impaling it with ground spikes but it was too fast. Dodging all the spikes, the manticore rushed towards where he was.

Lithana was jumping from tree to tree, avoiding the attention of the monster. Jumping behind it, she hovered down slowly using the wind and took aim at the tail.

"Wind Blade!"

She shot several thin almost invisible blades of wind, all of them hitting their target. But she underestimated how tough the armored tail was. The blades left a shallow wound on the armor and it enraged the manticore.

"Fall back! Plan B!" Eric shouted, watching the manticore turn away from him and focusing on Lithana.

She ran and led it a place where they had set up trap beforehand. Lithana sprinted past the trap and the manticore followed closely behind. Stepping on to the trigger, a wide net covered the monster and hoisted it up into the air. The ground below the trap opened up and revealed lines of spikes, waiting for the manticore to drop to its death.

Eric took aim below with a makeshift catapult and shot its balls. As it desperately trashed around in the net, he only hit a single testicle. The manticore howled in pain and spat out flames, burning the net. It did not fall into the pit as expected but hooked its tail onto the tree trunk and tried to jump off to another tree.

Lithana not wanting to make the same mistake twice, took out her dual daggers and swung down with all her might onto its tail, cleaving it in half before it could make its escape.

The manticore fell and pushed itself off the tree onto the ground.

Eric took out his sword and rushed towards it. Opening its maw, it spat flames at him.

"Pathetic, those flames barely tickle me."

Pushing through the flames, he brought down the sword and cut off its front legs.

"Tomato, now!"

"Gust!"

Lithana created a strong blast of wind from the back of the manticore, flipping it forward and exposing its underbelly.

Eric dashed underneath and sliced off its remaining testicle. With a sharp yelp, the manticore started frothing at the mouth, its eyes staring at the heavens.

"Good job, Tomato."