The Mission

"Don't worry about me Luciel, I have lived a long life, and I have survived many things in my life, one of the most memorable happened in the mission that I would do for Egil, the mission that would make him break his commitment to my beloved Priscilla. That day I and the others almost died, but it would be also the day that we would meet the Old Hermit, the most powerful person I have ever know, but before meeting him, we had to face a fearsome monster." – the Old Man said to the worried boy.

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"Something is wrong." – said Lapz. – "There is not even a guard outside the cave, are we sure that this is the right place?"

"Yes." – I said. – "This is where the lair of the Bandits is."

It was the 28th of Tempest of 9955, the seventh month of the year. After a couple of weeks, we finally get to the right place, but when we reached the bandit's lair that was a cave in a lonely mountain near the Great Dark Forest, we found no one at the entry.

"This is problematic, isn't normal to not see even a reconnaissance bandit, there is not person outside here."

"Pak is right, this is not normal, are we walking to a trap?" – ask the old Lino. – "Or something happened to the Bandits?"

"There is only one way to find the answer." – said Clinton who drew his sword. – "Entering the cave."

"Too dangerous." – said Lino.

"Not other way." – reply the blindman.

"Do you feel something?" – asked Lapz.

"Same as you, you don't see anyone, and I don't feel the power of anyone… maybe we are too far away, if we come closer to the cave…" – I said.

"Let's go." – Clinton was the first to walk to the cave entry.

So, the five of us entered the damn bandit's lair, we were ready to fight or escape, depending on what we find inside.

"What?!" – Lapz was the first to see inside.

"The heck…" – Clinton was also as surprised as Lapz.

"We're late." – said Pak smelling the horrible odor of this place.

"Who can do something as terrible as this." – said Lino.

"Someone strong… a monster or a beast…" – I said.

"You're right, those wounds… are not from a weapon." – said Lapz.

Yes, before us was the sight of something horrendous.

We entered the cave, and found all the bandits… dead… torn to pieces…

This was no something normal, this was even worse, dozens of bandits… dead, the creature who did this was stronger, by a large margin than us.

I try to say to the others that we should escape, but the I saw in one area of the cave a lot of objects placed, among which I recognized many of the objects of the Bals Family.

"Cover me, I would take the objects and we will run the heck out of here, okay?"

"Yes." – said Lapz who was seeing around the place.

"Be careful." – said my best friend who was starting to being more and more afraid by the sight of all those corpses, it didn't matter if it was the corpses of criminals, no one would like to see what we just saw.

I just nodded, and walk slowly as I stay alert to anything, I was approaching the damn objects, and then…

ROAR!!!

A tremendous roar that scares the shit out of me and the others, and as I look to see what kind of creature could make that roar, I was send to one of the walls of the cave.

"Armando!" – Clinton run to me.

"One shot!" – Lapz shoot one arrow to where the monster was supposed to be, and I and the others saw how his arrow didn't make any damage to the best, the arrow just touch the fur of the beast and then jump to the other side.

White fur, huge monster of four meters, and something who we all knew…

"It can't be, this is not possible!" – Lino was scared.

"How can this monster be here!" – Pak the blindman without even looking at the creature somehow knew what kind of monster we were looking.

"Mamma, I miss you!" – cry Lapz.

"Shit, this doesn't look good for us." – said worried Clinton.

"Yes." – I said we a lot of pain as my left arm was bleeding. – "Worst luck ever we had."

In front of us stood the powerful and terrible monster who is supposed to be living in the Range of the White Mountains of Ganbus, the SS-Rank Monster… the Great Bear of the Snow, also known as the Snow Bear.

A monster that was far away from its habitat, a monster that could easily killed us, a monster so powerful that it would be need a whole party of SSS-Rank Adventurers to defeat… and we were not SSS-Rank, we were just simple C-Rank Adventurers… this isn't fair.

"What do we do?" – asked Clinton to me with a low voice, I only hear him thanks to him being next to me.

"Escape!" – I said.

"Is that even possible?" – asked again Clinton.

"I don't know, but we need to try."

Old Lino then looks at us and spoke.

"I would take them monster, you all run, I could… maybe give you ten seconds or less of time for you to escape."

The monster roar again, this time a Lino, and then fast, the beast was behind Lino.

"Careful!" – Clinton shout.

"One shot!" – Lapz this time try to shoot an arrow at the eye of the Snow Bear, but the creature put its arm to cover his eyes, and again, the fur of the beast was more resistant and harder for the arrow to hurt the monster.

"Don't be a fool, we are a party!" – scream Pak who got close to the monster, but when he punches. – "Ah!" – he screamed with pain; his hands were bleeding.

"Don't use your naked hands you fool!" – yelled Lino who put some distance with the Snow Bear.