Kurose managed to sneak away without anyone noticing, quickly making his way through the trees and bushes.

Every time he lost track of the creature, he caught a flash of its light blue eyes staring at him, or one of the spiked tentacles swaying, giving him a direction to go.

"Gao?" Firnen shifted on his head slightly, looking around.

"What's up Firnen?" Kurose asked, pushing yet another branch out of the way.

Yet, before Firnen could give any sort of response, Kurose heard something shift. He quickly spun around, looking towards the source of the noise, and the creature he had been tracking was behind him.

Now that he could fully see it, he could notice two wings resting on its back. They both held vibrant colours, and he found himself almost entranced by it. But he couldn't. He didn't know what this creature was, or whether or not it would attack him. Kurose raised his fists, swapping his weapon form to the Odontyrannos necklace. It was his best weapon form by far, and if it was going to attack, he wanted all the stats he could.

And yet, the creature didn't attack. It looked at him curiously before seeming to shake its head.

"No… Not yet, Hero chosen by the Accessory." a voice spoke into his mind.

Kurose looked around, his fists balled up. "Who's there?" He called out. Firnen placed himself on Kurose's shoulder, alert and looking around.

"You are making good progress." The voice spoke into his mind, and Kurose couldn't help but think it sounded familiar. "But will it be enough for what is to come?"

Kurose's fists loosened as his eyes widened. "...Sheryl?" He called out. How was she here?

"...So that's who you hear…" The voice spoke once again. "Farewell hero."

The creature in front of him dashed at him, and Kurose shouted in shock. "Protective Scarf!"

Yet, the impact of it hitting his skill never came, with it simply dashing past him. Kurose looked between his skill and the creature bounding off further into the forest in shock.

"Wait, was it you speaking to me!" He called out.

He quickly dismissed the skill, starting to run after the creature.

"How the hell did you copy Sheryl's voice!?" He shouted at it.

He didn't get a response as the creature kept running, with Kurose chasing after it.

"Hey, stop! Get back here!" He shouted once more.

He watched as the creature jumped through a bush, and Kurose followed behind it, jumping through only moments later. Yet when he did jump through, there was no sign of that creature

"What…" Kurose spoke in shock. "I was right behind it! Where the hell did it disappear to?

He looked around in shock that it could just disappear so easily before letting out a sigh.

"Of course… just what I needed. Now, where am I?"

He had been so focused on that creature that he hadn't paid attention to where he had been going.

"Damn, I'm lost, aren't I?" He spoke to himself. "At least I've got you Firnen. Any idea where we came from?"

On his shoulder, Firnen simply shook his head, and Kurose couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment.

"That's fine. I'm sure we'll find our way back soon, maybe…. Let's go… this way." He spoke, pointing out a random direction.

"Gao!" Firnen agreed, and so, the two began walking through the forest.

Eorna looked through her item drops, holding out her dagger as Sigun and Osvien funnelled yet another Farkas corpse into her weapon.

There wasn't much of note in her monster drops menu, with the exception of one singular ruby from the recently absorbed Farkas bodies.

Kurose would probably want it for his gem method, however that works! Maybe I should ask how it works… She thought about it for a moment before nodding her head and beginning to call out her friend's name.

"Hey Kuro- Wait, where is he?" Eorna asked out loud.

Sigun and Osvien both stopped, looking around quickly.

"What?" Sigun asked in shock. "I swear he was here when we defeated them all!"

"So did I!" Osvien shouted out. "Kurose? Kurose, where are you!?" He shouted once more, this time slightly panicked.

"His health bars are still full, so he hasn't got into any trouble yet," Eorna spoke quickly. "Just where did you go, Kurose?" Eorna asked, slightly worried.

"Kuros-" Osviens continued shouting but was cut off as he took a sharp breath.

"What's…" Eorna trailed off as she saw what was happening, and her eyes widened. "We need to find him!"

In the party menu, Kurose's health had just dipped by a considerable amount. Roughly a quarter, if she had to say.

"How can we tell where he went?" Eorna asked, slightly panicked.

Yet, even as she said that she heard a faint shout in the distance, followed by a louder roar, and she was off. Osvien and Sigund shouted from behind her.

"Eorna, slow down!" Osvien shouted, his heavy footsteps fading into the distance as she ran.

"Don't rush into it!" Sigund shouted, his footsteps fading just as quickly as Osviens had.

But neither had a chance to catch up to a hero that was built for speed.

A few minute earlier

Kurose pushed a branch out of the way as he slowly made his way through the forest. He paused before a small opening, taking it in for a moment.

"Huh… this looks pretty good. I'm sure Eorna would like this spot." Kurose spoke with a smile. "If only I knew where this spot was exactly," he added with a small sigh.

Before he could say anything else out loud, his attention was taken by another Farkas who had entered the glade. They stared at each other for a moment, and Kurose readied himself for the Farkas to attack, but to his surprise, it simply continued across the glade, limping weakly.

"What…" Kurose was confused by that. A seemingly common occurrence today. The only time a monster had seemingly left him alone was when he was at a much higher level than it. And considering that he and the others had just been attacked in a group by other Farkas, he was sure they were still roughly in his range.

So to see a Farkas walking away from him had him intrigued. He followed behind it slowly and at a distance, watching as it seemed to walk into the opening in the forest. It limped forward before resting in the center, slowly beginning to lick its wounds, and Kurose watched in interest.

A few moments later, and that interest turned to fear as something barrelled out of the forest behind the Farkas, crashing into it immediately. The Farkas let out a small yelp, out of pain or fear, Kurose couldn't tell, but the response from the bigger monster was immediate.

Its tail whipped around, hitting the Farkas in its already injured leg, causing more blood to pour from its wound. With the Farkas now collapsed, the creature took its time to walk forward, giving Kurose a better look at it.

It reminded him of an alligator with the way its body was shaped. It had a mixture of green and brown scales, with the brownish scales seeming to reside on the lower parts of its body. Its legs were rather stumpy, with the only exception being what seemed like incredibly sharp claws that Kurose would not like to be on the receiving end of. Its tail also had barbs sticking out of it, which would explain why the Farkas was bleeding a bit more after being struck by it. On its back were two, small leathery wings which didn't look like they could support its body, which made Kurose pause.

…Was this a dragon? He knew that Eorna had said dragons didn't exactly exist in this world, but what if they had just been calling it something else this entire time? The thought kept itself in his head as the creature moved towards the downed Farkas.

The Farkas continued to snap and growl at the other monster, trying to scare it off, but instead of being scared off, the monster simply paused, looking at it for a moment before letting out a screech.

Almost immediately, the Farkas stopped snapping and snarling, seeming to seize up at the screech. Its eyes however were full of fear as it looked up at the creature. The creature's mouth opened wider, and Kurose took in a breath.

It was still a monster, so he didn't have to save it. But… Did he want to witness such a thing happening?

With a breath, Kurose stood up fully, speaking as he did. "Flame Shot!"

The ball of flame hit against the creature, with the only effect being that it seemed to have distracted it from the Farkas before it. Its eyes scanned over the area, eventually landing on Kurose, and it let out another roar. Kurose stepped back in fear.

Why did I do that!? He asked himself in panic. That was stupid! I should have just left! It wasn't going to see me if I didn't do anything!

With one single bound, the creature pushed itself forward, launching towards Kurose.

"Oh sh- Protective Scarf!" Once again, the glowing scarf appeared between his hands, and the creature slammed into it.

It paused for a moment, and for that single moment, Kurose held hope that it wasn't strong enough to break through the small barrier he held, but that hope was quickly extinguished as the skill cracked, and the creature bit into his arm.

He let out a shout of pain, swearing as his weapons counter activated. Two glowing horns appeared beside him, shooting forward and hitting it in the chest, pushing it back slightly, and Kurose let out a groan of pain.

He held onto his arm tightly, looking down at it before looking away. It wasn't the worst injury he had seen by far, but it still wasn't pleasant to look at. It had not torn off his arm, which was a good thing, but it had yet again ruined the armor that had only recently been repaired, as well as making his arm bleed heavily.

"Damn, that hurts…" Kurose spoke through gritted teeth. He took a quick look at his SP bar, noticing it was at about a third. Would that even be enough to kill this thing?

He looked at the creature, noticing that his counter seemed to have done some damage to it, but looking at his health, it wasn't exactly a feasible option. The monster would kill him faster than his counters could kill it.

Maybe if he had some of those healing crystals, he could do it, but he had completely forgotten about them. Maybe if he made it out of this alive, he could ask about getting some for emergencies.

His mind began to drift, and the creature took advantage of it, bounding forward once again.

Kurose focused just in time to shout. "Spiral Strike"

He dashed out of the way, hitting a tree before quickly running behind it, closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath.

Alright. What's my plan? I need to escape it, I can't fight it right now. Kurose knew that much. As much as he might not want to admit it, he wasn't strong enough to fight this on his own. Maybe if he had Eorna or the others with him, they could take it down, but on his own? As it was, he stood no chance, not unless he managed to catch it off guard and use hairpin with one of his stronger attacks.

He mentally went through his skills, categorizing them into "Useful" and "Not Useful" before sighing.

"Alright, let's do this, I guess. Firnen, think you can do anything?" He asked the Vindr Glaedr, who had been silent up to this point.

"Gao! Ga-Gao!" Was Firnens response.

Kurose couldn't exactly get anything from that, but from the way it moved from his head to wrapping itself around his shoulder, Kurose assumed that he was going to try something at the very least.

Maybe if he had the Charme that the teacher had given him, he could have sneaked away, but no. Of course, he had to leave it in his room. He had practically forgotten about it up until this point.

"Thanks Firnen. Let's go!"

Kurose stepped out from behind the tree, earning a roar from the creature, but it allowed Kurose to finally figure out what it was.

[Fangyut]

He groaned to himself. Of course, the first new monster he found was the one creature Matthias had told him was not fun to fight. Of course, it had to be.

Cursing his own bad luck in his mind, Kurose used another skill. "Erst Thread! Change Accessory!"

He launched the thread towards the Fangyut, watching it wrap around the leg of it. The Fangyut didn't seem to notice, simply deciding to charge at Kurose, who dodged out of the way. This was good. He could win this! As long as the skill stayed active, and the Jiralyk Skin scarf did its job, the Fangyut would be paralyzed soon.

On his shoulder, Firnen let out a noise, shooting a small bolt of wind at the Fangyut from behind. Whilst it didn't do much in the way of damage, Kurose was glad his companion was trying to be helpful at the very least.

He continued to dodge around the Fangyut, who kept lunging at him, but after a short while, he found his skill seeming to fade.

It's not enough Kurose realised in shock, dodging the Fangyuts claws.

He was running low on both SP and stamina. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up for, and if Erst thread wasn't going to be enough to keep it down, he only had one option left. Run. But would he even be able to get far enough away from it?

Kurose dodged to the side once more as the Fangyut swung its claws, but he wasn't fast enough. He let out a groan as he was hit, tumbling back slightly. Firnen was thrown off his shoulder as he hit the floor. Kurose put a hand on his side. He looked down at it for a moment, seeing that it had pierced through the armor yet again, but it had only just scratched his skin. That didn't stop it hurting, however.

"-Ose!" A familiar, yet faint voice shouted out from behind him. He could just hear it, but it seemed to be getting closer. "Kurose!"

Relief almost immediately flooded him. That was Eorna's voice! She could-

Kurose's eyes widened. What if it was that creature again? The one that could mimic voices? What if it was just trying to give him false hope? Kurose grunted again but pushed himself up. Firnen made his way back to him, quickly pushing itself up his leg and repositioning itself on his shoulder. "Gao?"

"Yeah, we just need to hold out a bit longer, Firnen. Eorna will be here soon." I hope was the part that went unsaid.

He wasn't sure if it was that creature or not, but he was going to put all his hope that it was Eorna that was on her way.

Even if he couldn't do this on his own, he had his companions for a reason. They could do the things that he wasn't suited to. Kurose smiled slightly at that. It was funny. Up until this point, he had thought he had to be the hero. He was the holy Accessory hero, so surely he had to be on the front lines.

But now that he was fighting against a monster he couldn't win on his own against? He realized he was not built for this sort of fighting. He was supposed to be with others, to create openings for them to take advantage of. To throw the enemy off.

"Eorna!" Kurose shouted out "I'm over here! Get ready to fight!" With that, he focused fully on the Fangyut. Eorna would get here when she got here. He just had to hold out.

The Fangyut jumped at him again, and Kurose dashed to the side. The beginning of a plan was beginning to form in his mind, but to actually pull it off, he would need the Fangyut to turn around fully, so that it wasn't facing towards where Eorna's voice came from. If he could do that, and just manage to stick a hairpin onto its back, then Eorna might be able to pull something off.

"Right, let's hope I can pull this off," Kurose spoke with a small grin. Despite the pain he was feeling, from both his bleeding arm and scratched side, he had hope that his mad plan would work.

"Erst Thread! Change Accessory!" Instead of targeting the Fangyut as he had before, he shot the thread toward a thick-looking branch of a tree. He had also used Change Accessory to change it into the Jiralyk tongue scarf, hoping that it would work how he wanted it to.

He tugged on it as the Fangyut stood back up from its failed lunge, and quickly moved over to the tree it was attached to, doing his best to quickly climb up it, using the thread to help him climb faster.

He had managed to get about halfway up before the Fangyut was at the bottom of the tree, roaring at him. It pushed itself up as Kurose continued to climb, scratching at the tree.

"That's good, keep your attention on me," Kurose spoke to himself. "Firnen, hold on tight, okay?"

In response, he felt Firnen tighten his grip on his shoulder, its tail wrapping around under his arm. He quickly changed his weapon to the Harpy Feather scarf as he stood on the branch. He almost fell off as the Fangyut rammed into the tree, but with a deep breath, he jumped off.

Almost immediately, the equip effect for the scarf, Paraglide, took effect. If he had to compare it to glide, it was like he had just gotten a handlebar for his bike, allowing him to turn, but something still felt missing. He wasn't sure what it was, but he just felt it.

Despite that, he continued to glide forward. The Fangyut was below him, snapping at him, and Kurose used another skill with the last of his SP

"Hairpin!" He threw the skill straight down, watching as it embedded itself into the Fangyut's back.

"Eorna! On its back!" He shouted out, hoping she would know what to do if she was even on the way.

He landed on the floor, quickly rolling to the side to avoid the Fangyut's teeth from biting into him once more. He stood up quickly, stepping back. But before he could he could start moving again, the tail whipped into him, sending him flying against a tree.

Kurose let out a gasp as the breath was knocked from his lungs, and he put a hand to his chest, groaning slightly. That was definitely going to hurt later. The Fangyut moved closer to Kurose, intent on finishing him off.

But before it could go in for the final blow, a rustling noise came from behind it. Before it could turn around, a blur landed on top of it, and Kurose's eyes widened.

Eorna stood on the Fangyut lower back, breathing heavily as her eyes scanned over both its back and Kurose. Her eyes caught sight of his ruined armor and bleeding arm, but she dismissed it for the moment, moving quickly to scan the Fangyuts back.

Almost immediately, she found the green, glowing hairpin buried into its back, and figured out what to do.

"Backstab III!"

Her dagger immediately sunk into where the hairpin was, and the Fangyut let out a screech of pain, thrashing around as it tried to throw her off, its focus on Kurose entirely lost. As Eorna continued to fight with it, grabbing onto its wing to steady herself, Kurose sunk to the floor, relief flooding through his system as tears began to form in his eyes.

Firnen unwrapped itself from his shoulder, licking his tears as they fell, and Kurose couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Thanks Firnen."

"Erst Slash V!" With that final skill being shouted, the clearing went quiet, with the exception of Eornas heavy breathing as she made her way off the now still Fangyuts back, blood staining her armor.

She slowly made her way over to Kurose, standing over him for a moment before moving and sitting beside him, leaning against the tree with him. They stayed like that for a moment, with neither of them saying anything until Kurose broke the silence.

"...I'm sorry." He spoke quietly. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. If I knew it would have happened I-"

Eorna cut him off by putting a hand over his mouth. "It's fine. I don't know why you decided to go off on your own, but I wanted to go further into the mountains as well. Just… at least tell me first, yeah? If you're going off somewhere, I wanna go with you."

Kurose let out a small laugh at that, nodding his head. "Yeah, sure. I'll tell you next time I plan on heading off on my own."

Kurose leaned his head against the tree with a small smile, with Firnen moving from Kurose's shoulder to the Dagger hero's lap, curling up. After a few more moments, Eorna spoke up again.

"You know, I was worried when you disappeared. And seeing your health go down…" She trailed off for a moment, looking at his still-bleeding arm before continuing. "I was scared."

"I did say I was sorry. I just… wasn't expecting to run into a Fangyut."

"Huh… so that's a Fangyut?" She asked curiously.

"Mmm, I guess it is. Wasn't so tough after you got it." Kurose spoke with a smile.

"Yeah, but only because of that first skill and your Hairpin. That helped out a lot." Eorna responded quickly.

"Huh, I guess it did." He said with a small smile, glad that he could at least help out.

Another lull in the conversation came by, and Kurose filled it.

"I… I think I figured out an issue I have." He spoke calmly, oddly relaxed despite his heart beating rapidly.

"I keep putting myself on the front lines, I keep putting myself in danger because I want to stand beside you and Matthias."

"Kurose…" Eorna spoke quietly, but Kurose simply continued.

"But I just can't, can I? I'm never going to be able to stand on the front lines with you, am I?"

"Well… if you tried hard enough, you could," Eorna spoke slowly as if considering her words.

Kurose simply smiled at that. "That's the issue though, isn't it? I'm unsuited to that sort of role. I'd always be in danger, wouldn't I?"

"Yes, but I have faith in you. If you want to try and find a way to stand on the front lines, you'll find a way to. Even if it is the more difficult way of doing things, I'd still help you."

Kurose nodded his head at that, tilting his head up to look at the sky. It wasn't for any other reason. Definitely not to stop the tears from falling even more.

Kurose took a breath before slowly lowering his head again.

"Thanks, Eorna. That… that means a lot." He spoke softly. He didn't get a response, but that was fine. Just knowing he had Eorna's support was good enough.

The silence came back, and Kurose did nothing to disrupt it. After a few moments, Kurose's eyes caught onto something.

From behind the Fangyut, Kurose could spot something moving, and his eyes widened as he caught sight of the Farkas that had been the previous target of the Fangyut moving towards them.

Eorna moved to hold her dagger up, but Kurose stopped her. He was certain that they could deal with it if it ended up attacking them, but something felt different. It continued to limp towards them, standing only a short distance away before lowering its head.

"What…" Eorna looked at it in confusion, and Kurose couldn't blame her.

"It was being attacked by the Fangyut before I attacked. Is… Is it thanking us?"

"Maybe?" Eorna spoke with even more confusion.

Even as the duo stared at the Farkas in confusion, the sound of two people running through the forest could be heard, and the Farkas snapped to attention. It looked between the two heroes and the noise coming from the forest before limping off again.

It had only just entered the forest as both Sigun and Osvien burst into the clearing. Osviens eyes locked onto Kurose immediately, and he ran over, dropping both his shield and hammer to the side as he looked over Kurose.

"What the hell happened here?" was Sigun's response to the clearing. He looked at the Fangyut's body before looking at Kurose and shaking his head.

"This thing did this to you?" He asked.

"Uh… yeah?" Kurose spoke hesitantly, letting out a small hiss as Osvien touched his side.

"Sorry Kurose, just trying to make sure it's not a super deep wound."

"It's fine. Just stings whenever you touch it. My arm is a bit messed up though." He said, lifting his arm for the religious man to see.

Osvien let out a breath as he looked it over. "Yeah, I don't have any of the stuff to deal with that here. We need a cleaner place before we can actually do something. The best I can do is wrap it up with some cloth, but other than that, we are just going to have to head back."

"Yeah, that sounds good to me," Kurose spoke tiredly. "I'm tired and hurt, so I think Mathias will be understanding."

"Yeah, if he's not already panicking about your health being that low," Sigun spoke up.

"That low?" Kurose asked before checking his health.

He paled as he looked at it, realizing it was at about a third full, the lowest it had been by far in this world. The last time he had been hurt badly was when he had been rammed by the wave boss, and even then, it had been healed immediately.

"Oh, Matthias is going to be annoyed," Kurose spoke, more to himself than Sigun.

"I'm sure it will be fine. You went up a few levels at least, so we got something done today."

Kurose nodded his head as Osvien began to bandage his arm. Once he was done, Kurose stood up, with Eorna helping him stand before speaking.

"Before we go, we need to absorb the Fangyut parts." She spoke quickly.

"That's true. Let's start then. You just rest, alright Kurose?" Sigun spoke with a small smile.

Kurose's only response to that was to nod his head, watching as both Sigun and Eorna got to work dissecting the Fangyut.

Meanwhile, at the outpost.

Matthias stood up suddenly, shocking the captain who was sitting opposite him, along with the two chosen squad leaders.

"Your Majesty? What's the matter?" The captain asked.

"Kurose is hurt. I need to go find him."

"B-but my king. We haven't fully sorted out everything yet." One of the squad leaders spoke.

He received a stare from Matthias before speaking. "Are you suggesting that this meeting is more important than his life?"

"N-Not at all sir!" He spoke quickly. Shrinking back in on himself.

"Your majesty, no, Matthias." The captain began, standing up to face Matthias. "Do you not think you should have some more faith in the Accessory Hero?"

"I…"

"Do you not believe the Accessory hero is capable? Do you not believe he can handle himself, Matthias?"

"Of course, I believe Kurose can handle himself! But it's when I'm not there that people get hurt!" he shouted out.

Silence filled the air as Matthias glared at the captain, but the captain returned his gaze.

"Matthias. Is that truly what you think? That if you are not there to help, that everyone is in danger?"

"Is that not the reason I gained all this strength? To protect everyone I care about?" He questioned. "Tell me Euge, why did I collect all of this strength, if not to defend everyone."

"That may have been your original intent." The now-identified Euge spoke, nodding his head. "However, once you became king, that became your main duty, to protect the people first, did it not? For those five years of peace, you did what you could, but you weren't satisfied, were you?" Euge asked him.

"What are you-" Matthias began, only to be cut off.

"Let me finish Matthias. You weren't satisfied with sitting on your throne and enjoying the peace, were you? You can't lie to me. I was there, at your side when we fought against the rebels. When we fought against the Kohuandaval. I saw the blood lust on your face as we fought. The way you sought out a fight, to prove your strength. You may want to forget it, but I know why you didn't enjoy that time of peace we had. I know what you truly want."

"Don't you dare…" Matthias spoke sharply, looking at Euge.

"Don't I dare what?" Euge questioned him. "Reveal what you truly want? Reveal your true desire? I remember it all, Matthias. The more you try to forget it, the more it will bug you. The longer you try to repress that desire of yours, the more dangerous it becomes. You know this already, so why do you try to hide it?"

"I've had enough. I'm leaving." Matthias spoke. Almost immediately, he was out of the room, leaving a tense silence filling the air.

Euge simply sighed, sitting down in his chair once more, and rubbing his forehead.

"U-um, captain?" The other squad leader asked, "Were… were we supposed to hear any of that?"

Euge simply swore.

It didn't take long for them to separate everything into two piles for both Eorna and Kurose, with the pair quickly absorbing it all.

Fangyut Scale Necklace Unlocked!

Fangyut Fang Necklace Unlocked!

Fangyut Barb Ring Unlocked!

Fangyut Meat Ring Unlocked!

Fangyut Bone Ring Unlocked!

Fangyut Skin Scarf Unlocked!

Fangyut Claw Ring unlocked!

Kurose looked at all the weapons, nodding his head. They were all pretty decent, but again, compared to the wave boss weapon, they were still lacking, even if only a little. Though, a couple of them did offer some skills.

Fangyut Scale Necklace 0/2

Rarity: Uncommon

(Abilities Locked) Equip Bonus: Scale Shot, +3 defense

Fangyut Barb Ring 0/2

Rarity: Uncommon

(Abilities Locked) Equip Bonus: Scatter, +2 defense

Kurose could guess what a Scale shot could do. Probably something similar to Flameshot, except with Scales. Scatter, however, Kurose had no idea about. Either way, he was still going to unlock all of them, so it didn't matter at the end of the day.

"Right, ready to start heading back before Matthias sends people out to look for us?" Sigun asked.

"Yeah, let's go," Kurose spoke simply, with Sigun getting similar responses from everyone else.

With that, the group began to head back to the outpost.

Woo, another chapter done.

Kurose actually figuring out how he needs to fight as the Accessory hero. Whether or not he is going to try and do it immediately remains to be seen. It can be difficult to change after all.

Anyways, hope it was a okay chapter. Until next week I suppose