Faced with the spindler, its towering frame, its disgusting scuttling, Kaitlyn could only scrunch her face while sighing to herself, “Ew.”
However, under the cloudy sky with sun that poked through the holes, under the towering trees that flanked the path, it was somehow... fitting, to exterminate an abomination like the spindler. In fact... with the spindler, a monster that spun gargantuan webs while munching on anything that came into its domain, any weather was quite fitting to exterminate it.
Running forward, as the spindler was still unaware of her presence, Kaitlyn killed a few of the monsters wandering around in the way as she dashed towards the spindler. A casual strike as she passed being all that she needed to eviscerate the enemy, Kaitlyn came under the large spider that towered over her.
Leaning to the side to dodge a leg the size of a pole slamming down beside her, Kaitlyn then, as the snow and chunks of earth clouded her vision, swung her sword towards the leg without mercy.
Chattering.
Losing one of its legs within a split second, the spindler’s mandibles began chattering with nervousness as its body swayed in the air.
Swing. Swing. Swing.
Crash.
Flicking the blood off her blade, Kaitlyn who was now past the spindler ignored it as it came crashing to the ground, the legs that supported one side of its body now all bleeding out on the snow like tree logs.
Webs. Feeling the spindler begin to jettison webs from its abdomen, Kaitlyn ran back to the front, sticking both of her swords into the spindler’s head without much resistance.
A second passing, Kaitlyn, satisfied that the spindler’s movements had stopped, the light of life fading from its eyes, its chattering mandibles stopping, ran off.
Running back on the ledge, rather than through the path itself where monsters were meandering around, Kaitlyn sheathed her swords while running, spending some time thinking about the motivation that leapt around in her head, cheering, pushing her to run faster and faster.
As the feeling kept her moving, her thoughts drifted as she pursed her lips, seeing hordes of wolves, goblins, ogres, everything but monsters she needed to kill.
Yet, her drifting thoughts drifted in different directions to years past, in years past she had often thought about the ministers, the rulers, the important people all imploring her to help the country and fight for the people, to save the lives of those in need.
But this year, as she kept running, Kaitlyn couldn’t suppress the small smile that broke out on her lips as she remembered the teasing swordsman that had run off earlier, the one who had wished her “good luck” and said, “bye for now~” while telling her to not get hurt.
“Of course I won’t get hurt...” muttered Kaitlyn to herself, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips as she leapt off the ledge towards a giant scorpion, “Who do you think I am... I should be telling you that.”
Shelving her thoughts, Kaitlyn rushed down, slaughtering another few smaller monsters as she ran towards the scorpion.
With a new path being created from the now dense group of monsters, Kaitlyn ran up to the scorpion, twisting her body and unsheathing her swords to dodge and parry the two claws. Then, without needing to be fancy like with the spindler, Kaitlyn plunged a sword into the scorpion’s head, using the other to parry its tail strike.
One... Two.
The scorpion’s death confirmed, Kaitlyn leapt off of it, running back towards a pair of adventurers that were fighting a monster she missed.
“It’s so much easier when the head is near the ground...” Kaitlyn thanked the now-dead scorpion while running.
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Crunch, crunch.
Her boots crushing the snow underfoot, Kaitlyn burst into the battle, lasering past the oversized bear before coming to a rapid stop on the other side.
Seeing Nao, the sword of the sky, and Clayton, the ravenous jackal, lower their weapons as the oversized bear’s head came falling to the ground, Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow while waving at them to run with her.
Nod.
The trio all running off further inward, Kaitlyn asked the pair, “How were you two not able to kill it... like... immediately? It’s only an oversized B-Ranked monster after all.”
“Well, I just got there, a few moments before you, Kaitlyn,” Clayton answered with a nod, “And I believe Nao was trying to kill it delicately because... I don't know.”
“Because I was trying to hone my skills,” Nao smiled with a sage-like light in his eyes, “It’s good to hone one’s skills even against the weakest opponents. Then even the strongest opponents will be weak.”
“... Alright then, smartass,” Clayton sighed while shaking his head as Nao began to crack up, “You really gotta phrase it like that? Just kill the monsters... you’ve literally done this for all 5 years I’ve known you.”
“I am, but... well,” Nao retorted as Kaitlyn gave the two a nod before running off, “How do you think my nickname from the masses is ‘Sword of the Sky’ while yours is ‘Ravenous Jackal’, I kill with grace, dear friend.”
Feeling a vein pop as Nao emphasized “grace”, Clayton jumped off the ledge for a second to vent his anger, obliterating a goblin before jumping back onto the ledge and running alongside Nao.
Unaware of the pair's shenanigans, Kaitlyn kept running, peeling off from the path once she heard some rustling from the forest nearby.
Running through the forest as she tried to find the source of the murmuring and rustling she was hearing, Kaitlyn’s thoughts traveled back to a different time, continuing to wander far from her current mindless slaughtering.
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“We’re dating!” Jayce announced with a wide smile that seemed brighter than the campfire, arm in arm with Sasha, throwing some grass towards Kaitlyn, Dexter, and Chelsea having not found any flowers to throw at them, “I know we’re in the few days before the final battle. But we wanted to make it official beforehand...”
“Just in case?”
“Just in case...”
With a heavy mood settling on the party, Chelsea, who had already told the party that she didn’t feel romantic or sexual feelings cleared her throat, “so what’s with the grass throwing...?”
“Well...” Sasha murmured, an uncharacteristic blush on her cheeks, “Jayce and I said we’d throw flowers at you all if we ever started dating as a joke when we first started on this long journey...”
Bursting into laughter, Dexter fingered the ring on his hand remembering his own wife, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye, “Youthful love, how moving and amusing at the same time.”
Kaitlyn, still young, awkward, and weird at that time—still stupid as Kaitlyn of the present would be scold, tearing apart her past self for not knowing how to judge a social situation—asked, “Well... how did you know you two love each other?”