Almost before the words left her mouth, a hulking figure burst out of the trees behind them. A green furred, humanoid ape-like monster five or six meters tall crashed down in front of them with a heavy thud.
"Heeheehee... look what I have found, two human brats who wandered into the forest. You both look very tasty..."
Erza's pupils shrank the instant she saw the creature. Instead of fear, her voice was full of excitement.
"It appeared, it is a Grian, our target for the job!"
At that exact moment, a pale blue ki blast streaked past Erza's side, whistling through the air before slamming straight into the Grian that had just made its dramatic entrance and had not even finished showing off.
BOOM.
The explosion shook the trees. From behind her, Kabe's excited shout rang out.
"I knew it. Go, Erza, I will cover you!"
"Right. The first target will be claimed by me, Erza Scarlet!"
She swung her knight's sword, then charged toward the spot where the blast had landed, now shrouded in thick smoke.
After a few steps, though, something felt off. Her charge slowed.
Behind her, Kabe, already gathering ki for another Kamehameha, saw this and shouted anxiously,
"What are you doing, Erza, this is not the time to space out!"
Erza did not answer. As Kabe grew more impatient and confused, a breeze swept through the forest and slowly blew the smoke away.
What it revealed was the Grian, its entire body charred black, sprawled motionless on the ground with no trace of life left in it.
Kabe: "..."
He let his hands drop in embarrassment, hurried around Erza and walked up to the corpse. He gave the monster two firm kicks.
"Hey, big guy, knock it off and stop playing dead. Ever heard of smoke inhalation? There is no way a monster that pathetic would get killed by a single ki blast. Get up already."
While he talked, he turned his head and forced a grin at Erza.
"So, Erza, how about you give it another slash, just in case. Maybe it is trying to trick us by pretending to be dead. Monsters can be really crafty."
Erza's head was lowered, her eyes hidden behind her bangs. A heavy depression seemed to radiate from her entire body. The moment she thought back to herself raising her sword and shouting a hot blooded line, only for the target to already be dead the next second, she wanted nothing more than to curl her toes through her steel boots.
The awkwardness in the air was so thick Kabe could almost taste it. Very considerately, he rushed to change the subject.
"So... how do we handle the corpse? Cut off the head, or do we need some specific part as proof?"
"T-the tail... we only need to take the tail."
Kabe glanced at the Grian's green tail and reached out, only to hesitate for a moment. He could not quite bring himself to do it. When he thought about the monkey tail hanging behind him, he inexplicably felt like he was about to commit some kind of tail-on-tail crime.
"Screw that, we are not the same species!"
With a roar, he chopped his left hand into a blade and neatly severed the Grian's tail, which was much thicker than his own.
Holding the green monkey tail in his hand, Kabe even felt a faint phantom sting run along his own tail.
He slid a hand back and gently stroked his most precious appendage, speaking softly,
"Do not worry. I will never let anyone cut you off."
His goofy movements and muttered nonsense finally coaxed a laugh out of Erza.
Seeing the smile return to her face, Kabe secretly wiped the cold sweat that did not exist from his forehead.
'Kids are so hard to handle... good thing I have some tricks.'
After that little episode, the two tidied up the scene and continued deeper into the forest.
The eastern woods were already close to human settlements, and Grian were practically the strongest monsters in the area. Once they saw how easily the so called ruler of the eastern forest had gone down, both of them relaxed noticeably. Their confidence grew.
Unfortunately, their luck afterward was not great. All afternoon, they only ran into one more target.
This time, Kabe did not make a move and let Erza handle it alone.
He watched her lightly dodge the Grian's massive swinging arm, then drive her blade straight into its heart. Once she cut off its tail, Kabe finally walked up and made a suggestion.
"Let us call it a day. We can head back to the guild and come search from another direction tomorrow."
Erza glanced up through the canopy at the sky that had already gone completely dark, then nodded.
"That works. If we stay out longer, Master is going to start worrying."
They packed up and turned back toward town.
Thanks to the compass Nate had given them, even in the thick darkness of the forest they did not lose their way.
They walked side by side. Only when they were nearly out of the woods did they both finally relax and start complaining about the job.
"No wonder the uncles do not like this request. At today's pace, we have to run into the forest at least four more times to finish it."
Erza nodded in agreement.
"And since we are in a forest that is unfamiliar, we have to stay tense the entire time, always paying attention to our surroundings and staying on guard against danger that could appear at any moment. Having to keep your nerves tight all the time is probably another reason the uncles do not want to take this job."
They continued chatting back and forth like that as they left the trees and stepped onto the main road.
Without the dense branches and leaves blocking the sky, the bright moonlight poured down, lighting up everything before them.
Using the moon as a guide, they confirmed the direction, then picked up their pace toward the guild.
...
At night, the guild was as rowdy as ever. The usual drunks who had nothing better to do were clustered together, drinking and making a racket.
Normally, Makarov would be in the middle of them. Tonight, though, as he watched the sky outside grow darker, he could not help growing increasingly anxious.
'Why are those two brats still not back? They did not actually run into something dangerous, did they?'
Gray and Cana sat at a long table in the hall, the two kids just as worried about their friends' safety.
Thankfully, before long, the guild doors were kicked open hard.
Kabe and Erza appeared in their line of sight one after the other. Gray and Cana immediately jumped down from their chairs and dashed over to them.
Makarov let out a breath of relief in his heart, then quickly put on a furious face and yelled,
"Kabe, you thick headed brat, how many times have I told you already? Open the door properly. No kicking. Are your ears not working?"
Kabe raised the trophy tails in his hands so the two kids running up could see, shaking them proudly. Only then did he look back at Makarov and respond lazily,
"I learned it from you, Master. Maybe you should reflect on your own behavior before you try to educate me."