Chapter 523: Wiped Out

The next morning, under Kantaro’s orders—the leader of the B-rank adventurer team Fangs of the North Wind—the search for the basilisk focused on the area where the villagers had reported seeing it.

The villagers also took part in the search, with instructions to notify the adventurers if they found anything.

“Tauro’s team will search the forest on the right. We’ll cover the left and center. Even if you find it, don’t try to defeat it yourselves, all right? The target is a Fire-Breathing Lizard, normally a C-rank-band subjugation target, though larger specimens can fall into the B-rank band. We’ll handle it, so focus on support and don’t push yourselves too hard, okay?”

Kantaro gave this warning to Tauro’s group.

Incidentally, basilisks are B-rank-band subjugation targets, and even then they require careful preparation.

Adventurers in the B-rank band often take on large monsters with C- or D-rank adventurers serving as assistants, and basilisks are among the monsters handled that way.

Under normal circumstances, roughly three teams would be needed, along with countermeasures against petrification and preparations for the basilisk’s strong resistance to magic. This time, however, Fangs of the North Wind didn’t believe the target was the extremely rare legendary basilisk, so they had prepared almost none of those measures.

The guild request itself was simply to “confirm the identity of a monster believed by eyewitnesses to be a basilisk, and, if possible, subjugate it,” so the quest wasn’t considered particularly urgent.

Because of that, both the Adventurers’ Guild and Fangs of the North Wind assumed it was probably a common case of a witness mistaking a large Fire-Breathing Lizard for something else.

“Understood. If we find it, our Aeris will fire a low-tier fire spell into the sky as a signal,”

Tauro replied, confirming the signal with Kantaro.

“That’s a rather extravagant signal, but don’t neglect your mana management. All right, move out.”

At Kantaro’s command, the men of Nor Village, the adventurer team Fangs of the North Wind, and Tauro’s team, Black-Gold Wings, entered the forest.

Naturally, both adventurer teams possessed search-related abilities.

Fangs of the North Wind had a thief with scouting skills, so they deployed to the left.

On the right, Tauro could search a wide area by combining his honed [Presence Detection] with [True Eye]. That allowed his group to search much farther from the center, yet Tauro still spotted the silhouette of a suspicious monster before the thief from Fangs of the North Wind did.

Worse still, it was directly ahead of where Kantaro, leading the center group, was advancing.

“This silhouette… It’s not a Fire-Breathing Lizard… is it?”

Tauro was half certain that it was the basilisk, as its silhouette overlapped with that of the one they had defeated the day before, but even if he sent word of his discovery to everyone here, they would probably mistakenly think that he had found it in the forest on the right.

So after calling out to Aeris and the others, Tauro chose not to send the signal and instead had everyone rush toward the center of the forest.

Ankh and Zion took the lead, followed by Tauro, then Ragune and Aeris.

While they were on the way, it seemed Kantaro’s group advancing through the central forest had finally spotted the basilisk.

A faint glow from a light spell floated in the sky ahead of them.

“Looks like Kantaro found it too. Everyone, hurry!”

Tauro called out as they ran, urging them onward.

Naturally, since Fangs of the North Wind was closer, they were the first team to reach the site where the basilisk had been discovered.

“This thing’s huge—even for a Fire-Breathing Lizard!”

Kantaro exclaimed.

“Kantaro, I don’t think this is a Fire-Breathing Lizard!”

The female priest warned him.

“There aren’t any other lizard-type monsters of this size living around here,”

The thief added.

“Either way, let’s take it down before the junior adventurer team gets here and show them the pride of veterans,”

The female warrior said this as she drew her sword and charged.

“Yeah. I’ll keep it pinned, and I’ll leave the rest to you.”

The male archer said this as he loosed an arrow at the basilisk.

“Got it!”

Kantaro, the spear-wielding leader, and the female warrior raised their weapons and rushed the basilisk.

As expected of adventurers in the B-rank band, they launched a coordinated preemptive attack without needing signals.

But the basilisk—mistaken for a Fire-Breathing Lizard—reacted even faster.

With a single Petrifying Gaze, it targeted the incoming arrow and the three charging figures: Kantaro, the female warrior, and the thief.

The arrow turned to stone just before reaching the basilisk’s eye, lost its momentum, fell to the ground, and shattered.

A moment later, Kantaro advancing with his spear at the ready and the female warrior swinging her sword were petrified as well.

“P-Petrification…!?”

The thief, who had been closing in from the blind spot behind the female warrior with a dagger in hand, stood frozen in shock.

The priestess was also stunned, but immediately realized that the monster wasn’t a Fire-Breathing Lizard and shouted a warning to the archer and the thief.

“Both of you, fall back for now! That’s a real basili—”

Before she could finish, the basilisk turned its Petrifying Gaze on the thief and the priestess as they emerged into view, turning both of them to stone.

“No way…!”

The remaining archer stiffened at the sight of his comrades’ transformed bodies, unable to move.

He was like a frog being stared down by a snake.

The basilisk slowly approached the last man and turned the archer to stone with its Petrifying Gaze as well.

That was the moment.

Slipping past the petrified archer, Ankh—wielding his magic greatsword reinforced by Aeris’s magic—and Zion in her black hood became two streaks of black light as they lunged at the basilisk.

The basilisk calmly met them with its petrifying gaze.

However, thanks to the [Abnormal Status Resistance] they had gained in the “Dragon’s Den,” the petrification had no effect.

Seeing that its gaze failed, the basilisk opened its mouth to breathe fire.

At that instant, an arrow Tauro fired was sucked straight in.

The arrow pierced the basilisk’s mouth, sealing its fire breath.

Ankh followed up by skewering it from the lower jaw through the head with his magic greatsword.

Then, as a finishing blow, Zion slammed her proud fists into its torso, sending shockwaves through its body.

Even so, the basilisk didn’t falter yet.

It lashed out at Ankh with its front legs, claws gleaming.

“[Area Defense: Aurora Shield]!”

Ragune chanted, and a shield of light appeared before Ankh, blocking the attack.

At that moment, Tauro fired a second arrow, which flew past Ankh’s face and plunged deep into the basilisk near its heart.

As if to pile on the assault, Aeris’s [Lightning Arrow] also streaked past Ankh’s face and pierced the basilisk.

“Hey! Leader! Aeris! That was way too close to my face!”

Ankh shouted angrily as he pulled his magic greatsword out of the basilisk.

The basilisk then collapsed on the spot, dead.

“I’ll listen to your complaints later. Right now, treating the petrification comes first!”

Seeing Fangs of the North Wind completely wiped out, Tauro hurried to begin treating them.