Chapter 523: Total Annihilation

The next morning, under the orders of Kantaro—the leader of the B-rank adventurer team Fangs of the North Wind— a search for the basilisk was to be carried out, focusing on the location where the villagers had spotted it.

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

“Tauro’s team will search from the forest on the right. We’ll cover the left and the center. Even if you find it, don’t try to defeat it yourselves, all right? The enemy is a fire-breathing lizard, a C-rank subjugation target. Depending on its size, it can even fall into B-rank territory. 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 subjugation targets, and even then, it is a monster that requires careful preparation.

B-rank teams often take on large monsters with C- or D-rank adventurers acting as assistants, and basilisks are among those monsters.

Under normal circumstances, about three teams would be needed, along with countermeasures against petrification and preparations for the fact that basilisks are highly resistant to magic. However, this time Fangs of the North Wind did not believe the target to be the extremely rare, legendary basilisk, so they had prepared almost no such 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 was not considered particularly urgent.

Because of that, both the Adventurers’ Guild and Fangs of the North Wind assumed it was probably just 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 Nol Village, the adventurer team Fangs of the North Wind, and Tauro’s Black-Golden 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 using his honed Presence Detection combined with True Eye. Because of that, they searched farther away from the center—but Tauro ended up spotting the silhouette of a suspicious monster before the “Fangs of the North Wind” thief 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 but for them to instead 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, it was their team that were first at the site where the basilisk was discovered.

“This thing’s huge—even for a fire-breathing lizard!”

Kantaro exclaimed.

“Kantaro, I don’t think this is a fire-breathing lizard!”

Said the female priest in the party.

“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,”

Said the female warrior as she drew her sword and charged.

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

Said the male archer, letting an arrow loose at the basilisk.

“got it!”

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

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

But the basilisk—mistaken for a fire-breathing lizard—reacted even faster.

With a single glare of its 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 was not 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 emerged from her blind spot and, with another Petrifying Gaze, turned both the thief and the priestess into 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, with its petrifying gaze, turned the archer to stone as well.

That was the moment.

Slipping past the petrified archer, Ankh—wielding his great magic sword 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 Status Ailment 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 up through the head with his great sword.

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

Even so, the basilisk did not 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 Great Sword 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 the completely wiped-out state of Fangs of the North Wind, Tauro hurried to begin their treatment.