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  —[ Northern Great Ape ]—

  Tier 2 — Low Predator, capable of facing elite 3-4 Ascendants.

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  Sieg grimaced — the stat screen didn't show any important information about the ape's weaknesses. He would just have to gauge them without relying on any stats.

  "Do you know anything about this ape? Any information would help," Sieg asked the female sorcerer.

  "I do. Apes like this have extremely good senses and can decipher languages. They're quite smart," she confirmed.

  "I see. Good to know," Sieg replied.

  As the caravan rode and the great ape followed, the male sorcerer tapped Sieg on the shoulder. "What's your plan, candidate?"

  "Step back! We'll shoot it!" Intellectual Man suddenly said as he primed his rifle, aiming at the ape. Then, to his surprise, Sieg laid a finger on the muzzle of the firearm.

  "That won't work. You'll only be wasting bullets," Sieg said, but he didn't give any reason to justify his decision. Intellectual Man was about to argue back, but the Female Sorcerer chimed in, "Listen to him."

  Intellectual Man seemed incapable of saying no to her. "Fine, then we'd better think of something fast! That thing is getting closer!" Intellectual Man remarked, while Scrawny Man echoed the sentiment.

  Broad-shouldered Man remained patient, waiting for directions and trusting these clearly more powerful people.

  Sieg glanced at the Male Sorcerer and then at his weapon. "That's imbued with Arts, right?"

  The Male Sorcerer confirmed it was enchanted. They knew it would be one of the most important weapons in this confrontation, along with the Female Sorcerer's abilities.

  Well, on second thought… I don't think we'll actually need it. Sieg thought to himself

  The sound of the caravan and galloping horses filled the air, and Sieg made his move. "Listen, fire multiple fireballs, but not too much that you strain yourself. Then, on my mark, fire the big one, the same thing you did at the gate—"

  As Sieg was giving orders, the ape took something out of its butt and then, without warning, threw its feces at them. It flew through the air, but the Female Sorcerer saw it coming and responded by unleashing her [Unique Spell-Art], Conjure Frost, not wanting the dookie to get inside the caravan.

  Sieg smirked secretly, trusting that the Female Sorcerer would instinctively handle whatever came her way, leaving him free to focus on timing the Male Sorcerer's attack.

  Female Sorcerer froze the mist in the air, catching the rather large feces mid-flight, then immediately shattered it once it was encased in ice. The stench was still so strong that they could smell it from a few paces away.

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  Fortunately, None of it hit the caravan.

  Most people in the caravan almost puked, including Sieg, though the male and female sorcerers were protected by their masks.

  "I suggest you command faster! Right now you're too slow!" the Female Sorcerer yelled at Sieg, wanting him to realize that his hesitation could compromise them. But Sieg was amazed by the Female Sorcerer's Arts, and by how easily abusable it was.

  "Why can't you guys just do something instead of waiting for this guy's orders?!" Intellectual Man complained, he felt irritated that the male and female sorcerers had to wait for the slum boy's commands.

  He was backed by Scrawny Man and Broad-shouldered Man.

  "Stay out of this—" the Male Sorcerer made it clear, his tone was perfectly intimidating. A faint pressure seemed to settle in the air, causing the three men to back away.

  WOOSH!

  The ape then threw rocks at them, and the Female Sorcerer responded with another use of her [Unique Spell-Art], Conjure Frost. Instead of freezing the rocks this time, she erected ice walls to protect them from the projectiles.

  The great ape smashed through most of it, but then—"FIRE NOW!" Sieg yelled.

  The Male Sorcerer was already readying his [Basic Spell-Art, Inferno], at the same time the ice wall was erected, giving the ape no time to dodge as it was preoccupied with breaking through the barrier.

  "I knew it! It worked!" Indeed, the Male Sorcerer's Inferno connected with the passing ape, causing a massive explosion of hellfire.

  "What?! You could've just done that from the start!" Intellectual Man complained again.

  "No, you dumbass!" Sieg shot back before explaining his master plan.

  The ape had good senses and could understand and decipher languages — Sieg exploited this by purposely giving the Male Sorcerer a verbal order to fire multiple Infernos, then a big one.

  The great ape heard it and anticipated the attack, reacting by grabbing its buttocks while running and throwing the dookie at them, intending to block the coming barrage of fireballs.

  But that didn't happen, instead, the Female Sorcerer reacted instinctively, blocking the flying ape dookie.

  She then complained that Sieg was rather slow in his commanding, backed by Intellectual Man's words. That was when Sieg intentionally appeared hesitant, prompting the ape to throw a rock at them as they looked like they had let their guard down, leading the ape to underestimate Sieg.

  If the Female Sorcerer hadn't nonverbally raised an ice wall to block the rocks, they wouldn't have had any opening at all. Sieg would have been forced to order the Male Sorcerer to fire fireballs just to intercept them, but fortune was on his side.

  The ape was fixated on breaking through the ice wall, leaving it no room to dodge whatever came next. That had been Sieg's main concern all along. The creature was nimble, and firing blindly without restricting its movement would have been pointless, it would simply evade every attempt.

  The Female and Male Sorcerers commended his exploits, praising Sieg for his actually rather simple plan.

  "Do you understand my brilliance now?" Sieg said, pride in his voice. Admittedly, it did shut down Intellectual Man's murmurs — after all, he could clearly see the result with a glance.

  The male sorcerer's Inferno slammed into the ape, with merciless flames erupting as the intense heat liquefied the ground along with the creature's flesh.

  The ape howled in agony, its staff slipping from its grasp and clattering onto the ground, its fur and skin charring almost instantly, before finally dying onto the blackened path.

  "I don't think we should celebrate. This clearly isn't the tundra beast we were looking for," the Male Sorcerer said, bringing them all back to reality as the caravan rode into the snow.

  "Agreed. I wouldn't be so relaxed. There's still the possibility that there are more of them, we should always be prepared…" the Female Sorcerer suggested calmly.

  Intellectual Man slumped in his seat, reflecting on everything that had happened. Scrawny Man and Broad-Shouldered Man processed the day's events in their own ways.

  But Sieg was quite terrified. "We got lucky… if that ape ever fights us head-on, it would've shredded us apart…"

  He gulped. "Let's find a place to camp — and rest."

  And everyone agreed…

  Chapter End.