In the middle of the forest, two people were hiding, both were girls. Their pockets were full of all kinds of plants, but the truly important thing was nearby.
A gigantic ogre was roaming around; he had seen them and was now hunting them. He was over 3 meters tall and wielded a bat the size of a human as if it were nothing.
The girls, Liora and Selene, were terrified beyond belief. The aura emanating from that beast made them want to flee with all their might, but they knew they couldn't; if he saw them, they were dead, so they decided to stay completely silent.
The place was in almost complete silence, as each footstep of the gigantic creature generated small rumbles around it, and its breathing was absurdly loud.
"Ogre. Your teeth are necessary for Adriel's recovery ritual, so there's no point in not facing you. Here and now, we have our combat forces at their best." Kael presented himself before the absurdly giant monster. "You only beat me by a meter; I'm sure there are things thousands of times bigger than you."
Kael's words gave the feeling that he had an excessive confidence pulled out of thin air, but in his mind, he was terribly scared, something Liora noticed instantly. 'I'm focusing his attention on me, so Selene must attack him by surprise.'
The boy pulled out a gigantic cloak that was larger than the ogre itself and put it around his neck, so the fabric lay draped on the ground. "Now you see me." Kael threw the cloak forward, covering the ogre's entire field of vision, so it decided to attack in a straight line while Kael moved to the left. "Now you don't." He said when the fearsome monster's weapon hit the ground.
Selene climbed onto the ogre's back and stabbed near its neck, but the ogre threw her off with a swipe of its hand.
Elena began to use her hormones; the area began to fill with a strange smell, causing the ogre to make a depraved face and start heading towards Elena without his weapon drawn.
While this was happening, Kael managed to lunge and grab Selene to prevent her from being significantly hurt.
As all this was happening, Liora couldn't help but see the monster's erection. 'An erection consists of a concentration of blood in the veins and arteries of the member.'
Without thinking much, the girl launched her attack. She summoned a sword she had kept since they went for the slime and used it, cutting off the ogre's member, causing blood to gush out.
The ogre's face contorted upon feeling its member being amputated, but it didn't give up. With anger and hatred, it grabbed the girl and threw her hard against the ground, causing severe damage to her vertebrae.
The ogre grabbed the defenseless girl again, began to apply more and more force in its grip, wrapping around Liora's throat, trying to break it little by little.
While the monster was focused on the girl's suffering, Selene climbed onto the ogre again, while Kael used the blanket to restrain its other arm. With this combination, the ogre was unable to move to shake the girl off, so she grabbed two daggers she had stored and double-stabbed its throat, then moved both daggers to cut the rest of the flesh and skin connecting its head to its body, killing it with a final effort.
Thanks to its death, Liora managed to free herself from the grip, so she began to cough while trying to catch her breath.
While Liora was recovering, Selene stood by her side, her hand on the girl's back, trying to comfort her.
"Hey, Kael, since when do you fight with a cloak?" Elena asked the boy.
"I've never done it before, but I was inspired. Adriel never went to fencing classes, and he didn't have swords to practice on his own either; he's just a geek who loves that stuff." Kael held his cloak while his gaze softened and relaxed.
Elena's face turned a horrendous white. Her face reflected her disbelief. 'Was he really able to kill a denizen whose life was dedicated to fighting with swords?' At that moment, she realized something: the talent of the amazing hunter who subdued her without much trouble was too much for her.
"It's incredible, right? I even know he only went to boxing classes for about a month or two." The protector discarded his cloak and turned towards Liora to check on her.
After verifying that everything was fine with the girl, they positioned themselves to start carrying the ogre's body, as they needed its teeth for the ritual.
Out of nowhere, Elena stood in front of them, then pounced on Kael. "I need food!"
The protector kicked her, pushing her away from him. "What are you talking about? We haven't eaten either."
"The difference is that I haven't eaten for over two weeks, and using my ability used up the little energy I had left." Elena stood up and summoned a jar. "Please, pee in here."
Kael looked at the jar, then at the woman, and his gaze kept shifting. "Let's go somewhere private."
Kael and Elena left for a while but returned intact. 'I guess no one saw, so my pride remains intact.' That thought was read by Liora, who also focused on Elena's mind, but her thoughts were everywhere except what happened with Kael.
...
Adriel had his face buried in the book. For a long time, he had a theory, but he realized that several rituals had supplementary objects that gave new qualities to the ritual, something present in the one required to recover his arm.
'The plants are sacrifices for the god to be called upon, the slime's eyes are a representation of regeneration, while the teeth are to provide the creature's DNA. An example would be me taking the pheasant's beak to make its wings grow on my arm.'
Adriel got excited and was about to tell Azucena his discovery, but he saw the group arriving with the ogre, all giving their maximum effort to carry it.
He knew his arm was severely injured, but decided to approach them. "Let me help you. Even without an arm, I can provide some help with my right hand."
"Of course," Elena replied immediately.
The ogre's body became slightly heavier for everyone when Kael quickly hit Elena on the back of the neck. "No, we'll move it."
Adriel just gave them a smile and went back to where he was before.
Soon, they called him to lie down on the grass. Everyone gathered around him; Amara was standing while the others were seated. She closed her eyes as the others placed items on him. All the plants were placed on his chest, while the slime's eyes and the ogre's fangs were placed on his left arm.
Seeing this, the hunter touched Azucena's knee, who was the person closest to his right hand. "The fangs should go on each arm; if both are placed on the left, it will become too heavy due to muscle mass. What happens is that these are just to capture one's DNA and make a new, much stronger arm, but I need both arms to have the same weight." Although he said it directly to Azucena, everyone heard, so most were surprised to hear it, but felt he was reliable enough now to listen to him.
When everything was ready, Amara's silhouette rose even higher over Adriel as she began to speak, her hands holding the dagger they believed was necessary for the ogre's body ritual.
"Oh, great god of the sacred art of healing. We ask for your strength to heal the arm of this servant who has been on the verge of falling in battle. With the sacrifice of part of the slime and the ogre's fangs, as well as a great heap of your sacred plants, we ask you to heal this poor lost deer!"
When she finished, a blue light completely enveloped Adriel; it was almost completely transparent but did not lose its beauty. After a while, the boy's arm began to heal; first, the bones started to come together while the missing ones reappeared, his flesh rejoined, and his blood vessels regrouped.
Soon, it was clear how his arm was as good as new; every part that once seemed irreparable became completely pristine, like the arm of a newborn, only larger.
Everyone leaned in to see how Adriel would react, but when they saw him, he was completely knocked out.
Amara's face paled completely upon seeing this; she grabbed him by the shoulders and began shouting nonsense while shaking him.
A while later, he woke up. "What happened to you?" He asked Azucena with clearly genuine concern.
Adriel didn't answer her immediately; he rubbed his eyes and then opened them before speaking. "It hurt like hell; I guess it was like surgery without anesthesia." The boy felt a shiver throughout his body. "I felt every movement inside my arm; I felt like I was dead for an instant."
He opened his eyes wide and then lunged at Azucena, giving her a big hug. "I don't remember if I said it or not, but I had planned that the first thing I would do when I recovered my left arm was this."
Azucena looked clearly surprised but returned the affectionate act.
From a distance, their friends watched Adriel have his dream romance. "I'd bet on how long they'll last, but I don't have any money to offer."
Liora laughed a little at Kael's comment, but then she read everyone's minds... They wondered who got the ogre's reward, but none of those who fought it had that information. 'Did no one receive the reward notification?'