A few minutes later, Maruti woke up too. She saw Esdeath sitting quietly in a corner of the cave.
"Use your water affinity and give me some water to wash up," Maruti said, her voice sounding dry and sleepy. Her eyes still felt heavy and she wasn't fully awake.
Esdeath didn't say anything back. She just raised her index finger, pointed it at Maruti, and—Splash!...
A small splash of water shot through the air and hit Maruti right in the face, making her head completely wet.
"Wha—, What are you doing?" Maruti stammered, totally caught by surprise.
"We don't have time for a bath. I washed your face. That's good enough for now," Esdeath replied in her usual cold, calm tone as she stood up.
"No time? But I want to use the bone dragon essence stone. You're going to use your Time Cutting Edge too, right?" Maruti asked, her eyebrows scrunching together a little.
"No, just refining it was enough for now. By the time I absorb it, it'll already be evening. Plus, using the bone dragon essence stone will paralyze your body for maybe more than a week," Esdeath replied. She stopped for a second and then kept talking.
"The Great Serpent has probably started to heal by now, too. If we take any longer, it might just leave the area. I stole its prey right when it was about to go, so it would hold a grudge against us and want revenge. But in the end, it's just a beast. It won't wait around forever," Esdeath explained.
This was all part of her bigger plan. She could have stolen the Year Beast's corpse early in the morning, but she made sure to do it less than two minutes after the serpent left. She did this so the Great Serpent would feel humiliated and would definitely hold a grudge for stealing it's prey.
That way, while they were busy with the bone dragon and collecting their reward, their other prey—the Great Serpent—wouldn't leave the area and would be waiting nearby.
This made their job a lot easier and saved them a ton of time, especially since their prey could control space. Once it teleported away, there was no use in chasing it. They would never find it again.
To be honest, if Maruti hadn't been with her, Esdeath would have given up on refining the Rank A Time Cutting Edge after trying for just three days.
After all, refining an essence stone is incredibly hard, especially a Rank A one. Some people might try for months, or even years, and still not succeed. Some people might never be able to refine one at all.
So, if she were alone, she would have had no choice but to put all her hopes on Lortell instead.
But she had Maruti—someone who had a natural talent for refining. Because of that, she decided to spend a few extra days, trusting in Maruti's talent.
Still, that was all the time she could risk. Wasting any more time might mean they would lose another valuable prey.
****
Maruti stood up too, stretching her arms and legs. "I'm always ready for a fight, but let's eat first," she said, sounding hungry.
Esdeath nodded, agreeing with her. Luckily, they had already hunted enough food before this, so they didn't have to waste time looking for something to eat.
They made a normal bonfire and cooked the meat after washing it off. At this point, they were getting used to just eating plain cooked meat with a little bit of salt.
"I wonder if refining essence stones is really that easy. I mean, back at the academy, everyone made it seem like such a huge deal, like it was the hardest thing ever. But here I am, and I just refined two Rank A essence stones," Maruti says. In a way, what she was saying made a lot of sense.
"It's not just about being able to refine an essence stone. Not everyone can get all the materials they need in sufficient amounts, so they don't have to worry about messing up several times. Some people are just scared of failing and dealing with the painful and unexpected backlash. There are so many reasons. That's why even royal families only have a few of them, like, in the single digits," Esdeath explained, clearing up all of Maruti's questions.
After they finished eating, they rested for just a few minutes and then left right away for their next hunt.
Maruti was really excited for another thrilling fight, and Esdeath was excited too, because once this was over, it would finally be time for her to go home.
As they were walking, Maruti asked, "Do you have a plan for dealing with it? What if it just teleports away?"
"Oh, yeah. I was just about to tell you. I've actually been learning a space-type magic for a while now. Kirmada can teleport as well, after all," Esdeath answered.
"But I haven't mastered it yet. It's just pure magic, without using any essence stone. So I'll focus all my energy on stopping it from teleporting away. It'll slow down its movements, too. While I'm doing that, you need to deal as much damage as you can. I'll be really happy if you're kill it, though," Esdeath replied, laying out her plan.
She then tossed her ZK-20 into Maruti's hand again.
"Here. Don't miss this time," Esdeath said, throwing it over to her.
Maruti caught it effortlessly and turned it into modest looking saber form.
Both of them looked ahead. They were back in the same spot where the huge battle between the Bone Dragon, the Great Serpent, and the Year Beast had taken place.
Most of the mess from the fight was already gone, wiped away by the sand, but the bones of many creatures from the bone dragon's army were still scattered everywhere.
"Are you sure it'll come back?" Maruti asked, feeling a bit uncertain.
Esdeath only smirked, looking amused. "I'm pretty damn sure."
True to her judgement , The moment they got close to the spot where the Year Beast's body had been, the air grew heavy and tense.
Their instincts were already screaming that something was about to happen.
"Get ready. It's coming," Esdeath yelled.
Reality itself seemed to twist and tear, opening a huge portal by ripping the space apart.
"Scrieekkchh.....", A loud shriek came from inside the portal as the giant head of the Great Serpent poked out. Its eyes were burning with pure fury.
Its hissing sounds were filled with both rage and joy, because it was finally about to get its revenge.
A few seconds later, the Great Serpent's whole body came out, showing off just how massive it was. Parts of its thick scales were broken, some spots looked like they had just recently healed, and there were still many open wounds all over its body.
In the last week, it's state had gotten better than expected. It had healed a lot, but it was still far from being at full strength.
Before it even had a chance to attack, Esdeath didn't wait for a single breath.
"Barrier Magic!" she shouts.
Multiple transparent cubes starts to appear, covering the Great Serpent's entire body.
At the same time, Maruti starts jumping into the air, using air steps to leap high into the sky, holding the ZK-20 in her hand.
Naturally, when it saw Maruti coming, the Great Serpent focused all its attention on her.
It tried to open several more teleportation gates to attack Maruti, but as it did, a sudden wave of panic rushed through it.
For some reason, it couldn't use its teleportation gates at all.
Acting on instinct, it tried to use the back of its tail like a whip to smash Maruti, but its body felt weirdly hard to control.
Instead of swinging its tail, it ended up flipping over completely by accident.
This was all because of the Barrier Magic.
It stopped anyone from using any kind of space-related powers.
The reason she didn't use it on the bone dragon was because there was no point. The bone dragon didn't have any space-related tricks, so the magic wouldn't have worked on it anyway.
And the reason it was able to mess with the Great Serpent's movements was because of the serpent's own strong connection to the space element.
Esdeath hadn't yet improved her Barrier Magic enough to stop just anyone from moving. Right now, the Great Serpent's natural connection with space was actually being turned against it, making it weak.
But somehow, looking at the still Esdeath, the Great Serpent realized something was wrong.
It immediately opened its mouth, getting ready to attack Esdeath.
But it was already too late. A huge pillar of blinding, divine light came down from the sky, landing right on the part of its body where its scales were already broken and vulnerable.
A loud shriek, full of pain, came from its mouth as a huge wound opened up on its neck.
Even after the divine light disappeared, the flesh in that area was still burning.
Before it could even turn to face her, Maruti dove straight down at it, pulling the ZK-20 saber back in her hand.
The saber was burning with a deep orange and yellow fire, looking like it was covered in both the fires of hell and a holy light.
"Take this!"
STAB!...
She stabbed the saber right into the burning wound. Diving deep, she made such a long cut that it almost sliced the serpent's head clean off.
She didn't stop there. Even though she didn't manage to behead it completely, she changed the direction of her slash, going all the way down its body to its tail in one smooth motion.
"Now that's something I like!" Maruti laughed out loud, feeling pure joy. Fighting this thing felt even better than fighting the bone dragon.
Even Esdeath's face lit up with a smile. "Good job, Predictor! Throw the ZK-20 towards me," she shouted.
"Here!", Maruti yelled, immediately throwing the ZK-20 towards Esdeath.
Esdeath instantly let her barrier magic disappear, which meant she could move again. She snatched the ZK-20 right out of the air.
But the second she did that, the Great Serpent felt the restrictions on it disappear, too. Its eyes shot wide open, like someone who had just seen a spark of hope in the darkness.
It lifted its head, which was half-cut off, and began to open a portal. This was a portal that would take it far, far away from this place.
At the exact same time, Esdeath turned the ZK-20 into a scythe and jumped into the air to deliver the final, killing blow.
The gate swirled in the sky, ripping the fabric of space apart once again. The Great Serpent's ruby-red eyes showed a reflection of the giant portal. To it, this was a gate leading to salvation.
It put every last bit of its strength into moving its body, trying to reach the portal by any means possible.
But for some strange reason, its body felt extremely sluggish.
It wasn't just its body. Its thoughts, its breathing, even the world around it felt slow, as if time itself had decided to slow down.
And then—"Shadow Slash!"
Thud!...
The Great Serpent's vision became a blur. Its world spun as its head fell from its body and hit the ground. Its massive body twitched a few times before all the life drained out of it for good.
"Finally, it's over," Maruti sighs, feeling a huge wave of relief wash over her.
Both of them were in a great mood at that moment. After defeating the Great Serpent, they took their time dragging its huge body back into the dragon's lair.
Then they started the messy work of peeling off its tough, armor-like scales and skin. After that, they cut its body into several big pieces, leaving only the skeleton behind.
Once they had divided everything between them, they took a long, refreshing bath to clean themselves up. They changed out of their torn, dirty clothes and put on new ones.
By the time they finished all of this, the evening had already arrived.
The setting sun was painting the clouds with beautiful shades of purple and orange, and its soft, gentle light was spreading across the ground.
Esdeath and Maruti stood at the entrance of the dragon's lair, gazing out at the huge, empty desert. A satisfied smile was on both of their faces.
"It's time to go back," Esdeath said, her voice filled with a rare softness and a feeling of longing.