Karl's keen vision caught sight of the white cloth moving toward them at a run through the forest, a full second before he managed to associate the clothing with its most likely owner.
"Those are clergy robes. No more than 150 centimetres tall, I think that they're students from one of the Seminary Academies." Karl informed the others, then moved to intercept the two running figures.
If he was wrong, he had all the advantages, and if they didn't want to stop, he could just have Rae tie them up until they calmed down.
The two came barrelling through the trees, then paused when they saw the Academy uniforms, and began to gesture wildly.
"You have to get out of here. There is a giant monster in the sky." One of them shouted.
"Three metre wingspan, kind of brown with a creamy belly and red streaks on its legs? That one is trained, he's with us." Karl informed them, and the two clerics simply stared at him as if he had grown another head.
"A what now? That sounds terrifying. But no, there is a giant beetle flying this way. It killed our lesson proctor, and he was an Ascended High Priest." The young boy exclaimed.
"How far have you been running? We are all Elites, and we are hunting for magical plants in the area. There are ten of us, with two strong Awakened Rank leaders." Karl tried to calm the pair.
Clerics weren't known for their combat power. They would empower the weapons of warriors and their healing magic was remarkable, but as far as actual fighting abilities, they were just humans with swords if they were even carrying them.
"That might be enough? Can you fight an Ascended Rank beast?" The boy asked hopefully, while the girl beside him did her best to hide her face.
"I can confidently say, yes. We can fight a lone Ascended Rank monster. If there were a bunch of them, we would lead you away with us, but one is something that we can defeat." Karl replied with a gentle smile.
Hawk was getting excited as well. Most beetles didn't fly well, they only flew a short distance and then landed. His genetic memories told him that beetles were crunchy and nutritious, though he wasn't sure that this one was a species that could be eaten.
Rae was likewise excited about the prospect. To the Bloodbath Spider, all insects were prey.
The sound of crashing through the trees brought another trill from Hawk, who had spotted a large black figure headed their way, covered in blood and reeking of death. That had to be the beetle, and it was tracking the two humans.
"Everyone in position, get the clerics to the middle of the circle." Karl ordered, doing his best imitation of Sergeant Rita.
He did it so well that even Dana responded, ushering everyone into position, while her Golems remained outside, ready to face whatever threat Karl had noticed.
The crashing through the trees was hard to miss as the beetle chased after the escaped prey, so Karl called out the other pets in time for the students to get used to their presence.
"These two are Thor and Rae. DO NOT attack them." He warned the others.
The students stared in confusion at the sudden appearance of the Lightning Cerro, who was already the size of a small bear or a huge dog, but it took them a few seconds to find Rae, who had appeared in a tree and instantly hidden herself.
The beetle came in sight, and Lightning flashed around Thor's body. That caught its attention, and the creature began to charge, keening in a way that made Karl feel like the creature was starving and desperate for food.
"Wait for my signal. Thor, block the initial charge, then move out of the way for the students to retaliate." Karl called.
The beetle flapped its wings to fly at Thor, then crashed to the ground as Rae tied them together above its back with a spurt of spider silk.
The muscles that moved the wings weren't particularly strong, and it couldn't break free as Thor charged into it, flipping the creature on its back with a jab of his horns.
"Now!" Karl ordered as Thor moved away, sending his own attack to join the combined spells of the mages.
They wouldn't actually do much damage to the Ascended Rank beast, but as his Shred tore apart the chitin, and the wings were held up, exposing its vulnerable sides, even the Common Rank magical attacks proved relatively effective.
With a screech, the beetle tore its wings free of their confinement, and charged at Thor again, drawn to the largest threat.
The students paused their attacks, waiting for an opening, while Karl moved in for the kill.
Thor's lightning wavered and flickered out of existence for an instant as the two beasts clashed, and the beetle began to celebrate its impending victory, a split second before Rae landed on its head and began to stab its eyes out with her clawed feet before tearing into the chitin of the beetle's skull.
Karl helped that along with a condensed [Rend] to the back of the creature's neck, and the Bloodbath Spider moved in for the kill, tearing through the hole to sever the muscles.
The giant beetle fell to the ground with one last desperate flail of its wings, trying to dislodge Rae, but it was far too late. The strength left its body, and the spider began to tear the shell open to get at the good bits inside.
"Don't go getting yourself covered in bug guts, there's no river nearby to clean off in." Karl warned her, just as Rae was about to take a dive directly into the carcass.
She grumbled out a complaint and pulled the head into her beast space, while Thor gave it one last kick for good luck.
"Problem solved everyone. We will keep an eye out for more dangers, but the beetle threat is gone.
Where are the cleric students? How far did you run, and how many more were in your group?" Karl asked.
They both just shook their heads. "There was just us and the High Priest out gathering herbs. I don't know how far we ran, we just ran."
Karl nodded. "I will have my Hawk go look for the scene of the battle. I know that the church has some formal burial rituals and such, right?"
The two young clerics nodded numbly, not quite sure how to process what was going on.
"Well, then we will get it all sorted out so that the High Priest is taken care of. Don't worry, we won't just leave the body here in the wilderness." Karl informed them.
There likely wouldn't be a body to leave in the wilderness, but a little white lie wouldn't hurt anything, and if there was a blood soaked keepsake that the beetle didn't eat, it should be enough for their purposes.
It would make both the cleric students and the other Elite students feel a bit better about the situation, Karl decided, then wondered when he got so casual about death.
[Meat is meat.] Hawk replied, unconcerned.
Rae wholeheartedly agreed, but Thor just shook his head. Fragrant leaves were better than meat any day.