by TurtleMe
I needed to get close to it, but to do that, I needed to be able to dodge the titan bear’s attacks.
The titan bear, aware of my vulnerable state, began smirking confidently again. I wasn’t sure how the titan bear was able to manifest those nearly unperceivable spells, but there was one way of discerning it.
Standing back up, shakily, I waited. To the titan bear, it must’ve looked like I had given up because its smile got even wider as it began licking its lips again in anticipation.
Just as the titan bear lifted its paw up, I firmly kicked the ground in front of me, creating a cloud of dust, covering me from view.
Four slivers immediately sliced through the dust cloud I had made between the beast and me, allowing me to just barely see how wide the attack was before I immediately used Burst Step to avoid it.
“Damn it,” I spat through gritted teeth from the sharp pangs of protest in my legs.
Rolling on the ground and back onto my feet, I prepared myself again. I knew the hitbox of one of his attacks now, and I could make do with that. However, I still needed to be able to completely dodge the attack in the least amount of movement as possible if I’m going to dodge all of his attacks and clear the distance between us.
Thoughts of Kordri’s training popped into my head, and I couldn’t help but reveal a helpless smile. Either this was some big coincidence, or Windsom was indeed a calculative devil.
I glimpsed the impatient titan bear release another attack, this time with a thrust of his paw. I immediately kicked up another cloud of dust to buy time, but the bell attached to me constantly gave away my position. Reacting immediately as a hole tore through the cloud of dust, I forced another Burst Step.
“The more you run, the more painful it’ll be for you and the less of you there’ll be left for me to eat.” The mana beast let foul chuckle that didn’t match his cute appearance.
“Okay! I won’t run anymore!” I stood still with my hands up.
I could clearly make out the almost human-like expression of a triumphant sneer on the bear’s face as it casually released another slicing attack with the swipe of its paw.
I barely had the time to swallow back a choke as I executed the modified Burst Step I had been working on.
As I willed mana into the proper muscles at the precise timing while strengthening my bones to help withstand the force of this abrupt stimulation, I heard a sharp crack from my legs before I was hit with the all-too-familiar sensation of high-speed motion just as the titan bear’s blunt spell pressed against my chest.
My body shifted less than a meter to the right, and the attack that was supposed cave my chest in just barely grazed my left shoulder.
Even more blood began flowing out from the deep gash on my left leg from the sudden pressure I had exerted to use Burst Step; a small crater had formed beneath my legs from the sheer force of the movement. Despite the success of my new movement skill, the explosion of pain that was growing increasingly unbearable had filled me with doubt.
Through sheer will and my own stubbornness to win this fight against my unruly body, I choked down the pain as I concentrated more mana to my lower body.
The titan bear stared at me, confused at first but it’s gaze soon turned sour as it narrowed its eyes in irritation.
Before it had the chance to release its next attack, I kicked at the ground again, creating a cloud of debris to separate us.
I had less than a second to dodge the bear’s attack once it passed through the dust cloud, and I was willing to bet the next assault wouldn’t be just a single attack.
In the midst of this game of dodging the lethal attacks, I had figured out the basis of successfully implementing my new Burst Step. Just as I had to coordinate the mana in my muscles to propel my body, I had to mirror the progression of mana flow in my body to stop the movement as well.
The ground underneath my feet had sunken, once again, due to the force I had to expel in order to come to a stop, but it had worked again.
The cloud of dust I had created was torn into pieces a flurry of attacks from the titan bear headed straight at me.
Burst.
My vision blurred as I propelled myself to the right. The rigid ground cracked at the force of my landing about two meters away. The first step had me gritting in pain but using Burst Step again had sent an explosion of agony through my lower body as the muscles and bones inside me nearly gave out from the stress.
Just as the bell rang, giving away my position, I locked my mouth into a determined snarl and swallowed back any screams of pain that were building up in my throat, and executed Burst Step once more to reach my opponent. The titan bear’s head spun at the sound of my bell, but by that time, I had already closed the gap.
The bear’s dark eyes widened as its maw opened in surprise. Through the haze of pain, I let out a brash smirk. Mana had already been concentrated into my fist to the degree that it was glowing slightly.
The titan bear flailed back. “Wai—”
My augmented fist buried itself into tiny bear’s stomach, creating a loud thud on impact before the mana beast’s body shot towards the edge of the ravine, crashing into the rocky cliff from where I fell.
My legs, numb from the pain, finally relented and the cold ground was soon pressed up against my cheek. Using the last of my remaining strength, I tore off the bell from my waist and crushed it in my hand before my vision darkened and an alluring call beckoned me to sleep.
WINDSOM’S POV:
Arriving down at the gorge, I inspected the scene. There was a silver panther sprawled out, dead, with the ground dyed in blood beneath it. Nearby boulders had deep gashes while there were craters in the ground and wall surrounding them.
‘What exactly had happened here?’ I spotted the boy on the ground and a crater depressed onto the cliff that surrounded this ravine.
‘The boy came all the way down here?’ Arthur was in a rather pitiful state. Tearing off the last of his tattered clothes, he had at least three broken ribs, and the gashes on his chest had reached too deep to be considered a mere flesh wound. However, the most concerning injuries were surprisingly on his legs, as they had become blotched with a sickly purple and red color from extensive internal bleeding. I couldn’t make out the gravity of his wounds, but it had to be treated soon.
‘Was it wrong of me to have left Arthur alone like this? Lord Indrath had ordered me to give the boy some room to grow on his own, but seeing the state he was in now, he could’ve died.’
After treating the boy, I focused my attention on the creature in the center of the blast radius on the ravine’s rocky wall.
“Hmm?” It looked like the cub of a titan bear, but that didn’t make sense. A cub of this size didn’t even have the strength to defend itself; it shouldn’t have been able to injure the boy like this.
A full grown titan bear would stand at least three meters tall, possessing superior defense with its thick coat, but even a full grown one wouldn’t be able to cause this much devastation…
Unless…
Just as I took a closer look at the titan bear cub, its body started writhing unnaturally. Suddenly, its stomach bulged before a black tentacle erupted from inside the dead mana beast, wriggling frantically before it slumped.
“Of course.” Despite the situation, a content smile formed on my face.
‘That explained everything, but to think that Arthur was able to defeat one,’ I sighed.
Demon leech. It was a truly rare specimen that was as intelligent as it was foul native only to Epheotus. By itself, it was weak, but when it latched onto a mana beast, it was able to possess its body and strengthen its host’s core to ridiculous degrees.
Seeing how large the demon leech had grown inside the cub, it was easy to guess that this monster was definitely levels stronger than a mere titan bear.
The boy was lucky that the cub’s body was still fragile. If the leech had possessed a full grown titan bear…
There was no use postulating a
lternate possibilities. I’m sure it wasn’t done with intent, but Arthur had done right in aiming for the stomach of the cub since this was where the demon leech resided. If the leech had had the strength to make its way to Arthur’s body while he was unconscious, even Lord Indrath wouldn’t have been able to save the boy without crippling him.
Prying the demon leech from inside the corpse, I crushed the parasite in my hand.
“Here you are.” Left in my hand was a shiny white orb that the demon leech had been refining inside the titan bear.
I picked up the boy, placing the white orb inside his mouth. “Your difficulties have paid off for you tremendously, Arthur.”
Chapter 117: Steps Forward and Back
ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:
Even before I was able to open my eyes, the first thing I became aware of was the soft creaking of footsteps on old wood. Echoes of groaning floorboards resounded in my ears, allowing me to get a vague grasp of the size of the room I was held in.
An array of intoxicating smells—rich with unfamiliar herbs and spices—bombarded my senses, distracting me from anything else. Opening my eyes, the first thing to welcome me was the underside of a cottage roof. Besides the parched coarseness of my tongue from lack of water, my body felt fine; or at least, I thought, until I tried moving.
To my horror, there was no response when I tried to lift my legs; there was no sensation or feedback when I tried moving anything from the waist down. I immediately lifted the blankets covering my lower body, only to see that my legs had been completely bandaged and fashioned tightly to a wooden splint to keep them from moving.
“Your legs are fine, Child. I just had to numb them so that you wouldn’t be up all night from the pain,” a gentle, yet slightly brittle voice stirred my attention.
Turning to the origin of the kind voice, I was met with a tender smile from a woman well past her youth, seasoned with the signs of refined aging. While wrinkles marked her face, they did nothing to hide her dignified and graceful demeanor. Dressed in a simple gray robe to match her hair tied tightly in the back to come down in a braid, my caretaker approached me with sparkling eyes.
Letting out a sigh of relief at her words, I sank back down in the bed. “How do you feel, Child?” she cooed, placing a warm hand on my forehead.
I blinked uncomprehendingly. The last thing I remembered was landing a solid blow on the titan bear before passing out. I turned my head around, scanning my surroundings. I was in a spacious room, well-lit and heated by a fire crackling in a stone fireplace. Beside it was a small kitchen muddled with pots and pans of all sizes either hanging on the wall or stacked high on top of each other. Besides the worn upholstered couches placed around the fireplace and a small dining table in front of the kitchen, there was little else inside this cottage.
“Confused, are you?” the aged woman chuckled.
“Yeah,” I replied hoarsely before breaking down into a fit of coughs. The woman promptly got up from her seat beside me and came back with a mug of lukewarm water. After a few deep gulps of what tasted like liquid heaven, I felt confident enough to form cohesive words.
“Thank you…”
“—Myre. You can simply call me Myre, Child,” the lady finished for me, taking the empty mug from my hands.
As I sat there, a searing pain started creeping up my legs, as if a liquid fire had soaked them.
Mistaking my pained expression for fright, Myre let out a soft chuckle. “Don’t worry, I won’t eat you. Although, I did technically kind of steal you away from Windsom. Lucky I did, though. If I had gotten my hands on you any later, I’m afraid your legs would’ve taken a lot longer to heal.”
“I-It’s not that. My legs…” I managed to voice out through gritted teeth.
“Seems like the medicinal rub has lost its effect already." Placing the mug down on the nightstand beside me, Myre began to lift the only thing keeping me from being completely naked.
My hands immediately reached down to cover myself between my legs, which prompted another soft chuckle from my caretaker. Carefully folding the sheets so that only my legs were exposed, she gently hovered her hand over my bandaged legs.
As Myre began unwrapping the bandages, I was able to finally see the full extent of injuries my legs had incurred. I couldn’t help but grow puzzled by the sight of my bare legs. Scars that I never had were strewn across both legs. My knees and ankles had the most cuts, but what confused me most was that these scars looked as if they’d been on my legs for years.
Cold sweat began forming on my forehead as the pain in my legs got worse. Myre began carefully inspecting every inch of my legs after completely removing all of the bandages.
After a satisfied nod to herself, she brought over a bucket filled with a very pungent herbal liquid. I wordlessly observed my caretaker as she diligently cut and soaked strips of cloth and bandaged my legs with nimble fingers. I couldn’t help but fall into a trance from her rhythmic and dexterous movements.
“Elder Myre—”
“Please, Arthur, I would much prefer if you just called me Myre,” she cut me off, her attention still focused on my legs.
“Er, Myre, how long have I been unconscious for?” I asked, afraid that by my seemingly repaired legs, I’d been out for a long time.
“Just over two nights, My Dear." As she finished replacing the last bandage on my left calf, she turned to me, her misty green eyes studying me. “Now, how does that feel?"
“Much more comfortable. Thank you,” I assured gratefully as the pain began subsiding from the cold gel-like liquid soaked into the new bandages.
Accepting my gratitude with a placid smile, she gathered the used cloth and dumped it in a basin filled with water. After pouring some salt-like powder into it, she lifted her dress and stepped inside, using her feet to launder the used cloth.
“Myre, you must be exhausted. Let me wash that for you,” I hurriedly expressed as I willed mana into my hand, preparing to manipulate the water in the basin.
“No no, it’s fine, My Dear. Doing this gives these old bones a chance to get some exercise." She waved my help away with one hand as her other still held the ends of her dress.
As I continued staring blankly at her stomping on the drenched cloth, I couldn’t help but ask, “Myre, am I—are we—still in Epheotus?"
“Why of course we are, Child. Where else would you have been able to mend the sorry state of your legs?” Myre answered, maintaining her rhythmic stepping in the basin.
“My apologies, it’s just that…” My eyes fell to her feet.
“Oh. Well, I suppose it would be easier to do everything I have been doing with mana arts, but what fun is that? Even as asuras, there are things that magic can’t simulate. For example, the coldness of the water between my toes as the wet cloths wrap around my feet. What fun is waving your finger to move the water to do that for you?” she expressed, giving me a wink.
Her words baffled me, but I couldn’t hope to understand the perspective of an ancient race where magic was ingrained into their very being. “I’m sorry, it’s just that waking up in this state was rather confusing to me. Not to be rude, and I’m very thankful for your meticulous care, but I just thought that maybe healing mana art would have quickened the process of my recovery."
“If a simple healing spell had been cast on you, you’d be barely limping, and your bones would’ve taken on an entirely different shape,” the elder chuckled as she willed a towel into her hands with a snap.
Walking towards me, she curled her lips into a mischievous smile. “Besides, I did use mana art to mend your legs.”
Myre flicked her arm at me and, faster than I was able to react, an icy blast seared through my chest.
I immediately sprawled back on the bed, wide-eyed as I stared at the silvery mist that had engulfed the wound I had gotten from the titan bear. As the fire diminished, the once bleeding gashes across my rib cage began healing rapidly.
A musical laughter snapped me out of my daze, and I g
lanced down to see Myre failing to hold in her amusement. “Gets them every time!” she sighed, her hands still enveloped in the silvery mist.
“H-How?” I blubbered, my fingers tracing the once open cuts that grew smaller and became completely encrusted in scabs.
“A lady needs to have her secrets, My Dear.” Her voice softened as she coquettishly pressed a finger to her lips. Despite her old age, I couldn’t help but blush diffidently at her playful behavior.
Coughing down my embarrassment, I sat back up, albeit covering a little more of myself with the blanket. “Thank you for treating me, Myre, as well as your hospitality. I know there isn’t much room here."
“Not at all. Besides, this old cottage isn’t where I live. I merely use this place to get some peace and, from time to time, treat a patient,” she smiled, handing me a bowl of warm soup. “I don’t treat just anyone you know, but I wanted to meet the human boy who is supposedly the savior of the world,” she declared grandly before shooting me another wink.
Replying with a weak chuckle, I took a careful sip from the bowl. Immediately, a savory broth laced with refreshing hints of herbs enveloped my tongue, enticing me to greedily take another large gulp before setting it down on the nightstand.
“Don’t even try to get up tonight. The wounds on your legs weren’t as simple as the little gashes on your chest. It took hours for your legs to get back in that state, so just get some rest; that is your biggest priority,” Myre warned. “There is water on the counter within arm’s reach, and if you have to use the bathroom, there is a chamber pot right beside the bed. Good night, My Dear.”
Myre left me to my thoughts with the only source of light, the flames, writhing in the fireplace. It seemed like I had just closed my eyes for a second, thinking back to the silver flame she had conjured, when I was jerked awake from another pang of sharp throbs. The pain wasn’t as intense as it had been when Myre had changed the bandages for me, but it was agitating enough to keep me from falling back asleep. The cottage was almost completely dark aside from the few strands of moonlight that made it through the thatched roof.
