Saileri
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[TWS] Chapter 14 - Bloodfang
🕑 Added 2020-10-23 13:27:57 +0000 UTCAsterios observed the main threat that they would be facing. It was no normal wolf but a magical beast sometimes found in his realm. Bloodfangs weren’t that powerful entities, but they were much more dangerous than your typical canines. Its size was smaller than Miria’s panther form, somewhere around 3/4 of her body. He recalled what he knew about them and placed his hand on Miria’s shoulder.
“We need to get rid of the red one as soon as possible. I’d rather have us run, but it’s not like we have a sure way to escape,” he spoke, without moving his gaze from the crimson beast.
“Leave it to me, Master. I’ll take it down before the normal ones even react!” She prepared herself to jump forward, but Ast gripped her shoulder tighter.
“Don’t make rash decisions. Bloodfangs are vicious and dangerous. Focus on dodging and defending. Do not let it draw your blood at any cost. It can use most of its powers only after tasting the blood of its prey. And do whatever you can to avoid its bites. Bloodfang’s saliva is highly toxic and will paralyze you in an instant and that would be the end of us.”
Miria listened attentively to her master’s briefing, making sure that she didn’t miss any detail since it was the first time she encountered this beast. She already started enveloping her blades with thin layers of mana and laid some strengthening boosts in all her limbs for future use, specifically in her legs.
Asterios brought out a dagger and quickly covered it with a poison extracted from the fang of a Coiling Marl Serpent. If it were to make contact with blood, a violent reaction would occur, rupturing most of the target’s blood vessels and quickly spreading itself through their body, causing excruciating pain. It was his most potent poison he was immensely lucky to gather when Ast stumbled on a dying serpent in the past. But, there was no room for hesitation.
“I’ll grab the attention of the normal wolves, you focus on the main one,” he said to Miria.
She turned her head to him. “But, if we split, I won’t be able to protect you.”
“We won’t get anywhere without getting rid of the Bloodfang. I can handle a few dogs, I’m tougher than I look. And, be careful.”
He patted her head and brushed through her hair with his fingers before jumping to the side and breaking into a run. Miria, slightly hesitant, decided to follow Ast’s plan and redirected all her focus onto her designated target. She wanted to kill the beast before Asterios suffered any injuries.
As he hoped, most of the wolves followed Ast, leaving only a few around Miria. They sensed which opponent seemed clearly weaker and focused on him. He saw his partner dash forward and clash with the Bloodfang.
「Bring it on!」
Ast readied himself in response to the increasing growling surrounding him. Soon, the wolves started their assault. Knowing that he had no one to protect his back now, Asterios parried the bite of one of the assailants, leaving a cut on the side of its head, and moved closer to a wall while avoiding strikes from the other enemies.
He managed to reach it somehow. Now, it was much easier to hold on, having to focus only on the front and the sides. Two wolves he wounded on his way were lying on the ground and yelping in pain. The poison was truly horrendous.
But even with those two advantages, he still was facing around 15 of those wild animals. Fortunately, his body was in a good condition so he was able to avoid most of the multiple attacks, with only one in five leaving a scratch or cut on his skin. Unfortunately, he still had troubles with striking back at the agile wolves.
Asterios took a chance to shove his hand into one of his pouches during a small break in between the wolves’ attacks and pulled out a purple, crystal sigil of the size of a coin. He squeezed it within his left hand and filled it with mana, readying the item for activation.
The next time three wolves tried attacking together, he quickly slammed his left fist into the ground, and with some crackling, purple lightning shot out from the point of impact, passing through the beasts and paralyzing them for a short moment. But that moment was enough for Ast to swiftly leave a few cuts on their bodies before their friends joined the fray.
He opened his palm and black dust poured out of it, the sign of a used-up Lightning Wave spell sigil. Ast shook his hand, trying to get rid of the numbing feeling that follows the use of those items. He had a few more on him, but his body would wear down faster than his stock if he kept overusing the sigils.
While Asterios was having his battle near one of the walls, Miria was engaged with the Bloodfang. She easily cut down all wolves on her path to it with her enhanced blades and lunged straight for the head of the big one. It surprised her with its agility, dodging the blow barely in time.
The creature answered with a lunge of its own, making a powerful swing with its claws. Miria blocked the attempt, but it pushed her a bit back. Its strength and agility were quite competitive even with her own being really high. She focused on parrying its next attacks, not giving the beast a chance to even scratch her.
Two wolves suddenly jumped at her from the sides while the Bloodfang was preparing a bite. She made her move first, closing the distance between her and it, and kicking the head of the beast from above, using it to propel herself into the air, evading the two wolves aiming for her legs.
When she was above them, Miria spun around and cleanly cut their heads off, landing in the middle of a bloody pool. The beasts’ bodies soon followed, hitting the ground with a thud. She shook her head to get rid of the crimson liquid that splashed her beautiful face and gazed intently at the growling leader.
Miria set both of her blades behind her waist and put more weight onto her legs while leaning forward. The wolf was too much to rely only on Physical Strengthening and Mana Coating so she started preparing a technique which would definitely result in at least a deep wound. She filled all of her limbs with mana, but before she could launch herself at it again, a jolt of electricity ran through her spine. Miria’s ears twitched and she instantly glanced to where Ast was.
「Master!」
She saw one of the wolves biting into his pelvis while he fought off another one. It wasn’t enough to down Asterios as he stabbed the assailant soon after, making it fall and begin whimpering. He locked gazes with Miria for a moment.
~Watch out!~
A mental shout came from him. The Bloodfang wasn’t going to waste the precious chance of its enemy losing focus and tried to sink its fangs into Miria’s torso. She barely dodged by a hair’s breadth, using the physical enhancements prepared earlier, but unfortunately, the scarlet wolf spun horizontally and slashed its claws over her stomach, leaving six shallow cuts on it.
And that was enough for it. As Asterios told her before, the big wolf licked its paws and suddenly its eyes started glowing red. All the scarlet fur began standing up like thousands of little needles and a crimson, mist-like aura surrounded its body. The Bloodfang howled loudly, releasing a lot of ferocious killing intent.
Miria’s ears twitched again and she instantly jumped to the side. A fraction of a second later, three wide, red lances hit the ground where she just had been a moment ago. She understood that it was the wolf’s ability, some kind of a blood spear. Many more soon followed and she had to keep dodging from side to side as the crimson spikes rained down at her each time the beast howled.
She closed the distance between them while avoiding getting impaled and slashed her shortswords at the enemy. The Bloodfang sidestepped much faster than before and Miria could see it making two insanely quick jumps to appear behind her, only thanks to her keen senses. If she was a Human, she would have thought that it teleported.
The wolf made another slash, this time on her back, causing more wounds on her body. Miria parried the incoming bite with a lot of effort. It wasn’t looking good. She could barely scratch her enemy in this state and the more time she took, the bigger the chance that Asterios would finally tire down and start receiving more wounds.
Slightly lost in her thoughts again, she almost didn’t notice her opponent taking a weird, lowered stance. She braced herself for an upcoming dash or lunge, but what happened had completely surprised her. Tens of crimson spikes surged from the ground, creating a quickly approaching path of death. Miria dodged the first wave and another one soon came at her. She somehow parried a few lances with her left blade and cut down some more with her right one.
The Bloodfang suddenly appeared by her side while she was still dealing with the blood spears. She managed to make a somersault backwards to avoid getting bitten, but after landing, she got hit by its body slam.
“Guuhh!”
It sent her a few meters back, making Miria roll over the ground. She shoved one of her blades into the stone pavement and stopped herself. The wolf was already near and she wasn’t able to react in time. It sank its teeth into her calf, violently turned around and sent Miria into the air. She didn’t let go of her weapons. Fighting against the pain, she somehow landed properly, stumbling a little.
「No… I need to put my all into the next strike, before its poi—」
She started berating herself in her mind, but before she was able to finish her thought, Miria watched her perspective change as if she was falling to the back.
「Eh?!」
All she could do was stare in disbelief at the slowly approaching Bloodfang, with her head lying on the side, exactly towards it. She instantly lost all feeling in her body, she couldn’t even move her eyes, nothing, her body was gone completely.
She failed. There was no way Ast could either defeat this foe alone or somehow escape with her in his arms. He would most likely not be able to run away even if he left her here anyway. He did his best to make this fight as easy as he could for her, endangering himself in the process, but she still failed. If she had any control over her lifeless body, tears would most likely be flowing down her face, but even that wasn’t possible now. Only pain, guilt and anxiety in her heart were left out of all things she could feel.
She didn’t even have enough courage to apologize to Ast through their connection. She couldn’t protect him literally on their first quest. This wouldn't have happened if she didn't lose her focus twice and pushed herself to her limits from the start.
While Miria was descending into depressive thoughts deeper and deeper, a ball-shaped object flew above her body and landed in front of the Bloodfang. Soon after, it exploded with an enormously loud bang. She couldn’t feel anything, but just from watching the wolves literally drop to the ground and roll around to cover their ears was a clear representation of the weird thing’s effect. She noticed an intense ringing in her ears, but without any pain accompanying it.
A moment later, someone's foot appeared in front of her lying face and her body was brought up to a sitting position. She found herself looking at Ast’s worried face after he supported her head with his hand. His lips were moving but she couldn’t hear any sounds yet.
Asterios brought up a vial with one of the best antidotes he had on him and carefully poured its contents into Miria’s mouth, hoping that it would be enough for a Bloodfang’s poison. Unfortunately, it had troubles going down her unresponsive throat.
Miria watched as he drank the potion himself and started leaning closer to her face. If not for the situation they were in, she would be blushing furiously, but even her eyes couldn’t widen due to the strong paralysis. Their lips soon connected and Ast pushed the medicine through the tunnel by force. She really wanted at least her sensations to be back so that she could feel this most likely last kiss of her life. Which didn't happen that long after the first one.
Asterios suddenly leaned a bit forward, pushing her onto the ground again and Miria saw a wolf behind him biting on his arm, which was the one holding Ast’s knife. He grimaced from the pain but didn’t give up. She stared at the amazing spectacle of Ast throwing the dagger into the air, catching it with his teeth and shoving the blade into the wolf’s eye while he still held her with his other hand.
After that move, he rolled them to the side and picked Miria up, starting to run. A few normal wolves had already recovered and she also was starting to regain her hearing. Asterios managed to bring her close to a wall, receiving some minor cuts and bites along the way from the still dazed wolves. He placed Miria against it and smiled at her while patting her head.
“You better recover quickly, I need you.”
His expression then turned serious and Ast picked up her shortswords which he brought with him from the place where she had been lying previously. He turned around and took a decent defensive position. He was no warrior, but he knew how to handle a sword to some extent. A battle against time began.
