I stood frozen in place as I looked at the Bestial. Shock and fear were very evident on my face as I looked at that beast that was holding Marius's head in its hands. But that wasn't why I am scared of that thing. Sure, maybe if I weren't a Wielder, I would have been scared of seeing a Wielder dead in the hands of a Bestial. But I am a Wielder myself and have already faced many types of Bestials, so seeing one more shouldn't make me fear it.
No, I was scared because it could talk. Such a thing wasn't out of the world, as there were animals that mimicked sounds and voices. So when these animals turned into Bestials, they carried over this trait. But this was a bug, and as far as I knew, bugs couldn't mimic voices.
"I remember hearing a rumor saying that the Frozen Plains was carrying stronger Bestials deeper in its trees. Is this one of them?" I thought to myself as I gulped and held my blade tight.
Lone, since the moment he had seen this Bestial, had slowly begun walking back to me. I had expected the Bestial to stop him the moment he took the first step, but it didn't even react to him. Its face was just watching us as it played with the head of Marius by constantly tapping its fingers on him.
Once Lone was side by side with me, and we could only wait for that thing to react on its own.
"Ah, sorry about that. I was listening to some orders," the Bestial said as it waved apologetically. It then pointed at me, "I am guessing you're the leader of this little... pack?"
I just stared at the creature, my hand gripping my blade tightly, "What do you want?"
The creature stared at me before cocking its head to the side, "me? I really don't want anything but to return to the Bone Mountains and rest with the rest of my hive. But one of the Damnations came to our hive and asked to borrow some of us for an attack. Since my leader was weaker, they sadly had to obey and lend me and several others of my hive."
The Bestial held the head of Marius high, "I would say I hated the fact that I left the safety of the caves. But in truth, I have never felt so alive. This guy had me on the ropes during our battle, constantly making me think he was behind me, far from me, or even just gone. It was an annoying fight, but I have to thank him for allowing me to kill him. I mean, he allowed me to become this strong. I gained intelligence and even awakened my ability, though I am sadly not at the strength of a Sinner just yet. I have some more hurdles to get past."
"Which brings me to now. You see, I am so close to reaching past that little hurdle and really need to devour you to reach past my limit. But I only need one of you, so let's make a deal. If one of you comes forward-" The Bestial couldn't finish its words as both Lone and I had already rushed towards it.
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Both Stewart and Lone were still a distance away from the Bestial. But they both suddenly felt a chill up their spines. A familiar chill that had accompanied them during their battles and the same one that saved them countless times.
They did not question it and quickly jumped away from one another. Seconds later, a leech burst from the ground where the two of them were standing not that long ago. The leech had massive pronged teeth protruding from its lipless mouth as its black form reached towards the heavens.
"That thing has to be as large as a mountain," he thought as he gritted his teeth, spinning his spear in his hand to stop the debris from hitting him.
On the other side of the rising beast, Stewart had been hit by several rocks and was bleeding a bit. Though they weren't dangerous, the wounds still kept dropping bits of his blood.
"What a shame", a voice sounded behind him, accompanied by a strange buzzing sound, "I really did hope to kill you both in a single move."
Stewart didn't even think as he slashed back quickly. The Bestial raised one of its bulky arms and blocked the slash before following with a strike of its own. It used one of its thinner arms to try to stab Stewart in the belly.
Seeing this, Stewart moved to the side, allowing the Bestial to only graze his side. But he, too, followed with a flurry of strikes of his own. Some of the cuts didn't go through because of the Bestial's strong green carapace, but the harder ones did, even if the cuts were as small as a hair.
Stewart quickly jumped away as he raised his free hand and clenched it. From the Bestial's body, the small wounds began to balloon with red blood. Seeing this, the bug Bestial quickly dashed at Stewart.
Seeing this, Stewart quickly spread his fingers. The blood balloons soon exploded, causing the Bestial to halt its advance. It stared at its cracked carapace before looking at Stewart, its mandibles clicking.
"What a dangerous ability," the Bestial said as it licked its wounds using a small purple tongue that extended between its mandibles. It looked up at Stewart before looking to its side as it saw Lone running around the giant leech to face them.
"I really don't want our fight to be interupted" the Bestial said as its manidbles began clicking faster and faster. Suddenly, the giant leech began to writhe as it turned its head and began plummeting its head down at Lone.
Seeing this, Lone quickly turned around and jumped as hard as he could. Managing to dodge the leeches' attack.
Lone's eyes went wide as he quickly spun around and slashed behind him. Though nothing was there, he felt his spear hit something. Seconds later, a being slowly appeared. It was a bug Bestial with light brown hair, a body, and four arms.
The Bestial coughed out blood as it collapsed to the ground.
Lone looked around and saw several types of bug Bestials emerging from behind the trees. Many are small and numerous, while others are just as tall as trees and as bulky as them. Lone then looked behind him as he saw the giant leech rise up and stare down at him.
"This is going to be tough," Lone muttered as he dashed the Bestials hiding in the trees.
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"Wow, you're really not holding back," the bug Bestial said as it blocked the flurry of slashes coming from Stewart. Most of the slashes had managed to cut through the Bestial's tough carapace, but each time he was about to activate his ability. The wounds on the Bestial would slowly vanish as if they were never there to begin with.
The Bestial launched a barrage of fast strikes using its two skinny arms. Though they looked frail, Stewart didn't underestimate them as he quickly parried each strike. As he parried the rapid strikes, several of them got past his defense as ethey ither grazed his skin or stabbed a small hole into his body.
Bleeding, Stewart quickly parried its last blow before countering with a slash of his own. The slash cut one of the thin arms, and red blood poured out. He quickly raised his hand and clenched his fist.
But nothing happened. The cut on the Bestial arm didn't balloon like all the others. In fact, the said wound was disappearing.
"Confused," the Bestial said in a mocking tone, which was only met with a fist to its face. Though the fist did nothing, in fact, it only hurt Stewart, but it allowed him time to actually see what was going on. From up close, he could see the cuts on the Bestial's carapace slowly patching up.
What was patching these wounds up? He strained his eyes as hard as he could as he looked at the cut. Between the cuts, he noticed small white things moving around the wound.
"Mites?" Stewart said, confused as he ducked from the Bestial's strong arm and slashed at its stomach. From the strong swing came a big cut. But Stewart didn't use his ability; instead, he dashed a distance away.
Once he was far enough, he only then tried to activate his ability, but noticed it wouldn't activate. He just stared at the Bestial's wound and saw that it was slowly shrinking.
"So I was right, you are healing," Stewart said as he looked at the Bestial.
"Figured it out? I had expected you to use that little blood ability to blow me up. But it seems you saw through my bait," the Bestial said as it was referring to him dashing away.
Stewart did want to activate his ability, but he felt the same chill as before. So he quickly chose to dash away, and it was the right choice. If he had stayed to activate his ability, the Bestial would have pierced him using its two skinny arms. Not killing him, but mortally wounding him.
It raised one of its skinny arms up, "Would you like me to explain?"
Stewart simply shook his head as he got prepared to fight. As much as he would love to know more about this Bestial's ability, that was not his main concern. Right now, Lone was fighting against that giant leech and at least a swarm of Bestials. He needed to end this as fast as he could.
The two dashed at one another and met, blade meeting claws. Stewart continued unleashing a flurry of slashes, but every so often, he would try to activate his ability. Some did go through, but he had to quickly blow them up before those mites did whatever they did and canceled his ability.
The Bestial, on the other hand, was unleashing its own flurry of slashes as it tried to rend Stewart's flesh apart. Cuts appear on his body, and stabs would get through. One of these said cuts landed just above his left eye, a fall of blood poured down, and blinded his left eye.
Seeing this, the Bestial took the chance to create some distance by running backwards.
As the Bestial stopped running, it turned to face Stewart. Its body convulsed briefly as it spread its four translucent wings and ran towards Stewart. It ran so fast that Stewart didn't even realize it had moved until one of its bulky arms was already raised. Like a cannonball being fired from a cannon, the fist flew forward and hit Stewart square in his stomach.
"Was it always this fast?!" Stewart thought his body flew through the air, "If so, why was it moving so slowly before?!"
Did that speed have a limit? Maybe it needed a requirement? But all that thing did was just spread its wings and nothing else.
Sterwart stabbed his blade into the ground, slowing himself down until he was crouching on the ground, "That thing is either toying with me or those wings are weaker than they appear to be."
Stewart coughed, with pain in his throat and in his chest. He tapped his chest and winced in pain. That punch alone had broken many of his ribs and even caused his lungs to feel as though they had become pancake.
Yet, in the pain, his mind felt so sharp. As though someone were just behind him, telling him what to do and what not to do.
Stewart gritted his teeth as he stood up and wiped the blood off his left eye, "Maybe it was like what Lone said? How did he explain it? "Just because you have an ability doesn't mean you only have one; you have two, it's just that one of them activates under your command while the other only activates under certain conditions.""
"How does a kid like him know so much about Wielders and I don't?" Stewart said as he walked towards the Bestial, his body wobbling. Though his mind was a bit muddy and his body hurt like all hell. He really wanted to just go to sleep, but he did not have that luxury.
The Bestial just stared at Stewart before it also began walking towards him.
The two kept walking until both of them were just an arm's reach away. The Bestial was ready to strike at Stewart, but stopped when it saw him do something strange. Stewart used his heel to create a line behind him.
"What are you doing?" The Bestial asked, confused and intrigued.
"... back in the training grounds. There was a ritual we followed whenever we wanted something. We would get chest to chest to one another, use our heels to make a line between us, and create a little ring. The rules were simple: if one of us stepped beyond the line, we were out, and if we lost in the ring, we would also be out. We used this little ritual to get things like beer or even some sausages from some of the higher-ups," Stewart said as he smiled, remembering his time with his comrades.
He remembered fighting one of them for the last piece of pie. Both of them yelled and cursed one another until he challenged him for it. His comrade agreed, and both of them stepped outside the mess hall. They both grabbed their training blades and drew the lines with their heels. They had asked someone to referee the fight, an unlucky fellow who just wanted to eat their bread with cheese in peace. The battle had begun, and both of them sent attack after attack at one another. Being so close to each other only made the little duel more intense as they had to strike faster than the other person. Stewart would be lying if he said he hated doing that. But once the battle was done, he was lying on his back in pain. His comrade gloated and was ready to take the last slice, but realized too late that someone else had taken the last slice.
Stewart chuckled at the memory as he looked up at the Bestial, "We both know you're going to win. So why not humor me?"