“Take care, it's an earth bear. Even with those stocky legs, it easily could outrun you. Big fella's strong enough to take you out in one hit.” Kyron warned, urging them to hide behind a tree.

“So are we taking this one down or do we look for another prey to hunt?” Elicia asked, hunching down beside Celeste.

“We're taking this one.” Celeste stated.

Counting only one opponent as he peeked, Kyron said, “Yeah, good thing about these guys is that they're loners, and an earth bear's not gonna be a problem with me here to watch you.”

“W-wait, you mean we're supposed to take it down by ourselves?” Elicia glared at him, her voice cracking.

“Sure do, fastest way to learn is through experience. Don't worry about getting hurt, I'll step in whenever things start to look bad.” Kyron turned around and grinned, replying with an unreliable thumbs up.

“It saw us.” Celeste pointed out.

The earth bear had poked its head out of the bushes and was staring angrily in their direction. Lumbering forward, it revealed its heavy figure and let out a loud roar to threaten the humans trespassing into its territory.

“Uh-oh, looks like you lost the element of surprise.” Kyron snipped.

Celeste didn't waste any time, she raised her right arm to her side and gathered mana. Within her palms glowed luminescent blue and with it burst out cold white mist. Frost gathered around her hands and hardened together to form the appearance of a weapon, a short blade the same length as her arm.

“Woooh—“ Kyron whistled. “A few days of practice and you've already gotten the hang of it.”

Ice magic users could manipulate mana to form their own weapons, lighter than steel and much sharper. Kyron had given Celeste a few instructions the other day and she had been practicing them at the back garden the entire week.

“You're not seriously planning to go at it with that bear are you, Celeste?” Elicia still felt apprehension.

“The rock drake was much bigger than this.” Celeste said, taking a step towards the earth bear.

Elicia thought back to the rock drake that her aunt, Merea, had slain all by herself.

“Wait for me!” She yelled, and mustered up the small bit of courage she had as she walked behind Celeste.

Thump! The earth bear slammed on the ground, giving out another roar before standing on its hind legs.

“Hey, little black!” Kyron called, “Aren't you from the Perid? With how sturdy you are, shouldn't you be taking the lead?”

“Nye nye nye— What does he know...” muttered Elicia, “I can use wind magic for support!” Raising a cloud of dust up from under her feet with earth magic, her body gave out a hue of yellow from her mana seed before firing a blast of wind towards the earth bear's eyes.

The earth bear failed to react to the sudden attack and was blinded by the mixture of dirt and air, dropping to the ground once more on all paws and shaking its head in a vain attempt to clear its vision.

“Aim for the head!” Kyron shouted. “Any beast would go down if struck on the head!”

Celeste had arrived in front of the earth bear with her hands above her head. She prepared to swing down her blade to end the beast's life, but she hesitated. She hesitated in face of the fact that she was about to take a life.

“Don't stop moving, keep attacking! A beast wouldn't wait for you to deliver your next strike!” Kyron yelled.

Celeste swung down her blade at his reminder, quickly throwing her hesitation but unfortunately was a second too late. The earth bear had regained a bit of its sight and saw the blade of ice approaching its forehead. With a reflexive slap of its right arm, it shattered the incoming blade.

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“Celeste!” Elicia swiftly grabbed onto Celeste's shoulders and pulled her out of harm's way, turning around with her back toward the bear.

The earth bear, postured a bit awkwardly after its reflex attack, sent a backhand with its paw towards Elicia and sent her flying a few meters in the air, but fortunately landing her on a pile of soft foliage.

“Elicia!!!” Celeste didn't immediately run to her, she mustered mana within her palms once more and began to form another weapon.

The earth bear again stood up on its hind legs, wary of any attacks to its head with its vision still not completely recovered.

“Something with a longer reach than a blade and quicker,” Celeste wracked her brain. A particular weapon forged itself inside her head and began to take shape within her hands. A rough-looking, elongated pole had formed with the front end sporting an extremely sharp tip.

The weapon of choice of the eldest brother, Celeste had no experience with a spear but had seen him train with it alongside the soldiers at the wall. She calmly imitated his movements. Left foot forward, shoulders back, shifting her entire body weight from behind to perform a simple forward thrust. An action that the earth bear couldn't see from above and couldn't react to in time, as the tip of Celeste's spear had already lodged itself up its throat and in its head.

“Good job, little red! You can stop there, we can sell the thing for a higher price if it has less damage.”

“Why!?” Celeste turned around with furrowed brows, “Why didn't you help!?” She yelled, before dropping her blood-soaked spear and running towards Elicia.

She dropped down to Elicia's body and assessed her situation. A few minor scratches and bruising, but nothing that indicated a fatal injury.

“Celesteee...” Elicia spoke, her voice muffled as her head buried underneath a bunch of leaves.

Celeste grabbed onto Elicia's clothes and pulled her from behind, freeing her from the foliage.

“Celeste, that was scary!” Elicia whined. “Let's not do that ever again!”

Her face also had some small scratches, but nothing time couldn't heal. Celeste heaved a sigh of relief, Elicia was fine.

“Things didn't look so bad for me to step in. And don't worry about little black, I told you the Perid are all built sturdy.” Kyron spoke from behind, chuckling, “And I did help a bit.” He said, pointing towards the body of the unmoving earth bear.

Its feet below the hind legs were plastered on the ground, held in place by a layer of solid ice.

Celeste was surprised, “When did he— ?“ She didn't notice Kyron making a move. “Was that why the earth bear couldn't posture for a solid attack?”

“What do you mean didn't look so bad!? I flew like a bird! Didn't you see!?” Elicia complained.

“I did, and it was marvelously executed!” Kyron bent down slightly while holding his stomach as he laughed.

“Hmph!” Elicia spat, she placed her hands on her waist and puffed her chest as she took a jab at where it would hurt Kyron the most.“You have no idea how to treat a lady! Keep that up and you'll stay single and unmarried forever.”

“Hey! It's not that! I'll have you know, I choose to be single.” Kyron rebutted, his words seemingly lacking any persuasive power as Elicia just stared him down with a smug expression, as if to imply— “Keep telling yourself that,” without actually saying the words.

“Well, you know—“ Kyron's eyes wandered to the side as he scratched the back of his neck, “I'm pretty busy at the wall, I've got no time for that kind of stuff...” His voice trailing off near the end as he slowly lost confidence in what he was saying.

“All I hear are excuses.” Elicia quiped, “Isn't that right, Celeste— Celeste?”

“Something's wrong...”

Elicia turned around to gain some support but to no avail as Celeste's attention wasn't on their conversation.

“Up ahead,” Celeste pointed to a location past the gaps of the forest trees.

Curious at what was taking up her notice, Kyron and Elicia followed the direction indicated by her index finger and saw Erden Tower's central pillar. It was lighting up in an unusual manner, mana was visibly congregating around it.

“W-What's happening!?” Elicia exclaimed.

“Something's definitely wrong.” Kyron wore an unnervingly serious expression, a sharp contrast to how he was usually like. “We better get back to the city first, form an investigative team after discussing with the officials.”

“But, what about the bear?” Elicia asked.

“Leave it. We'll take it with us if it hasn't already been eaten by other magic creatures by the time we come back.” Kyron replied.

They were about a thirty-minute walk away from the tower's entrance. Kyron was about to lead the way back but made a sudden stop as he'd noticed the fast approach of something from the forest.

“Stay alert!” Kyron shouted, and readied himself to face the potential threat. What he had come to face to, however, derailed his thoughts and had him frozen in place.

***