Staring at Christopher, I shout, “MOVE.”
Christoper says, “These guys are just waptors, I don’t need to worry about this, especially since.”
Casandra dashes past him and cuts down the wonderbeast, “The leader here is a pro at cutting down wonderbeasts.”
As the leader moves towards two more of the wonderbeasts, Christopher says, “A fighting style specialized around hunting wonderbeasts, it is said that the users develop instincts sharper than any animal; and the name of this fighting style is.”
Φ “Four beasts battle arts; Predatory fang,” I say as I perform 2 downward slashes that shatter both of their spines.
There are 7 Waptors surrounding us, each of them with razor-sharp blades on their wings, 3 behind us and 2 on each of our flanks. They are all moving headfirst without any coordination, no wait, it looks like they are competing to see who gets the first kill, they should be easy to take down then.
No, I was off; there are at least 20 more hiding in the forest lying in wait to see how this confrontation goes down; how annoying. I don’t want these guys running away and stalking us because in this environment we are sure to eventually let our guard down, so I guess we must eliminate them now.
“THORGRIM, ANOUK, GUĀNG, I need you all to fain struggling.”
Anouk says, “Right.”
Thorgrim says, “Whatever you command leader.”
Guāng shakes his head furiously up and down.
I dash over to our left flank, and whilst I do I hear Christopher say, “You're all doing a series of near dodges to pretend your struggling almost as if you are trying to deceive the wonderbeasts. The skill and courage it must take to do such things god is surely with you all.”
That fucking brat, if he keeps acting all confident in our skills the beasts will simply run away after sensing a losing situation. “GUĀNG, I NEED YOU TO KICK CHRISTOPHER IN THE BALLS RIGHT NOW!”
Christopher says, “Wait, what!”
“But that’s a bit too harsh.”
“I am giving you an order!”
Thorgrim says, “There are just some things a man can’t do to another man.”
“I have seen you crack another man's head open like a walnut and somehow this is too much for you?”
Both Guāng and Thorgrim say, “YES!”
“The fuck!”
Anouk dodging a waptor, says, “You giant babies, MOVE!” Then she runs over to Christopher and hits him in the balls.
On the floor reeling from the blow Christopher says, “This too must be a trail from god.”
Anouk says, “Whatever keeps you up at night.”
Around me I feel 20 presences close in around us, so I say, “Guāng protect Christopher, Anouk I need you to shoot the ones that are close by, Thorgrim keep Anouk safe as she shoots them down, and I will circle around to hit the ones all around us making sure none escape.”
Anouk and Thorgrim say, “Right.” But Guāng just shakes his head nervous.
“Four beast battle arts; Stalking fang.”
Φ Christopher on the floor says, “The user minimizes all bodily functions which erases their presence then uses spirit energy to propel their body through extreme concentration, that is the stalking fang. How amazing you adventurers are.”
“I am surprised you can still talk.”
Holding his balls on the floor, Christopher says, “God has given me this chance to watch adventures in action, I refuse to squander this opportunity. Look how beautiful those two are fighting.”
Staring at Thorgrim, and Anouk I see they are moving vigorously across the battlefield. Anouk is moving around and jumping off of Thorgrim but as she does, she constantly fires arrow after arrow hitting most of her targets only missing 1 or 2.
But Thorgrim is just as impressive even with that heavy great shield he is holding, he is capable of moving just as well as Anouk, then when he sees an opening, he uses the edge of his shield to cut the waptors. Though I notice something strange; whenever one of the waptors runs into his shield they freeze for a moment almost as if they are in incredibly deep pain.
Christopher says, “Thorgrim’s shield is made from the aquatic wonderbeast, Synanverot, a poisonous scaly fish. Whenever one of the waptors charges into it they are stuck by a ridiculous amount of the paralysing poison.”
I knew these guys were considered strong, but I might have underestimated them a bit. Suddenly I hear another scream, then I turn right to see a Waptor is running toward me and Christopher.
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Holding my straight sword, I prepare to draw it but as I do I stare at the wonderbeast for a second. It’s large, fanged mouth, it’s inhuman speed, it’s sharp wings, it’s strange colours; this is no human this is a beast. I’m scared.
Suddenly Casandra appears covered in blood from the forest and cuts it’s head off, and after she does that I fall to my knees.
“Everyone all the waptors are dead.”
Around me everyone meets where Casandra is standing, then Christopher jumping on his own two feet says, “You really defeated all those Waptor by yourself?”
“It was nothing special anyone can one of us could have done that.”
Thorgrim says, “Don’t downplay yourself in that time period barely anyone would have accomplished such a thing.”
Giving Thorgrim a high five, Casandra says, “Maybe I am just amazing then.”
Walking away Anouk says, “You truly are boss.”
Christopher walking over to Anouk, says, “What are you doing?”
“Retrieving my arrows, from these wonderbeasts.”
“Actually all the wonderbeasts in Fimbulwinter are known as predasaurs because of how they all have a furious hunger for the flesh of others. But if I was to elaborate furt-.”
Getting up, in a furry Anouk says, “SHUT THE HELL UP. IT’S YOUR FAULT WE ARE IN THIS MESS!”
Shocked Christopher says, “It seems you don’t understand how much of a blessing my presence is!”
Taking out a piece of cloth Anouk wraps Christopher's mouth up and says, “For the next 3 hours no speaking.”
Christopher starts to muffle words while being overactive as usual, but Anouk says, “Or I will crush your nuts.” Instantly Christopher quiets down.
Looking at me, she says, “Now are we going to address the piece of trash with the decorative sword over there.”
Pointing my head away from her gaze, I say, “Sorry.”
“Do you think an apology will be enough if one of us dies!”
Casandra says, “Stop Anouk.”
“But.”
“It is fine, up until this point he has been fighting humans, and both of us know rather well that fighting humans is much different than hunting wonderbeasts.”
Patting me on my head, Casandra says, “Don’t be down not everyone is capable of acting right in an ambush, so when we get to initiate the battle, I expect it to go well.”
Holding my sword tight, I say, “Right.”
“Now let’s go, everyone.”
-Break-
We continued our adventure through Fimbulwinter, avoiding any confrontation we deemed unnecessary. But while we are moving through Fimbulwinter, Christopher takes the covering of his mouth and says, “Time’s up.”
“Has it been 3 hours already?”
“Well 3 hours; 9 seconds exactly. Now I can finally bless you all with my voice again.”
Anouk says, “If you tell me any more of your stupid facts, I am going to cave your skull in.”
“No facts, just a question like why do you use metal arrows when wonderbeast arrows would be much more effective?”
“Who the hell cares about that.”
Putting my hand up, I say, “I was actually wondering the same thing.”
She gives me a glare, so I bring my hand down and say, “Sorry.”
Casandra says, “Next time I have to correct you Anouk there won’t be any words just violence.”
Gritting her teeth, she says, “Fine. Wonderbeast arrows are expensive and tend to blow apart on contact, so they aren’t cost-effective most of the time unless I know they are necessary for victory. So instead, I use these metal arrows.”
“But arrows aren’t naturally hard enough to pierce most wonderbeast and they lose spirit energy since you don’t have direct contact, so even if you fire them off really fast you would still be losing spirit energy, so wonderbeast arrows would still be better.”
Showing me her finger, I see string attached to it then she says, “This string is from the eternal spider of Arendaia, it is a great conductor of spirit energy so I wrap it lightly around each arrow and it allows me to maintain a steady flow of spirit energy into my arrows as they leave; it also makes it easier to retrieve them afterwards.”
Christopher says, “I never thought of such a solution, to the arrow problem.”
Casandra says, “Well most people never have to think of that, since they either use wonderbeast arrows or save up for spirit metal bows from Avalon.”
Suddenly Anouk gets angry and says, “Don’t mention that piece of shit country again!”
Scared, I ask, “What happened?”
Thorgrim laughing says, “She had spent years saving up for a spirit metal bow, but then when Skydust got destroyed Avalon completely stopped sending out any forms of spirit metal.”
Anouk says, “SO THEY NOT ONLY REFUSED TO HAND OVER MY BOW BUT KEPT THE MONEY I PUT DOWN ARE A PREPAYMENT, THOSE GREEDY MOTHERFUCKERS, CHIVALRY MY ASS!”
Casandra says, “I doubt you could blame them, the destruction of Skydust has led to giant shifts. Now all air delivery has ceased across the planet and all the countries are now shifting into war mode, hoarding resources, political marriages, and increasing taxes all across the board. If a continental war breaks out Cordum could be dragged into war for the first time in history, maybe us adventuress would even be soldiers.”
Christopher says, “I wouldn’t worry about that, Cordum has no conscription policy, and it isn’t the godly war to drag people into war.”
Thorgrim says, “An ever-increasing amount of legacies are being born, heightened war tensions, the dragon sighting in Basileia and now a race of people who live in Fimbulwinter are appearing. I can’t help but feel this is all a bad omen.”
Gripping my sword, I say, “I know it may seem bad, but I can vouch that there are some amazing people out in the world, so I am sure everything will be alright.”
Thorgrim says, “If a supposed Prodigy like you says that it must be true.”
Anouk says, “Don’t stroke his ego, he is still just a ro-.”
Casandra says, “Everyone quiet!” Then crouches, and all of us follow her lead.
Using hand signals she tells us to follow her and as we crouch we see through some bushes a large wonderbeast with 3 trunks.
“A Vanir Mammoth. We won’t be able to sneak past something that big,” Casandra says.
“Wait, I don’t remember anything about a wonderbeast like that in Fimbulwinter?”
Popping in Christopher says, “It is actually a wonderbeast from the northern part of Molstoria, around the end of the 2nd cycle they were imported to Victoria.”
Knocking him down, Anouk says, “I mean why the hell is it here! No records of these things surviving on Fimbulwinter have ever been recorded?”
Casandra says, “Weren’t there records of a huge Tiritrex in Fimbulwinter? Maybe it died and due to it’s absence wonderbeasts that survived at a higher level of Fimbulwinter have migrated down.”
Sitting up Christopher says, “It’s hide looks much thicker than normal, it is some form of adaption to Fimbulwinter.”
Scared, I say, “It’s giant will we be able to take it down?”
Thorgrim says, “These things can do damage to Wonderbeasts from the dragon continent, so their offensive power is no joke. But if we want to take it down, all we have to do is not get hit.”
Casandra says, “We will launch a coordinated attack, Thorgrim will grab its attention, Anouk will shoot out its eyes, I will go for its legs and you Guāng, will land the finishing blow.”
Gripping my sword, tight I take a deep breath, but all my muscles feel wobbly.