“Absolutely not,” Alnea found himself saying almost on an instinct, vehemently shaking his head. “I cannot let you…”
“You cannot what?”
“Anyways, there is no way I am letting you face the boar in close quarters.”
“But there is no problem if you do the same?”
“…That’s what you said in the beginning. That you will act as support, while Cecilia and I will keep switching our roles.”
“Is Cecilia fighting this time?”
“But…”
“You just don’t want me to get hurt,” Yuri said, staring daggers at Alnea. “Did you forget all that we had discussed?”
“…This is not about me trying to keep you away from harm. We established in the very beginning that you will act only as support, and let us gain experience in dealing with the Oren Beasts.”
“I never said anything about me acting only as a support. I only said that you two will have to keep switching between the roles of Arcanists, and Warriors. And since you I was trying to complement your roles, I would naturally act as a Scholar. But now that I want you to act as an Arcanist, and provide support from the rear, I will naturally have to pick a role that complements your abilities, and act as a Warrior.”
“…You are just playing with words.”
“Am I? Then tell me, can your half baked skills even break through the boar’s armour? And why are you only talking about what suits your need? Why are you not talking about the other things that I had said? Like how you will have to follow my arrangements.”
“…Stop fighting,” Cecilia said, stepping in between them, using her hands to separate them, while repeatedly changing her glances between them. “We are in an Oren Beast’s territory for Inkah’s sake. Get a hold of yourselves.”
Ignoring Cecilia, Alnea clenched his fist, and looked into Yuri’s crystal clear blue eyes, shining with determination.
“…What if I hit you by mistake?”
“…What do you think?”
“…And you call me a fool?”
“Because you are a fool. Didn’t you say so yourself?”
“…Fine,” Alnea said after a moment of silence. “Let’s get this over with quickly.”
“As long as you do your part, I will be able to finish the boar in one hit,” Yuri said, and turned towards the distance, where the beast finally came into view. Just a vague shadowy figure, slightly pudgy in shape, moving with a slow pace, as if sniffing its way to its prey. To them.
Without any need for being reminded, all three of them unfurled the senses of their Spirit, and locked on to their target. A boar, standing over a metre in height, had a girth of a little over half a metre, with its most striking feature being the layer of chunky, rock like shell around its body, glimmering in an earthly brown glow. However, it was not its armour, but its length, of about just a little less than two metres, that told them about its strength.
An Oren Beast at the peak of the initial phase of its Adolescent Stage, just about to enter the intermediate phase. Was this why Yuri had been so adamant? How did she know about the boar’s strength before she even saw it? Was it an Arcana? Or…
“Get ready,” Yuri said, as she shifted her stance. A bare handed stance. Let alone a sword, she did not even have a dagger in her hands. Yet she was going to fight an Oren Beast with an armour that even he would find hard to break through. Alnea knew that he was reckless, and that Cecilia was headstrong, but not having gone to the Origin Sea with her for a while, he had forgotten how crazy his white haired friend could be.
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Sighing in resignation, he reached towards his Roots, and began gathering Oren, shaping it into an arrow, while Yuri rushed towards the Boar, drawing all of its attention to herself.
“Beyond the veil of the Night…”
At first, the boar seemed rather nonchalant about the sudden invader in its territory. Living in an area surrounded by territories of intermediate phase Oren Beasts from all sides, the boar had been through quite a few fights itself. Just the fact that it could live in such an area was a testament to its strength. Even if it was just at initial phase, its strength could not be underestimated.
“Where the world slumbers just past her sight…”
And so, as Yuri neared the Boar, she did not hold back on using her Spirit Power, or Aspects. Faint blue light, tainted with hints of black, and silver lights, surged out from her body, and gathered in her hands, before taking the shape of a sword. A long sword, with a curved back, slightly shorter than his own sword. On second thought, the sword was very similar to the sword that he had often seen her use to dig her Aspect Wells. That was probably the type of sword that suited her the best. A sword bending with responsibility, yet refusing to back down from difficulties. Even though it was made from just her Aspects, it would still be sharper than many swords—
A sword made from just her Aspects? Alnea was not aware that something like that was even possible. Why was she not using a real sword though? Would it not exhaust her more if she condensed her sword entirely from her Aspects? Was it because the type of sword that suited her did not exist? No, if that was the case then she could just have a sword made for herself. There was no need to waste her Spirit Power like she was doing at the moment. Yet, he had never seen her use a real sword. There must be reason behind that. A reason for why she was willing to waste her Spirit Power rather than to use a real sword. A reason…
“I call forth the embers of the darkness…”
While Alnea was mulling on Yuri’s strange behaviour, she had already reached the Boar, and swung her sword at it. Not in any fancy, or exaggerated moves, but just a simple swing. It did not even look like she was using a Martial Style. And the boar did not take sword too seriously either. Ignoring the attack that was about to fall on its back, the Beast charged at Yuri, clearly intent on skewering her with its large tusks, thicker than even his arms, and half as long.
Yet, contrary to the Beast’s expectations, the sword strike did not just harm it, it also sliced apart a few chunks of rocks away from its armour. At the same time, the force from the sword also caused the boar to change its direction. Not by much, but when taken in together with the recoiling force that Yuri used to move to her right, it was enough for her to dodge the Boar’s charge. And that clearly incensed the Beast.
It could grow back the armour that had just been sliced was off, so it was not too worried about it. But to not even be able to hit its enemy, something that it had taken for granted from the beginning of the fight, brought its rage to a crescendo. Roaring at its weird enemy, it turned around, and charged at it again, this time not making the mistake of taking its enemy lightly.
Yet the result was still the same. The boar ended up being thrashed once again, this time, even worse than before. Using the speed, and the momentum of the boar, Yuri sliced off an even greater piece of rock from its armour. And then another. And another. And another. Until the boar finally began bleeding. By then, the boar had also sensed something was wrong, and was beginning to calm down. It had even started showing tendencies of retreating. So, the moment it saw a chance, it did not hesitate.
Copying its enemy, the boar used the recoil from the sword’s strike to distance itself from its enemy, before rushing into the darkness. Unfortunately for the boar, it was their meal. How could they allow it to run away? So, the moment that the boar turned around, and was about to flee, Yuri struck out with her sword once again. And though the boar was already out of the reach of her sword, for some inexplicable reason, her sword still managed to reach the boar.
No, not her sword. It was no longer a sword. Instead, at some point during the swing, the sword had transformed into a rope, that seemed to stretch endlessly in just a moment, and reached the boar, before wrapping around its legs, causing it to stumble down, and ruin its plan for escape. Not for long though. After all, the rope may have stopped the boar from escaping, but its integrity as a weapon had been compromised.
From how it was flickering, with small wisps of light escaping from its body, Alnea did not think that the rope could hold the boar for long. Still, Yuri had already done her job. Next, it was his turn. And so, the moment that the boar had fallen down, unable to move around much, Alnea aimed his Nightmare Arrow, and fired it at the boar.
“To drown my enemies in the Nightmare of their madness.”
The boar, of course, sensed the arrow, and the threat it carried, intensifying its struggle against the rope that was binding it. And after a brief, but intense struggle, it even managed to break through the restraints. But not before the arrow carrying the Mysteries of Nightmare reached the Beast, and pierced through its head.