“What the hell?! Is the village under attack?” I stopped in my tracks while looking at the main gate direction, hesitating once more if I should butt in into this conflict or should I just go somewhere to hide.
“Even if I go there it's not like I can do anything…” I said as I slowly continued to walk in the direction of the main gate in fear as if on instinct.
After walking for a few minutes I could see groups of people fighting monsters and those monsters were bears, a past evolution of a Mountain Lord. They were a lot weaker than the Mountain Lord but still not something I could fight against head-on, I inspected one to be sure.
***
-Mountain Bear Lv8-
Health: 63/87
Mana: 5/10
Stamina: 20/36
Status: Enraged
***
Most of the people that were fighting were guards but here and there you could see a civilian holding a sword or an axe.
“Monsters breached the village but how?” I sneaked around the fighting groups through the alley. Coming closer to the gate of the village from where we first entered, after a few minutes of running I reached it, but when I got there I was in shock.
“The gate is completely destroyed…” There was a huge hole in it and pieces of wood and iron could be seen laying around the area, for my greater luck there were no monsters entering through it anymore.
“There's no way I could fight those bears, and if there was even one Mountain Lord with them I would be killed in one hit.” Knowing that I couldn't help them I immediately ran back to where I came from.
“Looks like the guards are holding the monsters back, I should just go back to Luna and hide with her.” I ran as I saw the people fighting the monsters, don't get me wrong I wanted to help those people but I knew that I wasn't strong enough and as it looked they weren’t in any real danger and would be able to defend themselves.
As I ran I could hear explosions coming from the area and once in a while, a sound of thunder could be heard as well.
“Mages, I hope those were mages…” I said to myself as I continued to run, while going around the street corner I saw a huge bear fighting someone, that someone was fast and nimble, and each of his sword strikes injured the bear one after another. At the same time, he completely dodged every attack from the monster, that someone was Ray.
I looked at Ray completely shocked, I saw him practice daily but it was the first time seeing him in real combat and I never imagined him being so strong. But still, with all of the advantage that Ray had, the bear was still a formidable opponent. His claws were huge and every slash would leave a claw mark on one of the nearby buildings, not even the stone bricks on the ground were spared.
Ray jumped back three meters away from the bear and just stood there with a serious face.
“I guess it's time.” He said as he closed his eyes while slowly raising his sword up into the air, he held it right in front of his face and didn’t move.
The bear was puzzled at Ray's weird movement but it immediately saw the given opening and attacked Ray with great speed. A huge black claw flew at Ray's throat with great speed but he didn't even flinch. I wanted to shout at him to be careful but of course I couldn't.
Just as the claw was a few centimeters away from Ray's face he moved, more correctly to say he vanished from my vision while going under bear and appearing behind him. He slashed his sword in the air and blood splashed from the bear, the bear fell onto the ground with a strong thud.
Ray made a turn and approached it, not even giving him another chance he thrusted his sword onto his nape, a scary hoarse dying roar of a beast was released from the bear, and with it, he released his last breath.
“Holy shit… I think I need to change my revenge plan…” I looked at Ray with shock and disbelief as he cleaned the blood from his cheek.
I took one step toward him and all of a sudden I could feel a heavy killing intent coming straight at me. For a second I thought it was Ray who thought I was just another monster, but no, even though Ray did notice my presence he didn't even bother looking in my direction because he had a stronger enemy to deal with.
“Oh right, how could I forget this disgusting feeling…” I said as my body shook from fear, It wasn't only the killing intent that I was feeling there was something else mixed with it, the dread of the shadow mark.
Two yellow creepy eyes appeared inside the darkness and with it a roar I was so familiar with.
“The devil cat is here…” Surprise, fear, and despair all those feelings were surging inside me. After coming to the village I would never believed that I would see this monster again, as the walls and the people around me made me feel safe.
Because of this thing, I couldn't let my guard down at all when I was outside the village even when I was in my base. Every time I heard its roar outside I was hidden in the deepest corner of my tunnel. How stupid I was to forget it, how naive I was to think that a few walls will keep it away from me.
“Why can't this bastard leave me alone even going so far only to get me!” I shouted with anger inside my head but the devil cat wouldn't let its prey just stand near it.
The devil cat ignored Ray completely and jumped straight at me, lucky for me the distance between us was big and Ray still was between us. He gave me a surprised fast glance and jumped at the devil cat.
”I am your opponent!” He shouted as his sword flew towards the belly of the devil cat but the devil cat easily blocked his sword with its claws, sounds of metal colliding resonated as sparks flew from the clash.
Ray had the smile of someone that was enjoying a fight with a powerful opponent. It was the first time seeing him like this. The devil cat backed off a little and released a strong roar at Ray as a black aura started to slowly drift out of the devil's cat's fur.
Ray didn’t even flinch, surely it wasn’t his first battle and he was experienced in monster fighting. That reminded me of the day I met him and Luna, they were walking so far away from the village that meant that they wouldn’t have made it back in time before nightfall.
They most likely fought with the powerful monsters of the night every day and as I know Ray from the last few days he would never place Luna in danger, which meant that he was strong enough to single-handedly deal with them.
“So cool…” I said as I saw Ray exchanging blows with the panther both of them were fast and nimble, the devil cat's attacks were dark while Ray’s attacks were flashing with light.
His white sword was so clean as if it was a mirror that reflected the light of the trees around him, it reminded me of the battle against light and darkness. Before that, I never placed his sword into my mind but now this white sparkling sword mesmerized me.
“Inspect sword.” I mumbled inside my head.
***
*Snowwood*
Type: Sword
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Rank: B
-Durability:132/135
-Mana:25/25
-Defense:26
+15 Strength
+36 Dexterity
+12 Magic Resist
-???
-???
-???
***
I was confused about the question marks on the sword so I inspected its name.
***
*Snowwood* - Sword made from pure white wood of one of the branches of Followers of the World Tree, sharpened with high-level Wood Element Control into a deadly weapon. Given only to the best warriors of the elf's race, as an honor and trust to protect the World Tree and its people.
***
“It's made of wood.” I asked myself in shock before shaking my head and returning back to reality.
As I looked at Ray being able to fight the devil cat single-handedly I only had one question that was left in my head, “Should I stay here and watch the battle or try to run away and hide somewhere else?”
Currently, I had no way to help Ray or anyone else at that, but of course, I yet again didn’t get the choice, a strong children's scream came back from the plaza as something wooden broke, and for some reason, my body moved on its own as something white flashed in front of my eyes.
I don’t even remember how I got here but I was already at the plaza, one of the buildings was missing its entrance and a huge Mountain Lord was rustling inside it looking for something or someone.
*Gulp…*
“Isn’t that Elliot’s house?” I asked myself in fear, already knowing the answer, and of course, I knew that the scream came from inside the house and that could only mean one thing, he is still there and soon he will be found out.
Bracing myself for one of the most stupid things I would do from the day I came to this world, I slowly approached the house. The Mountain Lord was trashing all the inside of the house, breaking bookshelves, walls, and doors.
“If I don't hurry up, Elliot will be toast, but what can I do?” I was thinking of a plan with the full capacity of my brain that I didn’t have literally and figuratively, but the only thing I could come of is to try and distract the Lord and hope that Elliot will find safety.
I heard a crash and a cry for help coming from the house once more, I ran to the house entrance and saw Elliot and his gang that were hiding behind a half-broken wooden door in the food pantry while the Mountain Lord was trying to tear it down, but was unable because of the debris from the walls he broke a moment ago.
The three kids were crying while hugging each other, fear and despair were written all over their faces. I was standing there looking at a huge Mountain Lord that was still trying to break through the debris.
I was completely immobilized by fear, I knew this time the devil cat won’t be able to save me and most likely nobody else as well but for some reason, I just couldn’t leave the kids.
“Fuck!” I screamed as I started to pick up items and threw them at the huge bear, even after throwing ten books at him it didn’t flinch, so I picked a brick and aimed it right at his head, and swiftly threw it hitting the target perfectly.
*”Throwing” increased to Lv3*
“Yey, my throwing leveled up…” I murmured as the Mountain Lord slowly rotated his head to my direction. I could feel his heavy killing intent all over my body, surely it will be really hard for me to make even one small step right now.
“Ha ha… It’s angry…” I laughed with despair, as the huge bear charged at me. It was no different from a charging car with all its weight but of course, I wouldn’t just stand there like an idiot and let the bear squish me.
I ran outside while making a vine with the *Grow* skill at the maximum length I could, it was approximately seven meters in length. I swung it at the lower branch of the house and caught it.
The Lord rushed out of the entrance and pounced at me with all the weight of its body, the sudden acceleration of my body wasn’t so pleasant but as I found out long ago it's not so easy to kill me with physical force alone.
I swung on the vine as if it were a swing, I tried to change the direction of my swing to the tree, to get some high ground for my safety. But sadly the world was too cruel for that to happen, and after hitting the tree I flew back at the bear from above.
The Mountain Lord was standing in confusion looking for me because of my sudden disappearance after it hit me. The brain wasn’t its strong point that was for sure but to survive in this crazy world all that you need is strength, sadly that's exactly what I lacked.
“Shit!!!” I screamed as I flew directly at the back of the lord and slammed into him.
Of course, he just felt something soft falling and didn’t even flinch, not giving the Mountain Lord a chance. I immediately used the Grow skill again and created roots around his neck to hold myself onto his back.
I knew that I didn’t have a chance in binding him down or penetrating his thick skin and using *Overtake* skill on him so my only choice was to cling to him as a tick and hope that help comes soon.
The Mountain Lord was surprised and even started to struggle in annoyance as he didn’t see me as a threat just as a nuisance, he rolled on the ground with the hope that I would fall off but I just held onto him stronger instead and slowly were increasing the number of roots that were holding me to him.
As the number of roots grew in number the Mountain Lord was getting angrier and angrier, I knew that the roots would only be able to slow him down by a little bit, but it was enough for him to be serious with me.
As they say, even a lion will use its full abilities to catch a rabbit, the Mountain Lord wasn’t so different so he changed his approach and started to run into trees and buildings trying to remove this annoying tick from his back.
“Yes yes… Uuuh make more noise that way someone will come sooner.” I said as the Lord ran into another building, for my greatest luck the Lord had a huge back that absorbed most of the damage while I barely flinched.
A few minutes of rodeo passed but nobody came to assist me, was it because we were in the alleyway and all of the guards were near the breached gate, or was it because more monsters entered through the gate killing all the guards, I didn't know but after riding for a while on my new horse we came closer and closer to the plaza to where Luna was located.
“Shit only not there.” I looked around hoping not to see her, but fate was the sister of karma and she was a bitch as well. Luna was walking straight to us from the middle of the plaza and looked like she just finished the daily ritual.
The Mountain Lord saw her and immediately forgot about me as he started to run straight at Luna.
“No, you bastard no!” I screamed at the Lord but of course, no one could hear me. I immediately started to increase the number of roots around the Lord and even started to try and bind his legs, but it was as if I was trying to stop a car that lost control with strings, it was simply impossible.
Of course, Luna heard the alarm and the racket that the Mountain Lord made but as I know her even if she had time to hide she wouldn't and just try to help people.
“Stupid girl!” I screamed as I saw Luna coming at the Lord while chanting a spell. I tried to bind his legs repeatedly, but all it did was slow him down just by a little smidge.
Luna came closer and closer to the Lord as she finished the chanting. She pointed her staff at the Mountain Lord and was going to shoot her magic but her eyes opened up with surprise as she murmured something in our direction. ”Little guardian…”
That's what she always called me, most likely she heard the story about how I protected the little kids and copied what they called me, while she murmured my nickname she lowered her staff and stopped her chanting.
“What? Stupid girl, shoot, shoot!” Luna stopped her magic most likely because of me, I would survive the impact of any magic she can use if it didn't hit me directly, but the girl didn't know that and didn't want to hurt me.
”It's all for the greater good…” She murmured as she lowered her staff and just stared at the approaching bear unmoving.
“No no no!” I screamed while the Lord was getting closer and closer to Luna, as I screamed my Grow skill leveled up but I didn’t even notice.
*”Grow” leveled up to Lv3*
I released more and more roots most of my stamina was already gone, I already used the stamina that was stored in my berries and soon I would run completely dry, but still not giving up I released a few more roots to the Lord's face trying to block his sight and if lucky pierce one of his eyes, but it was all in vain.
The Lord was smart enough just to bite off the roots that were coming close to his face. I tried to do it once more but it was already too late. The Mountain Lord was just a few steps away from Luna, one hit from his claws and it would be her end.
I wanted to scream at her to run to hide or at least try to block the attack but she was just standing there looking at the stupid bear with her tranquil eyes. I couldn't see any fear in them, not even sorrow. They were completely calm as if she knew that she would be alright.
“Dodge, please dodge!” I screamed with the full force of my being. But of course, she wouldn't be able to hear me, at least that's what I thought.
*Learned Soul Link Lv1*
Just as those words left my mind she suddenly opened her eyes and dodged the attack of the bear's claws to the left just in time.
Hope filled my heart but then I remembered that the bear won't stop after the first strike, but to my surprise, the second strike never came. Why do you ask? Because I exploded, well technically the stupid bear has exploded but still, I was on him so you know the deal.
*Boom!*