So, even after staying here for half an hour, nothing makes sense. All Verd does is crouch, walking, relying on my hearing for whatever.
This forest was completely dead. I only heard our footsteps. Yet, we crept along, I followed him.
"Hear anything?" Verd asked me for the fiftieth time. He was antsy, and a bit excited due to the tone he asked me. Can he just shut up…?
"No. You've asked a lot already, I'll tell you when I do." I replied bluntly, I wasn't trying to hide my irritation. Yet, he kept walking with minimal strides; which he did on purpose to keep me just behind him.
"Mhm, okay."
He's not going to listen.
In all honesty, I'm just here to be useless. That's due to his and Jin's agreement.
Jin only lent his bow to Verd, IF he only used it. Meaning, I can only just walk and watch. Something about Jin not wanting another archer in the party or something. Is he an insecure teen? He's old enough to have kids even..
By the forty minute mark, I heard rustling. It was distant, but it was audible.
It turned into clacking of hooves, slowly, extremely slow. I informed Verd, and he responded in a hushed, excited tone. Thankfully, my eyesight was great in this dark and damp forest.
Only if we discount my left eye. I thought to myself as I looked in between the trees, they were spaced tight, but enough to see things. Forward and right, I kept my head craned that way.
Many bushes, even more, trees. It's never endless, but I could hear the clopping now.
Slowly, it grew louder, however I couldn't see it.
"Yukina, is that it?" Verd asked in mesmerization. His question was kidlike, full of wonder, of course joy too. I turned my head towards the direction he was pointing at.
There, poking its head between two trees was a beautiful doe. Its pelt was white, furthering its unique appearance were its black, beady eyes. Thankfully, it was not looking at us, its head was focused elsewhere.
Its mouth was in a chomping motion, grass poking out of its mouth. Shaun prepared his bow quietly, well as best as he could.
"Shit!" Verd cursed. He was fumbling with the bow that was slung around his shoulder, he sounded afraid.
Why did Jin have to give him the bow…? I wondered. I sighed to myself, why does everything go wrong…? The deer twirled its adorable head at us and moved to run away.
And I could not let that happen, I poured mana into my hand; my mind went to a spell that would not cause collateral damage.
My feet resonated with the earth beneath my feet, molding it into a small spikey dart. With my mana manipulation, and my will I shot it towards the deer…
"Yukina st-!" Verd yelled at me. That dipshit! FUCK! As soon as his exclamations came out the deer sprinted.
Thunk!
My earth dart drilled into the damn tree; missing my target massively. I glared as the deer ran between the trees.
I balled my hands in frustration, alongside stomping on the ground. "Did you have to yell?! I could've gotten it!!"
"I told you not to use magic in this forest! Did you not hear me?!" Verd exclaimed back. I felt my body shrink from the harshness in his voice. "Just keep track of the damn thing!"
"Alright… I will…"
His attitude flip made my heart race a little bit. Going from excitement to anger in a split second, his face was even more pissed. The muscles in his jaws were tightened, obviously clenching them.
Without another word, we started chasing the deer. Unfortunately, it already got a few hundred meters away from us. Therefore, we had to use my sense of hearing to chase it…
Oh, don't get me wrong. It was easy to keep track of its hooves striking the ground; THE one difficult thing was keeping up!
My "running" speed was not fast. It was limping, dragging my foot as I fast walked. Any more pressure than a walk, I'd fall flat on my face…
Just a mere minute later, Verd carried me on his back; and thankfully! He was a fast runner when I wasn't holding his ass back!
The trees fwipped by my head, Verd ducking every so often to dodge low hanging branches. But, Verd wasn't James, nor Jin. I could see the rear end of that damned deer every so often.
"Verd! Stop, stop! Stop! We won't catch up to that deer!" I said to him, slapping his shoulder slightly. "We need… Oh shit…"
Yet again!!! My fucking luck in this life is so bad! We couldn't get a moment of damn respite!! There were multiple pairs of footsteps coming from every angle.
They were huge, not even small. One particular one was gigantic, and it did not take long for it to rear its ugly head at us.
Standing to our left, hiding its humongous body was a bear. It had thick, wirey hair, its breath so warm I could feel it.
Furthering its gigantic frame were paws; they were half the size of my body, then the claws would be able to shred a tank…
Verd had me slide off his back, thank god he had his glaive; this situation was terrible…
The other angles, all sides were its cubs. They looked like grizzly bears with slight white highlights in its fur. Except it was the size of a grizzly fucking bear…EVEN THE DAMN CUBS!!!
"Yukina, you can use your magic now…"
"Got it…" About damn time, I kept to myself… My back was already sweating when the giant bastard fell to its two feet.
Verd put both of his hands on his glaive and readied it. I only held the sword I was given, although… What am I supposed to do with it… ugh.
I'm not as strong as a bear, nor its cub. The only thing I have is my magic, mainly my fireball.
The first cub came after me. It was slow, acting as if I was its prey… with each step. I took one back.
I began to pour my mana into my hand. I was holding a fireball spell. I NEED to catch it off guard. Just one more step, and there!
I released the first fireball. I felt a strong gust of air hit against my skin, the stench of its fur blooming into flames entered my nose.
It fell to the next fireball I sent out. Then the next came running over its sibling.
It came fast- So fast I had to instantly cast another fireball- but it had no accuracy, it blew up against a tree.
It almost struck me with its gigantic paws. I didn't think. A fireball, one brimming with mana exploded on its belly. Then another sent it to a tree.
How much are left? The other cubs were staring at me in fear, I guess they only needed two de- Nevermind…
The two cubs began to scramble off. Verd had a red aura around him, he was going toe to toe with the mama bear. Blood was flinging around, the bear lost one of its front paws.
It let out a deafening roar, one that rattled my head so much. I had to keel over, plug my ears, and hold my breath.
Then, in a few seconds, I felt a gigantic fall on the ground. It shook for a few seconds.
Is it… I felt something touch me, it was warm. There was an iron stench hanging in the air. Over?
My hands left a tingling sensation in my ears, I ignored it as I raised my head.
"Nice job…" Verd said to me, he was patting my back. He gave me a small smile, giving an odd sight with the beheaded bear in the back. "You managed to hold off some of them…."
This… Asshole… Is he looking down on me? His voice sounded like he wanted to praise me! But his face turned into something stiffer than a damn rock!
After a quick brush, I slapped his damn hand away and got to my feet. He immediately became startled at my actions and too, got to his feet.
I looked at the burnt corpses of the bears, and the big mama bear.
"Hold on." I caught myself, I looked at the still breathing— dismembered bear. Now that I got a closer look, its breath was heavy, but shallow. "Is that bear still alive?"
"Mhmmm." Verd affirmed, the noise he made sounded like a disappointed parent. "You need to get stronger, use that whatever spike thing spell on it…"
Earth dart, genius… Agh…. Whatever. In two seconds, I casted a rather large earth dart, double the size of my first one and sent it into the bear's furry head.
There sure are a lot of damn animals that are monsters…. I thought as the Earth Dart drilled far into its skull. My facial muscles grimaced, seeing the grizzly sight.
My spell went right through its skull, then into the ground, going a few inches before stopping. The brain matter splattered the outside, causing a weird twinge in my stomach. Or it could be my menstrual cycle… I've grown used to these sights.
"You don't seem disgusted… growing used to it, huh?"
"Oh, shut up."
"Or I thought you did… Anyways, let's rest before going."
He plopped on the ground under a tree. For some magical reason, he was spotless, even after making a huge scene.
"Say Yukina, what level are you?"
"Last time I checked… Level eleven."
"Hm? Check your status now, that bear should've pushed you past it." Verd proclaimed as he leaned back.
And sure enough as he said, I was level twelve. My stats went up per their usual… And I gained another skill; Earth Dome. It could level like the rest. Am I going to be some kinda support, and damage dealer…?
Ack- whatever! At least I leveled! That's one plus for the day!! Yet, I don't feel satisfaction…
Ugh… man, I regret reading so many novels back then. It ruined my sense of actual power scaling.
I always thought leveling would be grander, but it's feeling monotonous. At least, I got another skill, huh?
"How did you know I leveled?"
"Just a guess, Yukina. That bear was strong, I had to use my last resort." Verd extended his hand to me. "You can check it out."
I watched his hand flex, unflex, he really wanted me to check.
I denied his offer, instead I looked at my skill.
[Earth Dome: Use the earth around you to create a dome that blocks attacks.]
Straightforward. Was my only thought reading it. I'll have to try it later.
After some rest, we got to our feet. Then we went to hunting the deer once again.
Just in case, Verd had me hold the bow as he turned into a bull. We found the deer once more; it was grazing on some grass in a clearing.
Instead of the bow, he had me use Earth Dart. There was a loud whine, but the deer fell to the ground with a hole through its head.
"Great work!" Verd exclaimed to me. He held the deer with his right arm, giving me a thumbs up with his other hand. Does blood not disgust him?
The blood of the dead deer was dripping down his shoulder. Yet, the excited smile never faded from his face. My nose was especially sensitive so I had to plug it.
"Shouldn't we grab more?" I asked whilst staring at the doe. "That'll only feed all of us for a day or so."
"We'll be fine, " Verd claimed. He now turned to the path ahead, he sounded so sure, my guts were telling me he's trying to treat me like a kid. "You really shocked me, Yukina. I thought you only had fire magic…"
Well, be shocked…
I don't think it would be all that shocking. It's most likely he never worked with a magic user; neither have I, aside from James with healing.
I didn't respond as we left the forest. We could see the camp, Shaun was kindling the fire happily; Jin and Shen were talking, but I couldn't understand what.
They look to be having fun. I noticed, Shen was explaining something from this distance. Despite her focus, she turned to Verd and I, waving in the next moment.
Verd returned it. I stared at them with a weird look, as I did, everyone else looked. There were slight cheers, mainly.from the little kids.
James and Melinda ran towards us.. They seemed pretty worried, but became relieved seeing I was free of injuries.