Chereads / Phoenix of Calamity / Chapter 18 - A Tactical Retreat

Chapter 18 - A Tactical Retreat

After the boy's brief, brilliant and not to mention, a flashy show of strength, the demon bears were less eager to approach them even though they showed no signs of backing off completely.

Arthur smirked with pride.

The prince liked what he was seeing.

'Three of them, huh,' the prince counted the beasts, getting back so they wouldn't see him.

As it stood, the three bears were focused solely on the First Years before them and were going to be until either one of the two groups was dead.

Several slashes, knicks and cuts, gashes of varying depths dripping with blood mottled the bears' hides.

While the two students looked stranded and without another option, it was evident that they had given the demon bears a hard time.

Upon further inspection, Arthur noticed a pile of ash further away from the cliff.

One of the 'initially four' bears had fallen to this pair.

The prince made a few mental calculations and found the optimum spot to jump off the cliff.

Gripping his spear firmly, the excited battle-crazed prince took a few steps back and hoped a bit, alternately shifting his weight between his feet to get a feel of his muscles before darting towards the edge of the cliff.

Mustering a reasonable amount of strength and keeping his steps as silent as he could, the prince leapt off the cliff and high into the air, sailing through the air unnoticed.

The prince made an aerial somersault and allowed a bit of mana into his lance before he thrust the searing hot blade downward at his target with a specific target in mind.

Just as he'd calculated, Arthur quickly and easily made it above the bear on the extreme right before he was noticed. By this time, it was already too late for the bear as he shot straight downward with his immolating spear outstretched.

The hot steel lance tore through the demon bear's hide, specifically at the back of its neck, a spot right behind the bone-white skull, exactly where the black fur started and lodged itself deep into the bear's spine.

'Just like I thought… Hard skull, but right beyond that, to allow it to turn its head is a patch of fur soft enough to cut through,' Arthur's eyes beamed.

The bear gave out a painful loud shrieking growl, alerting the others of its pain before exploding into a cloud of runes and ash.

Arthur covered his mouth and nose he rolled through the sooty mess and athletically bounced onto his feet, his eyes quickly scanning his surroundings to keep track of the other demon bears.

'That takes care of one.'

The prince quickly made his way to the two students and turned to the remaining two tusked bears with his spear pointing towards them in a defensive stance.

With his back to the two students, he asked, "Are you two okay?"

"What are you doing?" the boy's voice called to him, amused.

"What does it look like?"

"You might have killed one but that was a fluke. These are demon bears… First Years don't stand a chance against them. You would have been better off running away," the boy argued.

"I agree that the first one I killed could have been a fluke but… don't underestimate me. I'm not weak.

Tend to your friend's wounds. I'll handle the… 'all-powerful demon bears'," after saying that, Arthur shut out the boy's voice and focused on the battle in front of him.

He'd initially planned on dealing with the bears with help from the boy… but something about what he said irked him…

'Better off running away! Tch… Who does he think I am? I'll show him running away,' the prince mentally grumbled.

The bears were nothing like the goblins he'd fought before. These creatures didn't have clubs and didn't run on two legs either.

They were armed with tusks, teeth and an ocean of bulky muscles behind each swipe of their large paws equipped with razor-sharp claws at least four inches long.

Dropping low to the ground, the white-haired boy dashed forward with his spear held back in preparation for an attack. The demon bear he was attacking roared in return, accepting his challenge and came barreling towards him at full speed.

'Now, wait a minute! Give me a break and show a little fear…' Arthur wanted to scream.

The prince instinctively activated the flame enchantment his spear held and brought a powerful slash down on the bear in front of him.

Before the spear could hit, however, the bear raised a paw and swiped at the blade.

To Arthur's surprise, the blade glanced off the bear's claws like it was nothing. Having fended off his attack, the demon bear barreled on with its other paw raised high, barely breaking its speed.

It was then that Arthur noticed a metallic glint in the bear's claws. One hit from these monsters would probably gut him on the spot.

Arthur gritted his teeth and spun his spear, getting control of it before he dove backwards. The demon bear's paw struck the ground. Arthur placed his hand on the ground and propelled himself even further into the air and away from the monster.

A second paw struck his former position.

The prince came to a crouching skidding halt right where he'd started his dash, in front of the sword-wielding boy.

'Demon Bears, huh… How frustrating!' the prince groaned.

Arthur noticed cracks in the hard ground in the spots where the demon bear had nearly struck him.

It wasn't so hard to estimate that their attacks were… 'bone-crushing.'

'I'm going to have to use more power on these ones.'

There were several reasons why Arthur loved the lance as a weapon. Unlike a sword, it was longer and had a longer handle as well, providing him with more control over the weapon.

What was more, it had more reach in a fight, allowing him to fight an enemy without having to be at arm's length close to them. Against a skilled lancer, a swordsman would be at a disadvantage.

In addition to that, he could execute the slashing techniques required of a sword with a few alterations, giving him a great wide range of tactics and range within which he could execute them.

The prince changed the way he held the spear, placing one foot in front of the other and unleashing a barrage of thrusts at the demon bear that had now grown eager to attack him.

Each thrust was packed with tremendous force enough to make the demon bear's skull shudder under the pressure of each one.

The sudden change in fighting style caught the demon bear he was attacking off guard. Arthur continued his flurry of jabs, paying close attention to the other bear that had switched its attention from the boy and girl to him.

The second demon bear was now preparing to charge towards him, growling menacingly to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth and a blood-thirsty impatience to get to the 'killing' part.

To Arthur's frustration, no matter how strong his attacks were, the spear glanced off the demon bear's bone-white head, leaving light scorch marks.

If it wasn't for how much power he was putting into his attack, he would have appeared to be poking the dangerous creature.

The demon bear took a few steps back, overwhelmed by the chaotic attack but in no way injured.

After focusing and failing a few times, Arthur grunted and nearly gave up on this course of action. Right before he could change tactic, by some string of luck, the prince's struck true.

He struck the only weak point on the fearsome beast's bone skull.

The red-hot spear struck the demon bear's eye.

At that same moment, the second bear was joining the fight, slowing its charge and simply warding the prince away from its last remaining comrade.

Arthur dashed to the side and away from the two bears and away from the cliff as well.

"Over here, you vile beasts."

The demon bears turned to him, one staring at him with a grotesque bleeding eye.

The beast's other eye burnt with fearsome vengeful hate.

'Yup… that should do it.'

The prince turned tail and ran.

......….

In the following seconds, Arthur was dashing through the woods at top speed, which for a phoenix utilising its superhuman strength, was blindingly close to that of a RuneCycle.

'Damn it… What do they feed these things eat?' Arthur cursed as he rushed through the cover of the trees.

The demon bears were keeping up.

..........

The boy and girl remained still for a few moments, still trying to contemplate what had just happened.

The girl, Momo, hopped on her good leg, balancing better and wondered, "That guy is crazy, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is… But I think he's acted like a hunter the most compared to the other students we've met," the boy replied, "How's your leg holding up?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know how useful I will be to you like this. I'm essentially dead weight to your right now," Momo whimpered.

"Don't say that. Just use that bow… and we accomplish any…" Leo stopped mid-sentence. He'd turned away from the girl to search for her bow, however, when he looked at the place it had fallen, he noticed a boy standing there, holding the weapon in his hand.

In his other hand, the boy gripped a lance very similar to the one that the white-haired boy had used only a few moments ago.

The boy had short black hair, a pale ghostly complexion and sharp features. He didn't look all that strong but his composure said otherwise.

The mysterious boy had that chilling presence that could make anyone think twice before messing with him… or even approaching him.

"Give that back," the boy spoke out.

The pale boy's eyes were glued to something else on the ground. When the swordsman followed his gaze, he noticed the boy was observing the battleground which was now covered in cracks and scorch marks.

"Did you happen to see a white-haired boy run through here? He's about this tall—" the boy used his hand to illustrate a few inches shorter than himself, "—and likes to challenge everything in sight."