I've been looking for a damn tactic to counter this bastard, but I can't find any, if not one... but it's risky. 'Well, not that up to now I have adopted safe tactics, after all those who don't risk will never have anything.' The alpha only gives Jusy a quick glance, but immediately focuses her attention on me, which I prefer.
"Are you mad at me? Then come forward!" I get into a defensive position, waiting for the enemy to arrive.
*Roar*
The alpha roars and then charges me, he's very fast, but I try to follow his movements. But as you can imagine it's almost impossible for me, the best I can do is decrease the damage dealt to me. Between cuts and bruises, I am losing a lot of blood and my body is taking a lot of damage, if it wasn't for Jusy constantly healing me, I would have been dead a long time.
The alpha seems to enjoy hitting me all the time, he doesn't seem to want to give me the coup de grâce…which is in my favor.
The alpha seems to get tired of beating me and decided it was time to end it, he grabs me and slams me into a tree, some leaves from the branches fall on us. I no longer feel my back and various parts of my body, I'm on the verge of losing consciousness, but I resist. I let go of the sword, dropping it to the ground, lowering my head, to appear to have lost all hope. Seeing me defeated, the alpha opens its jaws, licking its teeth with its long forked tongue, anticipating the sumptuous meal, or so she thought.
When the jaws get close enough, I cast a newly learned spell with my free hand. Five swords made of astra, of the three colors that have been following me since I awakened the astra in me, form around me, pointing inside the noterozo's large mouth. I immediately shoot it down the throat, ripping apart the alpha's internal flesh. "If you can't pierce the outer flesh, target the inner..."
The alpha didn't expect it, he tried to close his jaw quickly, but he didn't have time. He releases his grip on me, making me collapse to the ground, from below I see a large amount of blood pouring from the tigrelos' mouth, staining the grass below.
"Brlrglr" The alpha is choking on his own blood, my swords will have torn many internal organs, and among those organs is his heart, I'm sure. Between gargles and sloppy movements, the alpha falls to the floor, his eyes lose the spark of life, making him sleep forever.
"Darion!" Jusy yells my name, she runs towards me. "I trusted you because I believed you, and I did right, but it was still extreme. Don't move, I'll take care of you right away." Jusy begins to heal me, I feel the warmth of her light that surrounds me and healing my wounds.
"Jusy... I hardly fall asleep... don't do anything without me... wait for me to wake up..." I slowly close my eyes, with Jusy's voice in the background, she is obviously worried, but I'm sure she will be able to cure me.
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"Darion! Darion! Don't fall asleep, it's not the time, get up!" I try to wake Darion and at the same time I'm treating him, I think his life is no longer in danger, but he has lost a lot of blood, he needs energy to be able to go on.
*hiss*
While I'm concentrating on taking care of Darion, I hear noises coming from behind me, someone is approaching. 'The soldiers of the Laten family? No, that wouldn't explain the alpha's arrival here… so they are…' And just as I feared they would appear, the herd the alpha had brought along. I notice the bloodstains on their claws and fangs, as well as some flaps of skin dangling from inside their mouths.
"Apparently they aren't full yet." The tigrelos look towards us, and immediately notice their dead alpha, they roar with rage, we see that only I am conscious here, they aim at me.
They start running towards me, I cover Darion's body, waiting for our end, but apparently this is not the day. I hear noises of the earth moving, as if the earth came to life, I open my eyes to see what is happening and what appears in front of me is incredible. Big spikes of earth came out of the ground, impaling those tigrelos who tried to attack me, they were all killed in one fell swoop.
"Are you okay, boys?" A voice unknown to me comes from behind me.
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"How come you couldn't bring me a simple girl?" Count Trekon was sitting in his chair, while he watches his son who is standing at the door. His gaze is like a wolf staring at a lamb, the boy trembles with fear, drops of sweat run down his face.
"I-I'm sorry, father. But the soldiers-" The boy is making excuses, trying to save his own skin, but obviously it can't work against Count Trekon.
"Sorry, just a pathetic excuse, you failed to use your pawns well and it backfired... yet another proof that you're just a failure." Trekon isn't easy to accuse his son of him, the latter was used to it, after all, he's always done that with him.
"I-I'm sorry, next time-" Trekon interrupts his son again.
"No, I'm sick of your failures, there won't be a next time... but luck for you, you can come in handy one last time..." Trekon already has the fate of his useless son in mind, after all he seeks always to find utility in each of its pieces.
Trekon's son doesn't yet know what the future holds for him, but he can only imagine that it won't do him any good.
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I feel the heat, not the usual heat of Jusy's care, but the heat of the fire is after the sensation I hear the noises. The sounds of a crackling fire reach my eardrums, followed by voices, one of which I recognize to be Jusy's, the other to be that of a stranger, or rather, a she.
I slowly open my eyes, and in front of me I see a well-arranged fire, with stones and wood. Around me I see rock walls forming a four meter high circle towering over me, protecting this hearth.
"Ah, you finally woke up, just in time to eat something." I hear a woman's voice speaking to me from the side.
"Darion! You finally woke up, you don't know how anxious I've been for you." Jusy exclaims my name and joins me, hugging me very tightly.
"Ouch, thanks Jusy, but you might not squeeze so hard, I'm still a bit sore." As soon as Jusy hugs me, I feel pain all over her body, but nothing serious, luckily Jusy is a priestess.
"You don't know how worried you've made this girl, to be her partner, you make her worry a lot." The woman's voice reaches me again, and this time I turn to the source of the voice, to see who is speaking.
And as soon as the figure of the woman enters my field of vision I can only exclaim a word in my mind. 'What a panther.'