Chapter 36 - Magical Beast's Attack
Hearing Luca's desperate scream, Bryn felt Michelle stop resisting his pull, both turning their bodies towards the forest. Her eyes connected instantly with Bryn's, and he saw tears running down her serene face. There was no fear in her expression, only seriousness. The two started running at full speed.
Within a second of starting, Michelle gained distance from Luca and Bryn. Without looking back, she yelled. "I'LL BE BACK WITH FATHER BIG BRO!!!! BRYN, WE MEET AT THE VILLAGE!". This time, her movements were not as refined as before. She was focusing on taking out all the energy on her muscle fibers. She did not need to concentrate on canceling her noise or presence. Just the opposite, she ran as close to a straight line to the village as she could. Noises, prey and branches be damned.
In Bryn's mind, it was the third time since the beginning of their hunt he noticed the difference in his status compared to the brother and sister. Even without the parkour skill, her top speed was three times his. She had already reached the mountain range's entrance in a flash, increasing her speed. No more snow was at her feet; she could now ignore the balancing challenge the snow posed.
Bryn followed with everything he got. He could tell that the previous fights and the afternoon of hunting had taken much of his energy from him; still, he ran. Step after step, he reached the mountain range's entrance, but unlike Michelle, his speed didn't increase. The reason was his hooves; they had a much better grip than her boots on the snowy or slush ground.
Michelle left an excellent trace for him to follow. She had ignored entirely any attempt to leave no evidence of her passage. The two could only think of reaching the village as soon as possible.
Back at the clearing, Luca smiled as Michelle and Bryn left his line of sight. His shoulder hurt from the previous strike. He tried to reach for his shield, but his left arm had lost some of its motion. He looked down at his arm, only to see a dent as big as his hand now engraved on the shoulder plate of the armor.
"What an asshole, took us by surprise, waiting for the worst possible moment to attack and even fainting that it was targeting Michelle, but actually aiming for my shoulder... This will be trouble. Focus, Luca, remember what Jonas and Father taught you". He thought.
He slapped his face hard to help clear his mind. He saw a pair of light blue eyes in the snowbanks, just waiting for him to prepare appropriately as if the beast was toying with its next meal.
"Am I the prey here?" his mind considered as a rage came from within. "No hunter can see themself as prey, or they have already lost."
In his mind, a flashback played as Jonas told a younger version of himself and Michelle.
"Listen, you two, when facing an unknown opponent, there are essential things to remember…"
"Uncle Jonas, why fight something I don't know?" Michelle asked.
"It is not always us who decide what we face, Michelle… But life will teach you that better than I'll ever be able to. My job, asked by your father, is simply to prepare you for when it does… As I said, how many parts are essential to an encounter like this? Luca…"
"Two! Find out what I'm facing and how to beat it!" He said.
Jonas started to stroll around the two, using his fingers to count each part he mentioned. "You are partially correct. The first thing you must do is comprehend what you are facing. Without that information, you have much lower odds of winning. Second, does your opponent know magic? If so, which magic type and skill does it have? Rare are those who freely use magic. Typically, people and creatures will use skills. Third, find out if you can hurt your opponent. There are two ways to survive a fight: one is to win it, and the other is not to lose! You must discover which one you are going for as fast as possible. With these three steps, you can plan your fight." As he finished, he looked at his hand and then back to Luca and Michelle.
"If you count the planning as a final step, you have four essentials!" He said.
The memory happened in the blink of an eye. Luca was still lying on the rock he had hit after receiving the strike. He used his functioning right arm to get the shield and placed it on his left forearm.
"It may not have much motion, but it is better to have protection on it than try and use my sword without mobility. What creature was that? The attack was super fast, eliminating the classical three from the outer region. Those blue eyes… It couldn't be it, right? We are so far from the true mountain range."
The bright blue eyeballs started to approach slowly. As it got closer, Luca was finally able to identify the creature.
The way it approached Luca had an air of confidence, as if the hunter in front of it was nothing but a nuisance. Even so, the scene was so majestic that that moment was engraved forever in Luca's mind—his first lone encounter with a magical beast.
"It had to be an Icy Leopard… It seems to be a young one. It must have left without his family… Mountain leopards are famous for their speed and for focusing their attacks on vital parts. They have different variations that show from their fur and eyes. This one's fur is white as the snow, with few patches alternating between light and dark gray, but now that it is walking up to me, I can see faint bright blue points on its paws as well. The classical distinction on the fur is that if they have dark gray, I could eliminate its air variation; since the details are blue and not green, I can also eliminate earth variation. Meaning I'll have to worry about ice fangs and claws. It has less mobility than the other two variants, but its attack is more powerful… I have to regain momentum!"
About to start the fight for their lives, Luca was the first to act. Launching an attack straight into the leopard's chest, his movements were so fast and clean that almost no energy got wasted.
The leopard's reaction was a fast side jump and a leap from a strange angle. Luca saw firsthand the wildness of the creature's movement. The leopard chose a paw slash, aiming at the shoulder previously hurt. Luca quickly kicked the ground and turned toward the leopard, not giving it time to complete its swing and making the paw lose half its power.
With such movements, the slash was not fatal, as Luca used his shield as best he could. Such a slash would be easy to block, but with his mobility-impaired, he had to choose differently.
"Aaaahhhhhhhhh!" Luca shouted as he used his injured arm and shield to land the attack while the short sword in his right hand rushed toward the leopard's throat. In Lucas' mind, the worst case with such a magical beast would be a bite! Ice-type magical beasts had freezing capabilities; as the levels of such beasts increased linearly, their attack threat grew exponentially.
As the sword made an impact, the difference in damage was apparent: a slight wound in the leopard's neck, but on Luca's shoulder, a nasty cut. With his skin open, blood started to flow out. His mind began to go crazy, and his regard for limitations and danger got thrown away as he went on a rampage attack.
The leopard was startled by the insane young human running in his direction and retreated a little, but the decision was poor. In his psychotic state, all of Luca's mind sent whatever blood was not leaving his body to his muscles, making the "hail mary" an attack much faster than expected.
The leopard's blood boiled and its eyes sharpened! It recognized Luca as a threat for the first time, and its instinct decided to ATTACK!!
A loud "Rwaaaaaaaarrhhhh" could be heard around the clearing and into the forest.
And with a giant leap forward, it went for a bite.
At that point, Luca's blade was about to reach the leopard's stomach, and the leopard's bite - aimed at his neck - was about to connect !!
That moment was Luca's first dance with death; he could feel the breeze of the wind and listen to the forest's silence as if it were waiting for the moment to end. It was as if time had slowed down to a stop…
Right after her brother woke her up from the sock with a big scream, Michelle used all her training to run at full speed back home.
Though it seemed easy, the forest was a harsh environment for running at full speed, especially if you were eight years old. At that age, your body still doesn't have the best proportions to use whatever stamina or strength one gets from levels. Still, Michelle was doing a fantastic job.
While running for her and her brother's life, Michelle's mind was a hurricane of thoughts. Was her brother going to be ok? Would she run fast enough to ask her father for help?
Her body started to tense while thinking about the situation, and tiredness turned into fatigue.
"Aaaaahhh, why am I so slow!!!! My legs are burning and I can barely catch a breath. I have no idea what happened to Luca!!!" she screamed alone in the forest. Bryn was to far to hear her cries to the heavens.
That was when Michelle felt her limits reached for the first time. Never in training was she pushed so far. But for the love of her brother and her determination, the decision was to keep on running. She did not care what happened to her legs or body. All she cared about was saving her brother.
After running for an eternity in her mind, Michelle finally arrived at the village. At the gates were her father and Jonas, clearly waiting for her arrival. Looking at them, she started to scream as tears ran down her eyes.
"Faaaaatheeeer, Uncle Joooonaaas!!! You must help Luca!!! We got attacked, it was soooo fast, and Luca!! He defended me!! I couldn't do anything. All I could do was run!! I started running here, and...". Her words made little sense to anyone listening. The shock, adrenaline, and tiredness got in the way of her speech.
With her body so tired from running, Michelle could barely speak, and with her mind still in shock, what she said wouldn't make much sense.
Gabriel embraced Michelle as she ran at full speed into his arms.
Jonas was the first to respond to her cry for help. "Calm down, Michelle. Your father and I know what happened. As a matter of fact, we know that now, Luca is fighting the magical beast you encountered!". He placed his hand on her head, trying to calm her.
He looked at Gabriel once again. Jonas's eyes were fierce, much different from before. "Gabriel, if you do not allow me to intervene, there is a chance you may lose your son. Isn't this enough?!"
His words made Gabriel's embrace tighten on Michelle. Jonas stepped back and kneeled as he realized he had overstepped.
Gabriel's expression went from that of a caring father hugging his worrying daughter to that of the man Jonas had met years prior. "THERE IS NOTHING ALIVE ABLE TO THREATEN MY FAMILY."
In front of Jonas now was a man dressed in white and black battle armor. He shined as much as if the sun had humanized and came down to Earth, gazing at Jonas's very soul.
"Poor leopards, I just hope he focuses on them, not me… I better help the faun to get some credit…" Jonas thought as the man holding his daughter disappeared from where they were standing.