Turning to face the projectile's origin, Nera let out a relieved sigh.
"And the prey walks into us. Are you okay, Sapphi?"
"F-fine…" Sapphire groaned, standing up.
Being pushed down so suddenly didn't feel great, but it wasn't bad enough to complain. Especially when she looked and saw that whatever was shot at her had enough force to tear straight through a tree behind the duo.
Standing opposite of them was a pair of monsters, a large cat-sized rodent that rode atop a fox with two tails that arrogantly flew into the wind.
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| | | | | = | | | | | | = "Unnatural creatures! Leave this forest!" "Run away or get eaten! Nera gave the two creatures a dumbfounded look. 'A two-tailed fox? Kitsune should only gain a tail every 50 levels. It's not even the rare of the two, so it's not a mutation. This world is so bizarre… I love it!' "A lovely gift for Mother Goddess just appeared." Curious, Nera picked up a small rock and tossed it at the Groundhog, only for it to zip off the Fox's back and dash toward Nera. Unfortunately for it, all Nera had to do was stomp the ground and the entire space around them became heavy. By the time the rodent realized that its speed was being slowed heavily, Nera had already grabbed it by the head. The impact took all four of her arms and sent her skidding back several meters. "AGH! LET GO OF ME! DALE! HEL-" Bale's words were cut off. "Augmenting yourself with lightning. It's a fancy trick." Nera mused, releasing the gravity and tossing the creature upward, allowing the natural pull of the world to do the rest for her. After, Nera dashed forward. Whenever she got close to the fox, both of its tails flared as they ducked their head under her attack, trying to take a bite out of her side. At the same time, the earth from beneath where Nera once stood raised, catching Bale. To protect herself, Nera increased the gravity around herself and slammed her elbow down into the fox's maw. "Thanks, Dale!" Bale called out, rushing down the pillar of dirt and stone, going straight toward Sapphire. "You're mine, Little Deer!" "Stay back!" Sapphire shouted, creating a path of spiked crystal, only for Bale to rush around it quickly. Bale adeptly took a bite into Sapphire's leg, only to be met by a hard crystal coating that almost shattered its teeth. This was followed by a powerful kick that sent him flying back. Ironically enough, The fox used the same move, creating spikes made of rock, forcing Nera to retreat, leaving both sides back to their respective partners. Crossing her two lower arms, a confident smile appeared on Nera's face. "That was a fun exchange. Which one do you want? I'll deal with the other." She said, humming. "You! How dare you throw Bale! Bale will kill you!" Bale shouted in anger, charging itself with electricity. "The tiny one is too fast. I-I'll try to keep the Fox off of you since our abilities seem similar!" Hopping up in the air as she prepared to meet the large rat-like monster, Nera let out a small chuckle. "Don't try, just do. Mother Goddess made you one of her [Heroes] because she expects great things. If she believes in you, then naturally, I do too." Once again, their clash started. Bale instantly started making light blows before dashing away, but after about the third hit, Nera managed to reverse the gravity as they were about to hit her, sending the monster flying over her head. As she turned to chase, Dale attempted to stop her with another row of spikes, but Sapphire countered with her crystals, charging at them and forcing their attention to be on her. Flying into the air, Nera activated her [Cycle of Wings], entering her [Gigant] form and darting through the skies to catch the rat, which didn't take long. The moment she caught up, her four arms slammed the Groundhog into the ground, the amplification of her gravity sending it down to the ground far faster than its normal terminal velocity. "YOU FREAK! GET OUT OF OUR FOREST!" Bale screamed, running up a tree before firing off three small jolts of electricity at Nera. She was about to take them head-on when she remembered that Alchemy told her not to do that exact thing. Avoiding it using her powerful wings, Nera shot down like a missile, crashing through the entire tree that Bale was perched on, the resulting smoke cloud causing them to lose vision of each other. "Durable bastard. Quite strong as well, but your small body stops you from using all your potential power. Truly, Danger Ratings mean absolutely nothing when it comes to dumb animals." Nera sighed. Not that a danger rating of A+ meant all that much anyway when she could double her stats at will. With the flapping of her wings, the dust was all blown away, and there Bale was, running to try and regroup with their partner. "I was hoping you'd be more fun than those wolves and monkeys. How sad." Nera's smile vanished as she let out a sigh. "Analysis Complete." She continued, taking off to the sky once again. Thanks to her strength stat being increased by about 13 levels worth in her [Gigant] form, she could nearly keep up with the lightning-amped groundhog, but it was still a hair faster, forcing her to increase the gravity around the monster as much as she could. Even with her increased SP pool, this significantly strained her reserves. | "As curious as I am to know what you mean by calling me unnatural, I don't how the energy to play around with you. I'll end this in one hit." The already panicking Bale rushed away, sweat dripping down their fur despite not having sweat glands anywhere that should allow sweat to be visible. The shadow of Nera loomed over him and got closer at a rather rapid pace, but he dared not look up. Instead, he used his entire force to fling himself out of the way. Shortly after, a massive explosion could be heard as Nera collided with the ground. 'Y-yes! I can keep going! I can get to Dale!' The groundhog thought, only to turn around and see Nera's hulking figure over him. "Goodbye, little groundhog." …