NOVEL NEXT Chapter 172: Sturdy Fly
Zach winced when the bear covered Yanael with its paw and slammed her flat into the ground. Zach knew his barriers couldn't block that strike, so he didn't waste his health trying. He knew Yanael would understand. But it still hurt to let her take such a blow without helping.
However, Yanael didn't take that blow for nothing. Alzara grabbed the opening and sprinted up the bear's outstretched arm. The bear was bigger than the wolf, and it was like running up a hill, but Alzara didn't have any trouble. It was like she was skipping over a field of flowers.
There wasn't a hit of exertion on her face as she stood, light as a feather, on the bear's back.
Zach wasn't sure what she was going to do up there. Since she was a witch, he assumed she would use magic of some kind, not that he knew much about witches other than how they stirred their pots with green, bubbling potions.
Considering how Alzara made her potions, though, desert witches might be more sophisticated in some areas. Or his preconceived notions about witches, in general, were wrong.
That they were.
Alzara flicked her wrists and suddenly had a pair of curved daggers. Zach could see even from a distance that there were engravings on the blades.
Alzara crossed her wrists in front of her before slashing out with a double-layered cut in between the bear's shoulders. The bear, who had missed Alzara on his back, felt a chill run down its spine when Alzara launched her attack. Its back muscles tensed, and its long, spiky fur stiffened like the bristles of a porcupine.
It wasn't enough.
Alzara's daggers cut through both fur and hide, leaving a wound as long as Zach's arm. She clicked her tongue. Although she had no trouble cutting through the bear's defenses, she had not planned to only make such a shallow wound.
The bear bucked like a bull and tossed Alzara into the air. She embraced the force and jumped. She took a moment to inspect the bear as she hovered in the air. She narrowed her eyes as underworld energy streamed over and through the bear's fur and body toward the wound, healing it almost instaneously.
Alzara's eyes narrowed.
She made one dagger disappear. She cut her thumb with the one that remained, drawing black blood. She wiped the blood over the dagger's side. The blood soaked into the dagger, igniting the engravings with a blue light.
"Curse of Decay." The light on Alzara's blades flickered for a moment.
She clicked her tongue again.
"Am I really that weak?"
Before she could do anything else, Alzara returned to the ground next to Zach. The bear locked onto her with its gaze. It roared and sent a shower of spittle in their direction, but Zach's barrier stopped it before it could reach them. Then, it prepared to charge.
Yanael, covered in dirt and with a few scrapes on her face and her hair in disarray, however, had taken the opportunity to get back up when Alzara distracted the bear. She gritted her teeth. Her wings fully extended, and her halo bathed her in a golden light.
Like a cannonball, she shot into the side of the bear's head with her shield first. It wasn't even allowed to look at Zach, much less roar or charge at him.
The bear's head was solid, and it was like she hit a brick wall. Yanael would be surprised if the blow had even dazed the bear, and based on the way it glared at her with its black, beady eyes, it hadn't. It had only served to further irritate the hairy bastard. Explore stories on M V L
Yanael knocked her sword against her shield with a ringing, clanging sound, taunting the bear to attack her. For whatever reason, Alzara wasn't doing anything just yet. That meant it was up to her to fight and hold the bear's attention.
"Aren't you going to help?" Zach raised an eyebrow and glanced at Alzara, unable to completely tear his eyes away from Yanael and the bear.
"It's just going to heal any injuries as long as it has access to underworld energy. One of my curses should work, but I need to gather my strength for a moment. And that alone won't be enough to kill it." Alzara put the dagger against her thumb again, dragging an excruciatingly slow line across it.
Zach narrowed his eyes and looked at the bear. He thought about how to solve the problem Alzara had just mentioned.
"...I think I can put up a barrier that seals the air around the bear. It will have access to the underworld energy inside the barrier but no more than that."
"Injure it and make it drain all the underworld energy and then kill it. Got it." Alzara wiped a thick wad of black blood against her blade, which made her dagger's engravings shine much clearer than before.
"Curse of Decay." She was about to dart off.
"There's just one problem."
"Yes?"
"You two will run out of air if you don't finish it quickly enough."
"That's hardly a problem at all." Alzara winked and threw Zach a kiss before getting closer to Yanael's and the bear's brawl.
Zach sighed, and when Alzara was close enough, he concentrated and extended his hands. It needed to be a big barrier. It didn't need to be durable or hold any other special properties. But it needed to be air-tight and large enough to let his two familiars fight with the overgrown bear without worrying about breaking the barrier or going out of bounds.
He trusted his familiars, and Alzara could probably fight inside a barrier that was barely bigger than the bear. But Yanael had a different fighting method.
Gradually, a translucent, golden-hued film unfolded above the bear, Yanael, and Alzara. It was almost four times the bear's full length in diameter. Bigger than that and Zach couldn't ensure that it would keep the underworld energy separated.
With its current size, he could also lend Yanael some aid with smaller barriers.
The bear seemed to notice the barrier but didn't pay any further attention to it after confirming that it wasn't an attack. It was too preoccupied with smacking the sturdy, glowing fly in front of it.