Chapter 90 :
Episode 20 : A Fulfilling Meal (2)
In a predicament, HwanGi had jumped to strike a blow on the ‘Forest’ bear. While he was swinging his sword toward the bear's leg, he spotted a strange thing on the antler of the bear.
It was illuminating like the star in the sky, looking all shiny and such on the antler.
‘Did my luck..’ Despite this, HwanGi wasn't at all that interested in the odd thing and swiftly went back to striking his flaming sword at the bear.
When his sword was on the verge of injuring the predator, the ‘Forest’ bear noticed and halted HwanGi's attack by grabbing his sword.
Even if the ‘Divine Flame’ was faintly burning the fur of the bear, it did not flinch from the small fire.
The bear clutched and flung HwanGi's sword away, forcing HwanGi to be tossed over there.
"Whoa!!" HwanGi was alarmed by the bear as he was grasping onto his sword tightly.
Since HwanGi didn't wish to be stopped by the bear, he blasted out ‘Vortex Wave’ to get him back to his original position.
Advancing toward the bear's gut with his sword directed toward it, HwanGi bursted out his ‘Divine Flame’ as he concentrated the fire on his sword's top point.
In spite of using his skill to move faster, the bear was easily able to evade HwanGi's attack again which led to HwanGi hitting nothing but air.
"Damnit!" HwanGi got back on his feet and his position, standing beside Alaine who was dealing with the boars in HwanGi's place.
"HwanGi! I don't think my clones can handle all these boars!" Alaine cried out, decapitating a boar that was jumping over her.
Alaine uttered again. "We need to leave quickly before we get stomped on by the boars!"
Looking at it again, HwanGi was wondering why these boars were still here. "Aren't these boars running away from the ‘Forest’ bear? So why are they still here?"
"They aren't running away!" Raiden shouted to get HwanGi's attention.
While using his ‘Divine Flame’ to surround the bear, stalling the bear as much as possible, HwanGi heard and asked Raiden. "And why is that?"
"The boars are the ‘Forest’ bear's subjects! Think of it as the king ordering their soldiers to fight!"
"Then is there a way to stop this?"
Raiden smashed the ground to rain down his thunder, striking the boars countlessly. "We can either kill the bear or retreat! But I think it's better to slay the bear then running away!"
"What happens if we kill the bear?"
"The boars will be confused by the death of the ‘Forest’ bear, so they will leave us alone!"
"Right. We're already surrounded by the boars, even escaping makes it harder for us."
HwanGi understood his situation and also agreed with Raiden's suggestions. If they were to pick the escaping option, then they must deal with the bear as well as the boars to retreat safely. But getting big injuries would be unavoidable, so that option is out of the question.
But if they were to pick the kill the bear option, then there might be a chance of surviving through this dilemma.
Made up his mind, HwanGi shouted to tell everyone his plan. "Everyone! We're going to slay the bear!"
Raiden, Alaine and Frostina all listened closely while fighting off the boars.
"Raiden and I will do our best to kill the ‘Forest’ bear! Frostina will take care of the boars with her ice abilities, while Alaine will kill the boars that get close to Frostina and Maria!"
"Did everyone hear me clearly!?" HwanGi exclaimed out a full-throated shout before charging at the bear.
Without a doubt, anyone would hear him when he was using the full volume of his voice.
Eventually, Frostina cast a freeze skill onto the boars, giving her time to run toward Maria to protect her. While doing so, Alaine managed to sprint back to Maria and Frostina, doing her job as to defend these two in the best of her abilities.
With Raiden building up his lightning underneath his feet, he backflipped over the ladies to land beside HwanGi. As for his lightning that he left behind after he jumped, the lightning was paralyzing the boars around the ladies to aid them.
Upon seeing HwanGi headed toward the bear, Raiden clapped his hands together before pulling them away to generate a staff created out of thunder.
With a thunderous staff that was zapping lighting everywhere, Raiden wielded his staff, focusing all his lightning onto the top of the staff to summon a ball of thunder.
Aiming for the perfect chance to shoot, he saw HwanGi leaping away to avoid the bear's paw. With that split second of an opening, Raiden blasted a cluster of thunder toward the ‘Forest’ bear viciously.
After that, the concentrated thunderball shot straight at the bear's head without any difficulties which in turn paralyzed the bear for a few seconds, enough for HwanGi to deal a fatal wound.
Given a window of opportunity, HwanGi surfed onto his ‘Vortex Wave’, diving at the bear before landing an attack onto the bear's paw.
"I did it!" HwanGi gasped for a breather.
Unfortunately for the bear, its right paw was no more after being cut off by HwanGi, making the bear infuriated by its missing paw.
Despite the bear being paralyzed by Raiden's thunderbolt, it shockingly persisted to the point of managing to move its body.
With an ear-splitting growl, the bear bawled in anger and instantly went for a slash with its fierce claws fixated onto HwanGi.
"Hup!" Thanks to his ‘Vortex Wave’ along with Raiden's lightning, HwanGi managed to evade the savage attack from the bear.
It was tiring for HwanGi as he began to pant breathlessly in every second, yet he didn't waste time to catch his breath and aimed his ‘Heavenly Slash’ onto the paw that he had dodged.
Successfully damaging the bear, HwanGi thought. ‘This is working! We might be able to survive through this without any severe injury.’
At the same time, HwanGi was caught off guard by a destructive headbutt from the bear, then he was painfully knocked straight onto a tree with his back.
"Khak!!"
Accompanied by the boars scattering around HwanGi, the immense pain emerging from his back after hitting a tree, forced HwanGi to cough out a handful of blood as he let go of his sword helplessly.
But it wasn't the time to be laying down, thus HwanGi attempted to stand up, only to be greeted with pain piling up on his back, including the wound that had damaged onto HwanGi's stomach because of the bear's sharp antlers.
‘No way my luck would let me go that easily..’ HwanGi trembled from the overwhelming injury, grabbing his sword before using it to support himself upright.
When he was barely standing up straight, HwanGi realized Raiden was dealing with the ‘Forest’ bear by himself.
HwanGi with all his might stood up straight, enduring the wound as much as he possibly could, enough to fight the ‘Forest’ bear.
"I can't let anyone get hurt just because of my rotten luck again." Saying that, he pulled out a HP potion out of his inventory and drank it all in one go.
Even though he had healed thanks to the potion, he could still slightly feel the pain. Yet, he ignored it entirely before rushing straight back to the bear to continue the fight.
-———
In the meantime...
After asking for my first quest and splitting up with Mirai, I had entered the forest in search of the creature I'll be slaughtering to complete my quest.
"If I remember correctly, this should be where they reside." Hopping from tree to tree for a short time, I have finally arrived at my location.
"Where did they all go?" I was quite flabbergasted to find that there was nothing to be seen in this area.
Unexpectedly, I discovered there was a huge amount of animal tracks left behind, going toward somewhere.
"That direction.. Isn't that where the grassland is?" I spoke, stroking my chin before following the trail carefully.
When I was casually leaping from branch to branch, I suddenly felt a sense of terror as if I confronted something irate and fearful.
"Huh? What is this?" I stopped to collect everything that was happening to me.
"This feeling of great defeat.. It's like.." Not having the chance to think about it, I heard a loud roar coming from the grassland.
And so, I swiftly used ‘Discharge’ to find out what was occurring in that area while doing so, I became aware of the white flame that was hard to see from afar.
I narrowed my eyes to have a clearer picture of what it was and noticed it was the white flame that HwanGi used.
Afterwards, I mumbled. "He's there? Then are they in trouble?"
In spite of wondering if HwanGi's party could be in dire situation, I knew I shouldn't be intervening in their situation since I was curious of HwanGi's leadership.
Plus, it's not worth it if I come and save them. Because HwanGi and Alaine must learn that in a risky situation, they must survive on their own without help.
"The ‘Forest’ bear?" When I arrived, I witnessed a bear violently knocking HwanGi away.
Though I was surprised by HwanGi and worried if he was okay after that attack, most of my astonishment was on the ‘Forest’ bear.
‘Why is it here? Shouldn't it be hibernating right now?’ I wondered, having a slightly stunned expression on my face.
Witnessing HwanGi painfully getting up from the injury he had sustained, I admired him a little by how determined he was to stand up to fight again despite being severely hurt.
Instead of helping them, I hid onto the branches of the tree far away from any of their skills and attacks, just in case I would get hit by them.
I then observed the sight before me while murmuring to myself. "Must I help them? The ‘Forest’ bear is almost as strong as the Nature Dragon."
Watching the scene in front of me, my eyes landed onto my comrades who were doing well protecting everyone. At that point, I smiled to myself, letting out a smirk when I realized that my worries are all for naught.
"There's no need."
