019 - First Battle - Part 3

We moved silently towards our destination, we had discussed our strategy and all of us were ready.

It didn’t take us long to reach the bear. It was still sleeping, if it had wandered off somewhere, it would’ve been a problem.

It would be us then waiting for an ambush later.

I had Gwen stay hidden behind a tree with her blade ready in one hand and her pen in the other.

One cool thing I found out about her power was that after she awakened, she became ambidextrous. She could now use both her hands to write perfectly.

The more I heard about her power, the more I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Roy and I went towards the bear keeping our breaths steady and our vision straight.

With both of them keeping their attention towards the bear, I activated and soon, my shadow wriggled and fine, thin lines spread through the ground towards the sleeping target.

It was only a few seconds and the bear’s body was crawling with my threads. They hid perfectly in its black fur.

They lied in wait.

There was no need to make my manipulation obvious to an outsider. I didn’t know how well I could hide the usage of my skills from the outside world, so I had already informed Avaria to keep an eye that even if someone tried to locate the source of the threads, they wouldn’t be able to find me.

Crunch! Crunch!

As we slowly inched our way towards the bear, I could see Roy a little nervous. He was covered in sweat.

But there was no time for second thoughts as the moment we were in range, the multiple eyes of the beast swung open and its expression was not happy.

Roy immediately moved to the front. I had to say, even though he was scared, at the very least, he was brave.

The bear didn’t stay looking, he pounced towards Roy as he was at the front. I thought about slowing the bear’s charge but let it connect as I wanted to gauge Roy’s strength.

Boom!

Holding the hilt of the sword in one hand and supporting the blade with the other, he held the bear by the jaw.

I could see his skin losing its natural luster and looking more and more like stone. He had activated his ability.

Taking the opportunity, I ran up in believable speed and slashed at the bear’s front arm as it was trying to raise it to attack Roy.

My attack was perfectly timed as the bear yelped in pain as black blood spilled across the ground and it moved its attention towards me.

I gave it a sly smile.

“The fuck you looking at you ugly piece of shit! Look behind you!”

As if understanding what I was saying, it snapped its attention back towards Roy but it was too late, it saw Roy’s raised blade slashing towards its face. It wanted to retaliate with its claw but I had held it down with my threads. It couldn’t move them.

Roy’s slash landed in perfect spot and the bear winced in pain, the slash had easily taken out a few of its eyes.

There was a large one at the center of its neck, I looked at Roy who had a smile on his face and gestured towards my neck.

He understood and replied with an enthusiastic nod.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

This battle of attrition went on about a few minutes, and Roy looked visibly tired, even more so than the bear.

It was time to end this.

Gwen, who had been silent this whole time, looking at us tiring out the bear, couldn’t hold it in any longer.

I cannot count the number of times where she almost jumped out of the bushes whenever the bear’s claw went a little too close to Roy, but I ensured that nothing ever happened.

I wasn’t going to let a bunch of children get hurt, and right under my noses no less.

Soon, the bear was too exhausted to even stand, and the multiple slashes I had made towards its joint didn’t help either, it collapsed on its knees. Its arms are too broken to raise in defence.

Gwen, who had been waiting just for this, jumped out at the last second and before the bear could even notice something, a sword with the glowing word [Sharp] written in bold letters had stabbed it right in the forehead.

It let out a loud whimper before collapsing for the last time. Because of the enhanced damage of the blade, the skull had cracked open and I could see the brain matter flowing out, hopefully these siblings don’t have a weak stomach.

“Haah! Haah! Haah! We… We did it!”

Roy shouted with his exhausted voice.

Gwen just kept alternating between looking at her skinny arms that were still holding the bloodied blade and the bear’s ginormous bloodied body.

A small smile came on her face at that moment. She looked up and declared proudly.

“We did it!”

‘Yeah, we did. Or rather, they did. I should get an award for best supporting role.’

I heard the system notifications, but now wasn’t the time to check them. We still had stuff to do.

We decided to deal with the bear's body after a moment’s rest and a few minutes later, we had cleared the location and even harvested some meat from the bear to eat. While also taking care of the body.

As Gwen and Roy prepared the camping location, they were surprisingly good at it. I wanted to go out, test something.

“You guys prepare the fire, I will go patrol the area and make sure nothing comes to get a share in our food.”

“Ok Anshe, take care! Leave everything here to me!”

Gwen declared enthusiastically. She looked a lot happier than when we first got here, which was good, all things considered. Still, that shift only happened after killing the bear. Hopefully, it was just the thrill of victory.

‘Well whatever, as long as she is feeling okay…’

…

After Anshe left. Both of the siblings couldn’t help but look at each other again.

There was a moment of silence between them, before Roy spoke.

“I was holding him back, wasn’t I?”

He had dropped the sticks and logs he was preparing for the fire and fists had tightened.

"He could’ve killed that thing without us. Twice as fast. Maybe even faster."

“Yeah, probably, but it was good he didn’t.”

“Eh?”

He looked up, bewildered.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“Why am I an idiot!?”

“You know he was helping us train, right? It was so obvious.”

She too stopped what she was doing and looked up at her brother who was sitting there among the scattered logs looking sad.

“He helped me, and he helped you, do you know why he did that? It’s because he is a good guy. And OUR friend, if you’ve forgotten.”

He looked from the ground and with some hesitation said the next few words.

“The people who abandoned us below were also our friends once… ”

His fists tightened into balls, his nails dug into his skins as he spoke out.

“They didn’t think even for a minute before throwing you away, hell, even our parents abandoned us. Why? Because they didn’t think your ability was worth a few pieces of gold!”

He spat to the side.

“You can still go back, you know, it’s only me they don’t want…”

“YOU THINK I WANT TO GO BACK WITHOUT YOU!?”

Gwen was silent as she looked in her brother’s eyes before sighing and continued.

“You’re right, maybe he is like them, maybe he’ll throw us away too, but I will choose to believe him for now, it is better for our survival and… I don’t know, but he doesn’t feel like a bad guy to me!”

She declared loudly at the end.

Roy had calmed down and just looked at her before saying.

“You say that because you have a crush on him…”

Gwen instantly went red.

“No I don't!”

“Oh, right. And you were totally not staring at him the whole day?”

Roy's lips broke into a sly smile and he ignored her and began picking up the scattered logs and sticks.

“I’m telling you I don’t!”

The siblings continued bickering as they worked while having no idea what the guy they were talking about was doing.