"That"s impossible!" One of them screamed. The rest couldn"t even begin to respond as the very retort to that comment was at this point putting out the flames with just the wind from it"s paws."Faris! did something go wrong!?" The boy shouted at the mage.
"There"s no way! I finished all the mana I had left, even if my conversion to fire magic is only 40% that"s more than enough to kill even normal fire types much less an earth type." The mage defended herself frantically.
"Then maybe you judged it wrong! maybe it"s not an earth type!" The boy countered was visibly frustrated by the turn of events before a hand held his shoulder. "Ode..."
"It"s not the right time for this isn"t it? especially when the enemy is coming back for another fight." A stocky older man braced his sword and shield, there was a burnt smell coming from his beard where the previous fireball grazed it.
With a smile he rushed forward to the surprise of everyone. And just in time as the bear had launched a preemptive attack, rushing itself into the group. If he"d stepped forward a little slower the whole group might"ve been wiped out instantly.
His timing was perfect, coming at the beast with a bash of his giant shield, catching it while it"s attack wasn"t at it"s full momentum. With that and angling his shield to deflect some of the force away, he was able to negate at least 30% of the thing"s strength. If only the difference wasn"t that big.
Even while it could only use 70% of it"s strength in this blow, it"s claws still crushed the shield into several bits, leaving a big gash on his arm. His shoulder and right leg were dislocated from the initial impact alone and his body would have been sent flying even further if his companions didn"t jump in to cushion his fall.
The thing was up again and this time more ferocious than ever. Even though the fire-ball didn"t kill it, it was definitely hurt, Most of it"s fur as scorched and there were bald patches of burnt skin here and there all over it"s body. But somehow it"s raging image right now was even more intimidating than it was before.
While it wasn"t hurt, the thing was still ferocious but it still put some thought into it"s attacks which gave the group some time to prepare. But now it was rushing them like there was no tomorrow. While they were still recovering from getting blown away by Ode"s body the beast had already arrived at their mage with it"s paws on it"s way down to her head.
Time seemed to slow down as they scrambled to save their teammate. But at this distance, there was no way they"d be able to arrive in time.
Bam!
An explosion of blood and guts occurred in that very spot. The whole squad shivered at the sight as pieces of the beasts were strewn around, some dangling from the trees. But what frightened them even more was the ominous black metallic beast that had suddenly appeared where the demon bear was standing and had turned it into such a state.
The whole thing looked like a giant dragon which had been split into several parts, Faris who was standing closest to it felt the cold coming off it and mana coursing through, whatever it was it was alive. Suddenly, it"s head folded open and a humanoid body popped out to look at the currently pale and blood splattered girl.
"I"m so sorry about that, we were too far away and the only way I would"ve reached here fast enough was to go full force, I really wasn"t expecting it to blow up like a balloon." The appearing figure spoke as she towered over her and covered the sun, only a silhouette of the empowering figure could be seen in her eyes.
Suddenly one of the dragon"s body opened like a normal door, "Gwen! What the h#$k! I was in the middle of mixing and you rush without any warning!? I wasn"t even able to file my notes and now they"re all ruined!" The angry voice sounded so similar to the one standing in front of her. Only when her vision cleared did she see that they were different versions of the same person.
"Oh! a person! Hi we"ve been traveling for sometime and I was wondering if you could tell us... um... h.e.l.lo?" the person waved her hand in front of Faris"s face but there was no response. " I think there"s something wrong with her..." Grendolyn scrutinized the girl who was standing straight with eyes open wide but was somehow unconscious despite that before turning to her teammates who were similarly stiff.