Quintessence of Arcana

The Clawed Bear (2)

Erald’s expression twisted into a pained grimace, but he took no time to dwell on it and immediately dashed towards the bear once more. But this time, he strengthened himself with mana. With this, he successfully slashed his blade to the creature twice in quick succession. Even with its inhuman agility, the Clawed Bear wasn’t able to dodge it. However, the s***h had managed to avoid it's vital parts.

Though the creature had staggered a little off course, the Clawed Bear still charged forward like a cannonball. Though Erald wasn’t directly in the bear’s trajectory any longer, his current position prevented him from dodging, so the bear still managed to hurtle into him. It felt like being hit by a truck. Erald was blasted backward from the force of the bear’s charge.

“Gahah!?” The impact forced the air out of his lungs, which made Erald snarl ferociously.

As he slammed into the ground, he flung Shardslicer into the air. He then pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at the injured Clawed Bear.

“I’m quite proud of how this one turned out. You’d best be careful if you don’t want to die.”

Though there was no way for the bear to understand Erald’s words, it still looked down at the object that rolled to its feet when he mumbled that. What lay there was a small bluish ball, about five centimeters in diameter. And that ball suddenly burst in an explosion of light.

It was Erald’s makeshift flash grenade. The principle behind it was simple. He had taken a piece of blue glowstone and filled it to the brim with mana. After that he had applied a thin coating over it to keep the light from leaking through.

Finally, he had lit the fuse by using his lightning skill. The coating on the outside burned slowly until it reached the packed center where it exploded violently. With the crystal shattered, the glowstone released its light all at once in a brilliant bluish flash. He had set the fuse to explode three seconds after he lit it. Though it had taken a great deal of effort to make, he was proud of the end result.

The bear, who had no knowledge of modern weaponry, naturally found its gaze drawn to the makeshift grenade. But when it exploded, it blinded the creature. It roared in pain, wildly swinging its front paws. Being blinded had sent it into a panic.

Erald planned to take full advantage of that. He grabbed his blade off the ground, and dashed forward.

The lightning-powered Shardslicer hit the rampaging bear squarely in its left shoulder, and ripped it clean off.

“Graaaaaaooooo!!!” Its roar was loud enough to crack eardrums. The Clawed Bear had never suffered such pain before. Gouts of blood spurted from the stump that had once been its arm. The cut off left arm spun in the air a few times before losing its inertia before flopping back down to the ground with a wet thud.

Erald grinned as he kept a close eye on the bear, which was still flailing around blindly. He prepared to slashed his blade again once more. Though the bear was still disoriented, its beastlike sixth sense let it perceive Erald’s bloodlust and it leaped to the side. It seemed it was Erald’s bloodlust that gave the creature enough forewarning to dodge the lightning-powered blade. Once he realized this, Erald narrowed his eyes, and used his supersonic movements to dash past the bear, over to where his severed left arm lay.

The bear turned to look at him with its furious, hate-filled red eyes. It seemed it had finally recovered its eyesight. As it was watching, Erald lifted up the bear’s left arm, and bit down on it. His jaws had been greatly strengthened from eating demon meat for so long, so he easily tore through the tough skin and sinew.

“Munch, munch, no matter how many times I eat it, monster meat still tastes like shit... Though for some reason this is just a little bit better than the others.”

Erald looked down at the bear, who was watching him warily by that point. It didn’t move. There was fear in its eyes, but the shock of seeing its own flesh eaten in front of it, combined with its still blurry eyesight, prevented it from moving.

Glad for the reprieve, Erald continued chewing. Suddenly, he felt something. Sharp pains pulsed through his body, just like the first time he had eaten monster meat.

The pain wasn’t as bad as the first time, but it was still sharp enough that he fell to one knee, unable to keep himself upright. It appeared the Clawed Bear was a different species entirely compared to the Twin-tailed Wolves or Kickmaster Rabbits, and absorbing its power brought with it a high level of pain.

Of course, the bear wasn’t about to let that chance slip past. It roared in defiance and charged forward. Erald was still on one knee, unable to move. At this rate he would be trampled by the bear, and it would just be a repeat of their first encounter. But when that thought crossed his mind, something suddenly occurred to Erald and he smirked.

He put his right hand on the ground and wrapped it with his lightning skill. All of the lightning released by his full power raced down the liquid coating the ground, and zapped the bear standing on the other end.

The liquid was of course the bear’s blood. The sea of blood that had poured out of its stump of a left arm. When Erald had brandished the creature’s arm right in front of it, he had spilled drops of blood everywhere, and created a small puddle of it around where he stood.

He was not so arrogant that he would eat in the middle of a fight just to show off. He hadn’t predicted the pain of eating monster meat to return, but the rest of it had all been part of his trap. Even eating the arm right in front of the bear had been to goad it into charging headlong at him. The pain had thrown a bit of a wrench in his plans, but everything had still ended up working out just fine.

The moment the bear had stepped into the pool of its own blood, thousands of volts of electricity fried its entire body. The electricity burned the bear’s flesh, scorching some nerves as it did. However, though Erald had unleashed it at full power, its might was still a far cry from the actual thing. Unlike the Twin-tailed Wolves, he was unable to shoot lightning bolts, and his lightning could only output half the power of the original. But even that much was still enough to paralyze the bear for a few seconds.

“Graooooo!” The bear let out a low growl, then collapsed to its knees, shivering in a puddle of its own electrically charged blood. Even down on all fours—or rather all threes— it still glared murderously at Erald.

Erald on the other hand glared right back at it, and painfully got to his feet. He grabbed his blade from the ground and walked over to the creature. He pointed it's tip against its forehead.

“You’re my prey now,” he said with finality, thrusting the blade slowly. It passed through the bear’s head.

Up until the moment of its death, the creature never took its gaze off Erald. The latter also similarly did this.

The exhilarating rush of joy Erald had expected never came. But there was no sense of emptiness either. He had simply done what was necessary. Necessary in order to live, in order to earn the right to survive.

Erald closed his eyes and rethought his mindset. After a moment of quiet deliberation, he resolved to continue living like this. He did not enjoy fighting. He just wanted to avoid pain. He just wanted to be able to eat his fill.

He just... wanted to live.

Overthrowing his unreasonable fate, killing everything that opposed him, they were all simply steps he took in order to survive.

He swore to himself. That he would survive... and... unravel his past.

“That’s right... I just want to survive. I don’t care about anything else. I’ll get out of this place. no matter what I have to do. I’ll grant this one wish of mine, by my own hands. And no matter who they may be, anyone that tries to stand in my way...”

Erald opened his eyes and smirk viciously.

“Will die by my hands.”

.........................

Forsaken Wilderness. In a certain remote village...

The sky is just turning bright in the east. An old man stood up lightly and gently stared at the sleeping white-haired girl. A blood-red birthmark damaged her beauty, but she had the most innocent heart. He sighed as he walked outside with his cane quietly striking on the ground.

He blankly stared at the sky silently as if he was reminiscing something.

“Grandpa, what's wrong?”

Noticing the old man's worried face, a young man stood up in front of him and couldn't help but ask.

The old man responded, “When I first came here, I discovered that the barrier not only kept the people inside, but it can also blocked any magic and spiritual interference coming from the outside. That's why I decided to settle here, even though I can freely leave this place... Do you know why?”

“Grandpa, what do you mean?”

Noticing the young man's puzzled look, he answered, “What I mean... is that I decided to stay here to hide...”

The young man was intrigued. “Hide from who?”

The old man said sternly. “Enemies.”

The young man was stunned. “But Grandpa, a long time had already passed. They might thought you were dead.”

“You don't understand. Those people are something that will not stop even a long time has passed...”

Then the old man approached the young man and patted his shoulders. “I'm already old, and all I can do is to impart all of my knowledge to you. If ever those enemies will come for me, what I want you to do is to protect this.”

The old man revealed his palm and handed something to the young man. The latter took it and noticed that it was a silver ring which didn't look any special.

“What is this?”

The old man quietly spoke, “It's a storage ring that contained the secrets of attaining Godhood.”

“Godhood?” Sudden astonishment crossed the young man's eyes, but then, he didn't continue to ask further as he clutched it with his hand.

“And also...”

The old man turned his head and looked back at the shack, as if he was looking into someone.

“Protect the little girl. She will be our kin from now on, just like how I adopted you.”

The young man then nodded with a determined face.

“Grandpa, I promised.”