As we both stood on top of the hill staring down at one very large and very dangerous looking Moss Bear I couldn't help but think back to Kana's tale about how a Moss Bear, maybe even this same one, had slaughtered her previous team without them being able to do much damage in return.
Walking over to Kana I wrapped her up in a tight hug welcoming the smush as my head was fully engulfed. This seemed to somewhat relax her as she eventually returned the hug after taking a few steadying breaths. Taking a step back I looked up into her violet eyes and asked as gently as I could. "Will you be okay? We don't have to fight this if your not feeling up to it." And I was being honest, whilst yeah I would like to get the bonus reward if it was something that Kana wasn't up for doing then I would happily ignore that in favour of making sure she was alright.
Kana took some time to compose herself before answering. "Honestly I don't think I want to fight it." I started to nod but was interrupted when she continued on. "But I have this feeling that if I don't fight now, then I don't think I'll have the courage to do so again." Her eyes held mine with a determination that was hard to miss. So after a moment I nodded once and turned back towards our prey.
"Well we best come up with a plan because I don't know about you but that looks like one hard beasty to take down. Do you know much about them?" I was hopeful that my resident local might have some helpful tips on how to handle this situation past just stab and shoot until it dies.
"Honestly no idea." Well shucks guess hit it till it dies is our plan I think. "We could try for a trap but I don't know how we could trap something of that size" kana continued, ignoring my internal complaints.
Continuing to study the monster before us I noticed that instead of traditional fur it truly looked like it had a thick padding off moss covering its hide. And thinking back to how I managed to freeze half a bush earlier I think I was beginning to come up with a somewhat viable plan. With the ghost of a smile I turned to Kana and began to explain.
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~Kana POV~
I slowly crept towards the bear being careful to not step on anything, reaching a good distance I readied myself for the fight that was to come.
Once more looking about to ensure I was familiar with the soon to be battlefield, the Moss Bear was situated about 5m from the cave entrance clearly guarding it whilst not being to close so as to block anything from either entering or leaving. The clearing in front of the cave extended for around 20m and I was situated around 30m from the bear, enough space to have time to move but close enough to ensure easy aiming.
Happy with my spot I hunkered down and knocked an arrow ready for the starting signal.
Thankfully I didn't have to wait for long before I watched as 2 ethereal blue flower drifted on an invisible wind from the surrounding Forrest towards the Moss Bear. They seemed to dance in unison their movements acting as a guild for me and I slowly raised my bow and carefully lined up my shot as I awaited the flowers arrival.
About 5 metres from the bear the 2 flowers split apart from each other one heading towards its front right shoulder near where I was hiding and the other towards its back right hip, closer to where Lilly was also waiting.
I counted down the seconds as the flowers got closer and closer, until at last they alighted on the bear. The world seemed to stand still for a moment before both flowers exploded out with a burst of freezing winds instantly encasing the Bears joints in a thin layer of ice. At that moment I spoke my favourite skill true strike and released the arrow watching as it zipped towards the target. The arrow flew true and impacted the joint with a crash as the ice shattered taking with it a good chunk of the mossy hide.
A similar feat was replicated by Lilly as a thick root burst from the ground and impaled the beasts hip. The combined strikes woke the bear and with an allmighty roar it tried to stand up only to partially collapse as its from leg gave out causing it to slam its head back into the ground and released another roar this time of anger not so much of pain.
Not wanting to give it chance to recover I quickly knocked another arrow and loosed it managing to strike the same spot ensuring it would be unable to utilise that leg any time soon. I also saw as the grasses of the clearing that the bear was previously lying down on seemed to come to life and attempted to wrap up the limbs to prevent it from moving.
Saddly this did little as the bear easily snapped itself free but not before I managed to strike it with another arrow this time into its back leg, working to immobile the creature somewhat.
Truly enraged now the bear let out and almighty bellow and turned in my direction almost instantly locking its gaze on mine before it lept into motion, this did cause the riot that was still embedded in the rear leg to be ripped out but it seemed not to notice the pain. It did however, notice when I released another arrow this time right into its face. I managed to duck its head somewhat causing my arrow to strike the top of its skull causing the arrow to hardly sink in more than a couple centemetres.
Thankfully I was not the only one attacking a another root burst up this time from right in front of the Bear and aiming for its neck. However the bear was supprisingly quick and it managed to dive to its left this however caused the root to dig painfully into its already injured shoulder.
This seemed a touch too much and the leg collapsed as it tired to put weight on it resulting in the bear sliding forward with its momentum only digging the root further in. I left another arrow fly this time activating wind cutter in a hope to get a bit more piercing damage my arrow struck true and managed to strike the beast in its eye. Not a moment later the concentrated wind mana burst out from the arrow tip likely shredding the brain as the creature instantly went lip.
Not wanting to take a chance I watched as Lilly summed one last root directly under the beasts head impaling the creature once more and ensuring that it stayed down.
——-
~Lilliana POV~
Taking deep breaths I walked forward on slightly wobbly legs towards the fallen beast, Kana soon joining me as she looked over at me I answer her unasked question. "Just used a good chunk of my mana, give me some time to rest up before we do anything else."
Nodding in understanding she says. "Not going to lie, I honestly didn't expect this to go as smoothly as it did, your plan worked really well! Who'd have though the frost flowers had such a use!?" I could only laugh at that.
"Well when something organic suddenly freezes it gains a certain amount of brittleness, when you couple that with some directly applied force, or an arrow and a root. Things tend to break down. I expanded with a grim chuckle. Seeeing her shake her head I go on and ask the question I was afraid to ask earlier. "So you this this is the same one from before?"
She takes a moment before shaking her head. "Saddly no, this one was in the Copper Rank the one I saw before was solidly in the Iron Rank, we would t have been able to much of anything against it, surmounting rank is a challenging prospect." I nod in grim understanding.
Kana begins to walk up to the corpse and after retrieving all used arrows, she asks to borrow my sword with I hand over with only a touch of hesitation. To my supprise she then proceedes to stop the blade in at the base of the creatures skull wiggling it around to create a hole, then pulled the blade out and stuck her hand in instead! I flinch back in mild disgust whilst asking. "Umm, Kana.. What the hell are you doing!?"
She looked over at my face filled with confused horror and lets a small chuckle escape before turning back to her grizzly task whilst answering my question. "Once a monster reaches Copper Rank they develop what is called a Beast Core. These are basically refined balls of mana, and whilst not exactly useful to either of us. They can be sold for a reasonable amount of money!" I blink in mild surprise at this fact before shacking my head and shrugging before taking a couple steps back and lay down on the grass to rest for a while.
Once Kana retrieves the Core she cleans both it and my blade before placing the Core in her bag and returning my sword back to me. Then she sits down next to me whilst putting an arm around my shoulder. "You did really well there." Kana softly mentions. "I didn't think we would be able to take it down without any injuries but I guess I underestimate you."
I snort but lean into the side hug before saying. "I only managed to halt its movement, your the one that managed to kill it!" She shrugs in a non answer before I continue after a moment. "So with this being the first guardian how hard do you this the rest of the dungeon will be?"
Giving it some thought Kana eventually answers. "It shouldn't be too hard, if I'm right there will either be one more monster of a similar level as this or a small nest of weaker monsters. So we just need to wait for your mana to fill back up and we should head on in." I nod at this and snuggle up closer to her as I let the tension leave my body and focus on recovering my mana.
Around 40 minutes later we are ready to head out once more. Walking side by side they stepped into the cave.
[You are now entering the dungeon - Rylas Lament]
———
Time to start the delve!