The Novel's Sidekick

That was one god of a beast. That was all on my mind when I bombed it. Oh yeah, I bombed it. Me - one; Santa’s pet - zero. Yeah, me.

However, I’m not sure if I can keep up the lead until we reach the rift. Triggering the fierce suit, I flew away where Jon flung away from the blast. But considering that guy was one elite knight, he should be fine. Well, he was jerking his head, thumping his palm against his ears. He’s fine—take my word for it.

“Fly away, mate,” I shouted and lurched out of the way towards Noyar, who was peeking at us. I came down, manoeuvring the fire releasing steam releasers, and pulled Noyar from the snowy ground. Jon joined after a couple of seconds as we flew. Told you he’s fine.

“Jon,” Noyar called, shouting, “are you alright?”

“What?” Jon gave a look, showing he didn’t understand, even though he was flying just next to us.

He’s fine! Well, the wind was there. Perhaps that caused his eardrums to malfunction. Totally not my fault. Well, maybe a little, but I got there at critical and saved him from a critical blow, so I could get some leverage here.

As we flew a couple of hundred metres away from the beast, it finally stood up again and with the disturbance and fiery light I was ejecting, it had no problem chasing, either. I guess that would do, since it was our original goal.

“Oh Ishar,” Noyar swore at the next moment. “You’re burning.”

Actually, it's the suit that was overheating while I’m experiencing most of its outbursts in an excruciating way. I didn’t limit the spirit energy usage in any way. I’m throwing whatever I can into the spirit coating around my skin and the suit. Yes, I had to use the skill in two layers, to protect myself as well as the suit.

Dakota would be pissed, but that's the least of my worries now. Between a berserk saint beast and her, I would choose to go against her all the time.

“There’s no need to engage it now,” I said, “if it tries to go away--which seems unlike—I can bomb it once more. Let’s reach the cavern first.”

Jon gave me a look as if asking why I was running around with explosive components in my hands. Noyar might be the same, but with me carrying her, I didn’t manage to get a good look at her. Well, even with that, there was no reason to justify my reasons.

They should be grateful to the noble soul who left out the firestone device in the mountains, except that whoever left it there might not be a noble soul, since most of the people were rogue practitioners. Still, I'm grateful for it.

“Anyway, you two look beaten down pretty badly,” I said, going in the direction of a more important topic. “Can you even hold it anymore?”

“I’ll manage,” Jon said, stealing a look behind at the beast approaching.

Noyar only gave a snort. Perhaps that was enough to show her strength, but I think she was just tired to even open her mouth. Holy hell, even my head hurts terribly. And then there’s Jon, who should only be going with adrenaline. If he stopped for some time, he probably would collapse. Using any dominion was not something easy to do. He has been moving around hundreds of kilometres over the last few hours non-stop.

However, the Winterheart reindeer couldn’t care less about them and their misery. It proceeded with its relentless pursuit and caught up to us for a few minutes, trailing the lead I bought bombing it.

Would it be possible to reach the rift, bombing it once more? I wondered and got the answer immediately. I feared it was impossible. A bomb and fleeing with our top speed, would buy for about two or three minutes, which was barely enough to go about five kilometres from our current state. If I had three more shots at bombing it, then it would be enough.

“It's coming again,” Jon said with a grunt. He prepared himself again.

“Here we go again,” I muttered and felt Noyar shuddering even though the suit was hot enough to harm her.

The beast roared, and a mad wind warped together as if playing dubstep in my ears. Jon engaged first while I dropped Noyar a little further away.

"Watch out for any openings." Saying that, I shot at the beast before she could complain, swinging the blade in a full-slash to the beast head-on.

That turns out to be a terrible decision. All the flames from my slash drifted away with just one cry from it. I couldn’t advance further, even with pulling everything from the suit. Jon pushed the beast from behind and Noyar came in on top of me, somersaulting to deal a Wavebreaker against its face.

The whole thing went for only a couple of seconds as I triggered the mechanics to shoot in the air and found Jon coming up carrying Noyar. We shot at our top speed with the few seconds we bought. However, the situation went just as terribly once again after a few seconds.

“Looks like this is the only way,” Noyar muttered as Jon threw her behind the beast this time.

I let out a gasp and followed. I didn’t waste any energy on attacking head-on. Since I’m the fastest among us four, I distracted it again, flying around it as the beast cried. Whenever it came close enough, I shot up in the air, though its ice attack pained me excruciatingly.

When the beast came after me, Jon helped in the distraction, and when he failed too, Noyar dealt a few fast sweeps which barely did any damage other than pausing it. Well, it also enraged it more.

Should I bomb it now? That seemed like the only thing left to do in these circumstances. While I was wondering about all that, Noyar yelped. The beast was dashing right at her, while Jon was flung away on the other side.

Gritting my teeth, I flew away to catch onto the lone figure of Noyar. I managed to get in time, however, the beast didn’t stop in its relentless pursuit. It leapt into the air and collided against my back, its sharp antlers dug through the fabrics of the suit into my flesh.

God damn it, I will take a nice vacation after this. Even though this was supposed to be a vacation, a pleasant change of pace, except that I came across nothing pleasant about it.

I yelped and lurched above in the air with Noyar. In hindsight of the pain, I failed to control the mechanics of the steam releaser, as soon, we fell on the top of a tree. We came down through the collapsing branches, grunting and groaning.

However, it seemed the beast hadn’t had all his fun with us. It cried in a savage tone and chased after us.

“Oscar,” Noyar called, her voice shuddering beside me.

“On it,” I said and tried to work on the mechanics of the False-ward. Unfortunately, it was malfunctioning again.

“Oscar!”

I growled and stood up with the nail-sword in my good hand, glowing in the red, fiery light. While I moved my other arm to collect the explosive contents. My eyes narrowed as I waited for the beast to approach. 'Come on, come on. I'll fucking blow that head of yours now.'

However, before the saint beast could reach us, a figure dropped from the sky. A slender figure with a roughly worn cloak. Her hair was dishevelled, with a crown of antler on her head.

“Yeriel, get away,” I screamed the moment I saw her.

The girl in question didn’t even look at me. She stood in the middle like a fool, peering at the three and a half metre-tall beast with compassion. I didn’t know if my eyes were playing tricks or if the beast actually slowed down a little.

“Please,” Yeriel opened her mouth, “you have to stop.”

Yeah, it definitely slowed down. Now it's more apparent.

“Please," Yeriel said, taking a step towards it as the cloak swayed violently in the wind. "I know you’re hurting, but--”

A loud cry of mourn resounded throughout the mountain range and the beast shot toward Yeriel, ignoring all her pleas. It roared horrifyingly, as if finally finding its child-killer. The beast collided against her, flinging away Yeriel like stray kites in a tempest.

My eyes widened in terror as I swore, “Darn it!.”

_ _ _

One more part in this chapter. It took a lot of time, apology for that.