August, he was petrified, his body resisting his mind. Dodging blow after another continuously from the frenzied beast. He nearly escaped every blow threatening to crush him under the sheer force. The attacks of the beast were getting quicker by the minute and August in contrast was getting slower and slower.
Not so far away Shelly stood on her feet shaking her head a bit. Watching August struggle against the beast she shouted from afar, "What are you doing? Do you want to get crushed huh?" trying to sound as loud as she could, "get away from there quickly."
"What do you think am I doing, you moron?" August replied shouting on top of his lungs, "I can't possibly escape this big lizard on my own, Come and help me you psycho."
With a bored expression Shelly gazed at the spot where Logan was hiding. Behind a tree that was.
'Not a very good choice to say at least'
But she didn't get more time to laugh at Logan's hiding spot because she immediately boiled with anger when her gaze fell upon the bucket of milk splattered on the ground. The other one was remaining but Shelly couldn't possibly watch food being wasted like this. That too of her own hard work. Well she did work hard walking all the way here.
"You big reptile" She said clenching her fist in anger, "now you will witness the wrath of mighty Shelly. Behold!"
She opened her palm making the wind concentrate around her hand and then gusts of wind started blowing around her. And with that the wind gathered visually. The transparent gusts of wind seemed to take the shape of a weapon with a long handle. It took August a moment to realise what that small trick really was.
Honestly, he wasn't confident in Shelly's ability to manipulate her core element. Wind did good work without her trying to control it anyway. By making her physical strength far superior than a human. But watching wind taking shape before his eyes on Shelly's command nonetheless, August was a little bewildered.
And also it wasn't some cheap trick she managed to pull using the ability of her core element. It was real. In a moment her weapon took its shape in Shelly's hand flawlessly.
She weilded the weapon all the time so it wasn't very hard to guess its nature. A flawless onyx battle axe appeared in her hand in a split second leaving August in awe and somewhat startled with this big revelation.
What?
August watched in utter shock.
'When did She get herself a veilbound weapon?'
Veilbound weapons were the ones connected with the core element. To obtain a feat like that one had to have immense knowledge of the weapon and their core element to combine both and make them one. A feat which required years of hardwork and dedication.
It was an achievement like his father Lord Valerius himself. His weapon 'Redwyrm' was also veilbound. Not only could veilbound weapons appear from out of the blue according to wielder's wishes, which was called as weapon summoning. Those also could provide the wielder with insights into the core element enough to master that particular one. Which also took a long time though.
While it was true his father's sword was a legacy of the fallen era and very difficult to be bound with the core element unlike shelly's battle axe which was much easier to be bonded as compared to 'Redwyrm'.
But that also wasn't a small achievement. Wielding a veilbound weapon was a boundless achievement in itself.
— — —
Shelly lunged forward as the sharp edge of her battle axe met the razor-sharp claw of the reptilian beast. The clanger of their encounter sends shockwaves across the forest. The beast and the girl exchanged blow after blow as it turned out the reptile's scales were also enhanced by elemental aspects.
The sharp battle axe fell, striking the azure vibrant scales of the reptilian beast at various parts. August stood holding his shoulder wound, ofcourse in the search of an opening.
Shelly dashed upwards, nearly escaping the crushing blow from one of its huge claws.
Then again she dodged an attack of its mighty tail midair by shielding herself with her weapon. But the impact threw her at some distance. Moving the onyx battle axe by both of her hands Shelly shot forward a crescent of wind or something like that she was able to conjure.
She had immense trust in her superhuman strength but the same level of distrust she held for her insights in wind magic. It may be her core element but she wasn't able to control the winds. The veilbound weapon was something she learnt to do some days ago.
It may be her knowledge about the core element from the mana classes of Teacher Sophia, that she was able to bound the weapon she wielded with her anchor. Apart from that she herself had no idea how she was able to do something like that. It wasn't like having a veilbound weapon was super rare or something, but even then it was not a small achievement.
Shelly was contemplating in her mind for about two days for now how she should brag about this in front of August. Unlucky for her, this beast had to show up and steal all the spotlight for itself, ruining her perfect chance to show off.
This wasn't a time to think about all this though. Shelly, while attacking at the beast, got to know that August had received a grave wound so she was inclined to kill that beast as fast as she could. Moving with the speed of wind she tried to take the beast by surprise, attacking the monstrosity from its back.
To her surprise however, despite its size the beast was very quick to react. It had expected Shelly would try something like that and raised its tail in advance to crush her beneath the sheer force of the impact. This move of the beast was somewhat unexpected for Shelly too. She wasn't that quick to move aside from the impact zone.
The enormous tail of the gigantic beast was falling down at a speed faster than Shelly could've prepared a counter. She closed her eyes bracing herself for the crushing force; however, the tail never landed on her.
She opened her eyes only to watch August's blade stuck in the lizard's tail. No, it wasn't stuck. The blade was still moving. Slicing the thick flesh of the grotesque beast smoothly using its own momentum.
— — —
August was waiting for the right time to strike the beast, however what he found was the only wrong one. He saw Shelly who was about to be flattened under the crushing weight of the enormously long and thick tail of the reptilian beast. He was able to make out of the situation that Shelly wasn't able to dodge that.
'That moron'
August ran as fast as he could, placing himself between the idiot girl and the huge tail of the reptilian beast. He had a rough idea about the possible outcomes of this situation and he never thought the one becoming reality would be the one he least expected.
August thought he would very well be crushed under the weight of the tail but like a glint of hope he held his blade tightly with both hands. When his vision of daylight was being completely obscured by the huge tail his determination came back miraculously.
And to his surprise the blade of the sword was sharp enough to slice the thick tail of the grotesque beast. It passed through the flesh of the beast smoothly and sliced its tail off cleanly without having to move a muscle. The dark red liquid flowed continuously from the fresh wound.
The reptile seemed to lose its balance or was it just processing the pain of losing its tail. The tall trees of the forest shuddered as the lizard stumbled into them in agony. The severed tail twitched as though still clinging to life.
The lizard-like beast hissed again, this time it seemed as though it was screaming in agony and the only voice it could muster up was this last hiss. The beast lunged at those two, opening its gigantic maw and revealing the set of small blade-like teeth. Its two sided tongue moves in and out of the small opening of mouth occasionally.
August dodged and pierced its skull with the tip of his double edged blade. The dark crimson liquid flowing from the fresh wound as he pulled out his sword instantly.
The beast got mad from the pain and agony sending it into the state of uncontrollable murderous wrath.
The beast raised both of its front claws threatening to crush those children under the immense pressure. Shelly blocked the attack of the sharp claws, raising her battle axe in time.
August on the other hand, tried to do the same but it turned out too difficult of a task for his training sword. The double edged blade shattered into pieces as it met with the razor-sharp claws of the beast and the force behind it.
The unstoppable claw came down on August, after breaking his sword as he was left with nothing to protect himself anymore. In that instant however, Shelly hit the beast like a wall, wind enhancing her impact speed. The balance of the beast shifted and the claw which was about to hit August with full pressure missed its mark.
"Move!" Shelly shouted giving him a signal, "Now!"
He quickly got out of harm's way and let Shelly do her thing. Pressing a hand against his shoulder wound August looked at the pieces of his broken sword, clicked his tongue and moved away in disappointment.
"What now?" The vendor named Logan said in a terrified voice, "How can we get out alive now, my lord?"
"Don't worry," August said, crossing his arms and leaning on a nearby tree, "Everything is under her control now".
— — —
At the battlefield covered by long trees of forest however, Shelly stood tall before the reptilian beast. Given, she was exhausted and beaten down but this was also her speciality. She was never truly out of energy.
The beast stared at its nemesis for a while. With blood flowing down from his head and without a tail of course. The ground was covered in the shade of dark crimson where the beast was standing.
The wind moved around Shelly as she held her weapon tightly and lunged forward at the grotesque beast. The beast also dashed at the girl. Shelly however, pushed herself a few feets above the ground and came down on the monstrosity like a falling comet.
Her sharp onyx battle axe hissed as it moved past the winds. Shelly raised the axe above her head with both of her hands with the intention of dealing the final blow on the grotesque beast.
And after a while her battle axe struck the beast at its head, piercing the monstrosity at its hard skull. The moment her weapon met the skull of the reptilian beast a shockwave, loud enough to be heard, was sent along the forest. Sending a chill down the spine of anyone feeling it.
The towering figure of the reptilian beast came crashing down under its own weight with the impact force of Shelly's battle axe. The enormous body of the gigantic beast shuddered for a moment, still clinging to life as it seemed. The surroundings were full of puddles of the crimson dark liquid. Then the dark gleam in its eyes vanished slowly with time.
With that Shelly pulled her battle axe away from the skull of the reptilian beast. Shook off the excess blood she got on herself during the fight. The battle axe vanished into the embrace of air as she dismissed her Veilbound weapon.
Then as though suddenly recalling something, called the weapon out once again, raised it over the head and shouted with a smug expression,
"Hey August see my new weapon, i mean it's the old one but …you got it right?"
—————