18 Trust In Me

As the Sarangay continued his charge on the invisible sturdy wall of the Löwe Shield, suddenly a powerful burst of water came from behind the shield and headed towards the Bestial being, thus half-drowning it in the process. Completely caught by surprise by the sudden attack, that the Bestial being didn't even realize it when Rasz snuck out from the Löwe Shield's protection to cut at his side using the Eisen Blue.

The Sarangay cried out in pain, as blood began to flow out from its cut wound. Coincidentally, at the same moment, the <Water> attack began to die out. Its vision no longer being interrupted by the blast of water, the Sarangay swung its heavy hammer towards Rasz direction using both of its arms to quicken his swinging motion, but still missed as Rasz had already jumped backward.

Rasz had taken the opportunity at seeing both of the Sarangay's arms went in a downwards motion to sprint at its right side to wound the Bestial being once again, this time aiming for its calf. After being cut, instead of drowning in its own pain, the Sarangay had reached out to grab hold of the Magic Sword's blade and had actually succeeded in putting his palm around it. However, before the being could properly grasp hold onto it, Rasz had quickly pulled it out of the Sarangay's reach.

At the same time, another burst of water had blasted onto the Sarangay's direction, once again taking it by surprise as it realized then that the young man in front of him no longer worn the Elemental Glove. Rasz took the opportunity to strike for the third time, aiming for the Sarangay's thick muscled abdomen.

This time the Sarangay howled in pain and also in anger. Before the <Water> attack had died out, it had blindly swung its hammer towards the direction where the blade attack had come from. However, once again Rasz had managed to dodge out of harm's way. This familiar situation causes the Sarangay to be extremely vexed.

Rather than keeping up with his attacks, the Sarangay had chosen to turn around and stomped away in that particular direction. Rasz and Mia were quite puzzled by the Bestial being's choice of action. Suddenly after a while, they heard the sound of a fallen tree coming from ways behind on Mia's right side. Then, from the similar direction, Rasz saw a tree came flying towards their direction.

The Sarangay had been aiming for Rasz, but from where it was standing, Mia's position had been on a similar pathway, albeit a bit to the right. In that position, Mia's back was partly exposed towards the tree's flying pathway. Just as the tree flown passed her position, some twigs that had broken off during the flight had flung off the ground from behind and straight towards her. One of the stray twigs had even scratched Mia's cheek.

The Sarangay's eyes flashed with a sudden realization as it saw that scene. It then charged towards Mia's direction. Rasz who had noticed the Sarangay's charge had then quickly pulled Mia and directed the Löwe Shield to face the direction of the charge.

At the same moment, Rasz instructed Mia to attack the Sarangay, "Throw <Water> again!"

Once again, the Sarangay was attacked with a burst of water, thus stopping its charge midway.

When the <Water> attack had died out, instead of continuing with its rampaging charge, the Sarangay had simply stomped towards their direction, without any signs of rush that it had previously shown during its charge. As the Sarangay reached in front of Mia and Rasz, it had used both of its arms to strike down its heavy hammer onto the invisible protective wall with all its might. As expected, though Mia could feel the strong vibration resulted from the force of the Sarangay's strike, the Löwe Shield's protection remained sturdy and didn't even budge even a single inch.

Then once again, instead of continuing with its attack as it had done so many times previously, the Sarangay suddenly threw his heavy hammer upwards to the sky. It then came down in a forward rotational motion planting itself on the ground right behind them, startling both Mia and Rasz.

The Sarangay expression had turned into a sneer as if saying, 'Yeah, I totally noticed the Shield's protection doesn't actually extend to all-around you both.'

As it turned out, the Löwe Shield did have a weakness.

It had first caught the Sarangay's attention when Rasz had sprinted towards Mia after he had attacked with the spear of <Wind> and <Fire>. Back then, instead of heading towards Mia directly which was the more efficient route, he had chosen to circle around towards Mia's back first before running towards her and the protection of the Löwe Shield. Afterward, the Sarangay had seen that a twig had managed to scratch Mia as it bounced off the ground from behind her and forward towards her cheek. The final confirmation toward its suspicion was confirmed as the heavy hammer that it had purposely flung upwards had actually managed to land itself right behind the two's back.

The weakness of the Löwe Shield was that its range of protection only covered the user's front, sides, above and below. On the other hand, the user's backside was completely exposed to any damage. Mia was fully informed of this weakness as she was told by Rasz the moment he gave her that Shield to protect herself.

Since the creature already realized of the Shield's weakness, the Sarangay's motion as it stomped around to take back its heavy hammer that was on the ground behind Mia and Rasz, was without any haste. In contrast, the two's action was full of caution as they have to make sure that the Löwe Shield was facing the Sarangay the whole time, so as to not give it an opportunity to take advantage of the Shield's weakness.

Once the Sarangay had its heavy hammer in its hand, it struck it down lightly on its palm several times in a jesting manner. Its action was indicating that it was thinking of how it should proceed with playing with Mia and Rasz, before ending their lives in the most painful way yet.

Then, suddenly the Sarangay had charged forwards and quickly circled around the two. It was targeting their backside where the Löwe Shield's protection won't reach. At the same time, when Mia and Rasz saw the Sarangay's actions, they tried to keep up with its speed and avoid ever showing their backs towards the creature. Thus, the cat-and-mouse game begun between the two sides. Where one was attacking, and the other side was defending.

All the while, Rasz had his arm securely around Mia's waist, guiding her steps as they tried to keep up with the Sarangay. If this were not a life-and-death situation, Rasz would've had felt really guilty and embarrassed by his bold actions. However, right now, neither of them seemed to care about anything else other than the being stalking around right in front of them.

After several more twist and turns, Rasz pulled Mia to walk backward briskly. Soon, they found themselves with their backs on a tree. Rasz had directed Mia towards the tree because he had noticed that Mia's stamina had started to dwindle from all the evading. He wanted to give Mia some time to rest herself.

Just then, the moment the Sarangay noticed the change in actions of the two it had stopped its charge. Then, it slowly stomped towards their direction. The Sarangay noticed Mia's tiredness and was feeling rather elated. Surely, with Mia dragging Rasz's speed down, things will be easier for it to finally caught them.

When the Sarangay, reached in front of the two, without anymore delaying, with one arm, it had struck down its heavy hammer onto the invisible wall the Löwe Shield. Then, with its other arm, it had reached out and grabbed hold onto the tree trunk behind them. By simply using pure strength, the Sarangay began to pull out the tree off the ground, snapping off some of its roots.

After the tree had completely come off the ground, the Sarangay purposely made sure to let go of the tree when it was at an angle where it will definitely fell down forward and on top of Mia and Rasz. Then, the Sarangay stomped sideways to enjoy the show.

As the tree began to fall down, Rasz quickly pulled the exhausted Mia to the ground. He also made sure to help her to hold the Löwe Shield up on top of them. Both of them felt a heavy thumped when the tree finally fell on top of them.

Suddenly, before they could even take a single breath of relief, a hoof had come stomping down hard right through the tree trunk, thus breaking it into half where both halves fell down with a loud thump on the forest ground, startling Mia completely. However, the hoof didn't stop there but continue to stomp down hard repeatedly on top of them. Even though Mia knew the protective wall of the Löwe Shield will hold up against the attack, but she still felt scared.

Just then, Rasz pulled her tightly and protectively towards his side. He then whispered to her ears, "Trust in me, okay?" Without looking at Rasz, Mia gave him a slight nod, the only sign that she believed in him.

If Mia were to look at Rasz then, she will notice that a small smile had appeared on his face. Though it was simply a small smile, one can actually see the complete happiness that was projected from him in that instance.

"Close your eyes," whispered Rasz. Though he knew that Mia was fully prepared on whatever were about to happen, Rasz didn't want her to be subjected to this kind of terrifying situation if it can be avoided.

On the Sarangay's side, as its hoof came stomping down for yet another time, it suddenly heard a small cracking sound came from below him. It was ever so slightly, but the Sarangay had heard it. A wide creepy smile then formed on its face at that sense of victory that was within its reach. It continued to stomp down hard repeatedly.

The Sarangay's smile soon spread even wider, as stomp after stomp, it felt that the invisible wall of the Löwe Shield began to give in. With every stomping, its hoof came closer towards the two below the Shield.

When the Sarangay felt that its hoof had dwindled the Löwe Shield strength weak enough, it took off the heavy hammer that he had slung on its back to once again held it in its hands. With both of its arms, the Sarangay lifted up the hammer over its head. Collecting all of the strength that its bulging muscles possessed onto this last strike, the Sarangay swung the heavy hammer down hard onto the Löwe Shield.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew passed across the Sarangay's direction. Along with the wind, came a sprinkle of dust and sand which had caused the Sarangay to be blinded for a moment, thus impeding any actions it was about to do. It began to wink a few times to get the dust out of its eyes.

Once it was done, the Sarangay began to lift up its heavy hammer again but found that it couldn't. Its body had suddenly become weak and heavy. Then, as the Sarangay began to feel weary, it began to notice something incomprehensible. The two humans who had been lying still on the ground — with the scent of fear enveloping their whole bodies — while holding onto a weakening Shield on top of them, had gotten up from the ground in a lax manner. As if they didn't see it standing tall right in front of them.

The Sarangay still scented a lingering fear from the young woman, but contrastingly, the young man was really calm without the slightest sign of anxiety. Even more so, rather than being cautious to the harm that it might bring the two of them, this vexing young man had actually chosen to ignore its presence entirely and even dared to show his back to him. He also had opted to care for the mental health of the still terrified young woman.

Furious at seeing the scene in front of it, the now heavily weary Sarangay, started to stomp weakly towards the two. However, before it even managed to lift up a hoof, it had fallen down face first on the forest ground.

THUMP!