44 Teamwork

-" Making allies and deepening your relations is a good thing, Alan isn't even that bad, he is just too hot-headed." Luckas was trying to get Byrth out of his fool mood.

-" Isn't that bad? That guys kept talking back to Sir Jeffrey, and even antagonized us two times." Byrth felt that Luckas was too amiable to Alan.

-" At least he didn't do anything to us, right? This Sammy looks ten times worse, why would Jeffrey call him?" Luckas knew that Byrth wouldn't be so easily swayed.

-" Can we stop talking about this? I can barely put up with Alan, if this Sammy is so bad as he said I think I will lose my mind."

The duo kept chatting away as the carriage moved, Jeffrey had ordered three soldiers to accompany them, Luckas was proving to be worth more and more each day, so he wanted to be sure that he was safe.

While they were heading in a direction quite the distance away from the location of the demonic beats, their rising numbers made everyone in the camp alert, the soldier who was guarding the carriage felt their nerves tingling.

AS they feared, deep in the forest a big bear was devouring the corpse of a dead deer, the guards gazed at it with fearful eyes, the bloodlust of the beast was incredible.

-" Demonic Beast! Get in formation before it rushes over." One of the guards quickly dismounted and prepared to fight.

Seeing the commotion outside the carriage, Byrth quickly exited it and joined the guards. " Stay here, I will try to help them." Byrth didn't want to put Luckas in danger.

-" Hey why are you ordering me around?" Luckas retorted, but, the anxiety was visible in his eyes, nonetheless, he exited the carriage too.

He knew that rushing to the front would only put not only himself and others in danger so he decided to lurk behind Byrth and the rest.

The bear saw his new prey and gave a low growl, the soldier formed a circle and prepared to confront the beast.

-" Lion, when he charges prepare to flank him, Me and Darius will be the frontline." Mylon who had a shield and a small ax began to give orders.

Byrth felt a little out of place and didn't want to interfere in the soldiers' teamwork so he decided to look for an opportunity to strike the bear.

The beast dashed, his speed wasn't too fast so Mylon reacted in time and bashed the bear mouth with his shield, as the bear was knocked back Lion dashed to the side and prepared to slash at the bear legs.

The bear's eyes flashed in rage as he noticed the attack and strike towards Lion, but Darius swung his heavy axe towards the beast's now unguarded chest. The bear didn't retreat as Darius thought and continued with his attack that knocked Lion back a few steps.

Seeing that the ax hit the bear in the chest Byrth advanced dashed towards the left side of the beast, but, before he could reach it, the beat gave a bite towards Darius's arms, who tried to pull his axe back.

The bear looked unfazed by the pain of his chest, Darius pulled the ax hard and lost his balance as it got unstuck, Mylon saw this and rushed to Darius help, if the bear bit was successful, Darius would be out of the battle way too soon.

Byrth was using a pair of heavy gauntlets, they were low-grade artifact, Jeffrey gave it to Byrth as a gift after accepting him as a squire, Luckas too had received a gift, but from Philips.

Byrth punched with his right arm, the gauntlet shone with bright light as it started to heat up, this was the first time that the Bear felt danger and stopped his bite midway and tried to dodge Byrth attack.

As Byrth attack was about to hit the bear turned its back towards him, the punch hit the bear and a burning smell rose in the air, low growls came from the bear who after receiving the attack swept his paw.

Byrth and Darius who were the closest to the bear jumped back, Luckas didn't pay much mind to the battle and focused on his surroundings, he knew that such a battle would gather the attention of a nearby beast.

He was wielding two short daggers, they were the gifts he received from Philips, they were of a bit higher quality compared to Byrth gauntlets and even had names, Moonlit Reaver and Treachery.

Luckas held his two daggers and prepared to dash towards the fight as he noticed a sudden movement in the bushes near Byrth and the rest, as Luckas started his dash another beast jumped from the bushes towards Darius who had just stabilized himself.

Darius's face paled as he turned only to see a mouth closing on his back, he wanted to roll to the front, but the bear was standing next to him so he decided to turn and block the attack only to see Luckas dashing towards the wolf.

Luckas hit the wolf with both daggers on the ribs, Luckas was really fast thanks to his cultivation technique, so the impact was quite big and made Luckas and the wolf smash towards the ground.

The daggers were already quite deep inside the wolf ribcage, but when Luckas fell on top of the wolf, the daggers pierced even further, Luckas quickly retrieved his dagger and made distance from the wolf fearing that he would try to bite him.

Byrth watched as Luckas stopped the wolf attacks and dashed towards it too, he wanted to finish it before it could interfere more in the fight, Luckas interlocked his hands and smashed towards the wolf's head.

-" Setting Sun Strike!" Byrth used one of the only spells he learned as he tried to kill the wolf.

Byrth hands caught on fire as they fell down on the wolf's head, thanks to his gauntlet's fire attribute, the amount of flame in the attack grew exponentially, as the flames vanished the wold head was smashed open and completely burned.

-" Great job, focus on the bear now!" Mylon was elated as Luckas and Byrth killed the wolf swiftly, only after giving them orders did he remembered that the two youngsters were several ranks higher than him, but, he knew this wasn't time to be awkward.

Luckas and Byrth quickly returned their concentration to the bear, who was surrounded by the soldier, Byrth wanted to ask Luckas to stay back, but, before he could say anything Luckas jumped in the battle slashing the back of the bear every time he could.

Luckas knew that he was barely causing damage to it, but the annoyance it caused made the bear turn around to deal with him from time to time, nobody tried to do anything flashy and finish the bear fast, they worked together and attacked when the bear focused on someone else.

After a few minutes of constant assault of Luckas and his group, the bear was in a horrible state, his fur was destroyed and there were slashes all over his body, his strength was waning when it decided to attack one last time.

Everyone's guard was lower as the bear began its last stand, his growl grew louder as he swung his two front paws, the attack hit Darius and Mylon who were acting as frontlines, the bear attack knocked back the two, gaining more space the bear turned left and jumped furiously towards Lion and Luckas who were caught off guard.

Luckas gulped in fear and prepared to dodge, he knew that if the bear caught one of them they would be dead. Lion to his side jumped away too, but the bear didn't seem to mind that the two dodge their attack and continued to run towards Lion who was the closest one.

Lion was about to jump back once again when his back hit a tree, his face quickly went pale as he knew that his mistake would cause his death. Mylon, Byrth, and Darius watched petrified as the bear closed on Lion.

Luckas saw everything and rushed towards Lion, Qi speedily circulated inside him, Luckas knew that only he could save Lion. Luckas rushed towards the bear as he began to cast the first spell of the technique that Jeffrey gave him, Fleeting Steps of the Cloud Swallow.