The Grade 2 Aberrant (4)

'NO!'

He couldn't stop her. The wave of rocks crashed into her with overwhelming force. The dust was blinding he couldn't make what occurred.

It felt like an eternity before Shivan regained his vision. What he saw wasn't pretty.

The majority of her body was painted red. Chunks of earth stuck from nearly every part of the body. But she was still standing.

"ha..."

Shivan faintly heard Alexia breathing. Miraculously she was still alive.

Alexia was in immense pain. She felt so much pain, that it no longer hurt. It was contradictory, but in this instance, it allowed her to function.

She believed that there was more blood outside her body than inside. Had it been anyone else this injured, they would be dead.

Luckily, the debris didn't hit her lungs, heart or brain. Though one did get scarily close after it pierced her right eye. Her left eye was covered in so much blood, she couldn't see.

A couple of pieces hit her kidneys and liver, but she wouldn't die immediately. These injuries were going to kill her if the boost didn't.

Her left shoulder got hit by a large piece and that arm was all but detached. And she couldn't feel her right leg.

All things considered, she got off pretty lightly from an attack that should have instantly killed her.

Alexia suddenly sensed a large amount of dark mana gathering together at a single point. The Bhalvach going to vaporize them with the laser.

'Shivan! Run!'

She wasn't able to speak anymore. She didn't have the energy to. But as the laser reached critical concentration, the dark mana exploded outwards.

Alexia heard the aberrant roaring in pain as its attack backfired. Its precious horn had received too much damage, shattering into a thousand pieces.

Now that the imminent threat was gone, she was able to think about what to do next.

'I can't do anything. My body won't respond to me. I'll just leave it to Shivan...'

She immediately ended that thought process.

'Was I just about to give up?! She was going out fighting. Not a statue. And why was she content on just being the support to Shivan? He was able to damage the Bhalvach. There's no reason why she couldn't.'

"I still have mana! I'll just puppet my body!" She managed to growl those sentences.

She activated her blood manipulation inside her own body and forced it to move. Her mana flooded her bloodstream, as she commanded her blood to move her body. 

Fortunately, there was enough blood inside her body to allow this to happen. She forcibly reactivated her nerves and forced her body into combat mode.

She could feel tears in her body caused by the Boost and how badly she wanted to rest. But she willed it to move, disregarding everything.

"Get up Shivan. We're gonna kill that thing if it's the last thing I do." She barked out to him.

"Okay." Shivn was immediately on his feet. They didn't know how much longer Alexia was going to live, so they would kill the Bhalvach before it died.

Alexia dashed forward, moving faster than ever with the help of her gift. She detached her useless right arm and launched it the Bhalvach as a projectile.

The thrown arm didn't do any impact damage but that wasn't the goal. She forced the arm to explode and used the blood inside to constrict the Bhalvach.

Unlike before, it couldn't instantly break out. Those two Annihilations had severely weakened its output. 

Appearing in front of it, she swiped at the aberrant. With the Bhalvach's weakened output came weaker defences and the sword cut through. However, it was shallow.

From behind her, Shivan attacked landing another blow on the beast. The aberrant staggered backwards, feeling the impact. It responded by sluggishly swiping its paws at the duo.

Shivan jumped backwards while Alexia front-flipped to position her behind the Bhalvach.

Alexia jumped up in the air to land a strike from above. Noticing this, Shivan used {Wave Crash} instead of rushing forward.

The Bhalvach, recognising Alexia was vulnerable midair, turned to face her. With its longer reach, it could easily kill her before she could.

But Alexia only smiled in response. She sacrificed her right leg and propelled it at the aberrant. Instinctively, the Bhalvach swatted away the limb, but that left it wide open.

And from the edge of the swinging katana, it saw a familiar and simultaneously terrifying white glow.

It turned to run away, not bothering to counterattack. Unfortunately, it was too slow.

The tip of the katana cut into its body, with the energy from the Annihilation rampaging inside its body. 

Shivan took the opportunity to charge at the nearly dead aberrant. He felt a similar strength from before. His next attack was going to kill it.

The Bhalvach also recognised this. It was ashamed that it was going to die to the humans it viewed as vastly inferior. But its instincts as an aberrant wouldn't let one of them get away alive.

The girl was on death's bed and it would kill the other human whom it fought. It transferred all its remain dark mana to it's paw and swung it at the other human.

Both attacks would hit their target at the same time. The paw would hit Shivan at the same time his punch would hit the bear. He wasn't Alexia who could survive with half her body gone. 

And that was fine. So long as he fulfilled his purpose. Maybe he wasn't able to save Alexia, but at least he saved the other two.

But Shivan wasn't fated to die at that moment. A blast of mana came from behind the trees and deflected the paw from hitting Shivan.

Immediately knowing who he was saved by, Shivan focused all his remaining mana into his fist. It glowed white as he felt the power of Annihilation surging through his hand.

Colliding with the body of the Bhalvach, the {Core Rupture Wave} penetrated the inside of the Bhalvach. The vibration shook its organs as several of its vital exploded from the pressure.

Its body couldn't handle all the damage it took and the Bhalvach slumped onto the ground dead.

It was finally over.