Chapter 41: The Plan

Because of Arsha telling her to leave everything to him, Claudia didn't really get to do much of anything in the first round two but she was taking the brunt of everything now.

The beast was launching cryo bullets along with pyro grenades at her with no breaks in between and although she was doing a good job of avoiding everything so far, her breathing was starting to speed up an indication that she was getting tired.

Leaving the area was an option as things were starting to look pretty hopeless now but she had to stay there to protect Arsha from the attacks sent flying his way.

"You're really starting to piss off." She huffed as she quickly sliced down the cryo bullets fired at her.

The fire grenade came flying toward her at that moment but instead of avoiding it just like she had been doing, she turned her sword to the side and sent it flying back to the peacock.

The grenade exploded just as it made contact with the ice shield creating a little dent in it in the process but she wasn't going to let it stay that way as she quickly charged forward and slashed her lightning-reinforced sword right at the spot where the dent was made covering a good part of the shield with shatter marks.

"Just a little more power." She growled as she increased her lightning output while pushing her sword further down.

Seeing that its shield was about to get destroyed, the beast entered panic mode, and with panic mode came panic attacks.

From below and both sides came flying numerous ice spears in an attempt to take her out but she was fast enough to quickly move back with a flip allowing the attacks to hit the floor instead.

Now that she was away from the shield, the shatter marks began to disappear and in no time, the shield was back to normal.

"I see." She muttered before turning to Arsha who was on one knee now with his left hand on the ground. "There's a chance."

The beast started its rapid-fire at her again and this time she kept moving back with backflips to avoid them until she got to Arsha.

"Are you okay?" She inquired just as she stopped beside him.

She couldn't turn away from the beast because it was still sending attacks their way.

"Yeah, don't worry about protecting me." He responded.

"If you say so."

She raised her sword at that moment and with quick swings and slashes she was able to take care of the cryo bullets and as for grenades, she fired lightning streams at it before it could get to them causing it to detonate prematurely.

While there were a lot of movements from her, she didn't see Arsha lift a finger, it was like the barrage of bullets just swept past him without doing anything to him.

That left her quite appalled but she had something important to tell him so she was going to focus on that instead.

"Hey, listen, I have a plan on how to…."

She wasn't able to finish what she wanted to say as the peacock let out a screech before swinging its tail toward them.

It was supposed to be four tails but they seemed to have joined together to create a bigger tail.

Claudia was quick to jump back to avoid getting hit by the tail but she didn't see Arsha move.

"Arsha." She gasped as the area quickly got covered in dust. "I forgot he couldn't move." She muttered with a devastated look on her face.

"So, you were talking about a plan."

That voice came from behind and it gave her quite the scare as she quickly turned around to see Arsha standing there.

"When did you…..?"

'He's alright.' She said subconsciously with a sigh of relief as a subtle smile appeared on her face.

Her gaze shifted to the lower part of his body at that moment and that was when she noticed it, the hole was gone, a wound that huge was gone just like that.

'Who is this guy?'

She wasn't aware of it but she was staring at him with curious eyes.

"Hello, do you mind sharing your plan now?"

"Oh, yeah, right." She said abruptly as she snapped out of her daze.

The beast ditched the ice bullets and launched numerous fireballs toward them at that moment but instead of looking panicked, Arsha had a smile on his face.

"Hurry, get behind me." He instructed.

Claudia trusted him and quickly got behind him staying as close as she could.

The fireballs ended up making contact but the ones heading straight at them were not able to get to them.

He did something but she couldn't tell what exactly, she wanted to ask but there was something more important at the important.

"Before I tell you what my plan is, I want you to throw the strongest fireball you can make at that thing and make sure it hits the shield." She instructed.

"Alright." He responded as a fireball slowly formed in his right hand.

It was red at first but then it slowly turned a bit yellowish and that wasn't all, she could see little specs of blue in there.

"In case you were wondering, this is one thousand four hundred degrees celcius hot." He disclosed.

"Hmm, I see."

"You know it's strange."

"What is?" She asked.

"I was about to do this before you brought it up, we seem to have the same plan in mind." He remarked before quickly charging forward.

"Huh? There's no way that's true, it can't be." Claudia shook her head in doubt.

Seeing Arsha charging toward it like that, the peacock felt the need to stop him so it flung its tail toward him but just before it could get to him, numerous hydro threads burst out from the ground and latched onto the tail stopping it right on its track.

"Hey!"

"I've got it." She said before he could say what he wanted to say.

She charged toward the tail at the moment with her whole body covered in lightning and without hesitation, she slashed her sword down on the tail sending as much lightning as possible through there with the water amplifying its effect.

She couldn't pierce the beast with her sword but she had just the right ability to hurt it.

The beast let out a screech of pain as the lightning continued spreading through its body and stung it continuously.

Arsha got to it at that moment and without hesitation, he slammed the a thousand and four hundred degree celcius fireball at the shield.

Unlike what Claudia did earlier, this created more shatter marks on the shield and it wasn't just on a particular area, the effects were spread throughout the shield, and before the beast could recover from that, he formed another fireball similar to the one he used earlier.

"This is all my mana." He muttered before slamming it right at the shield, shattering it completely. "Claudia, now!"

She responded with a nod before charging toward the beast following its tail's pattern.

The only thing the beast could see was a moving lightning stream and the next thing it knew, she was right above.

"It's time for you to go to sleep." She snarled before stabbing her sword into one of its eyes.

The beast screeched as loud as it could as the sudden lightning stream ran into its head but Claudia knew it was over and proceeded to jump off its body and just as her feet touched the floor, the beast crashed to the floor.

"It's over." She sighed in relief before turning to the right to see Arsha kneeling down with his gaze on the floor.

"We did it." She said as she moved closer to him.

Arsha didn't respond so when she got to him, she proceeded to kneel down in front of him.

"Hey."

"We should get out of here." He muttered in a weak voice before proceeding to pass out pushing her down along with him.

Now she was on the floor and he was on her body.

"Hey, you can't just pass out on a girl's body like that." She complained trying to shake him up even though she knew it was pointless.

After a few seconds, she stopped shaking him and relaxed after letting out a sigh.

"I guess it makes sense that you would pass out after all that, not everyone could deal with sustaining an injury like that and proceeding to use up all their mana." She muttered.

'Our plans ended up not being exactly the same but you got the gist of what I wanted to do and executed better than what I had in mind.'

A smile appeared on her face at that moment as she moved her hand closer to his hair.

"Well, don't you two look cozy."

That voice startled her and as a result of that, she quickly put her hand down before looking up to see the person staring down at her.

"Silver hair, crimson eyes." She muttered.

Her head was still a bit messy so it took a while for the realization to hit her and the moment it did, she let out quite a loud gasp.