Chapter 34

The bears were side by side, so he chose to wound the one on the right again. The two bears were taken by surprise and tried to fight back, but Ezir was even faster and fiercer. His blade was already only a few inches from the side of the animal's rib.

As soon as contact was made, the blade pierced into the unlucky bear's body. But Ezir didn't stop there, he applied even more force and dragged the blade to the side, causing a long, deep horizontal cut across the side of the beast's body.

*ROOOOOOAAAAR* - Roar of pain.

The animal felt so much pain that it could barely stand and eventually fell to the ground as it agonized in pain. Turning his gaze to the other bear, only to see the bear stand on two legs and about to descend its claws on Ezir.

It was at that moment that Annie took advantage of the situation and quickly drove her blade into one of the bear's front paws. It wasn't as deep a puncture as Ezir's, but it served to make him delay her blow.

Ezir dodged effortlessly and landed another deep blow on the other paw that was still intact. Annie didn't pull away, and also drove her blade into the bear's belly, but without removing it.

In the beast's eyes, these attacks happened so quickly and unpredictably that it had little reaction. The bear was so busy with powerful prey like Ezir, it ended up ignoring Annie and treating her as harmless.

Annie immediately walked away and indicated for Ezir to do the same. The boy didn't understand the reason, but chose to follow her. Unexpectedly for him, the beast did not follow and remained strangely still.

A few seconds later, the bear was completely paralyzed and fell down into the snow. It began to spasm and blood dripped from its muzzle. His eyes turned red while the inside of his body seemed to be melting. In a matter of seconds, his movements completely stopped.

"He died? Wait a minute..." - Zirken, approaching the bear to check on him.

'Poison... ' - Zirken, crying internally.

Annie also approached and took back her blade. She then turned her vision to Ezir and cast him a questioning expression. She saw him display movements and strength beyond the limits of what a normal human being could do.

"I knew your physical attributes were far above average, but I didn't expect you could take on bears so easily in mano a mano. I even thought that I wouldn't need to intervene..."

"Besides, you had such a scary expression on your face that I thought you'd eat me alive should I approach." - Annie.

"I was? hehehe." - Zirken.

'I want to eat that meat right now! I can even imagine the taste in my mouth...' - Zirken, with a drool dripping from his mouth.

"Speaking of which, what poison did you use?" - Zirken.

"If you're thinking of trying to eat that Bear's meat, you'd better stop there. I used what little Nerium poison I had stored in my backpack, if you eat that meat, you'll die just as painful a death." - Annie.

"What a waste..." - Zirken.

"Why did you get depressed? We killed those three bears without ending up with a scratch. You should be happy about that." - Annie.

"How could I not be sad?! Do you know when the last time I ate meat was?!" - Zirken.

Annie didn't know how to answer that question, but now she understood why he went into a frenzy while slaughtering the bears. She also couldn't eat as much as she felt like when she was still in Marley, but she never went more than a week without eating meat.

'The food shortage in paradis is no exaggeration.' - Annie, commenting internally.

In a hurry, Ezir gathered the other two dead bears in one place while Annie gathered her packs and picked up the grass. However, without them both noticing, a small black liquid came out of Annie's back.

Ezir was about to drain the blood and flay the corpses of the two bears, when he was stopped by Annie, who had stopped right in front of him.

"Take off your clothes. Right now." - Annie.

"Huh?! And why is that? I know I must be really hot, but I didn't think you'd be so desperate to see me without clothes, hehe" - Zirken.

Annie's cheeks flushed a little, but her gaze still remained serious.

"That's not why. You've probably been bathed in something that attracts bears through smell. We were only lucky only those three were around, but if you leave here in those clothes, we won't have a minute's peace." - Annie.

Ezir soon turned serious again. Annie was right, if they keep going the way they are now, then who knows how many bears they will attract.

"I understand, but what am I going to wear?" - Zirken.

"I don't know, but we can't walk around freely while you're carrying an invisible target on your cost-"

Annie suddenly stopped talking. The words were no longer coming out of her mouth and her usual expression was replaced by astonishment and shock. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at the thing that appeared in front of her.

"Annie? What's-"

Zirken stopped talking the very moment he saw a semi transparent screen appear in his vision. That was the system, which was supposed to assist Zirken in his mission, but it interacted little or showed itself. The boy was further shocked when he read one of the many characters the screen was displaying.

[ALERT! PRESENCE OF EVIL GOD DETECTED!!]

[ALERT! PRESENCE OF EVIL GOD DETECTED!!]

[ALERT! PRESENCE OF EVIL GOD DETECTED!!]

Before he could even turn his vision back and see whatever was behind him, Zirken felt a strong pressure from the right side of his body. In less than a second, he was flying through several trees in succession.

Several trees were destroyed as they couldn't stop Zirken's body from speeding through them. He stopped when his body hit a tree several meters away from where he was before.

He quickly stood up and looked in the direction of the shaft. The same thing that had hit him was standing in front of Annie, about to attack her.

'Shit! So much time for that bastard to decide to make any moves!' - Zirken.

His eyes were fierce, his body began to heat up, and he moved his eyes towards the sky. It was still daylight, but the strong sunlight was no longer showing at the top. Still, Ezir did not hesitate and in a single impulse he had already disappeared from his position.