Chapter 434
434 Chapter 434: War ursa (8)
As Findlay kneeled against his battle axe and tried his very best to move his paralysed limbs- with very little effect- his eyes stared dead ahead at the massive war ursa charging straight for him with its jaw wide open. Blood from the wounds he caused sputtered out and painted its teeth red making for an even more frightening image than normal.
Time slowed down once again for Findlay, but this was not advantageous it simple dragged out the time he stared death in the literal face.
With its desperate and reckless charge the mighty war ursa arrived before him in a couple seconds. He could feel its blood filled breath against his cheeks and could see deep down its throat as its jaws opened up to devour him, a last act before it inevitably dies.
Unfortunately Findlay didn’t have access to cold flames so he couldn’t mimic the actions of the brave ronso who lost his life a few days ago and even if he did he was in no state to use them effectively.
Ice started to from along is skin in sharp protruding spikes, rather flimsy and thin but should at least agitate its throat as it swallowed him.
“[Sky fall]” Suddenly above Findlay and the war ursa Frost appeared with his glaive in hand and a fierce expression on his face. His glaive was pulled back and his air borne skill in affect, summoning four similar looking glaives made out of energy around him before he and the glaives shot down towards the war ursa.
Frost had very little time. He noticed the battle’s state thanks to the presence generated by Findlay’s [glacier crash]. He saw his prided general overcome his limits that were so harshly imposed and triumph over his superior enemy. But that pride was short lived as danger swooped in almost immediately.
Understanding the desperate situation he blasted back the three monsters attacking him and dashed to Findlay’s aid.
His loud call and summoning of his glaive skill didn’t even draw the war ursa’s attention, all it saw before it was red, it cared not for anything but devouring Findlay. The timing was going to be tight.
.....
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Letting out his desperation Frost roared out as he repeatedly kicked against the air, frantically trying to speed up his descent by any means.
Fractions of seconds passed as the three entities moved closer to one another. The war ursa had its jaw encapsulating most of Findlay’s head and was beginning the short process of biting down. Findlay was still desperately trying to move, aiming to shuffle back his head even slightly so as to grant his master more time to aid him yet he barely even bought a fraction of a second. But at this level of combat even a fraction was something.
When the war ursa’s sharp teeth started scraping against Findlay’s head and slowly piercing into his skull Frost arrived. His true glaive landed roughly where Findlay’s axe had previously protruded and cut through with ease. The sharp blade penetrated through the upper jaw, passing or rather a little through the edge of Findlay’s nose before continuing through the lower jaw decimating the muscle, halting the beast’s contraction.
The other four energy formed glaives swiftly pierced along its back and shoulders pinning it in place and preventing any sudden movements. Not enough it instantly kill it or even severely damage it (normally) but it was enough for Frost to appear behind Findlay and wrench open the war ursa’s jaw and retrieve him for that death trap.
Crunch!
The moment Findlay was freed the war ursa’s jaws quickly snapped shut despite being pierced by Frost’s glaive. Pain was a mute subject in its current state, it probably didn’t even realise Findlay escaped.
Findlay’s eyes were wide open in shock, his heart completely stopped beating as narrow streams of blood flowed down his head. He was literally in the process of being eaten when Frost swooped in and rescued him from the jaws of death.
The shocked feeling gradually passed and feeling returned to his limbs now that the danger was gone. He brought up his hands to his face and head. There was pain in the area where the war ursa’s teeth began puncturing and his blood was warm.... he was alive.
His gaze drifted towards the young man who looked like an elf standing before him, shielding him from the war ursa. The man was emitting his full blown aura and had his eyes locked fiercely on the war ursa.
Frost’s heart was beating a mile a minute, if he was just a fraction of a second later Findlay would have been toast and he would have lost his most trusted monster, one who had beaten the odds to achieve advanced mastery despite the limitations of his archetype.
He wasn’t going to take any chances with his general’s life, he placed himself directly in front of the war ursa and exuded his full blown aura and watched it for even the slightest moves. A desperate creature especially one as powerful as a war ursa was not a foe to take likely.
An upper C-rank monster’s life force wasn’t anything to sneeze at. Frost felt that this wasn’t the end of this insidious ambusher, so he prevented it from seeing Findlay, redirecting its residual ire towards himself.
“Nanna get someone to guard Findlay while I deal with this bear!” Frost roared out an order while he summoned his spare glaive and dashed forward in full attack mode. The best offence is a good defence. If he kept attacking the war ursa it wouldn’t have time to attack Findlay. He just needed someone to take care of guarding him from any other opportunistic ambushers.
“Yes master.” Nanna responded quickly, allaying Frost’s fears. A nearby ronso arrived a moment later by Findlay’s side, guarding him from any attacker while he regained his complete faculties.
The war ursa finally realised that something was wrong. Its mouth didn’t feel filled with the head of an ice troll instead there was a large pole piercing its upper jaw and lower jaw together. It then saw Frost charging forward with his secondary glaive and all rational thought left its brain once again. Another enemy to eat.
It tried to roar but the glaive pinned its mouth shut. It had powerful biting force but poor releasing force- similar to a crocodile. All that escaped was a muffled groan before it met Frost’s charge with a charge of its own. The energy formed glaives had already receded returning back to their formless and loose state. The wounds left were deep and painful looking, but nothing compared to the missing leg and as previously stated the war ursa was beyond the point of feeling pain.
It let loose with a wide swipe enhanced by the red claws to which Frost could easily dodge but Findlay and the Ronso were behind him.
With a twirl of his glaive he swung out and smashed it against its paw.
Crack!
The red claws summoned as well as one of its actual claws was shattered by the glaive that was covered in a narrow yet dense amount of solid ice chakra. Frost however was knocked back by the residual force, his physical strength losing out.
‘Damn that thing’s got some power behind it.’ Frost internally complimented the war ursa. Despite suffering extensive injuries that affected its balance, power and even the control of its own movements he still lost in a power exchange against a simple angry swipe.
Its aggressive movements though still strong enough to fend off Frost weren’t enough to deal any injuries to him and came at a cost. Blood flowed profusely from the major leg wound when it swiped at him, accelerating its already major blood loss.
As long as Frost made this a battle of attrition he’d likely win without much danger but that didn’t really sit right with him.
Things can always go wrong so he felt it’d be best to end this fight as soon as possible plus this wasn’t the only battlefield. The longer he was away from the main area behind him the higher the risk was for his other monsters.
He also believed that a dragged out battle would be insulting to his and Findlay’s opponent. The war ursa was the most powerful entity he and the dungeon had ever faced. It was the leader of the wave and deserved to be beaten in a grandiose fashion. Not a logical reason but an emotional one that stemmed from Frost being a bit of a battle junkie, a warrior.
Frost regained his balance and twirled his glaive, covering it in cold flames this time.
“Well then let’s put you out of your misery and get back to the main battlefield.” He pointed the glaive’s blade at the war ursa as he declared before once again dashing forward, going for a frontal assault.
The war ursa wanted to yank out the glaive that was impeding its jaw, but Frost gave it no time.
“Grrrrrrrrr” With a muffled roar it sent out a shot of five red claws while preparing another shot on his other paw.
Frost charged dead ahead with his glaive.
“[Claw of the ice wolf]” He summoned his own energy claws to clash with the bear’s. His were stronger but outnumbered 5 to 3 thus they ended in a stalemate. His dash however was unimpeded, Frost found himself in front of the war ursa once again.