Chapter 96: Evolved guardian beast
Selia wasted no time.
The moment she decided on her course of action, she sprinted forth.
Her thoughts rapidly accelerated, as if her entire brain switched to a more dynamic operating mode.
It felt like a strong tug.
As if our bond wrapped itself around my brain and... twitched?
Thanks to this alert, however, I managed to track Selia as she cut through the distance, appearing almost as if she was riding her unsheathed sword.
Then, she struck the guardian beast, slamming into it with the full momentum of her approach reinforced with her golden halo.
With a single burst of mana, the beast was no more, knocked several tens of feet to the back only to crash into the ground and then start rolling even further away.
"Move!" Selia screamed at the straggling adventurers, her eyes keenly observing the beast’s every move.
Her attack was only a push, not an actual attempt to injure or incapacitate it. And now that it stopped rolling, the beast was already moving back to its feet.
"Come on!" one of the adventurers cried out to his friends while dragging his heavily wounded companion along. "Just a little further!"
The jungle’s periphery was deceptively narrow. It was only when one attempted to cross it that they would find out just how vast it really is.
A distance that looked no greater than a hundred meters or so would suddenly stretch into half a mile, too wide to cut across in a single moment.
And the guardian beast showed no signs of giving up on its task just yet.
Poof!
From the distance, I only saw a cloud of dust as the grotesque monster disappeared from where it landed only to manifest right before the Saintess.
Then, the whole field exploded with bright light, as Selia’s golden mana fought off the dark, oppressive weight of the monster’s energy.
With a snap, the light vanished, replaced by Selia and the monster suddenly extending a series of attacks and counters too fast for me to even perceive.
All I saw was a blurry mess of the afterimages of Selia’s sword striking against the sudden branches shooting out from the monster’s body like some horror-born flesh-seeking tentacles.
Then, the two of them bounced a few feet away, before charging in again only to exchange another few tens of bouts in the time it took me to blink.
Seconds passed.
Neither Saintess nor the monster could break the stalemate, their powers roughly the same.
’Wasn’t the last beast a lot weaker than that?!’ Standing to the back, I could feel my heart tense up.
Not because such a quick growth of this guardian beast would threaten my coffee-based plans.
But because right now, it was an active threat for Selia to deal with!
"MOVE!"
Selia screamed out before knocking the monster out a few steps with an explosion of her golden light only for them to rush at each other yet again.
Almost as if this whole fight could only be decided by who lasted longer.
’Shit!’
Standing to the back, I was powerless.
In no way or form could I affect the outcome or help Selia prevail. And while I didn’t doubt her strength, just watching her put herself out in danger’s way was enough to make my heart throb with pain.
Still, Selia stood her ground, constantly pushing the beast, securing more time for the adventurers to cross.
Then, after three more exchanges between the two, Selia suddenly landed a powerful strike, once again using her golden mana to explode the monster away.
This time, however, she shot it off into the jungle as opposed to ejecting it along the line of the jungle’s perimeter.
’Oh, right...’
Whether guardian beasts evolved at a worryingly quick pace or not, for now it didn’t matter. Because Selia was stronger anyway.
Selia returned to the edge of the jungle’s periphery roughly at the same time as when the adventurers finally managed to reach safety. Even to the very last moment, she escorted them out, ensuring the guardian beast wouldn’t return for some one-last attack.
Then, the air tensed up in a way I didn’t feel since...
My blood grew cold.
The air tensed up in a way I didn’t feel since that oversized panther tried to hunt me down!
The attack came swiftly, from beyond the fringes of my perception only for a massive shockwave to manifest right to my side.
Only now could I see the curved line of dust the approach of this attack caused, almost as if a restriction was lifted from my brain the second before the attack would reach its target.
"LE..!"
Selia’s shout was cut by the roaring of power striking through my body.
In its path, I wasn’t even an obstacle.
For a second, I could feel my body literally start dissolving within the raging storm of intense, pure energy.
Then, the mind-wrenching pain stopped as suddenly as it appeared.
’Huh?’
Selia’s hand firmly held the front of my shirt.
Within the single moment of me being attacked, she reached my side, grabbed my shirt, and yanked me the two steps back, bringing me back over the invisible edge between the jungle’s periphery and the world outside.
And as if by a touch of a magic wand, the energy of the attack vanished, leaving me perturbed but otherwise generally unharmed.
But something... Something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on...
Something changed.
Even if I couldn’t really tell what it was, yet.
Thankfully, however, this was the end of the almost tragically stupid tale of my demise. And as we all sat down and finally relished in the breath we could take without hurry or worry, I raised my eyes over to the adventurers Selia just saved.
Two men, one woman. One of their men heavily injured, others battered and wounded all over but still, to a degree, able to operate.
In other words, in the domain of the guardian beast, they were all dead meat. Without Selia’s intervention, they would never cross it to safety!
And that...?
That opened up quite a few doors for me to open.
Yet, just as I was about to open my mouth, I suddenly pulled it shut and breathed out before giving Selia a quick look... and then following it up with a nod.
She saved those people. And with almost dying closing off the list of my achievements, it wasn’t my place to decide anything.
’It would be quite entitled to expect I’m free to exploit this opportunity...’
I shook my head, disappointed with my own thoughts.
"Thank you..."
The young woman of the group was the first to speak up.
"We got caught in a turf war between two alphas, and then ended up alerting the guardian beast..." she recounted the recent events before biting down on her lips and looking down. "Thank you. We owe you our lives."
The heavily wounded man was currently fighting not to bleed out to his death. The other guy was already tending to his companion, only sparing a moment to turn his face and give Selia a respectful nod.
"Don’t worry about it," Selia waved her hands, dismissing their thanks over something that was much more worthy of her interest. And so, rather than moving away from the edge between the two realities and rejoining the group, she turned and stared at the massive, looming body of the guardian beast instead.
"They are growing much faster than they should," she muttered under her nose as she stared up at the beast for a while.
For a moment, the two of them simply stared at each other.
Then, Selia must’ve won, because the monster groaned before turning and leaving, its slumped shoulders perfectly answering the question of what happened.
What happened. Not how did it happen.
Either way, by the time Selia turned back and rejoined the group, her mood had visibly soured. I could also feel her intense stare for a moment before she turned her eyes away, feigning silent innocence.
’And that’s a first for me to see her like that,’ I thought, unsettled by the weirdly reserved, silent, and almost tame version of the Saintess now that she was in the presence of others.
’Interesting...’ I squinted my eyes, taking a mental note that quickly led to some massive changes regarding our planned date.
"Actually, we are in a pinch too," Selia suddenly spoke out, her face serious, devoid of the intense concentration from earlier. "How are your supplies?"
The woman, already settling in the role of the spokesperson for her entire group, raised her eyes.
"We do have some, but..." she glanced over at her wounded companions, "not much beyond what we absolutely cannot spare..."
"Just some food and water will do," Selia sighed before the woman’s worry could grow even further.
After having their lives saved, it would sting not to be able to repay one’s benefactor.
"A day’s worth of supplies for two people will be enough," she stated before turning her eyes over to where the guardian beast retreated to hide itself in preparation for the next intruder that would dare to step into its territory.