A/N: another chapter? Well I've been getting bullied by another author for the amount of drafts I have. You know who you are 😑. So here's a double upload. Enjoy!!
3rd person POV
"Raaaaawwwwwwrrrrrrrr!" The forest queen yelled as it slammed its arms into the ground. A tsunami of vines shot out from the ground and the walls as they shot towards us.
"Art firestorm!!" Tess yelled.
Arthur and Tessia combined wind and fire magic creating a fire vortex around the four of them in a protective barrier. The flames burned away the vines that shot at them. Vines from the floor wrapped around Arthur's legs, and quickly lifted him into the air.
"Whhaaa!!" Art yelled.
"Art!!" Tess yelled in a panic.
The fire vortex lost its shape as Arthur was lifted into the air. Sebastian activated the first phase of his beast will again, and dashed forward cutting the vines from Arthur. Arthur fell towards the floor, and used wind magic to push himself mid air to safely land next to Tess.
"I'm good Tess, don't worry!" Arthur yelled.
Alea shot out multiple blades of water that flew towards the forest queen, creating multiple cuts. The cuts quickly disappeared as the vines repaired themselves.
"Alright this isn't good. Alea, no more holding back!" Sebastian yelled as he activated his second phase of his beast will. Talons of wind formed on Sebastian's hands, and his wind armor became more defined.
Alea gave a nod and created a water cyclone around her. She waved her plant sword shooting water blades in all directions, slicing multiple vines as they shot out of the walls and the floor. Sebastian dashed forward towards the forest queen, slicing vine after vine as they shot towards him. As he got near the queen, the queen yelled sending out a huge blast of wind that knocked Sebastian back.
The queen waved its arms creating multiple spears of wind. The spears shot forward towards the four adventurers fighting for their lives. Alea created a water barrier around her blocking a spear. Sebastian evaded a spear as it crashed near him. Tessia and Arthur created a wind barrier together protecting them from the forrest queens attacks.
Alea launched several beams of high pressurized water at the forest queen, creating several large holes. The holes quickly repaired themselves at a fast rate. Alea gritted her teeth at seeing this. Tess looked at the forest queen wondering if there was even a way to take it down. Suddenly, Tess felt a presence emanating from Arthur.
Tess looked at Arthur in awe, as golden runes spread across his skin. She's already seen him activate his beast will once before, yet she was still in awe by his power.
"Art?" Tess said worriedly.
"Tess, keep up the defensive tactics. I'm gonna help them take it down!" Arthur yelled.
"No!! Stay back!" Alea yelled.
"No can do sis, we are in this fight together!" Arthur yelled back.
" But-"
"Enough! He's right Alea, it's a forest queen, it's all or nothing now!" Sebastian yelled as he continued to dodge the forrest queens attacks.
Arthur dashed forward with thunderclap impulse, wrapping his sword in wind and fire magic. Alea created several rotating wheels of water, that shot towards the forest queen.
Sebastian created several wind bullets, and shot them at the forest queen.
Vines shot forward towards the three attackers. Tessia spun her staff creating several wind blades, shooting them forward cutting down the vines keeping her partners safe.
Alea's water wheels sliced off the forest queens arms. The wind bullets from Sebastian blasted holes in the forest queen. Arthur swung his sword in an arc sending a wave of fire and wind, which hit the forest queen with an explosion, leaving a smoke cloud behind.
"Nice!" Art yelled.
Suddenly, wind blew away from where the forest queen was standing revealing it was still there. The injuries the forest queen sustained quickly repaired themselves and the vines around the forest queen moved. The four adventurers watched in dread as the forrest queens arms grew back, and it was good as new.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Tessia yelled in a frustrated tone.
The forest queen waved its arms launching wind spears and vines in all directions. Alea created a water barrier around her, slicing vines as they got close.
Wind spears were thrown at Sebastian who attempted to maneuver them. As he was maneuvering, vines wrapped around Sebastian's legs quickly lifting him into the air, and slamming him into the ground creating a shock wave which knocked Tessia back.
"Sebastian!!" Alea yelled.
Vines and wind spears shot towards Tessia, who was still recovering from the blast. Arthur saw this and his eyes widened in fear. He activated static void freezing everything in place, as he felt a burning sensation on his spine. He felt the strain on his core, as he dashed forward to Tessia.
He made his way to Tessia, and undid static void. Arthur grabbed her, and jumped out of the way of the vines and spears.
"Eek!" Tessia yelled as Arthur carried her bridal style jumping and avoiding the forest queens attacks.
Arthur watched as the queen made more wind spears, and shot them at the unconscious Sebastian. Alea quickly broke her water barrier, and made her way to Sebastian. Once next to Sebastian, she created another water barrier around both of them. With the water barrier active, she shot out multiple water blades at the forrest queen.
However, each wound created by Alea was just replaced by more vines. Arthur continued to dodge and maneuver the vines and spears as he tightly held Tessia in his arms. But Arthur was visibly slowing down, with it getting harder to dodge the forrest queens attacks. Arthur was feeling slightly fatigued, and felt the strain on his mana core since he was was using so much magic. Even with using mana rotation, using this much magic with his first phase active was putting a lot of strain on Arthur. Tessia noticed this, and gave Arthur a worried look.
"Art put me down, I'm only slowing you down!" Tessia yelled.
"No! I'm fine Tess, just make some wind blades and strike back!" Arthur yelled.
Tessia did as he said, and made wind blades striking the vines, spears, and forest queen simultaneously. Alea burst her water barrier sending it out in all directions, cutting down the surrounding vines and colliding with the wind spears.
Alea created five torrents of water around her, which blasted the forest queen. She then created a cyclone of water around the queen, cutting it up with a constant flow of high pressurized water.
A microburst shot out from the forest queen destroying the water cyclone pushing everyone back. Alea and Sebastian's body flew back as she wrapped Sebastian in a water shield to protect him, forgetting to augment herself. Alea hit her head on the wall with great force knocking her unconscious. Sebastian's unconscious body also hit the wall with great force, but he was protected by Alea's water magic.
Arthur was knocked out of the air holding onto Tessia tightly. He was flung towards the wall, but used as much wind magic as he could conjure to lessen his impact against the wall.
"Ahh!" Arthur grunted as he hit the wall.
"Art!!!" Tessia yelled concerned with tears filling her eyes. "Put me down! I can protect myself, I'm just holding you back!" Tessia said with tears falling from her face.
Tessia looked at Arthur, who looked back at her with tears in his eyes. His eyes flicked from Tessia to the forest queen. "Fine... but don't you dare get hurt! I'm not losing someone else I love!"Arthur yelled. Tessia's eyes widened at what Arthur just said. Arthur let go of Tessia placing her on the ground, and dashed forward. "Tess keep the vines off me!" Art yelled.
Tessia quickly composed herself, and used wind magic to bring Alea and Sebastian to her. Tessia casted a wind barrier around the three of them, and waver her staff shooting out multiple wind blades. The wind blades cut down the vines going after Arthur.
Arthur augmented his sword with fire and wind magic, while using thunderclap impulse to dash forward. Arthur jumped up, and landed on top of the forrest queen. Arthur moved up and down the forest queen at a frightening velocity, making multiple cuts and burning away the vines. The vines around the forest queen burst forward to wrap themselves around Arthur.
Arthur cut down the vines which burned away. Tessia also used wind blades to cut down the vines keeping them away from Arthur. A wave of wind blasted away from the forest queen, knocking Arthur away, and he landed on the ground with a thud.
Tessia was getting ready to launch more wind blades at the forest queen, when she felt vines wrap against her legs. Tessia quickly waved her staff cutting the vines with wind. But more and more vines shot out from the ground. Tess blasted wind away from her in a wave to cut away the vines.
As she cut away the vines, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, as she notice one of the vines got through her defenses stabbing her right shoulder.
"Ahh!" Tessia yelled in pain. She quickly cut the vine, and fell to her knees holding her shoulder. It took everything she had to keep her concentration on keeping the wind barrier up.
"Tess!!" Arthur yelled.
Tessia looked up and saw Arthur looking at her with fear in his eyes. Fear of loosing her. Anger boiled within Arthur, as he felt power surge within him. Arthur reached down within himself, and grabbed this power willing it forward.
Tessia's eyes widened as she saw Arthur's runes glow more, with his hair turning white, and glowing gold at the tips. His eyes turned lavender, and she felt an incredible power and pressure emanate from him. Power she has never felt before.
Arthur stood up feeling a lot of strain on his core. More than he has ever felt. Arthur burst forward with speed Tessia has never seen. The air around Tessia grew dead cold as white flames formed around Arthur's sword [absolute zero]. Arthur jumped up towards the forest queen who sent vines straight at Arthur. Tessia saw this and quickly formed wind blades shooting them out, destroying the vines before they hit Arthur.
Arthur reached the forest queen, and brought his blade down in an arc, cutting into the queen. The white flames spread across the forest queen at an alarming rate. The white flames spread, and covered the vines and moss around the room. As the white flames spread, Arthur quickly jumped into the air.
When the white flames dissipated, everything was frozen. Arthur snapped his fingers using sound magic sending out a sound wave that shattered the forest queen.
Arthur fell to the ground, and walked over to the forest queens remains, picking up the beast core. A smile formed on his face as he stored the beast core in his ring, while his body returned to normal.
Arthur began to slowly walk to Tessia, but quickly collapsed on the ground from complete exhaustion.
"Art!!" Tessia yelled as she ran over to him. The last thing Arthur remembered, was laying there while darkness overcame him.
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Arthur Leywin POV
As I slowly regained consciousness, I felt pain in my mana core. I looked into my core, and saw that I was at light yellow, with cracks. I slowly opened my eyes, and looked up at the crystal clear night sky.
As I moved my arms, I felt sore all over and winced in pain.
"Art!" I looked over and saw Tess sitting by a fire with Alea and Sebastian. Tess ran over to me, and knelt down next to me. "Art, how are you feeling?" Tess asked me with tears in her eyes.
"Eh, never better." I said sarcastically.
"That's good, you didn't look too good there for a second." Sebastian said as he and Alea walked over. I looked at them, and saw they were happy, but they also had guilty looks on their faces.
"Are you two ok?" I asked concerned.
Sebastian and Alea looked at each other, and sighed. "We're sorry Arthur, we weren't able to protect you. In the end, it was you that saved us." Alea said as she and Sebastian looked down. I watched as Sebastian clenched his fists in frustration, probably thinking he failed to keep his promise. They slowly sat down next to me, with sad smiles.
"There's no need to be sorry. It was a SS class beast after all. Besides, we're all ok." I said with a smile.
I looked over at Tess, who had tears falling from her face. I lifted my sore arm, and wiped away a stray tear while cupping her cheek with my left hand. "How's your shoulder?" I asked.
Tess looked at me for a second with a smile, before she let out a small laugh. "You killed a SS class beast, passed out only to wake up hours later, and clearly feel pretty sore. Yet, you're still concerned about me." She finished as she grabbed my hand from her cheek, and held it tightly in her hand.
I gave her a warm smile. "I'll always be worried about you." I said. Tess blushed and looked down shaking her head with a smile. I looked over and saw Sebastian and Alea smirking at us.
I then looked at them confused. "So what happened after I fell unconscious." I asked.
They looked at Tess, and motioned to her to explain. "Once you fell unconscious, Sylvie arrived shortly after. She was able to carry us out of the dungeon. Once we were out of there, Sebastian and Alea woke up, giving Sebastian the time to heal our wounds." Tess said. I looked at her confused.
"Sylvie? How did she carry us out?" I asked. Tess smiled and pointed over to the side. I looked to where she was pointing, and saw a huge dragon that looked exactly like Sylvia, except it was black with no runes.
"Sylvie?" I asked confirming it was her.
She smiled. 'Hello papa, I'm glad to see you're ok. Mama was very worried about you.' Sylvie said mentally. I looked at her baffled.
"How did you get so huge?" I said in amazement.
'That's not something you say to a lady you know. Anyways, i've been training out here as well. Getting stronger everyday. I can even change forms now. Watch!' Sylvie said mentally in excitement.
Sylvie began to glow, and shrunk down to the form of a small looking white fox.
"Oh my gosh, she looks so cute!" Tess gushed getting a laugh out of everyone.
"Wow, that's amazing!" I said.
'I know. Plus this way, I look like some regular mana beast!' Sylvie said mentally.
"Well that could come in handy I guess. How did you know we were in trouble?" I asked.
'I sensed your second phase activate, and knew you were in trouble. I came as fast as I could.' Sylvie responded mentally.
I nodded, "thanks Sylv". Sylvie "kyud" as she jumped over to me landing on my chest causing me to yelp in pain. "Yep, still sore Sylv." I said with a soft laugh.
Alea and Sebastian also laughed, while Tess continued to sit next to me on her knees. Tess just stared at me while she was weaving her fingers through my hair. I looked up at her, and looked into her beautiful emerald eyes. She looked back at me and smiled.
"Ok everyone, let's go ahead and get some rest. We will be heading back to Elinor tomorrow." Alea said getting a nod from everyone.
"Art, do you need help getting into your tent?" Tess asked.
"I should be ok." I said grunting as I sat myself up. I could see Alea and Sebastian look at each other and nod.
"Tessia, why don't you keep an eye on Arthur tonight." Alea stated.
Tess seemed to smile brightly at this, and gave an enthusiastic nod. Tess gently helped me stand up, and helped me get into my tent, which she set up earlier. I laid down and Tess laid down next to me, placing her head on my shoulder. Sylvie also crawled into the tent, and laid down at our feet.
"I'm glad you're ok Tess." I said.
Tess nodded. "I'm glad you're ok too Art." Tess responded. Though, I could sense something was wrong.
"Tess, what's wrong?" I asked. I could see tears start to fall from her eyes.
"I was afraid to lose you Art. I didn't know what I was going to do if you didn't wake up." Tess said. I looked at her as tears fell from her face.
"I know what you mean, I was afraid to lose you too. When I saw you get stabbed by that vine.... I got so angry, and that's when my second phase activated." Tess looked at me when I said this and smiled.
I looked into her emerald eyes, and my heart started beating faster. I felt myself grow nervous with every second that I looked at her. She began to blush at the amount of time we were looking at each other.
As I looked into her eyes, it reminded me of the emerald beast core I got from the forest queen, and my eyes widened in realization.
"What is it?" Tess asked.
I lifted my arm ignoring the pain, and took out the beast core from my dimensional ring. Tess looked at it, then looked at me.
"Is that the forest queens beast core?" Tess asked for confirmation.
I nodded at her smiling. "Ya, it is. It was still intact after I killed it. When I retrieved it, I felt a living presence coming from it, a beast will." I finished.
Tess' eyes widened. "A SS class beast will of a forest queen? That's amazing. The forest queen is one of the strongest plant type mana beasts there are, and just to get its beast will.... amazing." Tess said in awe as she stared at the beast core.
"Yep, our fight against it just showed how strong it really was, and it's beast will is now yours." I said looking at Tess in the eyes. Tess looked at me shocked.
"Art, I can't take this. You're the one who killed it. Plus, it's far to val-"
I placed my finger on her lips to keep her from talking, causing her to blush heavily. "Before you say this beast will is to valuable, you mean more to me than this ever will." I said with a smile as I removed my finger from her lips.
Tess' eyes began to tear up a little. "Thank you Art..." Tess said.
I then placed the beast core back into my ring, for safe keeping. Tess then took a deep breath and looked at me in the eyes.
"Hey Art, back during the forest queen fight, you said something." Tess said with some nervousness.
"What?" I asked tilting my head.
"You said you didn't want to lose someone else you loved." Tess said looking down blushing.
I looked at her, and felt my face grow warm. "Y-ya I did." I said with my heart beating faster.
"I-I was just wondering, if you meant you loved me like a sister, or...." Tess began before her voice trailed off.
I looked at her as she was looking down, this gunmetal haired elf, with beautiful emerald eyes and flawless skin. A loving personality that makes you smile when you talk with her. The one I've always stood next to these past few years. I smiled at her question.
I lifted my sore arm, and gently grabbed her chin. I slowly lifted her head to look me in the eyes. I saw her eyes were a little watery, but beautiful all the same. I slowly moved my hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her red tipped ear. I then gently caressed her cheek never breaking eye contact.
My eyes flicked between her eyes, and her soft pink lips. Tess noticed this, and blushed heavily. I slowly leaned forward ignoring the pain. I watched as Tess slowly closed her eyes. I gently pressed my lips to hers, sharing a loving kiss on her soft lips. I had my eyes closed as well, as I enjoyed the blissful moment. When our lips met, it felt like time stopped, and I could stay here forever.
We held the kiss for a few more seconds, before we pulled away. As I pulled away, I opened my eyes to see Tess open hers. She blushed, and bit her bottom lip smiling as she wrapped her hand around the back of my head.
She pulled me in, and we shared a deep kiss enjoying ourselves in the moment. As we broke the kiss, I looked in Tess' eyes and smiled.
"Definitely not as a sister." I said getting a happy laugh out of Tess.
We shared a couple more kisses before we laid down, and Tess had her head on my shoulder. "So Tess, does this mean you'll be my girlfriend?" I asked playfully.
Tess let out a giggle, and looked up at me while she was laying on my shoulder.
"Only if you give me another kiss." Tess said with a slight blush.
I smiled. "I'll kiss you anytime you want." I said getting a smile out of Tess.
I leaned in and gave her another kiss on her soft lips, filling me with absolute bliss.