Downhill

The loud growling that followed the roar did not cease as Yu hoped, it was still there even after a few more minutes

"Cough cough, can't believe that guy is still here, what's he waiting to do, a damage assignment?"

While he preferred to wait things out he didn't have the luxury as he would soon become a smoked human if nothing was done

"Wuu..."

"It's not your fault, I should have thought the fire would lure some of them our way"

Lyra was feeling guilty since her flames were the cause but it was entirely his plan to begin with, it turns out he was quite the reckless planner

"This isn't going to work, we have to go"

Dodging the fight by waiting didn't seem like a viable option anymore so his only choice was to exist and try to make a run for it, as for fighting? Just the roar was enough to wipe any such brave thoughts

Outside the burning hive a rather normal looking bear whose size was only a bit larger than normal was growling madly, how could it not be when one of its honey suppliers was being sabotaged

It climbed up the tree to put out the flames with its paws but found its efforts wasted since the flames inside could not be extinguished as it couldn't fit itself in the hole, the big belly was the honey's fault so perhaps this could give the needed incitement to lose some weight

"Groo?"

The flames dimmed all of a sudden and two figures came out the hole, the first was a four-legged beast the caught its immediate attention and the second came under its notice only because he accidentally used its nose to jump off

"Groaaa!!"

Mad at the insult and the possibility that these were the fire's instigators the bear jumped off the tree and landed harshly on the ground causing it to dent in

"Oh boy, this guy is no joke"

The cracked earth was more than enough to convince Yu of the bear's strength, there was no way he was going to fight this dude head-on for sure

But it didn't look like he had too much of a choice since his speed was so much slower than the beast's

The bear got close enough to attack and swung its paws at him, thankfully Lyra grabbed him just in time to avoid the paw attack which hit the tree square in the root sending it falling down

"Mommy"

It's scared him shitless to see one paw attack send such a thick tree down, Lyra's flames could achieve the same result but not as effortlessly as the bear

Lyra kept running while holding him by the cuff, her body was already covered with the dark hue that boosted her speed and she was putting everything she got into her legs just to pull some distance

The big bear couldn't catch up but didn't lose her either, speed wasn't it's forte but it was so much stronger than Lyra that it could 'barely' keep up

'What hell are we supposed to do, I can't fight it and cant run....oh!'

He recalled that he didn't need to be the one to run at all

"Wanna get turned into black paste big fella?"

Asking in the most intimidating way possible he pulled out Dead Silence and aimed it at the beast

"Grroaa"

The bear did indeed become weary sending the deadly threat, this forced it to put some distance but not entirely give up chase

"Aw, too good to be true huh"

It didn't scare it off like the rest of the beasts but at least it still has some deterrence

'Hmm, I might be able to bluff it somehow'

His mind started to churn out clever ways to distract it long enough for Lyra to put some real distance

Bam!

A tree was thrown at the running two out of nowhere, Lyra easily avoided it but couldn't run any longer as the aggressor who threw it was now blocking their path with his small gang

"Oohaa!"

The gorilla gave a deep shout and waved its arms threateningly, not at them though but at the bear who also came to a stop

"Grooaa!" "Oooohaha!"

The two chumps proceeded to have an argument where no one could exactly understand the other but could somewhat comprehend what was going on, even Yu got the gist of

It seemed the bear was invading the gorilla's territory but wanted to the chase and smash the criminals into meat paste, this obviously didn't sit well with the chest banging group and the two sides seemed like they were going to go at each other any time now

'Oh, am I about to be the profitable third party?'

Yu smirked to himself, not for too long though as the bear gave them the stink eye along with a low growl before returning back to his part of the wilds

"OooaHa!"

Feeling victorious the big guy who's size was four times a normal gorilla banged his chest furiously, the smaller but still large ones around him were patting him in congratulation

'I guess I celebrated too soon'

Once again he was supposed to think of ways to escape the strong foe, the biggest guy in the group who was the only male was probably as strong as that bear, the rest of his female companions were all of Silver rank it seemed, as for how he knew their gender, well...

'Maybe I can shoot that?'

He was weighing his options while looking at the 'biggest' weak spot of his enemies, usually if that part was hit it would put them out of commission for quite some time

As of sensing his evil intentions the male gorilla yelled at his companions ordering them to fight the enemy in his steed, perhaps to test his strength

The smallest of the group shouted and volunteered, its attempt to show off was not received well by its competitors though and she was shoved aside harshly

"Oohaa!"

Seeing them argue the big guy pointed at one to be the challenger and that gorilla more than happily obliged, charging at Lyra with full force

"They seem to be underestimating you huh"

"Awuuu!"

Not taking the treatment lightly she howled to the sky, alighting herself and charging at the gorilla too

The flames received an instant reaction from the leader who rushed to save his now retreating companion, that's when a feeling of danger stopped him dead in his tracks, the dangerous looking black object in Yu's hand captivating his attention

"Ooaaaa!"

Only the painful screaming of his mate could snap his focus back to the surroundings as her burning figure filled his eyes

Puk! "○□○"

"Heh, you shouldn't have taken your eyes off me"

Happy with the pure pain expression etched on the guy's face after that immoral sneak attack Yu stored his small crossbow and Dead Silence, dashing along Lyra away from both territories

"OOHAAA!!!"

That sound was more than enough to tell them just how pissed the dude was, who wouldn't when his rocks got shamelessly shot like that

Yu wasn't too worried though, they should have put enough dist-Crash!

A tree fell right next to him forcing Lyra to once again grab him and manoeuvre around the barrage of trees being thrown at them

"Shameless! Fight me alone if you're a man!"

Cursing at the guy for deploying his companion's help earned him another eye roll from Lyra, if anyone was going to fight it was her anyway

"He's going to catch up sooner or later, we have to fight"

"Wuu?"

Lyra gave him an anticipating glance, if there was anything this guy was good at it was coming up with schemes

Seeing her expectant eyes he smiled sneakily

"Turn back and throw me at him"

A questioning look was what he received

"Don't worry about it, just throw me up when we're not too far apart and wait for the chance that would present itself

She had a hesitant look in her eyes but chose to turn around and charge at the chasing wrathful gorilla, trusting him as never once did his plans fail, well, almost never…

"OOAA"

The beast shouted seeing the enemy choose to fight than flee, finally, it could get its revenge

"Wanna fight? Come at me then!"

Yu allowed Lyra to throw him up in the air, high enough the gorilla had to jump in order to slam its two huge fists at him with the intent of turning even his bones to mush

"Heh"

There was not the slightest sign of fear on his face, only a clever smirk

Just when the fists were about to slam into him a shield materialized around him blocking any harm whatsoever, this immovable shield was like hitting a diamond wall sending the beast reeling from recoil

Bite!

When something goes wrong everything else goes downhill, that was exactly the case here, as soon as he was hit with the recoil Lyra jumped at his leg and bit into it, scorching it while she was at it as well

"Now whos the prey"

Not one to miss the chance to gloat he stepped on the falling gorilla's face and jumped off to escape the barrage of trees about to be thrown at him

"? Watch out!!"

Lyra had just jumped off and was about to attack as soon as the two landed, unknown to her was the shadow he spotted with his bird-eye view

"Grooaa"

Before she could realize the threat he warned about the bastard bear slammed her away with his paw

"Lyra!"

Seeing the fountain of blood spurting from her he hastily chanted the unknown syllables to recall her

It was only a second after he saw her disappear into her hexagram that he noticed a shadow over his head

"Shi-" Bam!

Slammed by the tree he received the same end as his partner, sent off with a fountain of blood

This time neither big beasts went after him, instead, the bear took this chance to try and finish off its injured rival, ignoring the smaller gorilla's incessant attacks

"Kugh!"

The hard battle was raging on near him but he was in no conditions to even peek at it, both of his legs were crushed under the fallen tree and one of his arms was twisted in a horrible way, many pieces of wood were going through his body causing blood to pool under him very quickly

If that wasn't horrible enough the cause of his bloody state was running toward him, it was the smallest gorilla of the bunch once again, this time coming to finish off what it should have started

"Argh, no, I don't- don't want to die here"

He spent all his time running in this magical world, at least he wanted to enjoy it a little before leaving so soon

"Please, no…"

He begged the gorilla who was now ever so close, thinking of some way to escape his doom

"Strenght, you want strength no? cough, everyone wants strength"

While both questioning and replying by himself he used his only functioning hand to smear his blood in the form of a hexagram, it took him almost all his strength just to draw the messy thing on the ground and throw in some crystals belonging to the silver beasts they killed on it

At this moment the gorilla was already standing over his half-dead body, it was still though and didn't initiate an attack, in fact, it even put the crystals that were thrown messily in their place

The fight that was raging moments ago ceased all of a sudden, both the bear, the leading gorilla and all of its companions were now shouting and growling at the small one while approaching it angrily

It had a short look of debate on its face, as if thinking whether it should listen to its mate and leader or not, but that was only for a momentary pause for the choice was very obvious

Seeing her walk onto the hexagram Yu didn't dally and started the sacrifice

"I, Yu, Sacrifice this as a means to nourish thou, in body and mind, in hope thou reach thy Zenith"

There was a steady blue glow from the formation this time around, it wasn't too bright nor too dull and gave the feeling that light kept on flowing

"..."

He didn't know if the beast would kill him after this, he didn't even know if it could survive the approaching beasts who all seemed to want to kill her, all he saw before his vision faded into darkness was a blue object that came smashing at the attackers from the light his formation was giving…..