Chapter 31 – Fighting to Live (3)
After receiving countless direct hits, the serpent decided to adopt an alternative approach. Burying itself in the sand to hide from the explosions, it managed to shake off the stunning effects while using its senses to move towards Anya.
This also didn't give Anya any room to use her other explosive devices, as it would be a waste of resources. Instead, she ran at full speed while looking at Sonia in the distance, who was standing still concentrating aura in her Nodachi.
Anya needed to buy a few more precious seconds, it would be enough time for Sonia to complete her attack. If they were lucky, the blow could temporarily cut off the flow of aura that was constantly flowing from the horns to the rest of the serpent's body.
But the serpent wasn't cooperating… For it moved quickly and fluidly and managed to emerge from under the sand exactly where Anya was at the moment. Thus, in trying to escape, Anya found herself being thrown upwards along with a large amount of sand by the serpent's head.
Plock
"Urrghhhh..."
After reaching nearly 25 meters high and spinning around, Anya fell painfully onto the sand. She didn't break any bones, but it was enough to make her spit blood and bleed from her nose.
But this wasn't over yet…
thunk
"Aaahhhh" She groaned in pain again as the serpent used the tip of its tail as a weight to crush Anya against the ground.
thunk
"Urrhgaahhh"
thunk thunk thunk
Crack
Tsssssssss
Once wasn't enough to satisfy the serpent's sadistic desire. It crushed Anya against the ground several times using its tail.
"May the aura bless this blade…" Sonia, who noticed this situation, immediately stopped her concentration and immediately rushed to help Anya.
She observed the point where she would launch her attack and plotted her route to reach the top of the snake's head. Even with 90% of the full force of her strongest strike, Sonia hoped that this would be enough to buy some time.
How much? A few seconds, 2 minutes at most. Just enough time to recover Anya's body and give her healing medicine. But after that, it would be just her and the Aura Beast, with no one else to help her.
Meanwhile, Anya, who had already fainted after the third blow, looked horrible. Several of her bones were broken, blood was dripping from her mouth and huge bruises spread across her body, even some exposed fractures were seen.
The snake only stopped its attack when its senses could no longer pick up the normal vibrations of Anya's heart. The heart was very weak, but still alive, which didn't really matter to the snake, since it was only a matter of time before its prey died.
Then, the snake opened its mouth and was about to swallow Anya's motionless body. Without rushing, it looked at its prey for some reaction while it slowly approached. As if it was giving Anya a chance to escape...But that didn't happen, Anya was motionless and about to be swallowed.
Until the snake felt something crawling over its skin and heading for its head.
Grrhhhggrrr The snake then began to move and snake through the sand aggressively, trying to get rid of the enemy on its back.
But Sonia was more agile and skillful, she managed to stay standing on the snake's back and continued advancing towards her target at maximum speed.
GrrhhhHHHHH Even though the snake was moving aggressively, it realized that it would not easily get rid of the enemy. So it decided to dive back into the sand.
"Not this time…"
Swwosssshhhh
Sonia was faster and managed to reach her target to launch a blow with all her strength at the serpent's left horn.
The Nodachi, imbued with a blue aura, made a wide and powerful movement, almost perfect. Sonia felt confident in the blow and had a smile on her face as she hit the horn.
Tlinnnnnnnk
But to her despair, the Nodachi hit against a solid bar of Tripolium… Or at least that's what Sonia thought when she felt a jolt in her body after her Nodachi failed to even scratch the protective surface on the serpent's horns.
"Son of a Bitc-" She didn't have time to admire her monumental failure, she was thrown away after the serpent brutally shook her head.
thunk
urghh Blehh
To complicate the situation even more, the serpent did the same thing to Sonia. She used her tail as a weight to crush Sonia who had fallen to the ground and was disoriented.
Sonia had no chance to defend herself, as soon as she took the first attack from the tail, she felt her body lose strength and began to vomit blood.
thunk thunk thunk
By the second attack, Sonia had already fainted, and by the third and fourth attacks she was no longer showing any reaction. Even so, the snake only stopped its attacks when Sonia was in the same physical condition or worse than Anya.
Tsss
Finally, after neutralizing its two main prey, the snake, without any visible damage, began to move its head to examine the area. It savored the air, trying to identify new prey or any danger nearby.
From its senses, came the presence of the prey that had been caught in its trap, which was already almost completely submerged in the sand and it would be a matter of minutes until it was neutralized.
In addition, the snake also noticed the faint presence of the prey that it had seen fighting the rock scorpion. Which posed no danger to it, since this prey had already been neutralized due to the scorpion's venom.
The hunt was over… Even though none of her prey were dead…
"Yeah… We tried…" Said Mahara, who was submerged up to her neck in quicksand.
Wistfully, she began to watch the blue sky and the clouds passing by. She never imagined that her last moments would be like this, watching her friends being devoured by an Aura Beast while she stood there, unable to move to help.
Ela nunca imaginou que seus últimos momentos seriam assim, vendo seus amigos sendo devorados por uma Aura Beast enquanto ela estava ali, incapaz de se mover para ajudar.
There was no anger, no fear, no despair… All that remained in Mahara's mind was sadness and melancholy.
KKKYYYYAAAAAAAAAAA
But like the sweet voice of the aura coming from the sky, a fierce cry from Windor resounded over the battlefield… Bringing a bit of hope to Mahara's heart, who saw the figure of the eagle making an abysmal dive towards the terrible serpent.
The speed was absurd, creating a great sonic boom as it made its dive. The speed was so great that the shock wave at the tip of his beak was dragged to cover the bird's entire body.
The serpent also realized the danger Windor represented. A mortal danger that it could not face at the moment. That is why the serpent immediately buried itself in the sand and sank to a safe depth.
Even so, Windor still continued his dive, trying to carefully observe the movement of the sand to locate the serpent. Windor had no intention of slowing down, even when he was close to the ground; on the contrary, he accelerated even more.
His target was locked in his sights... But because of his lack of combat experience, Windor was about to make a dramatic mistake.
"He's going to kill us..." Mahara said.
She had seen Windor do this move several times during training. It was a move that Edgar called Collapse. A single-target impact move, but its side effects had a considerable area of destruction.
It consisted of using Windor's abysmal speed, combined with the natural magic of birds to create a protective barrier in front of his beak. But instead of causing just a single impact, Edgar taught Windor a quick explosion magic.
It had everything to fail, since the barrier in Windor's beak was only responsible for protecting and insulating the bird's body against wind pressure at considerable speeds. The higher the speed, the smaller the friction area and the greater the aerodynamics of the barrier.
Simple and practical.
However, the birds also use this barrier to slow down, decreasing the aerodynamics and increasing the friction area. But in doing so, the birds' barrier overheat due to friction, forcing the birds to use a second natural cooling magic...
Depending on the speed, the temperature would be more than enough to melt common metals, such as iron, silver and copper. And after observing this phenomenon, Edgar had an evil idea...
What would happen if you combined compressed air, extremely high temperatures and an explosion?
The answer? An explosion with extremely high kinetic force and temperatures. To the point where a basic level 1 fireball spell would have enough power to destroy everything within a 5 meter radius.
Windor, a young level 4 Aura Beast, is able to easily create a level 3 fireball spell. Which according to the rules established by the Ancient Dragons, would be at least 100 times stronger than a level 1 spell.
Furthermore, it would be hot enough to fry weak beings, such as a Level 3 Aura Beast. Or, in this case, Mahara, Sonia, Anya, and Hendrina…
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