Chapter 305: Bear Claw

Bear was the first of the thralls to close the distance. His headless body shot forward with incredible speed, leaving a devastating shockwave in his wake.

Instead of waiting for him to close the distance, Maria dash forward as well. She could feel her mark burning on her skin, begging to be called upon at any moment.

’Not yet. That will be my last option.’

She ducked under Bear’s spiked gauntlet before poking at his armor. Bear grabbed the tip of the spear and shattered it in his fist before throwing another barrage of punches in Maria’s direction. The attacks were far too fast for Maria to dodge, so she simply redirected their point of contact every time it was about to land on her armor.

The ground beneath her feet started to crack and shake from every hit it took. Sometimes the gauntlet would get close enough to leave small grooves in her white dragon scales before finishing its attack. Maria created another spear and threw it in the air, having it disappear from the clouds. She caught the arm of Bear inside her armpit before pulling his body close to herself.

Using all her strength, she sent a knee directly into his stomach, cracking his outer shell from the force. Bear flailed in Maria’s grasp before she was forced to jump away from him to dodge a scythe attack from the deformed woman, Claw. Maria felt the back of her head and scoffed as a tuff of hair fell out.

"I was trying to grow that out."

Claw fought with incredible flexibility. Her body would twist and contort as the scythe danced around her while moving forward. Maria struggled to find a single opening she could punish. Before she could finish studying her timing, the scythe was already coming down to behead her. Maria panicked and connected the tip of her spear with the body of the scythe, creating a loud ringing sound from the impact.

Suddenly, two strong hands grabbed onto Maria’s ankles. She planted her spear through Bears hand as another scythe attack made its way forward. However, Bear never loosened his grip. Maria buckled her body back to dodge the devastating attack. The mountains of snow behind her were not so lucky. Each one had been cut in half perfectly from the air pressure alone.

’It’s compact just like Slimo’s attacks. I can’t let her get a direct hit.’

Giving up on the idea of ridding herself from the man grabbing on to her legs, Maria threw her body on to his back, holding her elbow outward so she could break the area around them. Before she could hit the ground, Claw sent a kick into her stomach, causing Maria to cough up blood. Her body tried to fly away from the force, but Bear was still holding tightly on to her ankles.

The shadow of scythe appeared over her abdomen as Maria’s back was about to crash into the ground. Her heart swelled with panic. She felt the pull on her skull mark. The dark, cold blood shot its way toward her brain at lightning speed. Right before the scythe hit its mark, it phased through her body and crashed into the ground below. A cut in the earth was created, so deep that magma began bellowing out of its crevice in seconds. The snow quickly sizzled and melted around the area as Maria’s floated in the air.

Maria was mad at herself for using her form so early, but there was no doubt that she would have been cut in half had she not transformed in time. In her new controlled figure, her original body shape remained the same, but her skin was black and rotting like a corpse. Despite the appearance, her body felt limitless in power. In this from, nothing could harm her. However, because she was so much more powerful in this form, there was almost nothing that she was allowed to kill. That included both of these guardians.

Bear jumped at the Maria, desperately clawing through her figure trying to land a single hit. Maria grabbed him by both his legs and used him as an artificial weapon. She swung his body around at Claw hoping to knock her down. Claw used her scythe to deflect his body every time it came down on her. A myriad of cuts now painted the headless man’s back, a strange grey blood pouring from every wound.

Claw shoved his body out of the way, only to be met face to face with Maria — her rotting eyes staring deep into Claws lifeless vessel with wrath. Maria grabbed the scythe and jammed it into Claw’s torso, cracking through every protective layer she had.

Claw staggered and ripped the scythe from her body before standing guard once again. Small pools of grey blood started filling the holes around them. Maria slowly undid her transformation. She grabbed on to her spear and threw it forward with all her might. The snow kicked up around her as the spear left her hands. The environment caved around the spear as it flew through the air, as if a floating black hole had just been thrown.

All Claw could do was watch as the spear implanted itself inside her heart before she could even finish blinking. The force from the throw was trying to shove her back, but Maria had blitz behind her to make sure that didn’t happen. She timed her attack perfectly, throwing a massive kick into her back right as the spear pierced her from behind. The pressure from both sides of her body was too much to handle. An explosion of frost sent Maria flying back as she held her forearms over her face to protect herself.

Small shards of ice implanted themself inside her armor, but nothing managed to pierce it. All that was left of Claw was a small crater in the ground. The heat from the magma began to intensify as it continued to crawl across the earth, melting anything in its path.

Maria panted heavily as she watched Bear’s headless form stand up and look at the crater. However, the battle wasn’t over. She took advantage of the opportunity, newfound power exploding through every centimeter of her soul. She almost misjudged how much to use and ended up landed slightly closer than she hoped. Everything moved in slow motion to her. The snow had stopped falling, yet her spear was still coming down to pierce Bear’s heart.

’Die you sick freaks.’

Just then, right before her tip could touch his skin, it had completely stopped. The momentum her weapon carried threw a vortex towards Bear as he slowly turned his body to face her, a fist already beginning to curl. Maria desperately pushed.

’Why isn’t it moving forward?! Wait... I killed the guardian. I’m stronger-’

Her nose caved into her skull, the front of her head cracked under the force, and she was sent hurdling backwards in a ball of blood. Maria did dozens of flips, slamming on the ground multiple times before finally coming to a stop. She managed to take a direct hit from a compacted attack of a guardian. Even if she survived this encounter, the repercussions would be deadly without a healer. She could tell from the feeling she was suffering severe brain damage already.

Her motor functions began acting up, her legs refused to listen to her, and there was a loud ringing in both her ears. Maria tried calling upon her transformation, but she hesitated. Her vision began to fade

’I can’t control it in this state... I... messed up.’

Bear’s headless silhouette appeared in the sky above her, readying another fist. She tried to tell her body to move, block, dodge, anything at all, but it never listened. His fist crashed into her stomach like a meteor, shattering the white scales of her armor, turning them into small chips as they rained around the area. Maria tried to breathe in, but her the wind had been knocked out of her so severely that her lungs hesitated to move.

’I’m...’

Another gauntlet crashed into her cheek, breaking her jaw off her face.

’...not...’

Bear wound up his arm high in the sky before throwing one final attack towards her throat, aiming to behead her.

Maria’s magical eye shot open.

Her left arm caught the gauntlet before it could hit its mark.

’NOBODY!!’

Maria’s fist began to close around the gauntlet. Bear struggled against its grasp, desperately trying to pull his hand away. However, Maria shattered it completely. Despite her state, she threw herself to her feet. If anyone were to look at her in her current state, they would have thought she had transformed, but the thing keeping her up wasn’t a power gifted by a god — it was her determination to prove to everyone in the world that she existed, she was special, and that she deserved to live too.

Bear’s vessel hesitated. In his mind, victory was assured, but every sense in his body was screaming at him to run away. An apparition so terrifying it made an emotionless vessel hesitate — that is what Maria had become.

Before anything could continue, a man with brown hair appeared behind bear and bit into his torso. The bite was so deep it managed to take out a piece of his heart with it. Maria swayed on her feet before finally collapsing into the powdered snow.

Jacob scarfed down Bear’s heart before wiping his brow and facing his uncle standing behind him. Leo grinned and slapped his face three times.

"If she isn’t already dead, she’ll die to this cold in moments. It’s over for you both."

Ignoring his cries, Jacob took off his dragon armor and put Maria inside of it. Her body was so damaged that Jacob couldn’t believe how some of her limbs moved. He needed to finish this fight quickly.

"Three minutes. I’m going to kill you in three minutes."