Chapter 130: Maricks Observes the Bear’s Fight

Chapter 130:
Maricks Observes the Bear’s Fight

 

“EVERYONE, get away from the shed!”

Right as the bear shouted, it appeared—a black tiger, if I remember right. A vicious monster. Why was that thing even here?

I tried to make a break for it, but the bear stopped me. The moment I moved, the black tiger turned its head in my direction.

We couldn’t move. If we took even a step, we’d be mauled.

The black tiger was eating goblins. Probably wanted to eat us too, right? Everybody went pale. They were trembling in fear. What were we gonna do? At this rate, we’d be tiger food.

My throat was dry. I took a gulp. Steeled myself. “I-I’ll be a decoy. You escape in the meantime.”

Then maybe everyone else could escape. Everyone was shocked when I said that. Shia tried to stop me, but at this rate we’d all die. Someone had to stay behind.

“I’ll stay too, Maricks.”

“Timol…”

“I can’t just let the girls die. If the two of us are decoys, that should buy us more time. Don’t try to get mauled before I do, though,” Timol said shakily. I knew that he was pushing himself to do this, even though he was terrified. I was still happy to hear it.

“Timol, I know you’re trying to play it cool, but your hands are shaking.”

Mine were too. My hands. We looked at each other and smiled.

We had our minds set. But the second we started running, the bear stopped us. She told us there were more than a hundred wolves surrounding us, so running away wasn’t an option. Even if the others could escape, they’d lead the wolves to the village—or maybe even the black tiger.

What else were we supposed to do, huh?!

And in the middle of all that despair, the bear blurted out something so stupid that I had to think it over just to make sure it was real. She said she would fight. You know, fight that ferocious black tiger? This girl in a weird outfit? Come on!

It wasn’t like I thought I could beat it either. I’d be lucky to buy a few minutes for everybody else to get eaten by wolves. But here the bear girl was, going on about how protecting us was her job. This C-Rank in name only expected to what, flash her card at the tiger or something? I couldn’t hide my frustration.

But as soon as the bear headed out, I went numb. The little pet bears by her side suddenly grew massive.

The hell? We were all surprised—that is, all of us but Shia.

The bear left Shia and her pets to guard us, then started toward the black tiger on her own. She was seriously going to fight it. I reached out to her, but my hand only caught air; I couldn’t grab a hold of the bear’s clothes.

“Maricks…” Timol said. Even his voice was shaking now. Shouldn’t we be going with her?

When I tried to go, the black pet bear got in front to block me. Then it let out a “Kwoom…”

I didn’t speak bearish, but it was clear enough. The black bear wouldn’t let us go.

“What is with you?” I said. “Move over! Your owner’s going to get herself killed.”

The black bear didn’t move.

“Maricks, calm down,” said Timol. “If what Yuna said is true, there are wolves nearby. Do you want to attract their attention?”

“Damn.”

I looked out at the bear girl.

When she approached the black tiger, it roared and stopped eating the goblins. It bared its fangs. Looked like it would attack at any moment. It was terrifying just to watch. My legs turned to jelly. And in the middle of that fearsome aura, before that nightmarish monster, the bear in the ridiculous outfit walked toward the black tiger. I couldn’t do anything. I was powerless.

 

The fight began. The bear attacked, and the fight turned into something from a dream: The black tiger and the bear squared off as equals.

The bear dodged the black tiger’s attacks. She blasted magic, and every spell was more powerful than anything I’d seen in my life. And how did she move like that? The tiger could barely touch her. She hit. She dodged. They traded blows.

“Shia, did you know?” She must’ve. Shia was the only one who had reacted differently to the bear since the start. She’d looked at her differently. When I’d told her to take care of that bear, she’d been happy to do it. She knew something. “Shia, tell me.”

Shia seemed a little hesitant, but she fessed up, “I knew about Yuna from before.”

“I knew it. Is that bear really a C-Rank adventurer?”

“She is. Yuna became a C-Rank adventurer on her own merit. She’s not some rich wannabe.”

I could still hardly believe it, but…I could see it was true. “Do you think she can beat that black tiger?”

Neither of them had injured the other fatally. If anybody was losing their footing, it was the bear.

“I don’t know,” Shia admitted, “but Yuna is strong. I’ve heard she slew a hundred goblins, a goblin king, tigerwolves, a black viper, and even destroyed the Zamon bandit clan on her own. I think my mother and father are hiding even more about her.”

“Now you’re kidding me, though. Right?” I gave her a look. A hundred goblins, a goblin king, tigerwolves, a black viper, and the Zamon bandit clan?

I’d heard about the Zamon bandits from my dad, a knight at the castle. A group of robbers had appeared, targeting the king’s birthday celebration. An adventurer had captured part of the group, which let the knights get info on the hideout, and they took ’em out. My dad was part of that operation, of course. He was gone for a couple days.

From what I heard, there weren’t many bandits left at the hideout. I heard that their leader had been subdued by an adventurer…and that was her?

Plus, a black viper? Nah, no way. “That can’t be true.”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. How could that ridiculous girl in a bear outfit be so strong? But there she was, using magic that seemed impossible, doing things that couldn’t be real.

Wasn’t she scared of the black tiger? We just watched, and this girl—this tiny girl, younger than me—fought on all by herself.

“Shia, why didn’t you tell us how strong Yuna was?”

“That was part of the test. You can see how Yuna is dressed—that was definitely going to cause issues with you and the others. My job was to make sure that didn’t cause any problems, and…well, I didn’t want to tell you much.”

“That stuff again?”

“In real life, there are things higher ups can and can’t say, and they can’t just let that get in the way of a mission. This was practice for that—not that you would’ve believed me if I did tell you.”

Ugh. She was right—I probably wouldn’t have. Wouldn’t have thought that some weirdly dressed bear girl was strong, that some girl smaller than me could be stronger. I hadn’t even believed her when I learned she was a C-Rank adventurer. I’d just thought of her as another student younger than me, a surprise escort mission at most. I’d told Shia to protect the bear, but she’d been protecting us.

“This is just my guess,” Shia said, “but I don’t think anyone would believe Yuna was our guard based on how she dressed, even if she really was supposed to be guarding us. Since this is my mother we’re talking about, she was probably looking forward to seeing how we’d act.” That did seem like Lady Ellelaura. She was right. “But I don’t think my mother expected us to encounter a black tiger.”

Who would’ve imagined that? And who was going to believe this now? Who’d believe a girl smaller than me and dressed as a bear could take on a black tiger on an equal playing field? Man, I bet I’d get committed if I tried to tell anyone.

I would’ve been laughing too, if someone told me that. It just didn’t seem realistic.

But here the girl in the bear outfit was fighting to save us all. We were all silently watching the bear—no, watching Yuna—and there was nothing I could do.

 

But Yuna fought on to protect us. She dodged the tiger’s sharp claws and pointed fangs, perfectly agile, firing spell after spell with more power than I’d ever seen. What was this? How could anyone move that fast, cast magic so quickly and so many times?

Only top-class adventurers could do stuff like that.

Shia wasn’t lying. At first I’d intended to fight with her, but I couldn’t walk into this without getting in the way. A hot iron taste spread in my mouth; I’d bitten my lip till it bled without realizing.

I was a powerless human.

 

“Yuna!” Shia cried. The moment I’d looked away, the black tiger was on top of Yuna, its fangs biting into her hand. I moved forward, wanting to help. The moment I stepped forward, Yuna’s bear got in my way.

“Your owner is in danger!” I yelled, but the bear didn’t do anything.

In that instant, Yuna did something and the black tiger fell over onto its side. Because I couldn’t see around the bear, I didn’t know what had happened.

“What’s going on?”

“Yuna put her hand inside the black tiger’s mouth and fired magic,” said Cattleya, voice shaking.

She’d really beat it? The black tiger wasn’t moving.

Shia called Yuna’s name and started running. Before I knew it, I was running too. I’d never seen an adventurer this powerful, and on top of that, Yuna slew the whole pack of wolves surrounding us, all by herself.

I’d thought I could help Yuna, but she said I’d slow her down. It was upsetting, but maybe it was true. I could only watch her slay the wolves as her bears protected me.

Ten, twenty, thirty. Forty…a hundred…