I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 41

The two boys looked around at all the death and looked towards the nest. No more Elders came out, which meant that they took priority in staying inside to protect the young. Ryouma glanced at Arata with a look of hesitation. Arata looked back with a serious stare. Ryouma sighed before looking at the nest with a serious glare. Ryouma held his fist out to Arata who grabbed it. Arata felt a large amount of Energy enter him before he let go.

As the two boys walked forward, they felt a strong aura focus on them, followed by a series of low growls. Arata walked forward.

“Let’s not keep them waiting.”

Ryouma pulled on his bow’s string, an arrow of flame formed. He held the bow with the fire arrow ready as he followed behind Arata. As they entered, Arata noticed the young Forest Drake’s were now in the corner of the nest with the large Forest Drake in front of them. Arata eyed up this one curiously as it was the one he couldn’t tell his strength. The leader. The other large Forest Drake’s were surrounding the entrance where the two boys walked in. They all had their eyes looked onto the two boys. And more specifically, the fire arrow Ryouma had. They growled viciously at the two boys.

Ryouma smelled something horrid as he turned his head and almost threw up. He saw the piles of rotting human flesh. He could make out arms, legs, torsos and internal organs all over the ground. Then there were the heads and faces that were still distinguishable. He saw the faces and heads of men, women and children. He did his best not to throw up.

Arata kept his eyes on the four Forest Drake’s surrounding them. They were much stronger than the Forest Drake’s they defeated earlier. Arata also only defeated them using tricks and tactics. By the looks of things, he and Ryouma would need to defeat them head on. He was not looking forward to that. As Arata surveyed them, he felt a chill go down as he realized something.

‘There’s a Forest Drake Elder missing!’

He sent a signal to Ryouma as they both dived to their sides, barely dodging a powerful blast of Energy. As Arata rolled on the ground, he glanced up and found that a Forest Drake was clutching the wall above the entrance, where they were standing. It’s wings were covering it and seemed to be changing color. It was the same color as the nest but was turning back to the natural green of the Forest Drake.

A camouflage ability.

The Forest Drake hid itself and waited for them to enter. Arata understood that these Forest Drakes weren’t gaining to be easy to defeat. After the attack was thrown, the other Forest Drakes instantly went into action. They charged at Ryouma who was still able to keep his flame arrow charging. As he got out of his roll after dodging, he fired it at an oncoming Forest Drake. The Forest Drake managed to dodge it, but the Forest Drake behind it was struck on the wing. This wasn’t a critical hit, but it would delay the Forest Drake for a time.

The Forest Drake that dodged the arrow was almost upon Ryouma. It’s claws began to glow as it sent a slash towards Ryouma. Ryouma dodged, leaping and moving around to not be hit by the attacks. As he dodged another claw attack, he was in the air. He then realized that a beam of Energy was flying in the direction he was heading to. Another Forest Drake had sent another attack.

They were working together in sync, this was the power of the Forest Drake’s. Individually you could take them out if you take them by surprise, but their synergy in a group was deadly. However, Ryouma wasn’t alone either.

Ryouma was suddenly pushed up as Arata collided with him. Ryouma had changed his trajectory and missed the Energy attack. As the two boys rose, Arata pushed Ryouma away as he went in other direction, both of them dodging another claw attach from another Forest Drake. Ryouma pulled on his bow, creating another arrow, and fired at the Forest Drake that they had just dodged. The Forest Drake roared as it was hit hard in the chest.

The fire arrow wasn’t fully charged, so it didn’t kill the Forest Drake, but it hurt it. Arata kicked off the wall he was flying towards, and charged at the Forest Drake that was just hit. Using his Shadow Awareness, he saw where the impact from the arrow was and was able to aim his trajectory for it. He moved a piece of the Energy he got from Ryouma within him and concentrated it in his fist as he propelled towards the Forest Drake.

The Forest Drake was unable to react as it had just been hit and was recovering from the impact, when Arata had attacked it again, his fist exploding as it hit. The Forest Drake screeched in pain as it was consumed by the explosion. Seeing the explosion, the Forest Drake that was hit on the wing by Ryouma’s arrow roared and sent a breath of Energy in Arata’s direction.

Arata faced the oncoming Energy and took up the Vitality Bestowal stance. As the Energy came into contact with him, he swirled his hands in front of him. The Energy stilled as it seemed to follow his movements. Arata was quickly able to tame the Energy before him. This was the next level of the Vitality Bestowal.

At the Minor Accomplishment level of Mastery, Vitality Bestowal could convert the physical attacks and Energies of an opponent, and then absorb and redirect 20% of the casters capacity back at their opponent. At the Major Accomplishment level of Mastery, the percentage of how much could be absorbed and redirected rose to 40% of the casters capacity, but it also allowed the user to absorb and direct Energy and Elemental Attacks as well. But Arata was at a level even higher than that.

He was currently at the Peak Mastery level, which meant that he could absorb and redirect 80% of his Elemental Reservoir’s capacity, able to absorb physical, Elemental and Energy attacks, but it also allowed him to do something else. It gave Arata the ability to externally tame an Energy or Elemental attack. Which is what he was doing now. He was able to manipulate the Dragon’s Breath attack and tame it externally, applying his authority to it and redirecting it without the need to absorb it.

The beam of Energy seemed to dance around Arata, flowing with him. Arata calmly tamed it before moving his hands up. The Energy flew up toward the ceiling of the nest. Before it clashed with the ceiling, it seemed to hit something invisible. There was a roar as a Forest Drake appeared as it fell from the ceiling.

Arata quickly moved to get out of the way as the Forest Drake landed with a heavy thud where Arata was previously standing. The Forest Drake roared as it struggled to get up. Arata jumped back towards the injured Forest Drake as he charged another piece of Ryouma’s Energy to attack with another explosive fist.

On the other side, Ryouma was still ducking and weaving through attacks, firing arrows at the two Forest Drakes he was fighting. Due to their strength, cooperation and speed, Ryouma wasn’t able to get a clean shot and he surmised that both of these Forest Drake’s were Silver Ranked. This made things difficult to say the least. They both worked well to push Ryouma. They would weave in and out, taking turns attacking close range with their claws and long range with their Dragon’s Breath.

Ryouma managed to get a few hits in, but they weren’t charged attacks so didn’t effect the Forest Drakes enough. Ryouma needed to charge a stronger attack, but when he did, the Forest Drake’s would be on guard and more cautious. Their intelligence and instincts made it hard for Ryouma to progress further in the battle and he was definitely in the weaker position.

He was also observing Arata, he watched as he took out the Forest Drake’s and saw that there was only one left now. Although he could wait for Arata to beat the remaining one before coming to help him take on these two, the fire wall outside would have vanished and the large Forest Drake, along with all the baby Forest Drakes, would escape and get away. They were currently staying put due to the fire wall outside. But if it is gone, they would definitely fly away and escape and the mission would be a failure.

Ryouma needed to take the attention of all three remaining Forest Drake’s so Arata could take on the leader. Ryouma was able to dodge a claw and began to charge a powerful arrow. Both the Forest Drake’s could see this and attacked him to prevent him from firing it while also being cautious so they would be able to dodge it if they did. Ryouma aimed and fired it.

The Forest Drake in front of him dodged it easily, as it was prepared. Ryouma grinned. The large fire arrow moved past the Forest Drake before him and collided with the Forest Drake that was approaching Arata. The fire arrow burst as it connected with the Forest Drake’s head. It screeched in agony, as Arata capitalized on this and charged forth, bringing out the last of the Energy he got from Ryouma and sent an exploding fire fist to finish off the Forest Drake.

The two Forest Drake’s screeched as they realized what had happened. They were about to charge at Arata, when Ryouma sent arrows at them as he manoeuvred his way to stand in their way. He called out to Arata.

“I’ll handle these two, finish the mission, Captain.”

Arata nodded as he made his way over to the leader and the baby Forest Drake’s. The two Forest Drakes tried to stop him, but they were prevented from moving forward by Ryouma, who was know covered in flames. He had brought about flames all over himself. He grinned as he put his bow on his back and charged at the two Forest Drake’s.

The two Forest Drake’s roared as they responded to his attacks. They were slightly hesitant because of the fire covering Ryouma, but they still attacked. The two clashed with Ryouma, Ryouma was hit by a claw attack to his leg, but ignored the pain as he sent a flurry of explosive punches at the two Forest Drakes. The Forest Drakes were taking a lot of damage, but so was Ryouma. They were all taking blows as they continued to fight viciously.

On the other side of the nest, Arata approached the large Forest Drake standing defensively in front of the baby Forest Drakes. Arata looked at the baby Forest Drakes with a pang of guilt and pain. But he shook his head, pushing his emotions aside as he locked eyes with the large Forest Drake before him. The Forest Drake roared loudly at Arata.

Arata felt an oppressive power pushing down on him. It felt like gravity had been tripled. He was being pulled towards the ground. This was a powerful Earth based move known as Gravity Roar. It was a move that caused the Earth to condense and increase the gravity around a certain area. Arata was clearly at the center of this area. He was still able to stand straight, but it was a lot of effort for him to do so. He looked at the Forest Drake with a grim look.

He knew that this was a high leveled move, an extremely powerful one. This confirmed his fears of this powerful Forest Drake. He groaned as he struggled in the powerful, heavy gravity.

“Gold Ranked Forest Drake.”