Chapter 220: Challenging Journey (2)
Earth Mana began to spill out of its body and burrow into the ground beneath us, causing the tunnel to tremble as the bear attempted to do something about us right before it died; hearing the rattling of loose stones dropping against the floor and the groans of various somewhat loose rocks getting closer to being knocked free, we found ourselves in quite the predicament.
Even still the first order of business was to finish off the bear before it could cause any more trouble, and to that effect both Taji and I readied another attack, though unsurprisingly the Hyenakin was far quicker in acting than I was.
Yanking her sword free from the bear’s ribs and sending an arc of blood splashing across the floor and wall beside her, Taji flicked her blade to the side once and murmured something, causing the weapon to crackle before it exploded with electricity.
Flickering once more and appearing in front of the monster, Taji swung her blade upwards and cleaved through the monster’s softer underbelly, opening it up and causing its guts to spill out onto the floor with wet plops.
The bear stumbled backwards and fell back onto its legs, staring at Taji in shock before it tumbled to the ground a moment later, the blood loss and lingering lightning stopping its heart and killing it off rather unceremoniously.
The tunnel was still shaking slightly but the tremors were slowly stopping, and with no clear signs of any more damage it would appear that we were safe again, though one of us was currently in far more danger than the other.
With her back towards me and her mana slowly fading back into her body, Taji glanced over her shoulder and froze as she realized I still had an arrow nocked and aimed, but instead of it being pointed towards the now dead monster it was instead aimed straight at the back of her skull.
Our eyes met and immediately caused time to crawl to a standstill as we stared at one another, stuck in place and waiting for something to happen; I so desperately wanted to release the arrow and kill her here and now, but something in me was holding me back.
Her muddy red eyes were filled with a small amount of genuine fear as she stared past that arrow and at me, though when I took a long, steadying breath and saw her flinch I couldn’t help but chuckle softly as I carefully retrieved my arrow and stashed it back in the quiver.
"You thought I was going to shoot you..?"
With her blade still in her hand Taji seemed... frozen, her eyes locked to mine as she continued to watch me set myself back into a neutral stance as I looked back at her, and it took her a few moments more before she let out a breath of her own.
"There was a part of me that felt like you might."
The typical teasing tone she had was gone, and it filled me with a bit of triumphant joy as I grinned at her and replied "I wanted to. Oh I so badly wanted to...
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