Ever After
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear! Three
Back in the capital...
"Cliff?" Yuna blinked at she looked at the worried Ellelaura, Noa and Shia.
"There's reports of a LOT of monsters along the main route," Shia admitted, the sporty young woman adding, "I think Father is coming that road, too."
"How about I go get him?" Yuna offered, the bear suited adventurer smiling wryly.
"Please," Ellelaura said, the gorgeous noblewoman looking relieved.
"Be careful, though," Noa asked.
Fina nodded, "Yes, be careful Yuna."
"Don't worry," Yuna waved it off as she mounted one of her bears and set off, "it's probably just a couple of monsters."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"There's at LEAST two thousand monsters converging on us," Quill declared, scanning the area with her device.
"TWO THOUSAND?!" Marina yelped, the leader of the adventurers paling.
"... we're dead," Elle said, the mage holding her staff.
Masrika groaned, "Fuck. Can we run?"
Quill shook her head, "They've encircled us."
Iria paled, "Shit. Okay, maybe we can break the clients out at least..."
Lady Misana and her Granfather were watching from the carriage, the olb man visibly pale. The little girl looked more excited than anything, but she was still young enough to feelk she and the heroes were all immortal.
Marina saw the monsters coming as she grimly asked, "Miss Hazuki, Lilith, Quill. Can we rely on your help?"
"Of course," Hazuki said, glowing sword in hand.
"Yes," Quill nodded.
Lilith groaned loudly. "If Hazuki is staying, I guess I have to."
"Good enough," Marina agreed, "Miss Quill, can you use your shields to force the monsters to come at us from just one direction?"
"Got it," Quill used her device to protect the carriage, then shielded their sides so the monsters cam in one direction.
"Iria, get your bow out. Elle, Lilith, can you throw spells into the mob?" Marina asked.
Lilith pushed up her sleeves, smiling evilly, "Sounds fun."
Iria was readying her bow as Elle nodded, "Will do."
Hazuki and Masrika stepped up beside Marina as the monsters charged them. "And we just fight?" Hazuki asked.
"Exactly," Marina agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ghoulzam, former Court Mage and now evil Sorcerer, had spent the last decade learning forbidden magics and building a monster army to avenge himself on the King.
(Magic that, now, was eating him from the inside out. He had days, at best.)
But THAT didn't matter! He would have his REVENGE!
But still, he could feel impressed by what he was watching.
A group of adventurers were unlucky enough to be in the path of his army. They had realized they were surrounded, but refused to give into despair. Instead, they were fighting off his ogres, wolves and goblins valiantly.
'How is that mage keeping that magical barrier up?' Ghoulzam thought, admiringly. You usually needed an artifact to do that.
And WHO was the blonde mage?! She felt wierdly powerful, and he couldn't help noticing her bosom filling out her strange clothes. He was a man, after all. And she looked wierdly familiar.
The orc, goblin and wolf corpses were starting to pile up, and he frowned. 'How are three swordswomen killing THAT many of my monsters?!' he wondered.
The two seemed average, more or less. Each seemed able to handle a wolf or goblin alone, and they were fighting efficiently, trying to save their strength. The other, though... like the blond mage and the barrier master, she was dressed strangely. In her hand a sword blazed unearthly green, and she was cutting down eight foot tall orcs with a simple strike.
'HOW..,' Ghoulzam blinked. Only an extremely high level Adventurer with a mythril sword should have been able to do that. And the girl looked, at BEST, late teens.
The orcs were piling up, and there was a certain amount of distraction with the monsters eating each other and having problems with the corpses. Shockingly the group was holding them off, but he was SURE they could overwhelm them.
'Wait, WHAT?' Ghoulzam started as a BEAR charged in.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Ugh," Hazuki grunted as she cut another orc down.
It felt like they had been fighting hours, but it hadn't been THAT long. But Hazuki had never fought this long before, and she could actually feel herself getting tired.
The power she had (Eve's? Who knew?) had strengthened her, as well as granting her almost instant sword skills, but it wasn't limitless. Plus, it didn't seem to impact on her endurance all that much. She could feel herself starting to slow down, gradually.
"Rawr!" a orc got close enough to rake her arm with a clawed hand, and Hazuki cursed.
"HAZUKI!" Lilith yelped angrily.
"I've got it," Marina lunged, stabbing the orc in the chest.
Hazuki ripped some cloth from her skirt and hurriedly bound the wound. The adventurers had already run out of healing potions.
"I can't heal you AND hold the barrier," Quill apologized as orce surrounded them, hammering on her shield.
"I'm okay," Hazuki lied, stepping back in position as MORE orcs advanced.
"It's been nice meeting you," Masrika said with a sigh, equally exhausted.
"We STILL have a chance," Marina scolded her comrade.
Then off in the distance, they heard a loud roar, different from what they were already fighting.
"Another type of monster?" Hazuki groaned, looking around.
"Actually it sounds like a bear," Masrika admitted.
"Huh?' Hazuki looked at her.
"We got chased by a bear once, when we were rookies," Marina admitted.
Before they could add to that, the group saw THREE bears charge the monster horde from behind and begin to tear into them.
"What," Masrika blinked.
"How..?" Hazuki echoed.
"NEVER MIND! We've got them in a pincer now!" Marina barked.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Yuna and her two bear summons ripped into the monsters even as she took in the PILES of monster corpses.
'That's really impressive for normal adventurers,' Yuna mused as she fired wind blades into the orcs and her bears kept the goblins and wolves off her. Mind you, the one DID have a glowing sword, so she wasn't that normal, but STILL.
"Wait, is that a Japanese school uniform?" Yuna muttered aloud.
"HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING?! A angry male voice demanded.
The man emerged from the now heavily reduced monsters, dressed in a battered robe and, interestingly, only having one arm. He also looked REMARKABLY ill, too.
"My revenge, ruined by these fool adventurers and a girl in a bear costume?" he ranted.
Yuna drawled, "Well excuse me..."
"YOU..." the tattered man growled. "WORM! Kill them all!" he yelled as a absolutely HUGE giant worm reared up behind him.
"We're SO dead," one of the adventurers groaned loudly.
Yuna gestured with her bear gloves, "FIRE BEAR!"
Super concentrated fireballs in the form of bears formed around her, then flew right into the worm's mouth, frying the creature from within. "Wha." the adventures stared, stunned.
"WHAT," the raggedy villain echoed.
"BEAR PUNCH!" Yuna charged in and punched him out while he was distracted. Yuna quickly tied him up, then she and the adventurers mopped up the remaining monsters.
"Are those bear pajamas?" the Japanese schoolgirl clearly recognized them.
"Yup," Yuna agreed. "Japan?" she asked.
"You too?" the girl nodded. "Hazuki Azuma," she introduced herself.
"Yuna..." she paused, "long story."
Just then Cliff rode up, he and his guards looking confused. "Yuna?" he blinked.
"Cliff," Yuna said, "glad you're safe."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
At almost the same time a mute, blond cook paused. It was her birthday, and she was turning sixteen.
'You nearly caught up to me,' Eve mused as she took her apron off and left the food stand.
"Hey, Milly!" the old man running the place called.
'But not quite,' Eve thought as she was engulfed in green light and disappeared.
To be continued...
