Chapter 38: Time to heal
Joel's arm grew bigger as he used his magic to grow his mass of muscle to increase his strength, growling in anger as he tried punching Marta to death.
The stony shield Marta created with her earth magic was cracked easily even though she had strengthened the shield three times.
The impact of Joel's punch hit the ground, making Hlasked vibrate violently at his strength. The brothers still couldn't believe that Lucian and his team had the nerve to attack them, just because their little mind trick had worked against them last time. Both brothers were determined to pay Soren with death for messing with their minds. Since the ambush Lucian started, both brothers had been looking for a way to get their claw on Soren, but Marta and Luna were being persistent in protecting Soren after noticing that he was the beast's target.
"What's taking you so long?" Luna asked Soren as she cut Atlas by the arm; his arm fell weakly by his side due to the poison. For 2 minutes he won't be able to use his cut arm.
It turned out that the brothers couldn't harden their skin strong enough to break the blade of their opponents when they used their main ability. Their magic had only one main focus; this very weakness was the reason why both brothers wanted to kill their little brother for his ability. With the strong ability to defend themselves against any attack while using their magic, they would be invincible.
"Keep attacking," Soren shouted out to Luna. He was trying to use his system magic against both beasts, but it wasn't working; there was a shield around their minds. "They have protected their minds with mana, but with the amount of magic they are using in this fight, it won't take long for their shield to break down."
'It doesn't matter if they are S-rank beasts,' Soren thought. 'Multitasking must be hard for them. It hasn't been long since they discovered my ability, so even if they found a way to protect their minds against me, as long as they hadn't perfected their skills, I'm going to break through and kill these bastards.'
Joel scoffs, "Arrogant humans, you think that your puny little mind has us completely figured out." His dangerous, animalistic eyes slit over to Soren before moving over towards his brother. He jumped in the air, and Atlas followed; they both traded places with each other. Now Joel is the one facing Luna and Soren with his strength, while Atlas is up against Marta and Lucian with his poison.
Luna let out a shriek as Joel used his strong arm to break her sword. Although her poison had become strong enough to affect beasts like him, but without a weapon, her hidden skills were useless.
Lucian worriedly looks over at Luna and Soren, thinking of what to do.
Atlas escapes Lucian's blade and punches him hard in the gut; he snickers as Lucian's face forms a painful expression. "Don't take your eyes away from me, human." He jumped backwards away from Lucian when he saw heavy sharp rocks raging his way.
Lucian quickly covered Marta's breath when he saw that Atlas was about to release his poisonous breath. Atlas's poison didn't affect him as much as he affected the others; Lucian suspected that it was because of the beast magic he stole.
'We can't fight like this.' Lucian's plans to defeat the brothers were out of order; he didn't have much hope in his plan at first, but after seeing how Luna's healing magic was perfect for fighting against Atlas, he realized she could cast a healing spell as quickly as Atlas could release his poison. Luna may not be much of a fighter, but she was the best healer Lucian knew. With her healing magic and Soren's skills joined together, they were the perfect opponent against Atlas, while Lucian and Marta could both use their strength to weaken Joel until Soren's system magic was able to penetrate his mind.
Lucian summoned another sword, a much bigger sword. He turned to Marta, who was trying hard to act fine, but she was still poisoned. There is no way Lucian could surrender and beg the brothers to spare the life of his teammates. Not when he had led his team too far; besides, if he hadn't forgotten about the beast's weak spot, the Achiloq brothers would have long been dead when Soren's nightmare magic was used on them.
"Go and join Luna and Soren." Lucian said to Marta. The strength that Luna and Soren were missing to fight against Joel could easily be made up for with Marta's assistance.
"No. What about you, Captain? I'm not leaving you alone to fight against this thing." Marta argued, fighting hard to stop herself from confessing her feelings that she didn't care about Soren and Luna's safety; she only cared about Lucian.
'I'm not too weak to face this damn beast. I don't care if it's S rank or not; I'm going to kill it.' Lucian thought angrily and activated his beast magic to harden his arm and increase his strength. The activation of the beast magic caught Joel and Atlas's attention, and they watched with fascination.
"Remember not to kill him." Joel called out to his brother.
"Marta!" Lucian called with a strict tone that lacked every warmth he had ever shown to Marta. "If anything happens to Luna and Soren, I'm going to blame you for it."
Scared by the cold expression on Lucian's face, Marta headed towards Soren and Luna's side.
"Brother! Kill that gir_" Atlas shut his mouth as he used his forearm to defend himself from Lucian's blade. He had underestimated Lucian's strength and assumed that his blade would be no different from other times when he could easily defend against it. Atlas's assumption cost him his forearm that had been deeply cut by Lucian's blade and was now on the verge of falling off.
Atlas had a natural healing ability, but Lucian's movement, which had now become faster, was barely giving him time to heal himself.