Chapter 67: 66: Natsuki’s… Bear Infestation

On Natsuki’s end, running through the overgrowth, she muttered to herself, “What even is a... bear infestation... like what?”

Transforming into a bird after another branch slapped her in the face, Natsuki glided through the canopy of branches, diving and twirling to get towards the center of the area. 

“I mean... does it just mean like there are a lot of bears...?” Natsuki pondered out loud, looking around for any sign of the supposed infestation, “How hard could it be to find them... they should be like... large bears after all.”

Coming to a stop on a tree branch and transforming back into a human, Natsuki’s eyes widened as she looked down into the large clearing in front of her. 

The moon illuminated the clearing, in which a large horde of bears had built a den, all the trees above the den had been toppled, each in various states from usable as lumber to splinters. Each bear seemed to almost be rabid, drool leaking down from their mouths, causing their overgrown teeth to glisten under the moonlight. 

Looking at the oversized bears, hulking masses of muscles, Natsuki whistled, leaning against the trunk of the tree, “I don’t think those are your average bear... I almost wouldn’t be surprised if one sprouted wings and started trying to fly...”

Not even half a second later, witnessing a larger than large bear lumber out of the forest with an extra pair of limbs, Natsuki could only murmur, “Really... Jinxed myself here...” 

“What’s going on with these bears? There’s got to be something mutating them... maybe that’s why I was assigned. Those science nerds will find something... probably,” Natsuki chuckled, formulating a battle plan in her head while doing a little idle stretching. 

Taking a moment to gather herself, Natsuki ran across the trees that circled the clearing, gathering a little more information before leaping into the air. Now transformed into a bird, Natsuki soared into the air, taking a deep breath before diving towards the gargantuan bears. 

Gaining speed during her dive, faint streams of light trailed behind Natsuki as she chanted a spell on her way down, grinning as she ended her chant with an emphatic shout, “Dragon Transformation!”

Unlike Amelia, who had decided to take a more... delicate approach, though not by much, Natsuki landed onto the ground in the middle of the clearing with a loud crash, sending a large cloud of dust, dirt, rocks, and any poor animals and vegetation in the area flying into the air. 

As the dust cleared, the bears all turned towards the large ‘meteorite’ that landed in the middle of their home, watching as two glowing slits shone through the now-dissipating cloud, piercing like daggers into the bears. 

Casting several body enhancement spells, further raising her own brute strength, Natsuki rushed forward, breathing out streams of fire as she met the bears lumbering towards her self-made crater. 

Devolving into an absolute brawl with no rules, Natsuki utilized her new natural blessings to the best of her abilities, spit-roasting and judo-throwing the bears as they rushed towards her.

Swinging one bear into another before sending a white hot wave of fire towards a third, Natsuki, although enjoying herself, could only silently apologize to the scientists that would later be distraught over the total lack of nature conservation. 

-----------

On the other side of the forest... 

You are reading story Spell Bound at novel35.com

Instead of blazing heat and giant monster martial arts was an eerie silence. 

Sliding down from her perch above, Amelia landed with a light crunch, her boots finding purchase on the new sheet of ice that covered everything in sight. 

Her laugh sounding out, filling the void of silence, Amealia wiped some non-existent sweat off her forehead, “Whew, so much better without those pesky insects. That went better than expected.” 

Raising her hand above her head, she looked at the frozen field once more before clenching her hand into a fist, murmuring under her breath, “Extinguish.”

...

Silence...

A few moments later, the sound of cracking began to fill the area as each insect, encased in ice, began to be pulverized, mashed into an unrecognizable pile of... insect.

Striding forward through the field of ice, Amelia looked around, sighing as she found no insect that could pass for an entity powerful enough to rule this entire section of forest. Waving her hand in light frustration, Amelia let the ice begin to dissipate, little flecks of light beginning to drift into the air as the ice disassembled. 

“Where to... left or right... or forward...” Amelia pondered, running towards the edge of her ice field, “Where could these insect bastards be...”

Running ahead, beyond the edges of her now dissipated ice field, Amelia used a pillar of ice to jump back up to the top of a tree, scouting ahead and looking for nests of insects. Sweeping her eyes across the landscape, she only found empty vegetation. 

With the vegetation blowing in the wind, Amelia flicked ice needles around, her eyebrows scrunching as she tried to lure out any insects. 

After she had flicked an immense amount of needles, having increased the size as she threw more and more, puncturing the vegetation and pocket marking the floor, a rumbling sound began to permeate the air, shaking the floor as leaves were jolted off their branches. 

Bracing herself against the tree, Amelia let out a stream of expletives, regretting her life choices and swearing that she would change her ways in the future, “I swear from now on whenever Natsuki reads out any sort of description, I’ll listen so well I’ll know it better than her by the end of it...”

Mere moments later, the ground was broken open, insects pouring out of it like a cascading waterfall. However, greeted with this sight, Amelia spared no thought for those inconsequential bugs, bugs slightly smaller than those she had killed earlier. Instead, Amelia started, slack-jawed, at the massive subway train sized centipede that towered over her and this section of the forest. Swaying in the air as it looked around for the cause of the disturbance, its mandibles twitching without rest, its legs curled inward towards its sickly yellow covered underbelly.

...

“... I messed up...”