<h4>Chapter 138 Damian''s Sacrifice, Part-1. </h4>


    *Roooooooaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr*


    The monstrous roar of a giant bear resounded throughout the fog. A distant silhouette could be seen standing in the sea of fog. (The fog is densely umted on the ground, but the rest of the sky is not that foggy. Due to this, the silhouette of the bear can still be vaguely seen.)


    The bear''s red eyes shined like a predator''s eyes.


    After roaring, the bear rushed towards the trio''s direction with astonishing speed. With each of its steps, the ground rumbled and the winds howled.


    A tense look appeared on Damian''s face.


    "C-could it be… that bear can sense the location of this orb!?" (Damian)


    At Damian''s panicked question, Lia replied:


    "It''s possible… perhaps, it didn''t pursue you earlier because you put that orb in your space ring right after stealing it… but now that you brought the orb out, it must have sensed the location of the orb…" (Lia)


    While specting about the reason for the bear''s anger, Lia unsheathed her sword and pushed Riya behind her.


    [Hmm, it''s indeed an S-rank monster, kiddo… but with its current condition… you can say its strength might be at pseudo-S-rank….]


    Kai could use his mana detection even in this chaotic mana, thus he knew beforehand what that bear looked like.


    [Half of its body is already rotten, it''s in its near-death state right now....]


    [Moreover, due to excessive damage to its body, its defense is also very low…]


    As the bear got closer, Lia could finally see its true appearance properly.


    One of its front paws was hanging with just a little bit of skin, and there were several big wounds on its body. (The bear is in the same condition as the corpses Rio saw, its body is being destroyed from the inside out by chaotic mana…)


    ''I should do some long-range attacks first and check out its defensive capability first…'' (Lia)


    [Divine Spirit''s blessing: Shards of purification!]


    Several silver-colored swords appeared beside Lia. Lia pointed her swords towards the bear andunched her attack.


    The silver swords rushed towards the bear at an insane speed and directly collided with the bear head-on. (For reference, the speed of these silver swords was faster than the speed of modern-day jets on Earth…)


    Several of the silver swords collided with the bear, but the bear didn''t even flinch a little bit; the silver swords copsed into nothingness after hitting the bear, but it didn''t do any damage at all.


    Seeing this, a frown appeared on Lia''s face.


    "Like I already said, little girl, that thing is an S-ranked beast! Even if it''s in a near-death state, we can''t fight it on equal grounds…" (Damian)


    "Earlier, I was lucky enough to run away uninjured, but it still cost me an S-rank artifact to survive…" (Damian)


    Damian nced at the rushing bear with a panicked look on his face, and he gulped his saliva in fear. He already wanted to run away, but since he couldn''t just leave the two girls behind, he wanted to convince them to run with him.


    (Damian saw the image of his daughters in Riya and thus he didn''t want to abandon them and run away…)


    Damian looked at the two girls and said with a worried expression on his face:


    "Believe me, kiddo, we can still run away and maintain our distance! There''s no point in fighting that insanely strong monster!" (Damian)


    Damian tried his best to convince Lia and Riya to run, but Lia didn''t even move a single inch from her spot, and since Riya trusted Lia a lot, she didn''t run either.


    This made Damian''s face twist in worry; he stared at the giant bear rushing towards them with a worried look.


    As the bear came closer and closer, Damian''s legs started to shake in fear, and his mind screamed at him to run, but his body didn''t want to move. For mysterious reasons, his body refused to abandon these girls and run on his own.


    If it were the usual Damian, he would have run away long ago in this situation, but the presence of these two little girls made him stop in his tracks. He couldn''t muster the courage to leave.


    While Damian was facing a great dilemma, Lia continued to stare at the bear with narrow eyes.


    ''Hmm, if not even spirit magic is working on it, does it mean its defense is too high… Hey, Kai, you said its defense was weak, is this what you call weak?'' (Lia)


    [Cough! I seem to have made a mistake, Ipared it to the defense of that little guy Link…pared to Link, its defense is indeed weak… cough!]


    Hearing Kai''s answer, a strange look appeared on Lia''s face.


    ''Why are you even taking that ridiculous guy as yourparison factor!? Even Rio couldn''t slice that guy; it''s idiotic topare others with Link…'' (Lia)


    [Cough! My mistake… cough!]


    Due to seeing Link tank the insanely strong hits of Rio''s sword intent, Kai''sparison methods have be imbnced recently. Compared to the defensive capabilities of Link, everyone else feels weak and fragile to him.


    Lia stared at the bear and fell into contemtion:


    ''Should I just summon Kai''s true form, or should I save it for now…'' (Lia)


    Summoning Kai''s true form causes Lia to use nearly all of her mana, which is very fatal in a prolonged battle, due to which Lia keeps this move as her trump card and rarely ever use it.


    When summoned in its true form, Kai''sbat capabilities are simr to an S-ranker, which is why Lia doesn''t want to summon him right now.


    ''It''s like using a cannon to kill a mosquito… I would rather save this for the final boss fight of this dungeon…'' (Lia)


    Lia shook her head and denied her thinking.


    ''No, I need to protect others right now, I can''t fight reservedly… I need to settle it in one go…'' (Lia)


    ''Kai, get ready to transform-'' (Lia)


    [Wait… I sense a familiar aura approaching us…]


    …


    After a few seconds of tense wait, the bear finally reached the trio. It looked at Damian with bloodthirsty eyes.


    Just when the bear was about to attack the trio with its giant paws, a silhouette of a dragon appeared in the sky, and a boy with dark red hair jumped down from the back of the dragon.


    Link adjusted his direction in mid-air, and a grin appeared on his handsome face. His dark red hair waved like a lion''s mane, and his aura felt extremely strong and calm.


    [Dragon Arts: Heavens Befall!]


    Before the bear could even turn its head, Link''s punchnded on the bear''s back with a loud bang.


    Link directly pierced through the bear''s stomach andnded on the ground safely. A huge crater formed under his feet due to the impact.


    Link got up from the hero pose with a wide grin on his face. (The one heroes do whilending from the sky in the movies…)


    As Link got up from the ground, the bear''s body slowly fell behind him, creating a loud thud sound.


    With one attack, Link had sted through the bear''s whole movies…)


    As Link got up from the ground, the bear''s body slowly fell body. The bear died instantly as all its internal organs were sted into smithereens by Link''s attack.


    Link opened his arms wide and smiled at Riya.


    "Dear, I am back!" (Link)


    Seeing the flirtatious look on Link''s face, Riya blushed a little and dodged Link''s eyes, but still went ahead with a sweet smile and threw herself into his arms.


    "W-wee back!" (Riya)


    Seeing the two flirting like a newlywed couple, Lia had a weird look on her face. She nced at the dead bear and Link''s unharmed hands repeatedly, and this made her face twitch from time to time.


    ''Rio was right, this guy is a muscle head...'' (Lia)


    …


    While Damian was still shocked beyond belief at Link''s heroic entry, Kai had a confused look instead.


    Kai raised his head and stared at the sky; he became a bit confused.


    ''How were they able to track us? They directly rushed towards us without even any worry of misdirection… wait!-'' (Kai)


    Kai suddenly had an epiphany; he hurriedly nced behind and noticed the ring on the finger of Riya shining slightly.


    ''They are using S-rank items as engagement rings!? Th-


    this!'' (Kai)


    Kai was so surprised that he nearly fell off Lia''s shoulder.


    This was the first time he saw someone use S-rank artifacts so brazenly. Using S-rank detection artifacts as mere engagement rings, only rich people like Link and Riya could do such overbearing things.


    ''Does that mean they will give SS-rank artifacts to each other as wedding gifts!?'' (Kai)


    (What Kai didn''t know was that S-ranked artifacts are like random toys for these rich kids; they have many such artifacts at their home… No matter the world, money is still a very important thing…)


    While Kai was bewildered at this situation, Lia frowned at Kai''s strange behavior of jumping around like an idiot.


    ''C-could it be my spirit beast is defective!?'' (Lia)


    At this moment, everyone had forgotten about the existence of the giant bear and the baffled Damian. The bear who was roaring at the top of its lungs just a few minutes ago nowy dead under Link''s one attack. How ironic…


    …


    …


    Author''s Notes.


    Yo! Your beloved Author is here! Some sweet time for our Candy girl, let''s go!!


    Question of the day.


    Have you hugged your crush before?


    1. Yes (Hmph! sphemy!)


    2. No (Hug? What is that? Is that a new video game?)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.