Gazing into the Night

Denatro Forest

Previously Yu had been sent running with a tail between his leg, his snake's tail, but an abject defeat he suffered nonetheless, and now he was back, mind set on payback

"Hmm I'm far enough from the roads, this should be a good place to start"

He once again strung those unintelligible words together summoning forth the familiar hexagram from which emerged his companion

"Wuu" "It's been a while friend"

Yu pats the wolf with a warm smile, one could not forget that it was the wolf that had taken the bite for him that time, even though it could have been because it knew it wouldn't die from it, or that it knew it would die if he was killed, but Yu could tell that wasn't the only reason, the wolf's eyes portrayed an honest desire to protect him, just as he didn't want I to be hurt, their adventures on deaths edge together had brought them closer

"Wuu Wuuu" "Ahaha sorry, this place is very weird, I haven't seen anyone with a beast so I was afraid to summon you" "Wuuu" "How about we have some food and then proceed to kill those pesky bees?"

The wolf shook its head and started walking in front of him, Yu smiled at the wolfs excitement and followed behind, he could partially understand the wolf since it was his Guardian, the Guardians and the Grimoire holders share emotions, and Yu could feel some blame from the wolf probably because it felt bored alone in wherever they go when they enter the Grimoire

Bizzz

"! Here comes the first one, lure it away first, we only want one first"

The wolf nodded and ran with Yu to the periphery of the forest, soon the bee started to slow down, this was evidently as far as it was willing to go, it turned back after scaring the danger

Thunk!

A rock suddenly hit its head, it didn't hurt but the bee was angered by the sudden attack, turning to see the perpetrator waving at it, it burst toward him, such a small creature, even if it stung it its stinger wouldn't dislodge and it wouldn't die

"Okay, show me how you fair against it"

"Awuuuuuu!"

The wolf wailed to the sky and then burst with unprecedented speed toward the bee, who in turn deaccelerated and tried to maneuver around the wolf instead of meeting it in a head on collision

The wolf saw the bee pulling back its stinger as it rotated so it leaped mid run, avoiding the thrust of the bee, using the front paws for landing it pivoted it back feet to the side successfully managing to turn back around to the bee before it managed to adjust its position then it used its now grounded back feet to push itself off the ground and make another leap onto the back of the bee, ending the exchange with a large crunchy bite

"Wow that was aw-" "Pu Pu Pu" Yu wanted to complement the wolf for its smart and fluid battle execution but it interrupted him by spitting, seems like those bees weren't very tasty

The wolf looked at Yu begrudgingly, as if to say, why didn't you tell me they taste like crap, but he only smiled wryly and moved to the now dead bee, it's not like he ate bees before how could he tell it before hand

"Hmm this is the soft spot that old granny was talking about, two centimeters above the area where the stinger and the body meet, if I cut right into it I should see the stingers shall… Oh here it is, okay now I need to piece it quickly with a small needle like so, okay now I'm supposed to put that huge hollowed needle inside and the poison would come out of the sack just fine…. Nothings coming out, seems like I failed, hmm I'll try from another angle"

Yu mumbled to himself as he tried to extract the poison, seeing him so focused the wolf decided to lure in a few more bees to kill, it had an urge to kill anything since yesterday night, it didn't know where it came from, but it really wanted to kill as much as she could right now, thus she went ahead into the depths of the forest leaving Yu sticking needles into the lower back of the bee…for educational purposes…

It didn't take long for the wolf to find a bee, this one two friends though, but this excited the wolf more, after all one bee could never pose a challenge

The bees who spotted the wolf back didn't waste time and flew toward it, well glided since they can't really fly with those heavy bodies and small wings

The wolf didn't run toward them this time, instead it crouched down and put strength into its back feet again, once the first bee was within a stingers reach it suddenly propelled its feet upward while its front feet were still grounded and it used those to spin its legs to the front, then it used the side of the approaching stinger as a spring board which sent it the bee catering toward its partner while the wolf spun to the opposite side with the help of the kick putting it at the side of the third bee, which it took a bite of much to its own dismay, it really didn't want to eat this bug, but it swallowed its discontent, and the bite, and turned back toward the two now enraged bees

The two bees didn't expect the cunning wolf would use them to jump about they had been preparing to attack it from three sides and so they had sped up to encircle it, but now they would approach it slowly so they can maneuver away if it did something like that again

Seeing the bees slow down the wolf smirked, it picked the dead body by the head and ran toward the them, it then whipped the dead bees body toward the first, with the extended reach of the body added to the stinger it managed to pierce through the stunned bee and the wolf let go, but the momentum carried the two bodies to crash with the third, the wolfs took a moment to readjust itself and bounded toward the last one finish off the faltering bee with a large crunch

"Awuuuuuu!"

Wailing to the sky the wolfs takes a movement to look at its flawless victory, bringing down three enemies within the same rank was not something any Soul Beast could do, even though they were probably low on the star end these bees would still pose danger to other first star beasts, as the star rating didn't make too much of a difference within the Bronze Rank

It started dragging the dead bodies one by on back to Yu, who was already done fundling about with his first try, having extracted most of the poison within a few minutes

Seeing three dead bodies in front of him Yu gives the wolf thumbs up, then starts practicing once again, this time the wolf doesn't leave though as it waited for the bees to follow the pheromones back to these bodies

And the bees surely didn't disappoint for only a few minutes later a bee could be seen coming toward them with clear aggression

"Only one? Hmm we are probably far from the hive right now then, why don't you go hunt once you finish this one, don't worry about me I can handle a few on my own"

The wolf gazed at Yu for several long seconds, enough for the approaching bee to get alarmingly close, before nodding its head and making a sudden flex as it swiftly ripped off the bee's head, spat it, and made its way deeper into the forest

'Alright, I shouldn't dally too far behind'

Yu nodded to himself and continued his work, he would keep working on each bee as swiftly as he could while he learned as much as he could before moving on to the next, once he ran out of bees he would follow the wolf into the forest and work on the bodies in the was

BIZZ

"Hmm? Seems like I got company"

Seeing the bee approaching Yu pushes down his rising panic, he lifts his small crossbow, loads an arrow he just dipped with poison, and takes aim

Wiiin Thunk!

"That should do it"

Yu smiles to himself, although it lacked any of the cool sophisticated parts of the wolf's battle style this was the way he liked it, quick and efficient

BIZZ

"Hmm?"

The bee was getting dangerously close, in a few seconds he had to activate the shield for sure

'It will fall soon there is no need to panic'

Closer, it got closer

'It will fall, it will fall, c'mon fall'

It was within arm's reach now, pulling its stinger back to strike

"Shit! I didn't ask granny how much time"

Cursed Yu as the shield enveloped him, causing the stinger to stop dead in its tracks, while the bee felt like it was ripped apart from the recoil

"Tch, the wolf is coming, hmm the wolf? Hmm"

The bee, while in pain, didn't quite and tried to attack the shield continuously, it was a bug in the end, one belonging to the Bronze Rank, thus part from the minimal intelligence, or instincts, for its job and battle it had no form of thought whatsoever, crazily bashing itself to death while, the movement also caused the poison to spread faster, causing it to die a minute and a half later, seconds before the wolf arrived

Seeing the dead bee, the wolf looks at Yu questioningly, to which he responds with a snort

"Did you think I can deal with them forever? I can only defend myself so much, from now on stay with me until I can take the poison out fast enough, then we will move on to the main event"

The wolf replied to his comment with a snort of its own, as if saying 'You can't deal with these bugs alone' causing no small amount of redness to seep into Yu's face as he embarrassingly recalled his words just now about being able to take care of himself

They continued on none the less, killing bees left and right, with their trajectory being half a circle as they closed in on the hives estimated location without leaving any bee at their back

By sundown, when all the bees had retreated to the hives location, Yu had already mastered the action fast enough to be able to get the poison out in just ten to fifteen seconds, though he had enough poison that he might not need any more, he had placed them in the many jars he bought on his way here

"Let's wait a bit, once were are sure no bee is coming close I will unsummon you and summon the spider, once the traps set we will take immediate action at dawn, when they still haven't gotten too far from the hive, that way we can get as many as we can in one fell swoop"

The wolf nodded as it approached Yu, it laid down next to him and closed its eyes

Yu smiled and sat down leaning on the wolf while he gazed at the starry night sky, it was his first time paying attention to the sky of this world and he noted it was far more beautiful than anything he had ever seen

"Humm, I could live happily if I could see this sky every night"

Quietly he hummed, gazing at the lovely sky, with the night breeze blowing the sweet scent of the forest, ruffling the wolf's smooth fur, and taking away all the worry off Yu's thoughts leaving him with only pleasant feelings to remember

'The wolf… she needs a name'

He continued to ponder through the night, not many names came to mind, the one he was naming was his companion, his partner for life, her name had to be something that defined his feelings for the ever-present wolf

"I hope, for you to be present with me, for whenever we could see the night sky, trace the stars that light up the world's darkness, while the night's breeze plays within our ears. Your name, Lyra Lilith, will be"

A faint breath tickled his face, Lyra's eyes were now gazing into his, a calm sea of emotion present within, expressing willingness, eagerness, calmness, and most of all, delight