Leon turned back in confusion toward Mako who was supporting himself against the frame of the shelter's door.
"What do you mean? Aren't there a few minutes still left?" Leon asked.
"No, I can sense a different aura approaching Erin, they're here!" Mako replied in urgency as he quickly read over the description of the Frost Cobra that was quickly making its way toward Erin.
"Aura? What do you mean, you can sense aura?" Leon asked now really confused as to what was happening.
"Look, we don't have time for me to explain. I can sense auras and other things about beasts. Right now, we need to make sure that Erin is safe. Listen to me very carefully..." Mako said as he began instructing Leon about what to do.
**************
"Just like he said, it has the ability to make you go temporarily deaf which is why you weren't able to hear it approaching you," Leon said as he stood in front of a very shaken Erin.
Erin had a deep fear of snakes and reptiles in general. Something about just the way they looked and how they behaved rooted a deep fear in her heart from a very young age. During the training that she received from the sponsor, there was a whole lesson about how to suppress your fear, and that temporarily did the trick.
However, now that she came face to face with a giant snake's open mouth that was inches away from biting her face, that locked-away fear started to emerge again and with great fervor. It was making her go into mild traumatic shock as she could understand anything around her anymore and was becoming dizzy.
Leon looked back and saw that Erin was not doing well and considering that he couldn't afford to check up on her as the Frost Cobras would use that opportunity to attack them both, Leon decided to grab Erin by her hand and pull her farther away from the forest using his speed ability so that they would be out of the range of the Frost Cobras' surprise attacks and could fight in a more even plane.
'He said that there were around 20 to 25 in that area with the possibility of there being more than he could sense. If we stay in the middle of the clearing, they would have to come to us and then we can deal with them as they come, but first...' Leon thought as he formulated a simple plan, but for this plan to work, he needed Erin active again.
Erin was still covering her head with her hands as she was shaking uncontrollably. Leon tried shaking her to make her snap back to reality but it just didn't work as she continued to remain frightened and kept mumbling random phrases.
Seeing as there was no option left, Leon moved Erin a bit further back until they reached the lake. Leon tried one last time to try and get Erin back to her senses but with no luck, he had no other option left and grabbed Erin gently and threw her into the cold lake.
*Splash!*
The water did its trick as a second later, Erin quickly emerged from the surface of the lake, gasping for air. She had no idea how she was suddenly teleported from standing near the forest to now floating in the lake.
She looked over to the bank and saw Leon standing there with a small smile that he tried his best to hide, but couldn't.
"You bastard! Do you think it's funny to throw a girl into the water without her consent? What was that smile for?! Why are you even out here?! Weren't you so scared from the next wave that you were going to piss your pants?!" Erin shouted and taunted Leon as she quickly made her way out of the lake and used her water ability to quickly try her off.
However, this time, Leon wasn't affected by Erin's comments as he just stood there with a straight face as he observed Erin getting out of the water and walking towards him while mocking him for being a coward.
He quietly watched as Erin approached him, and once she was close enough, he said," Maybe I was, but weren't you also going to piss your pants off after I just saved you from that beast snake that almost bit your face?"
Erin was left completely speechless as those words made the memories of the last few minutes flow back inside Erin and now she completely remembered what had happened before she went into shock.
As Erin stood there in silence remembering how Leon helped her nearly avoid death, Leon began explaining the situation.
"When we came out of the shelter to prepare for the next horde, Mako could somehow sense about 20 to 25 High-level beasts that were quickly closing in on your position as you were attacking the tree." Leon began to explain.
"I asked about how he could sense them to which he said that he would explain it later and that for now, I had to focus on making sure you were safe because he saw that you weren't moving or reacting even though the beast was already so close to you making him believe that the beast had some sort of sensory ability making you unable to detect it approaching." Leon continued.
"Mako said that he had two theories in mind but it was most probable that the beast had the sound ability and was making you deaf so that it could sneak up on you which turned out to be true," Leon added.
Erin was shocked to learn how accurate Mako was and was now quite intrigued to know more about his sensing ability.
"Did he say anything else before you came running to... save me?" Erin asked in a slightly embarrassed tone, now knowing that she was sailing in the same boat as Leon.
"Yeah, he did," Leon replied in a teasing manner but didn't push too hard on it as they were still in a serious situation and didn't want Erin to get mad again and knock his lights out.
"He told me that he could see the general size of the beast based on how the aura was spread out through its body and that it was most probably a snake with its dominant aura being quite similar to yours which would mean that the snakes also possess the ice ability," Leon said.
Just as said that they heard a crunching sound coming from the shadows in the direction from where they ran and then a second later several sharp icicles could be seen flying toward Erin and Leon.
Time began to slow down a bit as Leon used his speed ability and was able to react just in time to place his hands on the ground and raise a thin earth wall to intercept and block the incoming projectiles.
The projectiles were stronger than what Leon had anticipated and they managed to penetrate the earth wall, but were still stopped halfway through.
Time began to flow normally again as Erin and Leon both took cover behind the earth wall, which Leon began to thicken by adding more layers to the wall.
Many more projectiles started to bombard the earth wall and were slowly chipping away at it faster than Leon could repair it.
"Well, I guess he was right about that part too. What are we going to do? If they have the ice ability too, then that means, my strongest ability and skill are useless against them. We are at a total disadvantage here, plus we can barely see anything, there is no moonlight and we are too far away from the fire torches near the shelter." Erin said.
The group had set up several torches around the shelter which Mako lit up so that they would have some visibility and could actually fight, but there weren't many torches on the east side of the shelter making it very hard to see anything.
It was at this time that Leon finally smiled as he knew it was his time to shine and redeem himself.
"We are totally not out of luck yet as Mako gave me a little gift before we came out of the shelter," Leon said to Erin with a smile.
Before Erin could react or say anything, she was left dumbfounded after Leon's hand lit on fire right in front of her.
"You... you... you have the fire ability too! You have four abilities!" Iris shouted out of shock as she couldn't comprehend Leon's mental capacity.
In the world they had lived in, it was quite a rare feat for a person to have three abilities and use them all effectively in battle. Resonance was a completely unheard of thing for the general public so there was no easy way for a person to gain a third ability, but for some reason, Leon had access to four abilities.
Speed, Hardening, Earth, and Fire.
'Wait! Why did he never display his fire ability before? And why did he mean by a gift from Mako? Did he transfer his ability to Leon?! No way, that's possible! Right...?' Erin thought as she saw Leon throw bursts of flames over the walls randomly.
After throwing around 30 or so flames balls over the wall, the ice projectiles finally stopped hitting the wall and the area became quiet once again.
"Come on, Mako told me that my fire would be the key to defeating this wave! Let's kill all those snake beasts quickly!" Leon said as he looked over to Erin with determination while starting to lower the earth wall.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l