Re:Lyra-Starting Life in Another World (Re:Reader-Lyra Edition)

Chapter 29: Beastslayer (Redo)

The sound of panic filled the forest. Crashing through brush, jumping on fallen logs, dodging tree trunks, and ducking under branches, Lyra and Subaru were running. Running for their lives.

During their fight with the mabeasts, Lyra and Subaru had fought together with Ram. While Ram was easily able to lay out beast after beast with her wind magic, Lyra and Subaru struggled to, but ultimately held their own. Only wounding some with his loaned sword, Subaru was assisted mainly by Lyra, who, with a few casts of Jiwald, had slayed several.

However, after slaying many of the unending hordes...

Subaru: Gha! I thought you said you could fight!?

Being held under Subaru's arm, the pink haired older sister maid responded to his complaint.

Ram: Ram fought, didn't she? Only my strength hadn't lasted as long as I'd hoped.

Struggling to keep up with Subaru and Ram now, Lyra began to lag behind.

Using so much of my mana back there might not have been such a good idea. I barely have any strength left to carry myself forward.

Running through the forest, Subaru was close to ten or so paces ahead of Lyra and widening the gap. Looking to her side, a single mabeast had begun a close pursuit of Subaru with Ram still under his arm. One wrong move and the beast would tear into them both.

Raising her arm, Lyra summoned the last shred of mana in herself, sent it to her palm, and fired off the last spell she could muster.

Lyra: Jiwald!

The light from her spell escaped from her open hand, scattering before her and enveloping her target. Letting out a final roar of pain, the mabeast was no more.

They're safe...for now...

Lyra's final clear thought rolled through her mind before she became very weak and fatigued. Trying her hardest to keep running, Lyra's legs eventually swayed too much mid-stride, making her lose her balance and begin to tumble. Seeing a deep-yet-narrow natural trench in the ground ahead of her as she began to stumble, Lyra knew she would need to jump over it in one go to keep the pursuing mabeasts far enough away. Approaching while still running, Lyra readied her footwork, preparing to bend her knees and shoot forward. Getting up to the edge, Lyra attempted to propel herself across. With all her might, she pushed off.

But no jump came.

After her knees and other joints bent to propel herself forward, no launching motion came. Lyra did not have the energy or stamina. Her body would not let her. Without being able to cross over the trench, Lyra's inertia nonetheless continued forward, landing her a one-way trip, downward. Trying to brace her own fall, Lyra held her hands out forward to catch herself, but when the ground came, the same lack of strength her legs experienced was also true for her arms trying to brace her fall. With the sudden impact, Lyra rolled and tumbled into the trench. Sliding downward, Lyra grabbed for whatever she could. She felt his hand grab bark. A branch.

Trying to pull herself up, Lyra quickly realized this branch was not actually attached to anything. Instead the motion of trying to catch herself had worked against her, causing her to fall to the bottom of the trench, the branch she pulled covering her.

Now motionless at the bottom of the trench on her back, Lyra spat the dirt out from her mouth. Realizing the situation still at hand, she had fully expected that a few mabeasts had followed her down into the trench. Readying mana in her hands, she prepared to fight for her life. Yet, as the branches still laid over the top of her, peering through the detached brush that covered her, not a single mabeast seemed to notice.