Free Web NovelChapter 15: Dying?! Let’s Mate First (2)
Maeve instantly stopped screaming the moment she heard something break.
For one horrible second, she thought the giant bird had crushed Ikarus alive. But when she finally forced herself to open her eyes, the scene in front of her completely shocked her.
Ikarus had caught the giant bird’s beak with one hand.
One freaking hand!
The massive beast struggled violently, flapping its wings wildly as it desperately tried to pull away, but Ikarus didn’t move even a little. It was like the creature wasn’t strong enough to make him budge at all.
"If we survive today, will you mate with me?" Ikarus asked calmly, still wearing the same stoic expression as always.
Maeve stared at him in disbelief. This man was seriously asking that right now?!
"W-Well, yes—wait, no... maybe?!" she answered in complete panic.
"So it’s a yes?" Ikarus asked calmly.
When Maeve saw the giant bird almost managing to loosen itself from Ikarus’s grip, she immediately screamed, "CAN YOU KILL IT FIRST?!"
"I can."
CRACK!
Before Maeve could even react, Ikarus suddenly tightened his grip. A horrifying sound echoed through the open field as the giant creature’s beak shattered apart.
QUAAACKK!
The bird let out a painful screech, its massive wings flapping wildly and creating strong gusts of wind around them, but Ikarus didn’t stop there.
With frightening calmness, he grabbed the beast by its broken beak and slammed the enormous body straight into the ground.
BOOM!
The ground trembled violently beneath Maeve’s feet.
Dust exploded into the air while the giant Quetzalcoatlus struggled for a few final seconds before its body slowly went limp.
"Now that I’ve killed it, shall we mate now?" Ikarus asked once again, as calm as ever.
At that moment, Maeve finally realized something. Even though this man always looked calm and emotionless, he was actually unbelievably impatient!
She took a deep breath, trying her best to calm her racing heart.
"If I agree—"
QUACKK!
That fucking quack again! Why did those beasts always appear whenever she was about to say something important?!
"Is its friend following us here?!" Maeve asked in panic.
"Mhm." Ikarus nodded calmly. "The long-beak birds are very vengeful creatures. Once they see one of their kind die, they’ll continue chasing the killer even to the ends of the world."
Maeve hissed softly. "Then what are we supposed to do?!"
"Nothing," Ikarus answered casually.
At that moment, Maeve truly wanted to dissect his brain just to figure out how someone could stay this calm all the time.
"Ikarus! I’m serious!" Maeve smacked his arm several times. "What if that dead bird has hundreds of friends?! We could literally get chased to death!"
"They’re already everywhere. I’ve gotten used to them," he replied.
"Well, I haven’t!" Maeve shouted in annoyance.
The moment she said that, several more long-beak birds—maybe three, maybe five—suddenly appeared in the sky. They circled directly above them, clearly waiting for the perfect chance to rip both Maeve and Ikarus apart.
Maeve had been trained to handle dangerous situations because of her work, but fighting monsters and aliens had definitely never been included in her training!
"Ikarus! Ikarus! They’re coming!" Maeve cried out in panic.
She even grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away so they could run, but he remained standing there quietly, completely unmoved.
"Stay back a little," Ikarus said as he gently pushed Maeve behind him. "Don’t worry. Even though they’re vengeful, they also know when to stop chasing something."
At first, Maeve had no idea what he meant.
But the moment Ikarus started fighting those birds, she finally understood that those creatures might be aggressive, but they still knew when they were facing something far more dangerous than themselves, and right now... that dangerous thing was clearly Ikarus.
He even fought them using nothing but his bare hands.
Every time one of the long-beak birds tried to peck him, he would instantly grab its beak. And whenever they tried to slash him with their huge claws, he would violently yank their legs until they snapped apart.
Maeve could only watch silently. Her heart started beating faster, and surprisingly, it wasn’t because she was scared.
When Ikarus fought with that calm expression on his face, he somehow looked... ridiculously hot. Hot enough to make Maeve briefly think that maybe mating with him right now wouldn’t actually be a bad idea.
But her thoughts instantly shattered when she saw one of the birds manage to slash Ikarus across the stomach, leaving behind a deep wound. A golden liquid flowed from the injury, making Maeve freeze in shock.
Damn it, forget about the gold blood! That wound looked seriously painful!
But even while injured, Ikarus still looked completely calm, like nothing had happened at all.
"Are his pain nerves broken or something?!" Maeve shouted out loud, not even bothering to keep the thought inside her head anymore.
[He’s simply used to fighting, Host,] Pinky explained. [In this world, if they stop fighting, they’ll eventually starve and die.]
The more Maeve learned about the people of the Azuryn Tribe, the more sympathy she felt for them. At this point, she honestly didn’t even care anymore that they were blue. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Meanwhile, Ikarus had finally killed the last long-beak bird. His body was covered in cuts and bruises, and the wound across his stomach still looked especially terrible.
"A-Are you even okay?!" Maeve quickly ran toward him, hissing softly the moment she realized the injury looked far worse up close.
"Dang it, that looks horrible!" She nervously bit her thumb while looking back and forth between Ikarus and the deep wound on his stomach. "What should I do? What can I do for you? Do you have some kind of healing ability? Or should I go look for medicinal plants right now?"
No, wait, they had already used up all their medicinal plants for her!
"Calm down," he said.
Instead of calming down, Maeve became even more panicked. "How am I supposed to calm down?!" she cried out. "Just tell me what I should do!"
Ikarus looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he simply let out a soft sigh. "There’s a place we can use as a temporary shelter," he said. "Help me get there."
Maeve immediately nodded and quickly moved to support him as they walked toward the place he mentioned.
Honestly, though, she barely helped at all because Ikarus didn’t even lean his weight against her.
It was understandable, but somehow, that still made Maeve feel frustrated!
A few moments later, they finally arrived at the place Ikarus had been talking about. It was a cave hidden not too far from the heart of Lumivale Forest.
"What is this place?" Maeve asked in confusion when she noticed a large stone shaped like an altar inside the cave.
While resting one hand against the cave wall, Ikarus calmly answered, "This is where we hold wedding ceremonies and mating rituals."
