Legend of the North

Chapter 11: The Sellers Family (2)

Cristian ducked behind the nearby couch while Fenrir hid under a table to avoid the peacock’s ice attack. The icicles skewered the spot they had been standing before, tearing up the rug. He stared at the collection of large icicles the size of his arm before peeking around the corner of the couch. Mrs. Sellers and Katie appeared behind the peacock with dark expressions.

“My rug!” Mrs. Sellers wailed, cupping her cheeks with her hands.

“Where’s dad?” Katie asked, scanning the room.

He narrowed his eyes as he prepared to pull them into the dimensional space. That’s when a floating blue text box appeared in his vision.

[The targets are not within range. Please move closer to the target.]

Cristian nearly cursed aloud as he glared daggers at the text. Why was there suddenly a distance restriction? How close did he need to be in order to pull them into the dimensional space?

[Targets need to be within three feet of the user in order to be placed in the dimensional space.]

Three feet was pretty close. With the peacock spitting ice everywhere, it was going to be tricky getting in close. Fortunately, this wouldn’t be the first time he had to deal with a beast that could manipulate ice.

“Dad? Where are you?” Katie called out, searching for signs of her father.

Mrs. Sellers followed her lead and said, “Dear, this isn’t funny. Where are you?”

The peacock strutted forward, its head swerving from side to side, looking for him. Its feathers swayed back and forth with each step it took. Cristian glanced at Fenrir, who hadn’t moved from its spot from underneath the table. It almost seemed like the wolf was bored as it lazily wagged its tail.

[Carry on.]

Seeing that his companion was safe, he sprung into action. Cristian darted to the wall and yanked the hanging painting. The peacock instantly shot more icicles at him. He threw the painting in front of himself, letting it take the brunt of the attack while he ran towards the floor lamp.

“My painting! You’ll pay for that!” Mrs. Sellers shrieked.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Katie said as she pulled out a gun.

Unfortunately for her, she had terrible aim as she missed and hit a nearby vase. Shards of glass flew everywhere, making the two women flinch. Cristian lifted the floor lamp and swung it at the peacock, who had been aiming to attack again. It let out a squawk, and feathers flew in all directions. Before the two women could react, he threw the floor lamp at them, causing them to scream and scatter. Soon he was within range and dragged all of them into the dimensional space.

[You were quite reckless this time.]

He looked in Fenrir’s direction and saw the wolf walking towards him. Cristian bent down and lifted the wolf back into his arms.

“It worked out, didn’t it?” Cristian said as he studied the mess he made.

[You could have gotten shot.]

“I already expected they would bring weapons to a fight, but I’ll admit the gun caught me off guard. I didn’t think the Sellers would have a gun,” he admitted.

[Which is why it was foolish of you to charge right in? Do you think that just because I’m lending my powers to you that you’re invincible?]

“No, but I’ve dealt with bullet wounds before,” Cristian said.

The wolf shook its head at him, seemingly exasperated by Cristian’s answer. He chose to ignore Fenrir for now to check up on the Sellers in the dimensional space and was stunned to see that the peacock was missing. Where had it gone? Cristian had been certain that he had pulled the peacock into the dimensional space along with Mrs. Sellers and Katie.

Unable to find it anywhere, he asked, “Fenrir, do you have any clue why the peacock isn’t in the dimensional space?”

[That’s because summoning magic conflicts with the dimensional space. Rather than being trapped in the dimensional space, they’re sent back to where they came from until they’re called again.]

Cristian’s eyes widened as he asked, “Wait. Does that mean the connection between summoner and beast is severed?”

[No, not like that. The summoning ritual you humans have set up lets beasts return to their original space until they’re called upon by their summoner. How do you not know this? Even I know it.]

He admittedly forgot about that. With Fenrir’s size, it had been difficult to get around, so he had tried to send Fenrir back, but it never worked. Eventually, he forgot all about it when the apocalypse hit, and they always traveled together everywhere.

“So is that why they can’t summon their beasts in the dimensional space?” Cristian asked.

[Correct.]

Filing this information for later, he turned his attention back onto the Sellers family. The trio were in the midst of an argument as they talked about him. Cristian decided to leave them be for the moment to check out the rest of the house. Fortunately, despite having money, they hadn’t bothered to hire bodyguards or any kind of security. He had free reign to explore the place.

Taking this opportunity to find anything useful for the apocalypse, he turned the whole place upside down. Any unopened food was dragged out and sorted by expiration date. The same was done with any perishable products he uncovered since he had limited space in the dimensional space. Once that was done, his next targets were clothes or any other items that he deemed useful in the long run. Eventually, he had a decent pile of supplies he was going to take after dealing with the Sellers.

Speaking of the Sellers, he decided to check up on them to see if there were any changes, and his eyebrows nearly shot up. Katie was sobbing in one corner while her parents were in another. She seemed to be clutching her cheek, seemingly having been slapped. What had happened? Whatever it was, he was certain he could use this to his advantage.