Adra and Kelgorn looked around the burned-out area, soon finding bear-tracks leading towards and into it, making them agree that the power Adra and I were feeling from the cave was our target. And that attacking the bear in its cave was suicide, they had seen the size of its tracks, giving them an idea just how big our foe was. Fighting such a monster in a confined space was just a suicidally bad idea so we settled in to wait until it came out, quietly discussing how to fight it best.

We quickly came to the agreement that fighting it in close combat had the potential to backfire horribly and that the best idea would be to attack it from all sides on the open area, fading into the forest if went after one of us while the others would intensify their attacks, hopefully getting its attention. To do that, we would need as many ranged attacks as possible, so I started to create axes for Sigmir to throw while Kelgorn started to pull out javelins from his belt-pouch. I had to smile at that, especially when I was reminded of an old and very british maid that helped with unruly kids. Only that our maid was a tall, grey-skinned guy that looked a lot more like a certain Austrian that would be back.

With Rai, on the other hand, I discussed what his role would be. My hope was to use his magic to rob our foe of its sight, hopefully helping with our tactic. Rai would need to use a new spell, to project a dark cloud around the bear’s head but that was not a big problem, coming up with such a spell only took me moments. Making it into a spell that Rai could use and teaching it to him took a little longer, but as the actual magic was quite simple, Rai was able to use the new spell on his second try. It showed me that he was coming along quite nicely when it came to his magic, or maybe that he was getting used to the way I structured my spells.

About half an hour before we assumed the bear would leave, we scattered in the forest around the burned out area, with me taking the middle position right opposite of the cave, roughly where we expected the bear to head. To my right, Rai was waiting, to my left Sigmir and next to Rai was Adra’s position with Kelgorn positioned to Sigmir’s left.

The bear was very much on schedule, as soon as the sun vanished behind the horizon and Twilight was upon us, I noticed that the power emanating from the cave was changing and moving.

Gulping down what little moisture was in my mouth, I started to carefully construct my first-strike spell, hopefully striking a hindering wound into our furry foe. Afterwards, I would try to use my magic to fade into the shadows and let the others get the bears attention before striking again.

Right on time, the bear emerged from its cave in all its glory. Only that it was no longer on fire. Looking with Lenore’s eyes showed me truth once again. The bear was still emanating Fire Astral Power but it was also absorbing it. For a few moments, Lenore and I discussed what we were seeing and when minds are directly connected, a few moments can allow for a long discussion.

“Why do you think it’s mostly active at night? Wouldn’t it be better to move during the day, that would let it absorb more power.” Lenore questioned but I had no real answer.

“And why is it leaking its power like that?” I mentally frowned and the two of us bounced ideas off the other, none of them really plausible. Finally, it dawned on me.

“Wait, when we saw it for a moment during the day, it was on fire. What if that fire was just a physical representation of the leaking Astral Power? And what if it is unable to control the power it has, the fire simply flowing through it, uncontrolled? That would be excruciatingly painful, it would burn like physical fire!” thoughts tumbled in my mind, connecting the dots.

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Flavoured Astral Power needed to be controlled, that was why I was able to handle the Eternal Ice - well, mostly - while it would simply destroy the others; my Ice Magic was protecting me. The big chunk was too much for me, or maybe it was a higher grade, so there was some damage, but I believed that I would be able to handle it, maybe even create some of it, if I got better with my magic.

But the bear, if it was unable to stop itself from absorbing Fire Astral power, unable to then control the power it was absorbing and unable to store it, the power would just flow through until it escaped back into the environment. And that uncontrolled flow would feel like liquid fire through it, because, in a way, it was. I didn’t even want to imagine what it would feel like, it had to hurt like hell. No wonder that it was unable to hibernate, no wonder that it was incredibly aggressive. And no wonder that it preferred to keep out of the sun, there was some Fire Astral Power in the rays of the sun. Not a lot but when one was quite literally burning from the inside, every bit less pain would count.

It made me realise, we were not here to hunt down a dangerous monster, we were here to put a tortured creature out of its misery.

After the bear had moved roughly in the middle of the clearing it had made, my spell was ready to strike, once again, I was using a lance of hard ice. Not as massive as I might be able to make it, but sharp and as dense as I could compress it. I was hoping to penetrate into the bear’s shoulder before shattering, damaging the muscles and slowing it down.

That was the theory.

The Praxis? Well, as they say, in theory, there is no difference between theory and praxis.

Reality had other ideas.

The lance, my compressed lance, arcing through the air, trailing a tiny bit of vanishing Ice Astral Power, headed straight for our furry foe, as fast as I could make it. It struck, right where I had aimed, right into what would be the biceps on a human, causing the bear to stumble a little from the impact.

But against my expectation, it only penetrated about a hand deep into the muscle and such a depth was far less than I had hoped. Even shattering it worked not quite as well as hoped, the Fire Astral Power already working against my Ice Magic so the force was far less than normally. It still ripped a hole into the muscle, wide enough to put both my fists in without getting them bloody but compared to the size of the bear?

The rest of my lance shattered into razor sharp shards, which I had expected to add a couple of lacerations to the bears hide but they hardly marred its fur, there might have been a few small scratches but I had worse wounds from the hazards of office paper.

The other part of our plan had worked quite well, the bear knew it had been attacked. I had once read that when animals are in pain, they strike out against the nearest target, even if they normally wouldn’t. The bear had been in pain before I attacked and now it was as if I had invited it to unleash all the pent up rage and pain on me. And there was a lot of it.

I had once heard a description about a roar that shook the earth, but I had never quite expected to experience one. Or maybe it was me shaking, but I certainly felt it, deep in my bones. And the trees around me felt it as well, losing a few needles when what I can only compare to a blastwave passed us.

Remembering the plan, I grabbed the shadows around me and added to them, trying to convince the world that I was just another shadow.

As I ran, I felt Rai to my right, casting his magic, hopefully helping with my escape.

The bear had other ideas and the outburst of magic I felt behind me was quite scary but not as scary as the heat that caught up to me, heat and light that burned away my cloaking shadow.

Looking over my shoulder, I noticed that the area where I had stood just moments before was now a burning wreck, luckily I had not stuck around. That would have seriously hurt. Or maybe it would not have. After all, the dead don’t feel pain.