After the fiery explosion caused by the bear had lit up the area behind me, I turned just in time to see Adra step out of the forest behind the bear and, while the bear was starting to trundle towards me, she let an arrow fly. Her shot was obviously magical, with streamers of colour radiating from the arrow and trailing behind it and her strike was better than mine had been. Her arrow punched deeply into the bear’s left hind-leg, before the magic that was focused on it burst out, cutting the flesh around it into ribbons and causing blood to fly far and wide.

Again, the bear roared but this time, there was pain mixed into its roar. I hurried onwards, towards Rai and taking up a new, hidden position, while the bear had turned and was now gathering steam to go after Adra. I could see blood flowing from the wounds we had caused but I also noticed a flickering in them and, thanks to Lenore, was able to see Astral Power gather at those spots, like a band-aid or bandage.

With the bear turned around, Sigmir took the opportunity and launched an axe into it, trying to strike the same area Adra had hit but her attack failed to cause any real impression, leaving barely a flesh wound. I couldn’t even cause the axe to explode, the Fire-Astral-Power was just too thick to connect to it. When the bear didn’t care about Sigmir’s attack, Kelgorn added his own, a javelin arcing from his position and hitting the shoulder I had attacked but from another angle. But, where the attacks from Adra and me were only partially physical, mostly acting as a delivery mechanism for magic, his was purely physical. The javelin must have had barbs or something similar on it, for it stuck, even as the shaft started to smoke and burn.

Again, the bear spun and Kelgorn’s attack must have hurt quite a bit, the bear used its magic ability to attack again. This time, I was able to see what was happening and I wondered if the stupid bear’s mother, or maybe its father, had shacked up with a dragon. It reared back, on two paws, and shot a fireball from its mouth. Why on earth did a bear use a breath-attack?! The attack arched through the air, despite my incredulity, striking a tree near the position Kelgorn had attacked from, exploding into a short flare of fiery rage, erasing that tree and a few more beside.

Shaking my head in disbelief and hoping that Kelgorn had been able to vacate the area before it was torched. When the bear landed back on all its four paws, I noticed that the Astral Power around it was weaker and decided to strike at it, even if it was not the best moment. I was unable to gather all that much power or use a sophisticated spell but even a swift icicle, without a lot of power seemed like a good idea.

And it was, my previous attacks had been weakened by the Astral Power that was pouring from the bear, but at that moment, my attack struck true, adding another wound to the already wounded hind-leg.

We continued that dance of attacking, repositioning, attacking, dodging and so on for a little while longer, all of us slowly adding wounds and hoping that blood loss would slow it down. It did not, at least not in a way I could see. I knew that I had taken a few close hits and my hands and face felt as if I had a brutal sunburn. There were a few more spots where burning splinters from the trees that the bear’s firebreath had blown up had struck me. Even a miss was creating shrapnel that would make a grenade proud and I could feel blood from those wounds.

Adra had been the last to attack and while she no longer had the time to add serious magic to her attacks, her arrow was sticking from the bears flank and this time, when the bear spun around and roared, once again. Only this time, things changed.

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With the roar, the blood that had been flowing from its body, matting its fur and dripping to the ground beneath, all of it, burst into flame, burning with an angry, red flame.

For a split-second, I regretted not using the Eternal Ice for my first attack, wanting to keep it in reserve until I became able to use it but it didn’t really matter anymore. I would need at least a few seconds to bring it under control and right now, I didn’t have those.

The now burning bear was charging towards Adra and when I tried to get its attention, I was ignored. My attack struck but the only result was that a flame burst from the impact-spot, destroying the icicle before it could fully penetrate, let alone shatter.

Sigmir tossed an axe after it while stepping into the open and shouting something, but her attack didn’t even manage to get to it, the axe melting beforehand.

Thanks to Lenore’s sight, I was able to barely see where Adra was in the forest, she was angling away from the madly charging bear, trying to get as much distance as possible.

I used both Overflow and Bullet Time. starting to cast spells as fast as possible, looking for something, anything, that might work. The first idea was to use Mind Magic, but before I could even try to attack with that, Lenore stopped me, reminding me of the Alpha Wolf and my inability to harm its mind, we assumed due to its ferality. Compared to the raging bear before us, the wolf had been a picture of collected thought, so I agreed, while the instant effect and bypassing of its powerful physical defenses seemed like a great idea, it was not worth the power and backlash.

With Lenore’s suggestion, I added Blood Runes to an icicle, using one mental process to engrave them as the icicle formed, while linking my magic to it, hoping to interfere with the power the bear seemed to get from the burning blood.

The runed icicle managed to last until it struck the bear and there seemed to be a split-second of success, causing some blood to splatter out, before the brutally burning fire ended my effort. But it had worked, at least a bit, so I tried again, while trying to come up with another idea that might work better.

Kelgorn had also stepped forward and launched another javelin, but, just like the attacks from Sigmir and me, it had not caused the bear to abandon its mad attack. He, just like Sigmir, started to follow the bear but he was almost as far away as Sigmir had been.

By now, the bear had reached the area of forest where Adra had hidden before and its fiery aura caused the snow to instantly evaporate and steam billowed forth, clouding my normal vision. Suddenly, I felt a pain sting into my head, as if someone had driven an icepick into my skull, only that it was not coming from one point but from the complete top and back of my head. The pain was so intense that I lost the connection to Lenore for a moment, switching off my magic vision, causing me to lose track of it.

I stumbled for a moment, feeling my magic leaking away and fell to the ground. Knowing that the bear was after Adra, I forced myself to my feet and forward. Even if I was unable to see the bear, even if my magic was leaking out, I would not let Adra face the monster alone. When I got to the cloud, I forced myself to use Lenore’s sight again, even if it felt as if my head would split. But even in Lenore’s sight, I was unable to see the towering monstrosity when a blue screen caught my attention.

[table]

Infernal Bear diedYou gain 13500 EXP. For killing an opponent 43 levels above you you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Rune-Mastery [66/100]

Skill increased You increased your skill: Stealth [34/100]

“It’s dead?” I asked no one in particular, not quite certain what was going on. We had the EXP but I had no idea what had happened. Letting go of Lenore’s sight again, I stumbled a little and Sigmir reached the cloud and me, catching me in an embrace and preventing me from hitting the ground again.