Barry leapt into action, quickly climbing further up the tree as fast as he could manage. The ratbear slowly but surely followed as it stuck to the main trunk of the tree. Soon Barry reached the branch with the now empty gold loot box. He lifted it overhead and launched it down at the beast, hitting it directly on the nose. The ratbear barely flinched, as if it had been hit by cardboard box. Instead, it just growled and bared its teeth as drool dripped from its mouth, whilst continuing its climb. Barry continued throwing sticks and twigs at the creature, not having any better ideas at this point. He figured if he got lucky he might be able to poke out one of its eyes or something. Instead, the ratbear just got angrier and angrier as twigs bounced harmlessly off its seemingly impenetrable body.
As the ratbear slowly drew closer, Barry was now able to fully appreciate the creature’s makeup. The beast must have been over two metres long and around a metre wide. It had thick, strong limbs, and a wide snout topped off by a large, black, whiskered nose at its tip. Its ears were short and pointed backwards towards its rear. Its fur was black and bristled and it’s eyes were small and beady. Barry figured it must rely more on its sense of smell rather than its vision.
“Probably how the damn thing found me so quick,” he thought.
It had massive, padded paws, each with four thick, two-inch-long claws protruding from them that it used to climb with ease. Now only a few metres away it opened its huge maw, exposing it’s two long front fangs and a row of smaller sharp teeth around them.
Barry was over twenty metres in the air by now and he knew that shortly he would run out of tree to climb. He positioned himself on one of the few larger, sturdier branches remaining and prepared for the upcoming clash. He didn’t have any great plan, but he did have a long, hard chain and he knew how to swing it. As the ratbear came into range he swung his chain down with force, aiming for the beast’s face. He was surprised to see the creature reacting so quickly as it lifted one paw up to block the strike of the chain. Metal and claw collided with a clang as Barry almost lost his footing due to the surprising reverberation.
“I guess this thing isn’t totally blind after all,” he thought to himself, quickly regaining his composure as he summoned his illusion chain.
Barry flung his illusionary chain down at the beast as it continued its climb. The creature predictably lifted its paw to block the attack and Barry saw a hint of confusion on its face as the weapon passed straight through its claws and paw. Barry, expecting this, had already begun to swing down hard with his aura chain, which collided directly with the creature’s head. The ratbears head was knocked to the side about a centimetre or two before it returned to the centre, and it reactively shook its head in frustration. Barry gawked in surprise when he saw that not even a scratch was let behind. Gulping, he felt the fear in his heart building as the ratbear let out another low, terrifying growl.
Out of desperation, Barry continued his barrage of real and imaginary strikes at the beast with his chains. It occasionally managed to block one of his real attacks but Barry’s frequent swapping of hands between his illusion chain and his aura chain was usually enough to trick the creature. Unfortunately, it seemed like the damage he was doing with these strikes was minimal at best. Additionally, he could feel his mana stores starting to dwindle despite his recent levelling, as to increase his likelihood of landing a hit, he had to keep the illusion chain summoned. Thankfully, his stamina seemed to be holding up a little better and his health remained full, for now. The more pressing issue was that, although he had managed to slow down its journey, the beast was about to reach his branch.
Barry scrambled back further along the branch towards the periphery of the tree as the beast’s head appeared in front of him. The large creature moved to Barry’s branch, awkwardly narrowing its stance so it could begin crawling towards Barry, its thick legs angled inwards under itself for purchase. It carefully edged its way closer whilst maintaining a tight grip on to the branch with its claws. Barry tried swinging his chain once more but was unable to generate any power for fear of losing his balance on the narrow wood under his feet. The ratbear had given up bothering to block Barry’s strikes by now, realising the damage the human could deal was completely insignificant. It just snarled every time he landed a hit, waiting for its own time to strike.
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Soon the beast was in within striking distance and Barry was running out of ideas. He leapt back as the ratbear opened its maw and snapped at him. The only intelligent observation he was able to make at this time was that the creature had decided to give up on swiping with its claws, likely to ensure it could maintain its balance in this increasingly precarious position. Barry considered jumping and climbing down before running away, but it was getting dark, and he had no idea how fast this creature would be on the ground. He thought that how fast something climbs is probably not a true example of how fast it could run. And given how poorly his previous zigzagged running escape with the snarlers had gone, he wasn’t confident he would get away.
The branch Barry stood on began to bend, creak and crack as the massive beast edged its way closer. Barry could almost feel the animal’s breath on him by now and a spray of snot hit him on the face as the creature snorted.
“Ugh, you disgusting—,” his comments were cut short as the beast snapped forward once more and Barry went to step back, but this time he felt the narrow branch giving way under his foot and his body start to fall backwards.
With only a brief moment to react he launched his chain forward, successfully hooking it around the neck of the beast. Simultaneously he wrapped the other end around his right-hand before he completely lost his balance and fell backwards off the edge of the branch.
Barry fell a metre or two before he suddenly found himself hanging in mid-air by his right arm, suspended from the creature by his chain. It felt like his shoulder was about to pop out, but he gritted his teeth and endured the pain. He looked up to see the ratbear clinging on for dear life as it frantically fought to maintain its balance on the branch above him. The beast whimpered and hissed as Barry swung and spun whilst still hanging from the chain. He could hear the breathing of the beast getting heavy and laboured as he refused to loosen his grip on the chain that was now slowly choking the vicious creature. Despite the pain, Barry could see he was winning this battle of attrition as he fought to hold on.
Without warning, the chain went slack and Barry started to fall further. He initially feared the creature had managed to slip out of the noose, but as his eyes darted upwards, panic entered his mind as he saw the ratbear falling towards him. He frantically tried to release his grip on the chain around his hand, however he was unable to do so as the beast quickly approached. Before he could manage another movement, Barry felt an intense pain enter his leg as the passing ratbear took a wide snap at him, narrowly missing his exposed privates and instead taking a massive bite of flesh out of his thigh. Reflexively, Barry tried to activate his rapid recovery skill but found it was still on cooldown as blood gushed out from the wound. Despite the searing pain this was not the number one thing on his mind. Instead, it was the fact that both he and the ratbear were dropping rapidly towards the ground towards certain doom.
Barry tumbled harshly through sticks and branches as he fell. He wanted to scream, but every time he opened his mouth it filled with leaves and made him choke. His body was cut, battered, and bruised and he could feel the blood flowing freely from his leg wound as he continued to fall. Then suddenly, his body came to a halt as his right shoulder tugged forcefully upwards. His whole arm instantly went numb and he knew his shoulder was truly dislocated this time. As his mind refocused, he saw that he had landed on one side of a large lower branch of the tree a couple of metres above the forest floor. The ratbear had fallen onto the opposite side of the branch and the two beings were momentarily looking directly at each other as they hung and spun awkwardly, both still attached to the chain.
This strange pause lasted for merely a fraction of a second before Barry felt his body being dragged once again. This time however, he was being pulled upwards due to the significant difference in weight between him and the tumbling ratbear on the other side of the branch. Reflexively, Barry tightened his core, lifted his knees and swung his legs upwards before planting his feet firmly on the underside of the branch. The moment his feet touched the branch he drew upon every bit of willpower he had to lean backwards and push away from the branch to prevent himself being dragged to the earth. He knew that this was his only chance of ending the ratbear, and if he allowed himself to be pulled down it would be him that was next on the beast’s menu. He fought desperately to hold his position and keep the choking beast hanging. The pain in both his shoulder and his thigh was excruciating, and it felt like all the muscles in his arm and back were all going to tear at once. But he kept holding on. The ratbear gurgled and snapped whilst thrashing about recklessly. Barry winced as he received further cuts from the spastic slashes of the beast. Finally, after what felt like an eternity the thrashing stopped and the ratbear went still, its beady eyes protruding out of its head and its tongue hanging unnaturally out the side of its mouth. Barry felt a huge wave of energy enter his soul, followed by a series of messages in his mind.
You have slain Hulking ratbear, level 4.
Soul item aura chain has reached level 4.
Soul magic has reached level 3.
Power level has reached level 3.
Following the messages, Barry’s body immediately went limp and he instinctively knew his stamina had been fully depleted. He felt himself being dragged up and over the branch that separated him and the now dead beast, his chest and stomach scraping the rough wood before he started to fall. With his final moment of consciousness, he opened his status screen and threw all four available points into vitality once again, hoping that it might allow him to survive his injuries and blood loss. With that he tumbled down towards the ground and landed with a thump, right on top of the bristled body of the ratbear, just as the world went dark.