For now, those last sounds are distant noises. Ronan, without hesitation, reanimates the four dead bears that were left at the cave entrance. With a small group of goblins armed with spears, he goes after the most immediate threat: the bears that have reached the lookouts' area. I follow along, joining him in the decision to ignore for now whatever’s causing a commotion deeper in the forest. Ronan, upon seeing me sword in hand next to the goblins, looks at me and seems to want to say something. Send me back to a safe area?

"Don't you dare," I mutter through clenched teeth.

Without uttering a word, he turns his gaze forward and continues walking. The three zombie bears he has summoned follow close behind him. The scene, eerie and unsettling, seems straight out of a horror movie: a thin boy with dark hair and a sinister aura, leading undead creatures, rising to kill and gather enough corpses to form an army. I shudder, shake my head, and hurry to keep from falling behind. We enter the trees and soon see them. They are, indeed, three level 1 bears. Compared to the beast in the pit, they're even small. Come on, so tiny that they're only a head taller than me on two legs...

"Channeling fire element!" I exclaim.

I ignite my sword in flames and join the fight. Each living bear is fighting against one or two reanimated ones and a couple of goblins with spears. Ronan has the mace in his hand and, when he sees me join one of the groups with only one zombie, he does the same with the other. My marvelous spirit magic will last three minutes and allows me to cut through that thick skin that I would be unable to with just my meager physical strength. Moreover, now I know the damage I do: that of the sword plus two fire points, four if I manage a critical hit on a vulnerable spot. The truth is, my bear doesn't last long. The zombie has drawn all the aggro, which is to be expected given its size and the fact that it represents the greatest threat. The goblins hit it from the relatively safe distance their spears allow and I take more risks, approaching from behind and relying on that agility I didn't want to raise but fits this fighting style. After a slash to the kidneys, the animal makes a move to turn and attack me. I leap back. The zombie, on two legs and engaged with its opponent, doesn't let it turn. We finish it off quickly. I look to see if the others need help, but both the group with the two undead and Ronan's are practically finishing off their bleeding prey.

I start to hear the sound of horns, growing more nervous and frantic. I don’t remember that cadence meaning anything. The distant noise from before is getting closer, and oh my gosh, I’m starting to realize it’s a macabre symphony of falling trees.

"Follow me, quickly!" Ronan shouts.

We sprint back to the pit area, where there's still a live bear inside. We look towards the other side of the forest, from which treetops can be heard and even seen collapsing. An ominous feeling runs through me. What the hell is there knocking down the oaks? My uncertainty doesn’t last long: an enormous bear appears, running on all fours, and with one swipe, it knocks down the last tree separating it from the clearing the goblins had felled. It’s not taller than the raised tops of the oaks it’s uprooted, but it’s close. It’s just massive. Its head is about three meters off the ground. I really don’t want to see it standing on two legs. It’s much, much bigger than any of the ones we’ve seen so far, including the beast in the pit. Its head, its teeth… If the one from before could split me in two with one bite, I can’t even imagine what this one would do to me.

"Attack it," I hear Ronan's curt order to his minions beside me.

The reanimated bears, mere puppets, obey and pounce on it, surrounding the hole. The king of the mountain, which undoubtedly has to be this one and not the one in the pit, grabs one of the zombies with a bite, without sinking its teeth in too deep, and throws it through the air with a toss of its colossal head. The undead smashes against the nearby trees that are still standing with a resounding crunch. I don't know if that was its spine or the tree, which collapses with a broken trunk.

The zombie's life bar has instantly gone from 70% to zero.

Ronan, his face contorted in horror, shouts at me:

"Bianca, now!"

He doesn't need to tell me what. My heart in my throat, I take the pup out of my pocket and throw it towards the bear.

Uh... the hole is in the way... (I realize that detail as if on a secondary level of my mind while the little wolf flies in a parabolic trajectory that will end up against the bear down there.)

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Wake up!" I order it in a strangled voice.

The pup glows in darkness and in an instant grows into the imposing shadow wolf. With a chilling howl that echoes through the forest, the red-eyed creature charges at the enormous bear. It doesn't fall onto the one in the pit because it immediately leaps to the shadow of its enemy, which is on its back.

And despite how huge the wolf is, the bear is a bit taller and, above all, larger in its bulky body.

It doesn't matter. It may seem that the enemy has more muscle, but I know it can't surpass the divine beast in stats. Not to mention magic. I have no doubt that it alone can handle that bear and many more. Meanwhile, the rest of us focus on the bear in the pit, which is about to escape.

Ronan, along with the three zombies he has left, rushes to the pit. The goblins also come to help, and I join them. In the original plan, the seed of darkness was our ace in the hole in case things went wrong, because we didn't know for sure what we were going to encounter. But now we've had no choice but to risk it.

The bear in the pit already has half its body out when the zombie bears ram it with all their might, knocking it back into the hole. The size difference is large but it's also three against one. The reanimated bears go at it mercilessly, attacking its limbs so it can't get out of the hole. I, for my part, would like to use the sword that's still aflame; but I'm not going to risk falling in there, where claws and bites are being thrown too fast for my liking. My mana... I had seven points, as the scholar mastery gives me a point of wisdom. I've spent two. I've summoned the wolf, that's one mana point per minute and I plan to leave it active as long as I have mana. Right now it has spent one. I need the mana for the wolf but the fight in the pit looks bad. The zombies are losing; the beast is much bigger, stronger, and more powerful. I observe how the goblins goad it with their spears, trying to go for the eyes, but they accomplish very little. I have no choice: I concentrate and make stone stakes sprout from the ground, right under the bear. Yes, stone, because my earth control allows me to harden it so much that it's no longer earth. I reinforce them with my channeling to make them more resistant and thus able to pierce the animal's tough skin. There go three more mana points: one with the earth control spell and two with the earth element channeling in that area of the pit. What the wooden stakes couldn't achieve, that hard and sharp rock growing upward following the orders of my will is accomplishing. Thus, thanks to the work of the reanimated bears, which don't stop harassing the enemy, the stakes manage to penetrate the thick skin and enter its flesh, drawing blood. In less than a minute, that section of the pit—the ground and the nearby wall—is covered in sharp stone spikes, all embedded in the bear’s body. To finish the job, I compact the earth into a massive rock, about the size of one of the smaller bears, and levitate it above the animal. I no longer have the channeling active, but I do have earth control.

"Jump," I hear the necromancer order one of his zombies.

I drop the rock, propelling it downward with all my might. At that very moment, the undead pounces from above onto my enormous projectile, giving it even more falling speed.

The rock slams into the bear, driving the stakes even deeper into its neck and belly. Those stakes are now only stone, unreinforced, but since they had already pierced the armor of the skin, they deepen into the white areas without problems. With one final agonized growl, the animal exhales its last breath. The zombie bear jumps down from that rock that's as big as it is.

I see a notification, I dismiss it with a swat.

(By the way, this is how my earth spell is now:

Intermediate level earth control.

Can move, loosen, compact and shape up to 5 cubic meters of earth. Range: 10 meters.)

I want to collapse onto the ground, sit there, and just breathe—let the exhaustion that threatens to overwhelm me take over. Besides, as tough as it was, I'm sure that being an animal, it has given me almost no experience. Then, a sharp pang in my gut reignites the stress. I can’t rest—the bear! I glance toward the titanic battle, hoping to see my wolf sinking its teeth into the flesh of the gigantic creature. Seriously, Bianca? I chide myself."

Please.

The king of the mountain is a corpse. The wolf must have finished it off in a few seconds. Perhaps simply using its shadow claws. Because come on, if it had used its shadow aura or howl, not only the giant bear but all the other enemies in the area would have been weakened in the first case and paralyzed in the second. What a bastard, it sure could have helped us...

In any case, I'm left gawking at the scene before me. I see the carcass of the gigantic beast that must have destroyed several more trees when it fell, by how the trunks protrude under its inert body. I observe the few small bears that remain alive subdued before the seed of evil, paralyzed with terror, their heads pressed to the ground in a sign of submission. And, of course, the wolf whose fur seems to burn in dark flames calmly sitting on the giant corpse and examining me with jaws half-open in a grimace that seems to be laughing. It contemplates me, the damned thing contemplates me with a mixture of malice and amusement. What a bad person, or wolf, or whatever it is. It's been watching while I was risking my life. Well, not risking it too much since I was out of the bear's reach, but whatever.

I shoot an indignant look at it, and it raises its snout towards the sky and utters a triumphant howl. The living bears tremble. The goblins shout euphorically as they raise their weapons to the sky. The wolf jumps down with an elegant leap, placing itself by my side and with a gesture of its head indicates for me to mount, to follow it.

Well then, oh mighty OnePunchWolf, that I do.