CHAPTER 41 - Leveling up our game
The forest is in total silence, trying not to disturb the napping beast. The beast, a behemoth of a bear covered in thick rock armor, stays face down while a rock wall surrounds its lower body.
It is the biggest one I have seen to date, and I can feel a ridiculous amount of raw power being emitted all around it. The small wall surrounding it works as an effective barrier against sneak attacks while it sleeps.
A fine deterrent to those not strong enough to face it head-on that forces most of them to leave it on its own.
The rock is used as a shield to block any attacks on its snout, belly, or face while it sleeps, making its whole unmoving body a fortress. That won’t stop us though, I have a plan to force the threat from our territory.
I get close to the sleeping beast carefully, going for a surprise attack. Then, I get dangerously close to its 3-meter area of movement detection, and I stop out of range, ready to launch my attack.
I touch the ground with both my hands without stepping inside the bear’s detection range as I focus. I use all the knowledge and practice I accumulated in this last month to focus on transferring my mana through the dirt in a straight line, trying to get it as close to the beast as possible before it notices.
I decided to call this new power I discovered thanks to Bruma magic and using mana to refer to its particles just as in a lot of series and novels from before the invasion. I found that deep down, the principle of energy is just way too similar. Knowing that you can use magic to turn mana in pretty much every kind of element to be known.
Just now, I am forcing the nearby mana under my will to penetrate the soil and go below the bear, using the perfect angle for a surprise attack on it.
I am no expert when it comes to magic, but I barely get the mana where I want it to be under my prey before sending it upward and synchronizing it with the earth surrounding it, forming a big wave of dirt and rock that strikes the bear from below with enough strength to throw it into the air for a couple of seconds.
*whistle* My loud whistle is the warning shot for Bruma's attack to be launched.
Now that the bear is airborne, it is unable to nullify her attacks using his earth magic to dissipate it on its rocky skin before reaching deeper inside its body. That’s why I knocked him as high as I could instead of trying to pierce its skin with my opening attack.
To get even better results I use both mana and qi to power up my body as I throw a 2-meter-long rod purely made from copper. I don't forget to boost its pointy end with both energies too so that it doesn’t break on impact.
The poorly made spear hits its belly part where its defenses are worse and manages to pierce the rocky armor. It works as the perfect injector of the incoming electrical surge into its body, dealing lots of damage to its insides and making it scream in pain as it crashes into the ground.
The copper rod is something I made in a very poor manner with what I had available to counter this species' strengths, but they work perfectly for its intended purpose as I watch the bear get up again while tumbling.
Our prey, the biggest bear we have seen till now panics and starts fleeing.
“Pursue Bruma!” I shout at my companion to chase the fleeing beast as it leaves what I have designated as our territory. The whole time we have been in here, I have always tried to maintain a clear range in mind so as to not get lost and ambushed far from home, yet for once I chose to chase, resolute to get the kill on the beast that has been terrorizing the whole area for days.
To not let him run off anywhere, we take each one a side of his and exploit its wounds to tire him.
I take one last look as we leave our hideout for the first time in a month.
‘Our self-forced confinement ends here, we need to keep up with whatever is happening in the rest of the world.’ Already fully recovered, Bruma and I have a lot more ways to play around with my new, so different, two powers at my disposal.
I get rid of my fears and keep with the chase, following the enraged animal. The bear is fleeing, but we cannot relax for a moment.
The beast must weigh over a ton and is a lot bigger than any other bear that set foot on earth before the invasion with an amazing height that easily surpasses the 2 meters and a half when on all fours.
Just thinking of my or Bruma getting hit by our foe sends a shiver down my spine.
I assure myself knowing we took the right approach when fighting it when I see it running as fast as it can, not caring to dodge the trees on its way at all, smashing through them all.
‘Thank god we didn’t get physical.’ I can't help but think as I dodge the broken trunks and the splinters that follow the path of the destruction that the bear is leaving in its wake.
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Minutes pass by and our chase gets complicated as the bear leaves the forest and gets to the streets and starts pushing around cars and vans off its way, forcing us to duck again and again. The aftermath, however, is his condition getting worse by the second tough, so it works in our favor as long as we don't get hit.
The cornered beast is on its last legs when it enters the neighboring city, making me realize just how fast we were going this whole time.
We have not been to this city before so I am against going in, but seeing our prey just about to stop for breath at any moment I push forward, staying alert of any potential ambushes in the area.
Block after block we slip ourselves in between the buildings, and I can’t help but notice the striking difference between this city and mine. This city is in much better shape than mine, making me think of useless things.
‘Will there be any survivors here?’
Humans are sociable beings, even now I can’t deny my curiosity and deep-down connection to my kind.
‘There must be more people alive if the state of things is this much better right?’
Before my line of thinking diverts more I take a step back and focus on the task at hand. It’s finally time to end things.
*Whistle* I send the signal for Bruma to attack and she complies, sending two bolts of electricity. One aimed at the back of the beast and another at the side.
The bear lets out a roar as it raises a big chunk of earth to block both attacks and keeps running, keeping itself close to the buildings for cover on one side of its body.
I overtake it with the help of some of my mana synchronizing with the air and simulating a strong forward push on my already enforced body, helping me get to speed completely out of reach for my old self.
The moment I pass the monstrosity, I focus on my now signature move, using qi to create a nearly tangible blade of it in my hand. I make an extra effort this time to make it as strong and long as I can to actually make a difference before slashing.
I aim the slash at the bear’s ankles, where even if the armor is stronger, I will be able to use its current speed and strength in my favor to push the attack deeper into the flesh. I even use the last bits of magic I have accumulated to create a stone formation that binds my feet to the ground, helping me stand my ground, bracing for impact.
The monster sees me as it is about to turn right at the next corner, but it's already too late to jump or take extra measures to block the attack before my swing connects.
As the slash gets to touch the bear's armored paws, I hit the equivalent of the instep of the human leg. I feel the pressure and weight of the beast on my upper body as I rush to burn through all my reserves of qi to survive the sudden danger, nearly being smashed by the initial collision.
I somehow keep my feet planted on the ground and survive the initial impact, and then, with no other choice to survive, I start drawing all the qi I can from the ground to keep up with the strain that the pressure puts on my body.
I feel my insides shake as my life hangs on a thin thread, but I don't let go of the blade. I don’t care about myself and keep up the shape of the blade as I suck every bit of qi around me.
Finally, my blade pierces the rock armor, soon after going through its thick hide too, and cleaving one and half paws of the bear.
Turns out that enlarging my blade so much was counterproductive, making it a lot thinner in energy and fragile at the end, thus weakening its power there and putting too much strain on the middle segment of the blade.
The end results are far from perfect, seeing that my body is devoid of most qi and badly damaged. The first one of the affected bear's legs was cleanly severed though, making it stumble and ram into the 6-story building in front of him, just as intended.
I kneel on the ground and gasp for air as I keep a close eye on the other half of my blade still stuck in the other one of the bear’s front legs, slowly dissipating after losing its connection with its power source.
“Arggh” *Spit* I scream in frustration as I get up and spit a mouthful of blood on the floor.
My frustration doesn’t help me cope with the pain and damage I have received, but it does help with keeping my mind steady on the end goal.
*Whistle* *Whistle* I send the signal for the last attempt on the bear's life, and start preventively retreating just in case the outburst of energy that is soon to arrive reaches wider than expected.
The moment I get out of range, I feel the loud tremor of thunder as I look up to see a huge and dangerous lightning bolt come into existence, pointing at the bear that is still caught in the rubble, ready to take advantage of his blind spot.
*Crack* *Crack* I can hear from my spot the immense amount of electricity inside the attack crackling around, waiting to be unleashed, and then there is a flash.
*zap…*
*Rumble*
The biggest explosions I have seen in my life manifest in front of me as I watch in awe.
Forget about the bear, if not for it having a way to counter Bruma’s power there is no way to withstand even half the amount of power currently being unleashed.
Sparks fly out everywhere and an explosion follows, sending rubble and dust all around in a mist of projectiles created by the strong shockwave. I use both my arms up to cover myself as best as I can as I withstand the salvo of flying rocks.
Thankfully, the radius of the explosion is not that big and most rocks that come flying at me are mere pebbles I am able to withstand with no problem.
The loud roar of thunder and the explosions last only for a couple of seconds before I hear Bruma landing on my side. She jumps on my shoulder and proceeds to hastily lick my cheek, probably seeing that I am having difficulties even with staying awake due to my lack of qi and stamina from all that running.
I pet her on the head and assure her of my well-being as I start making my way out of the place. Not being in the mood to wait here to battle anything else that may show up to see the now charred corpse of the bear.
‘Well, what’s done is done. Now I have an idea of our real power.’ I unconsciously think as I search for cover, purposely avoiding open areas where I am easy to spot in my bad condition.
I plan on laying low around this city for a day or two to recover, but something tells me that it won't be so peaceful after all the ruckus we have caused with our arrival.