If we let the giant bear make the first move, we likely would just be crushed in a charge and our bodies not found for weeks. A few dense bushes dotted the small opening, but nothing was close enough to hide behind. Its eyes fully opened and locked onto us. The hole that it fit in looked tiny as it stood up. It sauntered to the entrance with sluggish steps, likely having just eaten its fill. I doubt it saw us as a threat, but I couldn’t tell much of the difference between a bear looking at another predator and prey. I started charging it down at a full sprint, spitting out the weed in my mouth and holding onto my sword and shield as tightly as I could.

The monk was to my right, closer to my sword hand, easily keeping pace with me. The thief was behind me, an arrow whistled far closer to my head than I felt safe with, and barely punctured the bear’s flesh on its chest. That got the bear’s attention as fully woke up and charged out of the den straight at us. The bear took a wild swing at the two of us without slowing down. I jumped to the left as the monk jumped to the right. She disappeared into a very dense bush. I did a sloppy swipe at its back leg before I could regain my footing only to be pulled forward as my blade got stuck. It must have been about as tall as I was while on all fours. I released the handle before I twisted my wrist and rolled onto my feet. The bear stopped charging and turned to us. Standing on its back legs, my view of the sun was eclipsed by its massive dark body.

My hair stood on end as it took a deep breath. I put my shield between myself and it half a second before I felt my shield get pushed down by a waterfall of ice. My left arm began to go numb from the cold.

“Die you mangy beast!” The prince screamed, and from behind one of its legs, I saw the prince shoot a long yellow lance of fire at the beast. The lance shot forward as if to hit the head, but began to drop part way through and barely hit an ankle. Burnt flesh and fur filled the area with a terrible stench. A terrible roar escaped it, pain and a lot of anger.

I kept myself from throwing up, grabbing my sword that I dropped. The ground shook as the beast was dropped back onto four legs. It threw itself at me with its three good legs. I raised my numb arm in front of me as the beast slammed into me with all the strength of a ten man battering ram. As I fell to the ground, its full body was above me. It locked eyes with me while an icy mist dropped from the corners of its mouth. I struggled to raise my shield above me. Something in my arm wasn’t working and I had to drop my sword to use my other arm to keep the shield up. I could feel a cold mist falling onto my already numb arm, I was quickly losing a struggle to keep my shield between its teeth and my body.

Movement happened in the distance to my left as the bear’s head dropped down even lower and past my shield. Teeth grew to become all I could see as it tried to bite my head off. I put my vambrace from my good arm in front of my head. With a crunch, metal bit into my forearm and I let out a scream of pain. The skin that was visible became coated in red.

Suddenly the bear screamed as well. Raising its head and biting at the air as someone ran past it.

“I got it’s eyes! It’s blind now!” The thief called out as his voice steadily got farther away.

I pulled myself out from under the bear with my left arm. My right forearm was a mess, with the crushed vambrace the only thing keeping it attached at this point. I was bleeding out very fast.

Another lance of fire shot out, hitting the other hind leg of our foe. Even without eyes, it had our scent and wasn’t about to run. A few arrows were sticking out of it from various places, likely the thief trying a target to kill something without chinks in their armor. It began another charge, launching with its two front paws, hind paws half dragging behind it. It was headed towards the prince and saintess, and I wasn’t about to let them die. The saintess seemed to be trying to sneak around the fight and possibly away from us. The thief was whispering and staring at a crossbow bolt intently, but I wasn’t about to demand someone in a cotton shirt distract it, so I had to get its attention again.

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I lifted my left arm which was likely broken and smacked it repeatedly against my chest armor, pain shot up my arm as the ringing began. “Over here! Turn around you big coward!”

The bear didn’t turn to face me nor slow down. I charged forward, my lame right arm smacking my legs as I ran. I wasn’t gaining any distance as it closed in on the prince first. I ran for my life. No. I ran for his life and my pride. The prince let loose a small lance of fire, singing the shoulder of the giant black bear. The bear charged the prince and the prince dove onto the ground to the side of the charge. The bear crashed into a large tree beyond the prince, snapping it in half. I finally caught up and put myself between the bear and the prince. The saintess was nowhere to be seen.

“Any ideas for how to kill it would be appreciated.” I quickly asked.

“Burning its lungs maybe?” I got a less than useful answer in return.

I took that to mean he was out of ideas. I, however, wasn’t. I succeed in magic unlike all of the failed attempts and partial success at the fort. I also needed to do it before the bear regained its bearings.

I felt my arms get hot, my broken arm began to burn as if I held it within a forge. I visualized what I needed, pits on the ground where it stepped. Entomb the limbs, then the head.

My magic wasn’t activating and the beast began to charge. I thought back to what I learned and realized that I made contact without armor last time I cast a spell. I wasn’t sure if that mattered, but I was desperate to cast magic. I dropped to a crouch. I smacked my broken arm against the dirt; parts of my shredded skin made contact with the ground as blood pooled there. I demanded the earth to answer me, for my goal to be realized, and for whatever processes happened to occur. I only had a second before the beast hit me, so I asked for only two holes opening.

As the beast put its front paws down while running at me, two holes opened almost underneath the front legs. It stepped into the holes as the momentum carried it forward. Another lance of flame flew passed where the head would have been. The legs couldn’t be pulled out before another CRACK resounded from both of its front legs. It tumbled towards me, now butt first. I could do little more than raise my shield and brace for impact.

I blacked out for a second after getting knocked back. Looking up I saw the thief covered in dirt walking slowly up to the now thrashing bear. The prince was using fire to smother the face, but it was thrashing too much to continuously be burned. Ice poured out of its mouth even now, creating a layer of frost and mist in the ground. The thief’s clothes were blowing in a strong breeze that surrounded him, the mist wrapped around his tiny maelstrom. He took a second to aim the crossbow at its head. Then he pulled the trigger. There was such a concentrated look on his face that I could only wonder how he planned to kill it. The arrow whistled in the air, hit the bear in its open mouth, and then blew out the other side. The bear slumped over, finally dying.

“Louis, you need to see Alice. After today. We are leaving her at the village and walking away. She has no excuses for doing nothing throughout the fight.” The prince was demanding things again, but I couldn’t fully disagree that she hadn’t helped.

“We decide that as a group” The thief was firmly against instant action, or just giving the prince leadership.

“I am deciding this for the good of all five of us.”

“Five? Wait. Have you two seen Faith anywhere? I lost track of her after the first charge.”

I looked at the thief, realizing I had forgotten about her. I decided to get up, feeling light headed enough to almost fall back down, and hobbled over to where the beast charged me and the monk. It didn’t take long until I saw white in one of the bushes I once saw the monk land in.

“Alice, have you seen…”

I stepped close enough to get the full scene that had been hidden from view behind a thick bush. Before my eyes was Alice, leaning over an unconscious and pale Faith. The saintess was trying desperately to reattach the lower half of her arm that was barely connected to the rest of her. Enough blood pooled out from under her that I didn’t have high hopes for her survival. That arm wasn’t likely to fully heal either. The soft healing glow from Alice’s hands was slowly getting weaker. Alice looked at me, exhausted with tears streaming down her face.

“She’s going to be okay, right Louis?”