I need to get to the classrooms.
Kai’s roll was starting to slow down as he reached the bottom of the hill, and he jumped back up to his feet. After swaying around dizzily for a few seconds, he regained his balance and started sprinting toward the brick buildings.
Before he could cross hardly any ground, the deafness affecting Kai’s ears intensified by another level, until he could only hear the rapid thrumming of his own heartbeat. Kai immediately pivoted, dodging an attack he couldn’t even see coming.
This time, it saved his life. The bear seemed to appear out of thin air in Kai’s peripheral vision, its vicious claws narrowly missing his robes as it charged forward again. He vaguely noticed that the amount of black mist trailing over its shoulders seemed to be thinner than before, but he didn’t have time to take a close look.
The stream was only a few meters away, and behind it, the temple and the brick classrooms. Kai leapt over the flowing water, his forehead creasing as he noticed the sound once again disappearing from his world. He could only faintly hear a deep thumping noise as the bear jumped over the stream as it chased him.
This time, the bear didn’t wait for Kai to go fully deaf before attacking. The young man’s instincts screamed at him before he could even reach the temple’s pillars, and he dove to the side, once again narrowly avoiding the bear’s rending claws.
Kai immediately rolled back to his feet, but his face darkened as he looked up. The bear was now directly between him and the classrooms.
“Alright, if a fight’s what you want, it’s what you’ll get!”
Kai swapped his sword over to his good arm, then pointed the tip at his foe. The bear seemed entirely unperturbed, its soulless eyes glaring down at Kai as if he were a morsel of food.
Instead of waiting for it to charge again, Kai let out a battle cry and ran toward his enemy. The bear flinched as Kai’s voice rang through the academy. It recovered almost immediately, but there was enough of an opening for the ruby sword to sneak past the bear’s massive paws and score a hit on its shoulder.
Shit. I can’t even break its hide!
Kai’s expression fell as he dodged away from the bear’s counter strike. Aside from trimming a few of the beast’s pitch black hairs and giving it a wound comparable to a paper cut, his attack was entirely ineffective.
He couldn’t even use the opportunity to sneak past and make another break for the classrooms, as the bear swiftly moved to block his path. Somewhere deep in its emotionless eyes, enough intelligence lingered to understand what Kai’s intentions were.
If I could only use my Qi techniques from back home… Wait, can I? Now that I don’t have Halia the parasite on me, I have access to all of the mana she was using before. If it works similar to Qi…
Kai tightened his stance again, letting out a controlled breath as he tried to focus within himself. After having been a cultivator for nearly a decade, it was a simple task for Kai to find and start manipulating his mana.
I only need to make it to the classrooms, this beast might give up on chasing me there. A movement technique should do the job!
Kai started forcing the mana down into his legs, trying to emulate a popular technique from back in the cultivation world. Almost immediately, he realized that something was wrong. Instead of seeping into his muscles and letting him make a mad dash forward, the mana just sat there.
Crap, how do I use this stuff?! This technique isn’t working at all!
The bear noticed that Kai seemed to be doing something unusual, and Kai had to give up on manipulating his mana as he dodged away from another of its charges. This time, the bear anticipated which direction he would run in, and its paw landed a glancing blow on Kai’s sword.
“Uff!”
Kai was thrown a couple meters back, the overgrown grass doing little to cushion the impact as his back slammed into the ground. Kai immediately got back up and retreated a few more steps, but his back bumped into something. The pillars of the temple were now directly behind him.
This would be great if this thing was only as strong as the deer, but a huge bear like this can probably demolish the entire temple!
Still, Kai backed into the relative safety behind the cracked stone pillars. Once again, he tried to focus his mana into his legs, but his movement technique refused to work with the mana. After a few more seconds, Kai gave up on it and started searching for other ways to survive.
He didn’t want to take his eyes off of the bear for even a moment, lest it activate its magic and escape from his senses again.
Is there anything I can use? We already explored the other wooden storage buildings, there’s nothing useful there. In the temple itself, there’s just a bunch of chunks of rubble and a few statues. I doubt throwing rocks at this thing will help.
A tiny spark flickered in Kai’s eye as he thought of something.
Wait, the statues! If my theory from before was right, and there really is a connection between our sect and this world, what about the techniques created by the sect’s founder?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Kai reached for his mana again, this time driving it through his arms and into the ruby sword. Unlike when he tried to use the movement technique, the mana easily surged through his veins before gathering in his sword.
It’s working! The Moonlight Sword Technique almost feels more natural using it like this than it did back at the sect!
A small grin started to grow on Kai’s face as he charged back out of the temple, kicking off against the crushed stone rubble. The bear was just as ready to fight as Kai was, and reared up on its hind legs to meet his charge.
Kai ducked under its outstretched claws, narrowly avoiding having his scalp raked off as he dove under the beast. The bear’s muscles immediately tensed again as it thrust itself down, trying to crush Kai under its weight. Once again, it was just a bit too slow, slamming into the earth in the moment after Kai slid out from under it.
Perfect. I’m glad this thing still isn’t nearly as smart as a human!
Kai leapt at the bear, digging his sword into its side and climbing on top of its huge body. A few small clouds of the dark mana were still hanging over the beast’s shoulders, but Kai paid them no heed.
Before the bear could roll or buck him off of its back, Kai shuffled over to stand just behind its shoulders before raising his sword. All of the mana in his body surged into the ruby blade, making the sword give off a faint ruby glow.
Far above, hanging in the slowly dimming evening sky, the moon seemed to glow brighter for a fraction of a second as Kai’s blade swept down toward the bear’s neck.
The ruby blade sliced through the bear’s impossibly tough hide and into its flesh before jarring to a halt. Kai didn’t waste any time examining the damage from the strike, instead pulling back the blade, leaping off the bear’s back, and immediately making a mad dash for the classrooms.
He wasn’t expecting to kill the bear with his attack. Even with all of his available mana put into a single strike, he knew that his chances of killing a tanky tier 2 beast were almost nil.
Please, formation, don’t be active!
Kai didn’t have enough time to run all of the way around to the side of the building to the window he normally used to enter the classrooms. He could only pray that he wouldn’t be cut clean in half by the potentially still active formation at the entrance of the building.
Kai ran through the doorway at full tilt, leaping over the pile of rubble left behind by the terror bird’s assault on the building. Nothing happened to him.
Yes! I’m safe-
CRASH!
The already partially demolished doorway behind Kai exploded into a cloud of rubble and dust as the huge figure of the bear dove after the young man. The formation no longer being active let Kai run in without harm, but it also meant that there was no longer anything to stop beasts from invading the classrooms, either.
Shit, what was I thinking?! If there's no formation, there's nothing to stop the bear either, and now it isn't just me I have to worry about!
“Brewan! There’s a tier 2 beast here!”
Kai ran further into the building, narrowly dodging a few chunks of bricks thrown up by the bear’s impact with the entrance. The bear only paused for a second before it started charging toward Kai again, its massive claws scratching deep grooves into the floor as it bounded forward.
“Stay away from the inner wall!”
Kai jumped into the sleeping room and ran toward where Brewan and Sydney were standing in the far corner. Behind him, the bear annihilated yet another wall, combining the classroom with the hallway.
“It’s a deep ursine, it has some kind of stealth magic!”
Kai’s eyes frantically scanned the cloud of dust created by the destruction of the classroom wall, but the bear was gone once again.
“What the hell is going on?!”
Brewan’s voice rapidly grew quieter as the mage fumbled through his robes, trying to grab his grimoire.
It’s using its magic on me again. We’re in such a tight space now, there’s hardly any room to dodge!
“Brewan, stay out of the way and protect Sydney. I’ll try to lure it away!”
Kai’s eyes flickered toward the window as he dashed to the far corner of the room from where Brewan was standing. They already had come up with plans for what to do if the classroom building was breached. There were still two more buildings on the campus with potentially still active formations, so their primary plan was to lure the beast to one of them.
Kai brandished his sword with his left hand, ready for the bear’s next attack. All of the sound in the world was already gone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Brewan’s mouth moving. He couldn’t hear anything, but his mind automatically tried to guess his words just based on the movement of his mouth.
“-- Can’t - hear —”
Shit, it might be targeting him too!
A huge black figure leapt out of the cloud of dust just a couple meters in front of Brewan, bearing down on the thin mage. It was way too quick for Kai to respond.
“Counter.”
A flash of golden light exploded in front of the bear, instantly dispelling both the bear’s magic and its charge. The beast’s massive frame was tossed to the side like a ragdoll, sending it crashing through the side of the classroom and back outside.
“It’s not dead. In my current state, I don’t think I can kill that thing. We need to run.”
Kai stared in shock for a moment, his eyes traveling back and forth between the newly created hole in the wall and the man who had just created it. Sydney, the critically injured student he and Brewan had been protecting and feeding for the last week, was back on his feet.
“Kai, catch! Halia is telling me to give her back to you.”
Kai put the ruby necklace back on and was immediately inundated with a torrent of messages from Halia.
[What were you thinking?! Why would you go outside without me checking the area for beasts first? Were you trying to get yourself killed?!]
[Also, this is a great opportunity. You need higher-quality mana to keep improving and getting stronger, and scoring a kill on a beast this strong will be huge!]
Kai struggled to organize his thoughts and Halia’s words in his mind as he ran back out into the hallway, with Brewan following him and Sydney limping behind.
“I already used all of my mana, and I barely managed to scratch that thing. Killing it is impossible, we’ll be lucky just to survive.”
[Fufu, or so you think.]
[Deep Ursine- Level 20]
[Sydney- Level 23]
[Even if this guy is still injured, he is still stronger than the bear. You just saw him knock it straight through a wall. Combined with your and Brewan’s teamwork, hunting this thing shouldn’t be that difficult!]