I hope that the other bear is not more dangerous than an 13CCC monster.
> (Eula, how can you say that those hunters can’t defeat that dangerous bear?)
>
> [It’s not that they can’t defeat it. It is that the village will be destroyed in the process. Isn’t that the same as losing or having the mission failed?]
Besides some of them are probably hungry. Fighting it will be much harder. If only I’ve considered that this will happen, then I should have used another preserved food for the hunters yesterday.
> (I agree. Say Eula, will you also teach me those chanting that they do?)
>
> [No, spells are a weaker form of magic. While it is better as you don’t have to utilize mana, it is very inefficient and chanting makes the casting take longer.]
>
> (I assume that they can’t properly utilize mana.)
>
> [Maybe. It is likely that they can’t concentrate on utilizing their mana while being engaged in battle. So, they heavily rely on chants.]
Many things are wasted if spells are used instead of magic.
> [But there are times that spells are more useful than magic. Just don’t worry about it for now.]
>
> (I don’t really get the difference between magic and spell, also the difference between spell and chant. But more importantly, what’s the plan?)
>
> [Let me use my left eye.]
If I am correct, then that dangerous bear should be around at this direction.
> [The arrow should point around the location of that bear. We need to battle it as soon as possible. The bear is approaching the village fast.]
>
> (Tracking magic?)
>
> [No, I am the one controlling where the arrow points. It is more convenient than telling you the direction of the bear.]
>
> (How do we defeat it?)
>
> [You need to avoid getting hurt, while I will be attacking it using magic.]
Right now, he is controlling my body and I am only controlling my mana. This means that I more room to concentrate in manipulating my mana.
> [If you can learn the magic during the battle, then you can try defeating it by yourself.]
>
> (It depends. Saving the villagers is the priority this time.)
>
> [Well said.]
>
> (But can you create or conjure a tool? I want to use it to defend myself if necessary or attack it if I found an opening.)
I see. He wants a weapon.
> [I can. What type of weapon do you want?]
>
> (Can it be anything?)
>
> [It depends. But remember that large and complicated weapons use more mana. Do you even know how to use weapons?]
>
> (Maybe, but defending myself can be easy enough. Can it withstand the attack of the bear though?)
>
> [I can’t say about stopping the attack completely, but I can guarantee it will weaken the force of it. It depends on how you use the weapon and how much mana I used to maintain it.]
>
> (Then, a long stick should be good enough.)
>
> [How long?]
>
> (About my body’s height.)
I did conjure the stick. But, I can’t believe what I saw. The stick is taller than my body by a lot. I can’t determine the difference because he is running towards the bear. But if I were to extend my hands upwards, then his height is as far as the middle of my forearm.
To conserve my mana, I make the weapon disappear.
> (You are truly small. How old are you?)
>
> [16 years old. Sorry if I am small, okay. I am still growing.]
>
> (I am seventeen. At least you are mature at your age.)
This is the first time someone called me mature. I’m so glad right now.
> [Hehe… Thanks.]
>
> (Is that the bear?)
I set aside my happy thoughts for now and focused on his point of view. I see a bear very far away.
> [Yes, it is the origin.]
Right now, Nathan is inside the forest and the bear is in the plains, running. He makes the right decision of ambushing it in the woods. While it is riskier, we can also use it to our advantage.
The bear will arrive in about seven minutes.
> [Be very careful. My lowest estimation about that bear is a 4DD rank. My highest estimation should be 10B rank.]
>
> (Uh… That is how you rank the monsters?)
>
> [Yes, Letter rank signifies how dangerous the abilities of a monster as a threat. Lowest letter rank is F, then FF, then FFF, then E and so on and so forth. By the way the highest is ZZZ rank.]
>
> (How many letters are there?)
>
> [Ten. Basically, thirty ranks.]
>
> (Ooohh! That's a lot! Is that even necessary? You can reduce it to makes things easier.)
>
> [It is necessary. It makes the difficulty of the monster more distinguishable, thus it may prevent more losses during the mission.]
>
> (How about the number besides the letter?)
>
> [Number rank is how we classify the intelligence of the monster. It also has thirty ranks.]
>
> (So the IQ of the monster... Isn't thirty too low?)
>
> [Not really, if you combine the number rank and the letter rank, then you get the real threat of the monster. Well, there is still the rarity ranking but the threat only increases under special circumstances which may not apply for now.]
>
> (Let me guess. Rarity rank also has thirty ranks.)
>
> [I don't know, it is still being studied.]
>
> (That's unsatisfying, so what about the rank of the bear that the hunters were fighting earlier?)
>
> [2EE Rank.]
>
> (How about the strongest monster you can beat?)
>
> [13CCC Rank. Don’t be confident though, the bear is still very far so my estimation can be off a lot.]
*Ding* *Dong*
> [What is that?]
>
> (What is it?)
>
> [There is a noise here in your room.]
*Ding* *Dong*
> [I heard it again. Do you hear it?]
*Di-Dong* *Di-Dong*
> (That’s the doorbell. Go in front of the entrance and peek through the glass in the door there.)
>
> Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
So, I did what he said and saw a boy and a girl. Looks like they noticed me.
> [Nathan, I’ll do the fighting. Let’s swap back for now.]
>
> (No, I’ll do the talking. You do what you want.)
>
> [No! I can’t. They might get suspicious.]
>
> (They won’t. Trust me. They will think that it is another of my behaviors. You can ignore them if you want. There are times that I do that.)
Someone suddenly shouted from outside.
> “****, Nathan”
>
> “Wah!”
I opened the door out of reflex. I know I heard Nathan’s name.
> (So, they called you. What do you want to say?)
>
> [I don’t know. I really can’t handle this so please. You handle this.]
>
> (Don’t worry. I’ll translate everything for you and I will do the talking. If it is something serious, then we’ll swap. You just need to act like you always do.)
>
> [I will remember this.]
>
> (Come on. We will live in each other’s life, so this can be a great start.)
The girl on the left starts speaking.
> “****”
This is like the time when I don't know how to use a translation magic. This time though, I can't.
> (So, the girl on the left said “Why do you look flustered today?” How do you want to reply?)
>
> [Make up some excuse maybe.]
>
> (That may be a good thing to say, but what excuse will you say to her.)
>
> [I don’t know. You don’t even do anything that can be used as an excuse.]
>
> (You are bad at this.)
>
> [SHUT UP!]
The boy on the right said something,
> “****”
Now what did he say?
> (“Heeeey, you okay man?” says the boy.)
>
> [Who are these persons anyway?]
>
> (The girl is Michiru Suzuki. The boy is Jay Vee Alvarez.)
They start speaking again. I can't take this anymore, it's too much.
> “****”
>
> [Hey Nathan!]
…
> “****”
>
> “****”
>
> [Nathan?]
Nathan became silent. What is going on?
> “****”
I spoke something, or Nathan has.
> (Let’s swap.)
We did swap. His tone is very dark when he send those thoughts. I don't know if I have to be relieved that I don't need to talk anymore or be worried that something is going on.
> [If you have time to spare, feel free to watch how I battle using my mana.]
>
> (Yeah, I know.)
>
> [I don’t know what happened. But we are sharing each other lives now, so never forget I am always be watching.]
>
> (Thanks.)
…
Only one minute until the ambush. It looks like I will have a hard time. The bear can give me some trouble. But I am worried that the bear runs non-stop, it can mean that there is a monster chasing it. There is nothing on the sky which means the monster could be underground.
I am worried about sensing no magic underground. There are three possible reasons: First, the monster is too powerful without magic that even a bear which can use magic runs for its life. Second, the monster is too intelligent to know how to conceal its mana. Third, I overestimated the bear to be powerful and instead just weaker than the monster.
I hope it is not the second reason. Intelligence is more troublesome than dangerous in this scenario.
Thirty seconds until the ambush. I stopped observing Nathan at this point and focus on the battle. I don’t understand what is going on in his world right now. Except for the fact that I know that he grabbed a weapon. I don’t know his circumstances, but all I can say for now is…
> [Nathan, take care.]
>
> (Be careful, Eula. I will try to help once I am finished here.)
>
> [I’ll be waiting.]
>
> (I’ll tell you what is going on at the right time. This is supposed to be a plot twist. I assumed that they will arrive much later in the story.)
>
> [Well, life is full of inconveniences, or just blame the author.]
>
> (I sure will.)
I am glad he is lightened up.
> [Talk to you later.]
>
> (Yeah, bye for now.)
…
I activated the traps. The first trap worked. The next two doesn’t work. I can say right now that its number rank is at least 8. If only I can put pitfall traps, then it could probably work, but it is too risky in this situation.
The bear have seen me. Let’s test it using a ‘blast’ I charged beforehand.
I can only use ten percent of my mana if I want to conceal myself. So, I can store 16 perfectly utilized ‘bar’ before doing an ambush. In this case, I managed to store 12. Three of those are already converted to ‘blast’.
I fired a ‘blast’. The bear avoids it by jumping sideways. I fired another ‘blast’ in the middle of its jump. The bear use its paw to defend against the attack.
I can only launch 3 ‘blast’ this time since some of my concentration are put towards charging more ‘bar’. It may be good launch another ‘blast’ but it is risky. If the bear uses a magic, I have no way to defend it. I can avoid it, but the bear could easily follow up by lunging at me. I may need to use ‘touch blast’ to defend against its magic.
It is safer to prepare a huge amount of ‘blast’ and ‘bar’ then go all out.
I braced myself to its attack.
The bear lunges at me using both its claw to reach me. The bear is faster than the ordinary bear in the field. But for me, its speed can only be a joke. I am lucky it decided to not use magic, I can performed a counter-attack.
I launched a ‘blast’ to the bear’s face. It defends using its right paw, so I dodged to that direction. I used this opportunity to convert three ‘bar’ into ‘blast’.
From 9 ‘bar’ and 3 ‘blast’, all ‘blast’ were used but I charged up 2 ‘bar’. When I finished converting 3 ‘bar’ to 3 ‘blast’, I charged another 3 ‘bar’, so I now have 11 ‘blast’ and ‘3’ bar.
It means, I can gather 2 ‘bar’ safely if this continues. This is the limit of my concentration for now.
Wait, the bear doesn’t turn around to fight me. I forgot that it is being chased. No wonder it didn’t even bother to stop or use magic, so I hurriedly run towards it.
I stopped charging ‘bar’ and converted 2 ‘bar’ and 2 ‘blast’ to 3 ‘touch blast’. I have room to charge but I need to stop the bear’s movement. It may retaliate using magic this time so I need to concentrate more. I only have 9 ‘bar’ remaining.
Using my left foot, I activated ‘touch blast’ on the ground which gained me a lot of speed, but it is not enough to reach the bear.
Using my right foot, I activated ‘touch blast’ again on the ground. It is enough to reach the bear so I pounced at it, but it noticed me.
I expect it to use magic and it did launched a ‘blast’ at me. I used ‘touch blast’ to swat its ‘blast’ downwards and launched ‘blast’ to its front leg. It staggered a little bit.
With no ‘blast’ or ‘touch blast’ to maintain. Mid-air, I fully concentrated on converting 4 ‘bar’ to ‘reinforced touch blast’. I am in a hurry so I accidentally wasted 1 ‘bar’ when converting. I only have 4 ’bar’ remaining.
Looks like the bear also planned to launch another ‘blast’. But before it could launch it, I hit its back using ‘reinforced touch blast’ with my hand as I landed on it. That force, combined with me falling, stopped the bear in its tracks. I converted 1 ‘bar’ into ‘pierce’ and used it against the bear leading to its death.
> (That fight with the bear is anti-climactic. I'm disappointed)
>
> [It is not over yet. How about you?]
>
> (Are you not watching me?)
>
> [No, I need to fully concentrate on this battle. There might be another monster.]
>
> (Good luck then. I am about to start here.)
>
> [I’ll be waiting.]
Still worried about the chaser, I left the bear as a bait trap and fully concentrated on charging more ‘bar’. I am now hiding besides a tree.
…
*Rumble*
I'm sure that it's not my stomach. Here comes the monster.
Is that a fin? Yes. It is a land shark. What is this monster doing here?
It is approaching the bear fast. This battle, I have 47 ‘bar’. This may be enough so I stopped charging.
Since I stopped charging, I have room to concentrate for more prepared magic. I converted 4 ‘bar’ into 4 ‘blast’. 1 ‘bar’ into ‘touch blast’. 1 ‘bar’ into ‘pierce’. I only have 41 ‘bar’ remaining.
The land shark bit the dead bear, but before it even touched the bear. I succeeded on hitting it with ‘piercing blast’ at its right side. The ‘piercing blast’ is a combination of 1 ‘blast’ and 1 ‘pierce’.
The land shark saw me. It is very huge that I can let it swallow me whole and kill it from the inside. I can’t do it. It is disgusting.
The land shark is now approaching me. It is actually slower than the bear. I doubt that this is its true ability. It opens its mouth as it gets closer. I launched a ‘blast’ at its opened mouth and another ‘blast’ slightly left where I aimed the previous ‘blast’. I braced myself to avoid its bite.
!
It is a magic eater. It ate both of my ‘blast’. Looks like I can only hit it at its side or back.
I can estimate that the land shark is around 3BB rank.
*Rumble*
No! There is another land shark. It is approaching me from my right. I have no choice but to dodge to my left. The land shark in front of me is also shifting its direction to the left.
I used ‘touch blast’ with my foot to evade both of its attack. Instead of doing a counter attack. I only have enough time to convert 2 ‘bar’ into 2 ‘touch blast’ and 1 ’bar’ into ‘touch pierce’.
I only have 38 ‘bar’, 1 ‘blast’, 2 ‘touch blast’, and 1 ‘touch pierce’.
Are those land sharks a couple? I can only tell that there genders are different. But since its attacks are coordinated. Both its number rank is at least 7. This is too dangerous.
The wounded land shark is the male. The other one is the female. I suppose.
> (Well, I know that you are seeing this as a flash back later in the story. So, hi future viewers.)
>
> [SHUT UP!]
>
> (Sorry.)
Right now, I may need to do that just to defeat it. I don’t want to do that. Our connection is important…
Both land sharks are in front of me. The male shark jumps from the ground to lunge at me. The female shark hides on the ground. How do they plan to pincer me?
I stepped out of the way of its lunge but it suddenly turns its body. Its plan is to hit me with its tail fin. It is a success.
> “Ugh!”
I am thrown far and hit a tree. As expected from a BB Rank.
*Rumble*
!
I used the just created ‘touch blast’ to jump very far. As expected, the female shark suddenly appeared from the ground to bite me.
It is very strong that it actually bit the tree like a soft bread. I hope it does not happen to me.
I only have 37 ‘bar’, 1 ‘blast’, 2 ‘touch blast’, and 1 ‘touch pierce’.
This situation, I can only fight with a draw until I ran out of mana. What should I do?
So, the battle continued. Not one of us is able to heavily damage the other. The land shark even tried the same maneuver as before, but I am not surprised anymore. I am able to dodge its attack.
I only have 3 ‘bar’, 1 ‘touch blast’, and 1 ‘touch pierce’. I don’t have room to charge more ‘bar’. Once my ‘bar’ runs out. I will escape.
> (Eula! Can we swap now? I am very excited.)
>
> [You finally arrived. I need to explain the situation first.]
>
> (Don’t worry. I am running back home when I am watching the fight with the sharks.)
>
> [Well, let’s swap now and let me use my mana.]
We swapped. Right now, I don’t have to worry about dodging so I can fully concentrate in utilizing my mana.
> (That damage from that single hit is extremely painful.)
>
> [Well, both monsters is around 7BB rank. The male is even a magic eater. The female shark is not though.]
I used one ‘blast’ at its mouth to test it and found out that it is not a magic eater.
> (How did you know?)
>
> [I’ll tell you later. The male is the one wounded though.]
>
> (So, what’s the plan?)
>
> [There is the only one way in this situation.]
I am sorry Nathan.