From the darkness outside the camp, an enormous figure slowly stepped into the light. Walking on all fours it was still five meters tall, with its snout twisted into a ferocious grimace, its head was completely covered in bone, looking almost like a helmet, the bones ran further down its body, covering its spine and sides in plates of bone armor. Around it a dense red aura sprawled out onto the ground, sending chills down the spines of anyone looking at it.

“Shit it’s an Armored Ursen, get the piercing bolts, or we won’t do shit to it, back off, don't engage it directly if you value your lives!”

Mark looked at the man speaking and found the back section guard leader. He was a man in his thirties, and though he still could not contend with Ursus, the Lieutenant from Pharia, or rather the member of Kingdom’s Enforcers, he was still pretty formidable, standing at two meters in height and wielding a war sword.

Still looking back at the oversized bear that just crashed through two carriages willed with supplies, like it was nothing, he didn’t think he would be able to do much, well, looking at his two daggers, he felt they wouldn’t do that much either, he picked up his bow and strung it up in a second, taking out two arrows he started charging up his Stamina.

Next to him Donny already stood up, doing the same thing, after a few days of training he was also able to learn Charged Arrow, though, as soon as the Stamina started increasing to dangerous levels, it seemed the Ursen felt something because he instantly turned to the two of them and with a grand roar charged straight at them, the aura around him, seeping into his body, giving him a sudden burst of momentum. It would take at most a couple of seconds before he was upon them.

“Aim at the left eye, now.”

With that, both of them released their arrows, Donny’s arrow flew straight at the creature's left eye, while Mark’s arrows split, one flying towards the bear’s second eye, while the other flew lower, aiming for its heart. With a big explosion of green energy, the bear was obscured for a moment, not waiting to see the result of their attack, they both dived to the sides, knowing that even if they damaged the bear, its momentum would still hurl the body toward them.

After a brief moment, the flash of light disappeared, showing the creature. Its head was now completely covered in bone armor, hiding its eyes. The bone looked a little cracked and blackened but was otherwise unharmed. The arrow that hit it in the chest was a completely different story. When it focused on protecting its eyes, it missed the second arrow, and it hit it squarely in the chest, pulverizing a big chunk of its flesh, though Mark noticed that it couldn’t penetrate any deeper, stopping at just flesh.

The bear roared in pain, and uncovering its eyes from the bone armor it turned towards the first person that could wound it in a long time. Even more of the red fog seeped into its body and with a speed unthinkable for a body this size it hurtled toward Mark. Seeing as the Ursen’s speed was way too fast to effectively kite it around, especially with all the people around, Mark dropped his bow.

Drawing his daggers, he decided how well their enchantments worked, so far he didn’t meet anyone he would even have to use it on, seeing as usually one, or two slashes did the job, but with something this size and level, he would just carve it apart bit by bit, while frying it from the inside.

The Ursen was already smirking, and snarling, seeing the prey before it stands in place with two little pinpricks as its only weapons, drawing even more Might into its body it slashed at the puny human with its claws, bisecting him in half. But the moment its paw swished through the air, where the prey was standing just a second ago, it was no longer there, shocked it froze, quickly looking around when it felt a jolt of pain from its neck.

Roaring the Ursen, threw its body to the side, dislodging the human who appeared on its back out of nowhere, once again slashing at the falling man, but when it was about to hit, he once again vanished midair, only to once again appear at its other side, slashing its throat a second time.

Now it was absolutely furious, how dare such a weakling toy with it, how dare he play tricks. In one big move, it absorbed all the Might remaining and stood on its hind legs, slamming its two paws into the ground, creating a shockwave around itself. The ground trembled a dozen meters around it, throwing all the people around it to the ground, all but one.

The moment the Ursen made such a big move, it was obvious what it was planning, Mark Blinked out of the range.

“Look for opportunities, to aim at its eyes, it will instinctively cover-up, and for a brief moment lose sight.”

Donny quickly scampered up, grabbed his bow, and started once again charging his arrow. By that time the other guards finally managed to grab their enchanted bolts and load their War Crossbows.

The bear looked like it once again felt the gathering of energy and turned to Donny to charge and stop him from attacking, but it forgot about Mark, with only enough mana for one last Blink, he decided to use his combination of Bolster, Quick Step and Pierce, dashing up to the bear and stabbing both his daggers into a laceration he opened earlier, and for the first time he was able to observe the full power of his newly upgraded ability.

Instantly blood gushed out of the wound in a fountain, covering Mark in the beast's ichor, while a sudden spasm ran through the bear's body, not wasting this opportunity, Donny sent his Charged Arrow for the Ursen’s eye. The best still seized up and was unable to protect itself. With a boom, the arrow lodged itself in its right eye.

Still, the bear roaring and thrashing in pain didn’t look any worse for wear. But noticing the fly running around it was suddenly posing much more danger it threw its body to the side, ramming into Mark’s body and sending him flying a few meters back.

Donny seeing this, gathered his mana, they needed something to pin the bear down, so they could damage it sufficiently. Quickly he threw all but one point of mana into his connection and out of thin air, his Spirit Guardian materialized. Without delay, it threw itself towards the offending beast and clamping its jaws around its scruff, catching the spine armor, it jerked its head, throwing the bear off balance.

Not wasting this opportunity, Mark dashed up to the now exposed neck, and once again used his Pierce combo into the now much bigger, gaping wound, sending another spray of blood.

“Clear for the volley.”

Hearing the Guard captains shout, he dashed back, just in time to dodge the thirty bolts glowing in blue flying into the bear's underbelly. But the monster’s constitution was too robust, even after suffering all those wounds, it jerked its body back, dislodging the Spirit holding it in place and slamming both of its paws down, crashing the much more frail Gart’s ribcage.

With a howl of pain, the wolf lost most of his energy, becoming almost fully translucent, with its last breath caught the already grizzled throat and yanked with all its remaining strength, dissipating into the air once again.

Everyone around was terrified, how could it still move after all the damage it has already sustained, it was illogical.

Seeing the situation Mark gathered all the remaining fire spirits on the blades’ edges and teleported under the bear's maw, sending more stamina out for another Pierce. The daggers' blades glowed in a furious golden glow, and the daggers swished through the air, stabbing into its flesh with a roar of fire, Mark let go of the daggers and instantly backed off as an explosion of flame erupted from the wound.

The Ursen stood in place, its eyes ferociously staring into Mark. Slowly they lost their luster, and gradually the body inched to the right, to finally hit the ground with a big thump, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

Finally, all the people around took a deep gulp of air, finally able to breathe again, for a moment there they all thought, the beast was invincible.

The captain walked over to Mark who was now cleaning his blades from the charred blood sticking to it. It would seem that using the enchantment on its maximum output was not a good idea, the explosion made it hard to hold onto your weapons, and losing your weapons in the middle of a fight was one of the biggest sins you could commit.

“You are one hell of a fighter, young man, I have seen a spectacle like that one only a couple of times in my life, truly impressive. At first, I thought the village folk are way too backward for revering you as their Hero after killing some random Bandit Boss, but now I have to say, I was wrong. If not for you, maybe dozens would have died before we were able to put the bloody beast down.”

“No matter, I am traveling with the caravan anyways, and I am taking the bear as my loot anyway, so there is no need for thanks. Oh, right. you don't have any trouble with me taking it, right?”

Mark could clearly see the hesitation on the guy’s face. He guessed the body must be extremely valuable just by the power level of the beast, but in the end, the captain could only smile bitterly.

“Of course, it’s yours, it was killed mostly by you anyways, the bolt didn’t seem to do that much to it, consider it my gratitude for saving so many of my boys today, now if you excuse me, someone has to take care of all this mess.”

The camp was in disarray, though Mark stopped the beast at the edge of the camp, there still were casualties, the guys on the night watch on top of the barricade were dead, and many people who were camping just by the edge were either wounded or dead too, Mark estimated, at least four to six people were dead, and depending on the healers available maybe two or three wouldn’t make it till morning.

But it didn’t have anything to do with him, he was exhausted, with the hunt earlier in the day and the Ursen attack, he had already depleted most of his mana and stamina, and his body was barely moving. He walked over to Donny and seeing the boy mostly unharmed, he decided to rest a little.

“Take the first watch, you can wake me up in four hours.”

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