Feeling fear well up in me, I stepped back while trying to control my trembling. Behind me I heard Elizabeth screaming at the children to run away, Aubrey stood next to me, wide eyed while staring at this bear. As I watch, I see Bloom moving fast, slamming a fist into the side of the bear’s head, barely making an impact.

Angrily swiping at Bloom, he encases himself in a cocoon of Earth as he’s sent flying towards the ground, faster than he had arrived at the bear. Looking towards Amelia, I couldn’t tell if she was alive or not, but she’d been seriously injured. Before I could check on her, the bear roared loudly, swinging its head to look at us.

Looking at the beast properly, I could see it’s severely injured itself. Deep cuts ran along its body, weapons of all types lodged in various places around it, a long and deep gash ran from its jaw down to its chest. It’s bleeding heavily, panting for breath and its eyes looked desperate.

Even if it's heavily injured, could we fight such a thing? Bloom barely did anything with his punch, Amelia’s fate was unknown and I couldn’t see Leon. Feeling something grip my arm, I turn and see Aubrey, face pale while serious.

“We need to run! That thing is level 100!”

Before I could ask how she knew, I saw the bear raise its claw and pushing Aubrey behind me, I surged mana from deep within and reformed my Lunar Barrier, putting as much strength into where the claw was going to hit while also using Wind to push the two of us back. The children and adults from the orphanage were still escaping, but they had moved away.

Slamming into the barrier, the bear easily breaks it as I felt the backlash hit me, however it achieved what I needed, the bear’s attack had been delayed by half a second, enough to push Aubrey and I away. Feeling Alice gripping my head tightly, I knew she had kept safe as well. As we got up from being pushed back, I glanced at the bear to see it was still looking at us.

My first thought was to run, with my speed I could easily run now. Turning my head back, I could see everyone still trying to make their way through the debris, Elizabeth was behind me making sure they could run. Taking in my surroundings, I could see the street we had once been in was destroyed, the houses that had been there destroyed. The smell of blood ran strong, bodies littered the ground, people of all ages dead. The scene reminded me of Zalus, and the panic that had struck everyone.

Turning back to the bear that I could easily make out, I saw a giant shadow rise up from its flank and form into the head of a wolf and bite down heavily on the bear, trying to drag the bear down. The teeth of the shadow wolf broke when it tried to bite down hard, behind the shadow’s head I saw Leon, gritting his teeth with a hand pushed out.

Thinking of what to do, I knew now running wasn’t possible. If I took off now, I could be safe, but I’d abandon Elizabath and Aubrey. And even though I didn’t know them, Bloom, Amelia and Leon. The children too, those who had happy smiles while eating the food I had created for them. Gritting my teeth, I ran through the magic I knew, but the only thing that came to mind was Astral Glacial Spikes.

I had no other long distance spells, and punching this bear wouldn’t do anything. I could distract it to buy everyone time, I knew it was slow because of its injuries, but to what extent I didn’t know. Shaking off the thoughts of running, I turned to Aubrey and handed her Alice.

“Take everyone and leave. I’ll distract the bear until help gets here.” Seeing her about to speak, I shake my head. “I can use my speed to keep it distracted. If I ran now, I’d be abandoning everyone else, you and Elizabeth both. Go!”

Biting her lip, Aubrey gave me a deep stare as Alice cried out. Smiling and patting Alice to reassure her, I turned to Elizabeth who glared at me seriously.

“You tell me to run and I’ll kick your arse later.” Seeing her look, I knew if I said anything she would most likely chase me down later. Sighing, I nod at her as I form Astral Glacial Ice behind me and face the bear.

The shadow wolf’s head was slowly dissipating, and seeing Leon turn pale I knew he had seconds left. Hearing Elizabeth unsheathe her sword as she stood beside me. Pursuing my lips, I seriously hoped that Elizabeth wasn’t planning to try and block the bear’s attacks.

Aiming my spikes at the bear’s wounds, I threw them out as soon as I created them, gaining its attention very quickly as the shadow beast’s head fully dissipated. Seeing Leon kneeling then collapsing, I knew that attack had likely taken everything from him. My attacks had no effect at all, they slammed into the bear’s wounds but shattered on impact. It only served to anger it further.

Seeing the beast raise its claw once again, I launched myself with my wind below my feet and dodged the claw. Elizabeth meanwhile rolled backwards, narrowly dodging the attack. Keeping myself balanced in the air, I kept firing the spikes while the bear glared at me, swatting like I was an annoying insect. Forming a wind wall where the paw was coming from, I strongly push myself back at the same time as the nails on the bear’s claw miss me by an inch.

Landing softly next to Elizabeth, I grew worried. Using the Lunar Barriers earlier had drained nearly half my mana, and now using magic recklessly like this to dodge and launch attacks was using my mana quickly. I had about forty percent remaining, and with a thought I saw the System confirm that number.

I had to do something to slow this thing down. I didn’t know how long it would take for help to arrive, it could be any minute or a long wait, if I were to leave now however this beast would go on a rampage. I don’t know where it came from, only that it's here now, severely wounded and ready to kill. I knew the only reason why I was standing was because it had accumulated so many serious injuries that weakened it…

As I continued to narrowly dodge the beast, I adapted to its speed. Only a minute or two had passed since we started fighting it, Elizabeth had not been targeted; however, it seemed to only be aiming for me. I had expected this since I was attacking it, even though I knew nothing was coming out of those attacks, as long as I could keep dodging and distracting the beast, the others could escape.

However, reality is cruel. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, I had hoped that it would become weaker until we could all escape safely, but a monster that’s on the verge of death doesn’t just allow itself to die so easily. As I dodged another claw that slammed down where I had previously stood, I saw it raise its other paw and swipe at me while I’m midair.

Its speed had increased several times this time, a look of annoyance, anger and desperation shone from its eyes. Surprised at the speed, I barely reacted in time, clumsily dodging by blowing myself backwards hard with Wind magic, not even being able to use a wall of wind to soften the blow or landing. A sharp stinging pain came from my right leg as I crashed into the remains of the orphanage.

Moving wood aside as I slowly got up, I felt my entire back bruised and cut. Feeling slightly dizzy from the blowback of both my Wind magic and the bear’s attack, I go to stand, but fall forward, slamming into the ground face first. Groaning, I lift myself into a sitting position and look down at my legs.

My mind goes blank as I see my right leg, from just below the knee, had been cut off. The bear’s last attack…did it take my leg off that easily. Watching as it bled out, I helplessly looked up to see the bear once again looking at me as it swung a claw at me again. Facing it, I felt an intense hatred within…why is it I’m never strong enough?!

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Time slowed down as I saw the claw coming towards me as in that moment, I felt something grip the collar of my shirt from behind before it threw me backwards. Watching in horror once again, I saw Elizabeth move me away from the spot I was before, the claw catches her arm while I’m moved away from the attack. She gets sent flying from my vision, blood spurting from where her arm had been.

Not again…why?! Why must you protect me like this, Elizabeth?! Falling onto my back, I try to get up, to find Elizabeth, but I can’t stand, I can only sit here, trying to see where she went, the only thing in front of me is her arm…Feeling danger coming from above, I glance up.

I saw the bear looking down at me in anger before a loud shout distracted it again. Trying to crane my neck to see where the shout had come from, a massive spike of earth slammed into the bear's side. Shattering on impact, it became obvious it was like everything else thrown at it. Seeing the bear turn towards whoever created the earthen spike, I didn’t know what to do. Everything we threw at this beast failed to do anything, I’m low on mana, Elizabeth’s life or death is unknown, everyone was still trying to escape…

All the sound around me started disappearing as I tuned it out. My mind became tranquil as I stared at the bear. It became the only thing I could focus on as a thought floated in my mind. We were all going to die, regardless of what we did. If we were all going to die, I wanted to at least let this bastard feel a hit.

Closing my eyes, I sensed the energies that swirled within me. Lunar magic and Astral Ice magic. For some reason I knew Wind magic wouldn’t combine with these two magicks and Lightning magic was something I barely understood. Feeling the magic and mana within my stir, they slowly combined…however it felt like something was missing, again something was out of my reach.

Drawing both energies around me into myself, I started building up as much as I could, and using mana as a medium I tried over and over again to combine both of them. I needed something, a spell that used my all to hit this bastard, and just using one type of magic won’t do anything.

Getting frustrated, I felt something land on my shoulder, and opening my eyes, I found Alice staring at me, her head tilted. I could feel my surroundings absolutely freezing because of the Astral Ice magicI’m drawing in, as well as lit up like the moon due to the Lunar magic. Alice nudged her head on my cheek, perhaps she had sensed my feelings of desperation…

Suddenly, I felt the link between us strengthen, as a flow of magic came from her. Widening my eyes, I could tell it was Darkness magic…Feeling an inspiration, I once again closed my eyes and using my mana once again, I started to slowly weave all three types of magic when it struck me.

The darkness of night, the brightness of the stars and moon and the coldness of what was beyond the stars. I knew this wasn’t what made up the night sky completely, but the inspiration is there…Letting the feeling take a hold of me, I slowly weaved the energies together while pulling in as much as I could. I felt Alice getting weak, but she nudged me to keep going.

I felt everything combine into a new magic, one I didn’t know. The power in this magic terrified me, this isn’t something I should be able to use. Opening my eyes, I pointed a finger towards the distracted beast as a huge surge of magic came towards me as I continued building a spell. This magic was too powerful, I could feel my body being torn from within because of the strength of it.

Biting down on my lip till it bled, I focused as much as I could as the magic continued to run wild within my body. Feeling someone embrace me from behind, I felt a soothing coolness come from them, helping calm me down as this new magic got slightly easier to control and direct. Taking a breath, I tried to visualise the spell I wanted to form, but something within told me it would form even if I didn’t visualise it.

Focusing on the finger I had raised, a massive magic circle twice the size of the bear appeared before me. I couldn’t make out the details of this magic circle, but I knew it was beyond my understanding. I also knew that this was bad, I needed to focus this magic into a single point, not blast it like this. Doing something I hadn’t done before, I focused on condensing the magic. The magic circle shrunk quickly, however the smaller it got the more my body screamed in protest.

I felt changes happening to my body, good and bad. I could feel my mana links burning out as I pushed this new magic, my mana realm trembled so much that I felt pain deep within and my nose bled heavily. My vision blurred from the pain and I barely held onto my consciousness.

“Alisha…hurry, I can’t keep this up.” Hearing Aubrey’s soft voice, I roared loudly, focusing on condensing the magic circle as the surroundings froze completely, the glow of silver shone brightly and the darkness around me deepened. The magic circle shrunk to the size of my fingernail, directly in front of my finger as I felt my ears rapture, the corner of my eyes bleed and my mana veins burn out.

The bear turns to me and stares at me in fear for the first time. It raises a claw, but at the same time a snake made from shadows wraps around it. The strength of the bear shattered the snake, but it held it for half a second, all I needed as I released the magic with a whispered word.

“Midnight.”

For a moment, everything in my vision lost its colour as a small silver dot shot out from the magic circle, and as my vision darkened, I saw it slam into the bear’s head. Feeling my body dying, I wanted to at least see what the spell did before my death, but before I could, my vision completely faded as I lost my consciousness. A voice rings out in my mind as I fade…”Well done.”

***

Stirring, I heard muffled voices. The pain was unbearable. I couldn’t understand anything, I couldn’t see anything…Hearing voices shout, I felt my body leave the ground as pain shot through my entire body…I passed out again.”

***

My eyelids are heavy, straining myself as I awoke, I slowly lifted them. My vision was blurry, mind groggy. I made out a hooded figure that held a blue gem to my chest. It was completely dark…strange, my eyes should remove the darkness. The figure turns its head to me, a gasp sounds out from it before it moves a finger to its lips before pointing that finger at me as I feel my mind fall to slumber once again.

***

Once again, I stir awake, opening my eyelids. Above me is a roof I didn’t recognise, all white in colour. Trying to remember what happened, I recall what happened. Elizabeth, Alice and Aubrey…the children and Bloom’s team…the bear.

Gasping, I remember Elizabeth had been hit by the bear, where is she?! Trying to sit up, my body was heavy, too heavy but I didn’t care. Sitting up as quickly as I could from the bed I laid in, my mind was confused, but all I needed to do was find her…find Elizabeth…she’s alive right?!

Trying to stand, I fell forward and slammed face first into the ground. Recalling that I had lost my leg, I looked down but saw my leg was there…but it didn’t feel right, it was weak. I heard voices of surprise and footsteps come towards me in a hurry.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up and started crawling, trying to use the bed to stand. Looking around, I couldn’t make out where I was at all, the room wasn’t familiar. I was completely naked, but that didn’t matter, standing I tried walking as voices came from my right. Looking towards them, my blurry vision couldn’t make them out at all, all I knew was they wore all white.

Seeing one of them reach out, I panicked. Raising my hand, I summoned Astral Glacial Spikes as the white figure stopped reaching out to me. Backing off with his hands raised, I ignored him while I tried to call out Elizabeth’s name, but my throat was so dry that the only noise that came out was a hoarse voice.

Looking around, I could make out a door as I tried to move towards it, but my right leg was too weak, causing me to stumble and fall again. Groaning, I tried to crawl towards the door as it opened. Trying to get to my feet again, a figure came from the door, a familiar one that reached out to me. Scared, I tried to dodge but they grabbed me too quickly.

“Calm down, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

Struggling, I tried to release this person's grip on me. I needed to find Elizabeth, trying to speak again only a croak came out as I felt tears fall. Feeling the figure embrace me, it kept whispering the same words over and over, that it’s okay and everything was fine. Trying to push them away, they didn’t budge as a magic washed over me, causing my body to go limp.

Unable to move, I felt myself being picked up and carried, before being laid down on the bed. A fatigue overcame me as I resisted, I couldn’t sleep now. Seeing the figure once again looking at me from above, my vision slowly cleared as I made out who it was…Elise.