Sam took a moment to use his Dao skill, but to his surprise, nothing happened. All of the monsters were marked as being neutral in his vision, which he supposed made sense because they had never had an opportunity to do anything that would be considered evil.
He canceled the skill, cursing the loss of mana, and returned to melee combat. His machete quickly showed that it was not up to the challenge and by the fifth hyena, it had snapped in half. He kept the handle because it was connected to a jagged piece of metal, but found no use for it now. Sam was forced to tear at the hyenas with his hands, until he realized that he could use his mana shield skill as a bludgeon. With his hands covered in blue energy, he cracked skulls and broke bones with every swing of his fists.
Jeffrey ran out of ammunition eventually and he was forced to use the shotgun as a club. He was less powerful than Sam, so he took more damage and after 15 minutes, he was limping.
For the first time since the System came, Sam was reaching the limits of his stamina bar. A feeling of heaviness started to come over him as he continuously attacked and he fought to overcome it. The rats seemed to have his back and as he finished off one of the hyenas, the rats took care of one that had snuck up behind him. There were still many of these hyenas left alive and the other rats moved towards them, and Sam followed suit. Jeffrey and Rax joined in as well and together they wiped out the hyena horde.
When the last of the hyenas breathed its last, they heard a deep rumbling roar come from the dark cave entrance. A crash shook the dungeon as something struck the ground. A massive paw extended outwards from the shadow and onto the ground. The rest of the body followed and a titanic bear stepped out of the gloom. It let out a deafening roar and stared its enemies down.
The rats chittered and ran en masse towards the bear. It snarled at them and then opened its mouth. It continued to open past the point that a normal mouth would and a small ball of roiling energy started to grow in it. With a thunderous roar, a solid mass of reddish energy expanded outwards in a half dome. When it struck the rats, they were atomized instantly and only a few made it through. They leaped up in the air and sank their teeth into the bear, to little effect. It jumped forwards and rolled, crushing the rats beneath its bulk. Then, with the nuisances extinguished, it turned its gaze towards Sam and his companions.
There was a small spark of intelligence in the bear’s eyes and it looked at them for longer than a mere animal would have. Sam felt a crawling sensation inch its way up his back and the reddish glow of the bear’s eyes brightened. Then a change took over the bear. One of its legs lengthened into a whip-like appendage, another one sunk into itself, revealing a cannon-like limb that immediately clicked into place, a ball of condensed blood forming inside it. The tail of the bear fell off and it started to writhe on the ground, knotting itself into the shape of a small creature. The bear growled again and pushed off of the ground with its back legs, propelling itself at speeds that belied its size.
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Sam charged forwards and jumped as the snout of the bear came near, landing on top of its head. It started to shake in order to pry him off, but Sam doggedly held on with his free hand. He raised the jagged half of the machete up and sent it crashing down. Rather than cutting into the head of the bear, the machete finally gave up the ghost and shattered into a million shards on its head. Sam sat there for a moment, and cursed. The bear seemed to have lost interest in him and it dashed towards Jeffrey. The man screamed in terror and threw himself into a hasty roll. The back leg of the bear caught him and sent him into the air. Jeffrey let out a scream that was cut off when he struck the ground.
Sam winced, but the other man seemed fine and Sam continued to lay into the bear with his fists. Rax and the tail beast went at it with each other and the herpetopede was giving it as good as he got. His opponent was hard pressed to deal with the many pairs of claw tipped legs that Rax had and it writhed in pain as it took multiple claw slashes. It seemed to have some sort of resistance to damage on account of its unique nature, but Rax was doing a good job of whittling it down.
The bear let out a growl of annoyance and pointed its cannon at Jeffrey, and Sam was treated to a comical sight, as the bird man made a grotesque facial expression. The cannon went off and the bear jerked backwards as a spring-like mass of ligaments propelled the ball of blood forwards. It sped through the air, at a speed not quite that of a bullet, but quite close. Jeffrey was just about able to dodge, but it cracked open on the ground, raining a mist of blood on the area around it.
Jeffrey screamed as a drop of blood touched him and ate away at his flesh.The bear chortled in mirth and reached up with its elongated claw, slashing at Sam. He only just got his hands up in time and he used his shield skill to blunt the damage of the bear. It cracked through his skill almost immediately, but rather than being pulverized by the attack, he only suffered a few broken ribs. He rolled on the ground as he landed only to be struck by the claw of the bear, sending him into the air and away from the battle.
As he got up with a groan, he saw the bear standing over Jeffrey with its claw pressing into him. It seemed to smile as it pressed down slowly, exulting in the pain that it caused him. Sam roared in anger and used his skill, seeing that the bear was covered in a mass of rolling black energy. It had made a mistake by acting in such a manner around Sam and his skill triggered.
His body filled with energy as he charged the bear and he uppercutted it with a mana coated fist. Its jaw slammed shut with a crash, sending flecks of blood flying. The sound of cracking teeth echoed over the dungeon as the bear tottered backwards and Sam followed up with a devastating kick to its stomach. That did the trick and it fell over backwards where Sam pounced at it, with his fingers curled into a claw. Where his machete had failed, he succeeded and his hand sunk deep into the eyeball of the bear. He thrust his hand down and grabbed onto the ocular bone of the bear, planting his feet and pulling. Anguished groans came from the beast, but he felt no mercy for it. It had forfeited its right to a noble death after it had harmed his friends. With a sickening crunch, he tore the bear’s skull out of its head, instantly killing it.