He takes a deep, slow breath closing his eyes, and thinks he feels a warm hand caressing his cheek. This time there is no pain and the violet tip of the arrow is bathed in the compressed flow of air.

“This time I am not afraid of you, this time the wind is my friend”.

With those words in his mind, Ezer lets go of the rope just as the bear unleashes its attack. The sphere breaks all air resistance as the arrow appears to gently deflect it and use the momentum to move forward.

“This is going to be hard!” He jumps to the side and the ground where he was standing before is swept away with a force greater than all the previous attacks.

Ezer's battle for survival was just beginning.

The ground explodes again near Ezer, but this time to a lesser extent, although with greater amplitude, the blast wave shakes his insides. He examines from a distance the remains of his first arrow pulverized by one of the bear's air spheres. The purple iron point is the only recognizable piece apart from the tiny splinters.

“The first test was a failure, I can't compare his magic with mine, I'm years away.” It was expected, compared to the bear's decades of life and its constant struggle using magic, Ezer had only really used it for a month.

“I only have to use my ingenuity, but... will he be smart enough to notice?”

Ezer was not only at an offensive disadvantage in terms of brute force, but he also lacked information about his enemy and what his true limits and intelligence were.

“His ranged attacks paused. It's now or never...” Ezer readies his bow again and fires an arrow followed by a second and a third.

The beast simply uses its claws to intercept them, it had a slight difficulty with the third arrow and it scratches the part where its skin and claw meet.

“Well, he has problems if they come to him one after the other and boosted with some magic. Anyway, this is exhausting.” Ezer did not understand the logic or operation of magic so he simply used it blindly without knowing the effects that it entails.

The bear momentarily diverts is attention and Ezer takes advantage of it to run towards the tree line to his right.

The reason for the beast's distraction was due to its small skin wound which at first it didn't matter. For some reason the bleeding would not stop, even though it was a few small drops, and a slight numbness spread through the surrounding tissue. It wasn't life threatening, but it did increase his caution towards the arrows and he decided to move into close combat.

For the first time he felt a potential threat coming from the boy, very small, but it was definitely there. This time he would finish quickly and not play with his prey, that's what he decided moments before running after Ezer.

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As he moved forward, Ezer veered slightly to the side, then ran straight again. He stops after a few meters and glances behind him, the bear jumps at the spot where Ezer had taken a detour.

"I was expecting it, but I didn't want it to be that way." Seeing that the hole he dug previously was avoided with a simple jump, he decides to move on to his next plan.

"In case the first plan fails, there's the second to make the first work!" The moment the beast hits the ground after jumping, Ezer quickly cuts a rope releasing his second trap.

A huge log with sharp rods placed on it swings like a huge deadly pendulum. The bear barely has time to lift a paw before the log hits him, releasing all the pent-up force and pushing him back directly into the pit whose bottom also had sharp pointed rods.

Ezer hadn't just sat back and waited for the bear to come and fight with brute force. He was preparing the hole big enough for at least the beast to enter it, as well as the titanic task of raising the trunk and practicing coordination to perfection.

“I don't like to leave my life to chance, but I have no other choice.” A lot of things could have gone wrong, like the bear not passing through that exact spot or the ropes themselves not supporting the weight of the log. But to his delight, the luck smiled on him this time.

Cold sweat trickles down Ezer's back, tension growing inside him with each step he takes as he approaches the hole. There was no scream of pain or anything to indicate whether the bear was still alive or not.

He doubted that the swing of the pendulum could kill him, but perhaps the stakes at the bottom of the hole managed to injure him and, depending on where they penetrated, even kill him.

Ezer tilts his head with stabbing pain in his chest from the pounding of his heart. As soon as he tilts his head it jerks back as his eyes catch the blurry image of claws tearing through the air.

He didn't think about it and just started running again as the bear struggled to get out of that pit. The spikes were split and none of them had so much as a drop of blood, this made it clear how tough the skin of a beast was with magic flowing through its flesh.

“I have to do it… Although it is a double-edged sword, I have no other way out.” The land begins to rise slightly and the tall grasses formed a large and beautiful pasture.

His instinct tells him to get away, but Ezer ignores them and forces his feet to continue running in the direction of the herd.

Maybe a hundred or eighty, Ezer didn't think it made much of a difference since only one of them could crush him effortlessly. The bison graze in harmony until they all look up at once and notice a human running right at them.

Five line up creating a wall while the rest go back to feeding uninterested, clearly not taking Ezer as a threat. He continues forward regardless of the wall of muscles and horns.

Ezer manages to squeeze through a gap in the bison and makes his way through the herd without being stopped. The reason? They all raise their heads again, but this time with clear eyes of fear and tension at the sight of the huge white predator charging at them.

The calm is completely interrupted and gives way to panic. The females and cubs begin to run as do some young males, while the other males point their horns at the bear.

In the middle of all that confusion is Ezer who goes unnoticed because of panic, although this was not entirely good. If he was not careful, he could be crushed at any moment and he also suffered destabilizing blows to the sides of his body from the huge bison around him.

"I have to separate myself from the group and quickly!" If he went against the current of the hooves he would be crushed to death and if he did the same to one side, carelessly, the same thing would happen.

"There! I can use that!" He spots a rock big enough to use for protection and hides behind it until the dust and tremor from the passing bison subsides.

As the deafening sound of hooves hitting the ground ends, Ezer can hear another sound that makes his blood run cold.