Jason brandished his wind clad sword and tore the Black Arrow Bear apart. He heightened his speed as he ran around the bear, sending slash wounds all over it. The bear retaliated, but it was all for naught. Every time it swung its huge paw, it missed by a hair-breadth. Jason was like a slippery eel as it only fueled the rage of the Black Arrow Bear.

“Should we help him?” Tapeesa asked.

“I ain’t helping,” said Nuniq.

“Stay vigilant children. There might not be only one,” said Arrluk as his eyes scattered over the silent woods.

The fight of the bear and the man wasn’t as silent as the woods. The noises and roars of the bear acted like a beacon. A beacon, that no one liked at the moment.

Jason somersaulted in the sky and landed away from the bear. He eyed at the bleeding bear as his sword did its deed perfectly. The black fur of the bear hid the bloody state of its body, yet its guttural growl didn’t die down. It stared at the man who escaped without even the slightest injury on him, and the bear didn’t like it.

Its gaze was fixed at the man holding a sword while the three humans at the back were left ignored. The bear knew this man was a threat, and unlike its told personality of being a coward, this one was pretty different in a way.

The Black Arrow Bear charged once more. Its speed was horrendous, hindered by the rare-grade sword stuck on the lower part of its body. Yet the bear wasn’t giving up. It had been a long time since he had tasted the meat of man.

“Feisty,” said Jason.

“Lightning Fury.” Three balls of lightning emerged, circling around Jason. He could hear the sparking sound of the electrical current in these lightning balls.

Bzzt…

Bzzt…

He swung his arm like throwing a fastball right at the bear. The lightning balls reacted, speeding like a bullet, flashing right at the bear, giving it a numbing zap. Its movement halted, and Jason was there. Right in front of it as he stabbed the bear right at the heart. He pushed it in further, making sure he hit the spot. A slight pause that gave a tremendous advantage to the shadow speedster.

His sword was removed from the bear as blood spilled out like a dam being broken. Jason rushed away as a paw came swinging hard, exploding the sands into the air. It would have been easier if he just disappeared and strike the bear right at the head. But it was pointless as he was there to honed his sword skill.

“Not fast enough,” said Jason as he saw a small chunk of his energy guard wiped away. The claw of the bear nicked a part of him. His attempt in striking as well as retrieving, didn’t work out so well.

The rare-grade sword still stuck in the bear, but the condition of the bear was reaching the point of no return. Blood was gushing out of the wound at the heart as the bear made another rush at Jason. It ignored the instinct to survive like any normal animal would. Rather, it went all-in for the last strike hoping to give the same thing to the one who stabbed it.

Jason leaped away as he floated in the air. The Black Arrow Bear lunged as its huge jaw opened wide, reaching out to Jason. The menacing jaw of the bear inched closer as it snapped.

Nothing. An empty bite as the bear dropped onto the lakeshore with its heavy weight. It slumped on the sands as it saw Jason landed a bit far from where it was. Once more, he escaped unscathed. The bear was losing energy, as blood kept on coming out, pooling underneath its weaken body. For a beast, it didn’t know how Jason managed to do it. But in the eyes of three people, they saw it.

“Did he moves in mid-air?” said Nuniq with his eyes wide open. Surprise was an understatement. The feat done by this man was unbelievable. First, running on water and now this, moving in mid-air as if they were propellers on his feet.

“He kicked it,” said Tapeesa. She watched Jason’s movement closely as she was confident that Jason put a lot of points to his agility. She was at awed at him like always, but it wasn’t just infatuation. Among the three, she was the most agility built, and seeing Jason fought like that only made her inspired in doing the same thing.

But unlike what she thought, Jason used Wind Clad and focused on his feet. He made it as if he was kicking a platform, and he did it. Although he could survive the bite, yet he had outdone himself. He found another trick to be of use, and he was damn sure he was going to use it in the future.

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Jason walked and stood in front of the dying Black Arrow Bear.

“You almost got me,” said Jason. He plunged his sword right at the arrow mark on its head as he put it out of its misery.

The bear died as it laid there unmoving. Jason retrieved his rare-grade sword and kept it back inside his inventory necklace. While he looked at the dead bear in its entirety, the three people who watched from afar came to his side.

“How did you do it?” Nuniq asked. Even if he was jealous due to Jason’s strength, his curiosity got the better of him.

“You think he’s going to tell you? Of course, it’s all because of agility, even with agility, one can be stronger than a muscle head like you who dumped everything to strength,” said Tapeesa.

“Mr.Park, I thin we better go. More will come as the scent of death and blood are strong,” said Arrluk as his eyes couldn’t stop watching the trees.

Jason nodded but not before taking along the two paws of the Black Arrow Bear. He wished he could take all the carcass along, but the lack of space was the problem. The four people group ran along the lakeshore as they were coming closer to the edge of Oshawa City.

Tapeesa, who ran side by side with Jason was full of questions. She was in a constant state of asking herself, whether it was appropriate to ask or not. But she took a leap forward.

“How did you make things disappeared? Is that a skill of yours?” Tapeesa asked. She saw him taking out things like it was magic as if he got a huge pocket hiding inside his clothes or somewhere.

Jason glanced at Tapeesa for a brief second. He could straight up tell he,r but a precious thing like his dog-tag necklace was a big deal, more so in a situation like this. In the future, there might be a surplus of things like his necklace. But for now, it was better to keep it as a secret.

“A skill,” he said. A lie right in the face, but a reasonable one.

“Wow. You really got a lot of skills,” said Tapeesa. “I think the number of your skills must be higher than gramps.”

He nodded as he didn’t say a word. It could be interpreted as agreeing or maybe not.

“But I got a question in mind. Why did you take the paws?” she asked. This particular topic wasn’t as a big deal as the storage item.

“It’s for making things, stronger monsters have stronger materials. You can make things, like weapons or leather armors. I bet your grandfather knows a thing or two things about these kinds of things,” said Jason.

It was a no-brainer. Sooner or later, people would realize the importance of a monster carcass. Jason bet that in the future, these dead monsters would be more valuable than money itself. It wouldn’t be bad if him sharing this information might turn one of the three into some prominent smith or leather specialist.

With no market for these kinds of things at the moment, giving a good push to them might bring out the artistic nature in them.

“Oh. So the things you are wearing? Is it from a monster?” said Tapeesa.

“Nah. This is just normal leather. But with those paws, I might be able to make something worthwhile,” said Jason.

“Interesting,” Tapeesa said, deep in her thought.

“To tell you the truth, grandpa isn’t that good in what you think he’s good at. He just likes fishing and more fishing,” said Tapeesa.

“I see.” Jason ended there as his sight saw the aftermath of a tsunami.

The four people reached the pier, which once been used by Jason and the siblings. Yet, there was no sight of any buildings that were once stood there. What left were just rubble and a scene of destruction. They were even pieces of ships and boats laying there on the ground, far away from the closest body of water.

“This is nuts,” said Nuniq as he couldn’t hide his surprise.

The destruction of a tsunami was nothing to scoff about. Jason looked around, searching for any presence of orcs or any monsters.

“Keep your eyes open,” said Arrluk.

The four people walked around the devastated pier as they stayed vigilant at every moment.

“Let’s head to the main road,” said Jason, determining the status of the orcs was of the utmost importance for Jason. He wanted to know whether earth calamities were on their side or not. They left Oshawa Harbour and made way to the main road.

They were in Farewell as they journeyed on the road. Yet all of them were stupefied. Their sight didn’t betray them as it showed the current state of Oshawa.

“Geez,” Nuniq exclaimed, seeing a huge spiking hill piercing over a parking lot with some shop lots still intact. It seemed the big waves didn’t reach the spiking hill that penetrated over the earth's surface.

It was unlike the place that Nuniq had visited during his days of scavenging for foods and resources. The road that was supposed to be there wasn’t in sight as all manner of things scattered around haphazardly.

“This definitely looks post-apocalyptic,” said Tapeesa.

Jason led at the front while Arrluk guarded at the back. They went further towards Central Oshawa. At times, they hiked a steep hill. While at another time, they climbed up against a vertical slant. But rather than calling it a slant, it was more to a section of the earth lifted upwards over another section. But they were having it easy, not as hard as it was supposed to. It was one of those things that Jason was grateful for during this progressing invasion from another dimension. If he had stayed weak like before, they wouldn’t have been able to go through such obstacles.

Jason climbed up over a part of a roof of a broken building. Yet the moment he did reached the top, his words escaped his lips.

“Stop.”

The rest who were trying to climb up stopped whatever they were doing. Jason jumped back down as his feet touched the ground. It was only at the height of two floors, so it was bearable for Jason. The rest followed suit and Tapeesa couldn’t stop the urge to ask.

“What’s going on? What did you see?”

Jason shook his head side to side as if trying to deny the things that he just saw. But someone else spoke on his behalf.

“It’s the orcs, isn’t it? They’re still alive,” said Arrluk as he too didn’t have a good expression on his face.

“But that can’t be. The tsunami and the earthquakes, they couldn’t have survived,” said Tapeesa.

“No,” Jason said as he looked into her eyes.

“They’re alive.”