Duskbound

Meeting a bear that was twice his height and ten times his weight in a straight charge wasn't going to end well. Regardless of any differences in their physical stats, Velik wasn't going to check a creature that size with raw strength. As the gap between them closed and lightning crackled around the monster's teeth, he did the smart thing and changed direction. Predictably, the bear's massive paw—bigger than Velik's skull and with six-inch daggers for claws—lashed out to cut him off, and that was its first mistake.

Velik met the offending limb with the tip of his spear and triggered [Dread Lance]. The skill was draining, and maybe he'd need those reserves to fight the bear's master, but he wanted this fight over with quickly. He had better prey to hunt; the bear was just a distraction.

Or maybe not, Velik thought, his jaw dropping when the burst of energy cleared. The fur had been scoured off and the bear's front limb was a slab of raw meat, but it was still attached. Nothing had ever withstood [Dread Lance] before, not monsters, not stone, and not steel. It must be some sort of triggered defensive skill. There's no way it took that hit naturally.

For the bear, it seemed more angry than injured. It stumbled over its mauled leg, but that didn't actually slow it down more anymore than tripping over a rock would have. The next moment, it was lunging at him, lightning still dancing in its mouth. Velik jerked backward just in time to avoid snapping teeth, but the few inches of open space wasn't enough to insulate him from the monster's next attack.

Lightning leaped through the air and jolted him, locking his muscles up just long enough to stop him from retreating. The bear didn't hesitate, either. Its broiled leg came back up, claws leading, and tore Velik's chest to ribbons.

Move, damn it! His legs weren't responding though, and if they didn't start working soon, he wasn't going to be able to avoid getting mauled to death.

Velik threw himself backward. The movement was the opposite of his normal graceful stride, all power and no coordination, and it resulted in him sprawled on the edge of the water, staring up at the stars. He had just enough time to think to himself, This is not going well, then the bear loomed large over him. Its shaggy bulk blocked out his view of the night sky, leaving him nothing to see but a mouth full of sharp teeth descending on his face.

Desperately, he called on the [Power Surge] enchantment on his ring, not to stop the bear from tearing his head off, but to help counteract the muscle spasms that still had his whole body twitching. He didn't know if the enchantment would work, but it was his best idea in the moment.

His fist shot up, connecting with the bear's lower jaw hard enough to snap its head to one side and, more importantly, giving him a second to escape. Whether through luck or magic, Velik wasn't sure, but either way his legs scrabbled against the pebbles and found enough purchase to shoot him out from between the bear's legs.

Things were still a bit jittery, but he was back on his feet. His spear was in the water somewhere, probably of no use until he had time to find it. With all the fighting, too much mud had gotten stirred up for him to see it, but it was heavy enough that it wasn't going to be swept away. If he got lucky, he might be able to reach the spot he'd dropped it and blindly scoop it up, but that would depend on how much space he could put between himself and the monster.

Dagger it is, then. You're the perfect target for [Burden of the Beast] anyway.

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Shaking out the last of the twitchiness in his hands, Velik pulled the dagger free from his belt. It was a powerful weapon, but against something as well-armored as this monster, he was going to have to be careful. Fortunately, it had a whole leg that he'd stripped all of the armored fur off of, as well as parts of its chest, flank, and shoulder. It wasn't ideal, but he could make it work.

Velik darted in, leaping over a slashing paw as he got close, and slashed the dagger across the bear's denuded limb. Blood welled up behind the cut, and [Savage Rhythm] started its work. A second slice joined the first, then he flipped off the bear when it tried to roll back into the river and crush him under its bulk. Undeterred, Velik waded in and stabbed it a few more times.

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At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but his dagger wasn't called The Sixth Plague for nothing. The bear's thrashing grew weaker with each passing second and the brown, muddy water quickly started to shift to a redder hue. It was actually almost insulting how easily he'd turned the tide of the fight after it had nearly killed him in the opening round.

That kind of arrogance was dangerous, he knew. It led to carelessness, and for all he knew, the bear had another skill or two in reserve. Even if it didn't, it quickly grew desperate enough to do something that Velik could scarcely credit it with the intelligence for.

It activated its lightning bite skill while its mouth was in the water. Bolts of lightning shot out in every direction, shocking the monster, but also staggering Velik and locking up the muscles in his legs. He stumbled forward, the dagger loose in his grasp, and slammed face first into the bear's still-furry back leg, drawing small pinpricks of blood across his cheek.

Groaning in pain, Velik pushed himself away. They were both hurting now, but unlike him, the bear's self-inflicted paralysis left its face underwater. It struggled feebly, no doubt trying to get a gulp of fresh air, but Velik threw himself bodily onto its shoulders and forced its head back down. He was under no illusions that it would drown, not with a physical at least as high as his own. It would take the better part of an hour before that became a danger, but the water was blinding.

Working by feel, Velik flipped the dagger in his hand and drove it down into the bear's eye. Immediately, its thrashing turned frenzied and huge bubbles of air burst out of its mouth as it tried to roar. Mercilessly, Velik worked the blade back and forth, then tore it free and stabbed the other eye for good measure.

The bear slumped down, a dead mass of muscle and fur, and Velik rolled free. He ignored the notification until he'd reached the spot where his spear had fallen, then mucked around until he recovered it. Only once he was properly armed again did he check what the system was trying to tell him.

[Savage Rhythm has advanced to rank 6.]

[Burden of the Beast has advanced to rank 3.]

[You have slain a bonded spark fur bear (level 47).]

[You have been awarded 3 decarmas.]

[You have advanced to level 42. +2 Physical, +1 Mental, +2 free points.]

Velik immediately dropped the free points into mystic, the same as he'd done the last ten levels or so. With [Dread Lance] becoming such an important part of his skill set, and [Burden of the Beast] also drawing on the stat, he wanted it up past 50 before he considered allocating future points anywhere else.

That was… rough, he admitted to himself as he glanced back at the monster. A healing potion—one of the good system store ones, not the cheap alchemist-mixed variety—would get him back in shape in a minute or two, but the fight had not gone well. I couldn't handle four more monsters like that, not all at once. I thought they'd be more like that big cat, but this thing was way tougher and faster. Is that a proximity thing with its master, or just a difference in personal power between the bear and the cat?

Either way, he'd come too far to give up now, but Velik was going to have to be more careful moving forward. Falling into an ambush would probably get him killed, and it was obvious by now that the [Beast Tamer] he was pursuing was high level and dangerous.

Velik followed the bear's trail deeper into the woods, an easy task considering its bulk was so large that it had shoved aside several trees to squeeze past them and left deep prints in the mud where it walked. A few hundred feet in, he found the spot where it had turned around, presumably letting its master off to continue alone, and doubled back to confront Velik at the stream.

No other animal prints. What happened to the rest of its minions? Maybe a pre-arranged meeting spot elsewhere? If I could catch up to whoever this person is before then, they'd be defenseless.

Encouraged, he tracked the [Beast Tamer] deeper into the forest, stopping only when he found a man sitting on a wide, flat stone in the middle of a glade. His legs were crossed and his eyes were closed, and a short spear was laid out in front of him. He was wearing leathers, presumably enchanted to function as armor, and an actual bracer of something that Velik was certain wasn't plain steel adorned one of his forearms.

Velik lurked at the edge of the ring of trees, his eyes flicking back and forth as he looked for signs that the man's monsters were close by. When nothing presented itself, he cautiously considered how best to launch his attack. Smarter to kill him now, but I can't get answers out of a corpse. A wounding shot then.

Decision made, Velik once again called on his ring's [Power Surge] enchantment and lunged out of the trees at the man's back. The man rose smoothly to his feet and turned to meet Velik, his spear in his hand and the arm with the bracer raised like a shield.