NOVEL NEXT Chapter 012: The Bear
I freeze, taking in the sheer size of the beast staring down at me. The bear is the biggest creature I have seen so far; even curled on the ground it is bigger than me. Its fur is snow white and sparkly, its eyes are ice-cold blue and it has massive, bull-like horns of white crystal. It radiates an aura of arctic cold, amplified by the natural chill emanating from local magic source; the temperature in the cave is so low that I can see my breath. I am not stuck in the hole only because I unconsciously left my claws in it, preventing it from closing.
Suddenly, the monster roars with rage and so much power, that the whole cave trembles and I am send flying fromr into the wall; the impact makes me drop my crystals and pushes the air out of my lungs. I feel dizzy, but don’t waste time lying on the ground and quickly stand up; just in time to avoid giant ice spike sent at me by the behemoth. I don’t even have the time to regret not bringing any weapons with me as the assault continues. I try summoning Nyx, but without success; I feel that it is so not because I am too far, but because of layers of rock between us. For a moment I analyse if I should escape into the water, but it’s too late: the surface froze again and melting it will take too much time. Seems I will have to fight like in my first fights in this world: with my bare claws and butt.
I regard the monstrosity, now standing on its hind legs before me; it’s truly massive – easily over twice my height – and furious. It roars once more and punches the ground; the shockwaves nearly send me flying once more, but I somehow manage to keep myself in place using my claws. Still, the surge of glacial air bites me deeply. I feel coldness for the first time in this life. It makes me panic a little. The power of the bear is truly overwhelming – and there is still quite the distance between us! Would I even survive if I was hit point-blank by its attack? Is there a way for me to counterattack? I ask myself all those questions, while I evade more volleys of icicles sent after me, again and again.
I slowly start seeing patterns in its attack. Not that it helps me much in winning this fight, as I still cannot get closer. I try to find a way to escape, slip away through some narrow tunnel, but every promising place is blocked by ice; it seems I have no choice but to defeat the beast. That being said, I possess exactly zero ways of ranged attacks right now; not to mention that I do not really trust my close quarter fighting ability to be very effective against this foe.
As I fruitlessly try to design a plan – any plan – I realise that I am getting colder and colder; it seems that the time does not play in my favour and my internal flame weakens. My movements start taking toll on me, not to mention freezing cold seeping deeper into my body; if not for my magically generated heat I would surely be frozen by now. The only silver lining I can see is that the arctic behemoth seems to be getting angrier and angrier, making its attacks less precise; still, I cannot see any way for me to utilize it.
I continue avoiding the polar aura and icicle assault of the white bear, growing more and more desperate as I can feel my own temperature gradually falling further and further – until the monster decides it has enough and charges at me. It is terrifyingly fast for such a giant; I barely escape death, taking claw swipe to the arm. I shout in pain, both from the shock of my pierced skin and freezing chill, lingering in my wound. I see with a corner of my eye a cover of black ice – my own, frozen blood; well, at least it seems I won’t bleed to death.
With my opponent getting into the brawl, our fight enters a new stage. And yet, I am still hopelessly outclassed. It’s even worse up close than at the distance; I have less time to avoid attacks and I need to keep my full focus on my opponent and the closest surroundings. I can hit my opponent, true, but none of my attacks is able to penetrate thick skin and fur, and I feel that I am going to lose if I get hit even once. The bear strikes with so much power, that every time its limbs or head collide with the stone – it stone shatters. Just the air pressure from such a swing is nearly enough to push me back. Not to mention the freezing, glacial aura emitted by the beast; I can feel my body temperature dropping steadily with every passing second. It saps my energy more and more, and I know that the clock is ticking. I know that sooner or later I will no longer be able to successfully dodge. I dread thinking what will happen then and try to look for an opening – if not for a critical hit, then at least for an escape, regardless of how minuscule the possibility of that is.
Our stand-off continues. At some point we moved to another chamber, when one of the attacks I dodged ruined the wall. I know I am losing. My foe this time is more akin to a natural disaster than to a creature of flesh and blood. I wasn’t able to successfuly counterattack even once. I know that, at this point, I am only prolonging my suffering. I look back at my life – at my both lives. I reminiscent about games I played with my friends; I remember books I read; I look back to the memories I made in this forest; I think back to the promise of adventure I had and to the promise of the GOD. The irony of them expecting me to live and multiply, then sending me here – to just die without even meeting single other person – is not lost on me. There is a certain fatalistic and ironic dark humour to it. It does not put me at ease in any way, however; it hurts me, more than my wound. I want to cry, to protest this unfairness, but… I can’t. I cannot muster energy for even that. Barely escaping attacks takes everything from me. Even just breathing is a chore at this point. I feel like in a hospice from my past life: I am only delaying the inevitable. There is no happy ending for me.
Finally, it happens. My joints are a bit too stiff, my mind slightly too clouded, my reaction time minimally off – and I fail to dodge; the swipe connects, sending me on the wall with great power. I feel tremendous pain exploding throughout my whole body as I hit it. I feel my bones crack and break. A pained shriek escapes my mouth, accompanied by my black blood.
I lay prone on the cave floor, helpless, as the bear roars triumphantly. I hear ringing in my ears. My vision swims. I taste iron on my tongue. All I feel is unbearable pain. I am on a verge of tears, but they cannot fall. Every laborious breath I take hurts. I have no energy to get up and I doubt I would be able to even if I had any left. Even just crawling on the ground appears too difficult for me. I sense the behemoth’s freezing aura, as it comes closer, glacially, sure of its victory. The cold slowly spreads through me. It’s polar embrace promises to relieve me from suffering. All I need to do is to finally close my eyes.
And yet… some part of me does not want to yield. Some part of me stubbornly refuses to give up. Even when I cannot move any limb. Even when the entirety of both my lives flashes before my eyes. There still is something, deep in my soul, that cannot let go. A part of me that truly DESPISES cold and stillness it brings. A part of me that really HATES losing. A part that is getting more and more FURIOUS. And I feel its influence growing.
One memory in particular stands out to me: the dream I had on my first night here. I remember what I felt. I remember my RAGE. I remember my FLAME. I remember my DESIRE. My
TRUTH. I remember all of it well – and from my Soul, through my Mind to my Body, it fills my entire BEING.“I REFUSE TO YIELD – FOR I AM FREE!”
I yell straight into the shocked face of the beast that came and was abut to finish me off. My inner flame explodes outwards, pushing my foe back as I arise. I reacts to pain differently now – it does not stop me anymore; instead it feeds into my FURY and animates me, assuring me that I am still alive. I howl to the invisible sky – and the world trembles as the air ignites. I lunge forward, finally on the offensive.
Our auras clash, one polar, cold and stalwart, the other infernal, hot and aggressive – and mine prevails, burning through the other. The FURY guides my hands as I throw a flurry of blows, finally cutting deep into monster’s front leg. My flaming aura seeps into the wounds, boiling bear’s blood so intensely that it evaporates into red, bubbling mist; the polar behemoth reels in pain and counterattacks at last, its initial shock replaced by wrath. But not only do I avoid every swipe with ease – as I move faster than ever – I equally easily swipe back; successfully. I feel euphoric as we continue our deadly dance across the cave. And this time, it’s not my turn to be the helpless one, constantly on the defence, struggling to survive just a few seconds more. I can taste the fear in the air – and it is not my fear. It feels… right. It feels natural, like when spring pushes the winter out.
Still, despite my offensive power, I instinctively feel that the fight is actually a pretty close one. I am relentless and unstoppable for now, but I am somehow keenly aware that I cannot keep it up for much longer. My muscles get more and more sore with each movement, my bones crack and all my organs cry in agony; I need one, deciding attack to win. Just one.
The possibility opens soon, when I manage to tear the right front leg of the bear off. It infuriates my quarry, provoking it to jump at me – and crush me with sheer weight. Just in time, as I feel exhaustion rapidly settling in. Despite that, my instincts scream at me what to do – and I listen to them. I push myself for the last time – and catch jaws of the behemoth. What’s more, I use the momentum of the tackle to throw my assailant to the ground. To the horror of my prey, laying prone on the ground and possibly concussed – I still hold the maws wide open. I even force them to be open even wider than they already are. I then gather entire heat, both from my own body and environment, and focus it deep, deep inside of me. Then I look into the eyes of the creature – seeing in them a mix of absolute horror, pain and disbelief – and release full power of my infernal heat, straight into its gullet; the beast can only whimper and writhe in pain, as it burns from the inside – and its head also from the outside.
Soon, everything ends, as abruptly as it started. My prey lays dead. I am alive. I survived another day. I want to scream and to throw my arms into the air to celebrate my victory – but I am unable to. As soon as I realise my success, the last shrivel of energy lefts me, and I collapse into the blissful nothingness of absolute darkness.
