The Systems Challenge

Jonas took a breath as he could see something happening with the stellar bear. When Sonya had started going down, he quickly entered the shadows in order to avoid getting caught in whatever she might fly through before she landed. Patrick and Patricia only came with him when he pulled them in more on a reflexive action than conscious thought.

When they came out of the shadows moments after having entered, he could see that Kim had at least entered the bear's mouth. Yet at that time, there didn't seem to be any real effect from Kim having entered. Patricia and Patrick left Jonas' awareness as he waited, hoping that something would become apparent with the bear.

A minute later, however, the bear stopped. At first it wasn't noticeable with how slow the bear moved before that, but it was clear it had stopped. It's paws hung in mid-air, no longer walking forward. Jonas couldn't tell if it might continue moving forward or not, but what he could tell was that something was going on with it.

While he would like to know what happened to Sonya and anyone who hadn't gotten off of her back before she landed, he knew his focus should be on the bear. If only for that moment. Just so it wouldn't start moving again without him being aware of it.

Patrick and Patricia themselves were on the ground and Jonas couldn't say if it was from having travelled through the shadows with him, Sonya having started to go down, something else that he wasn't aware of, or any combination of all of those put together. He didn't expect them to recover quickly, but he wasn't going to try and do anything for them until he knew what was going on with the bear.

Then before is eyes, what looked like the skin, or surface, of the bear started to distort like an oil painting did when the paint started to run. Jonas wasn't sure if this was natural or not, but he held out hope that whatever Kim had done, that this was at least an effect of that. Despite not having any idea of that was true or not.

As the surface of the bear looked like it was starting to 'run' down the bear, he couldn't help but notice a rich russet brown fur begin to appear. As the 'surface' slid down the bear, like a layer of dirt or debris that was getting washed off, it started to catch fire as it reached the ground, or dripped off of the bear's paws that were stopped in mid-stride.

The flames were black, as if they absorbed light rather than giving any off. In addition, if that wasn't a sign that they weren't natural flames, they didn't seem to spread. Even as they landed on plant life that was in the bear's original path, the flames didn't catch any of that on fire.

Jonas couldn't help but wonder if they gave off heat or not, but at the moment he didn't think it was a good idea to approach any closer to find out. Not with the bear still standing. While he didn't know what was happening to the stellar bear, he at least recognized that it was possible that whatever it was wasn't the end of the bear. That there was the possibility that it still might be capable of attacking when it's 'surface' finished dripping off of it.

"What the hell happened?" Patricia demanded as she shakily got to her feet.

Jonas shrugged. "Can't really say. Maybe Kim managed to do something but maybe this was something that was going to happen anyway," Jonas replied as the top of the bear's head was covered in the russet brown fur. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Patricia grumbled something that Jonas couldn't make out before asking, "Should we try to get closer?"

Jonas shook his head. "Not sure that'd be a good idea. We don't know what's happening, nor do we know what might happen if we get any of that stuff that's dripping off of it on us."

"Think we could at least try to attack the parts of the bear that have fur on it, then?" Patrick asked, sitting on the ground and not showing any signs of trying to stand.

"Let's just wait a minute," Jonas urged. "We don't know what's going on, so it could just be it's death throes."

"Or it could just be shifting to another form," Patricia commented. "You mentioned that the dragon your group had to kill had said something about it trying to become a fire dragon, right? What if this is something similar?"

Jonas merely shrugged. He couldn't argue against that logic, since he didn't have a clue as to what might happen. Just that he wanted to be ready for whatever came down the line. As the bear was still an enigma to him.

When the bear's head was clear of the stuff dripping off of it, it started to move. Not it's paws, but it shook its head, as if to clear something off of it before it started to look around. Making Jonas wonder what was going on in the bear's mind. Somehow, he felt like it was just examining its surroundings. That this was the first time it was actually seeing them.

The stuff dripping off the bear seemed to pick up the pace at that moment. As if it was afraid of what the bear might do to it if it took too long before it finished sliding off of it.

When the paws of the bear that were suspended in mid air were cleared of the substance that was burning away to nothing before their eyes, the paws started to move again, though with more speed than they had been moving with before.

When all the stuff had come off of the bear, the bear let out a huff before starting to walk away. Looking like nothing more than a giant grizzly bear. Though, Jonas wasn't sure if a grizzly bear would have that kind of fur or not, but he wasn't going to debate the matter. Not only wasn't it worth his time, but he started to wonder if that's what they needed to do in order to defeat the stellar bear.

Not that he felt very comfortable with the idea of a giant bear like that in the general area of where he was. Especially since the bear was moving faster and the fact that Sonya didn't seem like she'd be able to fly them back to their camp when this was over.

Although, Jonas wondered if Thomas' Blinky would be willing to do that. At least once they'd killed the bear.

While the bear really hadn't done anything to deserve that happening to it, he also thought it might be crueler to leave the bear like it was than end its life.

Simply because the bear wasn't likely to be able to find another of its kind and it would eventually begin to starve due to the aspects of its size and what it might be able to find to eat, that it would recognize as food.

"So, should we attack now?" Patricia asked as the bear was ambling away from them.

Before Jonas could say that they should attack, the bear froze. Jonas wasn't sure what the problem was, but it looked like the bear might be in pain. He hesitated on saying anything while he tried to figure out what was going on.

Then, a moment later, he saw the blue blade of Kim's sword pierce through the bottom of the bear. Jonas stood and watched, wondering if the blade would continue to move, maybe even cutting a hole through the bear, but it just stayed there.

"Might be good to try and get Kim out before we really go out and attack the bear," Jonas said, already jogging towards where he saw Kim's blade.

"What?" Patricia asked, sounding like she was just a step behind Jonas. "What're you talking about?"

"I can see her sword sticking out of the bear. It's not moving, so Kim might be in trouble."

"Of course she's in trouble," Patricia snapped. "She jumped into the bear's fucking mouth. What part of that says she's not in trouble?"

Jonas didn't care to respond to the clear hostility in Patricia's voice. He didn't know what was fueling her hostility, but he figured the best way to deal with it was to not address it.

"Well, her sword's stopped moving, so I'd say that whatever she was trying to do to get out of the bear's stomach failed. She probably needs help getting the rest of the way out," Jonas merely replied.

"Uh, you realize that it's probably out of our reach from the ground, right?" Patricia asked, her annoyance clear. "What do you think you can do to help her? I doubt Sonya's going to be available soon."

Jonas merely shrugged, not planning on responding to that statement. He wasn't sure how much MP he had left, but he was confident that he'd have enough to travel through the shadows to cut through the bear.

He just hoped that the bear's skin wouldn't be too thick for him to cut through it with his daggers.