JUST HOW POWERFUL ARE THESE BEASTS???

Earl was awfully silent on the trip. When we departed from Mrs Kelly, I and him immediately moved on to where we expected multiple monsters would be. Along the way, I tried making short conversations with him, but he outright ignored me. How does he expect to work together indeed can't even make simple communication?

"I'm going to be frank, Max. I don't need your help hunting down some low level beasts. I'm guessing you are strong enough to handle them on your own. How about we each hunt down five beasts and meet up later, around here?"

"Yeah, no. That's not going to work. If I remember correctly, Queen said that the lowest level monster around here was grade A. Do you really think such beasts would even come near us when there are much more powerful beasts to fight us?"

"That's exactly my point. This will show just that much difference between all of us. If you can't handle a few centurion beasts on your own–"

"I'm going to cut you off there cause I'm going to ignore you suggestion. The goal of this training isn't to see who's more powerful than the other, it's teamwork. Now, we are doing this thing together or, I tell Mrs Kelly you were uncooperative. I'm sure she'd love to hear all about that,"

"Tsk,"

Finding a beast was much easier than I though it would be. I didn't even have to use my map. That said, the kind of monster we encountered was no mere level A, If even a level A can be called weak.

***

<*skill appraisal has been activated!*>

–––

<*Forest bear[LVL 70]*>

<*Title: –––*>

<Race: Bear*>

<Grade: Mid centurion*>

–––

[How does a beast this powerful have no title?! And why can't I see more of its stats?]

<Judging by how much weak as compared to the other beasts around it is, I'm guessing can't have any meaningful title with all those powerhouses take them. Also, since it's levels higher than you, should be quite impossible even your upgraded appraisal see more from there>

[Did you just say that this monster is considered "weak" around these parts]

<Wait until you see an actual normal bear from around here. Oh, fair warning, finish this beast quickly, before the other realize there are some weak targets to gang up on>

[Thanks for the vote of confidence]

<You're welcome>

[I'm guessing you don't understand the concept of sarcasm]

***

The brown bear looked to be the size of a polar bear, with its large snout filled with sharp white teeth, it's claws the size of my hand. How can it even walk like that?

"OK, so here's the plan. Let's try to–"

Earl interrupted me before I could finish, "There's no need for any planning. Even if I sense it's strong, it's definitely not stronger that me!"

"Wait, wait! The beast is hiding it's–"

Earl got up from our hiding place and charged at the now alerted beast.

What an idiot!

Since he doesn't have a system, he had no idea just how much a powerful foe he was about to face since somehow the beast knew how to suppress it's mana.

*appraisal*

***

<*Earl Arkwood[LVL 63]*>

<*Title: life of life[ Origin unknown ]< p>

Master manipulator [LVL 30]*>

<*Race: Elf*>

<*Rank: Elf noble*>

Ability: –––

***

He's totally screwed if he doesn't take this seriously.

But since our cover has already been discovered, I have no choice but to try and fight with him head on.

Earl was already at the beast, throwing a punch out right for its snout. The bear braced itself and stopped the punch head on with its face, then went in for the bite to catch Earl's arm.

He immediately backed away from the beast, looking at his hands in surprise.

"Well what did you expect from a beast like that one?! It's obviously stronger that you in terms of strength! Move out of the way!" I shouted at him and placed my hand on the ground.

***

<*ability [Warlock king(LVL 4)] has been activated*>

<*Skill earth magic is in use*>

***

Two fists of earth came out from the ground and went for the bear, which stood up on its two back legs to get into a much better suited fighting posture. Earl jumped out of the way just in time, but contrary to what I expected the bear to do, it did the exact opposite.

It slashed outwards towards the attack, which immediately neutralized the two fists even before they could reach it.

"Really? You could have at least dodged! Hey Earl–"

"Leave me alone! I don't need your help taking this thing down! It's just that... It caught me by surprise, yeah that's it. But that won't happen again.

"You still haven't learned from your past experiences?! We have to work together to defeat that thing!"

He completely ignored me yet again! Alright, that's how you wanna play? I'll show you why I was made a leader for this group.

"OK then, I'm leaving the bear to you. I'll just stand at the sidelines, just as you want," I told him.

"Good!"

He clapped his hands, then started muttering a spell. The bear looked back at me, folding my arms, then back at the elf. I raised my hand in show that I wouldn't be taking part in this fight anymore than I did. I hope the bear was smart enough to realize that.

Earl was done with his spell, and those large tentacles of his rose up to the sky. They look much larger and thicker as compared to the last time I saw them. But will they be able to win out against the bear?

He swiped his right hand, and two of those powerful tentacles dived towards the bear. The bear, at first looked surprised by the unknown power, but know it regained its composure and stopped both tentacles with its hands. When it realized that its strength was superior, it got a good grip on the tentacles, then yanked them back, pulling on Earl.

"That's not possible!" he screamed as he tried throwing three more tentacles at the beast.

The bear sensed the attacks as it was pulling, and used that powerful slash of its to cut them down with minimum effort. Once done, it continued pulling on Earl like it was fishing its prey.

Earl was forced to cancel his spell unless he wanted to be bear-chow, but to my surprise, the bear wanted him to do so. The second the tentacles disappeared, the bear went on all fours and with an incredible speed charged the elf.

Earl wasted no time and tried dodging its frontal attack, but the best anticipated this and slashed exactly where it predicted the elf would dive to. Three deep slash marks appeared on Earl's chest before he he even realized it. He's just lucky that the bear didn't put enough slash power on it due it's charge. But if it did, well... Let's just say, I would have no idea how to explain this to Mrs Kelly. And yet I was still not going to involve myself in the fight.

*Bleugh*

Earl coughed up blood, as he slowly stood up, his injuries a lot worse than I thought. The bear turned back at me, probably thinking that I would catch it in surprise, but was shocked to see me calmly leaning on a tree, and giving it a thumbs up. It shook it's head like it was disappointed with how petty I was, then turned back to its initial target.

"Oh, Earl. I think the bear has decided to finish this. I wonder, can you take another one of its powerful strikes and still managed to live?" I asked him with a smile on my face.

He glared at me hatefully before pointing at the bear.

"I've still got something up my sleeves!"

He placed his hand on his chest and began muttering again. One of his tentacles appeared and grew into a large golden one. Then, with a swipe of the hand, it went straight for the bear.

"Oh? This might actually get it," I commented.

The bear was smart enough to realize when it was beat, so that's why it used its unnatural speed to dodge and immediately charged again to the elf.

***

<Shouldn't you intervene or something?>

[I'm teaching him something he should learn this early on. Just before he wastes us on our mission]

<Wow, that's one way of putting it>

***

The bear headbutted the elf right where it had earlier slashed him, and Earl grimaced in pain before plummeting to to the ground. He coughed up a large amount of blood, and turned to me with pleading eyes.

"Nope. You said you could handle it. I could have told you from the start that you were no match for it. Cause I'm very certain I couldn't handle it alone easily,"

The bear raised its paw in the air, ready to finish its first victim for the day. Earl turned back to the beast and closed his eyes, ready to die.

"Yup. I think you've learnt enough,"

The bear went for the kill, buy immediately sensed danger and dived away from the tunnel of water I had just fired at it. It turned to me and growled, but I used my speed and snatched Earl right before it could think of finishing him before it came to me.

"Here," I said, dropping water on his face.

"What was that for?" he complained while I placed my hand on his chest.

"Healing potion," I lied.

***

<*Ability [Saint heal (LVL MAX)] has been activated!*>

***

He doesn't need to find out about my other ability this earlier on. I kept on erecting earth barriers to stop the bears advance as I healed Earl, but that slash skill of its was a lot more powerful than I thought. Thankfully, my saint heal did its job faster than anticipated.

"Get up. You're already healed," I told the elf as I dropped him to the ground.

"Ow! Jeez, you could have dropped me more gentler,"

"You ready to hear about my plan now?"

"...yeah. Hey, I know you could have stepped in a lot earlier, why didn't you–"

"I'm going to distract it,"

"What?"

"As you had clearly seen, it didn't try to take on your tentacles head on, especially that golden one. It either tried to stop them, slash them, or dodge them. I think we can use that to our advantage," I explained as we run through the forest.

I did this intentionally since I could feel other beasts making their way towards us. This was one direction where I didn't feel their presence. The bear was hot on our heels though, pissed off that we were running away from it after disturbing it's peace.

"You get what I'm trying to say, right?"

"Yeah I hear you,"

We both split up our separate ways, but not before I laucnhed another water blast to the bear to make sure it kept up with me. But I really didn't have to do that, judging by the crazed eyes on it, I'd say I'd done more than enough.

"You're gonna wish you never followed me," I huffed as I stomped the ground on the way.

The bear got immediately caught in a mud slide, and slid down deep underground. I used this chance to fire two more water blasted, and make the earth more slippery, just to ensure that it had no mobility.

The bear slipped and slided but that's what I wanted it to do. Cause when it's unbalanced like that...

"EARL, NOW!"

A large golden tentacle raised from above the bear and clobbered it right on the head, ending the bears reign of terror for good.

"Let's go!" I raised my hand in victory. Earl felt like he still had to add some more for good measure so he pummelled the already gone beast to oblivion.

"Hey! Ease up on the destruction!" I stopped him just before he continued with his fit.

He landed on last tentacle, then finally stopped.

"Huh, had to get it back for all it did to me," Earl said.

"Is that right? Well, save your energy. Nine more to go,"

"No way we're actually have to face such beasts for nine more times! Mrs Kelly can't be that evil!"