Chapter 38: Oh bother part 1

The battle began before Alex had a chance to collect himself, unaware it had even started, Alex had just enough time to raise his spear to block the attack before the great grizzly's paw slammed into his side.

Despite having been able to block, it still felt like he had been hit by a truck.

Alex was sent careening through the air, directly at the crowd.

Just as he was about to rocket into a poor wolf, he slammed his spear into the ground, bringing himself to a screeching halt.

"A little warning next time" Alex muttered under his breath.

"Sorry" Sarah replied, floating just behind Alex, "it was just to fast"

"Nah, it's ok, don't beat yourself up over it" Alex assured her, "let's just focus on the fight"

[Spikes of earth]

The bear came charging over, not wanting to give Alex an opening, but as it approached, the ground erupted into hundreds of rocky spears.

The bear screeched to a halt, stopping inches before impalement.

Alex vaulted over the spikes, raising his spear high into the sky, he began to bring it down as hard as he could.

The bear easily batted away flashy strike.

"Why did you think that was a good idea?" Sarah asked desperately

"Did it at least look cool?" Alex asked, seconds before the a second paw swatted him out the air.

He tumbled through the air, surprised to find his spear during his flight.

Grabbing it deftly, Alex righted himself mid-air, landing hard onto the ground.

Raising his spear high he aimed with as little delay as he could, finding the bear once again charging him.

[Earth's strength]

[Vine launch]

[Hunters blessing]

[Tremor boost]

[Green guardian's wrath]

Alex's eyes crackled with a mixture of brown and green energy, the green energy pulsing and writhing, seeming to encroach on any space it could reach, while the brown energy seemed to almost harden, remaining resolutely unmoving.

The ground beneath Alex began to split and rise, curling around his arm in a stony gauntlet, vines shot from the ground and wrapped around nearby trees and other protrude, before wrapping around Alex's spear, like some kind of slingshot.

A faint white aura wrapped around the spear, giving it an almost ethereal glow, the many runes along the spear began to glow with a pulsing green energy, and the spear began to vibrate fiercely.

Before the bear had a chance to react, Alex sent the spear rocketing towards it at a velocity no human should be able to throw at.

With a dumbfounded look, the bear was pierced straight through the chest, not deep enough to kill as Alex noted, but enough to deal a significant blow.

Alex didn't let up.

[Seismic impact]

The ground beneath Alex began to roil and shake, before rising by just a few feet at insane speeds, launching Alex high into the air.

As the bear managed to right itself, Alex crashed into it.

As he landed, a ripple passed through the bear, passing almost instantaneously through the bear and into the ground, causing cracks to form all around the bear.

Alex raised his fist high.

[Stone support]

The many small pieces of debris scattered across the battle flew towards Alex's hand.

But before he could bring his fist down, the bear puffed out its cheeks, and its belly began to swell like a balloon.

When Alex threw his punch, his fist sunk into the bears stomach, but didn't deal any actual damage.

Alex bounced of the bear as its stomach returned to its original shape, causing the debris to bounce of harmlessly when they hit the bear.

"Well shit" Alex muttered under his breath.

"I-it was a good attack" Sarah said, trying her best to comfort Alex.

Alex was about to respond, when a paw came slamming down, forcing him to roll out of the way.

The bear ripped the spear out of its chest, causing a mix of blood and water to leak out, but the bear didn't care.

With another puff of the cheeks, the wound seemed to close on its own.

The bear threw the spear to one of its subordinates, who fumbled with it for a few minutes before grasping it between its two paws, hugging it tight to its chest while standing on its legs.

"Hey Sarah" Alex began, "Shouldn't the bear be doing that weird freezing thing?"

"Bonding only happens if it has the intention to use it," Sarah explained, "It only wants to hold the weapon, not use it, so it won't bond"

"Damn it" Alex muttered to himself.

With a snort of satisfaction, the bear brought down its paw, claws glinting in the small amount of sunlight that broke through the trees.

A loud metallic clang resounded through the arena, as the bears paw was deflected to the side.

In his hands, Alex held a second spear, this on, while looking similar to the first, had a whole different air about it, the carvings where neater, the blade was sharper, while retaining its slight rocky imperfections, it was much smoother.

Alex swung the spear upwards, causing the bear to tumble back.

"You know" Alex said tauntingly, "I never did catch your name, and I don't really think you have one, so how's about I call you Winnie?"

Winnie let out a threatening growl.

"I'll take that as a no then"

Alex parried another swipe and began to move back steadily, keeping just outside of Winnie's range.

After a short game of cat and mouse, seemingly frustrating Winnie even further than it already was, Winnie lunged forward with all of its strength.

Alex was unable to step out of the way in time, so had to make do with a slightly sloppy parry, but it was enough.

Winnie stumbled forward, off balance.

Alex used the movement of the parry to fall all down onto his knees, a green energy pouring out of him.

[Vine launch]

Alex head was thrown back as he was launched forward by the magical vines, sliding like a rockstar on a stage under Winnie.

Holding his spear high, he rammed the blade into Winnie's chest, dragging it down as he slid, creating a shallow gash in Winnies chest from top to bottom.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to pierce any deeper, but a wound was still a wound so he wasn't complaining.

As Alex came to halt, his dramatic power slide ended, Winnie whipped around, rage clear on its face, there was almost no rationality behind those eyes, only bloodlust, and a need to take revenge against the one that dared to harm it so.

Winnie's body began to swell, bloating up to an abnormal size, as if its entire body had turned one big balloon.

Despite the absurd form Winnie had taken, Alex felt no less safe, in fact, the site of the swelling bear put him on edge, best to get out of the way.

Just as he was about to move, Alex looked behind, to find that he was standing directly in front of his pack, if he dodged now, they would be hit with whatever Winnie was preparing.

"Fuck" Alex muttered to himself.

"Y-your not seriously..." Sarah asked in a panic.

"Yep" Alex said casually.

"I-it hurts me when the armour is damaged" Sarah blurted, "I don't like pain"

"Sorry then" Alex responded sympathetically, "just grit your teeth and bear it"

As Alex spoke, a mix of green and brown energy began to leak from him.

[Green guardians blessing]

[Stone armour]

[Nature's guard]

[Earthen reinforcement]

[Stead fast]

Green runes traced all over Alex's body, forming a crisscross of glowing green, lighting him up like a lightbulb for only a second before the ground beneath him began to split and crack.

Roots and vines shot out from the ground, encircling Alex to form a wood and vine armour around him, stones shot out of the ground and began to slap onto him, forming another layer of armour around Alex. Finally, the soil began to snake up Alex's body, hardening around him instantly.

As he stood, ready, a faint glimmering aura appeared around him, moving slowly to his front and forming the faint outlines of a shield.

"I should have made a shield for myself" Alex muttered to himself in dismay, just another thing to add to his growing to do list.

As Alex's thoughts where elsewhere, Winnie suddenly flattened back to its original size, and a bit beyond that, within a split second.

Alex raised his arms in an x to protect himself, but he didn't really know what happened.

One minute, he was standing on guard, the next, he was slammed into a tree outside the ring.

The one thing he did know though, was that it hurt, hurt like hell, who though realistic pain settings where a good idea, though he had picked them so it was partially his fault.

Alex stood up groggily, to find that his armours breast plate was shattered, part of his chest had gone concave.

God damn it hurt and he was struggling to breath, one of his lungs had probably collapsed.

Sarah's howls of pain filled his ears, she was writhing in the air in pain, her chest seemed to be crumbling.

Alex sympathised with her, he too wanted to howl in pain and let all his anger and pain out, but that would show Winnie weakness, and currently, he didn't want to give Winnie another reason to smile.

Behind him, a wolf lay, gasping for air, one side of its chest had caved in, he must have hit getting there.

The wolf was panting heavily, it didn't have long left.

Alex guessed that he wasn't fast enough to put up his guard.

looking down at his hands, he noticed that they where soaked in blood.

following the blood to the source, he found two holes, around the size of a golf ball, in each of his arms.

"Huh" he mused to himself, before the pain hit him like a freight train.

Alex feared that he would break his teeth from how tight he was clenching them.

"P-please" Sarah whimpered, "I don't want to die"

"Don't worry" Alex responded through ragged breath, green energy rolling off of him "you'll outlast me by a while"

[Healing glade]

The ground around suddenly lit up with a gentle green glow, small flowers and grass began to sprout wherever the glow touched.

Alex could feel his arms stitching back together, his chest forming back to its original shape, the wolf began to return as well, its breathing evened, and it even managed to to stand up, though shakily.

As Alex stood in the life giving glow of the glade, he noticed that Winnie had a vicious smile on its face, but did not move.

"Your gonna pay for that" Alex said calmly, feeling quite pissed himself at the dumb bear.

However, cold water was thrown on his enthusiasm, as a small notification popped up.

[Your hp has been depleted

Any attempts at healing will have no effect

Continuous attempts at healing will heal your vitality successfully

Warning: If this method of healing is used, it may have adverse consequences in the future]

"Oh" Alex said in a monotone.

"Don't give me that look" Alex spat at Winnie, who was giddy with glee.

As it smiled, Winnie's neck began to swell.

"Shit" Alex muttered before he dashed to the side, narrowly dodging the bolt of water.

Alex continued to duck and weave, using the trees to take cover as much as he could, while Winnie unleashed a barrage of water shots, each easily able to shatter whatever defences Alex put up.

At least it wasn't as powerful as what Winnie had done before.

Alex only had about five seconds before green guardians blessing ran out.

"Hey Sarah" Alex called, dipping behind a tree, "time for a switch"

Winnie could not see what Alex was doing, it only saw a faint flash of bright pink energy.