Ch.13: Man Vs. Monster.

It started with an explosion of black and red that shook the room, sending debris and shockwaves that sent Jasmine flying a few feet away.

Clay ran out the smoke of the explosion, his sword on in his right hand for faster speed and better movements.

'From those robotics arms it has, it can fire out golden colored exploding balls. If I'm not careful about how I do things, then..'

Clay, behind the bear and to its side, made a beeline towards it. The bear looked over its shoulder only to see Clay spinning in the air. Clay came down on it, his sword clashing with the bears left arm that it threw over its shoulder to block.

They were in that position for quite some time, Clay trying to force his sword passed its defense, but struggling to as it wasn't backing down either.

Then, yellow light that when in his face, seemed brighter than the sun, had shown. Seeing this surprised him, leading him to jumped off the bears arm, the ball of energy just shooting past him.

Clay wasted no time in charging at him, slashing at its neck with his sword, but being blocked by the bears left arm. He decided to punch at it with his free hand, only for the bear to punch with their right acting as a attack and a way to separate some distance between the two.

It worked, but Clay still dashed at its right side, the bears not being able to defend this time since it's right hand hadn't recover from throwing out that last punch.

Clay used his left hand and grabbed onto its back. He threw his left leg over the bears neck and his right leg also wrapped around its neck.

Yanking to the right, Clay was able to flip the entire bear over onto its back side.

He then slashed down with his sword, but the bear had sprung out of the way of his slash. It then threw it's right hand out, aiming for Clay's head, but Clay had ducked just under it, slashing at its legs, but missing as it jumped away.

While it did, it put left arm out and fired another ball of energy. Clay, again, wasn't expecting it to do it this close up, so he was a little stunned.

However, he managed by doing a vertical slash, the ball of energy splitting into two, his sword coming out of his hands and the energy balls going behind, but at his sides and exploding.

'Shit..'

Clay thought as the bear, still in the air, shot out more balls of energy. Clay jumped back for the first one which then exploded in front of him.

Seeing more coming at him and that he couldn't keep evading them all in this one spot, he turned around and started running away.

The balls of energy would get really close, exploding just behind him actually. He started to run towards his left, one ball of energy then getting so close to him that it looked like he was actually hit.

He however emerged from the smoke that he used as a smoke screen and threw a dagger made of metal. The dagger traveled a high speeds in the air, the bear just barely blocking this and also being throw out of the air at the same time.

It landed on the ground on all 4's, sticking it's right arm out and firing off 3 energy balls. Clay was already running towards the bears direction. He did a front flip over the first energy ball.

Rolled on the ground from built up momentum he had to dodge the second and simply jumped over the third one as it exploded beneath him, giving him a slight boost towards the bear.

As he was in the air, the bear fired off another one that Clay dodged. As it was about to fire another one, Clay came down and stepped on that arm, making the bear fire into the ground below them.

The bear jumped back out the smoke and Clay followed. It fired off another shot, but Clay had uppercuted that arm which made the ball fly over his head.

He kicked the bear in the face then did a cartwheel, bringing his free foot down and striking the top of its head.

As it was in a state of surprise and shock, Clay had leaped up and came back down, his right fist punching the bear hard in its face. The bears eyes went blank as it coughed out blood.

From below, Clay used his right hand to deliver an uppercut once more, the bear flying back, but catching itself with its left robotic arm.

With its head down, the bear had been huffing and puffing, unaware that Clay was ripping metal out the ground and infusing it with Chi Energy that made him weapons and such.

Looking up, the bear saw Clay toss a dagger up, catch it, then throw it at itself. The blade broke through the air, traveling at a speeds a human wouldn't be able to process.

However, the bear could and so, It put its guard up and blocked the dagger, exploding into smaller pieces of metal.

Clay was already a few inches away from it now, going towards its unguarded belly. He however did not see it charging up energy which was brought down upon him.

It missed, exploding the ground just before Clay. Pieces of metal and earth came up as Clay jumped over the bears shoulder and onto a piece of floating rubble.

The bear fwipped around and started attacking blindly, hoping to hit Clay who kept jumping from rubble to rubble.

Whenever he'd go to the other side of the bear, lines of blood would appear on the bears body. This angered it dearly.

Only seeing a blur, feeling pain from something that was there and yet it was.

It roared out loudly and fwipped around once again. Clay jumped off the rubble and with his left hand, had held onto the top of the metal arm. He then wrapped his body around the arm, his right foot dragging and coming at its head.

The hit connected with the side of the bears face, but it wasn't enough. The bear threw his head out and head butted Clay, blood coming off both their foreheads.

Clay was knocked back several meters uncontrollably, but had soon stabilized himself.

A shadow casting down from above caught his attention. The bear was coming down and realizing this, had jumped out its path, turning around to see sparks of yellow. The bear had flew back up with its arms raised.

It then started flying legs first towards Clay. 'Aw come on!' Clay guarded himself and the legs of the bear connected with his forearms. He felt a deep pain in his core, like he was about to snap in half.

The bear pushed him back several feet, the pressure getting stronger, the bear becoming faster and Clay..'I can feel it..' Clay pushed off and slowly started backing away.

The bear could tell,

Jasmine could tell,

Lady Death who was watching through the fly could tell.

'I'm starting to get exhausted...'

Clay turned back around, and went into a run. Seeing this, the bear smirked and started speed walking behind him.

The bear caught up and when it did, had jumped up and came back down, planting its elbow into Clay's back.

Both beings fell to the ground, Clay struggling to get up, but did and lunged out from beneath its arm and landing a few feet away.

'My strength is becoming weaker by the second. I'm exhausted, fatigued and I wanna just stop now, but I can't. I have to finish it out..'

Clay blitzed at the bear which was now standing. Clay threw out a punch which his right and the bear did with its left. Their punch parried off each others as they gave themselves some distance before attacking again.

The bear swung with its right and Clay ducked. It threw out its left and Clay cocked his head back, successfully dodging it. Clay pivoted with his right and ended up behind it.

He wasn't able to attack however as it spun around too and punched with it's left hitting Clay's right arm completly off.

From there, Clay had to dodge the attacks of the bear nonstop for minutes on end to allow his arm time to regenerate.

When it was finally done, he punched it in the chest with his right hand, but it didn't seem phased. And so he kept punching at it and again, it wasn't phased.

The bear gave a menacing laugh as it started leaning forward, Clay feeling the fabric of his muscle breaking as he tried stopping it from falling on him.

He was distracted in that moment in which the bear used to raise its right arm and swing at him. Clay jumped over it and went towards his back.

He however was stopped mid air as it grabbed the end of his shirt, brought him up and threw him into the ground.

It then yanked on his shirt, pulling Clay towards itself while ripping his shirt completly off too.

The bear threw out his forearm quickly and Clay's neck ran right into it, making him spin in circles on end while flying behind the bear and landing some distance away.

Clay's coughing was deadly after that as he would roll on the ground. He managed to kneel in the end, his head down and spitting out blood and holding his neck. 'I stopped breathing there for a moment. That..'

His vision was a little blurred and shakey as he looked up. He saw the bear laughing with his right arm fully extended.

An energy ball was shot out and Clay, just barely seeing this, could do nothing more but put his right arm up to block.

He was thrown back, landing on his neck as he did. 'I guess I still do have some fear left in me..' He felt a heavy presence which made him look up, only to see it standing over him.

His right arm, nothing but bone. His strength, practically gone and was using his own. 'I just wanna lay down and rest. But I can't..' He quickly stood up and tried to uppercut it.

The bear dodged.

Clay then punched with his boney right hand.

The bear dodged by moving to the side, punching his boney arm and shattering it into hundreds of pieces.

Standing behind him, it kicked the back of Clay's legs out which made him fall to his knees.

'I know now that regenerating whole limbs takes longer than it would a simple wound. I..don't have the energy nor the time to wait around for it to heal tho..'

The bear then picked him up by the neck then repeatedly started bashing him into the ground. 'You've done this already and it won't hurt me anymore. You're just giving me time to regen..'

The bear soon started spinning around until it was turning in one motion so fast that its figure blurred into a brown tornado.

It then launched Clay high up, breaking through the ceiling and into the dark and quite night.

'Ah, the city... It's a beautiful sight to see, especially when you're all the way up here..' His legs were fine now but his right arm was still missing. 'I'm not left handed but I'll have to use it for now...'

He started falling back down, going through the hole he came out of. The bear threw its right arm up to pierce through its chest and it did.

Clay paid no mind to this however, kicking off its chest and flying off the robotic arm that had impaled him.

Clay grabbed a chairs leg that was broken off and on the floor, made it into an energy sword and striked at the same time the bear did.

His sword travels underneath the thrown out right arm of the bear and pieced it.

Or so he thought.

The bear slowly looked down as it heard cracking sounds.

'Damn it..'

The sword broke upon impact, meaning it did absolutely no damage to the bear.

"Damn it.."

The bear pinned him down with one hand and started cackling.

It pushed slightly and the ground beneath Clay had broke and shattered. Jasmine placed her hand over her mouth, wanting to run out and do something to help, but her body not allowing her to move.

'You always freeze, damn it! You always~...'

Lady Death saw enough and in the dark void she was in, had vanished

Clay was lying on the ground, his eyes closed and his arms spread. The bear picked him up by his left arm and stared at him.

"/<Even with the power to regenerate, overwhelming power will bring anyone down to their knees. You should have just gave up in the beginning..>\"

The bear spoke out while laughing. The laughs bunched off every wall in the room, haunting Jasmine as it did. His laugh reached Clay's ears and bounced around in his head.

'That attack... It broke my everything...'

Every bone, every organ, he felt all of it break down and collapse. 'It'll take a while for me to regenerate back from all of this. Man, I really tried too. Was beating him in the beggining tho, right..?'

With Immortality, there comes pain. Whether it's physical pain, or mental, there's no way to evade it.

'I'll lose everyone I love though if I just up and quit right here. Dad, Mom, Eve..'

On his back, from the bottom of his spine to the back of his head, 7 circles had appeared.

'I know it'll happen eventually and that's why I wanna live my best life with them for as long as they live. I wanna give them everything. Happiness, Joy, Love,.. I really do want all of that..'

The 3rd circle from the bottom had flickered green, Clay slowly opening his eyes. The bear didn't notice either of this as it was looking at Jasmine.

"/<You still wanna come at me?! This poor bastard was your trump card and now that he's defeated you have no way of winning.

But still, you want to fight me?! Give me a break! This bastads still in one piece because of his power. You'd end up as a stain on the ground if you step up to me!\>"

"Hey..."

Clay placed his left hand on the arm holding him up. The bear took its eyes of Jasmine and when it saw Clay, its pupils shrunk down.

"You're acting like I'm done here. Don't get distracted now."

Energy from within his body traveled through his arms and into the robotic arm of the bear. It exploded, leaving only wires to dance around in the air.

Clay landed on the ground and the bear started backing up, holding its destroyed forearm and bellowing.

"/<Bastard! Wh-Where the hell did that power come from?!"

Clay started to heal at a peculiar rate.

His destroyed right arm? Any wounds?

They regenerated back in an instant.

His bones and organs?

They were better than they were when he was at his peak.

His Chi Energy?

Restored and much, more than before.

"Even I don't know. But I feel like...I feel like I've unlocked a part of myself. Weird, isn't it?"

This could mean a series of things, but in this situation, in this very moment, it could mean one thing and one thing only.

'He's unlocked a path?!'

Jasmine and the bear thought on the same wave lengths.

"Listen, man. Or...people. You're really going to die right now, okay? Lady Death...she won't be able to bring you back at all. That's fine, right?"

The Chi in his body needed to escape. Otherwise, he'd blow up. Who better to let it out on than the bear?

'I feel my own power.

I honor myself.

I'm strong and brave.

I am proud of myself and what I can do.

I choose what's best for myself...

I AM The One Who's In Control Here.'

....

An: Yes.