-47- F-rank bear

Once all three of them were in the mirage realm, Na-Ri said, "We need to get the bear away from the boy."

Xander didn't want to be in the fight in the first place, but now that he was here, he was going to give it his full effort, so he nodded his head in agreement, and Hana did as well.

The three then split up, with Xander going left, Na-Ri going right, and Hana keeping her distance in the backline.

Beasts didn't have soul sense like humans, demons, and devils, but they did have excellent senses, so the three still had to be careful not to get too close, or the F-rank beast would definitely sense something off. Xander made sure to keep a distance of 20 meters from the bear, and Na-Ri followed suit, with Hana even farther back at a distance of 40 meters.

Once the three were in position, they each gave each other the signal. Hana readied her bow, and Xander pulled out two throwing knives.

Then Xander phased Na-Ri back into reality, and at the same time, Hana and Xander let loose their arrow and knives.

The bear, which was busy chewing on the boy, was startled when Na-Ri suddenly appeared 20 meters away from it.

"Swoosh!"

"Shing!" "Shing!"

The arrow and two throwing knives met their mark, and the bear went from startled to full-on aggressive.

It completely forgot about its meal and charged the only thing it could see that was a threat—Na-Ri.

As the bear ran toward Na-Ri, Xander and Hana continued their onslaught of ranged attacks. Once the bear was nearing Na-Ri, Xander used his connection with her to phase her back into the mirage realm, and she disappeared from view.

After she disappeared, she ran to the back right, wanting to create more distance from the beast, and at the same time, Xander ran forward, getting closer to the beast but making sure to draw the fight away from the injured boy.

Once he got to his mark, Xander phased himself into reality with his katana in hand and readied himself to meet the massive beast head-on.

The bear, upon seeing Xander, changed its target from blindly searching for Na-Ri to beelining toward Xander.

"Left shoulder!" Hana yelled, letting Xander know where one of the bear's weak spots was.

Xander used a flash of lightning to dash toward the bear at incredible speeds, but the F-rank bear was no slouch. It raced forward just as fast as the lightning-powered Xander, with its pure speed alone.

As Xander neared the bear, he used 'Bolt Step' to flash to his right, ready to attack the bear's left shoulder. But as soon as he readied his katana, the bear made its first real move of the fight.

"Whoosh!"

A tree, 10 meters tall and 1 meter in diameter, was suddenly grown in the blink of an eye right between Xander and the bear.

'So it's a wood user,' Xander thought.

This wasn't his first time going against a wood user, but the last time it was against monkeys who could create and throw spears. He didn't imagine the bear would have the same ability, but it being an F-rank made him even more cautious.

Now that his only route of attack was blocked, Xander decided to call it for this turn and phased back into the mirage realm. At the same time, he phased Na-Ri back into reality 5 meters away from the bear's back.

With an arrow of molten fire coating her blade, she lunged forward and attempted to stab the bear in the hip, hoping to hinder its movement.

The bear, though, was quick. It created itself an armor of wood on its back leg right where Na-Ri was attacking, but unfortunately for it, molten fire beats wood.

Na-Ri's attack ate right through the wood, and she plunged her blade deep into the bear's hip, tearing through both muscle and bone.

"GRRRROOOAAAR!" the bear roared out in pain.

At the same time as it got stabbed, it began to turn to face Na-Ri, so Xander phased her back into the mirage realm, but this is where the fight started to go wrong.

The bear, knowing that its opponent liked to hit and run, created a large tree right behind Na-Ri, blocking off her path of escape.

Na-Ri, who was now in the mirage realm, had already turned and noticed she was blocked off from her immediate path of escape.

The 2-meter-wide tree blocked her path.

She, of course, could just go around the tree, but the bear was right on her tail.

Na-Ri did the only thing she could think to do, and that was to use her trait.

She turned her body into molten fire at the same time the bear swiped down its claw.

"Ahhhhh!"

She screamed out in pain as the bear took off a chunk of her.

While she used her trait, she could lose parts of her without any side-effects, but that didn't make it any less painful.

"GRRROOAR!"

The bear also screamed out in pain, its paw being burned to a crisp from the brief impact with Na-Ri's sun trait.

At this moment, the bear knew it was in trouble. Xander was phasing back into reality at its back.

Na-Ri had just crippled its front paw and injured its right hip, and Hana had been constantly hitting it with ice arrows in its weak and vulnerable areas the entire fight.

The bear knew it was unlikely to win this fight, so out of anger, frustration, or pure spite, the bear changed its tactic from fighting to killing.

It ignored its attackers, turned toward the near-dead crippled boy, and created a tree right on his body, the branches of the tree digging through the boy's entire body, ripping him to shreds and killing him instantly.

"Dammit!" Na-Ri yelled in frustration.

The bear then turned toward Na-Ri as if to gloat, then after a moment, it turned toward the forest and ran off before they could try to end the fight.

***

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[Name: Alexander Stone]

[Rank: G-rank - Entry] - [Saturation: 1%]

[Death Core] - [Attunements: Death 100% - Life 10% - Other 50%]

[First Trait: Reaper's Revival] - [Death Charge: Fully Charged]

[First trait Rank: Divine]

-

[Rank: G-rank - Entry] - [Saturation: 1%]

[Lightning Core] - [Attunements: Lightning 100% - Other 45%]

[Second Trait: Mirage Realm]

[Second trait Current Rank: G-rank]