BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three heavy strikes descended unto Lia, who was doing her best to keep the beast's attention away from the others. She stopped the first one easily, but each time she did so it took a lot out of her. 

The huge thing suddenly lunged forward, aiming to grab the woman and crush her to death, but Vaeri would not let that happen. She was near Nalen on the left side. 

Her silver sword flashed, shooting towards the side of the Dread Bear. And it pierced straight in, digging in until the hilt was pressed against the bear’s fur. Vaeri did not stop there, twisting and yanking the sword all around before pulling it out.

It roared once again, stumbling to the side before having a chance to crush Lia. But now, it had found a new target. The girl had been the first one to really injure it.

The speed and power of the blow aimed at Vaeri was more than enough to smash her into a meat paste. She jumped backwards, but the paw was simply too fast.

And then the strike was blown away like one would to dust.

Linne had finally released an arrow. It lodged itself directly into the side of the bear’s paw, perfectly placed. The momentum of the arrow pulled the huge beast off to the side.

BOOM!

It crashed to the ground hard, unable to resist that kind of power.

“Holy shit, Linne. That was insane!” Ruith exclaimed to the girl, looking at her. She was now pale in the face and breathing heavy. But she was too focused, Ruith’s words not being registered.

The boy quickly turned back to the battle.

The bear tried to struggle to its feet, a task made harder by its injured leg. However, Ruith wouldn’t let it go anywhere. All of his mana plus the mana of three trees vanished.

The ground around the Dread Bear burst open, dirt flying everywhere. Ten roots the size of his upper arm wrapped themselves around the bear. They came up from one side, and dug back into the ground on the other side, pulling tight into the bear’s skin. The full power of Constrain was unleashed.

The monstrous beast thrashed, or at least it tried to. It had no momentum to break out of these roots, trying to use pure strength. But only one of its legs was planted on the ground making it all the more difficult.

Ruith dropped to the ground, exhausted. He absorbed more mana while watching, he would be of no more help to this battle.

The other four instantly capitalized on what Ruith had done. Linne let loose a barrage of weaker arrows, all aimed at the head of the bear. It roared in pain and anger, injuring itself by pushing its muscles to their absolute max. The roots of Constrain groaned.

Nalen was stabbing his daggers wherever he could, even though they did practically nothing to the Dread Bear, or so it seemed.

Vaeri and Lia stabbed their weapons deep into the bear, reaching past the fat layer. The bear was roaring, except now it seemed to be filled with a new emotion, sadness. Ruith almost felt bad for the thing.

RIIIP!

Constrain was finally torn apart by the pure might of the bear. It stumbled onto its legs, wobbling while being assaulted. It let loose a flurry of swings, but they were far slower than before.

Nalen chuckled. “Poison is finally working!”

The Dread Bear fought valiantly for a few more minutes, but in the end it crashed back to the ground.

Lia approached the head, intending to finally end its suffering. However, the bear opened its massive maw when she drew near, intending to bite her entire upper body off. But it was too slow, she easily stepped back.

Vaeri reached the bear's head while it was distracted, and plunged her sword in. The massive creature seized, before going still.

All five of the group gathered around, and Lia spoke.

“Great job everyone! To be honest Ruith, I thought you would be useless, but it seems you made the kill a lot easier.” The woman laughed lightly.

“Alright, let’s get some of the fur off of this thing. We won’t be able to carry a whole lot, but it should be enough for our group.”

They proceeded to skin a large portion of the carcass, ending up with more than they could take. Luckily, they had an empty backpack and several thick bags.

“Alright. We still have much more hunting to do today. We will head back to the village in two days.”

The group of five set off for the other bear that was nearby. Everyone had restored their mana and was as energetic as when they started.

***

Ruith looked out across the trees to the east. Massive storm clouds stretched across the horizon, darker than any the boy had seen before. But he had no more time to think about it, as the roar of another Dread Bear echoed around.