Chapter 86: Bear
By definition, a magic beast was some sort of animal that had come across some mana source or something similar. It would cause them to mutate out of proportion to become far larger and usually gave it some basic ability that it instinctively could use.
The bear that was in front of us was just that. Despite being an animal, its confidence in itself was quite high, and rightfully so. After all, all other normal animals within a kilometer radius would scatter away. That was probably why our journey so far had been so smooth.
In the case of this bear, there appeared to be a fifth limb growing out from its back. Unlike normal ones, this one had an extra joint, and was much thinner than the other ones. It hung limply, and a small detail I noticed was that the hand had seven fingers. I do remember the game mentioning that mutation was rather volatile, but the art never had anything like this before.
The bear stood up on its hind legs and let out a needlessly loud roar. While I've never heard a bear roar before, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been as loud as this. For now, it seemed to be just sizing us up.
It was quite hard to tell if one didn't look closely, but there were certain parts on the bear that looked a bit more rugged, like a dark-colored rock. It would be fairly clear if it wasn't for the fact that it was covered in fur.
In the game, they would also have an element assigned to them to signify that they were some sort of special monster. It was the kind of system you see in most gacha games, which was probably inspired by Pokemon. For example, a fire element. Offensive water or ice magic would be effective against it, while nature-related magic was weak.
Seeing as we hadn't yet backed off, the bear let out a growl before going down and slowly approaching us.
But the difference in this game was that the same magic type had nearly no effect at all, and would sometimes even empower the magical beast. In other words, you would be better off using nature magic instead.
The dull black rough parts of the bear started to glow, becoming red. It also began to increase its speed.
Naturally, investing in only one type of magic was a pretty bad idea, but out of the beginner magic spells, the only one that had any real offensive capability was the fire spell.
Oh yeah, while I may have said our bodies were monstrous before, that wasn't actually taking into account actual monsters. If I were to compare us to this magical beast, it was just like comparing an ordinary person and an actual bear. Not to mention, we still only knew beginner magic. Which meant if we encountered a fire elemental magic beast, that would be pretty bad for us.
Ah, also if parts of the magic beast glow red, that means they are a fire elemental.
In other words, just like the bear that was running towards us right now, with its jaws wide open and a fireball forming in front of its head.
'Shit! Move, you imbecile! Can't you see there is a magical beast right in front of you? Are you frozen up in fear?! Run! Run you fool! Did you really just threaten my life so that you could kill my body here?'
That was probably the rational thing to do, as realistically even a weak magical beast was still out of our league with how early on we were. Not to mention one that countered Nathan's flamethrower.
But... one feature magical beasts had in the game was that they would always drop at least semi-decent loot. After all, they would always at least drop a few iridescent crystals. I caught a glance at Nathan's eyes beneath his mask, and they were the same as mine.
We weren't willing to give up a treasure when it was handed right to us.
The bear suddenly flung the fireball forth.
I didn't wait to leap upwards. At the same time, I fished out the grappling hook and threw it towards a nearby tree. A large explosion came from right underneath me, knocking the air out of me and throwing me forth along with a blast of hot air.
Ignoring my current state, I pulled hard on the rope, despite not knowing if it had caught on anything because of the mild daze the explosion put me in.
Thankfully, it did end up hooked onto a branch and I began swinging like I was Tarzan in the jungle. Unfortunately, partway through the branch snapped, leaving me to fall on the dirt and tumble about.
...I'm not fat, I swear.
After getting up, I looked back to see the bear five or so meters away, but it wasn't facing me. I only caught a glimpse, but I saw Nathan dart backwards and take cover from behind a tree. But looking at two trees that were currently on the ground and on fire, it seemed that his cover was now gone.
It seemed Nathan was currently facing it head-on right now.
Since that was the case, I should be the one that uses its lack of attention on me to launch the decisive attack. I ran closer, not caring all that much about keeping my presence quiet. I mean, if it did shift its attention to me, then Nathan will have to do the heavy lifting instead.
Unfortunately, my wishes didn't come true as the bear continued fighting with Nathan. Knowing that it was unreasonable for him to keep up for long, I clambered a bit up a tree close to the bear with my sights on its deformed limb on its back.
Since I already had my grappling hook out, I might as well latch onto that thing and get on its back. While it may have mutated from the crystal, it was still an animal that had no easy way to attack things on its back.
"Hup!"
With most of my strength, I threw the grappling hook, shooting out towards the arm. It shot through the air like a shooting star!
And... uh... might've been going a little off the mark.
Ok, maybe really off mark.
Yet, before I could think about reeling it back in to give it another try, I saw Nathan dash to the bear's side and launch a massive fireball to its side. The bear let out a roar as it stumbled away, but was completely unharmed.
But the grappling hook that I had initially missed was right on target!
I guess he was always the one cleaning up after me.
When I pulled, the arm bent back at an angle, but was still rather sturdy. As for the bear, it let out a cry of pain. It seemed that part of it hurt rather badly
Without waiting another second, I leaped off the tree and pulled on the rope with both hands like I was climbing up, but the sensation was a bit strange considering that I was swinging in the air. It was also surprisingly difficult.
The bear continued to cry out in pain and stood up on its hindlegs, but that only made the angle for the rope easier to climb up, letting me move up its back kinda like I was rock climbing. Naturally wanting to oppose me, it began rocking back and forth, but with my tight grip on the rope, it could only make me lose my footing, but not throw me off.
By the way, the fur was as soft as a pillow. If it wasn't for the fact I should be fighting, I'd want to try sleeping on this.
When I had made it near its head, it changed strategies. It went down onto four feet and began running, making me feel like I was falling down a rollercoaster. But that was a pretty big mistake. It would've been much harder for me to make my way to the back of its head. But now, I just had to not lose my balance.
Several slams resounded as the bear smashed into nearby trees, directly uprooting and knocking them over. If it wasn't for the grappling hook, I definitely would've been thrown off by now, but I was able to manage just barely.
I adjusted the angle of the grappling hook as I made my way past the deformed limb. Then, while one hand was holding tightly onto the rope, the other drew my sword.
The weak point that came to my mind first was the head, but I wasn't confident that I would actually be able to pierce through the skull of a magical beast, especially when I had to focus on balancing myself.
As for the eye, the angle was simply unrealistic for me.
This led me to focus on the neck, or at least, where I think the neck was. To be honest, the neck was so short and thick, that it seemed like there wasn't one in the first place. But going for the weak part of the spine was the only real option here.
As such, I stabbed the part that connected its head and body with a grunt.
I pierced through some of the tough flesh, but I felt it stop the moment it hit bone. The bear let out another roar of pain and slowed down its running significantly. With a frown, I gripped tighter around the handle of the sword and forcefully moved through the flesh, trying to find a weaker part of the bone.
While this happened, the bear stumbled to the left and right, letting out fearful cries, and slamming into trees as a last-ditch effort. To be honest, it almost worked as the grappling hook nearly came loose, but I tugged on tightly enough for it to remain.
I continued to force my blade through. Only a bit of blood seeped out in the process, but from the bear's reaction, it seemed to be effective. The flesh was just that tough.
Right as I began to feel a bit nervous, I felt the sword slip a bit further in and hook onto something. The moment I felt that I let go of the rope and put both hands on the sword. It was deep enough to support me anyway.
While gritting my teeth, I twisted the sword with all my might. My arms shook violently, and the bear's struggle became far more intense.
It suddenly shot upwards, like a horse trying to throw a guy off its back.
Unfortunately, now that I let go of the rope, there was no way for me to balance. I was definitely going to fly like a bird. Just that the bird is a penguin being pitched like a baseball.
But as I shot upwards, I just barely heard a dull clack as the resistance from my sword lessened. A smile formed on my face, but it disappeared just as it formed, because I suddenly found myself flying through the air with no concept of up and down.
It reminded me of the time that Raisa threw me.
Soon enough, I slammed into the ground, breaking the fall my shoulder, which hurt quite a lot, but at least it wasn't my head. A deep slam resounded not too far away.
The bear had fallen.
While I was still dizzy, I heard a snarky voice call out.
"Were you even trying to aim? Your grappling hook wasn't even going towards the bear, dumbass."
With one hand on my head, I pointed at Nathan weakly.
"Bitch, you weren't the one that had to do all the hard work, so shut up."
Nathan chuckled.
"Oookay Mister Sad Face."
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