The mother bear started a slow chuffing growl that eventually worked up to a full roar. It seemed to invade the mind and paralyze the body with fear. The Ki enhanced roar attacked the spirit of the five young men holding them in place as it grew in intensity. It was monstrously large as they turned to the source of the roar. Its shoulders reached six feet while still on all four feet. Dark brown fur ended in massive claws and teeth on full display as it roared. It began a slow lumbering charge that quickly built up speed while they stood gathered around the younger bear’s body.

Luckily it followed the same path as the younger bear and entered the slowing array, causing ice to strike it. A loud crack went up from the array as the bear’s Ki overloaded the array, but it acted like a starting pistol, breaking the momentary paralysis on the boys even as it slowed the bear’s charge.

They turned to flee, but Tram tripped after only a dozen steps and went down in a heap. He stood quickly, and as he was standing, he tossed several flag-like objects out in front of him before he turned to run again. The bear turned its attention to the stumbling target now closest to it and lunged with two swipes of its paws when it came into range of Tram.

A blue shield shimmered as the bear struck it and their claws bounced off the protection, confusing the bear. The twins used the bear’s confusion to pause long enough to fire an arrow each at it.

“It won’t hold,” Qin yelled. “Break your token if you haven’t already!”

The twins danced up into the nearby trees’ branches and started firing more arrows at the beast as it pushed through the barrier with a final swipe and resumed chasing Tram.

Tram used his movement art to keep out of range. Some form of Ki enabled earth walking, where he would touch the dirt and appear several steps forward. However, it seemed the bear was able to sense this movement. No matter how Tram tried, he couldn’t dodge to lose the charging animal and was losing ground.

Qin shifted in beside it with a spear thrust at its side, piercing its thick hide enough to draw blood and get another roar from the creature. It turned to swipe at Qin, who instantly shifted back away. Qin appeared in its vision still, hoping to distract it from the slower member of his party.

Quan was keeping pace with Tram, who suddenly tripped as he was fumbling with his bag. “What are you doing? Keep running!” Quan yelled as he reached a hand and lifted Tram to his feet, and kept moving.

“No, we need to find a way to fight or we're dead. We can’t outrun it when it’s already on top of us.” Tram stopped and turned. He dropped a large parchment on the ground and shoved some crystals in marked spots before standing up and pointing towards the bear.

Vines sprung up from the ground beneath the bear and entangled its limbs. “That will only hold for a couple of seconds. Hit it fast,” Tram yelled at the top of his voice.

Qin and Quan both dashed in with spears held in front of them while arrows flew past them. The spear wielders struck almost as one from opposite sides and scored deep cuts. Their luck ended there as the spirit bear’s front paws began to glow with dark energy causing the vines to wither. A paw swipe destroyed Qin’s spear as he lept back, and the bear turned to face Quan.

He kept the spear in the bear’s face with short fast jabs meant more to annoy and occupy its attention than do any damage. He could see vines still hampered the furious beast on its hind legs, so he took the opportunity to keep its attention as long as he dared.

Qin summoned another spear, and flames started dancing on the head of it. He moved behind and tried to cut and stab at its hind leg. He heard someone call out "lightning arrow," and a bolt of electricity arced out from the trees to the bear’s bulky torso.

The bear would swipe at Quan, the only target he could reach, but he dodged each blow and danced out of reach. If one of those blows landed they would crush him. His only hope was that the powerful swipes were slow and easily predicted as the bear shifted its massive weight to strike. But it was a stalling action. He didn't have a weapon strong enough to win this fight. He desperately gave a moment’s thought to his new inventory for any weapons but only saw.

Building Inventory list 67%

Weapons - 0

The smell of burnt fur filled the air as fire and tiny bolts of lightning kept landing on the beast. While not striking as often as the others Tram kept empowering arrays he would make before him with quick cast flags. They would attack with either fire or ice but seemed to have a stronger impact than anyone else's hits.

Finally, the hind legs tore free of the vines, and it was clear the right hind leg was badly damaged. Over a dozen arrows stuck out its side. But she still rushed forward with her great bulk and tried to strike Quan down. He danced away from the blow only to have the bear keep on moving with him, throwing off his pattern of dodges.

"Oh shit!" He swore as compensated for his stance and continued dodging. "Guys! We need to end this!"

"We're trying!" Qin yelled as he thrust his spear into its left leg.

Quan could feel a burst of Ki building in the bear's claws as it swiped again. While he managed to dodge the actual strike, Ki extended from the creature in a solid and sharp form and struck him just as badly as if he hadn’t dodged at all. He screamed in agony as the bear’s ki cut through skin and muscle, and the force of it tossed him away like a child’s doll.

Qin cried out as he saw his teammate flung away. He thrust again, severing a tendon and laming the great beast. But it spun so quickly he had no time to react as its body slammed into him.

Tram was now the only standing target still visible and, despite the wounded legs, the enraged bear rumbled over to him. Tram's shield array was once again in place though. As the bear started attacking the barrier he screamed in fear knowing it wouldn't last more than a few strikes. He pulled out a ball and threw it under the bear. The moment the orb left his fingers, he jumped away with all his strength to reach cover

When the ball struck the ground directly beneath the beast, lightning tore from the ground up to the sky and back down again. It arced around the area setting off little fires. And when the crash of thunder and light finished, the bear stood smoking a moment before it dropped dead where it stood.

Junjie dropped from the trees a moment later and said "Why didn't you start with that?" When no one replied he rushed over to find Tram unconscious and covered in burns from the lightning blast.

Zao made sure the mother was dead before he turned back to pick up Qin. He was dazed but otherwise okay as he'd merely been slammed by the turning rear end of the bear.

Together they looked for Quan as Junjie looked after Tram. They found him unconscious and covered in blood on his left side. He had a broken arm, and who knows what internal injuries or breaks as claw marks covered most of his upper chest where he was bleeding profusely. They lifted him over to Tram.

"They look bad. What do we do?" Zao asked.

"We wait and do what we can for them. The Sect will send someone for five broken totems as fast as they can." Qin said wearily.

"That lightning bolt probably helped point the direction," Junjie added.

Quan stirred and they saw he opened his eyes. "It's over?"

"We won, but Tram's hurt bad, and you," Qin replied.

With his good hand he shoved it inside his bag beside him, then summoned one of the healing potions into his hand. He drank half and said, "force him to drink this," as he pushed the bottle into Qin's hand.

He turned his head to the twins. "Seriously, you missed a giant bear?"