We traveled slowly through the enormous forest. The trees were spaced wide apart and towered overhead like skyscrapers. Enough light managed to filter through that it seemed to be a perpetual twilight. Enough to see, but a sense of gloom and foreboding permeated the forest.

With the large trees came equally oversized animals. The first giant squirrel caught us by surprise. It was not happy that we were traipsing through its territory and launched itself at Rowan, the one sitting tallest on Slate.

Something Knocked Rowan off of Slate’s back and fell to the forest floor. All I caught at first was a flash of a super bushy tail as it spiraled around a tree trunk. It gave off a loud chittering once it reached the lowest branches, over a hundred feet above us. The beast stood almost nine feet tall on its branch, its enormous tail sticking out as it balanced on its hind paws, glaring at us.

I managed to pull up its information with Identify.

Gigadendron Squirrel

Spirit beast Rank: Body 7

HP: 115/115

Stam: 235/250

Ki: 214/225

Defense: 19

It looked to be very dangerous, and extremely fast. Fortunately for us, it was still a prey animal and easily scared off. Rowan summoned Ember and sent the fire dragonling after the giant squirrel. A few shots of fire at it and the Beast scampered high in the branches and was soon out of sight.

Rowan brought his dragonling back and had it perch on his shoulder, opposite of Tess. Rowan only lost a few hit points from being tackled to the ground. It probably would have been a lot worse if the rodent tried to bite. Bruised and annoyed, Rowan walked alongside Slate, so he wouldn’t be the immediate target again.

We carried on in that fashion for a couple hours, fighting only when we had to, usually driving creatures off with a warning shot or two. These beasts were getting smarter too, more willing to retreat than get injured in a protracted battle. The only times this wasn’t the case was when pack animals tried to take a chunk out of us. They outnumbered us and must have felt confident in taking us out.

We had to kill half of a pack of Coyote spirit beasts before we could drive them off. They were body rank seven like the Giant Squirrel, and it was hard fought. They surrounded us, constantly moving and darting in to take quick nips before melting into shadow and appearing further away.

Our newly enhanced armor paid dividends then. If it wasn’t for the increased protection, we could have died. Four of the eight Coyotes were slain. I had to resort to the second stage of my Grace in Combat and my Jade Dragon’s Armor to keep up with the beasts and not get my leg torn off. Magnus Sported a new technique he had been working on quietly once he finished his Dermal Meridian.

His Steel Titan technique was two staged like my movement technique. The first stage toughened up his skin, increasing his defense by twenty without hampering his movement. The second stage was impressive. It cost him an extra forty Ki to activate, and it gave him another ten defense and increased his Strength by eight points.

The side effect of the second stage caused him to grow from six feet four inches to six feet eight inches tall. His bulk increased with the extra four inches in height and he caught one coyote and threw it against a tree so hard, its spine snapped on impact.

Magnus said he intended to be the group’s tank, and he was living up to his pledge. He even figured out a trick with his aura that caused the beasts to focus on him more than the rest of us. He referred to it as his taunt ability and hoped to create an actual technique out of it once he opened his Mind Meridian.

Aside from those few fights, the forest was quiet. There were birds chatting away high in the canopy but out of sight and range of my Spiritual Sense. The occasional giant insect roamed about, and uncountable, normal sized ones. I had no idea why some creatures grew to insane dimensions while others kept their original ones, but I could say this. It was freaky as hell to see enormous bark beetles eating their way through the thick, craggy bark of these monolithic trees. They were as big as my torso.

It was halfway into our third hour of traveling through the forest that we came across a fight we couldn’t avoid. Out of nowhere, a woman’s scream of pure terror echoed through the trees, followed by a bellowing roar I could feel vibrating in my rib cage.

“Bro, that sounded like the biggest bear that I’ve ever heard of,” Magnus said. He was clearly worried and was trying to locate the direction the sounds came from.

Another scream split the air, and the bellowing roar followed. Whoever was in danger was still alive. I considered if we should involve ourselves. The prompt when we entered said that a bear ruled this Wellspring. What if it was that bear, we were hearing? We couldn’t take on an energy stage spirit beast. No matter how you shake it, we would be walking straight into the jaws of death.

Before I could decide on the matter, Magnus was already running towards the beast and its victim. Cody was hot on his heels, and a split second later, Rowan was on Slate and charging forward, summoning his other Aeons as he rode. Gods damned it. I thought before Rukia and I took off after the rest of them.

A few hundred yards through the forest brought us to the beast. It momentarily brought me up short. In front of us stood the biggest bear I had ever seen in my life. It had a dish shaped face, short rounded ears and a massive hump on its shoulders. The bear had a shaggy earth brown coat and its limbs were wrapped up in a mass of vines.

Stone Grizzly Bear

Body Rank 8 Stage 4

Hp: 180/180

Stam: 260/260

Ki: 350/350

Defense: 46

“OH MY GOD, PLEASE HELP ME!” a woman screamed.

I forced away my attention from the massive creature. For the first time, I noticed a small woman on her back as she tried to scramble away from the monster. Her clothes, torn and ragged, dirt and dried blood covered her amber-brown skin. Pine needles stuck out of her myriad braids.

My vision spun for a moment as my perspective shifted. The size of the trees threw the scale in front of me. The bear wasn’t just huge; it was fucking massive. It was literally the size of my semi-truck. The woman on the ground wasn’t tiny, like a child, but was a normal adult.

Kiara Jones

Level 6 Artisan

Hp: 75/75

Stam: 137/160

Mana: 222/252

Defense: 0

The giant bear tore free of the entangling vegetation and advanced on the woman. The Bear raised its paw to swipe at Kiara when Magnus appeared before it, slamming his hammer and knocking the paw off course. It slammed into the ground and tore a several foot deep trench, just missing her.

I ran towards the grizzly’s flank, spear in hand. I poured fifty points of Ki into the Projection binding. Its point glowed like a star and the light flowed down and held within the edge.

The Ki finished collecting in just a couple seconds and I launched the projection at the bear. As the arcing Ki projection sped towards the colossal beast, its dark brown fur rippled as it changed to a more slate grey color. The fur completed its change just before my attack struck. The impact of so much Ki being channeled and focused through my spear caused the bear to stagger slightly. Unfortunately, it didn’t manage to penetrate far and left only a relatively minor wound on its flank.

Stone Grizzly Bear

Body Rank 8 Stage 4

Hp: 146/180

Stam: 260/260

Ki: 300/350

Defense: 96

With a roar of pain that left my ears ringing, the bear turned towards me and slammed a paw into the ground. A ripple of Ki flowed from its paw and a three-foot-wide boulder launched out of the ground and flew straight at me faster than a speeding arrow.

I dove to the side, rolling to my feet as the enormous stone flew past where I was a moment before and slammed itself into a tree, burying itself halfway into the trunk before cracking and crumbling to gravel.

I looked over at Magnus and saw him swell. His visible muscles increased in size and he grew several inches taller. He just activated the second stage of his Steel Titan technique, giving him thirty more defense and an extra eight strength.

Cody was in full Paladin mode; his spectral looking armor encased his body. His soul-bound Mace glowed with a golden light that held a tinge of red. He activated his Dash combat art along with his Power Attack, all combining in the most powerful attack he could currently muster.

The swing of his accelerated mace impacted the knee joint of the beast with the crack of steel on stone. The Bear bellowed in pain once again, quickly swiping at Cody with a paw that was almost as big as the boy was. Cody braced himself with his Embersteel shield and was sent flying with a loud CLANG. He was knocked nearly fifty feet away and rolled to a stop.

Rowan, using Slate as a shield, managed to help the panicked woman to her feet and escorted her away from the fight and used a tree as cover for her. At a safe distance, Rowan began to summon his Aeons.

The bear rose on its hind legs before dropping with the full weight of its body, brown tinged Ki flowing out of it through the ground in a wide ripple. The earth shuddered and shook, knocking all of us to the ground as we couldn’t keep our footing. I belatedly activated both stages of my Grace in Combat.

Rukia, with her four legs, managed to maintain her footing. Her Arctic Coursing River already fully activated, she used Charge to get in and slash at the bear’s hamstrings with her ice coated fangs. She managed to sink her fangs in through the incredible armor the bear had and inflicted the slowed condition before letting go and darting away.

As I moved in, pumping my spear’s stored Ki into the Sharpness binding to increase its armor penetration, the grizzly glowed golden brown. With a bellow of rage and pain, dirt, dust, and forest debris swirled around the behemoth. The Ki infused the flying rocks and dirt. They formed into sharp, jagged stones. This cloud of stone shrapnel picked up speed rapidly and expanded out fifty feet from the bear.

I couldn’t see much through the dust kicked up by the storm of sharp rocks, but I could hear Rukia yelp in pain as she took damage that made its way through her increased armor.

The barrier of my armor activated as the first few projectiles being whipped around struck me. My armor held up for a moment as I tried to get in close, but the closer I got, the worse the storm grew and the barrier flickered around me.

I activated my Jade Dragon’s Scale Armor. I had to suppress a wince at the increased cost of using it with stage 2 of Grace in Combat. It cost me forty-five Ki to activate, but as my barrier ran out of Ki, it saved me from taking damage in the storm.

As I ran further in, I could make out Cody as he staggered to, he feet, struggling to maintain balance against the wind and impacts. Fortunately, his armor seemed to hold up, especially since it increased in defense and its strength bonus since he increased to Faith rank three.

Once I got in close enough to see the giant bear, I checked its current health.

Stone Grizzly Bear

Body Rank 8 Stage 4

Hp: 87/180

Stam: 210/260

Ki: 110/350

Defense: 96

We almost knocked it down by a hundred health points, and it managed to burn through more Ki in the first minute of the fight than I had in my whole body. This thing was an insane powerhouse. I was so glad I finally got around to improving our leather armor, otherwise Cody and I might have been in some serious trouble. Not to discount the progress each of us managed to make in getting stronger.

Once I was close enough to strike, my spear at maximum penetration, I triggered my new Combat Art, Piercing Attack. My knees trembled as a full twenty percent of my stamina drained out of me in an instant. This was the first time using this ability and its effect caught me off guard. The red light infused the yellow of my Ki in my spear, making it more of an ocher color, and I thrust into the bear’s side with a mighty heave… and only inflicted ten points of damage. The head of my spear only buried itself half its length before the stonelike fur stopped its progress.

My Ki armor showed signs of distress as chips of hardened Ki flew off in the storm from the impacts, cracks began to spiderweb across it. The bear twisted away from my strike and I didn’t have time to do more than try to leap away from the swipe of the Beast’s claws. My armor buckled and several scales shattered as it threw me from the force of the impact.

Despite the increase in my proprioception, the stone storm was disorientating and I couldn’t orient myself as I spun through the air. I impacted the ground hard, causing more of the Ki scales to shatter and I tumbled.

Over the roar of the storm, I heard another loud bellow. It wasn’t from the bear this time; it was Magnus. I felt his aura strike at the bear’s, getting its attention centered again on himself.

As I got back to my feet, the storm slowed and dissipated. I saw Magnus standing his ground in front of the beast. The monstrosity dwarfed him, but he didn’t budge. He looked to have activated every strength enhancing ability he had and was trading blow for blow, not giving one inch of ground.

With the storm gone, Rowan’s Aeons took to the field. Sparks and Ember released their breath attacks on the bear. Bathing it in arcing electricity and fire, respectively. It didn’t seem to do much to the bear, but each bit added to the damage that was piling up.

I looked at my Ki pool and saw I only had fifty-five points left. My meridians ached from burning through three quarters of my Ki pool in only a minute or two. But I had enough to make one more massive projected attack. I poured all fifty-five points of my remaining Ki into the tight spiraled channels in my spear.

Over the course of a couple of seconds, the spear lit up from within and vibrated in my hand. I had never channeled this much Ki through any weapon before, and while the spear held together, I could feel that it was close to its limit. The channels couldn’t handle much more power at once than this.

I lined up my shot, careful to avoid where Cody and Magnus were doing their best to damage the grizzly. When the bear Rose up to its hind legs once again, standing almost thirty feet tall, I launched my attack at its exposed belly.

Time seemed to slow as I watched my attack fly. It slammed into the giant of a bear; the fur rippled under the impact and I saw the point dig in to its hide. As it passed through the bear’s armor, it detonated. Fur and blood sprayed out, leaving a gaping hole in the beast’s belly.

As the bear fell back on all fours, blood poured out of the wound. Its fore legs buckled for a moment. In that moment, the bear’s head was low enough for Magnus and Cody to leap up and, using their Combat Arts, swung their weapons at the same time. The double impact crashed into the top of the bear’s head and its legs gave out and it slumped to the ground.

The giant stone grizzly bear fell to its side, its head thumped against the ground. It let out a low groan as its breath slowed. A smaller moaning cry came from up one of the nearby trees. I looked over and saw a bear cub scrambling down from a giant tree. It was behind where Rowan and Kiara took shelter.

Once the bear cub was on the ground, it ran to its mother. She was almost dead, only a few hit points left as they slowly dropped, one by one. The baby bear nuzzled its mother. I could hear the pain as she grunted and nuzzled her cub back. Her last hit point drained away, and she went limp, breathing no more.

The poor bear cub pushed at its mother, trying to get her to rise. My throat closed up as I watched. The poor thing. We killed it mother. I felt like a complete asshole. We didn’t have any choice. It was her or the woman. We didn’t know she had a cub. Kiara must have gotten between the mother and her cub, probably without realizing it. The momma bear was just trying to protect her young.

I slowly approached along with the rest of the group and the woman we rescued.

“Bro, I feel like total shit now. I didn’t mean to kill the cub’s mother,” Magnus said. He looked as miserable as I felt for the little thing.

Grizzly Bear Cub

Body Rank 1

Hp: 65/65

Stam: 70/140

Ki: 50/75

“Thank you. You saved my life,” Kiara said as she approached. She looked at the cub and I could see the sorrow on her face as well.

Not a single person in the group was happy over the turn of events. I looked at the woman we saved. “It’s no problem. Every human remaining is precious. Too many of us have died already. I just wish we knew this bear had a cub. We might have been able to save you without killing her. What are we going to do now? We can’t just leave the poor cub here. It would be dead within a day.”

Magnus stood up and said, “I’ll take care of it. I have that collar from the dungeon. I’ll raise it, train it and help it survive.”

I tried to take a few moments to discuss the pros and cons of taking on a baby bear, the logistics and the risks, but magnus didn’t care. He was adamant about taking in the bear cub and taming it.

Magnus pulled out the Collar he got as loot and placed it around the cub’s neck. After a few moments, I pulled up the cub’s information again.

Koda

Grizzly Bear Cub

Body Rank 1

Hp: 65/65

Stam: 70/140

Ki: 50/75

“His name is Koda. The collar worked, and it shows him as being fifty percent tamed,” Magnus said as he scratched the cub’s ears. The cub pressed into Magnus’s side, enjoying the scratching. “I’m going to lead him away. That way he won’t have to see his mother being looted.”

“Good call,” I said. Once Magnus was out of sight with the Koda, I reached out and looted the grizzly.

You have gained

Bear hide x40

Bear meat x500

Spirit beast core

Bear Claws x20

Bear fangs x4

c360