James wasn’t just standing around while the bear collected itself. During that time, he took out two blue mana potions. He tossed one to the blond girl, who caught the potion and downed it without missing a beat. James then uncapped and drank the second one himself.

James had never needed to drink a mana potion before, but the other two potions he had tried were flavored like mango juice and vodka. So, he thought that the taste of a mana potion, a sports drink, was actually quite nice compared to the vodka.

However, he didn’t have the time to savor the flavor. The bear was still approaching it. However, at this time, a few of the unconscious hikers began to stir.

“Of course they all had to wake up at the same time,” James grumbled to himself.

If the hikers woke up, they would figure out the existence of monsters. However, his worries were short lived.

The bear roared. The sound was unpleasant to James and the blond, but it completely knocked out the hikers once again. Again, James figured this was because the he and the blond girl were more accustomed to mana. Maybe the roar was slightly magical.

The bear started running towards him and the blond girl. James took some distance from the girl, and then threw one of his throwing knives at the bear to draw its attention. The knife bounced off the bear’s hide. James cursed inside. He knew the bear was a monster, but he thought that his knife should have at least cut the bear. It was stronger than he had imagined.

However, his main goal was to lead the bear away from the hikers, and he succeeded at this. The bear was annoyed, and ran towards James, who ran away as fast as he could. For some reason, he was motivated to run really fast.

“Away from the people!” he yelled.

The blond girl nodded and erected a small shield of earth that protected all of the passed out hikers. Once he was a bit of a distance away, James stopped running.

This monster was strong, and it was definitely faster than James. James hadn’t been caught yet, because the bear was stalking him for some reason. James was pretty sure that stalking your prey was useless when your prey already knew you were there, but he didn’t complain – after all, he was the prey. However, the bear was approaching him directly. James pulled out a second knife, and threw it as hard as he could.

James was, for some reason, really good at knife throwing for someone who’d only tried his hand at it about a week ago. The knife cleaved through the air and buried itself into the eye of the bear, which roared in pain. The eyes were the weak point of a lot of monsters. The bear used its claws and pulled the knife out of its eye. It glared at James with its one remaining eye. The bear growled, and James felt an immense amount of pressure coming from it. He knew that the bear no longer saw him as easy prey, and was ready to fight to the fullest.

This reaction was proof that this bear was now a monster. If it had been a regular bear, it would have run away when it had gotten injured. James was relieved it didn’t run away and then rampage away in the backcountry of Oregon. Yet at the same time, it put James in a bit of a sticky spot.

James saw that the blond girl had secured the safety of the passed out hikers, and was running towards James and the bear. The bear showed its strength by cutting down trees with a single swipe of its paw. Seeing this, James pulled out a small candy from his storage bag and swallowed it.

A few seconds after he ate the candy, the bear arrived in front of it and swung its paw down. Normally, James would’ve been flattened immediately, but he moved away at a speed that should’ve been impossible for him. Then, he moved around to the bear’s flank and stabbed it with all his might. Unlike the previous throwing knife, this knife sank into the bear’s flesh, albeit with difficulty. When about half of the blade was in, James pulled the blade out and moved backwards to avoid another swipe of the bear’s paw.

“I can stop the bear for a second!” called the blond girl.

James looked over and nodded. He was breathing heavily already, and his muscles were burning like they were on fire. The candy he had just eaten, called a Pill of Latent Potential, had increased his physical strength at the cost of muscles not being able to handle the stress – similar to a berserk monster. It had been quite expensive, at 200 points, but it was a potential lifesaver. This allowed him to fight with the bear. Although the side effects weren’t as severe as going berserk, and he didn’t lose his reasoning, his body condition would still deteriorate. He was fighting against time here.

James rushed towards the bear again. It was still stronger than him, but with the pill, James now had a chance. He was more agile than the bear, especially because he had summoned all of his equipment to Earth earlier. He was now wearing the Hermes Kicks, which further increased his speed. The bear was powerful, but it couldn’t turn around quickly. So, James started circling it, hoping to find an opening.

As he was doing this, he felt magic coming from the ground where the bear was, originating from the blond girl. The bear felt it too, and pulled its front paws back in order to avoid the magic. However, while the bear detected the first spell, it missed the second. The ground at where the bear’s back paws were suddenly became soft, and pulled in the bear. Its hind limbs were now buried in the ground, preventing it from moving.

James didn’t miss this opportunity, and ran around to the bear’s back. The bear couldn’t turn around easily, so it had no good way to stop James from climbing onto its back and stabbing his knife into its neck.

However, the bear was really tough. James’ knife didn’t go in that easily. He strained his muscles and pushed his knife harder and harder. At this point, he could feel a terrible pain in his muscles as they exerted more force than they could handle and ended up tearing. However, the bear wasn’t dead yet. It clawed at where James was at, on its back. James attempted to dodge, but he could avoid the attacks and stab the bear at the same time. Eventually, one of the attacks scraped his side, but the majority of the impact was dispersed by the armor he picked up from the goblin.

However, although it didn’t hurt James much, the attack still knocked him off of the bear. At this point, James was really feeling. He hadn’t really been wounded, but his muscles were half destroyed already. On his skin, there massive red and purple splotches showing internal bleeding.

The bear had freed itself from the blond girl’s trap, and could now move around. Then, it swung its claws towards James again, who dodged the attack. However, he expected the bear to swing with its other arm, and was caught by surprise when it used the same hand to attack again. The backhanded swipe sent him flying into a nearby tree.