Chapter Seven: The Battle

The Mayor can back a few hours after I finished preparing. He stood there staring at me for a second which creeped me out but we can ignore that.

“Dan is luring the Nether Bear over as I speak,” he said looking around, “You don’t seem to have prepared at all”

‘I have you just can’t see i-’ before I could finish my sentence Nathan came running in with a 20-foot bear following him. I grabbed him and threw him out of the way since he was about to step on the cage. I didn’t expect the bear to be so fast though and flexible though. It stopped and jumped at him faster than I could move the cage.

What did Nathan do to make it so angry at him? I made a wall of roots supported by more roots. I even put a bit of Earth Magic into it since I wasn’t expecting this thing to hold up against a 20-foot bear. It did hold up to 2 strikes though, this was enough time for me to get Nathan out of the way and the Mayor to charge up his attack. He had a red sword with Fire Magic blazing around it in a firey tornado.

“Phoenix Claw” he yelled as he stabbed forward into the bear's left back leg. It made a deep slash on its leg. The fire didn’t do any extra damage since the bear had a strong Fire Affinity. The sword on the other hand was very sharp since it could cut a Low Tier Magic Beast.

I wasn’t gonna just sit back though, I sent a few leaves infused with [Spear Projections] making them flying spears. I added a little Fire Magic making the tips on fire and with the Wind Magic there to help the fire grow I made a new skill called [Spear Rain]. I shot about 35 of them at the bear but only 12 hits. They were stuck into the bear and wouldn’t come out.

The bear ran towards the Mayor at an insane speed and before any of us could move it threw the Mayor straight into me. I did cushion the landing by using roots with leaves on top. I think he broke a rib or two but I didn’t have time to care since the bear was charging straight at us again. I used Water Magic to make the ground wet to slow it down and grew some roots to try and trip it. It didn’t work since the bear went straight through all of it even ripping a few roots out.

It wasn’t in the cage yet and I couldn’t move it fast enough to get the bear in the cage right now. I don’t even know if the cage could hold any more. I tried sending a root from behind it that stabbed into the wound that the Mayor had made. It connected and I finally had something to use that could help us. I sent the paralyzing poison into the bear and it took a few secs to kick in but the bear started to slow down. It didn’t completely stop the bear but it did slow it down enough for me to use [Root Prison] on it. The root that was sending in poison split in two and a Mana sucking root started draining the bear's strength.

I could finally see a way to win. I started moving the cage since now the bear was at a walking speed which gave me more than enough time to move the cage in front of it. I moved the cage in front of the bear and I was ready to finally end this. Then the bear as if seemingly sensing the danger turned berserk. It ripped the roots in its body out and ran at Nathan instead of us.

Then I saw why it went berserk, Nathan was holding its baby. No wonder it was going mad, this idiot stole its child and was even holding a sword in front of its neck. This fucking idiot was ruining everything. I just let it run at Nathan without a care since at least then he would stop ruining shit and getting in the way.

The Mayor didn’t like that though and ran straight in front of Nathan ready to let himself die as long as Nathan lived. Nathan didn’t even try and stop the Mayor, he just stood there with shock for a second then went back to a normal expression.

Now I was mad since this guy wasn’t even surprised. He was gonna let someone die for him without a care. Probably promise to do what the Mayor's last words were then not do it. I sent a root powered by Wind Magic towards the Mayor and pulled him out of the way just in time. He did get his leg ripped off but at least he wasn’t dead. I couldn’t say the same for Nathan though, he was thrown 10 feet away and his whole body was mangled. I didn’t care though since if he didn’t die from that then my poison was gonna finish him.

The bear was in a weakened state after going berserk and using all its energy on that one move. It was laying on the ground with its baby resting on its stomach. I was in a dilemma now since I didn’t want to kill the bear but then again all that Mana. I couldn’t kill it after knowing it had kids and was willing to die for them, it was just out of my nature as a tree.

I decided not to kill the bear and let it live. I do know Nathan is still alive though since he was breathing. I threw him in the [Root Prison] then sucked out all the Mana the system gave him to survive. He had broken through to Normal Tier Magic Rank and I was taking all the Mana away to return him to 1st Rank Spirit. I broke through using all that Mana and even had a little extra so I gave it to the Mayor since he did help. His injuries had healed and he was doing okay now.

He looked at Nathan and just sighed. He had seen the expression that Nathan had when he was about to sacrifice himself. He realized that Nathan didn’t care about anyone but himself. He turned around and bowed to me, “Thank you…”

‘Naen’ I said while projecting my humanoid image into his head.

“Thank you Naen for helping me, this has shown me something that finally broke the mental barrier I had. Now I can finally breakthrough.” He bowed again gave one last look at the bear then grabbed Nathans's mangled body from the [Root Prison] like it was a rag doll then zoomed away.

I guess he can be a long-term ally.