“Die!” The Selkie screamed out as he slammed his paw on the ground. The earth trembled as spikes made of hardened earth jut out from the soil as he scraped off the spikes with his glove-like paw and hurled the spikes at them like a catapult.

“chains of heaven.” Chains appeared under Celia’s sleeves as the chains coiled around Alex and his friends. “barrier.” Translucent energy surrounded the two as the spikes were effortlessly blocked and protected Celia and the others.

“i will be throwing you three to the selkie now. i am assured you three will not die if i do.”

“Wait, what?” Alex said as Sal chuckled.

“Hahah! Bring it! Just ‘cause it got smaller doesn’t change that I’m gonna deck its face in!” Sal attempted to smash her fist on her palm but was chained up.

“Shouldn’t we be careful because it suddenly turned human and started talking like one?” Alex asked as the barrier was gone.

“Alex’s right! Please let’s think about this and not throw u—”

“too late.” Celia lifted the three up and proceeded to hurl Alex first then Lea and Sal second. 

“Aaaaaah!” Lea screamed as she was thrown along with the two. “Why me!? I can’t hurt this thing with magic!”

“What about that new spell that the Alan guy taught you?!” Sal prepared her sword and Alex forced himself to prepare and summoned a pair of swords.

“Arcane Bullet?” Lea tilted her head a bit in curiosity. They were out of the library as she held in her hands the tome that Alan picked for her.

“Indeed. Arcane bullet. A small, quick-casting spell that you can use your very fingertips to cast.” Alan raised his index finger as mana coalesced into a tiny ball of white energy at the very tip of his finger. “Arcane Bullet.” He chanted as pointed his finger at the wall and fired a small, concentrated beam of pure energy that completely pierced through the wall with no effort. Like a needle puncturing paper.

The beam dissipated as it left behind a small hole at the stone wall that looked like a peephole to see the courtyard of the Academy.

“That’s more of a beam than a bullet…” Lea thought to herself as Alex and Sal both had the same thought by making a silent, judging look at Alan.

“This spell is extremely concentrated so that it can pierce through any defenses. If focused enough, it could even pierce through magic-resistant protection like the hides of most megafauna. I developed it to get around pesky magical defenses.”

“Fascinating...how do I cast it?”

“It’s a very simple spell, but this simplicity comes at a high cost. It takes a lot of energy to concentrate the mana so thinly. From observing you, you are most likely able to release three—no—five bullets. To cast Arcane Bullet, you must focus your mana on your fingertip and compress the energy until you feel your finger begin to shake, then you release all that concentrated energy at a target.”

Back in present time, still in mid-flight from being thrown by Celia. Lea sighed as she readjusted her posture as she aimed her right index finger and grasped her wrist with her left hand, focusing her mana at the edge of her fingertip. She focused as a small white ball of energy formed on her fingertip.

“Until my finger starts shaking…” Lea thought to herself as she continued charging the ball on her finger. It grew from the size of a pea, a tennis ball, baseball, she kept charging until her finger started shaking when the ball of energy was the size of a basketball.

“L-Lea?” Sal said, stunned at the size of energy she focused.

“Isn’t that overkill?!” Alex exclaimed as he looked at the bear as they were getting near at him.

“I’ll smash your skulls for stepping into my property!” The Selkie pulled his paws back, preparing to use his strength and catch one of them via smashing them together with his paws as if they were mosquitoes once they’re within reach.

“Arcane...Bullet!” Lea fired a large, concentrated blast of raw, pure, arcane magic directly at the Selkie as the Selkie retracted his arms back and cupped his paws at the large, concentrated beam. 

“Hrchk!—” The Selkie winced as he blocked the intense beam, his feet sunk into the ground, and before he knew it, he fell lying on his back as he was forced to take the brunt of her blast while sinking deeper into the ground, essentially getting buried 6-feet under.

Leaving a hole shaped like the Selkie’s frame, along with smoke coming from inside the hole, something leaped out of it. “Humaaans!” The Selkie exclaimed as his paws were smoking, his body sooted and covered in gashes and splotches of dirt.

“Sharky!” Sal raised her sword up, preparing to strike.

“On it!” Alex gripped on his light blades. “Enchantment: Shatter!” The blades flickered and sparkled brightly as he was nearing the Selkie. He collided the blades together as the swords shattered into a blinding light that hit the Selkie’s eyes. Alex lowered himself to fall under the Selkie, shifting his body to land on his feet and crouch down. “Burst!” He dash jumped to reach behind the Selkie as he summoned a pair of daggers made of fire.

“Enchantment: Explosion!” Alex tightly gripped the fire daggers as he neared the Selkie’s back.

“HAA!—” Sal performed an overhead swing that was so strong, her cut was too strong that the blade snapped and got lodged on the Selkie’s left shoulder and Alex stabbed his daggers against the Selkie’s sides.

“I’m not done yet!” Sal dropped her broken blade as she winded back her fist and focused. “Strength Two!” With Lea’s Strength spell and Sal’s Strength spell. Sal’s body emitted a red outline as she essentially multiplied her by a staggering eightfold. Her muscles tightened as her fingers were so strong that it broke through the skin of her defense buffed palm and started bleeding.

“Sal’s...Super!—” She swung with such force on the Selkie’s chin that a shockwave of wind blew past Sal and Alex, their hair being blown back from Sal’s own punch. “—PUNCH!” The Selkie was sent flying up above the skies and promptly exploded due to Alex’s daggers.

“H-Hah...that was...fuckin’ awesome…” Sal’s outline faded as she felt her body fall limp. With another explosive burst heard, she was caught by a pair of feminine yet masculine arms. “Looks like I got myself a princess to rescue me.”

“Don’t make me spike you.” Alex threatened as he landed and gently dropped Sal beside Lea. The three looked up to see a falling, smoking body crash landing on the ground. It was the Selkie’s body, with a bruised jaw and stab marks that were cauterized and sooted.

“H-humans…” He weakly cursed as the Selkie went unconscious from taking too much damage.

“impressive work.” Celia walked over to the three as she saw the unconscious body of the Selkie as she looked back at the three. “you should finish the job and collect the proof of your hunt.” Celia looked at Alex as he quickly stood up in shock.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What? We can’t just kill this guy! It...he...turned human!” Alex pointed out.

“it is still a megafauna that evolved into what looked like a human. it is still a beast by instinct and in nature.” Celia stated with no remorse in her blank voice.

“S-still...I can’t force myself to actually kill a human. Trolls are one thing because I know they’re so dumb they’re better off dead. But this guy’s smart enough that he knows what property claiming is.”

“what are you getting at, Fryma? are you saying that you will spare this monster because it looks like a human?”

“...”

“have you forgotten who destroyed this town? Who killed the villagers that did not escape? this selkie is responsible for all that. You would not have batted an eye when it was still a full bear.”

“I wouldn’t, no…” Alex admitted as he looked at the Selkie. “But he turned into something I consider a human. I won’t even kill a demon if they are smarter or nicer than an actual human!” Alex looked at Sal and at Lea. “You guys can’t kill him too...right?”

Sal bit her lower lip as she crossed her arms a bit. “I want to confess...I pulled back my punch a bit and punched him hard enough to send him flying but not enough to break his neck…”

Lea pushed her fingers together as she felt her cheeks turn red. “And...and since I knew that he’s still got a bit of magic resistance since he used to be a Mega Bear, I made sure to go all out since I know I can’t kill it with my magic alone…”

“you are referring to it as a person too…” Celia looked at the unconscious Selkie and proceeded to remove its bear cape and paws to reveal a pair of human hands. “there. we have gotten our proof. now, to remove the problem.”

“How do we do that…?” Alex asked as he saw Celia started wrapping the Selkie in her chains.

“by taking him somewhere else.” Celia lifted the Selkie as the air around them grew cold. “Gate.” A rift tore open in front of Celia, it was a blank gap that revealed a path of nothingness inside.

This is a very familiar feeling. Boy. What you are witnessing is the power that only devils and the gods you worship can use; A Gate. 

“So that’s what a Gate is…” Alex looked in awe and shock as he felt a cold chill coming from the Gate. “Is it supposed to be that cold?”

It’s cold because of where the other side entails.

“C-Celia...where does that thing lead to…?” Alex asked her as he slowly helped up Sal as she stood on her own after being helped up.

“somewhere in grayvorn. a perfect place for someone like him. if you three cannot kill the selkie, banishment is the next method.” Celia promptly threw the unconscious Selkie into the Gate as the chains returned to Celia and the gate was sealed tight. The cold air becoming warmer.

“Woah…” Sal said in Awe. “Does this mean...we won?”

“indeed. now, i would like to be thanked for doing the effort of ridding of the selkie by having my trusty steed take me back to the carriage.” Celia walked towards Alex, her footing a bit wobbly as Alex smiled a bit and walked to her and carried her on his back like the good horse he is.

“There you go. Thanks for doing that, Celia...Sal, mind carrying the proofs with us?”

“No prob. C’mon, let’s go back to the guild.”

“And we should probably ask for the guild to fix this village and clean it up…” Lea looked around as she didn’t get to focus most of the environment around them due to the fight with the bear taking her attention from the village’s destruction.

“good horsie…have another carrot.” Celia pulled out another carrot from her bag.

“I’m good! Please! I’m already filled up on—hmphf!” His mouth was stuffed with another raw carrot as he was forced to carry Celia with a carrot shutting him up throughout the whole walk at the carriage back to the guild.