Growing up in today's day and age and ingesting the amount of online information that we do via internet videos and forums, you see a lot of stuff that you never would have otherwise. Everyday there are probably a million new videos posted about funny dogs or cute cats as if appeasing some cultural doctrine of entertainment. But every once in a while you get the occasional greater creature. The ones you don't see in routine contemporary life. Crocodiles, elephants, wolves, gorillas, maybe even an angry honey badger every now and then.

Arik had always recalled one video from his past every now and again that would send shivers down his spine. It was of an enormous grizzly bear that attacked an unfortunate group of people in a car.

Now they were locked in the car like anyone with half a brain, but that didn't stop the 1,000 lbs behemoth. With an effortless push of its front paws, the window shattered to a thousand pieces. The bear then began yanking on the inside of the car door, each tug warping and bending the frame of the door evermore as the people inside screamed for their lives. The bear never ripped the door off, but not because it couldn't. It only stopped because it had grabbed hold of the driver's arm with its sturdy jaws and decided to yank the person through the window. It was with one quick, concise motion that the driver was pulled from their seat and thrown almost 10 feet onto the concrete road.

The video ended there, and Arik was thankful.

One of the scariest things about a mammal like that in Arik's mind was just how prevalent they are. It's not some rare troll hiding under a bridge or a fearsome predator that only comes out once every 27 years. They can be in any forest at any time and then you're finished. Your only solace is their brumal hibernation. For that exact reason, Arik avoided forested areas during warmer months.

There were only three kinds of animals that scared Arik: spiders, cows and bears. Bonus points if it was a grizzly.

But now here he was, staring down the muzzle of an ursine beast rushing to rip his throat out. It was like his worst fear had come to life and he was expected to deal with it. Why? Because he apparently couldn't die?

"Fuck this!" yelled Arik as his fight or flight responded rather on the nose.

His body became weightless and he leaped from the ground a dozen feet high. He had every intention of soaring higher but an explosion of paralyzing pain afflicted his stomach. He dropped from the sky like a tumbling dove. Hitting the grassy floor was the least of his worries as puke immediately spewed from his mouth.

"You can't always run," instructed the mentor as he dropped his gun from the direction of Arik.

Looking up to a heavy shuffle in the grass before himself, a minacious clubbed arm smacked into Arik's face, sending his body twisting backwards. But rather than fall over and slump on the ground, he managed to use the directional momentum to rise back to his feet and slide to a stop. He kept a trained eye on the bear and wiped puke from his trained lips.

'Weird. That bear's attack had such force yet barely even hurt,' he thought abruptly. 'But the shots from that grenade launcher hurt like a bitch. If I'm to fight this thing, I need to make sure I steer clear of Cyanide.'

Cyanide whistled once more and the bear charged again. This time upright on its back legs, it cocked one clawed hand back, ready for a vicious swipe.

Arik saw visions past of his guts spilled to the floor in an effigy of gore. A strike from claws such as those would surely cause damage like that to happen once again. And if something like that ever did manage to happen again, Arik wasn't so sure he would even want to come back again. No, he had to avoid getting hit at all costs. After all, the only echo he knew how to use specialized in evasive maneuvers.

The girth-struck arm of the bear came down with swiftness, seemingly bending in the air as it traveled to its recipient. But rather than find purchase in its prey, Arik's body kicked to the left and narrowly dodged the attack. As cool and effortless as it seemed, Arik couldn't shake the idea that it was a lucky fluke. If he had done that again it would have ended in guys for sure.

Arik kept strafing to the side utilizing his flying echo to essentially skate on the ground with little friction. He twirled and dashed behind the bear in a split second, quicker than the bear could even reel his arm back. But once he got there, he froze. He didn't expect that to work so well, and he hadn't planned the next step.

'What am I going to do? Punch the bear? Ridiculous!'

A roar erupted from the bear as it spun around with vigor and tried to hammer fist Arik's head off. The creature was unorthodox and feral in its moves, but it was still comparatively slow when compared to Cyanide's onslaught. Arik panicked in his reaction and launched his body directly backwards from the bear to clear from its attack. This echo activation was much less graceful as Arik tripped on uneven ground and fell back into an embarrassing roll.

A helping hand met Arik's as Cyanide pulled him up with an amused chuckle.

"You're getting quicker, newbie. But I already know that trick. Show me the new stuff." Cyanide launched a blindingly fast kick to Arik's abdominals before grabbing complete hold of his arm, twisting almost 360 degrees and tossing Arik at the bear with the strength of a gorilla.

The bear caught him as if the move was heavily choreographed behind the scenes. Arik, still reeling in massive stomach pain, tried his best to fly away from its grasp, but it was no use. The bear spiked Arik to the ground and began wailing on him with his fluffy cylindrical arms. The blows sucked, but they weren't devastating like Arik had imagined. In fact, it sort of reminded him of the other day when Cyanide was holding back on Arik in an apparent attempt at "seeing what he was capable of."

'This is just another test,' Arik came to the conclusion, blood beginning to seep from numerous new gashes on his body.

Another activation of his flight echo triggered and he rocketed his body between the legs of the bear and toward its back while it was in mid-swing. His body began to creak as he sprang to his feet and faced the bear's back with his fists up and determination smothered with the blood on his face. A fire was beginning to burn in his heart, but perhaps that was just anger at the beating he was taking.

The bear twisted around with what looked to be another hammer fist, but it was a fake out. What was actually in the works was the other arm lunging forward in a direct fingerless punch aimed for Arik's face. It still didn't matter. Arik could see the moves of his plush opponent and was committed to his plan.

A familiar dodge navigated the outside of the bear's arm as Arik followed through with a lunging punch of his own. Arik's fist flashed with sparks and rage as it blinded the two and smacked into the bear's head, directly in the nose. A gust of wind blasted in every direction from the point of contact and the bear's head recoiled from Arik's burning knuckles. The facial features of the bear wobbled and rippled back and forth for a couple seconds before the bear stopped teetering and looked back to Arik.

Arik couldn't believe his eyes. For starters, he had managed to activate his punching echo on purpose again. But more pertinently, the bear was perfectly fine after taking the brunt of the punch, again. That was Arik's only other trick, his ace in the hole, his ultimate move if you will, and it did nothing.

The bear didn't skip a beat and took full advantage of Arik's flagrant dismay. It raised its clawed hand in the sky and dropped it down with all of its might right onto Arik's head.

Arik's entire body crushed to the ground in a prostrating manner under the strength of the bear as Cyanide stared with piqued interest.