Thomas wasn't lying about there being a gaia bear here, at least, not if that's its real name. The beast is currently sitting on the ground, just… sitting there. I'm fairly certain it knows I'm here considering it's looked at me a few times.

There's a possibility Thomas lied about my ability to handle it. At least it seems non-aggressive. Some stuff I researched about bear monsters said that they'll leave me alone as long as I don't get aggressive with them or turn my back on them while they're facing me and within a hundred feet of me. If I do need to look away, I can use trees to break its gaze, turn around, and then go. At least, according to the research I found.

Fortunately, that means I'll be able to leave here without an issue. I'm standing slightly-behind a tree right now, and am going to get behind it, then leave. I already hunted some other stuff, and my pack has half a dozen new items in it.

Though the bear really is interesting. It's fur is mostly a medium-brown, though there's an egg-shaped patch of medium-grey covering most of its chest and stomach. The crystals on the beast are dark brown, and they cover its shoulders and the outside of each joint. It has more on the top of its head, forming a helmet-like structure that has a pair of horn-like protrusions. Before the bear sat down, I also saw its back, which has a strip of the crystals running down its spine, from the helmet crystals all the way to its tail.

How it can move with the crystals on its joints, I don't know, but it can move just fine.

What Thomas didn't tell me about it is that the gaia bear is that it has these crystals, some of which seem defensive and some of which seem offensive. The backs of its forepaws are covered in the dark brown crystal, and they seem to have a crystal coating that covers the backs of their claws. The crystal coating on their claws is silvery rather than black.

Slipping behind the tree, I count to thirty. The bear doesn't sound like it's moving, so I start leaving. There's no sound of it following me, so I continue walking. Once I'm over a hundred feet away, I turn my head and look at the bear. It's still just sitting there, though it's inspecting something on the ground.

I turn and start walking away, but I've barely made it three steps when something happens. Despite me following the rules for fighting bear monsters, this one attacks. I barely manage to jerk out of the way in time to avoid having the [Stone Spear] shot through my back. The attack goes straight through a tree up ahead, embedding itself in another tree, half the shaft buried.

Twisting, I conjure up an [Air Barrier]. Even if I keep one flowing over my skin at all times, I want another one up as well. Just in time, too, as the beast sent a wave of [Stone Bolt]s to follow up the spear. They're powerful enough to crack my barrier, and if I hadn't started pumping more Mana into it to repair, the barrier definitely would have broken after just a few hits.

Thank goodness I've been doing a lot of work on my barrier, it's given me enough skill to quickly repair it. That wasn't even a full-force attack from the bear, I'm sure of it. If it was, this thing would have broken my barrier.

It's definitely stronger than Thomas told me, and the thing is attacking me. On its own. I knew I couldn't trust that bastard.

Fury fills me at this. I'm going to do everything I can to kill this thing, and then I'm going to drag its corpse back to camp and throw it at Thomas. With as much force as I can behind it. And maybe detonate some [Flashbang Bomb]s in his tent. I'm not strong enough to hurt him, but I can certainly do other things.

Even if he'll probably retaliate, I'm too pissed to care about that.

Another wave of [Stone Bolt]s slam into my [Air Barrier], these ones stronger, actually penetrating it. Some of them break through the second one I conjured, though they only crack the third.

"I's too angry for a drawn-out fight," I growl. "So I's goin' to do somethin' I's been avoidin' doin' 'fore. Ya're gonna to sit there and take it, and if ya make this difficult or ya hurt me, so help me, I's gonna-"

Something slams into me from behind, throwing me forward. As I flip the strap releases for my pack's straps, letting it fly off of me as I tumble, I catch sight of the offense. A pair of stone pillars that shot out of the ground from behind me, angled at me. Both hit me in the ass, too, which I'm pretty sure was the gaia bear's goal. The way I'm tumbling is different than if it hit me in the pack. There's also the chance that something in the pack could stop it.

This thing has fought people before. Did Thomas train it so that it would be more efficient at fighting me? He definitely wants me dead. Because I struggle to treat Colt like the prince he is, even though Colt tells me to stop trying?

Just before I'm able to correct my tumble, more of those pillars shoot up. My body isn't quite used to quick reactions yet and I only semi-manage to shift away, still getting caught in the right side and leg by two of them. I only manage to summon two new [Air Barrier]s to stop the [Stone Bolt]s shot at me, three of them actually impacting me.

Thank the gods I keep one running against my skin at all times. Now if only this thing would let me get in close. One second is the most I can hope for, and I hope I don't use up too much Mana before I get that close. I might be able to squeeze in two seconds.

Gods, please let my first attempt land. If I fail, and I do it for only one second, then it'll take me over three minutes to recover enough Mana just for another second. If I try for two seconds, it'll take me around seven minutes. Sustaining the barrier against my skin does affect how much I actually recover, since it draws on my Mana constantly.

To make it worse, that time will actually be longer. Having to wait for my Mana to recover, I'll have to use more just to fight against the beast and protect myself. This thing isn't letting me go and defending against a wave of its full-strength [Stone Bolt]s took me 36 Mana for the first one and 38 Mana for the second.

I manage to dodge the next wave of stone pillars and [Stone Bolt]s, but only barely. That's when I learn the gaia bear's conjured [Stone Spear]s and had them hiding.

"GYAAH!" I scream in pain as one manages to cut through my [Air Barrier] over my skin, slicing half an inch into my left bicep. "YA SPAWN OF A FUCKIN' DEMON!"

I try to get in close again, even with my left arm now effectively useless, and the spears make a return.

That's when I get reminded that I have an additional defense active. One of the spears strikes one of my invisible [Flashbang Bomb]s, setting it off. I'm thrown to the side, then backwards as the second one I had active is detonated by the blast. I feel myself hit something, but I can't see anything and my ears are ringing too much.

Dammit. I got too angry and forgot I had those. What's worse, they ended up affecting me instead. I could have sent them after the damn bear and used the moment of its disorientation and disabling to get in close and finish it.

Even a film of shadows over my eyes doesn't fix the brightness in my vision. I didn't expect it to since the actual light is gone, but I tried it anyway.

Instinct tells me to move and I do. A moment later, I feel something bump into me, sending me tumbling a little. A dodged attack, though barely. If my escape spells didn't affect me, I'd probably have managed to escape.

My vision's starting to come back even if I still can't hear, the ringing in my ears unbalancing me some. Looking through the spots, I see that the bear had summoned more pillars, and I rolled the opposite direction it expected me to judging by the [Air Bolt]s studding the ground and trees on the other side.

Instinct calls to me again, and I flick my gaze to my right only to find a [Stone Spear] flying toward me. Where are the other two?

As I dodge it, I try to spot them but can't. Did my [Flashbang Bomb]s destroy them? The bear will probably resummon them shortly.

Thrusting my right hand forward, I conjure up two [Flashbang Bomb]s and send them toward the gaia bear, a film of shadows flowing over my eyes. I summon up a pair of [Air Barrier]s around me, that should reduce the sound enough to not prolong my recovery.

The bombs go off as expected, and I charge forward, keeping up my barriers as I go. If I release them too early, I'll be hit by debris that's still flying around. Barely a step into my run, something slams into the [Air Barrier]s from behind.

Something way stronger than the blast. Something strong enough to crack both layers of it.

Twisting around, I find the gaia bear there, and I think it's roaring. I still can't hear again yet, but how the hell did it get behind me so fast? This should be too big and heavy!

As it brings it paws back up for another attempt at breaking my barriers, I see my moment. The opportunity I need to finish this fight.

I drop the barriers and charge forward, and before I can finish this, the bear vanishes. The sudden disappearance of the bear catches me off-guard and I stumble. Catching myself, I look around for the beast. There's too much dust still floating around for me to see clearly, but I know it's there.

The damn thing can teleport. Thomas only mentioned that it was known some monsters could. I should have seen this coming! Why else would he tell me about them if he wasn't thinking about using one to kill me?

At least I didn't activate it. Had the thing teleported half a second later, I'd have wasted 100 Mana.

Stone pillars shoot up from the ground, and I shift out of their way. The bear's able to see me even though I'm struggling to locate it. Is its Perception really so good that it can discern what the vague shapes in the dust are? Or does it have some sort of sense through the dust and ground that lets it know where I am?

There!

I dodge to the side as I send [Air Bomb]s at the beast, this time with just a light effect added on. No more flashes, these are feints. No loud booms, no bright flashes, just a burst of concentrated air.

The gaia bear teleports again, this time to around thirty feet behind me. It immediately follows that up with a burst of [Stone Bolt]s and another attempt at shoving me with its stone pillars. No more [Stone Spear]s. It loses control of them when it teleports.

I'm learning its patterns, but it's still hitting me. Another [Stone Bolt] cracked my final defense, and one of the stone pillars caught my ankle. That one seems to have been shot up after I dodged, too – aimed specifically at my ankle. Thankfully, it wasn't strong enough to break my [Air Barrier] and I can still stand on my ankle so that's at least not broken.

I set off a few more of the [Air Bomb]s with light effects, and the bear doesn't even bother dodging them after the third one. When I send another [Flashbang Bomb], however, the beast teleports away. Dammit, it figured out that I summon [Air Barrier]s to protect myself. Now I have to do that every time, and it's wasting Mana. I'm almost down to 200 Mana. Even with me regenerating nearly a full point every two seconds, it's not fast enough. My defenses are burning through my Mana faster than I'm recovering it.

This thing is attacking me too quickly, and it's figuring out my patterns, too.

It even teleports again when I turn around and move to punch it. I expected it to do that, so I don't stumble. Instead, I immediately shoot another [Flashbang Bomb] directly behind me before resummoning my [Air Barrier]s. Then I jump to the left and start charging that way.

Just as I expected, the bear teleports behind me again. Always behind me, even if that means being to the side of the blast. This thing can also take them. Sort of. They're not hurting it. At least I've figured out that the beast has to wait a few seconds between teleports.

My Mana is running way too low. I need to take a gamble.

Immediately, I drop my defenses and twist around, lunging at the bear. It teleports again, and I immediately pivot on my left foot again. It's about fifteen yards away.

I have 150 Mana. I hope a second and a half is enough.

With all the skill and practice I've had with it recently, I enhance my body with 100 Mana per second. Everything seems to slow down around me as my body and mind are enhanced by 1,000 Points into each respective Attribute that can possibly be increased.

The boost is way more than I expected. A second and a half is more than necessary.

As soon as my pivot finishes, I push off with my right foot. The forty-five feet pass by in an instant and my fist connects with the bear's head.

That's almost 1,500 Strength. As tough as this thing is, it's not that much tougher than I am. There's almost nothing left of its head.

+587% Experience! You have gained 5 Levels!

Landing on the ground, I take a few moments to catch my breath as my enhancement fades. I didn't release it, I let it run too long and I ran out of Mana.

I'm so glad this thing is dead, or I probably would be right now. Even my skin-coating [Air Barrier] is gone. I'm also less than 1% Experience away from gaining another Level.

Thankfully, summoning my skin-coating invisible [Air Barrier] only takes me a few moments since it costs less Mana than I recover per second. I'll still wait until I'm back to full before… locating my pack. Actually, I'll do that now. Then after I recover to full, I'll take this bear back to camp, throw it at Thomas, call him the spawn of a demon he is, blow up his tent, and then leave.

Taking a seat, I poke at my left arm a bit. There's too much damage. I'll have to use my right arm to drag this thing back to camp, though I'm probably going to just set it on an [Air Barrier]. That will make it easier to throw, too.

Out of curiosity about its crystals, I examine the silvery ones. The brown ones probably are just earth-attuned magic crystals.

Dimensional Crystal Grade: 6 These crystals are infused with great dimensional power. Currently, they're a part of a Crystal Voidstone Bear, granting it heightened awareness of the space around it and the ability to teleport.

"…what?"

This isn't a gaia bear? That spawn of a fucking demon! He sent me to something even more powerful, probably knowing I'd just accept what he said once I actually saw the beast! I bet he knew it would attack me even though I was following the normal rules for dealing with bear monsters!

I'm going to fucking kill him the moment I'm able!