Even with the new found strength that was coursing through my veins, I still felt somewhat inadequate.
The Alpha Bear was big, as expected. Larger than the brown Earth Bear from earlier. Even as it stood on its four legs it stood above the ground at a height that was still much taller than me, with a width of almost two meters.
To make matters worse, its front legs were comparable to the size of tree trunks and its claws were longer, almost 20 centimeters long, and sharper.
The ground shuddered with each of its steps, leaving large paw prints in its wake. Its green eyes locked onto me with a confidence that was unheard of in most animals. It felt like I was a small deer in front of an apex predator…a deer strong enough to destroy a car with a punch that is.
Three meters separated us and for a moment everything on the battlefield faded. The distant sounds of battle, the roars of beasts and the screams of the humans fighting for their lives- it all faded away Leaving behind just me…and the Alpha Bear.
[Black Salamander] was my only form of reassurance. Its weight in my right hand giving me a new found confidence. Battles had been fought with this blade. Some easy and some difficult.
This battle was the most difficult battle yet and there were still more battles to fight.
The Alpha moved first. Its hind legs pushing up like a spring and kicking up dust and rock in its wake. For something so large it was incredibly fast. I only had to blink twice before its claws appeared before me, threatening to tear my face apart.
I lean backwards arching my back into a painful bridge before slamming my left hand into the ground. My legs coiled and pushed my body upwards. With a flexibility that I never knew I had, I flipped backwards.
BOOM.
The Alpha Bear's massive paw slammed into the ground just as I landed on my feet just a meter away. The ground beneath the beast's paw cracked and broke under the weight raising a cloud of dust into the air.
I shot forward with speed, leaving the ground cracked beneath me. I felt my body move on a level it just never had before. Back when I faced the Dire Wolf, I had also been under the effects of the title but they had never been this prominent.
It was clear that this boost was far stronger that it was back then. And frankly it made a lot of sense. After all my stats had grown more far more than in the past, so it just made sense that the boost that [Against All Odds] handed me would have an even stronger effect.
Adrenaline pulsed in my veins and unknowingly a smile crept onto my lips.
I closed the distance, taking advantage of the dust cloud and using it as cover to hide my approach from the bear's eyes.
Bursting from the cloud, I raised [Black Salamander] over my head, and using both hands it swung.
SWOOSH.
There was a sharp sound of something sharp cutting through the air, a dark obsidian blade aimed at cutting through the bear's skull and splitting it apart.
The Alpha Bear reacted in the split moment, leaning its head to the side. My blade missed but managed to shave off part of its fur. I ignored the whiffs of gray fur blowing past my face and instead tucked and rolled forward beneath a mass of claws and gray fur.
I rolled under the arm that had just been swung to cleave through my head. My movement carried me to the left side of the Alpha Bear's belly. Slamming my left fist into the ground, I jerked my body to a forceful stop and in a crouched possible slashed towards the spot of soft pink flesh.
The bear must have anticipated this move because before I could make contact, it was already its body up with a push of its front legs.
With a growl the bear stood on its hind legs. It avoided the blow, but not completely.
A thin line of red appeared across its stomach. The bear must have been shocked because it looked down on itself, pausing for a few seconds.
In those few seconds I move back putting some distance between it and myself.
I released a shuddering breath.
We had only exchanged blows for 30 seconds at most and yet the mental strain was already taking its toll. It felt as though we had been fighting for hours non-stop.
"Growl!" the Alpha brought its attention to me once again and snarled dangerously. Its sharp teeth glistening with a white light in the battlefield.
"Alright big guy show me what you got" I said preparing for another exchange. The Alpha Bear growled and I felt its mana stir.
'Its using a skill' I realized and instantly raised my guard up.
At that moment the air around it shuddered as multiple purple magic circle shimmered into existence around it. That wasn't all. From the magic circles came wiggling snakes of irregularly shaped purple tendrils that almost reminded me of tentacles.
My eyes narrowed and I moved.
The purple tendrils shot forward with ghastly speeds. The snaked through the air and sailed towards me. One of the tendrils fell from above and I had no choice be to dodge to the left.
Boom.
The ground shook and was instantly scotched. Leaving behind a mark that was reminiscent of a lightning striking the earth.
With my charge momentarily halted, the bear had more than enough time to redirect the rest of the tendrils at me. There was no doubt that these purple tendrils were wreathing snakes of destruction and clearly deadly on contact.
They were made of highly volatile mana after all.
But what made it a bane for most, made it a blessing for me.
After all it was made of mana and I just happened to have the perfect thing that could deal with such a thing.
"[Break]"
Arrays of golden gears spun within my pupils and soon everything became clear. Like one moment I didn't understand the principles behind the complex spell but now that complex equation had been broken down into 1 + 1.