Chapter 19: Why We Hate Bears

The bear’s massive body made it impossible for her to squeeze out from underneath its paws. The bear was the first one to strike because of the unexpected ambush, so the advantage belonged to it.

The first turn timer began for the bear and it let out a loud powerful roar. The water around its body swished about from the force of it, but Harmony's body still remained submerged. Its roar was actually a skill and Harmony was starting to feel its effects.

It struck a paralyzing fear within her body. Both Felicia’s and Eunice's minds were desperately screaming at Harmony's body to move! They only received notifications letting them know that they were paralyzed.

Vault's turn came next. He was freaking out about the situation and struggling to keep his composure. He had a limited amount of time to act before Harmony completely drowned and perished. He can only imagine the fear that must be going through her mind!

He couldn't waste any time, but he also couldn't act without thinking. Panic overwhelmed him and he made the rash move of charging in. He struck at the bear with his ax, but it only managed to damage it a bit.

The bear did not move from its spot and actually had its HP restored by the effects of the spring. It remained holding his ally under the water as bubbles rushed to the surface. His turn ended in failure.

Harmony’s turn began. She wasn't able to do anything for her turn due to being paralyzed with fear status effects. Her turn was skipped as a result. It was the first time she had ever experienced anything like that.

The point of a turn is to have a chance to defend yourself. To have it within her grasp, but unable to hold on to it…She felt so overwhelmed, frustrated and…Powerless.

Eunice was freaking out inside of her mind struggling to hold back tears. “This is it! This is where it ends for us! we're not going to make it are we?!”

Felicia tried hard to hide her fear, but some of it was starting to show on her face. She turned her attention back through Harmony's eyes just as the bear struck her with its claw. Harmony released a large bubble containing most of their air. It went to the surface, popped and the turn counter representing her remaining time alive dropped to one.

Her timer got shortened from that impact…She was losing air way too fast and there was nothing she could do about it. Vault was looking around frantically and trembled with fear just as the timer started up for his turn.

It was his last chance to try and save his friend. How could things have just suddenly taken a turn for the worse?! Just like that in the blink of an eye?! He didn't have time for regrets, he needed to act now! But if he did something stupid then it would cost his friend her life.

Really the only type of abilities he had were meant for crafting. Whether it was trying to make medicine out of plants, clothing or armor, even just cooking food counted as something he could do. Not necessarily well, but it was in his skill set.

The only type of attack he had was an ax and just crafting abilities that required fire in order to work. Wait… fire?! He grabbed a burning piece of wood from under the boiling pot of medicinal herbs. He recalled seeing what Harmony did during their first encounter when her branch broke, leading to causing bleed damage for the wolf.

He jammed the torch into the bear's mouth and it let out a pain-filled roar. It jumped back out of the water while flailing around. Vault quickly jammed his hands below the water, under Harmony's back and pulled her out.

As she shot up to the surface she gasped for air, finally free from her captor’s grip. She kept coughing up a lot of water for a good minute until her turn started. She hugged Vault tightly and whispered in his ear. “Thank you.”

He hugged her tightly until the timer reached the halfway point of her turn. They both knew they couldn't waste this opportunity, but they were both shaken up from what had just happened. Harmony turned back to her enemy and took out her chakrams.

She activated her skill, Manifest Merge. “I really hate bears now!”

She fused her two chakram weapons into one. A system notification emerged.

“Merged Stone Chakram. A fused weapon created by mixing two chakrams together. It is stronger than the divided power of the two weapons. Its form will last only three turns.”

Vault was shocked by her new creation. She managed to turn one of his failed experiments into a new weapon. Another interesting thing he had just learned about the Manifest Merge ability, was that it does not use up a turn.

It can only be used once per turn then another action can be done in that same turn. with trembling hands she threw the weapon at the bear and it sliced its stomach.

The creature suffered from both weapon damage and burning damage. It let out a roar as its turn came once more. It sliced at Vault and dealt a lot of damage to him. He lost a quarter of his HP, but he wasn’t worried. At the end of the turn the spring would heal him.

It was a good thing that the bear moved back outside of the range of the spring at the end of its turn. Otherwise it would have been healed from the water’s effects.

Vault's turn came around once more. He received a healing effect from standing in the spring at the start of the turn. The bear once again suffered from burn damage at the start of the turn. He got his axe ready and bashed the bear in the face with it. He took out more of its HP. Harmony's turn timer started along with the bear taking more burning damage.

She received a healing effect from standing in the spring at the start of her turn. She launched her weapon at the bear with enough force to take it out for good. The bear collapsed and they received notifications about its defeat.

If it wasn't for the spring constantly healing them, then that creature would have taken them out a few turns ago. It was a powerful monster, and it came close to putting her down for good, without her even having the chance to put up a fight.

Vault noticed that Harmony was still trembling and he put a hand on her shoulder. She quickly threw her arms around him for a hug, now that they actually had a moment to relax. He embraced once more, and they stayed like that for a while.