29. The third stage-exam

Waldina sneaked towards the location of her third stage-exam, the battle with the gray bears. Kiandra and Claudia had fallen asleep a while ago. She had waited patiently for signs of their deep sleep, ensuring they wouldn’t wake up until she’d left the camp.

There weren’t others close-by. She had observed their surroundings for hours and hadn’t sensed a sign of anyone else’s presence. That in turn meant she’d likely have about an hour to defeat the gray bears before she’d need to get back to Kiandra and Claudia. That should be enough to ensure no one would get to them and enough to defeat the bears. At least she wanted to believe so, though her heart was beating faster with each step towards the bears.

It didn’t take long for her to spot the gray bears and their pack. In total there were fifteen bears. Eight of them were larger in size and the rest were slightly smaller. Even the smallest bear was, however, taller than Waldina. On all fours at that. The bears were clearly not comparable to the ones she knew from her homeworld. Perhaps that was the difference between a monster and an animal.

Waldina reached for the shurikens in her thigh belt and grabbed one between her fingers. The strongest - and largest - bear was two levels above her. The rest were at her level.

“Tsk,” she clicked her tongue, calculating her chances for victory. In the game Adventurous Online she’d attempted the fight without a second thought. It wasn’t that unusual for a player to defeat enemies even tens of levels above themselves. But her life was possibly at stage here. Perhaps death would take her back to her homeworld but there was no real promise of that happening. And as long as she didn’t know for sure whether she’d have a second chance, she couldn’t take needless risks. It was better to level up first and attempt the exam later on.

And still she aimed the shuriken she held between her fingers straight at the bear closest to her. The bear’s shriek ran throughout the forest and its companions instantly turned to look at Waldina, with eyes glowing with anger and hunger. The bear who took the hit from the shuriken was only mildly injured but she wasn’t about to back off now. It was as if the ninja within her was encouraging her to fight fiercely.

She grabbed both her long sword and her short sword. Her gaze observed the bears carefully searching for the weakest link. After she noticed a bear in the backlines looking around slightly confused and unconfident, she threw her rope up in the air, climbing the tree with it. The leader bear charged towards the tree she got on. One really should try and escape from a bear via climbing trees.

Though she had a different plan than a mere escape.

She leapt from the tree to another until she was positioned behind the weakest bear. With swift movement she jumped down simultaneously letting her long sword go through the bear. Falling down gave her some extra power and with that the slash went straight through the bear’s body without her having to put any extra power behind it.

One bear less, Waldina thought before moving her gaze back to the now even angrier pack of bears. The same trick wouldn’t work endlessly and she really hoped she’d get extra level from defeating the weaker bears. She really needed it. It was the glimmer of hope she was clinging on to, urging her to move forward.

The bear closest to her aimed its sharp claws towards her, ready to hit her with its enormous paws. Waldina evaded the hit by crouching quickly and waited just long enough for the paw to pass her. Then she raised her sword above her head twisting the blade at the bear’s paw. The bear flinched at the pain and Waldina used this opportunity to thrust her swordsword to the bear. Its skin was thick and it took a considerable amount of power to get her sword to do some actual damage.

I really gotta get a new sword and soon. Sharper one at that, Waldina thought and regretted not having bought new swords at Twande.

Finally the bear disappeared into mana dust leaving behind only the sword piercing it. Only thirteen left.

Waldina defeated the next two bears similarly to the one she just killed. Then she wound up being circled by five bears and she bit her lip frustrated. Her heart was beating so fast. Time was ticking faster than she hoped, that much she was sure of.

Wherever she looked, she could only spot hungry teeth and massive paws. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Then with a quick movement she gathered speed and grabbed the paw of the bear on her right. From there she flung herself at the bear’s back. She slammed her sword at the bear’s back and pushed it through with all her power. After the sword had pierced far enough inside the bear, she loosened her hold of the sword and jumped from the bear’s back up in the air. In the air she made a figure skater-like pirouette and pierced her short sword through another bear. She dropped to the ground one leg crouching and the other stretched straight to her side. With her free hand she grabbed her falling sword as her victims became mana dust.

She wiped sweat from her forehead and aimed her eyes at the three bears still circling her. Further away she spotted fourth and fifth, closing in on her dangerously. Then she decided to use her throw rope yet again. Only this time she climbed only a part of the way and swung some speed for her. Now the rope was looking more like a liana swinging back and forth.

After getting a nice amount of twirling speed for the rope, Waldina dropped towards the end of the rope, holding her sword’s blade pointing outward in front of her. Thanks to the swinging speed she was able to slash multiple bears at a time. The light cut wouldn’t be lethal for the gray bears but it would surely make them slower.

By swinging like this Waldina managed to hit four of the bears close to her. After the speed dropped down, she climbed up her rope and leapt down towards one of the bears she managed to hurt earlier, now piercing through it.

Whilst hitting the bear she pushed her short sword through a nearby bear’s neck, adrenalin coursing through her veins. Both of the bears disappeared into the air as manadust and Waldina turned to another bear. She cut an x at the bear’s breast using both her short and long swords. Finally she kicked the bear, slashing it with the blade hidden in her shoe. The bear fell down and another walked up to her.

The next bear was way faster than the others and Waldina barely managed to evade a hit from its paws. The sudden dodge however got her so badly off-balance that she couldn’t dodge the next hit from the paws in time. The paw hit straight to her left arm and she was thrown to the ground. The ninja grimaced from the pain and grabbed her dagger, one that she had dipped at the poison she got from the sage of Slehtkubi. She would have gladly saved such a weapon for later, but the bear was closing in on her way too fast. And she couldn’t take another hit from that. Just then the bear opened its mouth showing its mighty teeth and Waldina threw her poison dagger inside its mouth. The bear fell down before disappearing like all the others before it.

Waldina looked around her, breathing heavy. Her arm was hurting like hell, but there were only four more bears left. After the latest bear she had gained a new level and was finally at the same level with the leader. It should’ve increased her power somewhat.

Quickly she clicked her bracelet and grabbed a new sword for herself. It was in fact the strongest sword she currently had with its sharpness. To be honest, she had saved the sword for more difficult battles and she didn’t want to use it just yet. But her own life was way too precious to her at this moment. She knew she’d regret dying here, knowing she could’ve used a better sword.

The bears didn’t give her any time to come up with a new fight plan. They were angrily charging at her, all at once. The bear leader approached her first, raising its paw high in the air way above Waldina’s head. With a swift movement it hit its paw straight at the ninja who managed to counter the hit with her sword. Then it hit her with its other paw from her side, though she managed to dodge it to the side.

It was then that she saw a familiar figure appear at the edge of her field of view. Claudia, disguised as Diaz, was approaching Waldina and the bears, pointing her blade at the bears. Fear filled the purplehaired ninja.

“Diaz, stay away,” Waldina shouted whilst evading the bears’ paws and teeth.

“I refuse!” Claudia replied, determined to help her friend. With each step she got closer and closer to the gray bears. Waldina cursed the sight. Even if she knew Claudia’s was only trying to help her, she couldn’t help but feel anger.

Waldina grabbed another poisoned dagger from her thigh belt. There wasn’t enough for all the remaining four enemies, but there was no time for hesitation. She threw the first dagger at the bear who opened its mouth, then she hit its jaw, forcing it closed and gulped. The bear fell back-first to the ground.

Meanwhile Claudia stroked her sword at the leader bear’s back. The sword didn’t deal much damage, but the bear turned to look at her anyway. It was staring down at Claudia, who suddenly felt inexplicable fear. The bear was massive. Way bigger than she herself, even as Diaz. She flinched backward and Waldina could see the bear raising its paw, ready to hit.

The ninja rushed to Claudia, took her into her arms and jumped away from the bear’s attack. She just didn’t quite get far enough from the hit’s range.

“Aargh,” the shriek escaped from Waldina’s lips. She felt the heavy, clawsy paw pressed against her back. Claudia’s eyes were filled with panic. The ninja threw her from her arms and looked at her with a mix of pain and determination.

“G-get Kiand-ra,” Waldina managed to get the words out whilst she felt her consciousness starting to fade. She didn’t check to see whether Claudia left the scene or not. Instead, she turned to the bears and gathered all her remaining energy.

Waldina grabbed both of her swords and charged towards the leader bear. Its paw was once again closing in on her. She leapt from the ground, right on top of its paw. Then she ran like a wind to its back and slashed it with both of her swords.

She turned to look at the remaining two bears while drawing her swords from out of the leader bear. She aimed her long sword at the bear on her right. Then she thrust her short sword at the bear on her left, with all her power. Both bears disappeared into mana particles and her bracelet flashed to inform her of the completion of the stage-exam. A couple of fur coats from gray bears, a few teeth and a piece of mirror were dropped onto the ground.

The last thing Waldina saw was the glimmering of a blue light, before everything went black.