The standoff shattered. The primal growl of the bear monster reset every priority in the clearing. It was a hulking beast, easily twice the size of a polar bear, with matted black fur, six glowing red eyes, and claws that looked more like obsidian daggers.
"Look at the size of this thing!" the shirtless Chef-class player yelled, his face draining of color. "It's massive!"
"Everyone, back off and split up! It's too big to catch us if we all run. I'll buy you time!" Blaze roared, instincts taking over. She thrust her palm forward. "Flamethrower!"
A torrent of fire blasted the bear's face, but the beast merely roared in annoyance, swatting the flames away as if they were pesky flies. It swiped its massive paw, and the muscular guy with the log-who had charged forward with a battle cry-was sent flying into a tree with a sickening crack. He didn't get up. Idiot.
#Player @GSlammer has been terminated.
Panic erupted. The reality of the message, cold and final, sunk in. This wasn't about losing a life and respawning. This was death.
"Shoot it, you idiot!" one of the other players screamed at the fat Hunter.
The fat Hunter, whose name must have been Shoot, fumbled with his rifle, his hands trembling. He fired a shot that went wide, chipping bark off a distant tree. The Bear ignored him, its six eyes locking onto the largest concentration of players-Blaze's group.
It charged.
"Scatter!" Blaze yelled, pushing the kids behind her.
I didn't think. I immediately grabbed the kids and started running in the opposite direction of the bear.
"Mister... Blaze... she..."
"Hey, don't pull me by the scruff!"
They whined, but I ignored them. This was no joke. During the day, we only encountered small monsters like bees and rabbits. The moment the sun set, this thing appeared. I was useless in combat, so I'd let Blaze and Boxcutter handle this and get the kids away from danger. Any rational actor would do the same.
Even though I was trying to keep the kids from looking back, I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder.
The fight had begun.
Blaze had used skill again. The entire area was bathed in a brilliant flash of light as the bear was engulfed in fire. As strange as it sounded, however, the beast didn't make a single noise, let alone seem to take any damage. Its fur was merely burned a bit.
"It's not working!" Blaze shouted, staggering back. "I need help! We have to defeat it together!"
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Boxcutter attacked, landing three fast, strong strikes. She leaped up, aiming right for its face and eyes.
"Fuck... how tough is its skin?" she grunted.
The slashes hadn't done any damage either. Its defense was just too high.
Boxcutter, however, didn't panic. A manic grin spread across her face. "Finally, a real fight." She darted forward, her boxcutter a silver blur. She was impossibly fast, weaving under the bear's swipe and landing a series of shallow cuts on its legs that barely seemed to scratch its thick hide.
The monster roared, infuriated, and stomped the ground. A shockwave rippled outwards, knocking everyone off their feet. I landed hard, the air knocked from my lungs, but I managed to keep the kids upright. I scrambled toward the trees, hoping the bear couldn't climb. It's too heavy to climb a tree, right?
The Bear, ignoring the pestering Boxcutter, lunged for the closest, most vulnerable target-Blaze, who was still desperately throwing flames at it. Her MP had to be almost gone; she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily.
"Blaze, look out!" I screamed.
She rolled, but not fast enough. She fell onto her back and tried to scramble away, but it was too late. The bear's jaws clamped down on her right leg. A horrifying crunch echoed through the clearing as bone and sinew snapped. Blaze screamed, a sound of pure, unadulterated agony that chilled me to the core.
"Let her go, you bastard!" The Chef-class player charged in with his cleaver, joined by the girl with glasses, who surprisingly conjured a weak-looking magic missile. They were trying to distract it, to pull its attention away.
It worked. The bear flung Blaze aside like a broken doll and turned on its new attackers. One swipe, and the girl with glasses was gone, her body torn in half.
#Player @Bookworm has been terminated.
My mind went blank with terror. I scrambled backward, my healing skill a pathetic joke in the face of such carnage. Boxcutter was a whirlwind of motion, her blade a constant annoyance to the beast, but she wasn't doing any real damage. The Bear was simply too powerful.
Its rampage continued. It caught the Chef-class player, lifting him into the air and crushing him in its paw.
#Player @SixPackChef has been terminated.
Three dead. In less than a minute. The remaining players were screaming and running for the forest, abandoning the fight. Only a handful of us were left: me, Blaze, the kids, Shoot, Boxcutter, and a few others paralyzed by fear.
"Damn it… Damn it all!" Boxcutter panted, her movements slowing as sweat beaded on her forehead. The constant dodging was wearing her out. "You… forced my hand."
She took a deep breath, her eyes glowing with a dangerous red light. She held her small boxcutter in a two-handed grip as the blade began to hum with an unnatural energy.
"Skill Activate, Weapon Mastery."
She vanished.
One moment she was there, the next she was a phantom-a living cyclone of silver light that enveloped the Bear. The air filled with the sound of a million tiny slashes, a high-pitched shriek of metal tearing through flesh. The bear monster roared, not in anger this time, but in pain. Deep gashes appeared all over its body, blood fountaining from a hundred wounds at once as Boxcutter's blade pierced its eyes, blinding it. The bear began to swing its paws wildly, but with the upper hand, she didn't stop.
The assault lasted less than thirty seconds. She attacked nonstop, and even after her MP was depleted, she kept striking with her own raw strength. When the onslaught finally ended, she was on her knees, gasping for air, her face pale and slick with sweat. She had used everything.
The Bear stood for a moment, trembling. Then, with a final, shuddering groan, it collapsed, its massive body shaking the clearing one last time.
Silence. The only sounds were Boxcutter's ragged breaths and Blaze's agonized sobs. I scrambled over to her. Her right leg was a mangled ruin from the knee down, hanging on by mere threads of flesh.
The brutal reality crashed down on all of us. This wasn't a game.