Chapter 4: Survive (P4)

My newly companioned ghost and I walk through the narrow path, I listen, cautious to find the large black Bear that'd taken indirect participation in killing me with hunger. Albeit, it's a bit hard with all the yammering coming from the damn ghost following me. I thought they were meant to be freaking silent!

Needless to say, I'm out of patience but all I could do right now, on an empty stomach was lie and take it. Suffice to say I needed the ghost more than it needed me lying to its face.

I'd laid out a rather simple plan for us. Actually, it was a two-step plan, one heavily reliant on Anselm the chattering ghost. Step one; Find the Bear and possess it. Step two; stabby stab stab.

My original plan was a lot more strenuous apparently, according to Anselm, it just wasn't the wisest thing to possess a Bear more than once, regardless of whether it was unintelligent or not, unless he had some kind of psychic ability that damaged the mind even further, the Bear would resist all other possessions to come.

I wasn't down for that.

So we went with his plan, which was debatably just as strenuous as mine given the fact that I'd have to kill a Bear instead of picking berries or mushrooms and that after killing the Bear, I'd have to drag it all the way back to the top, preferably in pieces cuz that's what I'd be eating for a while. Yeah, I had a bit of experience with scavenging the wilderness, not the killing animal's part but the over all grilling and preservation of food part.

Finally, we came upon the sectioned part of the cave. I hush Anselm with a hand to his mouth and a stern shushing and proceed to tiptoe best as I could closer to the edge where with a single glance down, I sight my prey and predator.

It's curled up comfortably on the green moss, saliva-soaked remains of its last meal and snored without a care in the world. I breathe out lightly, signalling Anselm to come closer, the coward squire steps forward, peeking at the Bear from behind me.

"It's show time, Anselm. Go possess it, go." I whisper, yet the damned ghost feared for a life it did not have and stuck unto my robes.

"Can't we just stab it in the eye? Blinding it would give us the upper hand and we'd take it down easily." He begs, still struggling against my push.

"Goddamnit, have you ever seen and injured animal fight before? We'd be clawed and mauled within the minute, well not you, you're dead already so stop being a wuss and possess the damn Bear!" With all the upper body strength this body granted me, I push Anselm over the edge and into the Bear's pit.

…Only for him to float.

Shit!

"Ha!" he gasps, looking at himself in the air. "I'm flying!" I wince as he yells, my eyes trained on the Bear stirring lightly in its slumber.

"Keep it down, will you?" I hush, bewildered by his behaviour. "You've been a spirit for a very long time, aren't you used to flying?"

"Well yeah, that's how I know how to do this," he proceeds to complete three loops in the air, adding a rather athletic spin at the end. "But I've never flown in a physical body before." He grins, crossing his legs and floating gently over my head.

I pluck him out of the air and take him by his collar, "That's nice and all but could you get to the part where you possess the damn Bear!"

Another action I come to regret taking in this cave. An angry roar voices through the air, bouncing off the walls and smiting me with the now familiar fear for my life.

This time I fight the instinct to run, against the flood of adrenaline through my veins and my heart pounding against my ribcage, begging to be let out. I ignore all that and stand my ground, sticking to the plan, "Anselm! For god sake! Possess the damn Bear or I swear I'll resurrect you as a zombie specifically for hard labour and lecherous activities!"

I don't have time to see him hesitate some more, the Bear is bounding up the slope into its pit and after me, with that in mind I heed my instincts and run for the narrow path back to the entrance, all with the Bear growling and pouncing toward me.

Taking several steps in the pursuit of a longer life span, I come up on the entrance and relief begins to bubble up from within until I'm violently smacked away from my only chance of escape. My body bounces across the floor like a ragdoll and a torturous pain strikes throughout my body.

[You have been struck.]

HP -70

Status Effect: Trauma.

[Status Effect: Bleeding.]

I feel myself being picked up by the shoulders and peer my eyes open only to be greeted with a full view of the Bear's bloody dentures.

I wait for it to bite into me, rip off my head and for my life to end yet again. Hopefully the next world won't be so terrible.

The crunch doesn't come. Instead I'm let go, the Bears mouth hanging open as it stood on its hind limbs, looking about itself like it'd gotten lost.

I let out a relieved gasp and pick myself up the best I can, "Anselm?" I ask, tasting blood in my mouth and for a moment I'm scared my organs have been crushed. Thankfully, it was just blood from a deep gash at the side of my head.

The Bear or Anselm, growls strangely. Sounding like a dog trying to speak. But I get the idea and I'm filled with relief.

Until I see Anselm being cast out of the Bear. The spell had ended. I was all alone with the Bear which was now groggily shaking its head free of cobwebs or in this case, Anselm.

Without thinking twice, I start off running, "Aaah!!" A sharp pain streaks through my right side and I fall. I groan and look over my shoulder, the Bear shook its head fiercely, snorting and sniffing about, for a split second I feel I've got time to crawl my way to safety, but it stops and trains its eye on me and growls-this time like a Bear set on devour its prey, devouring me.

It bounds over to me, I've got nothing to protect myself, the sword was knocked out of my hand when it slapped me away. Its rancid breath was all over and my heart beat so fast it makes me dizzy.

With desperation I try out the only other thing I could; another spell. My eye skimmed through all the level one spells available to me until I found one that could save my life.

"Soul Drain!"

Not wasting anytime, I cast the spell out of both my hands and my mana, a foul green shoots out in the shape of my palm and grips the Bears fur and within seconds the giant Bear begins to lose colour, it's fur, a jet black now a wispy grey. Its muscles, healthy and strong shrivel up like moisture was being sucked out of it. Its thick hide fell off, following the mass hair loss as its black, predatory eyes glaze over with white and pop, spraying some sort of fluid all over me.

Everything is sucked dry until all that's left atop of me is a large skeleton of a Bear with some scaly skin and wispy white hair stuck to it.

[Soul Drain Complete!]

HP +150

You Are No Longer Bleeding.

You Are No Longer Traumatized.

Necromancy Proficiency +2%

[Soul Drain Proficiency +1%]

"Fuck!"

I pull myself out from under the corpse, if you could even call it a corpse. My clothes were tattered now but my wounds were healed, Soul Drain was a very powerful and useful spell it turns out.

The Bear was dead. More than dead even. I had drained it out everything, its health, its soul, everything. I was alive because of that. But I was still a man of grand strategy and this was not part of the strategy.

Survive? Check! Food? Nope! Chances were I'd have to battle yet another dangerous animal if I were to truly survive.

"Fuck!"