Chapter 296: Hunting the Bear

"That's the bear," said Kai while observing the huge four meters bear standing on its two feet. It seemed the bear was walking around the forest this whole time without any aim.

"Are you sure you can still hold your own against a bear that big? If I am not wrong, a single sweep from the bear would be far stronger than my momentum, especially the one that big," Ayaka asked with a concerned face.

"I think it will be fine. I am not planning to face it head-on. That's why you three are going to appear a bit later." Kai nodded. "By the way, what is his element?"

"I am not sure. From the report, they have either water, earth, metal, and darkness."

"Ugh. This sounds troublesome." Kai twitched his eyebrows before taking a deep breath. "It's useless to complain, so I am going now."

"Yes. Be careful."

Kai leaped toward the bear, activating his Sound Insulation magic again to ensure that no one bothered them. They had troubled themselves in killing those monsters around this bear, so they needed another layer of precaution.

The black bear turned around, noticing the incoming Kai. "Roar!"

With a single roar, Kai slightly lowered his eyebrows when he noticed the bear's hand coming from the left.

Trying to see the bear's real strength, Kai decided to take this attack head-on.

"Oscillation Shield."

"Sound Blast!"

Two magic circles appeared where the Sound Blast was in the outer position, trying to slow the bear's paw using the shock wave coming out of it. It affected the speed a little bit but wasn't much, disappointing Kai.

After that, the paw struck the Oscillation Shield as he blew Kai away.

"Seriously?" Kai widened his eyes, staring at the bear in amazement. He glanced at his Oscillation Shield that somehow got cracked by that paw. The S rank spider could also crack this shield, but it was normal because it was S rank. Yet this bear could do the same; it was insane.

Rolling on the ground, Kai forced himself to stop by pushing the ground to launch himself into the air and using his Sound Blast to fly toward the bear.

At this time, he was on the offensive and struck the bear's paw.

Suddenly, a layer of green light appeared, covering the bear's paw as the bear waved it to stop Kai's attack.

"Sound Blast!" Kai didn't want to lose and used another Sound Blast to give a nice boost in his swing.

*Clang!*

The two objects produced a clicking sound, signaling the bear's magic.

"Metal, huh…" Kai thought for a moment. 'Why do I think this bear is stronger than a rank S spider? No, never mind. The spider magic is the poison that can be infused into everything in its body. I could only make it look easy because we could avoid it completely with powerful teammates.'

Kai pushed his sword a little bit more, slicing the bear's magic and slowly made its way toward the skin.

Noticing this, the bear swept with its other hand, trying to push Kai away.

Kai didn't want to get destroyed by that paw, so he launched himself with another Sound Blast and did it again until he was behind the bear.

He planned to strike the bear, but his swords instinctively moved to the left instead because he sensed the bear's paw coming toward him.

"So fast?" Kai opened his mouth in amazement. He remembered Michelle introducing the bear as a quick beast and could keep up with his Sound Blast. He now knows that it's true.

The two swords clashed with the bear paw, and he managed to block it somehow without being pushed back. And again, this paw came when the bear faced the front, not to him, he couldn't expect a strong attack from this position.

He then decided to leap and run on the bear's back, slashing as hard as he could while doing so. However, he realized that none of his attacks resulted in injury. They were blocked by a certain piece of metal that covered his back.

The bear also sent its paws toward Kai before reaching his head, so Kai jumped off the back.

"Seriously?" He couldn't help but tilt his head in confusion.

The girls finally made their appearance.

Even though Kai couldn't do many things to the bear, he still managed to have one of its hands on the back, preventing the bear from using that hand even with his speed.

That was why the girls came from the other side.

The bear didn't just let them attack him. He tried attacking them with his other hand, but Kai appeared and kicked him on its arm when it pulled back its hand. Now the bear has his two hands on his back.

"Kh!" Even so, he was struggling because he realized that the bear strength was no joke and would probably throw him away in one second.

Sofia appeared beside him and punched the hand with all her strength.

"Thank—" Before he said anything, Sofia already released her magic.

"Frozen Punch."

Ice spikes rose from where she struck, freezing the skin around that area.

Meanwhile, Michelle found her not attacking the body and decided to do the same. She struck the bear's leg using her Shadow Slash.

The dark wave circled around the leg, trying to cut it, but to no avail. A layer of metal stopped it again.

Ayaka then struck the bear's body, trying to throw its balance, but her hand suddenly felt numb when she got the feedback as if she hit a thick metal plate.

"This is why the bear is considered one of the strongest magical beasts in the area. Those who are classified in this category would only lose to S rank magical beasts. However, we won't need to worry much because the bear didn't really have a huge magic reserve, so it would become weak in a few minutes if we continuously pressure him like this.

"So, you can think of facing an S rank beast for around three minutes before it is just a weak beast," Michelle explained the situation while retreating.

Kai and the others also did the same as they listened to her words.

"Is that so? Well, I notice that the bear's defense comes from his magic… Probably Metal Magic. In any case, I am going to hold it down for all of you, so try to weaken him as soon as possible." Kai nodded and charged at the bear again.

The girls exchanged looks and nodded, agreeing to start their battle now.

"Shadow Slash!"

The dark wave ran through the ground and struck the bear before Kai arrived, making an opening for Kai.

"Thank you." Kai smiled, watched how the bear crushed the Shadow Slash with his paw alone and slid between the bear's legs. He didn't forget to strike the two legs while he was at it.

To his surprise, he managed to create a shallow wound on his feet.

"It seems the bear has enough speed to match my speed, but his reflex is not enough to match my movement," Kai muttered before using his Sound Blast to move around the bear. He didn't use his Vibration Sword for this because he wanted the girl to kill the bear on their own.

Even so, confusing the bear should be enough for him, especially with his speed.

Michelle was using her Shadow Slash to wear down the bear and retreated. She repeated it until she found an opening or the bear used all of his magic power.

At the same time, Ayaka kept swinging her spear, but a bit different than what she had been doing this whole time. Her spear was on fire, specifically only the blade was on fire. But every time she slashed the bear, the fire would actually fly and spread around as if she was trying to fry the bear.

Sofia, on the other hand, used the same technique over and over again because it seemed to be the best one that she could use to wear the bear down.

Kai nodded and kept holding the bear down with his unpredictable movement.

Suddenly, Ayaka felt it was lacking, so she shouted. "Kai! Could you knock the bear back?"

He didn't answer her immediately and observed his movement before nodding. "I can. When do you need it?"

"Anytime you can."

"I will help you as well." Sofia decided to join in this plan because she felt they needed to weaken the bear's defense first before even thinking about injuring it.

Kai glanced at her for a second and nodded. "Sure. Follow my lead."

As he said that, he started moving unpredictably before striking the bear's legs again.

The bear had seen this move and clasped his hand before pounding Kai. The latter only smiled because the Sound Blast launched him back as he used another Sound Blast to send him to the bear's head.

Michelle struck the two hands with Shadow Slash again to stop the bear from attacking Kai.

Kai smiled and kicked the bear's head, throwing its balance toward the back. At the same time, Sofia appeared beside him and punched the bear on the face as ice rose again.

With these two, the bear was going to fall down.

Ayaka smiled and placed her hand on the ground as a magic circle appeared on where the bear would fall.

"Fire Net!"

*Roar!* The bear screamed out of pain as it stomped the ground, using it to stabilize its body and rose from the fire net.

On its back, blackened marks appeared as Ayaka couldn't help but exclaim. "Haha… Look at that, a perfect grill mark!"

"If you want to think of this bear as food, you shouldn't do this because it will damage the meat," Michelle shouted in protest.

"…"