C21: End of First Hunt

A small ball of viridescent light appeared in between the bear and Bane's vision. It wasn't too great in size per se, but its bright nature would cause it to immediately draw everyone's attention to it. Even the goblin shaman had ended up wide-eyed.

Bane and the forest bear were no different in the matter.

The bear who had not expected such a turn of events had its eyelids raised high as its tired eyes almost seemed to be popping out. To contrast it, the bear's black pupil narrowed down while at the same time bearing two minuscule reflections of the viridescent cusp of light inside of them as he stared towards it in a daze.

But in contrast to the bear, Bane's lips twisted into a slight smile as he knew well what he had triggered.

He had seen many humans use it before, but he wasn't lucky enough to get on in his early years. And as one grew older gaining the skill only became tougher.

[Limit Break] - a skill that he had acquired after killing his own mother. Or perhaps freeing her from her suffering would be more fitting to say?

The cusp of light shone and grew in size in front of their eyes.

They could only watch.

Both Bane and the bear were powerless to even move a muscle and they could only watch it as it grew.

It continued its growth till it became about the size of a fist.

All of it happened too fast, but both of them saw every second of it!

The world had seemed to slow down as the bear could swear it had seen its death approaching. The ripples of the river Styx that were but singing in a mellow voice till now, seemed to have begun playing a lullaby of eternal sleep.

The sphere of light shot at incredible speed towards the forest bear as it collided against its face. It was quite counterintuitive to what it looked like. The forest bear had expected to be hit by some kind of unusual magic spell but that could never happen. For if one were to disregard the accessories that Bane was wearing his magic stat was practically zero.

The skill was instead like a sonic force beam. It was like someone had punched the bear too hard while it breathed its dying breath, causing its skull to vibrate and make a high pitched noise.

It was already weak enough. Probably bearing that last attack was too much for it... the bear immediately collapsed.

*Thud*

But the bear's face was still facing in the same direction as to where he was looking before the attack... he was facing towards Bane.

That was when Bane saw it... his eyes balls had ruptured causing blood to trickle down along its cheeks.

Bane had tried to gauge its eyes many a time during the fight but he was always met with no luck due to the pure difference in strength. But perhaps in its dying hours, the bear had resigned itself to its fate and letting Bane hit him on his face, leading to the current outcome.

"Finally, it is over."

The Limit Break skill wasn't particularly something that could knock a forest bear at one shot. After all, at its current level, it was no greater than 120% of Bane's maximum strength.

But even so... considering the condition his body was in now, had Bane conjured even 10% of his maximum strength, it would have been a miracle of nature.

Thus, the limit break did more than a good job to give the finishing blow.

'Hurts like hell,' Bane smiled.

The pain of a broken backbone was definitely there. But it wasn't something Bane couldn't bear onto.

But his eyelids were getting heavy. Perhaps he would have fallen asleep if not for the following messages that popped up in front of his vision.

*Level Up*

*Level Up*

*Level Up*

*Level Up*

*Level Up*

*Level Up*

The series of messages ended up with Bane coughing out a mouthful of blood.

*Cough* *Cough*

Pitch black blood that had clotted in some corner of his body came out dying his green skin. Bane could feel it, it wasn't the first time he was experiencing something like this. The broken bones that he had were rejoining and the wounds inflicted on his body were healing up.

His body still felt tired. But it was like his whole body was getting purified rejecting anything that might have got inside which was not part of it.

Be it the clotted blood or the pointy stones that had pierced inside, everything was thrown out as he got rejuvenated back again.

The HP bar that had fallen to the red zone allowing him to use Limit Break was now filling up as it spilled out of its brim with those new levels.

But unfortunately, Bane's SP remained the same. The little morsel of bear meat that he had consumed was the only thing sustaining him till now.

As if those new levels and his healing body were the last things Bane could pay attention to, Bane's body eyelids broke as he passed out.

No, sleeping in the middle of the forest where he could easily become prey was definitely not a good option. But surely with no stamina and no danger threatening his life, his body had automatically switched off all its senses.

It was as if his body was preserving the little bit of energy he had to survive.