Wrath Of An Ursa Major!

There was nothing but the sound of his heaving breathing following my question. His thick fingers latched onto the edges of the hole. Despite his previous laughter, Bernard had a different aura to him. Watching his large frame began lumbering out of the spot.

His armor tethered and fell off of his body. There was a distinct snarl present on the face of the man. I would even go on to say that is similar to how I would imagine staring down an actual bear back on Earth.

"Oh no- Oh no…no…no… He's doing it…"

The startled words of the stage coachman blurted out. Although he now stood next to the carriage, the man's knees suddenly buckled underneath him. He was shaking in fear before, but now there was a completely different feeling in the air. His fear was contagious and quickly wrapped around the others.

"What is he doing?", I asked the man, but there was no immediate response.

I repeated my question to him, but still, there was no response. My eyes went to the other individuals, and the result was the same. Fear had gripped their bodies, locking them within a vow of silence. A vow of silence is not what I needed at the moment.

I called them again until I heard something that ran a chill down my spine. There was a crumpling thud that came from Bernard's position. He had begun surveying his surroundings, but now, in his hand, was a weapon.

It was a great sword with half of the large, metal blade stuffed breaching the surface of the ground. That had been the item that was mounted underneath his clothing on his back. I recognized the handle from here.

His long fingers wrapped around it as a deafening exhale erupted from him. It was absolutely ridiculous that his exhale alone was enough to craft a gust of wind that carried the dirt.

Upon laying his eyes on his downed subordinates, the eyes of Bernard sought out one man. In that moment, he raised his left palm towards me and spoke,

"God of nature, I beseech thee to conjure a spiral of flame to incinerate my target; Flame!"

Those words seemed familiar, but at that moment, their origin became incredibly clear. The raging flame that devoured the forest in front of the carriage was his doing. The area in front of his palm sparked up, and in seconds, a vortex of flame threatened to consume my area.

I attempted to leap out of the way, and with that, the vortex of flame scorched the treeline that was once behind me. His attack lasted a few seconds before the flames snuffed out, leaving only the burned embers behind. When I dodged the attack, my foot got caught on one of the many fissures across the ground. That meant that my body crashed into the dirt.

"You cheating bastard. A fire attack?! You realized that I'll beat your ass if we throw nothing but hands?"

Without a doubt in my mind, what Bernard just used then was magic. After all, he said a mouthful of words, and then a column of fire manifested from thin air to nearly fry my ass like chicken. Getting hit by something powerful enough to blast a section in the treeline into embers was not all that ideal. That meant one thing. I'll have to avoid being smoked by the flame to the best of my ability.

"Schlelele! Cheating? If you don't like it, then you could always surrender. You are stronger than most humans, so I've been given no choice but to take you more seriously. Congrats on that, by the way. Schelelele!", Bernard responds.

The serious nature of the beast had been warped by the smugness that he felt from catching me off guard. His sharp teeth peeked from his upper lip as the man watched me recover from my tumble.

"You laugh like a bitch, Bernard. Has anyone ever told you that?", I responded sharply.

My words immediately wiped the putrid smugness off of his face. There was a low animalistic growl rolling out of his throat. There aren't a lot of people that would take what I said on the chin. Being called "a bitch" is amongst the highest levels of disrespect that you could throw someone's way. That is the type of disrespect that leaves a sour taste in someone's mouth. In fact, that is exactly why I said it.

There was a gleam in his eyes, and if glares could inflict damage, then I'd be resting underground. That was alright with me. As long as those eyes stayed on me and not the fear locked passengers of the carriage, then that is fine with me.

"I'll-"

"You'll do nothing, but get your ass kicked and laugh like the weak bitch that you are.", I say while cutting him off. There was a distinctive flinch on the face of the Beastman. He snarled at my taunts. "I was wondering why you were laughing so much, and I think I'm in on the joke. Your comrades are so pathetically weak that they were a joke to you. A bad one if you asked me."

The ground splintered around the legs of the Beastman and in a leap he attacked. Bernard charged me with tremendous speed. His claws lashed out, but much like before they missed. Failure was not an outcome that Bernard desired, so he quickly moved to attack me again. His lashes were far more vicious and destructive, each and every time that he managed to shatter a tree in half.

He would have to do better than that if he wanted to hit me. Each and every one of his attacks were wide and off the mark, and it was to the point that I had little difficulty predicting where he would strike next.

"God of nature, I beseech thee-"

Recognizing those words from before, I leaped in towards the man. My fist hit underneath his chin, putting a stop to the spell that he attempted to summon. Considering that we were battling along the side of the road, I didn't want to risk his spell to go off and hit the individuals that were there. Bernard didn't approve of the action. He lashed out once more before narrowly missing me with his sharp claws. The tree next exploded into mere splinters at the very graze of his powerful claws.

My agility was far greater than it was in my previous world, but things seemed much like Mark had theorized yesterday. While I could not do it in the real world, the bodies of our avatars had this type of agility ingrained into them. I merely needed to want it to happen and it did as such. My heart raced in my chest as each of his slashes seemed to become shorter in distance. Until, an attack finally landed.

My body crashed onto the dirt road again and that familiar sting in my lungs grabbed my body. I clenched my chest and much of the armor on my chest had begun to crack.

'The hell. I know that I didn't get slower nor did he get faster… so how the hell did he manage to kick me.'

A beastly snarl erupted from the treeline and with that, Bernard climbed out of it like a creature out of hell. He outstretched his arms, casting a dark shadow over me. Now with the sun to his back Bernard casted a greater shade than the carriage itself. It was then that the reason that he could hit me was obvious.

The crackle of ripping flesh poured from the man. His eyes were glossed over with no sign of rationality left over. Instead, Bernard looked like a hulking beast of primal instincts. He had now doubled his size in a matter of moments, and his gaze locked squarely on me.

'Ah… So that is what he is doing…'

The words of the stage coachman from earlier replayed in my mind. I now understood why the others reacted in the way that they did. The vibe that Bernard possessed now was only comparable to one creature; the Lynx.

He had raw killing intent like a predator in the wild. No right and wrong in the equation, but only survival. I think I understood it. His rage had warped him in that manner. This was like a power-up. One that amplified his size and therefore increased his reach. I don't think my speed will save me for long now.

Ba bump. Ba bump. Ba Bump! Ba Bump!

As I caught my breath, Bernard roared in uncontested rage. It created a vortex of wind that whipped up the dirt in a frenzy. It appears that I won't have the chance to chase after Claire after all! Bernard was looking for blood and I could see in his eyes. He wanted a fight, and I wasn't one to back down.

"Is that the best that you got Bernard?!", I yelled at the man. I began beating my chest with my tight fist to showcase my defiance to his intimidation.

"I don't back down! In fact, go ahead and power up! I'll wax your ass nonetheless!", I proclaimed. My fist slammed into my opened palm and wind burst from the impact. I was serious, and I had the strength necessary to back it up.

'Heh- Don't hit me for copyright later, Mark, but I'll be using one of your idioms today.'

"Now, Bernard, On behalf of the people that robbed today, your ass is grass, and it's time to put you out to pasture!"