This was a lot of fun to write. Enjoy.
Chapter 34:
"Oh shit," I whisper, desperately hoping the bear won't notice the gallon of puke on its back.
Cameron can't manage to stay up, and stumbles to the ground next to the bear. Miranda fared a bit better and is on her knees.
At least they didn't stumble onto the bear.
Unfortunately, that didn't matter. The bear wakes up with a roar that probably woke up half the East Coast. Cameron doesn't even move when the bear almost tramples him.
However much I'd like the bear to crush him, I can't bring myself to let it happen. "Hey, over here, you hairy blob!" I don't know where that insult came from, but it did its job. The bear responds appropriately by turning to me and roaring.
That's when I actually get a good look at the the bear. Or the lack of bear. The bear, or what I thought was the bear, has a human torso and a human head. The arms were just disproportionately large and hairy, as if bear limbs were attached to a human body. I can't tell if the man-bear understands English, but it sure seems upset at my jeers.
It rears on its hind legs right before charging, so I have a second to think. It's time to put my training to the test. I'm still a little worn out by the Shadow Traveling, so I have to be careful. If I go down, the three of us are doomed.
The bear charges at me, and I concentrate on the space between the two of us. I think up of a solid wall of darkness between us that should stop the bear, and once it solidifies, I brace for the impact.
The wall's pretty big, but I've handled bigger. The man-bear runs straight into the wall as if it's not there and-
The wall shatters. Shatters.
The bear-man doesn't even slow down. If anything, it's angrier that it ran into something.
The bear thing is so close to me, I can see its breath crystalize in the night air. I panic and Shadow Travel away, anywhere but there.
I was planning on staying close by, but I jumped a bit farther than expected. I land a few feet behind Cameron, who's crawled out of the fray of the battle.
The bear takes a second to reorganize itself, not grasping how I teleported away. That second of confusion lets me step in between the bear and Cameron. Miranda's nowhere to be seen which is both good and bad, but I don't dwell on it.
The combination of my mini Shadow Travel and the failed wall of darkness had unexpectedly drained me. I have no idea how I'm going to take on this bear guy, but I'm going to try.
I think of a few different options, all while the bear's turning around for another go at me. The problem is, the bear won't go down in one hit unless I can sever off its head, so it's going to be tough to take down alone. A pang of bitterness runs through me since I have to do this without anyone's help. But it passes quickly because I realize I always do things alone.
The bear finally turns, its beady eyes locked onto me. I don't even need to look into its eye to know its angry, the froth foaming on his mouth is a big enough indicator. Somewhere behind me, Cameron moans and clutches his stomach, probably oblivious to the fact that I'm about to get skewered.
Right before it's about to charge, I formulate a plan. If I can dodge its first charge, maybe I can get enough hits on it to kill it. I doubt it, but I'm sure as Hades going to try. I take a breath and keep my eye on the man-bear.
It clears half the distance between us before I can even prepare to jump out of the way. But as I tense my muscles, the night goes completely dark. I take a quick look up to see a tree blotting out the moon.
A falling tree.
A split second later, the tree connects with the ground, sandwiching the unsuspecting bear man.
It happened so suddenly that the bear couldn't even let out a cry of defeat. I scramble back, away from the dust cloud of twigs and leaves. A small pile of yellow dust confirms my assumption that the monster is dead. I doubt any normal monster could survive an impact that massive. Another second goes by and I'm almost certain the three of us are out of danger.
Now that the monster's been killed, I scan around for Miranda and Cameron. Cameron's still behind me, laying in a liquid that smells suspiciously of vomit. Miranda's nowhere to be seen, but my intuition tells me to check out the base of the fallen tree.
I stumble over some branches until I see Miranda sitting on the exposed tree trunk. She turns to me with a weak smile.
"You saved my skin back there," I take a seat next to her on the trunk. She immediately puts her head on my shoulder and I can feel how drained she is.
"I didn't want to kill the tree, bu- but it was the only way," she explains and pats me on my leg. "You're much more important to me than a tree is." I think that's supposed to be a huge compliment from a nature demigod, so I just nod and murmur my thanks.
I reach into my pocket and give her a vial of nectar to drink. Without another word, she gets her head off my shoulder and curls up on the tree trunk we're sitting on. "I'm just going to take a small nap, okay?"
I get off the tree trunk to let her stretch her legs and find a soft patch of grass between her and Cam. I take a deep breath and place my palms on the ground.
Mr. D taught me this trick while we were training; he called it Tracking. If I can concentrate hard enough, I can tell where monsters are within a certain distance of me. It's kind of how I can tell if people are dying, but this is with monsters.
With Mr. D, I got my range up to around five miles around me, but I don't dare try that far. Being this tired, I go for two miles, and nothing comes up. A couple hellhounds are roaming around somewhere west of us, but they're not a threat to me.
Checking for monsters has drained me more than I expected, and with the lack of monsters, I take the risk and doze off, even though no one's taking watch.