The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 116

Chapter 116

As I made my way toward the edge of the ravine, desperately looking for any place to hide, a deep thud shook the ground. A surge of wind then blew toward me, dispersing the cloud of debris that had been my only source of cover.

It was too late to hide.

Whipping my body to face my new enemy, I waited for the last of the dust to clear. Heavy footsteps approached my direction and the suffocating pressure I felt from the top of the cliff had been magnified tenfold.

Out from the fog of rubble, the shadowed figure stepped out into full view, leaving me all the more confused.

Letting out another devastating roar, it took another step toward me. “For two meals to fall in front of my home just before my deep slumber, how lucky of me.”

I didn’t know what to expect when coming face to face with the titan bear, but I sure as hell didn’t expect it would be half my size and have the ability to talk. Titan bear my ass, there was nothing ‘titan’ about it. Maybe it was just a cub? In which case, this was a good opportunity.

I stood my ground, not knowing how to proceed. I would’ve rather avoided a direct confrontation with this mana beast until I knew more about it. The pressure the beast had emitted was no joke, despite its appearance. If this titan bear was only just a cub, I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a full grown one. Or maybe it was an adult titan bear, and it had the ability to alter its size like Sylvie?

The titan bear looked down, regarding the dead panther in front of him before turning his gaze back to me. “This meal isn’t going anywhere. I should start with you,” the beast, less than a meter tall, growled, licking its lips.

There was no way for me to get out of this without fighting. Lowering my stance, I prepared to fight. I had expected the titan bear to come charging at me, but it stood in place.

Abruptly, the mana beast thrust its paw in my direction, somehow propelling me backward.

The bell tied to my waist rang mockingly as I tumbled on the hard ground.

“Guh!” I gasped for breath, relieved that it wasn’t blood that I had just choked out.

‘What the hell was that? It felt like I was shot in the stomach by a cannon.’ Getting back on my feet, I concentrated on the titan bear that was about ten meters away.

“Ooh! A tough meal,” the bear snickered. The sight of a bear, no higher than my elbow, standing on two legs and speaking coherently was an odd sight, but I had no room to be amused.

His attack just now was definitely some kind of long range spell, but I couldn’t understand why I had felt no mana.

The bear slowly lifted his paw, as if mocking me. As soon as the titan bear swung down, I activated Mirage Walk and used Burst Step.

My jaw clenched as I gritted through the ache that had intensified throughout the past several days.

A sharp pain suddenly came from my left leg. Looking down, I could see fresh blood flowing from a gash on the back of my calf.

I had expected the attack to be like the last one, but this invisible spell had taken the form of something sharp.

This attack as well; I wasn’t able to sense it.

The smile on the titan bear’s face was gone. It seemed like he wasn’t expecting me to dodge another one of his attacks.

“Stop running!” It growled, swinging his paw once more.

Immediately dropping to the floor, I narrowly avoided the slash attack, the severed tips of my hair sprinkling down on my nose.

It was a risky gamble, but through that last attack, I was able to figure it out. When he slashed with his paw, the attack that was released was also a sharp slash. When he punched with his paw, like he had for the first move, a blunt force was shot out.

The titan punched at me from the distance, sending another invisible cannon my way. Even when I concentrated mana into my eyes, I wasn’t able to see the attack, leaving me no choice but to blindly throw myself out of the way.

The mana beast’s spell hit my side and I felt ribs cracking. Not giving me time to prepare again, the bear swung his other paw, releasing another spell immediately after his first one.

I made too wide of a movement to dodge the previous attack for me to be able to avoid this one as well.

Gritting my teeth, I willed more mana to protect my body, waiting for the brunt of the next attack.

The force of the titan bear’s spell knocked me off the ground. Blood spurted from my chest as four horizontal gashes formed just below my collar bone.

“Damn,” I coughed out, suppressing the searing pain. I wouldn’t be able to handle any more direct hits.

I needed to get close to it, but to do that, I needed to be able to dodge the titan bear’s attacks.

The titan bear, aware of my vulnerable state, began smirking confidently again. I wasn’t sure how the titan bear was able to manifest those nearly imperceivable spells, but there was one way of discerning it.

Standing back up, shakily, I waited. To the titan bear, it must’ve looked like I had given up because its smile got even wider as it began licking its lips again in anticipation.

Just as the titan bear lifted its paw up, I firmly kicked the ground in front of me, creating a cloud of dust, covering me from view.

Four slivers immediately sliced through the dust cloud I had made between the beast and me, allowing me to just barely see how wide the attack was before I immediately used Burst Step to avoid it.

“Damn it,” I spat through gritted teeth from the sharp pangs of protest in my legs.

Rolling on the ground and back onto my feet, I prepared myself again. I knew the hitbox of one of his attacks now, and I could make do with that. However, I still needed to be able to completely dodge the attack in the least amount of movement as possible if I’m going to dodge all of his attacks and clear the distance between us.

Thoughts of Kordri’s training popped into my head, and I couldn’t help but reveal a helpless smile. Either this was some big coincidence, or Windsom was indeed a calculative devil.

I glimpsed the impatient titan bear release another attack, this time with a thrust of his paw. I immediately kicked up another cloud of dust to buy time, but the bell attached to me constantly gave away my position. Reacting immediately as a hole tore through the cloud of dust, I forced another Burst Step.