The bear and Grey stood against one another, the sky rapidly darkening above them, but neither made a move. They both studied their opponent. The bear was shocked that its prey had lasted so long, for it knew that the prey was weaker, whilst Grey was stunned that the bear had yet to give up the chase.
HOWL!
Just then, the wind howled, and snow started to fall. It was slow at first but picked up speed extremely fast. The blizzard was upon them.
HOOOWLLLL!
Grey, having just under half his Mana left, decided that he would use it all in a last push. He wasn't entirely sure how far he was from the border wall, but, by triangulating his position from his memories, he was sure that he was close enough to make it.
He hoped.
'Fallen Star, I'm going to do something reckless.' He thought to his partner.
- I can't stop you, so go ahead. - Fallen Star was a little worried, but It knew that not only could It not do anything in that situation, so it relented.
Grey moved a portion of his Mana, just under 1,000, and prepared a Manipulation. In his mind, he measured out all the aspects of the Magic he wanted to create, filling in every variable to ensure that it worked.
Once he was done, he released only half the selected amount of Mana, creating an arrowhead made of a potent Poison.
The bear watched on whilst sniggering, clearly unimpressed.
Grey had noted from this encounter that animals around D Rank seemed to gain a slight form of intelligence, or at least emotion other than those necessary for survival.
Using the other half of the Mana he had sectioned off, he controlled the arrowhead, shooting it toward the bear.
The bear dodged, its frontalis muscle contracted, as if it had raised its nonexistent eyebrows in surprise.
It once again seemed to laugh at him, this time for missing, but it spotted an unwanted smile on its prey's face.
Suddenly, the arrowhead struck the bear from behind, digging ever so slightly into it. The blizzard had cloaked the arrow's return from the bear, as it had followed the wind.
Grey immediately commanded a little bit more Mana into the Magic, to ensure he had enough, and ordered the Poison to infiltrate the Beast's bloodstream.
'Gotcha!' Grey thought, before imbuing the rest of his body with all of his remaining Mana, focusing on his injured area.
Originally, when Grey had started to run from the bear, he had circulated his Mana, which boosted his physical capabilities slightly. Doing this made the cost of Mana much cheaper, allowing it to last longer.
Now, however, Grey imbued himself with the Mana, increasing his physical attributes much more, but also increasing the Mana cost. Not only that, but by focusing on the injured area, he was able to act as if it was fully healed, even though the injury remained.
He set off with a burst of speed, running in the direction of the Border.
Grey was much faster than before, not only was his reaction speed much better, but he had trained himself to control it.
His running was very clunky at the start, his destroyed tendon making it impossible to move the foot —meaning it was saggy and exerted no force— but he soon got used to it.
By leaning on his non-injured leg, he dashed with a hobble.
The bear followed him immediately, ignoring the Poison. Grey had read up on many poisons for the sake of his Magic; the Poison he used was the most deadly one he knew of, but the bear seemed to have resistance, so it would take a minute or 2 for it to take effect.
ROOAR!
As it ran, the bear roared at him to express its anger, but it couldn't catch up. Grey's physical prowess had reached a similar state to that of the bear's, only thanks to his Mana Body.
They both swerved to and fro between the trees, a few meters distance between the 2.
30 seconds later, the gap had widened to 10-meters —the Poison had finally affected the bear.
Grey looked behind him for a split second, watching as the bear coughed up blood without giving up the chase.
Grey slowed down, keeping within a 5-meter radius of the bear. If it was going to die, he was going to take its head.
'Fallen Star, how's the report?' He asked, remembering that backup would arrive soon.
- With the blizzard, it will take a little while longer for them to find us, but they should triangulate our position soon. The bracelet's frequency won't be stopped by a mere snowy wind. -
'Good. Although, I think it will have died by then.' Grey turned around once more, spotting that the bear had stopped chasing. It coughed out blood once more, the red liquid had turned a viscous black.
THUMP-
The bear fell to the ground with a weak smash, the snow and wind masking the sound quite well.
The Beast had finally died.
Grey stopped running, taking a moment to catch his breath. The icy wind had bitten into his throat, making his breaths cold and hard to take.
He trudged toward the corpse, clearing the 20-meter distance that he had created within a few seconds.
He poked the carcass with his spear, but upon not receiving a response, dropped his guard slightly.
He circled the corpse, inspecting the Beast. Once fully sure that nothing would pop out from the bear, he brought his guard down further, leaving it at the bare minimum to be aware of his surroundings.
All at once, a wave of fatigue hit Grey.
He had been running for almost 2 hours, although for him it had felt much shorter, and he had not gained any respite during his nap. Though not the most physically taxing run he had ever had, it was especially mentally draining.
Alongside that, his wound made it worse and had yet to be treated.
He plopped himself down next to the bear, opening his bag and reaching inside for something he could use to disinfect the wound.
During his first Hunt, he hadn't needed to disinfect anything since he had been burned and the fight had finished immediately after, but here he would have to.
He poured the antiseptic onto his wound, wincing as the alcohol inside mixed with his injury. He would have liked to use stronger alcohol, but he was still a minor, so he wasn't allowed to carry any.
Once he was satisfied with the amount of antiseptic on his tendon, he moved to the next step.
Cauterization.
Just like with the disinfectant, since he had been burned last time, he hadn't needed to do that.
He grabbed 2 things from his back, a shirt and a lighter. Placing the shirt in his mouth, Grey brought the lighter to his wound.
He imbued the contraption with the dregs of Mana that had been restored during the last stretch of the run, and a fire appeared from it.
The small flame wasn't enough to trigger his trauma, but he felt a mental discomfort from it —something that hadn't appeared before his first Hunt.
However, his discomfort was short-lived, because the fire quickly got to action, burning the exit point of his wounds shut.
He bit deep into the shirt, wailing in his mind, but then stopped, wincing instead.
'Oh, that doesn't hurt.' Due to his 'training' when getting the Mana Body, and his last meeting with Fire, the small fire hurt as much as the antiseptic.
Once the wound was closed, he put the lighter and shirt away, bringing out the last thing he needed. A potion.
The potion, like the last time, was only a 1st Rank one, a low-level potion. That meant that it wouldn't do much, for the pieces of tendon that had ripped off, but it could restore the damaged links.
He downed it in one go and then watched as it took effect.
'I have to learn to make better potions.' He thought.
Due to the bear's attack, his tendon was missing within a 2-centimeter diameter, and some of the flesh had gone along with it. Now, however, the flesh was fixing itself, slightly.
He watched the threads of meat grow from the jagged edges of the wound, and bind themselves together. It was a rather magical process, and by the end of it, he was left with a smooth gash in his tendon, instead of a zigzaggy mess.
"Now I can rest." He said aloud as he leaned against the bear's corpse. 'They'll be here soon, and I can grab the head in a minute.'
Grey rested for 5 minutes before a group of 6 people appeared before him, asking if he was the one who sent the report.
He nodded in response, telling them about how he had killed the Beast. He left out the part about his Manipulation, choosing instead to say that the bear had been distracted when he fired his Spell.
"Let's go back please," Grey spoke, "And can someone help with that please?"
He pointed at the corpse.