In the middle of the night, illuminated by the glow of the campfire, Ebony stood face to face with a Thunder Bear that, rising onto its hind legs, began to spark as magical crystals on its back crackled with energy.
By pure reflex, Ebony tried to flee, but her companions were lying on the ground near the campfire.
"(Shit! If that stupid cultist dies, I'm next!)" the girl thought, before throwing herself with all her strength at the bear in a tackle that sent them both flying out of the campsite.
But with a single motion, the bear shoved the girl aside and, with its spell fully charged, slammed the ground. A magic circle lit up beneath it, and lightning erupted from the earth, destroying everything around it.
Because of how close she was, the girl was injured. Her arm was bleeding, nearly destroyed by a lightning strike that slammed into her.
The electricity running through her body reminded her of the trauma of her death. She began to tremble in fear as she hid behind a tree.
"(It hurts! It hurts so much! How the hell am I supposed to get out of this!... Right now, with my Stats, I could kill it, but without a weapon… and now with this injury…)" the girl thought desperately as she pressed on her arm, which wouldn't stop bleeding.
At that moment, driven by sheer desperation, the girl took a deep breath, enduring the pain as tears welled up, and even considered cutting off her arm.
"(Maybe… I could reach the elf's sword… But not like this… Well, I guess it won't hurt to try) Heal," the girl said desperately, trying to save herself.
{{Life Magic: He▚lin▨}}
A glow covered her arm, and it completely healed within seconds. This left the blonde staring in shock, until the bear interrupted the moment by destroying the tree she was hiding behind.
Without wasting a second, the beast struck the girl's body, sending her flying through the air until she crashed into a tree.
The girl screamed in pain, but with a smile, she stood up, chanting her spell and healing her body completely once again.
"(Thank the fox… In the original game, a normal Healer without tools or modified spells can't heal themselves, it's like adding and subtracting at the same time…)" the girl thought, before grabbing a fallen tree with her arms.
Thanks to her new Stats, her strength was now superhuman, and she managed to swing the tree trunk and smash it into the animal's snout.
"(But my Incarnation is a different case, my trait is broken for some reason… Now I'm the only Healer in the world capable of healing myself, I can even feel that my mana has barely dropped… Now let's see who's who!)"
The bear, with its spell charged once more, unleashed its electrical magic again, its magical crystals on its back glowing brightly. But this time, the girl didn't dodge the attack. She tossed the oak aside and raised both arms to receive the bear's claws.
"HEAL!"
Upon contact with the bear's front paws, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky onto the girl's body, causing an explosion.
When the dust settled, a glowing magic circle could be seen on the ground. Standing on it was Ebony, her burns rapidly regenerating as she held the bear's front legs in her grip.
"Right now this fight is a battle of endurance, you arrogant furball! Let's see who runs out first!" Ebony shouted with a cynical smile, blood dripping from her mouth.
The bear, completely enraged, tried to break free from her grip, but the girl's strength was no joke. Seeing it was trapped, it tried to bite her.
She let go of the bear's legs and grabbed the oak lying on the ground again, starting to smash the animal's snout.
Thus began a brutal exchange where the beast and the girl traded blows. The bear landed its claw strikes, while the girl, using the oak, managed to break its bones.
"HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!" the blonde screamed, spitting blood with every word as she activated her healing over and over again, struggling to endure the pain of her wounds.
The battle continued like that, thunder after thunder shaking the entire forest, with tremors and screams coming from both combatants.
But after a full hour of fighting, the bear was finally exhausted, panting heavily from fatigue. Blood poured from its snout, and several of its magical crystals were already cracked from overexertion.
"Ha… Look who's tired now… That's why you don't start a fight if you don't know you can finish it, idiot," Ebony said as she approached the animal, her clothes soaked in blood and her body worn out.
Without a shred of mercy, she smashed the animal's head again and again until she killed it, which she achieved after a few blows, just as the moon rose over the horizon, illuminating the scene.
Her hands began to tremble as she looked at what she had done. It brought her no satisfaction; it was the first time she had taken the life of a living being.
"I… I had to do it… Hopefully this was just a male," the girl said, trying to comfort herself, but the night was far from over.
Thunder Bears like the one lying dead at her feet are magical creatures that use their ability to summon lightning to reproduce.
The males' lightning is used to fight one another, while the females release a magical essence that travels through the air to attract males. And this one was a female.
From among the nearby trees, several white-furred Thunder Bears began to emerge. They were males, drawn by the scent of the female in heat who now lay dead on the ground.
"... Ha… Ha ha ha ha ha… Damn… I guess you didn't come to say hello, right?" The males, enraged by the smell of the female's blood, were ready to attack, as the blonde stood firmly, gripping her oak with both arms.
"HEAL!" Ebony shouted, invoking her spell as the bears charged from all directions, trying to tear her body apart.
That night, with not a single cloud in sight, lightning never stopped falling, and thunder never stopped roaring.
.
.
.
The next morning, as the sun rose, Lucian the elf woke up near the riverbank. He was sore and had a splitting headache.
But as he searched for the blonde girl with his eyes, he saw the masked man's lackey awake as well, the very one tasked with watching them. He was sitting on a rock.
"Where's Ebony?" Lucian asked.
"Who?" the lackey replied casually.
"The blonde girl, short, bad temper, and small chest."
"Oh, her… the woman I was ordered to watch. I think she was your wife, right? Honestly, I don't know, there was no one here."
"Shit, let's go look for her."
Both men stood up to search for the girl. Covered in bandages and aching all over, they entered the forest, and after searching for a while, they came upon a terrifying sight.
Ebony was half-naked, her torn clothes barely covering what was necessary. She stood in the middle of seven Thunder Bear corpses, their jaws shattered.
Not a single wound could be seen on the girl's skin. When the pair got closer, she raised her gaze, almost unconscious, ready to keep fighting.
But upon recognizing her companion, she managed a smile.
"Hey, idiot… Now it's my turn to sleep… Don't you dare wake me up," Ebony said with difficulty, before collapsing from exhaustion.