4
Ace covered his eyes from the blinding light and waited five seconds before looking back up, until now everything seemed to have gone very well for ace. The bear lord was critically wounded, and all the hunters were indisposed.
The string of the bow was pulled to the limit, and the tip of the arrow gleamed with a green hue. This was going to be his last arrow and from then on he would have to fight in close proximity of the beast.
As Ace exhaled slowly, he released the bowstring and the arrow whistled towards its target before being pierced into the neck of the bear. It roared in anger as it had just started letting its guard down thinking all the enemies had been dealt with, the poison inside the arrows had long since started taking effect and the bear although angry was having a hard time staying awake.
Ace jumped out behind the tree he was hiding at and ran towards the bear lord with a short spear in each hand, he launched the first while running and it hit the bear in the shoulder. The second one flew through the air and should have hit its chest but was swatted away by the bears giant paw, before it began charging towards Ace in a semiconscious state.
The sudden charge from the bear lord caught Ace off guard and he just barely got away with jumping to the side, before the beast came crashing through dozens of trees in an attempt to trample Ace down.
Unfortunately for ace although he avoided the beast, he still got stuck under one of the falling trees as the beast finished its rampage.
His left leg was stuck underneath and he was lucky that it wasn't broken, but the bear had seen him before, and it was coming towards him.
Ace was fumbling, he couldn't calm himself anymore and he felt a panic surging up inside him. The bear was starting to pick up speed again, and it was tossing the fallen trees left and right in its path towards ace.
The only thing in ace's head was run, and he was desperately pulling at his own leg in an attempt to wring it free but alas, he was completely stuck. He grabbed his only steel knife from behind his back, a somewhat rusted knife that had rusted with time. It was a weapon he had found from a dead traveler's corpse that had been hanging on a tree, although it was old it was still far better than his own, self-made weapons made of stone or wood.
As the giant bear got to the tree where Ace was stuck, it tossed the tree away, He felt enormous pressure and was flung along with the tree to the side. He landed and rolled on the ground before he quickly got to his feet and held the knife in front of him.
He was expecting to see the bear charging at him, but it was nowhere near, instead it was busy throwing around trees and roaring in anger, the bear was tired, and it had confused his location.
Ace closed the distance between them instantly and jumped with his knife raised above his head, he sent the knife down and it sank into the bears neck, blood spurted out and covered Ace in it.
It lashed out with its enormous paws in fury and despair, trying to hit Ace but he was clinging to the back of the bear while also pulling out the knife for a second strike.
He only just managed to send the knife down again before he was sent flying off the bear, it tried to attack him but only fell in the process.
The adrenaline was shooting through Ace and he wanted to run in for the kill, but he knew better. The bear was dying, and it was only a matter of time before it was completely dead, going close now would only be an unnecessary danger.
All around ace was chaos and destruction, the trees had been ripped up and thrown all over the place or just mowed down with brutal force. He no longer had any idea what territory he was in anymore or where the other trainees where, although he doubted that any of them were alive anyway, but Ace still wanted to see if some of them had anything valuable on them for later.
With that in mind Ace went to the place he last saw the two ether hunters, they would be the ones with the most valuable items, especially the boy who seemed to be important to the tribe.
Ace had found three of the trainee warriors but none of the ether hunters and his loot had been better than he assumed. Among the three he found two steel knifes excluding his own still lodged in the neck of the dying bear lord, several bags of food or coins and lastly an ether rock.
The ether rock was very unexpected and something very rare in the wilderness, it held pure ether and could be absorbed to strengthen oneself.
As Ace was admiring the rock with fascination, he heard some of the branches move, it startled him and he quickly drew one of the new knifes.
It was the tree closest and suddenly a hand came out covered in a golden light, the moment ace saw the hand he knew who it was, and cold sweat ran down his back. The next thing he saw was Jung coming out of the tree holding Minas still body.