The bear looks at my perplexed, fearful expression. An expression one makes when confronted with a potentially fatal situation. The kind that may strike dread into the hearts of even the bravest of people.
I know I've been found because the bear's eyes light up with delight. This strange beast has seen through my illusions and shadows. It can always find me and outrun me, therefore I have no choice but to fight back because I am unable to escape this situation.
But how can you combat an immensely powerful opponent unless they have a weakness?
That's correct, I need to identify a flaw in the bear while testing its powers. I must battle for my survival since that is my only option. I hurry out of there before the bear has a chance to bite me in my own shadows. I then walk around it because I know it hinders the bear's vision to some extent.
In doing so, I hope to be able to land a hit on the bear's side, testing its resistance as well as wounding it. I can feel the bear moving about in the shadows as I make a quick spin around the shadows. I then align myself with where I believe the bear is and dash back into the shadows with all the speed my body can muster.
I can feel the bear in front of me as I rush into the shadows. Or, at the very least, I believe I can sense its presence, as I hope not to miss its body. I reach the bear's side closer to its hind legs in a matter of seconds and attack it by putting the force from my dash into my punch.
The sound the collision of the two bodies create is definitely a loud and assuring one. At the end of my movement, one thing was known to me instantly. The bear was not injured.
The bear only budged a few centimeters back when my punch made contact with its pelt, not enough to even inflict a wound on it. My grains on the ground were the only visible mark. My punch not only did not damage the bear, but it also injured my own hand!!
The only thing my useless effort achieved was to show me the high diamond like resistance of the bear. It is kind of ridiculous, it is not only strong enough to kill me but also resistant enough to outrun me and take no damage.
With no time for despair, I quickly change my position and make a run for it once more, not that it will achieve much but it gives me some time to think about my next step.
As I try to put distance between myself and the now furious bear who is only 50-100 meters behind me, I rethink my options.
I can not escape due to lack of speed, running is just a way to prolong my death by a very short period of time.
It is impossible to hide since it will always find me regardless of my efforts. But, if I combine hiding and running through this woodland in a random path, I can extend the end by as much endurance as I have, unless I make a terrible error. But I need more than trees to run around in because the bear can simply smash trees down till it gets me. Although with trees, I still have some time because they slow the bear down slightly.
Fighting is also not an option since I could not even create a wound on the bear. I need more strength to fight.
More strength, hmm. MORE STRENGH!!
That's the key, I need my grains to become dense enough for me to be able to injure the bear. That is the only possible way of ending this battle, for me to defeat the bear. But how do I gain more strength when I can not even stop to consume anything? I need to find a way to put more distance between the bear, enough to let me consume other living beings.
Hmmm, how can I get rid of the bear momentarily...
"Booom, Booom, Booom, BOOOOM..."
More and more trees fall victim to the speedy bear who is now only a short distance away from me, a dangerously short distance. I need to hide since changing directions won't help as of now. I quickly choose another somewhat suitable area with some natural shadows for casting shadows. I then quickly cast 4 shadows on the ground and one on myself in order to repeat the same steps as before.
Many would criticize my choice of using shadows to hide since it costs me grains meaning it decreases my strength, causing my goal of becoming stronger in a short period of time, pretty much impossible but I have no choice since it is my life we are talking about. There is also the fact that I use 4-7 shadows each time meaning at most I use the grains equivalent to a human (20) in 3-5 attempts at hiding.
This is very inefficient since I need to hide a lot during an hour, maybe more than 4 times. This is why I need to find a way to put more distance between myself and the bear.
As I am pondering about the difficult situation while hiding within the depths of my shadows, I suddenly feel the presence of the bear like the first time I was hiding in my shadows. Suddenly out of nowhere, I get the feeling that the bear has entered my shadow even though I can hear its footsteps. This feeling is more than just a notion or observation of sorts.
I can feel the bear stepping deeper and deeper into the shadows. Its heavy footsteps create fear into the heart of all the poor animals around. I once more believe that I know the precise location of the bear but instead of calling it a guess like last time, I decide to believe that it might be something else, something more than just a guess.
I slowly back away a bit from my previous location and decide to circle around in the shadows I created while avoiding the bear from the location I believe he is precisely at.
Time slowly passes by and I can hear the bear's growl as it gets frustrated since it can not find my exact location within the shadows. But I know its location and it is proven to me that it is not just a guess because I have been avoiding the beast for the past 30 seconds without any flaws.
I decide to land another blow on the creature in order to make one final move that can prove my idea regarding me knowing the bear's location. Just like before, I dash towards a location that I believe the bear is at and land a punch on its side. Just as it went before, It caused no wounds on the beast but It did help confirm my theory.
I can know the location of the bear inside my own shadows. I can feel the presence of a creature inside my shadows.
I quickly dash out of the shadows and make a run for it again but with a much better mindset than before since I have found a new use for my shadow ability that might just be good enough to help me out of this predicament.