The twins knew they couldn't just run. The earth bear naturally had affinity with its element, everytime they stepped on the ground, the earth bear would be able to sense it, and leading it back to the city might bring them unnecessary hatred, especially if anyone was killed because of it.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Isla and Sila simply chose to try their luck.
"Aim for the area around its magic core. Don't waste time trying to immobilise it, because we'll definitely tire before it does" Isla spoke solemnly.
"So the usual. Fast and efficient" Sila responded with a grin.
Isla wanted to roll her eyes, but the earth bear had seemingly lost its patience to wait.
The twins ran in separate directions, forcing the earth bear to choose a target to attack.
The earth bears great lumbering swing came quicker than expected, forcing Sila to dodge in embarrassment. The next swing had already been sent out and Sila managed to step out of the range of the earth bears attacks.
As Sila was being attacked, Isla wasn't idle. After their return from the goblin den,the twins had earned a small fortune. The highest ranking teams in Rusvil were of the Gold rank, so naturally there needed to be shops with suitable equipment available for those teams.
Isla went and re-equipped her and Sila completely. From weapons to their armour. The shops had connections with high level crafters and powerful magicians. The armour and weapons consisted of much stronger materials, as well as enchantments to help boost certain attributes.
Their new armour was focused on durability, made of an extremely light, but very strong metal. It didn't hinder their movements and flowed like silk. The two wore it under their original outfits. Over the few months of training although they had received more injuries, they had never been seriously injured, which was thanks to this light chainmail.
Their bows were imbued with strength enchantments, which allowed them to fire arrows at longer distances with surprising destructive capabilities. The arrows as well, were made of the same lightweight metal that the chainmail was, the tips of the arrows were fashioned into a screwed edge, which left a grievous injury that also affected the body's natural healing process.
The last were the daggers. Isla used the ingots found in the dwarven room to forge out a pair of daggers for her and Sila. It has to be said when the blacksmith saw the metal Isla handed over he was skeptical at first, but only when he identified it was he shocked by what was in his hand.
The ingots that Isla gave were the main material used for forging top grade weapons. It was loved by the dwarves because it was both extremely strong and resistant to dulling over time, and also because when used over a long period of time had the chance to birth its own spirit.
Just as elves were born from the tree of life, and fairies were born from the elements, so to can weapon spirits be born, however, the greater the material used to forge the weapons, the higher the chance of birthing a spirit.
Isla saw how excited he was, so she said if he could forge two sets of daggers and keep it under wraps that they had them, she would pay him with an ingot of the same material.
When the blacksmith heard that, he promised immediately. The value of an ingot like that was immeasurable, only a fool would refuse a deal like that. So after the daggers were forged, Isla had them enchanted with a bleeding attribute.
This made every cut and stab they landed much harder for artificial healing, which can be said to be one of the rarer types of magicians. Top level teams will usually have a healer, which makes their survivability grow exponentially.
But most healers are from the holy church, found when they're very young. The church doesn't allow their healers to go adventuring. Only the few that are missed by the holy church, as well as those born in the aristocracy are free to do as they please.
Most of the nobles naturally disdain to lower themselves to associate with adventurers, which leaves only the rare commoner born healers that are missed by the holy church, to join adventuring teams.
Rusvil itself has a lack of magicians altogether, so the twins have never even seen a healer before, but from the books they read, the healers are usually covered in defensive enchantments, heavily protected and depending on their level of strength, able to bring back those who are on the verge of death.
The two didn't care much about healers, they knew that on their journey, they'd most likely only have each other. So they could only minimise how many injuries they suffered, which was proving rather difficult for Sila at the moment.
She was busy dodging the earth bears constant attacks and seeing Isla attacking the chest of the earth bear, she quickly supported with arrows.
The arrows couldn't pierce very far into the earth bears flesh, but it was enough to anger the beast. The attacks became faster, full of brutality. Sila could only work harder to dodge, as she kept firing arrows.
It was at that moment that Isla stabbed her dagger into the earth bears chest. She used all her strength, watching the dagger pierce further into the earth bear, not noticing the change in attention of the great beast.
However Sila noticed its change almost immediately. She rushed towards Isla at her fastest speed.
Isla felt the threat at the moment, but her hand was still piercing the earth bears chest, she watched helplessly as the giant arm swung towards her.
She underestimated the density of its body, only hoping to end this fight as quickly as she could, her greatest mistake.
Right as the swing landed, she felt herself pushed away by a force. Only seeing Sila appearing where she just was.
"NNNnnnnnooooooo! " Isla screamed.
The swing hit Sila who had only managed to put her hands up to block, sending her flying through the trees.
Isla could only hear as the trees kept cracking, before the forest returned to silence.
Isla stared towards the area her sister had just disappeared, horror in her tear-filled eyes. She wanted to rush towards Sila, but the earth bear had become much fiercer, seeming to know how close that attack had come to taking its life.