The sensor was all I could hear, but surely this couldn't keep on forever, right?
I open my eyes, and I see a vibrant and chaotic display of color slowly reveal a familiar creature. Its polychromatic eyes, transparent fur, and scaly tail begin to contort and explode into a kaleidoscope of hues.
Rumors of that elusive place that twist logic beyond convention were true after all. No other enemies within scanner radius, what is inflicting pain to this bear? It continued to wail and thrash to an unseen force pushing it around.
I feel my spirit beckoning me to stand. Taking a deep breath, I throw one of my daggers past the bear whilst running to its left side. It reads me, and attempts to devour me as it did with Danica, but in its fugue state, I weave to the right of its powerful bite, and thrust my other dagger on its head.
It roars with fury, as its eyes fixate on me. I pivot my weight to my dagger, and climbed atop the bear, whilst holding the dagger's handle with both hands, and promptly twisting the dagger deeper.
The colors shift more violently, as the bear manages to whisk me off its back and into soft snow. I get back up, sensing the beast going through its death throes.
I take out a slate from my belt, and begin to recite an incantation of Earth Semantics. The daggers I have can be activated to act as arcane magnets, but it requires one of them to be in contact with anything—I threw the dagger as a boulder.
As soon as I finish the incantation, I scurry a bit farther away from the bear. Before I could hide behind a snow mound, a thud boomed through the snowscape.
I look back and see a web of blood between the cliff and the boulder. Confirming the kill, I retrieve my daggers from the boulder and the carcass.
Then I realized another thing, and once again my senses are on alert. There was a second beeping source on my scanner.
Where is it?
I see a twitch from the carcass, as I look at it, a splatter of red and guts splashes on the snow and covers my mask. With only my scanner to reliably "see" the second unseen beast, I swiftly took a fistful of snow and wiped my mask.
"Hey, good job with the brain kill. That was genius," upon hearing this voice, the adrenaline in my veins wore off, and I sat legs flat on the snow. Covered in chunks of bear, and our shared rucksack on her back, Danica looked in better shape than I am. "We still got about three minutes of walking left, one and a half if we sprint," she reaches out her hand to me, "Need a hand, Sir?"
I look down at my scanner, and sighed, "You need to stop invoking those contracts, Danica,"
"And die like that? No way, sir, I've already decided that I'm dying to a formidable opponent and nothing else," she scoffs, "...and besides, even if it were touched by the hyperborea it still wouldn't beat me!"
I furl my eyebrows, but she puts a finger on her mouth before I could say a word.
"Don't tell the boys back in HQ that I got canned by a bear, Sir," I nodded at her request, and took her hand and stood up, as she quickly turned her clasp into a pinky swear, "Promise?"
"Of course, Danica, I promise," I lock my pinky and she whispered something I couldn't quite make out. "Let's head out then," I say to her.
She breaks into a sprint, leaving me behind. "Last one to the lighthouse eats cold squash back at the HQ!" she shouted back at me.
Danica is our ace—dependable, and not one to be expendable.