Far above, hanging in the slowly dimming evening sky, the moon seemed to glow brighter for a fraction of a second as Kai's blade swept down toward the bear's neck.
The ruby blade sliced through the bear's impossibly tough hide and into its flesh before jarring to a halt. Kai didn't waste any time examining the damage from the strike, instead pulling back the blade, leaping off the bear's back, and immediately making a mad dash for the classrooms.
He wasn't expecting to kill the bear with his attack. Even with all of his available mana put into a single strike, he knew that his chances of killing a tanky tier 2 beast were almost nil.
Please, formation, don't be active!
Kai didn't have enough time to run all of the way around to the side of the building to the window he normally used to enter the classrooms. He could only pray that he wouldn't be cut clean in half by the potentially still active formation at the entrance of the building.
Kai ran through the doorway at full tilt, leaping over the pile of rubble left behind by the terror bird's assault on the building. Nothing happened to him.
Yes! I'm safe-
CRASH!
The already partially demolished doorway behind Kai exploded into a cloud of rubble and dust as the huge figure of the bear dove after the young man. The formation no longer being active let Kai run in without harm, but it also meant that there was no longer anything to stop beasts from invading the classrooms, either.
"Brewan! There's a tier 2 beast here!"
Kai ran further into the building, narrowly dodging a few chunks of bricks thrown up by the bear's impact with the entrance. The bear only paused for a second before it started charging toward Kai again, its massive claws scratching deep grooves into the floor as it bounded forward.
"Stay away from the inner wall!"
Kai jumped into the sleeping room and ran toward where Brewan and Sydney were standing in the far corner. Behind him, the bear annihilated yet another wall, combining the classroom with the hallway.
"It's a deep ursine, it has some kind of stealth magic!"
Kai's eyes frantically scanned the cloud of dust created by the destruction of the classroom wall, but the bear was gone once again.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Brewan's voice rapidly grew quieter as the mage fumbled through his robes, trying to grab his grimoire.
It's using its magic on me again. We're in such a tight space now, there's hardly any room to dodge!
"Brewan, stay out of the way and protect Sydney. I'll try to lure it away!"
Kai's eyes flickered toward the window as he dashed to the far corner of the room from where Brewan was standing. They already had come up with plans for what to do if the classroom building was breached. There were still two more buildings on the campus with potentially still active formations, so their primary plan was to lure the beast to one of them.
Kai brandished his sword with his left hand, ready for the bear's next attack. All of the sound in the world was already gone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Brewan's mouth moving. He couldn't hear anything, but his mind automatically tried to guess his words just based on the movement of his mouth.
"-- Can't - hear —"
Shit, it might be targeting him too!
A huge black figure leapt out of the cloud of dust just a couple meters in front of Brewan, bearing down on the thin mage. It was way too quick for Kai to respond.
"Counter."
A flash of golden light exploded in front of the bear, instantly dispelling both the bear's magic and its charge. The beast's massive frame was tossed to the side like a ragdoll, sending it crashing through the side of the classroom and back outside.
"It's not dead. In my current state, I don't think I can kill that thing. We need to run."
Kai stared in shock for a moment, his eyes traveling back and forth between the newly created hole in the wall and the man who had just created it. Sydney, the critically injured student he and Brewan had been protecting and feeding for the last week, was back on his feet.
"Kai, catch! Halia is telling me to give her back to you."
Kai put the ruby necklace back on and was immediately inundated with a torrent of messages from Halia.
[What were you thinking?! Why would you go outside without me checking the area for beasts first? Were you trying to get yourself killed?!]
[Also, this is a great opportunity. You need higher-quality mana to keep improving and getting stronger, and scoring a kill on a beast this strong will be huge!]
Kai struggled to organize his thoughts and Halia's words in his mind as he ran back out into the hallway, with Brewan following him and Sydney limping behind.
"I already used all of my mana, and I barely managed to scratch that thing. Killing it is impossible, we'll be lucky just to survive."
[Fufu, or so you think.]
[Deep Ursine- Level 20]
[Sydney- Level 23]
[Even if this guy is still injured, he is still stronger than the bear. You just saw him knock it straight through a wall. Combined with your and Brewan's teamwork, hunting this thing shouldn't be that difficult!]