The rotting wooden doors exploded into tiny chunks as the bear was catapulted through them. The massive beast was thrown almost a dozen meters into the abandoned stables, kicking up a thick wall of dust.
There was no clean cut appearing on the beast's body, though. Despite the entire entryway being destroyed, no formation was activated to attack the bear.
[Quick, tell Brewan to send another fireball in there! All of the dust in there is probably from straw and wood because of the stables.]
Kai frowned as he tried to figure out what the composition of the dust had to do with anything, but he still relayed the instructions to Brewan.
[Right, and back up too. If I'm right, the blast from this is going to be huge!]
Kai and Sydney both limped away from the side of the building, and following Halia's instructions, Brewan shot another fireball after the bear.
BOOM!!
An earth-shaking explosion ripped through the bottom floor of the stables, followed almost immediately by a second one as the upper floors were rocked by a similarly powerful blast. Every window on the building exploded, along with chunks of bricks and other rubble.
[Yeaa!! Explosion!]
Kai was almost knocked from his feet by the shockwave.
"How the… did Brewan become a tier 5 mage when I wasn't looking?"
[Dust explosion! I told you it wouldn't be good if you lit a fire in a really dusty area before. After thinking about it more, though, I realized this probably wouldn't happen in the classrooms. The explosion is only so big here because of the wood dust from the stables. Heh, and everyone said we'd never use this in real life.]
On the other side of the clearing, Brewan looked similarly shocked at the effects of his attack. He hadn't completely leveled the building, but it wasn't far off. If not for the sturdy brick construction, they would be looking at a pile of rubble now.
[Also, - wait, how is this thing still alive? That is one tenacious bear. It isn't moving at all though. You should go in and finish it, if you get the last hit before it dies, you can absorb a ton of mana.]
Kai looked skeptically at the building in front of him. Even if the bear wasn't in a fighting state anymore, just entering the building looked dangerous. There weren't any lingering flames from the explosion, but the structure itself looked like it could collapse at any moment.
[C'mon, you'll get way stronger. Even if the building starts to collapse, I can use the mana you gain from the bear to save you.]
The notion of getting stronger finally motivated Kai enough to limp forward through the gaping hole where the doors once were. The air within the building was considerably warmer than outside, and all of the walls were blackened from the blast. In the center of the room, the crumpled and scorched figure of the bear lay limply on the ground.
Kai could hear the footsteps of his two teammates following him inside as he stumbled toward the bear. Now that his adrenaline was starting to run off, the pain shooting from his right side was even worse than before.
"Halia, don't use all of my mana to make me stronger. I need some to use the techniques from back at the sect."
Kai raised the ruby sword in his left hand, then thrust it down at the already gaping wound in the back of the bear's neck. The beast shuddered once, then went still.
[You reached Level 14!]
[Mana +25!]
[Mana -10, Strength +10.]
[Kai- Lvl 9 -> 14]
[Strength: 45 -> 55]
[Mana: 14 -> 29]
Kai's level shot up five times at once as the ruby sword turned the bear's massive mana reservoirs into Kai's own. New strength rushed through his muscles, and Kai stood up a little straighter. It wasn't enough to completely combat the fatigue he was feeling from the fight, but it helped.
"Hey, look over here. There's some kind of passageway under the floor."
Near the corner of the room, Brewan was kneeling down as he examined a destroyed portion of the floor. The dust explosion has destroyed large portions of the floor, revealing a passageway hidden beneath it.
"Hey. Don't be too curious. That's how people end up dead."
Sydney pulled Brewan back from the hole, then glanced over at Kai.
"There could still be more formations active in a place like this, just because the bear didn't trigger any doesn't mean we won't. For now, we should go back to the building we were in before and spend some time recovering. Both of us are too injured to make a break for a settlement right now."
Kai nodded along with Sydney's words. He was pretty sure his right arm was broken.
[Shit. This is not good.]
"Huh? My arm?"
[No. We have bigger problems.]
[Terror Bird- Level 30]
Kai froze as he stared at the blue box hovering in front of him.
[It's on the outskirts of the academy still, but it's heading here fast. Also…]
"Tier 3."
Kai muttered under his breath, and his teammates looked over at him.
"The terror bird from before. Halia just detected its mana, coming right towards us. It's tier 3 now."