NBAA Vol. 5 Chapter 3 Part 7
“GRAAAHHH…!!”
The door was destroyed and the roar of a monster rang out.
A Blood Bear covered in red fur from head to toe burst through. However, while ordinary blood bears are over five meters tall at maturity, this one was only two meters tall. It had some sort of full moon symbol on its chest.
“Grrrrr…!!”
“This is the last opponent!?”
“A blood bear? It should be less dangerous than the Red Ogre… But it has a strange aura to it.”
Even the announcer seemed to be surprised at the appearance of the Blood Bear. She shouted, “Wh-, What is this!? The last opponent is a Blood Bear!? Nobody informed me about that!!”
“Hey, what the hell?! Why is the last opponent so small!?”
“I want my money back!!”
“You got this!! Finish it off!!”
But, Reito felt some unspeakable danger coming from the monster in front of him. His Blade Demon instincts told him not to approach it carelessly.
“Alright… Leave it up to me!!” Mina said.
“Wait!?”
Mina got her spear ready and charged the Blood Bear. Reito tried to stop her but she ignored him and used the same skill she used to pierce the Red Ogre’s heart.
“Spear Helix!!”
“Grahh!?”
“What…?”
Contrary to his expectations, her spear easily pierced the Blood Bear’s heart and it stiffened before falling over as the spear made it to its heart. Everyone was dumbfounded. Mina pulled out the spear and looked confused.
“Why did it just? That was so easy…”
“What? No way? That’s it?”
“I think…”
Reito used his ‘Observing Eye’ to look at the Blood Bear. There was no doubt that it was dead. He looked at the gate to see if any other monster was coming through it, but he didn’t see anyone and didn’t detect anything.
Everyone was perplexed by how easily things were finished up. Reito noticed something strange about Mina’s spear.
“What’s going on with your spear?”
“What do you mean?”
“What… even though you stabbed the creature, there’s no blood on it.”
“…Huh?”
Mina looked at her spear and noticed there was no blood sticking to it. The two of them looked back at where the Blood Bear’s corpse was and saw something unbelievable.
“GRAAAH…!!”
“What!?”
“How did it… !?”
The Blood Bear’s body had gotten back up. It was swinging its arms at them. It was faster than any Blood Bear they had ever seen and if it managed to hit them dead on, they would have been done for.
“Wind Blast!!”
“Parry… Woah!?”
Reito put out his palms and created a wind blast attack wave. Mina wasn’t able to successfully use a defensive battle skill. It was as if the bear’s arm’s trajectory had changed. Her spear was destroyed.
The Blood Bear noticed that and charged her.
“Gaagh!!”
“Shrink Ground!!”
“Ahh!?”
Reito tried to put Mina on his shoulder and teleport away, but he wasn’t able to do it successfully carrying another human and he moved to the left.
He wasn’t able to teleport again and the two of them were blown away by the Blood Bear’s follow-up attack.
“Grahh!!”
“Shit!!”
“Reito… what!?”
Reito and Mina were knocked onto the ground of the arena. If he hadn’t learned Resilience and Break Fall, they would have broken some bones.
“Ngh… Are you good, Reito-kun?”
“I’m alright… I think. What am I touching?”
“Hey!! That’s my butt… You little!”
Reito let go of Mina and scoped out the Blood Bear.
He noticed the scar of the spear remaining like a windhole, but no blood was coming out of it.
“Grahhh…!?”
“…?”
The blood bear didn’t come after the two of them, but just looked at its surroundings with empty pupils. It walked around as if it couldn’t see. The moment it touched the corpse of one of the kobolds, it swung its right arm.
“Grahh!!”
It lifted up the kobold’s dead body after swinging at its flesh before discarding it. Everyone was dumbfounded by the blood bear’s puzzling behavior, but it appeared the blood bear hadn’t pinned down Reito and Mina’s location.
Taking advantage of not being noticed, Reito tried to repair their wounds.
“I don’t get what’s going on… But, let’s heal. ‘Recovery Boost.’”
“Ahh, that’s warm.”
Their wounds slowly sealed up, but the moment he used magic, the bear charged them.
“Grahh!!”
“What!? Why is it charging us!?”
“So annoying… Dirt Block!!”
“Grngh!?”
Reito dug out the dirt from the bear’s legs and collapsed its posture.
Reito hurried up the healing and communicated with Airis.
『Achoo.』
『Just use my name at this point.』
『Give me some information please.』
『Dammit… It looks like the Blood Bear is being controlled by a necromancer.』
『So it is a Corpse Puppet, then.』
『That’s right. The necromancer is definitely not as strong as Kirau, but they are pretty good. They are using a Dead Spirit Stone (a dark magic stone necessary to produce a puppet like this) to move it. Usually, it’s installed in the heart of a creature, but it appears to be in the head of this Blood Bear.』
『What difference does that make?』
『The source of its power is in the stone. Usually, it’s best if it’s in the heart to evenly distribute the magical energy… As a result, this bear has no limits on its arm strength, but its sense of vision and smell are considerably weaker.』
『That’s why it didn’t know where we are.』
But, in that case, why did it grasp their location when they used Recovery Magic before. With the cheers of the audience, it seems unlikely it would have heard their voice.
『Why did it notice us before, then?』
『Because you used Recovery Boost… or more specifically, you used holy magic before. As you know, spirit puppets tend to have an aversion toward holy magic. It felt a threat to its own power and attacked you.』
『So that’s what’s going on. So, if I were to use my Holy Chain to bind it and then use Recovery Boost on it… Wait, damn it… I’m not allowed to use my own weapons in the arena.』
『That’s right. Your two choices are to touch that Blood Bear’s body and use Recovery Magic or to destroy the Dead Spirit Stone in its head.』
『Got it. Thanks.』
Reito looked at the Blood Bear crawling out of the ground and thought about how to defeat it.
He noticed the goblin’s corpse lying on the side of the Blood Bear.
“Graaahh!!”
“Hmm…”
The Blood Bear touched the goblin’s corpse when it emerged from the ground and sent it flying away as if it were a piece of garbage.
When Reito saw the corpse flying in the air, he remembered the child goblin from the Forest of the Abyss who shared some fruit with him. It valiantly faced off against a bear in order to save itself, only to be blown away and die.
After having the flashback, Reito’s eyes got red.
“Stop!!”
Reito concentrated his power in his right hand and produced an ice block broadsword. He aimed for the bear’s head and swung with all his might.
“Grah…!?”
“AAAAAHHHHH!!”
Reito sliced the Blood Bear in half dissecting the “Dead Spirit Stone” in its head in the blink of an eye.