The monsters become frenzied and start screeching. After what feels like hours without any sound from them, it sounds terrifying and sends shivers down my back.

The screams sound hateful and angry as all the monsters rush at the bear. Crawling over each other to reach him first.

But Cinderbear doesn't care.

He continues to walk, and sparks of bright orange color, as big as grapes, continue to set monsters ablaze instantly.

Battle Trolls, Stormbears, and two-headed wolves - every monster burns after they get hit by a spark - as if they are made out of the most flammable material in the world.

The sparks look beautiful as they slowly float in the air setting the monsters ablaze.

I check the timer

Ten minutes left.

"Let's run," I say shortly to Tess and the others, and we do just that, followed by others too.

We run through the monsters that ignore us as they are trying to get to the bear, some even close to stomping on us.

So we dodge the bigger ones and push away smaller ones.

Sophie is affecting crazed monsters, and they split like a wave around her group.

Hadwin easily ignores hits from smaller monsters and pushes away stronger ones.

I continue to absorb as much kinetic energy as I can while using it to redirect the more dangerous monsters.

After what feels much longer than it was, there are no more monsters, and all of them are behind us, yet we still run.

Tess and Kim are using their skills to move faster, and the same goes for me. Lily and Kevin are barely keeping up with the help of others.

Not even realizing where we are running, we stagger into the clearing and freeze.

I would laugh if I could.

There is a bus in the middle of the clearing. Even though it should be hours of walk away, it's the same bus we arrived in. All the windows are broken, and it's surrounded by palisades made out of wood. There are spikes, also made of wood, sticking out in all directions.

System, you jerk. Are you having fun?

Three minutes left.

I notice that there is a single glowing orange spark floating nearby. The same the Cinderbear used.

What is it? Why? How did we get here?

I clench my teeth and feel, I feel Biscuit poking my leg. Not right now.

When I turn to start running away, I feel mana from an orange spark floating near the bus. A massive flame blazes into existence, and from the fire, the bear steps out.

[Cinderbear - lvl 26]

Immediately, a wave of mana covers the entire clearing, and fear dawns on all of us, making it hard to think, let alone run away.

The bear growls and takes a step towards us. I notice that there are multiple wounds all over its body, yet it seems unbothered by them.

It takes another step towards us, not even bothering to manifest the sparks it used before.

Lily falls to the ground, and Kevin freezes close to her as the two of them are closest to the bear.

Before anyone is able to move, the bear reaches them, stepping right over Lily, who continues to scream. Kevin just stands near the monster, unable to move.

Then the bear slowly lowers its open maw towards the girl.

At that very moment, something terrifying comes into existence from the girl under the bear. A grayish cloud of mana forms in front of her, and wisps of mana fly from it.

The skill Lily wasn't able to use until now: [Disintegration].

It makes the monster pause for a second, but then it just lowers its maw, about to take a bite.

The level-one skill collides with the bear's lower jaw, and something unthinkable happens.

Disgusting, terrifying mana flares out even more, and a few threads shoot into the surroundings from the cloud at the center.

But the biggest part of the skill hits the bear's maw.

Without any resistance, the bear's lower maw disappears as if torn off with immense force, and blood starts slowly running down from the bear's missing lower jaw, right on the girl under the monster.

Cinderbear pauses and tilts its head as if in surprise, but I am already there, pulling Lily away and throwing her further away. I avoid the last remains of her skill with extreme care.

When I reach to grab Kevin, I freeze.

Only one lifeless eye looks at me, and half of his face is missing, eaten away by Lily's skill. Then his body crumbles to the ground.

Ah.

I enter a deeper [Focus].

While boosting my body, I jump as far as I can, and when I am about to run away, another wave of mana hits the entire area, gluing our feet to the ground. I turn around and look at the bear that is just staring at me.

Despite its lower jaw being missing and blood gushing out like a waterfall, the monster's eyes remain calm, and an enormous surge of mana emanates from its body. Then the bear lowers its head once again and tries to take a bite of Kevin's body but is unable to do so. It pauses, and one of its legs steps on the boy's arm.

Crack.

It burrows its remaining upper teeth into the body but is unable to take a bite.

So it stops.

Then, slowly and deliberately, it looks at me, and little orange sparks start appearing around.

Two minutes left.

I scream through the fear caused by the bear's skill, and my mana flares up, alleviating some of the skill's effect on me. Then, I do something I wasn't able to do up until now, even though I tried many times before.

I activate [Armament] and [Mana Manipulation] and combine them. Instead of armor, I create small beads of light blue mana that fly around my body.

More.

Ten of them.

More.

A hundred.

Hundred of small glowing beads float in the air around me in a similar way to the bear's sparks, and then I push them towards the bear. They are slow and they are not dangerous at all.

The bear doesn't dodge, but instead of hitting him, they hit the sparks around the monster and make them explode. Only ten or so of the mana beads collide with Cinderbear's skill, but that's enough, as the chain reaction makes sure to explode the remaining ones.

A massive ball of hot flame explodes with the bear at the center, and the airwaves from all the heat make me stagger backward a few times.

But that won't be enough.

I know it won't be.

From the flames, the bear walks out, its fur only charred and still bleeding from its missing lower jaw, making it look even more horrifying than it is. The growl sounds from the monster, distorted because of the wound, making it more frightening than before.

A loud whistling noise fills the surroundings, and two mangled pieces of iron come flying towards the bear while lightning cracks audibly around them. The monster just looks towards them and growls again, and they slowly melt in the air, losing half of their volume, and then just weakly hitting the bear and falling to the ground, the lightning gone from them.

More objects come flying, stones, smaller trees, pieces of wooden palisades. Everything just gets pushed slightly as it comes closer to the bear and is set ablaze just by the heat the monster generates.

One minute.

I do not dare to move closer, so I just continue to shoot beads of mana at the bear. I make fewer of them, make them denser, move them faster, yet they burn the same way everything else does, dissipating into the air.

Then the bear takes a step towards us, and we try to run. But as soon as we enter the forest, and pass by a few trees, the clearing appears back in front of us, and the bear with it.

Is it the bear's skill? Is the system messing with us?

What's happening?!

The bear rushes at us and then pauses in the middle of the movement, but only for a second before it continues to move again. I hear a painful scream from Sophie that tried to stop him, and she falls to the ground, holding her head. Hadwin's skill fires up and pushes against the bear, trying to disrupt the monster's mana, but it gets canceled by the bear's exceedingly large mana pool, and the man is pushed back instead.

Then Tess throws an entire bus at Cinderbear.

With a loud creaking, it lifts into the air, hovering at around my head's height, and flies at the monster that just stands there, looking at it almost curiously. With a loud sound of creaking iron, it lands on the bear, covering the monster nearly entirely. Tess then falls to the ground, and I barely feel any mana from her.

Ten seconds.

Under the bus, there is movement, and flames start slowly glowing beneath it. Soon, I see the bus literally melting before it flies into the air, iron parts glowing brightly from the heat they absorbed.

The bus falls down, and the unhurt bear looks at me, the air around it waving from the heat its body is producing.

Three seconds.

Two seconds.

One second.

What appears is the best I can describe as a giant hole in the air, nearly reaching the sky. Wide enough to let multiple cars pass through and tall enough to reach the top of skyscrapers. Through this door, this entrance, I can see small hills covered in beautifully vibrant green grass that moves as the wind blows into it. The sky there is blue and clear, with only one sun.

The second floor.