Among the trees in the middle of the night, the blonde girl lay on the ground, bleeding from her wounds because of the bear.
But as stubborn as ever, Ebony decided to try using her magic on herself while clinging to life.
"Heal"
{{Life Magic: He▚lin▨}}
At that moment, a magic circle glowed beneath the girl's body with a pale green light, the magic overflowing as her body began to regenerate rapidly.
Ebony stood up, panting and drenched in sweat from the heat, immediately touching her back where she had been attacked, but aside from her torn clothes, her skin was intact.
"(Thank the cat… In the original game, a normal Healer without tools or modified spells can't heal themselves, it's like adding and subtracting at the same time…)"
Before she could think of anything else, the bear burst out of the trees, ready to devour her, but this time, with a more confident smile than before, she ran between the trees, dodging its attacks.
"(But my Piece is a different case, my trait is broken for some reason, I can't heal my allies but I can heal my enemies…)"
In the middle of the chase, Ebony grabbed the trunk of a fallen oak, still fresh and solid, then spun with all her strength and smashed it against the bear's head.
"(Now I'm the only Healer in the world capable of healing myself, I can even feel that my mana barely got spent, this is perfect… but it's also going to hurt)"
The bear, with its spell charged, unleashed its electrical magic again, its magical crystals on its back glowing brightly, but this time the girl didn't dodge the attack. She tossed the oak aside and raised both arms to receive the bear's claws.
"HEAL!"
The moment the bear's front paws made contact, a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky onto the girl's body, causing an explosion.
When the dust settled, a glowing magic circle could be seen on the ground, atop which Ebony stood, her burns regenerating rapidly as she held the bear's front legs.
"Right now this fight is a battle of endurance, you smug furball! Let's see who runs out first!" Ebony shouted with a cynical smile, blood dripping from her mouth.
The completely enraged bear tried to break free from her grip, but the girl's strength was no joke. Seeing that it was trapped, it tried to bite her.
She ended up releasing the bear's legs and grabbed the oak trunk lying on the ground again, starting to smash the animal's snout.
Thus began a brutal exchange where the beast and the girl traded blows, the bear landing claw strikes while the girl, using the oak, managed to draw blood from its snout.
"HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!" the blonde screamed, spitting her own blood with each word as she activated her healing again and again, struggling to endure the pain of her wounds.
Minutes passed and the battle didn't slow down in the slightest, but every so often a lightning bolt crashed down between the two as a result of the bear's spell.
The fight continued like that, thunder after thunder shaking the entire forest, with tremors and screams coming from both combatants.
But after a full hour of fighting, the bear finally collapsed, exhausted and panting, blood dripping from its snout and several of its magical crystals cracked from overexertion.
"Ha… look who's tired… that's why you don't start a fight if you don't know you can finish it, idiot." Ebony, her clothes soaked in blood and her body worn out, approached the animal.
Without a shred of mercy, she smashed the beast's head again and again until it died, which she accomplished after only a few strikes, just as the moon rose over the horizon, illuminating the scene.
Her hands began to tremble as she looked at what she had done, it brought her no satisfaction, it was the first time she had taken the life of a living being.
"I… I had to do it… hopefully this one was just a male," the girl said, trying to comfort herself, but the night wasn't over yet.
Thunder bears like the one lying dead at her feet are magical creatures that use their ability to summon lightning in order to mate.
But there was a difference between males and females, since the male's lightning is used to fight one another, while the female's releases a magical essence that travels through the air to attract males. And this one was a female.
From among the nearby trees, several thunder bears with white fur began to appear, males drawn in by the essence of the female in heat who now lay dead on the ground.
"…Ha… Ha ha ha ha ha… Damn it… I guess you didn't come to say hello, right?" The males, enraged by the scent of the female's blood, were ready to attack, prompting the blonde to stand her ground, gripping her oak tightly.
"HEAL!" Ebony shouted as she invoked her spell while the bears charged from all directions, trying to devour her body.
That night, with not a single cloud in sight, lightning kept falling nonstop as thunder echoed without end.
As the first hours passed, the lightning grew less frequent, while the scream of a hoarse, broken female voice grew stronger.
By the middle of the night, only the girl's voice and that of one remaining bear remained, roaring with every attack, and so the hours passed.
.
.
.
The next morning, as the sun rose, Lucian the elf woke up near the riverbank, sore all over and with a splitting headache.
But as he searched for the blonde girl with his eyes, he saw that the masked man's lackey was also awake, the same one assigned to watch them, sitting on a rock.
"Finally awake, I can't believe last night's commotion didn't wake you up."
"What commotion? Where's Ebony?"
"Who?"
"The blonde girl, short, bad-tempered, and flat-chested."
"Oh, right… the woman I was told to watch, I think she was your wife, right? Honestly, I don't know, there was no one here, I just heard lightning all night while I tried to sleep."
"Shit, we'd better go look for her, this forest has dangerous creatures this time of year."
Both men got up to search for the girl, both bandaged and aching, and headed into the forest. When they reached the area where the lightning had struck, they were met with a horrifying sight.
Ebony stood half-naked, her shredded clothes barely covering what was necessary, standing in the middle of seven corpses of thunder bears with shattered jaws.
Blood painted the ground everywhere, as well as the girl's body, yet there wasn't a single wound on her skin. When the pair got closer, she lifted her gaze, nearly unconscious, ready to keep fighting.
But upon recognizing her companion, she managed a smile.
"Hey, idiot… Now it's my turn to sleep… don't you dare wake me up" Ebony said with difficulty, before collapsing from exhaustion.