Aria
The bear moved faster than something that size had any right to.
Aria loosed an arrow, watching it sink into the creature's shoulder. It didn't even slow down. Zegan was already moving, sword raised, putting himself between the bear and Bato.
"Spread out!" he shouted. "Don't let it focus on one target!"
Aria darted left while Bato stumbled right, both of them circling. The bear's head tracked Zegan, the apparent threat, but its eyes flicked toward her. Calculating. Hunting.
It's smart. Gods, it's too smart.
She fired again. The arrow caught the bear in its flank, right between two spikes. It roared—pain, rage, both—and charged Zegan.
He met it head-on. His sword flashed in the morning light, Power Strike activating with a red glow along the blade. The strike connected with the bear's skull, right between its horns, and Aria heard the crack of impact.
The bear's head snapped to the side.
Then it lunged.
Zegan tried to dodge but the bear was already there, one massive paw catching him across the chest. He flew backward, armor denting inward with a sickening crunch, and slammed into a tree trunk. He slumped to the ground, not moving.
"Zegan!" Bato's voice cracked.
The bear turned toward the younger archer.
"No!" Aria fired three arrows in rapid succession, each one sinking into the bear's hide. "Over here! Look at me!"
The bear's attention shifted. Good. That was good. Bato wasn't ready for this fight—hell, she wasn't ready for this fight, but at least she had Track leveled high enough to read its movements.
The bear charged.
Aria activated Quick Shot, her hands moving in a blur. Five arrows in three seconds, each one aimed at the eyes, the throat, the joints—anywhere vulnerable. Two hit home. The bear roared again but didn't stop.
She dove aside at the last second, rolling across dirt and rocks. The bear's claws gouged the earth where she'd been standing.
An arrow whistled past her head—Bato, finally getting his courage back. It hit the bear's rear leg, and the creature stumbled slightly.
There. It's favoring that side now.
"Bato, keep hitting the left leg!" Aria scrambled to her feet, nocking another arrow. "Slow it down!"
The bear rounded on Bato. The boy froze, eyes wide, bow half-drawn.
"Move!" Aria screamed.
Bato dove aside but not fast enough. The bear's horn caught his shoulder, tearing through leather and flesh. He hit the ground hard, blood spreading across his tunic.
Aria's world narrowed to the bear, to Bato struggling to crawl away, to Zegan still unconscious against that tree.
She was alone.
Bato
Everything hurt.
His shoulder felt like it was on fire, the pain so sharp it made his vision blur. He could see the bear turning back toward Aria, could see her drawing another arrow even though her quiver had to be almost empty.
They were going to die here.
He tried to push himself up with his good arm. His bow was somewhere—there, three feet away. If he could just reach it, if he could help somehow—
"Aria, run!" The words came out weak, barely a whisper.
She didn't run. Of course she didn't. Aria never ran.
She fired again, and the bear roared. It was bleeding from a dozen wounds now, arrows sticking out of its hide like quills, but it didn't matter. It just kept coming.
The bear lunged at Aria. She tried to dodge but her foot caught on a root and she went down hard.
The bear loomed over her, raising one massive paw for the killing blow.
Bato tried to scream, tried to do something, but his body wouldn't move.
Then something else roared.
Aria
She saw the paw descending, saw her own death in the bear's eyes, and thought absurdly of her brother back home who'd told her adventuring was too dangerous.
He was right.
Then the world turned red and gold.
Something slammed into the bear from the side—something fast, something on fire. The bear staggered, its killing blow missing as it tried to process this new threat.
Aria rolled away, gasping, and looked up.
A dragon.
Not a big one—maybe five feet tall, crimson scales that seemed to glow with internal heat. Wings spread wide, claws digging into the earth. And its jaws were clamped around the bear's throat—one of the vulnerable spots she'd been targeting with her arrows.
MC
I'd been watching the fight from the trees, tracking the bear's movements. The adventurers had done serious damage—arrows stuck out of its hide like pins in a cushion, and the swordsman's Power Strike had left a visible dent in its skull.
When I focused on the bear, Divine Messenger showed me what I needed to know.
Species: Demon Bear
Level: 25
Rank: C-
HP: 200/275
Still dangerous, but weakened. And more importantly, I could see the pattern in how it moved. The way it favored its right side where the arrows had clustered. The slight hesitation in its left rear leg.
This was the same bear that had made me run. The same bear that killed my siblings. The same bear that I'd been too weak, too scared to even think about fighting.
I wasn't that weak anymore.
When the bear raised its paw to kill the archer woman, I moved.
The impact knocked the bear sideways. My claws dug into its flank as I clamped my jaws around its throat—one of the spots already torn up by arrows.
"Chomp!"
My teeth sharpened, bit down hard. The bear roared, thrashing violently. One of its spikes caught my shoulder and I felt scales crack.
HP: 85/100
The bear was stronger than me. Heavier. Its defense was still higher despite the wounds. But I'd learned something from those rabbits, from the slimes, from every fight I'd survived.
Don't let go. Make every hit count.
Heat built in my chest.
"Dragon's Breath!"
Fire erupted from my throat directly into the wound. The bear's roar turned into a shriek. It threw itself backward, slamming me into a tree trunk. The impact drove the air from my lungs.
HP: 70/100
I lost my grip, hit the ground hard. The bear rounded on me immediately, blood streaming from its throat. Its eyes were wild with pain and rage.
It charged.
I rolled left. The bear's claws tore through the ground where I'd been. I scrambled to my feet, wings spreading for balance. My shoulder throbbed where its spike had hit me, but I could still move.
The bear came again, faster this time. I couldn't dodge completely—its paw caught my side, sent me tumbling.
HP: 55/100
Get up. Get up!
I pushed myself upright. The bear was already moving, favoring that left leg where the boy's arrow had hit. There—that was the opening.
When it lunged, I went low instead of dodging away. Slid under its guard, my claws raking across its already-damaged leg. The bear stumbled.
I didn't give it time to recover. Launched myself at its exposed side, jaws open.
"Chomp!"
This time I aimed for the cluster of arrows in its flank, where its hide was already punctured. My enhanced bite tore through, found something vital. The bear tried to shake me off but its movements were getting slower, more desperate.
Heat surged in my chest. I could feel it—the fire mixing with the bite, the two skills flowing together like they were meant to combine.
"Skill Created: Flame Bite"
The notification flashed but I was already using it. Fire and teeth, burning and tearing, all at once. The heat poured into the wound, cooking the bear from the inside.
The bear's thrashing grew weaker. Slower. Then stopped.
I released it and staggered back, panting. My whole body hurt. Blood—mine and the bear's—matted my scales.
But I was standing. And the bear wasn't.
+250 XP
Level Up! Level 10 → Level 11
Level Up! Level 11 → Level 12
Level Up! Level 12 → Level 13
Level Up! Level 13 → Level 14
Level Up! Level 14 → Level 15
The notifications kept scrolling. Five levels. Five levels from one fight.
But more than that—I'd done it. The bear that had made me run, that had killed my siblings, that had been too strong for me to even think about facing.
I'd beaten it.
Not by running. Not by hiding. By fighting.
I looked down at the corpse and felt something settle in my chest. Not satisfaction, exactly. More like... closure. Like I'd finally proven something to myself.
I wasn't that scared baby dragon anymore.
I released the bear's corpse and stepped back, panting. The notifications kept scrolling but I dismissed them. The adventurers were still here, still watching.
I turned toward them slowly, trying not to look threatening. Which was probably impossible given I was a five-foot-tall dragon covered in the bear's blood, but I could try.
The woman—the archer—was on the ground, scrambling backward. The younger one was injured, blood soaking his shoulder. The leader was slumped against a tree, unconscious or worse.
I took a step toward them, meaning to check if they needed help.
The woman—the archer—raised her bow with shaking hands, arrow nocked despite her exhaustion. The younger one tried to do the same but his injured arm wouldn't cooperate, the bow falling from his grip.
Right. From their perspective, I was just another monster.
Zegan
Zegan came to with his ribs screaming and his vision doubled. He tried to move and immediately regretted it.
Through the haze of pain, he saw Aria on the ground, bow raised with shaking arms. Bato was clutching his wounded shoulder, his bow abandoned on the ground beside him.
And between them and him stood a dragon.
Not just any dragon. An inferno dragon, if the crimson scales and the smoke curling from its nostrils were any indication. Small, maybe a juvenile, but the demon bear's corpse at its feet said that didn't matter.
The dragon had killed the bear. The C-rank demon bear that had just torn through their party like wet paper. He'd been unconscious for most of it, but from the blood covering the dragon and the way it was breathing hard, the fight had been real. Brutal, even.
And the dragon won.
We're dead. We're so dead.
His hand found his sword hilt. The blade was cracked—he could see it from here—but it was something. If the dragon attacked, if they had to fight...
They'd lose. Badly. But at least they'd die fighting.
Aria
The dragon wasn't attacking.
That was the first strange thing. It had killed the bear—Aria had watched it happen, watched the dragon take hit after hit, get thrown around, but keep fighting until the bear finally fell—but now it just stood there. Watching them.
Waiting.
Its eyes were intelligent. Not the mindless hunger of a beast, but something more. Something almost... hesitant?
The dragon looked at the bear's corpse. Then at them. Then back at the corpse.
It raised one claw and pointed at the bear. Then pointed at them.
Is it... asking?
"What—" Aria's voice came out as a croak. She tried again. "What do you want?"
The dragon tilted its head, clearly not understanding the words. But it repeated the gesture. Point at the bear. Point at them.
It's asking permission. To take the corpse.
Beside her, Bato made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh. "Is it... is it asking if it can have the bear?"
They stared at it. The dragon stared back.
Nobody moved.
After a long moment, the dragon seemed to take their silence as agreement. It grabbed the demon bear's corpse by the neck—the thing had to weigh at least four hundred pounds but the dragon lifted it like it was nothing—and started backing away toward the tree line.
Aria watched it go, too exhausted and confused to do anything else.
The dragon paused at the forest edge, looking back at them one more time. Then it was gone, dragging the corpse into the shadows.
Silence settled over the clearing.
"What," Bato said slowly, "just happened?"
Aria lowered her bow. Her hands were shaking. "I have absolutely no idea."
Zegan groaned from his position against the tree. "Please tell me the dragon is gone."
"It's gone," Aria confirmed. She looked at where it had disappeared. "It saved us. And then it just... left."
"Dragons don't do that," Zegan managed. "Dragons kill humans. They don't save them and politely ask for the loot."
"This one did."
Bato sank to the ground, his good hand pressed against his wounded shoulder. "I think I need a healer. And maybe a drink. Several drinks."
Aria couldn't disagree with either sentiment.
But as she gathered her scattered arrows and helped Zegan to his feet, she couldn't stop thinking about those intelligent eyes. About the careful way the dragon had moved, like it was trying not to scare them.
Like it was trying to help.
What kind of dragon does that?