My long white hair fluttered around me as I jumped from branch to branch and to another branch. Running far below, through the thick bushes and the high grass of the Ilvaldira forest was a large deer. It was around the size of an adult horse from my old world.

Running next to it was Alyra, desperately trying to catch it. That is exactly why you don't go hunting without a bow, my dear. A sudden roar made the deer speed up and Alyra gave up completely.

"What is that idiot up to?" I could hear her mumbling as I went past her and activated my second magic mark.

The fine spiralling marks that had split multiple times and had begun to form circular patterns spread across my body. I channelled mana into it and was consumed by the black-dark green energy in around a second. Right after that, I was on the back of the horse-sized deer, the crude iron dagger my father had given me, after much... convincing..., right at its throat. Blood splattered over the ground, painting the high grass red as I let my blade slide along the throat of the deer.

"You got it!" I heard Ilmar call out before I heard a thud.

I turned around only to see Alyra with her fist still pressed against Ilmar's head.

"What was that?!" she asked, sounding furious.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"That fucking roar!"

Hey, hey. Don't use those terms in front of a ten-year-old, they're going to learn that stuff... ah well I knew it anyway so yeah, but still... take some responsibility if you're going to hunt with a ten-year-old... Wait, that wasn't him?

When I registered what he had said I warped onto a tree branch and looked around hectically. That wasn't him? But it sounded exactly like him when he would use [Predator's Roar]. I used [Far Step] to get next to the two of them.

"I think we should leave," I suggested.

"I agree... what if it's that bear the hunters were talking about..." Alyra mumbled more to herself than to us.

"Bear... my father told me about it. It's supposed to be the strongest being in the entire forest..." I said.

But as to answer the question of whether or not it was the bear the hunters had been talking about for years now, the same bear that had taken over our spot a few years back, something came towards us. Something large and heavy enough to make the earth shake.

...

...

...

I turned around to where the sound came from. I saw the trees shaking, making some leaves fall down, the bushes were rustling and shaking more violently than I had ever seen them shake, everything seemed to shake, the trees, bushes, the ground and even we, even we were shaking. Was it fear? Or just an effect from the ground shaking?

...

...

...

For a second I thought the world had played a trick on us when a small orange fox jumped out of one of the small bushes, as it landed on the ground it shook. But as to tell me to go fuck myself multiple trees fell down, a branch flattening the fox. The blood, along with that from the deer was enough to activate [Blood High]. All three of us had our magic marks forcibly activated and their body forcibly enhanced... not that it was bad, considering what came next.

A white bear, shimmering in the light coming down through the leaf roof above us, about ten metres tall with pure white eyes, except for the small grey irises. The only thing not somewhat white about the bear was the inside of its mouth, which was a reddish pink. Its teeth were about thrice the size of my dagger... no, probably even longer.

"T-T-That's no bear..." Ilmar said as he backed away.

I swallowed all the saliva in my mouth and turned my head slowly. "Run," I said quietly. The other two nodded and we began bolting away from the bear... or whatever it was.

I was the first, Ilmar close behind me and Alyra, still exhausted from chasing the deer in last. That wasn't a problem until I noticed that the pure white bear was catching up. It was just metres behind Alyra.

When it raised one of its paws and swung it at her my heart sank. I had no choice... I couldn't... but, but I would get hit.

My body began trembling. It didn't stop no matter how much I tried to calm down. I began screaming at myself in my head.

"Go! Move!" was what I repeated over and over and over and over in my head.

Until the bear's paw was about to hit her. I closed my eyes and burst forward. Channelling all the mana I had into my muscles, activating both [Predator's Agility] and [Predator's Strength]. I arrived in time, in time for the paw to hit my side, I was unable to guard my side in time. The bear flung me into the closest tree and I spit up blood, a lot of blood.

I felt [Blood High] heightening my strength even more... but no matter how much strength or speed or durability I had, it wasn't enough, it could never be enough to kill something like... like that.

The bear acted as if I had never existed. It was still going after Alyra. Once again I screamed at myself.

"Go! Move! She will die! You stupid fuck, move!"

Alyra let out a loud scream and the bear... smiled? It seemed as if it smiled.

I swallowed all the saliva I had, suppressing the memories that were suddenly flooding into my mind like an uninvited guest that wouldn't leave no matter how many times you told them to do so. I ignored them and powered through. I moved my, most likely broken, legs so I could stand. Then I burst forward, my fist drawn back and I readied myself for whatever might happen. I was prepared to die once again.

I had thought about something similar before, but this was a good life. Ten years, ten good years. I was happy. Maybe that was why I was finally able to overcome it. Memories plagued me the entire time I flew towards the bear's head.

"You like that Ethan?" Martin asked as he kicked me in the stomach, making me vomit blood.

"I think he's turned on, oh my..." Hannah said as she stepped on my privates yet again.

"I hope you like it hot," the small man said as he took a gas burner and held it up against my inner thigh.

I once again saw the poor woman they had killed right in front of me... but in her place was Alyra, cut apart and reassembled like a puzzle.

The feeling of my fist touching something hairy and furry took me back to reality. My fist was about to bury itself into the side of the bear's head. I put all my strength into it and heard a crack if it came from my fist or the bear's head or even both... I couldn't tell.

Now it was the bear's turn to get flung into a tree. But to my terror, it merely stumbled and fell over. There was now more blood, I had no clue where it came from but it strengthened me. I walked up to the bear and jumped onto the side of its head, looking down at the nearly completely white eye. For some reason, a smile crept over my face.

"This-" I took my dagger and rammed it into the eye, turning it a few times for good measure, "-this is my declaration of war!"

I jumped off the bear, making sure to dig both my feet in deep while jumping off and landed next to Alyra who had passed out from fear, I assumed. When I picked her up Ilmar finally decided to show up.

"Alt... are you alright?" he asked.

"Never felt better!" I responded a bit more harshly than I wanted. For some reason, I was really fucking angry.

The ground split as I sprinted towards the village, leaving behind a dumbfounded Ilmar and a trail of dust. I looked back only to see Ilmar running after the me, and in the distance, behind a few bushes I had jumped over I saw the white bear, getting up from the ground, shaking its head. But it didn't follow us, for whatever reason.

_______________

"What do you mean we can't kill it?" I asked.

"I meant that we can't kill it!" my father said loudly. "That's not just some bear, that's a white dire bear!"

"So what if it's white?" I asked, confused by his mentioning of the colour.

"I'm not talking about its colour! I'm talking about what it is! A white being is capable of using something called white magic and no one in this village is capable of dealing with that. It's bad enough that that thing is awake again but now you kids have to run around in the forest?" my father yelled.

"There has to be some way to kill it!" I shouted back.

"Oh, sure there is. You just have to find the magical fish in the lake near the village and make a weapon out of its scales, then you can kill it! Go and chase some fairy tale if you want to get yourself killed!" Tears were forming in the corners of both our eyes.

"Enough!" my mother, who had silently watched us, yelled. "Don't yell at your son like that! And Alt, listen to your father, it's too dangerous, please."

I didn't answer. Like the ten year old I was I just turned around and ran away from them.