A lone sweat droplet dripped down past my nose as I stood motionless, entirely concentrated on the hulking cave bear stampeding toward me.

Its mouth was wide open in preparation to clamp down on my soft flesh. Its movements were instinctual and weighty, yet somehow calculated and graceful.

As it had almost reached me, I began holding my breath in anticipation.

With the force of a factory machine, the beast hopped forward with its large fangs aimed precisely for my neck. However, just as it was about to sink its teeth in me, I dodged to the side with inhuman reflexes.

The monstrous beast became momentarily discombobulated as to what had happened. I took advantage of this brief opening by jumping on its back and wrapping my arm around its throat.

The beast struggled in vain as I choked it out with my elbow. It raised its paws to try and hit me, but it was no use as I was in a spot which it couldn't reach. It wobbled around in an attempt to shake me off its back, but I remained steadfast with an iron grip.

The bear became desperate for the oxygen of which I was depriving it. It clawed bark off of a tree in a desperate struggle to retain consciousness.

A minute had passed, and I was losing my grip on the cave bear, which now stood upon its hind-legs up against the tree.

"If I could just hold on a little longer," I thought to myself.

Suddenly, the bear had the ingenious idea to deliberately fell backward, sending itself crashing down atop me, crushing me into the dirt beneath its weighty body.

My body squished, and my bones audibly cracked and shattered all-throughout my legs and torso. Now I found that I was the one who couldn't breathe.

My arms—still fastened around the monstrous bear's neck—were loosening as it rolled back and forth to free itself from my grip.

My hand slipped, and my hold on the bear released, leaving it free to recover back to its feet. As it did, it heaved and panted, inhaling the precious oxygen it was deprived, before refocusing back on me, who laid on the ground incapable of moving and wide open for an attack.

I thought to myself that this would be the moment where I'd fail World Shatter. This was the end of my story, and now I could only hope that Charlotte had escaped and was long gone.

The bear stumbled forward with a dangerous presence more robust than any I had yet felt. I knew this meant my death was inevitable.

Its eyes were filled with raw, animalistic fury, and slobber dripped from its mouth as it opened wide to roar so vociferously that it made my ears ring.

It approached with slow, weighty steps that raucously pounded against snow-covered rocks. Its widening maw was posed to strike. However, just before it could, I felt a hand rest upon my shoulder, leaving a luminous-green handprint.

Suddenly, tens of dozens of bubbling masses of flesh-matter sprouted from all-over my body, forming into wolf heads. They grew outward, extending from my body with their necks connected to the ends of octopus-like tentacles.

The cave bear jumped back, caught off guard and potentially frightened by the sight of whatever chimera limbs were protruding from my body.

It clumsily turned away, trying to reorient itself so that it could flee. However, before it could, the tentacles under my conscious control wrapped themselves around the bear's hind, holding it in place.

I could see through each individual wolf heads' eyes and could control each of their separate motor functions as if it were second nature to me.

Taking advantage of this moment, I began to tear the bear's hind-legs apart with the wolf heads while the chimera octopus tentacle continued slithering around the bear, reeling me in toward it.

I couldn't move my body for the most part, but I could still fight with my arms if I could just get close enough.

The bear struggled to remain standing as the wolf heads continued tearing away at its hind-muscles.

I knew I had to sever its jugular artery if I were to kill it, but the neck wasn't within reach of my tentacles, so I continued slowly reeling myself in closer and closer with my arms and tentacles.

My chimera tentacles then made their way to the bear's forelegs, where they tore at the muscle while pinning the beast in place and reeling in even closer.

I was now close enough to strike at its neck with the chimera tentacles, but just as I was about to do so, the cave bear would reflexively chomp down on the section of tentacles below the wolf heads' necks, severing their neurons and effectively causing the wolf heads to slump over dead.

With each wolf head that attempted to strike its neck, the bear countered, biting the tentacle and killing the wolf head. This continued until the very few in the back were the only ones left.

I grabbed a smooth boulder off the ground and held it above my head, slowly reeling myself up its back and atop its shoulder. Then as soon I was in position, I dropped the boulder down on its head like a sledgehammer, slamming the beast into the dirt.

My tentacles snapped under the tension, leaving me to fall on my back. My lower spine was shattered and incapable of supporting and maintaining an upright position by itself.

As I struggled to get up, I noticed one tentacle sprouted from my chest could still move. I wrapped it around the bear's neck and used it as a pully to reorient myself back into an upright position.

The cave bear sluggishly lifted its head back upright before I dropped another concussive blow down on its head with the smooth boulder, then another, and another, and finally one last one for good measure.

[Quest (Kill the Allured Cave Bear) Successful]

[Reward: 30 coins]

I fell back as the tentacles withered away, rapidly rotting into nothingness.

The adrenaline faded from my consciousness when I remembered I still couldn't breathe.

I started gasping for air like a fish out of water, hoping Charlotte would come to save me. She frantically ran over to me, pressing her palm against my chest. Her healing spell, combined with my regeneration, sped up the healing process drastically.

I wasn't close to being fully healed, but I was recovered enough to breathe again. Immediately Air-filled my lungs, and I greedily swallowed it down with a new-found appreciation for it.

I could tell Charlotte had well-approached her mana limit when the light from the green handprint began to fade.

I looked at Charlotte's face, examining her expression of concern and worry while sputtering, "You're… incredible…"

My consciousness ceased immediately upon utterance of those words, fading to a now all too familiar darkness.