262 Chapter 262: Bearing a Bear Hug (2/2)
Ursa Major replied with a paw to its face, a right hook that sent Hellfire Bear staggering again. Even as blood dripped from ugly wounds torn deep into its face, the Hellfire Bear snarled and straightened up. Diving forward, it drove both pairs of claws into Ursa Major's chest and bodily lifted it up. The Constellation spirit flailed weakly and responded by slashing the back of the Hellfire Bear's neck, but that supposed vulnerable spot was protected by the ferocious flaming mane that danced madly.
With a triumphant bellow, Hellfire Bear finished off the limp Ursa Major with another eruption of hellfire, and the unfortunate Constellation spirit exploded into countless mana orbs that drifted randomly before dissipating. Crowing, Hellfire Bear turned toward me.
”It's over,” Lilith told me coolly as she drove me off with another strike of her sword. ”You've reached the end of your rope.”
”Hah!” I snorted. ”Isn't it too premature to be celebrating your victory?”
Lilith narrowed her eyes, but didn't reply. Instead, her Hellfire Bear came charging over. If I was Wang Zhong, I would just use Shadow Steps to completely evade all of Hellfire Bear's attacks and then take Lilith out by surprise, but I wasn't an invincible Mary Sue capable of mastering every weapon in existence, a genius who could solve some weird equation that a college professor and headmaster had problems solving, top in theory, yet was also unbeatable in practical battles and just never lost a single match in some weird OP system.
So I had to do this the hard way.
Flipping myself up and over the charging Hellfire Bear, I then took a deep breath and completed my next summoning spell. While the Hellfire Bear spun around to charge in my direction again, a gigantic whale that was several times larger than the poor Soul Beast materialized.
”What the hell is that?!” Lilith demanded, her eyes going wide.
I smiled. ”Cetus. Mira!”
Cetus obeyed and cast Mira immediately the moment I commanded him to.
”?!”
It wasn't just Lilith, but even the Hellfire Bear was taken by surprise when Cetus charged right at it. Casting the spell I had commanded him to, Cetus left a tremendous trail of ice in his wake. Mira was an ice-type spell, after all, and was of a much greater magnitude than the ice spell I attempted to cast when imbuing Gan Jiang with Black Tortoise.
In just a moment, the entire clearing was frozen. The section of the forest Lilith and I occupied as completely covered in ice, almost as if winter had come…or an ice age had taken over.
Even the Hellfire Bear was not immune to this sudden change in climate. Despite its ferociously burning flames, the Hellfire Bear was unable to melt the enormous amount of ice that had entombed it and its surroundings. The superheated flames were still unable to put a dent in the extremely low temperatures that Mira had created, which was close to Absolute Zero.
”How?!” Lilith demanded, shivering violently from the cold despite her desperate attempts to warm herself with her fire spells. She clutched her sword tightly and intensified the flames around her blade, to no avail.
”How what?” I asked flippantly. She gritted her teeth and pointed her sword at me. Focusing her mana to the point of her blade, she unleashed a highly intensified heat beam that seared a clear path through the fog that resulted from the cold. The water vapor in the atmosphere had condensed from the low temperatures, and this time my infrared vision that was built into my glasses came in useful. Even so, despite being perfectly able to see the heat beam coming straight at me, I made no move to dodge it. Instead, I slashed it apart with Gan Jiang.
”How is this possible?!” Lilith murmured, her confidence shaken. She then jolted upright when she heard something moving behind her. Glancing around, she caught sight of dark shapes darting through the dense white fog, but she was unable to see anything.
”Earlier, you said that you like teddy bears, right?” I asked.
”W…what about it?!” Lilith was desperately trying to clear the fog by casting several fire spells. Even as she did so, I was weaving my own complex spell, drawing enchantments and formulating a spiritual array. For now, I allowed her to recklessly expend her own mana. She was gradually raising the temperature and clearing the fog, but by the time she achieved her goal, I would have another nasty surprise awaiting her.
I merely smiled and allowed my Constellation spirits to do the talking. Especially since the fog was inevitably becoming diminished, there was nowhere for them to hide. So they took the initiative and pounced on Lilith before she could fully clear the fog.
”EH?!”
Credit to the fire mage, she was able to incinerate a couple of my Constellation spirits with her flaming sword, but the rest of them fell upon her before she could follow up with a second spell or attack. The pack of cute Ursa Minor crashed onto her, sending her toppling onto the ground. As Lilith cried out, they began to mercilessly pummel her to the ground, pinning her sword down and piling on top of her. Before long, there was a mountain of deceptively cute teddy bear-like Constellation spirits weighing down on the helpless Lilith and beating her up.
”What's the matter?” I asked, amused at Lilith's muffled shrieks. ”I thought you like teddy bears.”
I thought she responded with some sort of angry retort, but I couldn't catch it because it was drowned out by the noise my Ursa Minor were making, their fluffy paws smashing into her with the force of a three-ton truck. Normal monsters would have died from such devastating damage, never mind a human. Fortunately, Lilith had her protective magical aura and physical reinforcement spells to keep her alive, but even those wouldn't be sufficient against the relentless onslaught from my horde of aggressive teddy bear type Constellation spirits.
Pushing up my glasses as I turned away, I couldn't help but smirk.
”I hope you're enjoying your…uh, bear hug.”