Suddenly being ambushed by two foes would be a lot to handle for most, but the cave bear didn't live this long in a Second Step dungeon just to die in a single attack from Symon and Entisse. In fact, once it got over the initial shock of the trap being sprung, it seemed to realise that its wounds weren't that bad.

Symon's punch wouldn't have done much more than bruise the monster. The trickle of vitality flowing into his hand was evidence that he'd done more damage to himself than to his foe, but at least nothing had broken. Entisse had managed to draw blood, but the wounds were shallow. Even still, he watched her move her arms in wild, seemingly random spinning motions. They would freeze in place every so often, where her fingers would then contort themselves into various shapes.

The cave bear had its back to her, continuing to pound its chest and growl aggressively at Symon. He would have thought that the monster was charging up some special magical attack, but Keelgrave had assured him that this species of monster didn't have one. More likely, it was an intimidation tactic.

Symon had to admit that it kind of worked. Reared up like that, the monster was taller than he was, and weighed more than the heaviest man. The fact that it wasn't immediately attacking was probably less because it doubted it would win, and more because it wasn't hungry.

That didn't mean it wouldn't try to eat Symon now that he'd offered himself up.

It took a half step forward and slammed its tree trunk arms into the ground, sending flecks of muddy dirt from the creek splattering around it. He'd thought Entisse would return for another swipe of her claws while it was distracted, but she continued her strange, almost dancelike motions all the while. He was pretty sure this was her charging up for a magical attack, but this hadn't been part of the plan to continually switch its attention between them.

The cave bear seemed to come to a decision, because it finally launched into its attack. Instead of charging straight in, it dug its long fingers into the mud.

Symon frowned in confusion. "What the he—" was all he got out before the it heaved upward with its forelimbs, sending a dense spray of mud his direction. His first instinct — perhaps natural, perhaps from his newest Passive — told him to protect his face, so that was what he did. There was no time for anything else, so that was all he managed before the wide arc of mud splashed against him. It was annoying, but hardly the most dangerous attack in the world.

Then, a train crashed into him.

Or at least that's what it felt like. Several things happened in quick succession after that: his feet left the ground, his body flew through the air, his thread snapped off, and he smashed through something with a splintering crack. Next, he rolled for several metres before coming to a stop. When he lowered his arms from his face, he found himself face up, lying slumped over a bush.

"Ugh," Symon groaned eloquently as he hauled himself to his feet, using a nearby tree for support. He was pretty sure he'd been slapped in the chest by the oversized gorilla-bear; his whole body was a little beat up from his tumble, but the worst damage was some messed-up ribs, which were already shifting back into place.

Taking a quick moment to orient himself, Symon saw that he was at the edge of the clearing surrounding this bend in the creek. A young sapling directly between him and the monster had been split in two, the top half lying flat on the ground.

The stupid monster was banging its chest triumphantly, but Symon was already limping back into the fight. Despite the stiffness, he still drew his sword with a smooth motion. He wanted to train up his new unarmed skill, but his punches weren't doing much. That would continue to be true for as long as it was at level 0, but he couldn't afford to hamstring himself against a Second Step monster.

Hmm… hamstring…

Just as a plan to allow him to train more levels from this fight began forming into place, the cave bear finally remembered the existence of its second foe. It ceased the celebratory hooting and banging, suddenly turning on itself to face Entisse. She continued the strange hand motions as if she were unaware of its attention.

"Hey, you big idiot!" Symon shouted at the creature as he re-entered the clearing. "That didn't even hurt, try again!" It was mostly true as well; the pain he experienced was minor, and even that was rapidly lessening as he directed his healing to where it was most needed.

His distraction worked, and the creature turned back to face him. Its triumphant celebration at beating Symon rapidly transformed into anger, though this time it skipped the whole threatening song and dance and began charging towards Symon in a loping gait, its forelimbs pounding into the ground and propelling it forward like a silverback gorilla.

Symon's mocking shout had given Entisse enough time to complete her ritual, spell, or whatever the hell those weird hand signs she'd been doing were called. She stretched her arms wide, then, after a moment of uncharacteristic hesitation, brought her hands together in a clap.

The noise from her slender hands was soft, but everyone paused as if it were a thunderclap. Even the cave bear skidded to a halt, and it didn't take long to reveal why.

The cave bear's beady eyes bulged wide in a surprisingly human expression of panic as the claw marks on its side, which had been weeping a steady stream of blood, suddenly escalated to a flood like the breaking of a dam. Buckets and buckets worth of blood shot from the creature, the sheer pressure sending the rich fluid spraying several metres away, soaking the grass with great, spurting arcs of blood.

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Entisse maintained that same position with her hands clapped together with the tips of her fingers pointed directly at the monster for several long seconds. Her expression quickly grew more and more strained, her eyebrows furrowing deeply in concentration as her mouth opened in a snarling grimace.

Symon charged in, taking advantage of their foe's fear and confusion at the sudden magical attack to deliver a more mundane one, scoring a deep slash across the back of one of its powerful forelegs and continuing past the creature and out of its range.

It barely reacted to the new wound. Partially, this was due to it not being very deep, but it was mostly just focused on the blood gushing from its side. The moment Symon came to a stop next to Entisse, her trembling arms fell to her side, and the bleeding slowed back down to a more normal rate.

She swayed unsteadily on wobbly legs, so he grabbed onto her arm. The swaying stopped quickly, but he felt her heavy pulse quicken and her shallow breaths come faster. Someone without his education might have thought she was just exhausted, but he knew that wasn't the case: she had lost blood. All the signs were clear to him, helped in part by the guidance of Anatomy. After all, he wouldn't have been able to feel someone's pulse so clearly just by holding their arm, especially when his heart was pounding loud enough to drown out such a subtle feeling.

He quickly put together that her magic must have drained all her mana, so she'd replaced it with her own blood. He wasn't sure why she would do something so risky, but there was no time to have a discussion. He ripped a chunk of vitality from his Vessel and pushed it into her. Regenerating blood was a fairly vitality-efficient process, so he thought the few units he gave her would be enough to restore her to mostly full functionality, but he wasn't able to sit around and slowly feed more into her and find out.

He pushed her away with a shove that was a little harder than intended, his body automatically adjusting for more efficient movements that would impart more force on the 'attack'. She stumbled further away, the healing working fast enough that she got her feet under her and maintained the momentum, putting more distance between her and the cave bear.

"Sorry!" he called out to her.

"My thanks," she hissed at the same time, their words overlapping.

With the attack successful and Entisse no longer in immediate danger of reprisals, Symon refocused on his opponent. The cave bear huffed great, heaving breaths as it finally registered the two as a real threat.

It had sure taken its sweet time, though. Large swathes of the clearing were coated in the thing's blood, and from its slight limp, he could tell that the minor slash he'd delivered was bothering it. They circled one another like wrestlers, only whoever had set the weight classes had been horribly drunk. The thing had to be at least a half tonne, and Symon was decidedly less than that.

"Are you okay?" Symon asked, a note of concern entering his voice. Could he defeat the creature by himself? There was a chance, though he was more confident about his ability to retreat now that it had been wounded; it might be hard to wound in the first place, but it didn't have the regenerative powers Symon did. A proper victory would be a lot harder if Entisse weren't able to help.

"I will be," she responded, her soft voice not carrying well over the heavy, furious breathing of the cave bear. "If I perform the same technique, will you restore me once more?"

"Of course!" he shouted back.

Her arms were already snapping out like the hands of a clock, her fingers twisting and contorting rigidly when she next spoke. "Keep it distracted. We will engage together."

Symon nodded, continuing his careful footwork. His Vessel was already full from where he'd healed Entisse, the rich essence from the Second Step monster quickly filling his reserves. His focus guided the stream, drawing it out as fast as he could. It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn it was a little faster than at the start of the fight.

The cave bear launched itself forward, so Symon dodged to his left, putting himself on the weaker side of his opponent. The massive arm missed by a hair's breadth. He responded immediately with a counterattack, the tip of his sword darting for the monster's side, but was thrown off balance by the tremors in the ground caused by the creature's fists thundering into the ground.

It swept said fists to the side, knocking Symon's legs out from under him and sending him to the floor. He tried to roll to the side, but his leg was caught on something.

That something quickly revealed itself to be the rough, boulder-like fists of the monster locked around his ankle. He pulled and pulled, but the grip was like a vice. The world lurched under him as he was suddenly raised into the air, but the disorientation only lasted for a moment before he was swiftly reunited with the ground in a brutal slam.

His vision flashed black and red with each impact, and he quickly lost count of how many times it happened. His thread continued working while Entisse continued her strange dance, but they were both painstakingly slow, offering no relief from his punishment.

He let out a gurgling groan as he was once more lifted off the ground, though the expected impact didn't come. Hesitantly, he cracked open an eye. He was hanging upside down and, though his vision was blurry, it was impossible to miss the gloating expression of the apelike creature. His will gripped onto his Vessel, pulling out torrents of the stored vitality as fast as he could, but it was nowhere near enough to outpace the damage.

Beady eyes twinkled in delight at Symon's pain, their mirth only growing when it started jiggling Symon up and down like someone would with keys over a baby. Twilight Vigour poured artificial power into his body, new strength mingling with the pain and transforming into a nauseating concoction of helpless rage.

Its free hand grabbed him around the wrist, pulling taut. Now, he was lying horizontally, still suspended in the air. The mocking, glee-filled hoots and growls bounded around the forest as Symon thrashed helplessly, his empowered attributes still no match for a Second Step monster pulling him apart.

First, his joints started creaking. His shoulders and hips protested the loudest, though his whole body throbbed in mixed pain and anger. This stupid fucking monkey was going to pull him apart like a little toy, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do!

He thrashed and thrashed, but the grip didn't budge an inch. He screamed when something in his spine popped. Even when the flat of his blade slapped against the outstretched ar-

Symon's single open eye blinked once before shakily lowering to the sword miraculously still gripped in his free hand. Thinking quickly, he stopped focusing on getting as much vitality into his body as he could and instead concentrated it in one specific area. His shoulder clicked and realigned, a broken forearm began sliding back into place, and a twisted wrist readjusted to grip the sword more firmly.

He made eye contact with the creature one final time as he lifted his blade and drew a thin line across its throat.

Moments later, a familiar clap sounded from behind it, and a torrent of blood washed over Symon.

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