The bear opened its large jaws and roared again, the air from its lungs forcing its way out and swishing your clothes back a little as it approached.
“It’s not slowing, U/N!” Hansu called in warning to you.
“I know,” you called back, hurriedly deducting the bears movements, determining how fast or how slowly it was moving and how best to attack it.
As it charged at you, you jumped up, calling for your move to activate and doing a full 360° rotation so that you could hit the bear twice.
This move was a lot harder to execute but you had tried it a few times, with the snakes on level 4, and the spider on level 6, and the slowing of your attack time helped for you to be able to line the red line up and down a perfect hit.
Smacking the bear twice, one after the other, with your whips, did wonders and the bears health bar immediately dropped to 80%.
“Perfect,” you thought, stamping your foot on landing and shouting ‘ha’ at the top of your lungs as you launched into the air again.
The sonic attack shot through the bear as it turned around to see where you had gone, and screamed in annoyance and frustration as you attacked it once again but disappeared before it could do anything.
The sonic attack chipped another 7% off the bear’s health and as it looked around to find where you had gone, you slammed your fan blades down onto its back, one after the other, and dealt another 4%. – sitting it’s health at 69%.
Hansu watched with an uneasy feeling in his gut. He was happy that you were doing amazingly in regards to fighting- but at the same time he knew your confidence was going to be your undoing.
“She’s going to think she’s invincible and do something stupid, I just know it.”
You kept up your attacks on the bear and although you were panting profusely with sweat pouring down your face, you never stopped, always dancing, spinning and jumping away and never giving the bear a chance to retaliate.
The bear’s health kept dropping… going from 69% to 59% then 55% down lower until you had it sitting at 20%.
Taking a second to catch your breath, you got out of range and placed your hands on your knees, puffing and blowing with exertion.
The bear too was starting to sway, unable to hold its body up very well.
“Almost got it!” Hansu called to you, “use move, twice more, and the bear is yours!”
“My legs won’t jump,” you called back, your sides heaving as you hung your head again.
The bear started slowly stalking towards you, a wobble with each step.
“U/N,” Hansu called in warning, a bit of panic rising in his voice as he pulled out a flash bomb.
You looked up and saw the bear approaching slowly with Hansu in the background, holding the flash bomb, and you held a hand up in a stop sign to him.
“I’m ok, I’m ok…”
“Ha,” you called weakly, pressing your foot down and waiting for the attack to do its thing.
The bear shuddered as the see-through waves ripped through its red body.
It’s health bar dropped to 16% and it roared and threw itself at you. You weren’t expecting the speed at which it lunged and panic washed over you as it bore down on you.
Gasping, you jumped and rolled sideways but the bear deviated and was almost upon you before you could get up.
“Spin!” you shouted in fear, watching as the purple haze enveloped the red bear but it broke through the other side and snapped at you with his teeth.
With a scream, you jumped up and stumbled back. ‘Ha’!” you yelled, not waiting to see if your attack had worked as you ran to get away.
Suddenly, Hansu was between you and the bear and had thrown the flash bomb straight into the bears face, making it explode immediately.
“I told you to be careful,” he snapped at you as he turned to face you.
You were on your back on the floor, one elbow supporting your weight as you had intended to jump up but he had gotten his hit in before you had had a chance to move.
“I was ok…” you said, pulling yourself up onto hands and knees.
“No you weren’t! You could have been hurt just then,” he said again, angrily, “we’re leaving now.”
“But you defeated the bear, we can head through to the next level,” you said, pulling yourself up onto your feet.
“Take this,” he said firmly, holding out a health potion to you.
“Hansu… I mean, Greystreak… I’m fine,” you replied, pushing the potion aside. “I can find a potion on my own and take it, my health bar isn’t that far down.”
“You don’t get it do you?” he barked again, putting the potion away, “you think that because you took on a level 7 boss you rule the world? You are naive and egotistical.”
“Excuse me?” you snapped back, immediately irked and defensive to his harsh words, “I’m doing the best I can to stand on my own two feet.”
“You’re being reckless.”
“I’m being very calculated and controlled, thank you, I’ve been working really hard to get where I am and I feel like you’re trying to hold me back. What is it? You don’t want me to succeed in something? You’re scared to let go?”
Your pointed questions made Hansu clam up and he just bit his tongue then turned away.
“We’re leaving. That’s final.”
You scowled at his back, annoyed that he always had the final say and that you had to take orders, but you followed him to the level 7 teleport pad anyway.
There was an awkward, angry silence between the two of you all the way back up to level 44 and even in real life too when you both awoke in the lab at 10pm.
Without even saying goodbye, you got off the exam table and put the headset down then left.
“Screw you and your controlling behavior, Hansu. You don’t own me and you can’t control me forever.”
Hansu was pissed as well. He was only looking out for you but he felt like you were being as hard headed as always…
Or had you struck on some cornerstone of truth about him feeling the need to control you and not being able to let you go.
A mismatch of emotions jumped within him and he pulled his phone out to do some calling around.