Chapter 39: Oh bother part 2

Ever since her birth, Winnie had been special.

She was always stronger than his play mates, faster, and smarter too.

Throughout her whole life, she had been treated as special, older bears lowered their heads when she passed, the old leader had even doted on Winnie even more than his own children.

Winnies sloth, no, this whole forest had been her birth-right, and she fully intended to claim it.

Yet here she was, beaten and bloody, hurt worse than she had in her entire life, not once had any creature in the forest had hurt her so.

But here was this disgusting thing, coming into to her forest, and taking her territory, giving those stupid wolves ideas above their station, and now, he. Refused. TO. DIE.

But now, it was the end, the scrawny little creature was tired, she could tell.

Its odd, changing hide could do little so stop her now, he had his tricks, but they had run out.

Winnie charged up her last blast with extreme prejudice, she would enjoy this last blow.

The pathetic creature ducked behind a tree, but it did not matter, she would just shoot through the tree.

Relishing the moment, Winnie clenched her neck muscles, and the bolt of water was released from her mouth, rocketing towards the tree.

With a horrific splintering sound, the tree was punctured straight through, and Winnie assumed the odd creature too.

She perked up her ears, listening for the soft trickle of blood, the satisfying thud of a corpse hitting the floor.

But it never came, all she could hear was the general ambiance of the forest.

The shadows were also off, they shifted in an abnormal way.

Winnie turned around in a panic, to find her challenger above her, his arm swirling with an odd, dark green mist.

No matter, this thing had no claws it could not penetrate her if she simply bloated.

With a small amount of effort on Winnie's part, she once again ballooned slightly, planning her counter attack once the things fist bounced off of her harmlessly.

But when the fist connected, her face contorted in pain, it felt like she had wood worms crawling under her skin, it was as though her flesh was being devoured from the inside out.

Forgetting all plans of a counter attack, letting the creature bounce off of him freely, as Winnie fell to the ground writhing in pain.

As she scrambled back to her feet, Winnie stared at the thing approaching her, no longer was the creature clad in that odd, glowing stone, but now, seemed to have covered itself in the pelt of another creature.

The scent had changed entirely, and she did not like the smell, in fact, the scent sent all of her survival instincts, screaming danger as much as they could.

And for once in her life, she did not look on another creature with contempt or superiority, nor even caution. No, she looked at a creature in a way she had not looked at one since she was a cub, she looked at the creature approaching her, her adversary, with fear.

...

Alex stepped forward with confidence, Rambo beside him, making angry camel noises at the bear. Alex took each step with a deliberate slowness, looking at the cowering bear with pity.

He was clad in a gladiatorial style, leather armour, with a few metal studs, stuck through, and asymmetrical design with one lightly covered arm, and the other tightly wrapped in soft, protective padding.

It had seemed so proud and confident when the fight started, but a some pain was enough to reduce it to a snivelling coward.

He had a whole blown through his arms and a lung punctured, and he was still here. Now, granted, he was in a simulation, but it still hurt.

The two exchanged looks, when Winnies gaze shifted to the side.

"Don't you dare" Alex growled, but it was too late, Winnie had already shot off towards the pack.

Winnie barrelled forward, panic across it's face, if she could not beat that thing directly, she would find another way, it wasn't playing dirty, it was simply that she was smarter.

But Winnie was bounced back before she could do anything, a large wool ball obstructing her path.

She looked around panicked, to find the creature her opponent had brought along, wagging its weird paws back and forth.

"No, no, no" it said in a very annoying way, "no cheating on my watch"

Before Winnie could do anything in response, the creatures paw was planted on her face.

Winnie turned around, backing away as quickly as she could.

As she looked at her opponent, that thing, the abhorrent creature that caused her so much pain, her eyes widened.

By now, she had realised it was that odd green mist that had caused her such pain, and just a paw full could cause her unimaginable pain, but now, that thing, was surrounded in a cyclone of the green mist, like a thin green finger, reaching down from the great blue.

"I had some respect for you" The creature spoke in a low growl, "you lead your family, you kept them from harm, you dominated a section of this forest, so I assumed you would at least be a decent ruler, but your just a snivelling coward"

Winnie backed off a bit more, but its bruised ego seemed to keep it from running away completely, and Alex could see that.

"In fact" Alex said with a smirk, "I'm surprised you could even become a pack leader, did your daddy set that up for you, oh to be benefiting from such nepotism"

This struck a nerve, Winnie had worked hard for her position, she had killed the leader's children through ritual combat, she had forced the old leader to submit to her through her own strength, she would not have her claim disputed.

"It's such as shame" Alex continued, "the last alpha I fought was a much better leader"

At this Winnie snapped, she lunged forward with reckless abandon, only to receive a particularly nasty uppercut to the jaw.

Alex quickly followed up with a jab to the snout, sending the bear screeching backwards.

"Awww" Alex cooed in a mocking tone, "has the little cub had enough, is it scared now that its no longer playing pretend"

Alex continued to mock to bear, only stopping when he noticed that Winnie had begun retching, odd.

Suddenly, Winnie began to throw up a stream of water violently, it was like a waterfall coming from Winnie's mouth.

As the water poured out, Winnie began to shrink, her original quite chubby and well fed appearance became toned and muscular.

within a few seconds, Winnie had become a much more terrifying beast.

"Well that's unexpected" Alex muttered, looking at the transformed Winnie.

Winnie dashed forward, but Alex noticed, while Winnie had become faster, it was not by much, Alex could still quite comfortably keep up.

But when, between the flurry of claw swipes the enraged bear was throwing out, Alex saw an opportunity for an attack, something unexpected happened.

His fist connected, but it felt like he had just punched a steel wall.

Alex quickly backed off quickly, he couldn't brute force this, he had pushed Winnie a bit to far it seemed, but at least she wasn't using strategy.

Alex raised his fingers into a finger gun, a dark green energy that seemed to infect all that it touched, and a small tornado of emerald sand forming around his two fingers.

[Arrow of diseased sand]

The small whirling arrow of emerald sand shot froward, striking Winnie square in the chest, but not penetrating any further than enough to make a small flesh wound, but Winnie still roared out in pain all the same.

Winnie closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them for a second, the thing was gone.

No matter how much she looked, she could not find him, but a small crinkle of leaves behind her made her turn, swiping behind her violently, hitting nothing.

Winnie looked behind her in confusion, finding a small, out of place, shiny, little, metal disk.

A sharp pain in her back told her all she needed, spinning around, quickly, she swiped again, connecting with nothing.

Alex watched with bemusement as Winnie, swiped around in confusion.

"What do you think?" Alex whispered to the chameleon on his head, completely invisible to the world.

He wore a cloak and hood, steel armour heavy underneath.

Eggsy watched quietly, one eye darting throughout the forest, the other locked onto Winnie.

"Yeah, me too" Alex whispered.

With a quite patience, Alex crept towards the flailing bear, making sure to watch his footing as much as possible, trying not cause any noise.

When he was just outside of the range of Winnies claws, Alex raised his foot and made a soft rustle.

With a confident growl, Winnie wiped around away from Alex, swiping in the opposite direction to Alex, showing visible confusion when it hit nothing.

With deadly precision, Alex struck forward toward the bears neck, wiping out the concealed blade from beneath his wrist.

While he didn't strike deep, blood still trickled down Winnies neck, no vitals where pierced, but damage was done.

Alex backed off quickly, dodging a deadly paw swipe.

His feet flashed for a second, as his plain leather sandals was replaced by a menacing purple boots, and a deep purple power began leek from them.

[Venomous ripple]

A wave of toxic mana erupted from Alex the moment he touched the ground, washing over Winnie.

With that, time was now on Alex's side, and Winnie could tell.

With another wild swipe, Winnie through away all chances of a counter attack.

Alex flipped over the paw, directly towards Winnies shocked face, legs tucked in tight, the boots on his feet replaced by a pair of plain leather sandals.

As he flipped, a small twister of emerald sand forming around his legs.

[Diseased emerald driver]

Quick as lightning, Alex extended his legs, platting both of his feet and the emerald twister directly into Winnie's face.

His body flashed quickly as he switched to the void set, letting a deep purple mana cover his feet once more.

[Venomous dash]

With a burst of speed, Alex kneed Winnie in the face, striking the same spot as last time, the momentum carrying Alex over Winnie.

While over Winnie, Alex wiped out the void sniper from his inventory, not even bothering to aim properly, me was basically guaranteed to hit, and a killing blow wasn't his aim.

The arrow hummed with power as both a deep purple and light pink power.

[Venomous casing]

[Spatial ripper]

The arrow tore through the air with a deafening howl, striking the poor bears shoulder and tearing straight through it.

Winnie howled in pain, but with a grit of her teeth, she put all her remaining strength into one last paw swipe, swatting Alex out of the air, but just barely, only nicking his side.

"Catch" Alex yelled, throwing his crossbow to Nicholas, "I'm gonna need that back when it's reloaded"

He turned to see Winnie desperately running towards the rest of the bears.

She roared at them, rallying them to fight, but her sloth did not respond, they all looked around, confused on what to do.

It was her brother that acted first, still clutching the pointy stick that thing had used to hurt her, he plopped his rear end on the floor, folded his arms, and gave a growl of refusal.

Winnie was shocked, her own brother, her only surviving family, content to sit back and watch as she was maimed and beaten.

The only thing her brother offered was a plain look that simply said, 'this was your choice'.

In a rage, she lunged forward, blind with rage.

Only to find a strange, lanky, bony paw, meet her paw.

The creature had blocked her swipe, sacrificing his left arm in the process.

Winnie stopped for a minute conflicted, part of her was thankful, she had almost killed her brother, but the other part of her was yelling at her, she wouldn't get another chance like this.

Alex was not in the best shape, his left arm hung limply besides him as he ducked an weaved between claw swipes.

He didn't really have a good reason for taking that blow, but he took it all the same, no changing that now.

He kept backing away as quickly as possible, to where, he didn't know, but he just had to get away.

They had long since left the arena, but this mattered little, they still kept on battering each other.

Alex was now completely on the back foot, he could only dodge.

As they moved back through the woods, Alex noticed where they where, the gorge.

As Alex's mind whirred, an idea popped into his head, and he didn't like it, but he had to move quickly.

with a determined grimace, he switched his void armour to its counterpart, and let out a billowing cloud of toxic smoke, obscuring both of their visons.

With another change of armour, his form flickered and disappeared, turning invisible, only a faint sheen of light gave away his position.

With a quick swipe of his fingers, a light pink line of energy was drawn in the air.

After a short casting time, Alex threw a bolt of light pink energy at the cliff, striking the edge of the cliff, and immediately afterwards, a small orb of pulsing light pink energy slowly floating forwards, a small film of the same light pink energy as the orb circled around the orb in a ten foot radius.

Now that the set up was done, he just needed to get out of...

Suddenly, Winnie burst through the cloud of poison, roaring ferociously, its eyes bloodshot, blood running down her shoulder.

Alex looked at Winnie with a look of shock, but it was too late, Winnie broke the thin layer of shimmering, light pink energy that surrounded the small pulsing orb.

With small flicker, the orb distorted violently, shaking violently as if something inside of it was trying to escape.

Then, for a split second, there was nothing, the orb returned to its original shape, as if nothing had happened, and then it rapidly expanded.

The swirling orb of light pink energy engulfed both Alex and Winnie in its swirling mass of chaotic energy.

One moment, Alex was standing safely on solid ground, the next, he was plummeting through the, air, the bottom of the gorge quickly approaching.

Alex's mind was in shambles, he hadn't been expecting Winnie to find him so quick, and now they where both plummeting to their deaths.

As his mind raced, and landed quickly on any form of movement skills.

With a thought, a deep purple energy began to gather around his feet, and he readied himself to fly out of the gorge.

But a sharp impact to the back of his head halted all attempts at escape.

As he tumbled through the air, he managed to face upwards for a second, to find a random piece of the cliff, jutting out at an odd angle, not too far out, but enough.

Well shit, just his luck, where the last thoughts Alex could muster, before his consciousness to slip, as darkness began to cloud his vision, and he fell deeper into an uneasy sleep.

Then BAM, he slammed against the gorge wall, knocking him out of his senseless slumber.

The fall was not a kind one, a constant cycle of near unconsciousness as Alex tumbled, only for the cruel walls of the gorge to strike at him again, in a perpetual cycle of torment.

When he landed on the floor of the gorge, he was almost unrecognisable, his legs where completely shattered, sticking out at multiple odd angles, his left arm was not much better, having already taken a hit from Winnie, his right arm, by some miracle, was relatively unharmed.

He had landed face down, causing the front part to shatter, his exposed face now covered in shards of splintered bone.

He was pretty sure his lung had been punctured, again.

With a herculean effort, Alex used his one working arm to roll himself onto his back, groaning in pain as he did.

As he lay there, pain coursing through his body, wondering why he went so far for a game, a shadow moved over him, blotting out what little sunlight reached down that low.

"A little to the left" he muttered softly through pained groans, before he looked up to see the origin of the shadow, causing him to let out a quiet, "Fuck"

Winnie stood over him, murder in her eyes.