Chapter 20: First Boss...

There, the monster in front of him that dwarfed him like an insect roared, heavily breathing with its red eyes looking at the cave it once called home and at the nervously smiling man underneath it.

Although she was comparably smaller, Alucard had faced the mother bear with little to no difficulty. Despite his current lack of levels, skills, and spells, he was confident of winning. He knew all of its ticks and weak points, and could easily take advantage of its rage and frenzy brought upon by him taking refuge in its own home.

He had to use what he had in his small arsenal to win… And with a piercing glint in his bloody eyes, he stared down the bear in front of him, taking up a stance with no side moving an inch, as Alucard prepared himself to do the only viable move he could…

Run.

Like the wind, Alucard immediately bolted from his place, even further fueling the bear's outrage as he roared once more, closely following him from behind.

"MYYyYyyyY LoRD! What are you doing! What's the plan!? Are we giving up!?" Luck, who was struggling to follow behind him screamed in a jittery voice, clear fear on his face as he looked back at the bear that was gaining ground.

"Well, I can't just cut it down and burn it to bits like the mother… But, from what I learned fighting it, I have a plan…"

"O-oh! P-please tell me! I'll follow your lead!"

*RAOOOOR*

With glowing red eyes and seemingly no care in the world, the bear behind them was ravaging through the entire forest. It was not even bothering to evade the trees as he tore them down like simple sticks in his path; yet they did still admittedly slow him down considerably, enough for Alucard to somewhat manage to keep ahead.

The few animals that were in the forest instantly shrieked and quivered in fear, fleeing as far away as possible when they got even remotely close to them. Just from that, he was able to determine that this bear was in all likely hood the apex predator in this forest and far stronger than even he had first imagined...

"So, you got that? Luck?"

"Are you sure it's gonna work!?"

"Yeah! I'm certain! Trust me! I've done this thousands of times in the past!" Alucard smiled, finding it hard to breathe.

And, after a few minutes of more running than he had ever done in his entire life, he found exactly what he was looking for, a place that Luck had seen while he was exploring the forest.

There, directly in front of him was a hill that had a steep, rocky cliff, and in that cliff was a small cave only fit for the size of a human or a relatively small animal.

As he approached the final stretch towards the tiny cave, the creature's grunting, roaring and ground-shaking footsteps got ever so closer behind him to the point that he could feel its heavy breath on his back. And, seemingly at the last second, Alucard jumped and rolled into the cave, diving into it as the bear nearly bit off his head.

*CRASH*

The entire side of the hill shook like an earthquake, rocks and dust falling from right above him to the point that he was afraid that the cave was going to collapse on his head.

The bear had lost itself in its blinding frenzy and crashed directly into the side of the cliff at top speed as it was unable to fit into the tiny hole where Alucard laid.

*GGGARRRRRAARR*

It let out an earsplitting cry of agony that shook his eardrums. That cry was then followed up by another small tremor in the hill that led to the sound of rolling and collapsing, a multitude of crashing sounds coming from the outside, along with another cry of pain.

*GAAAWWWWWWWKKKKKRRRRKRKRK*

It was more like a barrage of clashes, like something outside was raining rocks tumbling from the sky, which when he looked out at the exit of the cave, seemed to be exactly the case. It caught Alucard completely by surprise as he did not have such a thing planned. Yet, he was not complaining.

When he looked back, he noticed that the cave was not deep at all, if anything, it was more like a hole in a wall than an actual cave. Once that bare shook the hill slightly more, the entire roof of his hiding spot was going to tumble and come crashing down on his head. However, luckily for him, hiding in the cave until the bear left was not part of his plan...

The bears cry still in his ears, as quiet and as brisk as he could muster, Alucard darted out of the cave, noticing the bears painfilled, bloody, agonizing figure as it held its paws over its face— it was clearly in no position to retaliate against him and a perfect opportunity for him to flee. However, this time, he was not going to be running away… No, this time, he was fighting back...

Slowly but surely, with his fairly low stats, he was making his way up towards the side of the hill using every ounce of energy in his body; he had to make it up before the bear regained its senses.

And, there, once he made it on top of the tall hill, he looked down with an unstable, wide-open gaze over the edge of the cliff's dizzying heights, the bear's still agonizing figure down below…

His plan sounded sane in theory. He had seen this sight so many times in Rebirth, yet this one felt far different… This was all real, and the possibility of death was looming over his head like a guillotine... He tightly gripped the handle of the bloody soldier's blade on his waist, still shaking as he looked down at the massive drop below that felt akin to jumping from a three-story building...

*GRROAAAOOORRR*

The bear roared once more, removing its hands from its eyes and bleeding head. However, as soon as it removed its paws, it was met by the flying figure of a certain glowing fairy…

[ Blinding Flair! ]

*RRROOOOAAARR*

The bear roared once more, the flash of blistering light was mere centimetres away from its sights, and it was more than enough to once again put it in a daze with its hands firmly planted on its eyes.

"My lord! It's time! Finish him off!"

The plan was going smoothly so far; Luck had done his part and it was now all up to him.

His palms that bore non-existent sweat tightly grasped the hilt of his sword even tighter, and with a rather disturbingly wide smile and a nervous chuckle, he took the plunge... Moving his previously unmoving, reluctant legs, he jumped down the cliff, unsheathing his sword in mid-air and aimed it down at a very specific spot on the frantically moving beast below…

And, in that moment, the reality of the situation once again settled in... Unlike every other time, this was all real... If he missed, it was all over…

As his body was suspended in mid-air, the familiar, warm feeling of the ground nowhere to be found other than 10 meters below him, he felt the guillotine of death slowly approaching his head. That was when his smile grew even larger as he felt something overcome his entire body like autopilot, a feeling so familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time… It was almost like forgetting and suddenly remembering how to brush his teeth...

With a shaky gaze and a smile on his face, Adrenaline completely overtook his body as he was completely unbound from the shackles of both his fears and the ground. It was unlike anything he had felt in his entire life as he began hurling towards the earth like a comet, the wind hitting him on every inch of his exposed skin, his sword pointed down in front of his body.

"DIEEE!"

*RAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAOOAOAAAAAAAARRR*

Before he even knew it, that sword pointing down was plunged meters deep into the beast's weak spot, exactly where it had rammed its head into that cliff. He was unsure how he succeeded and managed to get this far and he had no time to think about it as he was focused on nothing but killing the beast and his own survival.

Blood began gushing out of the bear's head like a fountain, Alucard opened his mouth to savour some of the tastes as the bear continued flailing its head around, trying to get off whatever was twisting and digging that stabbing pain deeper into its head.

'FUCK! Why is it not dying or giving up!? There is a sword in its brain! WHAT IS THIS THING!?' Alucard inwardly cursed as he struggled to keep a hold of his sword and not get immediately flung against the side of the cliff.

The bear seemed to be giving its final, last-ditch effort before its death— it's blinding rage and frenzy extended to such lengths…

"My Lord! You can do it! I believe in you!"

He heard a pain-filled yet determined voice echo from behind, charging him with even more vigour.

Like a wild beast looking for nothing other than its survival, his eyes grew wide, with visible redness expelling out from the edges, he clenched his fists hard and gritted his teeth to the point of hearing cracks from his mouth. Using every single ounce of his being, blood popping out of his bulging veins, he grabbed on the hilt of his sword with only one hand, digging it as far as he could while he freed the other one, lifting it high up in the air, a red glint emerging from his palms in fingertips, the glow slowly growing bigger and bigger.

With the bear's increasingly wilder shaking, keeping a grasp on the metal hilt was growing to be impossible. Yet, he pushed himself beyond the impossible, withstanding all the pain… His hands grew numb, as he could no longer feel his broken body... It was to the point that his grip had gotten so bad that all the skin on his hands was all gone, now nothing but rotten flesh and blood…

But, enduring all that grief was for this one moment, as he released all the anger and pain that he had kept bottled up until now, thrusting his glowing hand forward at the creature's head with everything his breaking body could muster.

"FIRRREEEEBAAAALLLLL!"

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I'm so sorry for such a late chapter... I hope you guys enjoyed it... I rewrote it at least five times now, each with different scenarios until I came to this one which I was happy with. Writing while fasting has been really hard for me but that is no excuse for this. I'll try my best to post extra today and in the coming days to make up for this. I beg for your forgiveness.