Chapter 206: Owl Bear

Owl Bear,

A dangerous monster widely distributed across forests, mountains, and plains.

As the name suggests, its most striking feature is its strange appearance, a combination of "Owl" and "Bear."

A sturdy, burly bear-like body nearly three meters tall, like a mountain of flesh, yet topped with the head of an owl.

Even the roar it emits is a relatively low-pitched bird cry.

The origin of this creature has been debated in academia for many years.

Some scholars believe it is the accidental creation of some mad and bold mage after an experiment.

After all, whether from a physiological structure or reproductive evolution perspective, it does not look like a creature that could have naturally evolved and gestated.

As for this view, the evidence for the rebuttal comes from elven records from thousands of years ago, which already contained records similar to the Owl Bear.

On the Aifala Continent, it is indeed a very normal thing for monsters to look strange.

There are many different opinions about the origin of the Owl Bear, and there is no definitive conclusion to this day.

But it is undeniable that this dangerous creature has become a part of the natural world, becoming one of the monsters that adventurers must pray to the gods not to encounter before going out on a mission.

The Owl Bear is a creature with a violent and ferocious temperament; its significantly higher intelligence compared to ordinary beasts is not enough to make it understand so-called politeness and restraint, only helping it tear prey apart one after another, paving the entire cave with rotting flesh and bones.

In the vast majority of cases, it is keen on using its sturdy, solid body to wrestle with other monsters in the forest, and its overly crude fighting style, which does not fear damage, makes even those monsters with stronger bodies and higher strength sometimes take the initiative to avoid it.

Its extremely high aggressiveness and bad temper cause a large number of unlucky adventurers to die under its bird beak every year.

If you encounter this creature head-on in the forest, all you can do... is pray that it has already filled its stomach.

Blindly attacking or running away will only incite its ferocity.

It is worth mentioning that the Owl Bear's challenge rating is "3."

This means that a healthy adult Owl Bear individual requires a reasonably constructed team of four "3rd-level" professionals, with sufficient preparation, to be able to take it down without casualties.

The challenge rating may not fully and clearly reflect the specific strength of a monster, but it is enough to indicate its level of danger.

For reference, it was encountered during the second mission Xia Nan undertook when he first traveled to this world.

Before even seeing what it looked like, the entire squad's numbers were halved.

And later, it made the Shihua Xiyi "Basilisk," including the guard Wood and the half-elf Haian, have no ability to resist at all, and they could only flee in a sorry state, with the team nearly wiped out.

Its challenge rating was only "3."

And it must be pointed out that at least half of the Shihua Xiyi's three-level challenge rating is probably because of its "Petrifying Gaze."

But the Owl Bear does not possess any special abilities.

Relying solely on pure physical strength and a bad temper that ranks among the top monsters, it has forcibly raised its challenge rating, becoming a nightmare for countless adventurers.

Xia Nan does not know why this ferocious and cruel beast chose him as its first target.

Perhaps it was his relatively rear position, or the fragments of flesh and fresh blood from other beasts on his body, or perhaps it was just a pure coincidence.

But regardless.

At this moment, having been knocked flying, he once again experienced the massive power of that huge truck with its blaring horn from the moment before he traveled through time.

After becoming a professional, the intense pain he hadn't felt for a long time erupted and spread from his forearm, chest, and abdomen.

Even though he reacted in time and used his arm shield to block the opponent's direct attack, the powerful force that would have crushed an ordinary person into a puddle of flesh was weakened by the multiple layers of the Snake Scale Arm Shield, the plate-chain composite armor, and 【Copper Tendons and Iron Bones】.

Xia Nan, who was sent flying backward, still couldn't help but be dazed for a moment, his eyes losing focus.

If his will hadn't been firm enough, he might have passed out on the spot.

【Tidal Shaping】 took effect silently:

——Fall damage is halved, and any push/pull effect launched against you is enhanced or weakened depending on the situation.

This caused Xia Nan, who should have been knocked flying deep into the forest under the Owl Bear's impact, to suddenly feel light as his body tilted slightly in the air.

It was like a falling leaf about to drift, and his previously out-of-control center of gravity was instantly regained.

From the outside, the air around him seemed to turn into a layer of viscous water, allowing him to land lightly in a strange arc.

Patter—

His blood-stained leather boots pressed into the rotting leaves, sinking deep into the soil.

Xia Nan retreated under the residual force until his back hit the trunk of a thick oak tree, the metal armor colliding with it to make a muffled sound, and his whole body finally stopped.

He quickly checked his body for injuries.

The pain in his chest, abdomen, and arms was still intense, but fortunately, he reacted quickly, made a defensive move in his haste, and his own physical defense capability was decent, so he didn't suffer any serious injuries.

His elbow joints moved freely, and the only thing remaining on his body was the pain.

He looked toward the front.

The Owl Bear, which had been attracted by the thick scent of blood and the aura of slaughter on the field, did not choose to pursue after knocking him flying.

Instead, it remained in place, launching a fierce attack on the remaining three members of the Sea Thorn Squad.

Coo-hum—

The low-pitched bird cry echoed and reverberated among the branches and bushes.

The huge, curved, sharp bird beak opened wantonly, revealing its razor-sharp edges and the small, saw-toothed bone protrusions at the opening.

Protruding from between the thick, heavy bear paws were hard, hooked claws that resembled bird claws and were curved like daggers.

They didn't need to be very sharp; even if they were dull, driven by the thick arms that were as thick as tree trunks, they were enough to split any flesh and blood body that dared to stand in front of them into two.

"Bang!"

Dust splashed, and fallen leaves flew.

A deep claw mark was left on the ground, and Kashi, who had originally been standing in front of the Owl Bear, also moved away in the crisis, along with the stone spear in his hand, dodging this blow that would have killed him on the spot.

This middle-aged man, wearing scale armor and having rich adventurer experience, had a tense face, as if he were focused on the battle at hand, and no obvious emotional changes could be seen.

But if one observed carefully, one could detect his slightly trembling calves, his palms that were too white from gripping the stone spear too hard, and the trace of flickering anxiety and panic deep in his eyes.

Clearly, he was far from as calm as he appeared.

The appearance of an Owl Bear is almost a disaster for any low-level adventurer.

The Sea Thorn Squad might be a professional squad that many bottom-level adventurers in River Valley Town "cannot climb high enough to reach."

But in front of a monster of the Owl Bear's level, it was no different from the decapitated black panther or a leaf crushed in the battle.

Shadows flickered.

The Rogue's instinct allowed Weiruisi to capture the extremely short moment of stiffness after the Owl Bear's attack.

Exerting sudden force!

The dagger, which radiated a dangerous aura and was coated with poison, suddenly stabbed toward the Owl Bear's vital point on the back of its neck. The massive body gave this beast terrifying power and explosive force, but relatively speaking, its flexibility was significantly inferior.

Therefore, for this rather tricky strike from the Drow Half-Elf, the Owl Bear did not make a dodging move in time.

It let the dagger land on its body.

And then—

"Squelch."

Weiruisi only felt an indescribable resistance from her hand, completely lacking the feeling of the blade piercing into flesh that she had felt countless times before.

The dense, thick brown mane gradually transitioned into hard, fluffy feathers at the shoulder and neck, covering skin that was thicker and tougher than tree bark.

Hair, skin layer, fat, and muscle together constituted the Owl Bear's natural defense.

It might not have been able to make any defensive moves against the Rogue's attack in the haste after exerting force, but the beast's instinct for slaughter also allowed it to tighten its muscles and press its downy feathers in less than a second.

Causing the short dagger to only barely pierce the feathers before being blocked by the thick skin pushed up by the bulging muscles.

Not even a drop of blood was seen.

Boom—

A sound that made the eardrums tremble suddenly erupted!

The arm, thicker than an adult's waist, swung its sharp claws, tearing through the air and swatting at Weiruisi beside it like a fly.

Scarlet flashed, and Xia Nan only heard a miserable cry of pain from his ear.

The next second, Weiruisi transformed into a shadow and returned to Kashi's side.

A large piece of flesh was missing from her left shoulder, blood sprayed, and a touch of bone-white could be faintly seen beneath it.

It wasn't a direct hit.

Weiruisi's movements were already swift enough; the moment she realized she hadn't broken through the defense, her feet had already exerted force to prepare to move away.

But even so, she was still grazed by the swinging sharp claws.

It was foreseeable that if her movements had been slightly slower, what would have been shaved off wouldn't have been just that piece of flesh, but half an arm, or simply her entire life.

Taking half a bottle of healing potion from her waist pouch and pouring it all into her mouth, Weiruisi's wound stopped bleeding quickly and began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Damn it!" she cursed, the accent of the Underdark language she usually never revealed having no need to be hidden at this moment, "Where did this Owl Bear come from? Isn't this still the outer edge of the forest?"

Kashi didn't reply, or rather, there was no time to reply.

The Owl Bear, keenly noticing that the prey's wound was recovering, how could it give them a chance to catch their breath?

A pair of huge, disc-shaped bird eyes, characteristic of an owl, flashed with cold and bloodthirsty light.

As its sturdy limbs moved, it rushed straight toward the two like a train.

And responding to it was a high-pitched wolf howl that rang out from the side.

The illusory wolf head, condensed from branches, blood, and mist, roared as it approached!

Knowing the strength of the opponent, Xia Nan was never the type to retreat in the face of battle.

Under the current situation, he naturally needed to fulfill his duty and buy time for his teammates to recover.

And at the same time, many thorny vines suddenly emerged from the soil beneath the Owl Bear.

——At the back of the field, Bo He gripped her purple sandalwood staff tightly, her lips moving as she chanted a spell.

Even though the thorns were torn apart like weeds the second they coiled around its limbs,

the Owl Bear's movement speed still slowed for a split second.

This allowed Xia Nan to close in and, utilizing the body momentum from 【Tooth Hunt】, unleash his 【Spinning Slash】, which he had already mastered to the max level of lv5.

"Sshhh-la!"

An iron-grey arc of light flashed and vanished in the forest.

Downy feathers drifted and splattered, and fresh blood remained on the surface of the blade.

Compared to its excellent durability, the decapitation longsword's sharpness was only slightly higher than an ordinary weapon, and Xia Nan's strength attribute was only two points higher than an average person's.

For ordinary magic beasts, this was already completely sufficient; what was truly needed for a one-strike decapitation was precision and the grasp of timing.

But against an Owl Bear with exaggerated physical strength, it only left a fairly significant wound on its side thigh.

It was not fatal, and it didn't even affect the creature's mobility.

It could only be counted as a minor injury.

In fact, the pain from the wound only made the violent beastliness in its bird-like eyes even more restless.

With a light swing of its right arm that tore through the air—a pitch-black hooked claw that would shatter armor upon the slightest contact—Xia Nan was forced to use 【Tooth Hunt】 again to retreat rapidly.

At the same time, it slammed its left claw down fiercely, sending a gust of wind surging and kicking up countless fallen leaves and broken branches, forcing Kashi, who had seized the opportunity to approach, to retreat.

Ignoring the stabbing attack from Weiruisi on the side once more,

the Owl Bear shrieked and charged straight toward Bo He, who was behind it.

Nearly three meters long, with hard muscles clinging to a thick skeleton and wrapped in dense fat and downy feathers, it was like a moving mountain of flesh.

Bracing against the attacks from both sides, it used its astonishing explosive power and exaggerated short-distance speed to close the distance with Bo He.

Xia Nan, having been forced back again, was the furthest away, and 【Tooth Hunt】 was not a teleportation ability capable of spatial travel; he couldn't get close in time at all.

As for Kashi and Weiruisi, they could only stand where they were, watching helplessly as the Owl Bear rapidly approached Bo He.

Those barbed thorns were no different from the surrounding branches and shrubs under such force; they were crushed and pulverized the moment they sprouted.

Realizing that their spells could not stop the enemy and that teammates could not provide support in time,

Bo He retreated, wanting to put as much distance as possible between them.

But after taking only a few steps back, before she could even turn her body around,

the unsettling, hulking shadow engulfed her body amidst a terrifying owl screech.

Xia Nan was far away, and his vision was restricted by the Owl Bear's massive frame.

All he could see was the Owl Bear's charging back, the arm swinging from bottom to top, and the girl's body being sent flying like a broken ragdoll.

The crisp sound of breaking bones was blurred amidst the whistling wind; her chest was unnaturally sunken, and the blood spewing from her mouth was particularly striking against her pale cheeks.

Her plain-colored robe, stained blood-red, fluttered in the air as her frail, petite figure vanished into the dense forest.

"Fuck!"

(End of Chapter)