The Bone-Spur Bear didn't roar. It made a sound like wet leather ripping apart.
It came at Revvyn with a heavy, uneven walk, its paws hitting the wet ground hard enough to shake the ferns.
Revvyn's legs felt weak, like they might snap, but the three points he'd put into Agility burned in his calves. When the bear lunged close, he threw himself sideways.
The wind from its swing was cold. One of the bone spurs on its shoulder caught his upper arm and sliced right through Lily's blue shirt. Blood came out fast, hot and sticky on his skin.
"Syll! Now!"
The slime shot forward. It was a wild jump that smacked into the bear's side with a hiss of acid.
But the bear was D-Rank. Its skin was covered in scars and hard bone, thick like tough leather. It didn't even twitch. It just twisted its big body mid-step and swung a paw.
The hit caught Syll square in the middle.
Revvyn watched in horror as the slime got ripped into three wobbly pieces. They slapped into the mud, the blue light inside them flickering weak and unsteady.
"No!" Revvyn's voice broke.
He scrambled back, boots slipping in the mud.
The bear turned. Its pale white eyes locked on him. It snorted, spraying blood and spit into the air.
The smell was bad, like something dead left out in the heat too long.
The three pieces of Syll didn't die. They shook. Moved.
Thin, watery strings stretched out from the mud, pulling the chunks back together into one smaller, trembling blob.
Syll was still alive, but it looked dim. Scared. Revvyn could feel it through their bond, a weak wave of fear and tiredness.
The bear dropped its head, ready to finish him.
Revvyn reached out with his mind, searching for that connection. He tried to force the boar shape, to make Syll big enough to fight back. "Change! Syll, get big! Do it!"
He pushed his mana through the bond. It felt like trying to force a whole river through a tiny hole. His head pounded. His sight started to blur at the edges. The bear was ten feet away. Then five.
Nothing happened. Syll just sat there, too weak to move, too afraid to try.
This is it, Revvyn thought. This is how I die. Again.
The bear charged.
And Revvyn stopped thinking.
He didn't give an order. He didn't make a plan. He just threw every bit of himself into the bond. It wasn't mana or a skill. It was just a pure, desperate want. A need for help. A plea.
Something in Syll answered.
A question pushed into his head like a quiet voice.
Let me in.
Revvyn didn't have time to wonder what it meant. The bear's jaws were wide open, teeth inches from his face.
Get the fuck in— he screamed.
Everything turned blue.
Syll didn't change into a beast. It rushed straight at Revvyn and hit him in the chest.
It felt like dumping a bucket of ice water over his head, then a burning heat inside. The slime slid under his clothes, into his skin, wrapping around his muscles like a second, liquid layer.
Revvyn gasped. He could feel Syll everywhere, his arms, legs, chest. They were one thing now. He didn't know if this was normal. He didn't know if it would last. He just knew the bear was still coming.
The bear's claws hit.
Revvyn braced for it to end, but nothing tore into him. The big claws smacked his chest and slid right off. The blue coating made it like hitting slick ice—the force glanced away. It still hurt, like a hard punch, but the claws didn't cut. They didn't sink in.
Revvyn sucked in another breath. The air felt thick, like breathing through water. He looked at his hands. They were covered in a shiny, see-through purple layer. He could feel Syll not like a pet anymore, but like part of his own nerves. Every move felt doubled. Every thought bounced back.
This is nuts, he thought. This shouldn't be possible. This isn't—
The bear roared and charged again.
No time to think. No time to doubt. Just move.
He looked at his cutlass, half-buried in the mud. He didn't grab it with his fingers. He willed the blue layer to move. A thick slime tendril shot out from his wrist, wrapped the handle, and pulled the blade into his hand. The grip felt weird through the slime, but it worked.
The bear came straight at him. Revvyn didn't dodge like normal. He flowed. The 13 Agility mixed perfectly with Syll's liquid body. They slid around the bear's slow, heavy swings, moving through the mud smooth and fast. Every claw missed by inches. Every step felt light.
The eyes, Syll, Revvyn thought. The order echoed in their shared space. I'll blind it. You finish.
A small chirp-like feeling answered in his head. Agreement. Got it.
The bear reared up, its shadow covering him. Revvyn didn't back up. He triggered [Tough Hide], feeling the blue skin turn hard like cold metal. It wasn't just a surface anymore but was him.
"Now!"
He dumped every last drop of mana into keeping them joined. His mana bar dropped fast. 15... 10... 5. His vision started going dark around the edges.
The bear's claws slammed down. The hit threw Revvyn backward, boots digging long tracks in the dirt, but he stayed on his feet. His ribs burned. Something cracked. But he didn't fall.
As the bear leaned in to bite, mouth open wide enough to swallow his head, Syll shot out from Revvyn's arm like a whip made of purple glass.
The blade— half steel, half slime— went straight into the bear's left eye.
Black, stinking blood sprayed out. The bear screamed, a horrible sound that rang in Revvyn's ears and made his head spin. It started clawing at its own face, stumbling back, tearing at the thing stuck in its skull.
The fusion broke.
The cold feeling left Revvyn so fast he dropped to his knees, gagging. His stomach lurched. Nothing came up but sour spit. Syll fell off him, landing in the mud as a dull, slow-moving pile. The slime looked pale, almost gray, its blue light barely there.
But Syll wasn't finished. With whatever strength it had left, it stretched out and wrapped around the bear's throat like a burning ring. Acid hissed against fur. Smoke curled up. The bear choked, gasped, scratched at its own neck.
The sound of acid eating flesh was loud in the quiet.
Halfway through, the blue light in Syll's core blinked out. The slime went limp and fell away, drained. The bear was left wheezing, throat half-melted, black blood pouring from its empty eye socket.
Revvyn pushed himself up. His ribs felt like they were barely holding together. Every breath hurt like fire. He walked over to the monster. It was blind, wrecked, and dying, but still breathing. Its one good eye rolled around, seeing nothing.
He lifted the cutlass one last time. No skill. No mana left. Just the weight of the steel and his own need. He drove the point through the bear's ear into it's brain, with both hands.
The beast shook once and went still.
Revvyn stood there a second, breathing rough, hands shaking on the handle. Then he yanked the blade free and let himself drop.
[Lethal Threat Neutralized]
Elite Victory: Bone-Spur Bear (D-Rank)
Level UP: 2 → 5
Attributes Increased:
Strength: 9 → 12
Agility: 13 → 16
Constitution: 9 → 11
Intelligence: 5 → 8
Mana Pool: 15 → 50
Revvyn didn't feel like he'd won. He felt like he'd been hit by a cart, then run over again. He dropped down next to Syll. The slime was pale, almost gray, and it didn't even chirp when he touched it. It was alive but he could feel that through the bond that it was empty. Like a dead battery.
He didn't understand what had just happened. The fusion, Syll going inside him, the way they moved together, none of it made sense. Was that supposed to be possible? Did he mess up? Did he do something right? No idea.
He reached over and cut the main claw from the bear's paw. It took five tries because his hands wouldn't stop shaking. He also peeled off a strip of the rough, spur-covered skin. Proof of the kill. Maybe it was worth money. Maybe not.
"You're hungry, aren't you?" he whispered.
Syll gave a tiny, weak pulse against his hand. Just enough to know it was still there. It felt hollow.
The slime had used everything to keep him alive. Now it was starving. Revvyn could feel the emptiness like it was his own.
He looked around at the trees. The light was almost gone. Shadows stretched long between the trunks.
He had bread in his pack, but he knew Syll couldn't eat bread or water. It needed mana. It needed life. It needed something real, something with energy to take in.
Revvyn looked at the bear's body. Still warm. Still full of everything Syll needed.
"What do slimes even eat?" he asked the empty forest.