VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 40: Fighting with bear fists

With just a few steps, Belladonna appeared in front of the roaring bear in the blink of an eye. The ground churned up beneath her feet as she screeched to a halt, her fists already flying as lightning sparked around them.

Small cracks of thunder echoed out with every punch as her fists blurred. If any players were to hear it then they would have thought someone had managed to unlock some kind of machine gun and were gleefully unloading it into some poor creature.

But even if her fists were flying with overflowing fury, that didn’t mean that they packed enough of a punch, so to speak. Blow after blow landed on the bear, barely doing enough to get through its fat never mind stagger or damage it.

Only the uppercut to its chin that stopped its roaring was even the slightest bit successful.

Even worse, after the flurry of blows the knuckles of her gauntlets had caught on fire. The stone had begun to melt, losing its rigidity and making the gauntlets she had spent so much on utterly worthless.

The only thing that was holding up was the chain, yet even that was growing hot against her hand whenever she kept it near.

Ducking and weaving, Belladonna barely contorted her body out of the way of those devastating claws. Each swipe whistling through the air before crashing against the ground with enough force to crack the stone beneath them.

Her heart thundered in her chest, the icy hand of death squeezing it so tight that she felt like he was ready to burst it at any moment. Yet even still, she kept facing this bear with everything she had.

The next swipe came for her legs, forcing Belladonna to leap up and flip backwards. Her feet planted against the cave wall, using a small focus of mana to allow her to grip to the surface for a few moments longer, before she sprung off the wall and flipped over the bear.

Twisting her body in the air, her heel lashed out for the perfect strike straight towards the dagger still lodged in its eye. It had been defensive of it before, but it had to lower its guard to strike.

One good kick was all it would take, and she finally had it exactly where she wanted it. Yet... Why did she get the feeling it was smirking at her?

Belladonna gasped in horror and immediately melted into her own shadow and appeared in the shade of the treeline a second later. She heaved from the sudden wave of exhaustion as a pale white light bathed her from the front.

Seeing its target appear somewhere else, the bear cut off the plume of fire it had been spewing from its mouth and let out an irate snort.

’So it can breathe fire... That’s one to note. Offensive and Defensive flames. This is going to be difficult. Especially since my attacks aren’t doing anything to it. I need more power...’

Slowly wrapping the chain tighter around her fist, Belladonna glared at the bear as the two circled each other. Staring each other down and waiting for the next move or sign of weakness.

Speed wasn’t enough, she needed something more. Earth infusion would give her more strength, but it would leave her more open to those attacks. Half the reason she was able to dodge them so well was the speed boost Lightning gave her.

’I’m the Immortal Glass Cannon... What do I care about a few injuries? Now...I’ve only got one teleport left in me, so I’ve got to make it count.’

Steeling herself, Belladonna switched her infusion, the speed leaving her as dirt encrusted her skin and infused her with titanic strength and the indomitable nature of a mountain. All except the small crackle of light in her eyes, which were narrowed and strained from the extra concentration.

During her switching training, she had experimented with keeping two infusions active at once. This was the most she could do, but it was all she needed.

One step was all it took to reach the bear this time, her body rocketing forwards as the earth exploded where her foot used to be. Her punches lost their blurring, blinding speed but instead each laborious blow let out a boom as it staggered the bear back a few steps.

A punch to the kidneys, a blow to the temple, a flipping upwards kick to the chin. It was bear fists against bear claws, yet even with the extra strength in her hands, it was nothing compared to the bears.

Each of its swings was life threatening, each swipe of its claws could end her miserable life and send her all the way back to respawn where she would be weaker and still without a class.

But her eyes, infused with the last dregs of lightning, could track every swing. She was watching them, calculating which she could take and which she had to dodge. Her mind ran a thousand miles a minute as she entered a complete flow.

She didn’t concentrate on her mana, she didn’t find herself focusing on the feeling. She just did. It was the moment where all the training finally clicked into place and those three days of being beaten black and blue were finally ingraining everything into muscle memory.

A cut to the arm, a gash on the chest, a slight blast of fire on the leg. These were the blows she decided she could take, as it cleaved through her armour and earth infusion like they were paper. None of them were debilitating, but they were still building up. Bit by bit like a death by a thousand cuts. Although it was unlikely she would make it to a thousand.

Any blow she knew she couldn’t take forced her to rapidly switch her infusion, dropping her offence and converting it back into speed for a brief moment, before reverting back to earth. It was effective, and if her teacher could see her now then maybe he would be proud.