Roar! Damn humans! I’ll make you pay! The Bear King turned human again, sat on another giant bear, and it charged like a thunder drum, twice as fast, straight at Eli.

“Holy— this guy— no, this bear, what’s his deal?!” The man backpedaled to Eli’s side, curiosity sparking like flint.

Eli rolled his eyes, his tone dry as winter wind. “How would I know?” He glanced back, thought a beat, then spoke like tossing a pebble. “Could be a tribal boon.”

“Huh?” His question skipped like a stone over water.

“Say he’s a Bear King, a chieftain. A tribal boon means his people willingly lend him part of their strength.” His voice was steady as a drum.

“Oh… sounds pretty strong.” He nodded with the solemn weight of a temple bell.

Eli eyed the onrushing ursine mountain, his face darkening like a stormfront. He turned to the man, words sharp as sleet. “I’m the one who pissed them off and ran. Why are you running with me?”

The man scratched his head, awkward as a cat in rain. “Well, my technique’s special. I… took their stored honey.”

Eli’s look turned cold, a blade in snow. “That all?”

“Uh… it’s… that once-in-a-millennium royal jelly.” He scratched and stammered like a rusted hinge.

Eli nodded in silence, a stone in a stream. Then he bolted the opposite way from the man, quick as a startled deer.

The man grabbed him, a hook snagging cloth. “Whoa, bro, don’t do me like that. We’re in this together now, right? Also, you yelled at their mountain gate so loud, you drew their eyes. I slipped in and stole it. You gotta carry half the blame.”

“By that logic, they never noticed you, right?” Eli frowned, stepping away like a wary wolf.

“Heh-heh. I went to save you, remember? Then they smelled the royal jelly and, yeah, they chased.” He tugged off his hat like a leaf torn free.

Eli stared at the blue-haired man, unsettled as a tilted compass. “You gotta be kidding me. I trap them, take back my own ring, and they shouldn’t chase this long. Turns out it’s you, you little punk!”

He grinned, guilty as a fox with feathers in its teeth. “Ha-ha. Either way, we’re accomplices now, yeah?”

“Accomplices, my ass. I don’t even know your name!” Eli’s teeth ground like ice.

“Easy. Hi, I’m Liqianyu. From today on, we’re bros.” He offered a hand like a bridge.

“Scram. Who’s your bro?” Eli stopped short, flicked off Liqianyu’s hand, and stared at the cliff ahead, sharp as a cut edge.

Right now, the Windriding Spell was on cooldown like a spent gust. Drawing another was too late, and a dead weight hung beside him like a millstone.

“Why’d you stop running?” The man huffed at Eli’s side, breath steaming like a kettle.

Eli jerked his chin, flat as slate. “See for yourself.”

“Whoa, a cliff.” His eyes widened like twin moons.

“Whoa, my ass.” Eli snapped like a breaking twig.

“Man, why so foul-mouthed?” He wilted like a rained-on pup.

“Can you look at the situation?” Eli’s look was thorny, all barbs and question marks.

“Human, you don’t know this terrain like I do. You’re green.” The bearman perched atop the giant bear like a black banner, voice dripping mockery.

“Heh. You, a single bear, dare strut?” The man stepped before Eli like a wall. “If not for your many cubs, I’d have killed you already. Step aside, classmate. I’ll teach him.”

Eli facepalmed, weary as dusk; this guy heard nothing but his own thunder.

The man stomped hard, dust leaping like startled fish. A red, translucent dragon burst from underfoot and shoved him skyward like a geyser.

He clasped his hands and spun three times in the sky like a windmill, then dove to kick at the Bear King like a falling star.

“Crimson Ascending Dragon!” Red Battle Aura wrapped him like living fire, turning him into a divine dragon lunging straight on.

The Bear King’s pupils pinpricked like ice. White Battle Aura flared off him like hoarfrost, meeting the dragon head-on.

Boom!

The dragon ripped through his defense like an axe through rotten wood. A boot of Far East make hammered his face like a meteor.

He twisted, but the kick slammed his shoulder instead, brutal as a piledriver.

The ground caved around him like a broken bowl, a crater blooming with him at its heart.

The cliff sheared like cracked bone. The giant bear and its rider were driven into the earth like nails.

An avalanche broke loose like a white tide and buried Eli; the splitting cliff rolled toward the Abyss like a sliding blade.

He clawed free like a mole and sprinted for safe ground as if chased by fire.

“Damn, what kind of monster is he? Why’s he still running with me?” Eli gasped at a new cliff edge, fish-out-of-water desperate.

From the crater’s center, the giant bear lurched up like a battered ship. The Bear King stood on its head, blood-soaked like a torn banner.

His left arm, shoulder and all, was gone, kicked clean off like chopped wood. Blood poured like rain, a pitiful sight.

But the arm sprouted back slowly like budding bamboo. He paced to the bear’s other side, shadow-cold and steady.

He lifted Liqianyu by the throat with one hand like a hawk clutching a chick. “That one kick forced three of my clan’s powerhouses to save me. Impressive. Just killing you feels cheap.”

Liqianyu’s face was chalk-white like winter ash, spent to the dregs. He didn’t even struggle, just glanced at Eli and laughed.

“Ha-ha. Come on, eunuch-bear, choke me.” His words glittered like salt on a wound.

Eli’s temple throbbed like a drum. That smug, begging-for-a-beating face poured oil on the Bear King’s blaze.

“In the end, it’s still on me.” Eli flipped his left hand like lifting a veil. A silver chain bloomed in his palm like moonlight.