"It's not dead," he said as he kept his guard up. His words surprised Natasha as she was sure that he had killed the bear she had seen him sever the head of bear with her own two eyes.
"What do you mean it's not dead?" she asked with a bit of unease in her voice.
"I didn't get a system notification signaling that had killed it. This can mean two things one the bear is weaker than me by one level but I scratched that one out because the bear was clearly stronger than me by one level. The second thing that it's still alive," he answered.
"But how?
"As long as the heart beats or as long as the soul and spirit haven't departed from its body a soul beast won't die," Keith said in calm voice.
Even though he was calm on the outside on the inside he was wondering how was is not dead after severing its head. Keith recalled cases where the soul of soul beast stayed in their bodies even after death. Most of these cases the soul beast might have put a failsafe in order increase its chances of survival but that was only done by more intelligent and powerful soul beast. Some of the rare cases suggested that there was third party involved that kept soul beast alive in order to further corrupt its soul and turn it into a corrupted soul beast.
A whirlpool of negative soul essence surrounded the bear's body. Keith feeling a chill run down his spine and his instincts were screaming at him to run away as far as he could but he chose not to listen to them.
"Kid get out of here and run as fast as you can!!" he ordered her but she didn't respond. He looked back and saw her quivering in fear unable to move or speak. Keith created a clone using [Cloning] and gave it instructions. He told it to take the girl and run away as far away as possible. The clone followed his commands and carried the girl away from the battlefield.
Now that she was safe, he could fight the bear without worrying about injuring her. He added a few more rune to his armor to increase his strength and chances against the new incoming threat.
The bear underwent several changes. First its head regenerated. Its body increased in size by three times and its previous white fur turned pitch black and had a few red stripes on it. It eyes turned crimson red. The aura the bear excluded was enough to make the surrounding soul beast flee for their lives.
Keith created five ice lances and used the rune Talent Strengthening Rune to increase the power of his lance tenth fold. With a wave of his hand, he shot the ice lances at the beast and created more ice lances and shot them as well. The lance shot towards the bear at supersonic speeds but the bear didn't even flinch or even acknowledge the attack.
The bear suddenly vanished out of thin air which made Keith go on edge as he heightened his senses. He looked around to spot the bear but still couldn't find it or feel its presence. Suddenly the bear appeared by his side and hit him in the ribcage and sent hurtling through the forest. The bear opened its mouth and unleashed a beam of concentrated negative soul essence that destroyed anything in its path.
Keith seeing the incoming beam coming at him at incredible speed, raised his hand and absorbed the concentrated beam of negative and used the conversion technique to turn half it into positive soul essence. He created a giant ice spike and used the talent strengthening rune to make it bigger and stronger and sent it hurtling towards the bear.
[-100 Soul Essence]
[-50 Spiritual energy]
The bear stood there unbothered by the incoming ice spike, opened its mouth wide open and shot another beam of concentrated negative soul essence and destroyed the ice spike with ease. Keith appeared right behind the bear using flash step and since it was busy firing the beam this gave him time to appear behind it and slashed the back of its neck but only left a scratch on it.
The bear turned around and punched Keith in the stomach with its paw coated in negative and sent his body hurtling into a lot of trees. Whiles he was still in the air he did a flip and dug his feet into the ground and stopped his momentum. His chest-plate was destroyed and in tatters and his defensive rune were disrupted and lost their function.
The bear rushed at Keith with fury in its red eyes. Keith's instincts told him to run away or dodge but he couldn't even move. Normally in this situation a person would feel fear or will be scared for their lives but the was no such emotion on his face, he had an expression of pure bliss and joy an emotion that he hadn't felt in a long time when fighting a soul beast.
Using ice manipulation, he created a slippery slope throwing the bear off balance and created two ice walls one at the right side of the bear and the other at the left side. Chains made of ice erupted from the ice walls and chained the bear down. Using the last of his soul essence he created a giant sword hanging in the air and swung it vertically. The giant sword came crushing down on the bear.
He thought that the sword would be able to slay but it only left a small gash on its back which was regenerating at an alarming rate. The bear stood on its hind legs and used its front paws to create a giant ball of negatives and sent it flying towards Keith.
"I can't dodge that attack since my legs can't move and all out of soul essence. I guess I will have to use my last resort. Didn't think I will have to use it so soon," he thought to himself.