Ice arrows kept slamming into the giant bear's tough fur. Most shattered and bounced off, but some slipped through the gaps in its hideous sutures, leaving faint white marks and wisps of escaping frost energy. The bear was nearly turning ice blue.
"ROAR—!!"
(`)
The battle gradually settled into a rhythm for the two of them.
Though giant bear Tibbers had terrifying strength and defense and seemed impossible to kill, it was relatively slow. It also appeared to lack any effective ranged attacks. So Kanne and Lawine made full use of their advantages as mages, darting around the arena and dodging Tibbers's occasional lunges and swipes—powerful, but predictable—while using ice magic to control it and water magic to harass it.
Their teamwork wasn't flawless, but against a giant beast that couldn't fly, wasn't particularly fast, and couldn't use magic, they had no trouble holding their own.
Kanne used streams of water to interfere, creating slippery patches or wetting the bear's body. Then Lawine precisely froze its vulnerable parts and kept wearing it down with ice arrows—or simply bound it in ice. Tibbers had no answer to any of it.
Sometimes they even deliberately used simple levitation spells to hover at low altitude, taunting Tibbers as it roared helplessly from the ground. They also tried blasting it with demon-slaying magic.
Unfortunately, Tibbers wasn't a demon. Once they realized that demon-slaying magic, which was especially effective against demons, had little effect on it, the two returned to their earlier strategy of controlling it, whittling down its health, and keeping their distance.
"Ha!"
"Look, Lawine!"
"It can't do a thing to us!"
Kanne had just touched down when, before giant bear Tibbers could pounce on her, she shot straight back into the air. She deftly twisted midair to dodge the giant paw swiping