Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Chapter 75-260)

Chapter 232

Chapter 232 – Bear-san Takes Down the Parasitic Tree

I stood in front of the Sacred Tree.
This should be simple since all I had to do was to cut it down.
Also, I didn’t have to bring down the tree right this instant.
I could use whatever method I wanted as long as I didn’t burn the wood.
It was easy to see through Mumuroot-san and Sanya-san’s forced smiles; they most likely felt awful about this.
I decided to try everything I could before having to kill the Sacred Tree.

Before, I had used wind magic to cut some wriggling vines, but they quickly regenerated.
The only sound explanation was the Parasitic Tree absorbing the Sacred Tree’s magical power to regenerate itself.
I had to locate the Parasitic Tree’s core, then.
Where could it possibly be, though?
Could it have already invaded inside the Sacred Tree?
I walked around to the right side of the Sacred Tree, where the vines didn’t reach as far.
On the other side, the vines had already reached the treetop, completely covering up many areas.
In this situation, all these protected areas should be suspicious. I had no other choice but to methodically check them all.
The elves would have to tolerate me inflicting some damage on the Sacred Tree, if that meant I could save it without cutting it down.

I started with the most suspicious part of the tree. The trunk which was more or less completely covered in vines. I sent a vertical wind blade directly at the trunk.
When it collided with the tree it cleanly sliced through the vines that wrapped around the tree, yet they managed to stay attached to the trunk.
Thus, I sent another wind blade, this time with more force, but the vines still stayed firmly attached.
Hmm… I didn’t see any damage on the Sacred Tree itself.
Maybe it was sturdier than I thought?
If so… I could probably be a bit rougher with it.
I started to think about what I should do. The options I initially thought of all required large amounts of magical power.
In addition, my target was leeching off the Sacred Tree’s magic power.
It also had regenerative abilities. This was completely unfair…
I had to fight while keeping all this in mind.

I nervously scanned the area. Hugging Bear looked at me, as if it wanted to ask what I was doing.
I told him「I’m not doing anything!」and quickly took off my Bear Suit.
There was nobody around, so I wasn’t too worried about being seen while changing.
This was probably the safest place for me to change my suit other than inside my Bear House.
I turned my outfit inside out, changing into the White Bear.
Hugging Bear looked happy, probably because we were now matching.
This should increase my magic power recovery. Since my opponent also had high recovery, we should be fairly matched now, right?

I took a stance a short distance from the Sacred Tree and began to unleash countless wind blades at it.
Using both my hands, I sent blades left and right, shredding the vines.
The vines, however, continued to regenerate without stopping, and kept coiling themselves back around the tree. As I was beginning to think that this would be a one-sided massacre until one side lost, the Parasitic Tree shot leaves at me.
Oh, so it could also attack?
It would have been bad if it attacked while I had been changing.
The vines also began to stretch out at me.
Eh! They can reach all the way here?
I was sure I had been far enough.

「Hugging Bear, stay behind me and protect me if necessary!」

Hugging Bear quickly dashed behind me while I kept firing wind blades at the vines around the trunk. Yet, they kept regenerating just as quickly as I shot them down.
Come on, this was practically cheating.
I decided to block the incoming leaf attacks by surrounding us with an earth dome.
The enemy really was attacking cowardly, sending leaves down on us from above.
Soon after, the vines started to stretch towards me again. It was kind of sad, seeing the tree have no will of its own anymore, only sending monotonous attacks at me one after the other.
I kept attacking the vines during openings, but it seemed rather pointless as the vines kept regenerating immediately after.
The regeneration was making this fight really annoying.