Will I Always Be Weak?

"Roar!" The bear roared at me.

This monster sat back during the fight and watched as all its underlings died. How can it just stand there? This beast does not care about the lives of these poor monsters. 

"I'll make you regret not joining this fight earlier"

I dash at the bear with my claws and tail engulfed in flames. I activate my Demon Eye, and what I see next is strange. I looked at the transparent bear disappear, I looked around trying to find it, but it was gone. A second later, it appears in front of me, and I see my head fall from my body. 

"What the hell?" I questioned

I stopped my advance and just stared at my head lying on the ground. I looked up and my body instantly went tense. The bear had disappeared; I jumped back, knowing what was going to happen. Like clockwork, the bear appeared and slashed at where I was just standing.

"How do I beat this thing..." I cry

My body is telling me that the only way to survive is to run, but every way I think of going leads to a severed head. The only way to survive is to kill this beast. 

"You and me" 

I dash at the bear, and as I see my severed head, I preemptively duck. The instant my head goes down, the bear appears in front of me, its claws swiping at where my neck was just a second ago. I use this opportunity to thrust at its blind spot with my claws. I expected to hit a wall, but my claws pierced the bear.

"So you're not invincible," I smirk.

The bear looks down and roars. The smell is terrible and the saliva is disgusting. It tries to swipe at me, but I pull my claws out and back away. I can do it; I can kill this monster. If I keep doing the same thing, I can bring this monster down. I run in again and wait for the sign. My severed head appears again, so I duck for the second time. But the bear is nowhere to be seen. A sharp pain runs through my body, starting from my foot. 

"Fuck!" I scream

I look down and see a spike piercing my left foot; did it fool my eye? How? The spike was incredibly painful, and I could feel myself losing lots of blood. The only thing keeping me from passing out was my will. I look forward and break my foot loose from the rock; I'm not giving up so easily. I ran at the bear, throwing everything I had at it. I swung so many times and thrusted an equal number of times with my tail. In the end, I left only but a few scratches and some slight puncture wounds. 

"It's still not enough," I say as I scratch the bear again. 

I've been able to dodge its swipes every now and then, but I've taken a beating as well. The rock-like magic it's been using has also been a nuisance; it keeps targeting my feet. It isn't using larger stones like the other bears, so my eye has been completely useless in countering the magic. I begin another barrage of attacks, but they lead to nothing. This loop goes on for another few minutes until the worst happens. 

"What's happening?" I squeak as I look at my claws; the fire is starting to disperse.

Health 500/850

Mana 0/1700

My head begins to throb, my body starts to feel heavy, and my vision goes blurry. I've run out of mana. As the thought reaches my mind, the world around me fades to black as I'm hit directly in the ribs by the bear. Once I come too, I awaken laying on the ground, a massive demon-looking bear running at me. It hurts to move and breathing is almost impossible. I try to get up, but blood comes spewing out of my mouth, and my bones crack and almost give way. I'm immobile. These wounds will heal over time due to my demon body, but that will take hours to happen. The bear is seconds away from ending my life, and all that runs through my mind is disappointment. 

"I'm going to die," I say silently as I cough out more blood.

!Ding! Do you want to absorb the souls of the deceased monsters around you? Yes/No

"Yes," I say while I stare at the words awestruck.

!Ding! Souls Successfully Absorbed"

!Ding! +2 to strength +5 to Intelligence

!Ding! Skill Absorbed "Earth Magic"

!! Please say the command word.

Those notification noises ringing in my mind almost caused me to blackout. The pain was excruciating, but I said the single word that the voice told me to.

"Bloom"

Those words came out of my mouth along with more crimson blood. The pain didn't stop, and my mind went black. The last thing I heard was...

!Ding! Level Up

!Ding! Level Up

!Ding! Level Up

!Ding! Level Up

I dreamt a peaceful dream; I dreamt of my sister. I even dreamt of my parents when we were happy. But there was that one very vivid dream. I walked through a flower garden full of beautiful, gorgeous flowers; everything was purple, and the world seemed unusually peaceful. My body was the one I had in my first life. Brown hair with blonde streaks barely reaching down to my neck, and it felt very bushy on top of my head. My skin was the same, peach-coloured that I have now, but there were no scales. As I reached for my head, what I expected to feel was gone. I really am back in this body. Without my consent, my body moves through the garden, the entrance behind me disappearing into the abyss of flowers. It feels like I have been walking forever until I finally stop. I reach down and grab my favourite flower, an iris. I brought the iris to my nose and smelled it; the scent was overwhelming, but the smell still warmed my heart and made me feel free. I brought the plant down and put it back in the garden. My eyes began to swell as a tear rolled down my cheek. I tried to wipe away the tears, but I couldn't, an endless stream of tears began flowing from my eyes. My voice cracked as I began to sob. I looked around the garden and saw the flowers begin to decay; the world around me started falling apart, and in the end, everything went black.

As I awoke, I wiped a tear from my eye and muttered.

"What happened?"