Surprised by what happened, Alexander tried to control the lake water again—which once more responded to his command.

  After confirming this, he recalled the improvements his combat technique—|Aquatic Combat|—had received when he maximized it.

  [|Aquatic Combat (MAX)|: Imbues the user's body with an almost tangible water element mana, making combat in water possible without being affected by pressure of up to 50m underwater. Also enabling manipulation of the surrounding water, whether on top of or inside the water. Cost: 20 mana and 2 MP per minute.]

  The {Forest-King Bear} didn't take long to reach the lake and also tried to hit him with a long-range attack using the energy from its claws—easily avoided by Alexander. This left the "King" in the same situation as the other creatures.

  Seeing he no longer needed to worry so much—at least for now—Alexander used the skill |Asura| to take some potions.

  Then, he launched several attacks against the bear while continuing to dodge with the skill |Ascending Flow|.

  Injured and furious, the bear seemed to lose some of its rationality and jumped towards Alexander.

  The young man simply watched him jump as if he had been eagerly anticipating it.

  He knew that was a terrible choice. But since the bear had already made it, he would ensure it was the last stupid choice of that bear.

  When the {Forest-King Bear} closed in, Alexander dodged and manipulated the lake to make them sink at high speed until they reached the bottom.

  The lake bed was likely connected to an underground river, given its depth.

  As soon as he felt his technique |Aquatic Combat| was weakening a bit with the depth, Alexander stopped sinking.

  He focused on making the water invade the bear's lungs and continued pushing it down.

  With water slowly invading its body, the {Forest-King Bear} realized its mistake and tried to get out of the lake as quickly as possible.

  However, Alexander had already decided that only one of them would leave that lake.

  Needing to maintain his advantage over the bear, Alexander used |Water Field| to increase his control over the water, and |Brain Boost| to further reduce his reaction time.

  Feeling he had control of the situation, Alexander used |Mana Blessing| and fired an |Elemental Water Blast| concentrated on the bear's head.

  The large mass of water in the lake lessened the spell's power a bit, but it still managed to push the bear down and make it lower its guard.

  The water, in turn, under Alexander's control, completely flooded its lungs and began to fill its stomach.

  Completely desperate, the {Forest-King Bear} activated his bloodline’s frenzy ability and redirected his power to try and escape the lake.

  In response to using the frenzied skill, its body, until then the color of a brownish tree, began to grow until it became completely red. It surpassed 5m in height.

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  "Its movements became faster and the force behind the blows also became visibly stronger," analyzed Alexander while dodging the claws of pure energy the bear launched at him even through the enormous mass of water in the lake. "I'll have to increase our distance a bit to stay safe."

  With its power skyrocketing to another level, the bear energized its paws and began swimming out of the lake—even while launching attacks of pure frenzied energy at Alexander.

  If he wanted to win, he had to maintain that situation. Direct combat wasn’t an option.

  So Alexander kept pushing and pressuring the bear with the water and launching |Elemental Water Blast| whenever possible, all while avoiding the bear's attacks.

  His spells didn't make much noise—they were in water—but the force behind them was still clearly felt.

  With such extreme consumption of so many Tier II spells, in less than 5 minutes, Alexander used up ? of his mana.

  Noticing his unsustainable situation, he deactivated everything except |Ascending Flow| and |Aquatic Combat|.

  Alexander controlled the water to increase the current towards the bottom of the lake, but even so the bear kept rising.

  It swam against the current and launching energy attacks, which forced him to also keep rising.

  Control over water didn't make Alexander invincible when fighting in water—especially against an opponent much stronger than him.

  The best he could do was gain some advantage to make the opponent's life difficult.

  Reaching halfway down the lake's depth and halfway through his mana, Alexander was forced to activate |Energy Conversion| successively and approach the bear.

  This put unprecedented pressure on his body, and he couldn't help but wonder, even without really knowing the answer: "How did I get to this?"

  To reduce the danger from the bear, Alexander had to use |Water Field|, but this increased his mana consumption and put even more pressure on him.

  Pressing the {Forest-King Bear} with everything he had, Alexander ignored the notifications that began to appear, but didn't let the bear escape the lake.

  This clash of wills between the two monsters lasted another 20 minutes, but upon feeling he would collapse, Alexander lost all his courage and began to flee out of the lake. After all, the dead have no money nor stories, only regrets.

  The moment he left the water, Alexander noticed that the creatures that should have been there had already dispersed and that the bear in the lake had collapsed.

  Seeing the situation was very much in his favor—but knowing the bear wasn't dead yet—Alexander swallowed several mana potions and descended to the bottom of the lake to kill the unconscious {Forest-King Bear} and stored its body away.

  Ding!

  [Mission Completed]

  After killing the bear with a few stabs to the brain—through one of its eyes—and storing the body, Alexander prepared to leave the lake.

  He used |Sneak| and |Concealment| to the maximum.

  He wanted to avoid possible problems with other creatures by running out towards Lester City.

  Moving away from the lake area, taking potion after potion of all kinds, Alexander reached a relatively safe area and returned to his human form.

  The pause was brief and only to change form before running again at full speed towards the city.

  In less than 1 hour of running, Alexander spotted the city gates and some points that should be the guards.

  Physically and mentally exhausted, he ignored everyone at the gate and burst into the city—immediately alerting those present.

  Just as all the guards prepared to pursue and attack him, Alexander simply collapsed due to exhaustion.

  Not really knowing what to do with him, some guards began poking him from afar to confirm he was really passed out.

  Confirming he was indeed passed out, some guards began to look at the storage item on Alexander's waist.

  However, before they could do anything, a strong howl was heard from inside the city—soon Ocean, with Diana on her back, arrived at Alexander's position.

  As soon as they arrived, it didn't take long for an imposing man to also appear.

  He, along with his group, made the whole crowd step back so they could see Alexander. "Take him for treatment… He has a lot to explain."