24 The Bear Army

In the distance, dust was kicking up and Baxtor immediately took Axel to run for their lives. A Field Boss Summon was of course frightening, but the true dangers of the event was not the Field Boss itself. The Field Boss summoned in Sen Mag Praire was a White Grizzly Bear, a titan like monster that had the height of 5 normal grizzly bears. Alongside the White Grizzly Bear, five 'Titled' Black Grizzly Bears are also summoned, their size rivaling that of 2 normal grizzly bears. Monsters that have 'Titles' are significantly stronger than the average monster, and it often has special abilities that outstrip even dungeon bosses. If the White Grizzly Bear was the king of a country, each of the Black Grizzly Bears would be a general in its ranks. Each of the 'Titled' Black Grizzly Bears had the ability to call upon a large army of normal bears, numbering in the hundreds. Unfortunately, all five of these Black Grizzly Bears would gather all the bears within the Sen Mag Prairie in a crowded cluster in order to procure food for the White Grizzly Bear. This meant hunting any nearby humans that ventured into Sen Mag Prairie. Although the Field Boss did not have the intellect or motive to attack human towns, it's raw combat power would be devastating if the worst had come. In accordance, the higher-ups in Emain Macha, the nearest town would always send out a distress call to all towns to hire adventurers to defeat the Field Boss to wipe out the impeding dangers in Sen Mag Prairie. Only by taking care of the Field Boss, would the trade routes between towns return to normal as well.

Although Baxtor and Axel had already fled a great distance away from the site of the Field Boss, they could still hear loud stomping in the distance. They had not completely shaken off the bear army. One had to know that even a single bear army led by just one 'Titled' Black Grizzly Bear could rival a company of Mythril ranked adventurers. While each individual bear only contended a combat strength of low star tiered Silver rank adventurer, the sheer numbers and strong physique of the bears was absolute overwhelming. Even a Runite ranked adventurer would not come out unscathed from fighting the bear army.

"Damn, I shouldn't have left my mount back at town!" Baxtor cursed. One had to know that mounts were extremely expensive in this world, and it was one of the pinnacle checkpoints in Axel's shopping list when he had enough gold saved up.

"Are you from an affluent family?" Axel asked.

"Somewhat, my family runs a crafting business in Dunbarton. High quality equipment for adventuring is easy to obtain, but even I only have 1 mount." Baxtor replied as they brushed their feet quickly to continue running.

"I wish I had a horse at least...." Axel said. Traveling between places without the use of Moongates was painstakingly long as a trip between one town to another could take up to days to walk by foot.

Although they had already been running for several thousand meters, the figures of the bears could already be seen behind the dust that had been kicked up in the distance. The instant that they were surrounded by the bears would mark their last moment in this world. This would be definitely the case for Baxtor as he was not a Milletian. Axel did not want to see such as a kind-hearted man lay waste in such a place, and he felt slightly responsible for being together with him in this Field Boss Summon. Could it be the Field Boss summon was not a coincidence? He had no way to find out the truth to that mystery.

After a few more minutes, the bear army had caught up to Baxtor and Axel. Swarms of Red, Brown, and Black Grizzly Bears circled around the two humans before them. It was a hopeless situation. Baxtor had his bow in a ready position despite the odds against them.

"Well Azel, let's grab a drink when we meet as friends in the next life!" Baxtor chuckled.

"Mr. Baxtor, how can you joke around at a time like this? Is there any way out of this?" Axel breathed heavily as he grabbed his Short Sword in position.

"Nope, both of us might be good at evasion and fighting efficiently but there is no way we can take care of all of these bears. It might be a different case if we had 2 Runite ranked Adventurers here with us though." Baxtor replied.

"Sh*t!" Axel cursed. The pressure from the bear army instilled dense fear inside of Axel's heart. Even inside the game, he had not felt this disordered when he fought the ultimate monsters in Rabbie Phantasm. He was still hesitant to use his Incubus Overlord abilities to save himself and Baxtor at this point.

As if to test the two humans, a brown grizzly bear stepped out and approached Axel. The bear had judged this human to be the weaker of the two and circled around him to find an opportunity to attack. Right before the bear could make a move, an arrow was shot into its left eye.

"Rraagggggggghhhh!!!!!" The brown grizzly bear was paralyzed for the moment and Baxtor grabbed Axel's hand and yelled,

"Quickly, let's break through one of the sides in this encirclement! At the very least, I'm going to get you outside for sure!"

"Sha, Sha, Sha, Sha, Sha!!"

Five arrows were aimed perfect at the bears in the side that Baxtor headed towards. All of them were head shots, with each arrow penetrating the eye of each bear. Suddenly a path was open, and Baxtor pushed Axel into the open and kicked him away.

"Go now! It was nice getting to know you Azel! You'll probably become a pretty stocky adventurer in the future haha!" Baxtor screamed as if he was leaving his last words in this world.

Azel gritted his teeth. Although he had been a pompous overbearing solo player in the game of Mabinogi, he could not cast aside the notion of someone saving him at the price of the savior been sacrificed in the process. His heart was filled with grimy guilt by taking this godsend favor for granted. He knew that nothing else was more important than to show his gratitude and respect towards this valiant archer, Baxtor. In an instant before the path closed and was surrounded by the bears again, Axel teleported next to Baxtor in an instant, hooked onto his elbow and teleported far away from the bear army.

...

Axel and Baxtor had reappeared in the western most area of Sen Mag Plains. Peaca Dungeon was right up ahead, and further to the west was the bridge entranceway into the lakeside city, Emain Macha.

Baxtor had looked around his surroundings in awe. His eyes opened as large as a ping pong ball. It took him a while to come to his senses and asked Axel,

"Damn, are you also a master wizard too?"