10 Chapter 10

My instincts kicked in and I rolled to my left. I felt the large mass of the bear brush past me. It swiped with its claws to tear me but I was just barely out of its reach as a really tiny red line formed on my arm.

The bear was amazingly fast, more than any I had ever seen and I had seen quite a few. But it still lacked one crucial thing, agility. The burst of power meant it could instantly move very fast in a linear direction when attacking but it struggled to stop and turn if it missed its attack.

In the regular world facing such a fast bear would have meant certain death but in this world through constant level ups I was a few times faster than before. And as long as I focused, I was sure I could avoid its charges. But evading was one thing and attacking another. I couldn't keep on evading as I was more likely to get tired before the bear was and if the bear decided to switch targets, Oscar would not be able to dodge the attacks.

We had to finish this battle as quickly as possible to not attract unwanted attention albeit from other predators or the mama bear so we had practiced a few different tactics before. When it came to bears or large wild animals I could be said to be an expert and we put that to good use.

As the bear struggled to come to stop I shouted out to Oscar, "Do it now!". There was a flash and the bear froze mid turn. I lunged forward and plunged the tip of my spear into its hind leg. The blade broke the skin and my boosted strength ensured that it went deeper and shattered the bears knee cap from behind mangling its nerves and muscles used to bend its leg. As the bear unfroze it let out a cry in pain and swiped blindly in anger towards me but I had already jumped back out of its reach.

Now blinded with pain and berserk the Bear once again started its charge this time it was even faster. I had rolled to the other side having anticipated it but the bear also reacted faster this time having expected me to do the same thing. The sharp claws tore through my back and I felt a flash of pain. Thankfully its lame leg gave way from underneath it making the bear go off balance and preventing its paw to hit me with its full force. If the paw had connected I would have been swatted away with a few broken bones and thoroughly incapacitated to fight any more.

On cue Oscar threw the stun spell right when I got my bearing and the bear had its back towards me. I stabbed its other leg similarly and crushed the other knee. The bear let out another cry and came to stand still. It's previous enraged mode was gone, it was quietly eyeing the both of us now. It's legs were no longer of any use so it couldn't move, the realisation had perhaps sobered it up.

Oscar and I moved closer to it. "Now is the tricky part, we have to be very focused", I told Oscar. His hands were shaking a bit out of nervousness but he quickly collected himself. The next ten minutes were spent stunning the bear and poking it with the spear before jumping away. Now that the bear was stationary I couldn't dodge and attack it from behind which meant I had to get close to it and once the bear would swipe at me Oscar would instantly stun it to give me that small window to jab a hole into it before retreating.

The bears resistance kept on becoming feebler as it suffered more wounds and tired out. Soon it was lying on the ground barely alive. I moved closer to incapicate its arms and it simply shuddered as the blade pierced into its collarbones. I then handed the spear to Oscar so that he could level up as the next part of the plan needed his skills.

Oscar quickly moved in and killed the bear by plunging the spear into its open jaw. He leveled up and turned towards me and exclaimed.

"I know who you are now, you're the 'Bear Hunter of Huddersfield' ".

——————

I could see the bear slowly upon its jaws and move towards me but my body simply didn't move. Suddenly there was a small shadow that jumped in front of me. It was May and the bears jaws chomped down on her shoulder. I shrieked at the top of my lungs and the bear jerked backwards and moved out of the tent, dragging May with it.

I kept on shouting at the top of my lungs unable to move. A minute or so later my voice gave out and I saw a figure appear in front of the tent. It was a Anna's father with a torch, he was barefoot and in his pyjamas. He looked around urgently at the torn tent and the blood smears.

"Where's Anna and May?" He asked in a panicking voice.

"It took May"

"What was it, quickly tell me and where did it go?"

I pointed towards the woods and said, "A bear".

The whole neighbourhood went out in a search party for Anna that night. The police and firefighters were called in. My father left his work and rushed back. They found May in the woods, she was alive but the Bear had dragged her into the thicket her head banging with stones and trees giving here several concussions. She had bled quite a lot but still managed to keep breathing. Although her body survived, her mind didn't.

The concussions had made her shift into a coma, her brain wasn't dead but the coma was so deep that the doctors didn't expect her to come out of it anytime soon and they were right. She never woke up. Her grandparents passed away shortly after the incident, unable to deal with losing their reason to live. They did however sell all their assets to give it to the hospital to have them keep May till she woke up.

Anna blamed herself for the incident, I rarely saw her after it. She moved out of town to study in a far away boarding school, only coming back for holidays. But no one was more seriously impacted by it than me. I would sit at Mays side day after day, talking about random things. But my hate for Bears and any such animals reached psychopathic levels. I'd spend hours poring over hunting manuals. I joined the scouts, learnt to hunt and survive in the wilderness.

Days turned into months and months into years. I had changed considerably, becoming colder and more distanced. I kept away from other people and would only feel comfortable talking to May who would never reply back.

My hate for Bears had reached such a level that I would go on week long hunting trips in order to kill as many as I could. Over time I got really good at hunting them with rifles that I started using different methods to get them. Nothing was off limits, I used traps, bows, crossbows and even dueling with spears.

Soon my name was known in the area as the Bear killer but no matter how many of them I beheaded, May never woke up.